Fifty-Three: Freedom Fighters (10-11-2023)
Palestinians, the children of dislocated parents, broke out of the cage they'd be locked in, and enacted a minor revenge on the neighboring music festivals and posh suburbs. They were dogs, locked in a cage, being poked and prodded, and when they found their way out, the world was aghast at the idea that they might bite.
The killing of civilians is the ultimate inexcusable action in war, and the single most ubiquitous tool that any army utilizes. American killed Iraqis and Afghanis disproportionately to their own uniformed losses, Dresden was firebombed, nukes were dropped, and populations beaten, starved, and occupied in every conflict, ever. But for the losing side, on the eve of their own destruction, to attempt to do the same, is to cross a line that waives the rights of their entire population. The usual response, from the chatterboxes of the far away luxury boxes of the war theater, is to applaud the coming demise of the Palestinian state, even in its sick and crippled form, and to declare the war crimes of Israel justified as their ethnostate's eternal victimhood remains unquestionable.
There is no "gotcha" when asking someone to denounce "the terrorist organization of Hamas". Should the terrorist organization of the apartheid government of Israel be denounced? Should the terrorist organization of the United States Armed Forces be denounced? Should the cashier at CVS, who declined my coupon, and was thusly declared by me a representative of a terrorist organization, be denounced? Hamas commits equally amoral acts to the Israeli occupiers, but because the union of their enemies declared them terrorists, no person in the first world may agree with them in any capacity.
I denounce the terrorist organization of Hamas. I also denounce and encourage the denunciation of the apartheid terror state of Israel, that is complicit in, though not solely responsible for, the formation of extremist groups within Gaza and the West Bank. I do not attempt to propose any solution to the conflict, I do not expect a two-state or one-state solution to ever form that will satisfy the demands of either group.
--
Sandra G., of Cleveland, Ohio, is directed home by Google Maps, where she makes Diet Coke at home in a Soda Stream. She has a snack of Sabra hummus, her favorite Roasted Red Pepper. She checks a few quick emails on her HP laptop, ties on her Puma sneakers, and gets in her Ford Explorer to head to the gym.
--
Hamas' most recent incursion to reclaim Palestinian terrority will be responded to with the genocide of the remaining Palestinian population. This is the stated intention of the Israeli forces and their allies, including the United States, which will provide the weaponry to do so. The victors will then write the history, declaring the Palestinians savages and terrorists who caused their own destruction or were foolish enough to be caught in the crossfire. Propogandists will continue to fight for the truth, and the distance from and detechnologization of the warfield will permit Israel's allies to exist ignorant of any discernable truth.
The Palestinians beheaded babies! No need to discuss further, because we now know they stole phones and lured out hiding Israelis posing as their neighbors! No need to discuss further, because we now know they gang raped and paraded festival goer's corpses around Gaza! No need to discuss further, because we now know they slaughtered innocent drivers on Israeli highways! No need to discuss further, because our math shows they killed nine hundred Israelis, the equivalent of forty-four thousand Americans!
A spokesman for the White House weeps on the national news. He is sad to hear, as he has read on crisp IDF letterhead, that civilians have died on orders not issued by his armed forces. He weeps too, knowing that soon the sick dog will be put down, and his job will have one less question or issue to answer for. The United States of America and Israel are ready to accelerate time, put Palestine in the past, and exist in the world they've been pretending to exist in, where the Holy Land is in the hands of a so far amicable group. We can always fatten them with more missiles.
--
One day, two hundred years from now, the Israeli state that will stretch from Cairo to Baghdad will rename a holiday to "Palestinian People's Day". They will declare the slaughter too ancient to be fully audited, and will encourage quiet, thoughtless contemplation of the ills they needingly committed to ensure the freedom of their lands, and to expel the savagery they faced.