The Israeli/Hamas conflict resumed after a respite that enabled the sides to trade prisoners and hostages. Basically, this entails a continuation of bombing by Israel that unfortunately puts innocent people living in in Gaza in harm’s way.
The actions of Hamas are being condemned by most reasonable people around the world, but there is a growing illogical sentiment that Israel is committing war crimes against civilians (even though Hamas initiated the hostilities by kidnapping, murdering and raping innocent Israelis). With this in mind, the actions of some young people in the US, and the world, in support of terrorists is astonishing and, well, disgraceful.
Where is the violence taking us? The people who live in the Middle East must be unnerved by the vitriol expressed by both sides of the current conflict. Hamas viciously attacked Israel from Gaza and committed unspeakable atrocities. Israel’s response was to openly declare its intent to kill all Hamas followers to avenge the crimes of the terrorists.
What’s making the situation that much more disquieting is that Hamas is defying and baiting Israel to kill more Palestinians to stimulate sympathetic responses from around the world. To a degree, the kidnappers and murderers have been very successful. Israel’s is relentless in its search for the criminals, but the cost in terms of collateral damage has been and will be significant. Many Arabs will never forgive Israel for its scorched earth policy.
Worldwide protest in favor of Palestinians was something to be expected, but the slaughter of Israelis cannot be ignored. Why are young people siding with the murders, kidnappers and rapists of Hamas?
There are about 17 million Jews in the world and one billion Muslims. In a world energized by social media and rampant disinformation, it’s not surprising that Israel is losing ground in the court of public opinion. Moreover, the future growth of the Muslim population will continue to be exponentially greater than the Jewish birth rate in Israel and elsewhere.
All this leads back to a conundrum for Israeli leaders. What is their end game? In an extended war of attrition, Israelis are at a distinct disadvantage.
What must Israel do to retain its hold on the State of Israel long-term? Israel must make peace with the Arab world. It must solicit peacemakers among the Arab community and create a plan to end the violence. The current strategy of Israel trying to kill every member of Hamas may assuage pain in the short-term, but it will make finding peace difficult prospectively.
What is the US role in the long-term? America must live up to its promise to protect Israel and provide it with armaments. Israel must be strong militarily and needs the US to help defend itself. Israel is going to be at war with radical Arabs for the foreseeable future.
The US must encourage the most reasonable and influential countries in the Middle East to work with Israel to end the violence, or at a minimum to fight against terrorism. Also on the agenda is the need to neutralize Iran, the greatest threat to peace in the Arab world. The US must prevent Iran from bankrolling new terrorism and from developing a nuclear weapon.
The US must encourage Saudi Arabia to lead the peace effort and counter efforts by interlopers to play a role. There’s no other way to fight terrorism without support of the larger Arab countries. Note: These countries are threatened by rogue terrorists as well. The war between Israel and Hamas, and its supporters, has the potential to destabilize the region. It is in Israel’s best interest to end the war soon and start working on a peace arrangement.