Massacre
It’s Thursday. Last Saturday, Hamas launched a massive attack on Israel. They broke through the wall on the border, they came through tunnels, they landed by sea and they even used paragliders. They attacked some military targets, but they also laid waste to civilian settlements. Men, women and children, were massacred, and hostages were dragged back across the border to Gaza.
One particular target was a “rave”, a concert in the desert near the border area. Thousands of young people came to enjoy the music and the trance-like quality of dancing through the night under the stars. Early in the morning, Hamas gunmen appeared, firing into the crowd and chasing the revelers through the desert. Over two hundred and sixty were killed. More were brutalized and taken as hostages.
Over a thousand Israelis were killed on Saturday, and at least a hundred taken hostage. Missiles were launched at major cities, airports, communal farms and other targets. The Israeli “Iron Dome” defense system was overwhelmed, and some missiles found their targets. US officials were caught off-guard and so was the Israeli government. US and Israeli intelligence totally missed the lead-up to this attack. It was 9-11, or the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Distinctions and Differences
This attack also put a finger in the middle of an American dilemma regarding Israel. Traditionally, Americans of all political stripes support Israel. But recently, the plight of the Palestinians has become more apparent. Palestinians are caught in the middle, driven away from their traditional homes in Israel, and segregated by the surrounding Arab countries in camps around the Israeli borders. There are radical extremists among them, terrorists. They are supported by nations like Iran and Syria, interested in destabilizing the region. Hamas, one of those groups, led this assault. They sent more than a thousand of their own fighters to their deaths in suicidal attacks.
The terror is so fresh, the pictures so real, the tears of parents and friends so evocative, that it’s easy to forget distinctions. All Palestinians are bad, or so it seems today. Leveling Gaza, one of the most heavily populated areas in the world, seems “only fair”. But there is a distinction between “all Palestinians” and Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Islamic Jihad. And Americans need to remember that.
Jonathan Greenblatt is the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League here in the United States, a leading organization supporting Jewish causes. He is clear: call this terrorism, call this evil, call this a Terrorist “Final Solution”. It was the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. And he’s not wrong. But this battle should be about terrorism and extremism, not a “final solution” to the “Palestinian problem”. It would be easy to gloss over the difference.
Collateral Damage
We are going to hear the military term, “collateral damage” in the coming days. We are already seeing it. While the Israelis are notifying residents of Gaza when and where they will attack, the destruction in the densely packed cities there is immense. The leadership of Hamas is physically intertwined with the structure of Gaza. Their headquarters are hidden in civilian apartment buildings. They literally hide beneath Palestinian civilians, and now, perhaps behind the hostages. Civilians are going to die to kill Hama’s leaders. It will be easy to say that it’s a “tit for tat” response. But that also puts Israeli and American actions perilously close to the same moral level as the terrorists. How far that goes will be an existential question for Israelis and Americans alike.
There are rumors that Iran directly supported, or even approved, this attack. And there is no doubt that Iran supports Hamas, and even more so, Hezbollah, another terrorist group on Israel’s Northern border. But, according to both Israel and the US, there is no direct link between Iran and this surprise attack, yet. The Wall Street Journal disagrees.
That’s become an American political talking point. President Biden just obtained the release of six Americans imprisoned in Iran. Part of the negotiations included the reallocation of $6 billion in Iranian money, held frozen in banks. The money was transferred to a bank in the United Arab Emirates, but remains under US Treasury control. None has been allocated. The agreement will allow it to be spent on humanitarian aid to Iran, “checked off” by the US government. But the President’s critics now say that the agreement “financed” this terrorist attack – demonstrably untrue, but said this morning on Fox News none-the-less.
Nations at War
We are still in the “shock” stage of this terrorist attack. And Israel is still under real assault by Hamas rockets. Israelis are still finding the dead, and identifying the hostages. And already Israel is striking back at Gaza, hitting targets inside the narrowly compacted confines of the city. But what comes next?
Israel is planning if it’s possible to retrieve hostages. And they absolutely plan on total retribution against Hamas. The United States will support whatever Israel does, both financially, and with direct military involvement. The US Navy sent the Gerald Ford Carrier Group to the Eastern Mediterranean, with seven ships, seventy aircraft, and ten thousand US personnel. And while those armaments probably won’t be directed at Hamas, they certainly are available against nation- states like Syria or Iran should they try to get involved. The US serves as “checkmate”. If Iran or Syria determine to intervene, they will face the “righteous might” of the US Navy.
The war in Ukraine still goes on. And the US House of Representatives is still paralyzed by a failed Republican leadership. When someone finally emerges to become Speaker, they will face conflicting international needs: Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, and, of course, the US Southern Border.
Things won’t get easier – and if Iran decides to get involved, it likely to get much tougher.
