Vengeance is Mine

Arithmetic

Let’s assume all of the “numbers” in Israel’s favor.  Hamas, through their Gaza Health Agency, estimates that more than 20,000 Palestinians are dead in the Israeli invasion.  Our “lying eyes” tell us that number is likely accurate.  And we know that statistically Gaza is one of the youngest regions in the world. Over half of the population under eighteen years.  So we can expect that many of the dead are children.  Israel says, that 10,000 of the dead are Hamas “soldiers”.  And many of them are kids as well, really.  

So, the hard, cold, arithmetic is that at least 10,000 Palestinians, innocent but by location, are dead. 

Israel says that “collateral damage” is the price of ridding Gaza of  the terrorist group Hamas, buried in the infrastructure of the region, in tunnels and hospitals, schools and Mosques.  It is Hamas that uses those 10,000 and many more as human shields against the Israeli juggernaut.  If a Hamas “army” would simply come out and battle, Israel would be “happy to oblige” in their destruction.  But  Israeli leaders say that there is no alternative:  the atrocities of October 7th, the 1269 innocents murdered in those early morning hours at the hands of Hamas, demand an ultimate vengeance, Hamas’s extinction.  

And so the Israeli Defense Force called for Northern Gaza to be cleared, and then swept in to attack Hamas. Then they moved onto the South, where they sent the population for “refuge”, and attacked there as well.  The IDF “shuffled the deck”, forcing Hamas leadership to move and expose themselves, then attacked their exposed positions.  The fact that Hamas is among hundreds of thousands of innocents, is the “price” of  vengeance, the “payment” for the Butcher’s Bill of October 7th, so Israeli leaders say.

Wrath of God

This is an old Israeli policy.  After the Holocaust, where six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, the founding motto of Israel was simply “Never Again”.  In 1972, Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September movement, attacked the Israeli Olympic team in Munich, Germany.  Eleven members of the team were killed by the terrorists, most during a German rescue attempt at the airport.  I still remember legendary sports announcer Jim McKay intoning, “They’re all gone”. 

While the terrorists on the ground were killed or captured, the Israeli government established a covert program within their security agency, Mossad.  It was called “Wrath of God”, and over the next several years operatives assassinated everyone in Black September connected to the attack, not only at their headquarters in Lebanon, but throughout Europe.  There was one innocent victim killed as well.

Legendary leaders of Israel; Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and Ehud Barak approved and planned the “Wrath of God” operation, in violation of international law.  It didn’t matter; Israelis and “justice” demanded blood.  And, frankly, much of the world quietly approved this “fighting fire with fire” approach.  So when Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet wage war in Gaza, they look to the example of “Wrath of God”, writ large.

Fire with Fire

It’s hard to imagine that the world could overlook the 1269 killed on October 7th, but Israel managed to knock those innocents from the foreground.  Instead, the Israeli actions placed the innocent Palestinians to the front in the eyes of the world, and more importantly, of many in the United States who up until now have been Israeli supporters.  This modern “Wrath of God” looks more like a genocidal purge of Gaza, not just of Hamas, but of all Palestinians.  Israel has managed to lose the “high ground” of justice, and placed themselves at the same level as the terrorists.  Fighting “fire with fire” burned Israel’s image throughout the world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent decades in the United States. He graduated from high school near Philadelphia, and was educated at MIT and Harvard.  Netanyahu later was the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations in New York.  He not only sounds like an American politician, he knows America as an American.  So he would have, or at least should have, anticipated how the actions in Gaza are perceived.  He’s even running political commercials in the United States, trying to explain the Israeli actions to the American people. And it’s no coincidence that the parents of the hostages are frequently on American television, pleading for the return of their loved ones.  But it’s not working.

Vengeance

The Palestinian message and the videos of Gaza’s destruction, overwhelms the legitimate plight of the remaining October 7th hostages, and the right of Israeli retaliation.   Even many American Jews are quietly shaking their heads.  While they publicly stand for Israel, in private they blame Netanyahu for being unprepared, and unwilling to work towards some settlement with less extreme Palestinians.  But they see no solution either, as the Palestinian Butcher’s Bill grows in length.

What the outcome of the current “mission” will be is unclear.  But the seeds of the next conflict are already sown in the ruins of Gaza, and burned into the memories of the Gazan survivors and their Palestinian brothers on the West Bank.

The major wars of Israel, in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973 all ended with  “brokered” settlements.  Israel was pressured by its allies, particularly the United States, to stop the fighting and settle for “less”.  And that pressure is growing now.  What was sealed with a “hug” by President Biden in October, is now coming with strings attached.  And, while the Netanyahu government may have the stomach for complete destruction, the United States does not.   It’s only a matter of time.  The impetus on Israel is to get as much done as possible before it runs out. But how many more Palestinians, IDF forces and hostages must die before vengeance is finally theirs? 

 No one knows.

Hamas/Israel War

Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.