I wanted to take note of one passage in Gerard Baker’s Wall Street Journal column concerning the Second Yom Kipper War:
Third, as this war escalates, it is important to understand that the savagery is essential to Hamas’s goals. Their wanton bloodlust is designed to work twice over. They murder, rape and mutilate Israelis, knowing that in its response Israel will wreak havoc on Palestinians. Israel, unlike its enemies, will do what it can to avoid punishing the innocent. But innocents will suffer, because Hamas has positioned them precisely for this purpose.
The terrorists’ objective is truly indiscriminate destruction. For them a dead Jew is a bonus, but a dead Palestinian is a trophy they can parade before credulous Western media to convey some supposed moral equivalence between their depravity and the actions of a beleaguered state seeking to preserve its very existence.
The highlighting is mine. I think that Mr. Baker is imposing his own assumptions and values on the Israelis. The Israelis believe in “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” not in “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” or “turn the other cheek”. In addition the majority of Israelis are or are descended from people who fled the Middle East and North Africa following the expulsions from Egypt, Iraq, Iran, etc. following World War II. Said another way their views may be more like those of the Palestinians than different from them.
The question will be whether the Israelis decide to stay their hands for strategic reasons. On that I have no idea.
That part you highlighted just seems like nonsense. I don’t think “punishing” is what Israel would describe itself as doing; it’s declared war on Hamas. Innocent people are seriously harmed in war all of the time. How would Israel know who was innocent without the appropriate innocence questionnaire?
That’s why it jumped out at me and why I highlighted it.
If it’s war what are their goals and how will they know when they have won? I am betting that they will try to kill Hamas but they dont really have very good intelligence so they cant know if they succeed. I think they kill enough people to make the Israeli people feel as though Gaza has been punished, then right back to the status quo. It will need to be a lot but not so much to turn their support away from them. At most, maybe they get a new party to replace Hamas. However, good behavior on the part of Palestinians does not result in better treatment by Israel so the new party will either sponsor or allow killings too.
Look, Israel seems convinced that if they just treat Palestinians harshly enough they will give up. Hasn’t happened. Hamas seems to think that if they kill enough Israelis they will give up. Wont happen. Stalemate, eternal loop. Well, until someone finally decides it’s so hopeless they try to use nukes or massive fire bombing or plague or something.
Steve