{"id":6872,"date":"2023-12-28T09:12:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-28T14:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=6872"},"modified":"2023-12-28T09:15:45","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T14:15:45","slug":"vengeance-is-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2023\/12\/28\/vengeance-is-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Vengeance is Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arithmetic<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s assume all of the \u201cnumbers\u201d in Israel\u2019s favor.\u00a0\u00a0Hamas, through their Gaza Health Agency, estimates that more than 20,000 Palestinians are dead in the Israeli invasion.\u00a0\u00a0Our \u201clying eyes\u201d tell us that number is likely accurate.\u00a0\u00a0And we know that statistically Gaza is one of the youngest regions in the world. Over half of the population under eighteen years.\u00a0\u00a0So we can expect that many of the dead are children.\u00a0\u00a0Israel says, that 10,000 of the dead are Hamas \u201csoldiers\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And many of them are kids as well, really.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the hard, cold, arithmetic is that at least 10,000 Palestinians, innocent but by location, are dead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel says that \u201ccollateral damage\u201d is the price of ridding Gaza of\u00a0\u00a0the terrorist group Hamas, buried in the infrastructure of the region, in tunnels and hospitals, schools and Mosques.\u00a0\u00a0It is Hamas that uses those 10,000 and many more as human shields against the Israeli juggernaut.\u00a0\u00a0If a Hamas \u201carmy\u201d would simply come out and battle, Israel would be \u201chappy to oblige\u201d in their destruction.\u00a0\u00a0But\u00a0\u00a0Israeli leaders say that there is no alternative:\u00a0\u00a0the atrocities of October 7th<\/sup>, the 1269 innocents murdered in those early morning hours at the hands of Hamas, demand an ultimate vengeance, Hamas\u2019s extinction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so the Israeli Defense Force called for Northern Gaza to be cleared, and then swept in to attack Hamas.\u00a0Then they moved onto the South, where they sent the population for \u201crefuge\u201d, and attacked there as well.\u00a0\u00a0The IDF \u201cshuffled the deck\u201d, forcing Hamas leadership to move and expose themselves, then attacked their exposed positions.\u00a0\u00a0The fact that Hamas is among hundreds of thousands of innocents, is the \u201cprice\u201d of\u00a0\u00a0vengeance, the \u201cpayment\u201d for the Butcher\u2019s Bill of October 7th<\/sup>, so Israeli leaders say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrath of God<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cNever Again\u201d.  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, \u201cThey\u2019re all gone<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the terrorists on the ground were killed or captured, the Israeli government established a covert program within their security agency, Mossad.\u00a0\u00a0It was called \u201cWrath of God\u201d, 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.\u00a0\u00a0There was one innocent victim killed as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legendary leaders of Israel; Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and Ehud Barak approved and planned the \u201cWrath of God\u201d operation, in violation of international law.  It didn\u2019t matter; Israelis and \u201cjustice\u201d demanded blood.  And, frankly, much of the world quietly approved this \u201cfighting fire with fire\u201d approach.  So when Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet wage war in Gaza, they look to the example of \u201cWrath of God\u201d, writ large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fire with Fire<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine that the world could overlook the 1269 killed on October 7th<\/sup>, but Israel managed to knock those innocents from the foreground.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, 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.\u00a0\u00a0This modern \u201cWrath of God\u201d looks more like a genocidal purge of Gaza, not just of Hamas, but of all Palestinians.\u00a0\u00a0Israel has managed to lose the \u201chigh ground\u201d of justice, and placed themselves at the same level as the terrorists.\u00a0\u00a0Fighting \u201cfire with fire\u201d burned Israel\u2019s image throughout the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.\u00a0\u00a0Netanyahu later was the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations in New York.\u00a0\u00a0He not only sounds like an American politician, he knows America as an American.\u00a0\u00a0So he would have, or at least should have, anticipated how the actions in Gaza are perceived.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s even running political commercials in the United States, trying to explain the Israeli actions to the American people.\u00a0And it\u2019s no coincidence that the parents of the hostages are frequently on American television, pleading for the return of their loved ones.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s not working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vengeance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Palestinian message and the videos of Gaza\u2019s destruction, overwhelms the legitimate plight of the remaining October 7th<\/sup> 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\u2019s Bill grows in length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the outcome of the current \u201cmission\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major wars of Israel, in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973 all ended with\u00a0\u00a0\u201cbrokered\u201d settlements.\u00a0\u00a0Israel was pressured by its allies, particularly the United States, to stop the fighting and settle for \u201cless\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And that pressure is growing now.\u00a0\u00a0What was sealed with a \u201chug\u201d by President Biden in October, is now coming with strings attached.\u00a0\u00a0And, while the Netanyahu government may have the stomach for complete destruction, the United States does not.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s only a matter of time.\u00a0\u00a0The 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?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0No one knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamas\/Israel War<\/h5>\n\n\n\n