On The Bombing of the Gaza Strip thumbnail

On The Bombing of the Gaza Strip

By Conlan Salgado

2000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel has started retaliatory air strikes into the Gaza Strip.  These are big numbers; bigger than Israel can put up, which is important, cause this is a war all about numbers. Just ask all the people talking about ceasefires and peace and proportion and other big powerful words which you shout at the top of your voice, hoping it will drown out the rockets and the missiles. But it won’t.

Unlike most conflicts, the Israel-Palestine conflict is not very complicated, even though it seems like it would be.  Gaza is a hot bed of terrorism. It is a Hamas stronghold. All over the Gaza Strip are weapons caches and hiding places for Hamas. You would think, before speaking on the bombing of a certain place, you’d at least preface your explanation (or protestation) by saying it was a hot bed of terrorism.  I mean, bombing a place because it is full of Arabs is highly problematic. Bombing a place because it is full of terrorists/terrorist strongholds is quite a different matter. 

But then, that isn’t the whole story: Gaza is full of terrorists, but it is also full of civilians. (Of course, and forgive my callous historical tone here, so were German cities in WWII, but we still bombed them to near oblivion.) There is a point here: Israel should not bomb Gaza because they will kill civilians. Naturally, it is a stupid point for anybody who knows how war works, but it is a critical point.  The problem is the point is never stripped down to its bare essentials; usually it is embedded within an anti-Israel narrative.

And that is the hitch for the Free Palestine movement: if you really believe that Israel is an apartheid regime, if you really believe that Israel has routinely and unlawfully been killing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip for decades, then how could you condemn such an operation as Hamas? The methods were quite brutal, but the gist of it was “Palestinian resistance.” And you cannot condemn Palestinian resistance, at least not if you’re Pro-Palestinian. But for historical accuracy and to understand the current crisis, it is important for readers to understand that there has never been a sovereign Palestinian state on the Holy land or anywhere surrounding it. Ever, at any point. In fact, two sovereign Jewish states had already existed on that land, before it was even ever called Palestine, or Palestina, by the Romans.

It is in the very peculiar Free Palestine movement that we see the Left’s prowess at racialized politics, or more specifically, what Obama identified as the organizational power of anti-semitism. For the fact of the matter is this: there should be a Free Palestine movement, and it should be an anti-Hamas movement. Hamas is the reason Gaza is getting bombed. Hamas turned the Gaza Strip into a hotbed of terrorism. Hamas is the reason the Arabs in the North of the Gaza Strip are facing a land invasion. So where is the anti-Hamas movement from the Free Palestinians here at home? Couldn’t tell ya.

But what I can tell you is that, according to the Washington Institute, 57% of Palestinians have a somewhat favorable view of Hamas.  For all those trying to separate Hamas from the civilians in the Gaza Strip, bear this in mind. Remember too: this is what happens when you elect terrorists to lead your society.  They commit acts of terrorism, then they retreat and hide in your homes, using your status as a civilian to protect themselves. And if you are killed, along with your children, along with the terrorists, your innocence will not be honored. Your death will be mentioned on social media by the very terrorists who hid behind you, and among you, claiming, like all moral effeminates, that it was somebody else’s fault (Israel’s) you died.

So let us stop this nonsense. Hamas is synonymous with the Gaza Strip, because the Gaza Strip is its base of operations, and its strong hold. Hamas, as was just amply demonstrated, is an existential threat to the lives of Jewish people, and the existence of the Jewish state. Hamas must be exterminated, and therefore its stronghold is justly attacked.

No doubt, the American left will not speak of this or read about it. Undoubtedly, thousands of socialists and racialists will continue to use Free Palestine as their social justice excuse to advocate for Jew killing, and Jew hating. This cannot concern Israel.

And as to talks of proportion, we might usefully turn to the example of World War II, and America. America’s involvement in World War II began with a Japanese surprise attack that killed 3000 Americans. America’s involvement in World War II ended with an American surprise attack over two cities which killed 200,000 Japanese. We do not call that proportion. We call it victory.

*****

Photo image from Wikipedia

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