Israel Hamas War

Before beginning this post, I reread the one I created in October after the Hamas attack on Israel. I had posted that one under the topic War and Forgiveness. Obviously, there is no reason to do the same today, as there has been very few examples of people involved on either side discussing forgiveness. Here is a link to that first post.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2023/10/israel-palestinians-and-hamas.html

So, I guess it is War, about which I have written many times. Here is a link to one of my earliest efforts concerning this topic. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-about-war.html

There are those that say the current Israeli - Hamas war is about the necessity to make sure that what happened last October never happens again.  That the future security of Israel depends on wiping out all vestiges of Hamas. Retrieving the hostages that remain is also mentioned as a goal of the continued military action.

But to me, it is all about revenge. 

Revenge.  That all encompassing need to seek justice when we are wronged. And, if you read that post I referred to above, the topic I touch upon at its end which is also at the end of the letter to the editor which led to that post, it is the idiocy of revenge that I discuss.

What strikes me about this war, and all wars, is that they very rarely accomplish the primary goal of preventing similar actions from occurring in the future.

For the life of me, I can't understand how the Israeli government and people don't think that by killing tens of thousands of women and children, in addition to displacing over a million Palestinians, isn't going to sow the seeds for future terrorists. And as for rescuing the hostages, I hope to be surprised that some are still alive, but believe that goal are words offered to the families, not a priority of the war.

Hatred begets hatred, war begets war, and anyone who thinks otherwise is either fooling themselves, or more likely, is only interested in revenge. 

But wait a minute Joe, you might say, didn't the bombing of Japan and Germany, the utter destruction of those two countries in addition to the slaughter of thousands of its citizens lead to peace? Are they not our allies today?

For me, this is the exact example of why war and revenge do not cease the circle of killing, because I assert that it was the Marshall Plan, which aided all the countries devastated by World War II, allies and enemies alike, and the monetary loans and grants provided to Japan which ended the cycle. In other words, it was kindness after the war that worked, not the war itself.

Proof of my assertion is that when we compare the treatment of Germany after World War I, when punishment of the defeated was the rule of the day, it seems obvious that the people were ripe for someone like Hitler who could point to the monetary revenge enacted by the Allies as the reason for their poverty and suffering. 

From there, speeches exhorting The Fatherland above all, (can you say Germany first) and a plan to restore Germany to a world power resonated with the German citizens. And so the cycle repeated. Had we treated Germany after WW1 as we did after WW2, perhaps the destruction of the second World War could have been avoided. But again, revenge ruled the day.

Additionally, Stalin dismissed the aid offered by the Allies, thereby creating a divided Europe, and eventually the onset of the Cold War. One could speculate that had Stalin accepted monies and assistance from the Marshall Plan, the world would look much different than it does today.

So, the question becomes, will Israel embark on its own version of the Marshall Plan once it has devastated Gaza? Will they follow the path of the Allies after WW2, or the path that was pursued after WW1?

To be honest, I am skeptical that once the ground war into Gaza has ended, that Israel will strive to rebuild Gaza. Certainly not as long as Netanyahu remains in power. 

In the movie Back to the Future, after George saves Lorraine from the clutches of Biff in the car outside the prom, he looks down at his clenched fist, looks at Lorraine, then offers his open hand to her to help her out of the car.

Will Israel offer an open hand to the Palestinians after they destroy their infrastructure and kill their leaders? And if so, will it be enough to counter the hatred they have created among the people who have seen their hospitals, businesses, and homes leveled and their husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters killed?

So again I say, revenge never works. One could even go so far as to say that rejecting revenge was one of the main tenets of the New Testament. Good news that replaced an eye for an eye with do unto others as you would have done to you.

It is a lesson not only important for Israel and the Palestinians to embrace but for America as well. Had we done so, the trillions of dollars and thousands of young lives wasted after 9/11 could have been saved.