The Fate of Gaza

This article first appeared in New English Review.

 The latest outbreak between Israel and Gaza-based Hamas has followed the pattern of previous outbreaks in that once Hamas has initiated hostilities (as it did on October 7), as soon as Israel fights back and begins to pound Hamas in their lair, the world community turns against Israel and demands a cease-fire. Of course, the October 7 attack was much worse than previous rocket attacks and intifadas, both in scope and degree of horror. If Israel ever had justification to launch a full-scale retaliation and invasion of Gaza, this is it.

That the usual world bodies (like the UN) have chosen, even in the face, of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, as well as their continued holding of over 200 hostages, still condemn Israel for the bombing and impending full-scale assault, is sickening. Yet, the images of October 7 are now being replaced in the worldwide media by images of the bombed-out landscape of Gaza City and the images of dead civilians. Once again, much of the world chooses to make Israel the villain. Now, they say, it is time for a cease-fire. This is after 1,400 Israeli men, women, and children have been slaughtered. 

The question I want to deal with here is whether Israel is justified in bombing Gaza City with the resulting loss of civilian life. I take no pleasure in seeing images of dead women and children, but given the circumstances, I see no other choice for Israel than to go in and destroy Hamas. If the terrorists choose to fight using their own people as human shields, they should bear the responsibility for those deaths.

So Hamas must be destroyed this time, at least their current military capacity and control of Gaza. True, even a full military victory will not destroy Hamas as an ideology.  Dead fighters and dead leaders can be replaced over time. Nazism was also an ideology, one that may still live in the hearts and minds of some extremists, but World War II did, in fact, achieve a military victory over Hitler and his ideology. Hitler committed suicide, Germany surrendered, war crime trials were held, and Germany became a democracy as did Imperial Japan. (Not that I expect any Palestinian entity to become a democracy.)

More to the point, we should not forget that in WW II, the US and Great Britain conducted an air war against German cities that preceded the actual incursion into German territory. Most every major German city was flattened with loss of civilian life in the hundreds of thousands. The fire-bombing of Dresden and Hamburg resulted in especially horrific death tolls. In the Pacific, the US conducted air raids on major Japanese cities that culminated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I have visited Hiroshima, and I can tell you it was an emotional experience. I have also visited Pearl Harbor (twice), as well as Auschwitz, and Omaha Beach. Those were also emotional experiences. 

Did the Allies go to extreme lengths to limit civilian deaths in those bombings? Hardly. We were fighting for our survival, and destroying civilian morale was part of the strategy. Israel is also fighting for its survival against the attacks of aggressive and brutal enemies, yet they still try to limit the number of civilian deaths. They actually warn the civilians that attacks are coming to the very buildings they are about to hit. The Allies never did that in WW II to my knowledge.

It is a documented fact that Hamas goes to great lengths to ensure that many of their civilians die. They even prevent them from fleeing to safe places and set up their bases of operations in schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings. They want to show the world's media their dead bodies to turn world opinion against Israel. Consider this: Even the Nazis evacuated their children from major cities to the countryside to escape the bombings.

It is Hamas who set the ground rules here with their inhuman acts on October 7, just as the Nazis and Imperial Japan set the ground rules in World War II. We had no other option but to completely defeat and destroy those two powers, lest we be destroyed. 

If Israel gives in to the UN and the despicable pro-Palestinian protestors marching and rioting around the world, they merely push the can down the road to the next Hamas attack in one or two years. What happened on October 7 must never be allowed to happen again.  The political leaders of Hamas, like Ismael Haniyeh, who are sitting comfortably in Qatar, should be turned over to the Hague to be tried as war criminals in an international court. I do not expect that to happen because the Qataris are duplicitous and not to be trusted. But those fighters and their military leaders in Gaza must be destroyed. They must be killed.

If Israel doesn't go all the way this time, those 1,400 people who were slaughtered on October 7 will just be victims who died in horrific circumstances, never to be avenged. The military and terroristic threat will not be removed. Israel will try to limit the civilian casualties, but they are inevitable.

This is a moment of truth for Israel and a moment of truth for the civilized world. Evil must be eradicated. Hamas and Gaza are just one part of a much bigger threat, one that we all have to face.