What is happening to Palestinian children and innocent adults is putting me in a mental torture chamber. Though my distress is still a walk in the park compared to that of the people in the actual torture chamber that is Gaza right now. On the one hand I realize I am doing Hamas a favor by sharing the images of kids twitching in pain or of those who will never move again. Am being asked to be ok with Israeli actions that have a little girl thinking her hand is hurting under her bandages, but her parents haven’t had the heart to tell her that her hand has been torn off. She thinks it’s there, but it isn’t. Kinda like Israeli leadership thinks it has to make painful decisions that go against immediate humanitarian concerns, not realizing that it’s losing all semblance of ever having had any humanitarian concerns.

I do not believe this Israeli operation will bring about the end of Hamas without killing 20 innocents for every 3 Hamas fighters put hors de combat. And that estimate is being very nice to Israel, because I think it could just as well be 1 dead Hamas guy per 40 innocents. Diseases, malnutrition and winter haven’t kicked in yet at the time of writing.

Hamas got exactly what it wanted. One last roll of the dice. A do or die gamble. So far it’s working splendidly. Its popularity is peaking. It got the fight it’s been spoiling for. Israeli soldiers and international volunteers are dying because they have walked into the trap Hamas has set. It hopes the international outcry will become too much before everyone in Gaza – they included – dies.

I don’t know when we will hit the most morbid of all tipping points. It’s just an intuitive guess, but I think 20,000 dead Palestinian kids should do it. A number so high will cause very serious social upheaval all around the world. Even now a string of countries will see their elections heavily influenced by what many are seeing as an outright genocide. There are days I want to believe Israel would stop immediately if Hamas simply laid down its arms. There are days I want to believe Israel had to hit Gaza hard or Hezbollah and others would have seen Israel as weak and ripe for the picking. We are ready to level Gaza, don’t even think about invading us. People have been sending me DM’s asking, sometimes politely, sometimes less so, if by any chance Israeli propaganda has got a hold of me for even considering positions like that.   

Israel’s campaign also has the effect of bringing Israel’s systematic pressure cooking of the West Bank to the world’s attention. An unexpected PR win for Hamas of the magnitude of the Tet offensive of 1968, when North-Vietnam and the Vietcong lost 80 percent of their attacking force, but couldn’t believe their eyes when they watched the American news treating the whole affair as a major defeat for the US and its South-Vietnamese puppet state. Lyndon B. Johnson reacted the same way as many Israelis. Why the hell are they protesting over this? We are the good guys!

Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?

Hey, hey, Israel, how many kids did you disembowel in the last hour?

Is there something wrong with the people who don’t like to see kids die? Can’t they understand that this is a small price to pay for a world without Hamas? A heavenly destination we will reach after three to four more months of blowing up kids and their families. Surely Netflix and a plethora of other streaming services can offer enough surcease of sorrow in the mean time. We can also ask Hamas to surrender instead of asking Israel to stop bombing.

A cynical streak makes me think that Hamas throwing up its hands is the worst blow that could befall Israeli leadership at this point. To have no more excuse to continue the carnage. I am convinced that there are many Israelis who believe their country is bombing purely out of a drive to protect its own citizens and prevent another violent incursion like on October 7th.

The world doesn’t see it that way. Either we are all in some kind of mass psychosis, spell-bound by Hamas fist-bumbing with its smiling hostages or there may be some rational explanation for why so many people have become energetic full-time supporters of the Palestinians. I haven’t seen this kind of collective effort ever before. Not even the vibe of the Berners back when Bernie was still considered one of the good guys and adopted as the grandpa everyone craved comes close to this intense international pro-Palestinian group hug. Even the Messiah with the Brooklyn accent didn’t generate this much barricade energy.

I know it’s baffling for Israelis who sincerely believe their country is a force for good in the world. Why is the world coming together over condemning Israel? Didn’t you see Hamas rape? Well, no, really, we haven’t. What do we have to go on? It happened, because if it didn’t, hundreds of people who arrived at the scene and were involved later lied? There have been lies before that had massive impacts. The Katyn massacre? Not the Nazis for once, but the Soviets. The Ton Kin incident? Very different in reality than what was said at the time. The sinking of the Lusithania? Probably went down differently from what was first reported. The US war with Mexico started over claims Mexicans were raiding in Texas. General Grant had this to say about that war: “For myself I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.” The Nazis made what the Soviets did in Nemmersdorf look even worse than it already was. After Custer was whacked at the Little Big Horn with a third of the men under his command US newspapers claimed Sitting Bull wasn’t a Native American – he was – and had studied Napoleon – he had not – to pull this anomaly of a victory off. Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. There has never been a war without lies. No wonder people are sceptical.

The way Israel is viewed is a also a tiny bit influenced by a never ending stream of sickening videos where heavily armed IDF soldiers abduct toddlers, break the bones of teenagers and protect settlers after they drive over Palestinian kids. All of it exceptions I am being told or not reflective of what is really happening there.

Yes, the general mood is not in favor of Israel’s actions. Should Israelis worry though? Not when it comes to realizing its aims. Israel will have its way with the Palestinians in the end. It just won’t get the applause it is so desperately begging for. Apart from the politicians who benefit from applauding everything Israel does, few people will cheer. Maybe the odd journalist who thinks that unquestioningly defending Israel counts as brave journalism.

There will be a putrid moral stain stinking up the place for decades, if not centuries to come, but the problem with the Palestinians is certainly being solved. If Israel persists it can indeed eradicate Hamas, annex northern Gaza – many Israelis regret they handed it to Hamas to turn it into a base for terror – and corral the broken survivors in pockets in the south. Maybe in a few years a deal can be struck with Egypt to take them in. Perhaps if the US pays Egypt to do so. The West Bank already is a cluster of small enclaves ruled by a corrupt sell-out Palestinian police regime.

I have seen a meme go viral where you can see what I assume is a Lakota warrior dance on a spiked wire with a Palestinian warrior. That meme could not be more prophetic. The Palestinians are fast becoming an almost landless people, but their spirit will live on in many of us. And maybe one day the Palestinians will get their equivalent of Dances with wolves and each new generation of young people will romanticize them. There is an original poster of Dances with wolves in the corner of my eyes. First movie I saw in a theatre with my dad. I was six. Native Americans became these all good people brutally oppressed by the US government and their nasty Pawnee neighbours in my young mind. I think Palestinians are on their way there. Almost no land, no real state of their own, but with a huge cultural influence. The Palestinians will survive, but as a diaspora. Israel is punishing some evil with a far greater evil and will at some point have to attone for its sins, because after total victory will have been achieved Israel will risk going at war with itself, having run out of the Palestian external enemy to keep Israeli society together. The hatred of the minority that makes its decisions is too voracious to be satisfied with merely crushing the Palestinians. The most dangerous moment for Israel and its best citizens will come when the curtain falls over the Palestinians.