9 STEPS TO END THE DYING

TOO MANY PALESTINIANS ARE DYING. IF WESTERN ACTIVISTS ACTUALLY CARED, WE WOULD DO THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE ARE DOING.

Want more like this? Keep doing what you’re doing.

Please see today’s personal note at the end.

Making Israel’s case for the current war is tough. Making the case for any war is tough. War is horrible. It is never easy or seemingly righteous to defend it. All decent people hate war.

But all intelligent people also recognize that we do not live in a perfect world. Until paradise comes to earth (however you envision this), there will be war. The question is how do we avoid it wherever possible, minimize its impacts when it is unavoidable, and learn its lessons to reduce future carnage? Because “pro-Palestinian” activists are sure as hell not doing that now.

In the current war between Israel and Hamas, the world is forcefully avoiding the lessons we should be taking from it — and, in the process, prolonging the violence and increasing the death toll.

If you’re new, I’ve said this before: If you want to know why Palestinians are dying, look in a mirror.

I’ll explain …

Let’s drag ourselves back from the daycare centre Kumbayas long enough to understand what is really happening here. Enough performative pacifism. Let’s grow up and deal with the real world.

First, every death of an innocent — child, woman, man, identity doesn’t matter when it comes to human life — is an unspeakable tragedy.

If we actually care about dead kids, though, let’s move past the puerile “But the children!” and get to the bottom of why they are dying. Because Western activists, governments, NGOs and others are not helping save these kids’ lives. They are ensuring more of them die.

Here’s how …

1. Calling on Israel to end the war is counterproductive and leads to more dead Palestinians. Why? How? Hamas has lost this war. (As has Hezbollah, but let’s focus on the war in Gaza right now.) But they keep fighting, in part because the Western world keeps telling Israel not to finish the job. Hamas, on its last legs, sees a ceasefire as yet another in a long line of reprieves that have allowed it to regroup and kill again. The longer the world eggs on Hamas, the more Palestinians will die. If people really want to end the deaths of Palestinians … (see #2)

2. People who really want peace would ignore Israel and demand Hamas surrender. If Hamas surrendered, the war would end today. It could have ended a year ago. It should never have started. Hamas is the belligerent party here. Quit barking up the wrong tree. When Hamas is defeated, the dying will end and the rebuilding of Gaza (whatever that looks like) will begin. Every howling outrage against Israel ensures Hamas keeps fighting and the dying continues. Demand Hamas surrender!

3. Hamas needs to be categorically eliminated. Since 2005, there have been a succession of Hamas-initiated wars with Israel. Every single time, far more Palestinians than Israelis have died. (To understand why, see #4 and my next post.) Until October 7, Israel thought they could “manage” the problem, minimize the number of casualties and buy a few months or a couple of years of relative stability. October 7 ended that. Hamas needs to be finished off. As much for the sake of Palestinians as for Israelis, the status quo needs to be ended. If you are calling for a ceasefire today, you are calling for more war and more dead Palestinians. Sounds harsh, I know. But you need a wake-up.

4. Overseas activists need to recognize the Hamas strategy of using us as free PR hacks. Western activists are (usually) unwitting dupes in a global PR strategy that kills innocent Palestinians. Hamas doesn’t care about Palestinian lives. (If this strikes you as anything other than blatantly obvious, you probably shouldn’t be engaged in this discussion.) Hamas embeds its military infrastructure in civilian neighborhoods, schools, mosques and hospitals. Hamas maximizes the civilian death toll and then broadcasts the photos and videos of carnage worldwide where activists clasp our pearls and demand Israel stop the war. Hamas starts the war, maximizes Palestinian deaths and then revels in the world’s condemnations of Israel. Every expression of outrage from credulous overseas observers rewards this bloody strategy and reassures Hamas its strategy of piling up dead Palestinians is working exactly to plan.

5. Big picture: We need to acknowledge the root of this conflict. There was a lot of talk on and after October 7 about “context.” Israelis have oppressed Palestinians so badly, we were told, that Palestinians — not just Hamas but “ordinary” Palestinians who swarmed into Israel on October 7 to join in the killing and looting — were basically forced to behead babies, burn families alive, rape and mutilate women, kidnap and mass murder Jews in the most brutal ways known to humankind. These acts were not those of a national liberation movement. These were the acts of a group of people inculcated with such profoundly dehumanizing Jew-hatred that they were able to treat living human beings worse than they would treat meat animals on a factory farm. All of the excuses around “context” are ashes in the face of what happened on October 7. These were not acts of political “resistance.” These were acts of unadulterated inhuman hatred. And it is hatred of Jews, which has been drilled into Palestinians for four generations. That is the context in which this happened. That is the context for this entire conflict. Yes, there are legitimate condemnations of Israeli policy. But every single Israeli policy is a response to Palestinian terror and rejectionism and not, as the world seems determined to believe, due to an inherent Israeli (or Jewish) sadism. It’s been said a million times: If the Arabs laid down their weapons, there would be no war. If the Israelis laid down their weapons there would be no Israel.

6. Smaller picture: Hamas launched this war on October 7. Hamas started this war. There are no equivocations here. Every death — Arab, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Palestinian, Israeli, Thai and every other tragic loss — is on the shoulders of Hamas. Any contradiction of this fact is a justification for death and an invitation for more.

7. Stop with the “Yes, but …” Enough with the red herrings. Yes, war is hell. Far, far too many have died. Yes, children are dying. Yes, civilians are dying. If we really care about them, we would get past our naïve middle-school idealism and confront the horrific roots of this conflict. (See #1–6, above.)

8. Western activists, diplomats and commentators need to recognize reality. There is only one side that can make peace in this conflict because only one side is making war. We can keep demanding that Israel make compromises, give up the fight, end the war … but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. For decades, we have been demanding Israel stop defending itself. We scream “Genocide!” every time an Israeli Jeep starts its engine. And the death toll keeps rising. We don’t get to keep calling ourselves “peace activists” when our every action invites more war and death. Here’s the bottom line …

9. Demand Palestinians make peace. This is the lynchpin for peace in the region. History has almost always seen Jews as the fulcrum upon which human events pivot. This has been the foundation of thousands of years of Western civilization. We need to stop pretending this atavistic reality is not at play here with our ludicrous (and anti-progressive, anti-antiracist) chants “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.” If we want peace, we need to demand it of the people making war. Blaming the victim is not only morally wrong. It’s strategically wrong.

All of these arguments will change little for those who are determined to blame Israelis for defending themselves. People who refuse to look any deeper than the images Hamas PR flaks and their overseas PR volunteers spread will not be convinced.

Their argument, put plainly, is “Ok, maybe. But enough already. This is overkill. Too many dead.”

Thankfully, these people weren’t alive in 1945 to demand the Allies stop the bombing because too many innocent Germans were dying. Dead innocent Germans were also a tragedy. But, because we do not live in a world of unicorns and rainbows, bringing a war to its necessary conclusive end is also tragically required sometimes.

Overkill? Yes, that is a word we have heard in this conflict. And the idea of “proportionality” is the subject of my next post …

A personal note …

I started this Substack because I thought my perspective as a progressive, gay, non-Jewish, Zionist Canadian offered something different to the dialogue about antisemitism, anti-Zionism, Palestinians and peace. It actually never crossed my mind that people might give me money for it. When people started generously subscribing and donating, I threw myself into this project more, partly because I am a writer by trade and I am still building my RSPs for some distant retirement. Based on online advice (!) I started making my Saturday posts for “Paid Subscribers Only.” But, I modestly acknowledge, each one is too delicious to paywall. So I am going to assume that, if you like my stuff and want more of it, you’ll give if you can. If not, please share. (Please share regardless!) No more paywalls. But there may be other incentives I could offer. Not sure what. Got any ideas? Do folks want to get together for online discussions or see me compile some of these posts as a book? Let me know. Meanwhile, enjoy! (If that is the right word for these sometimes dark musings.)