The Gaza Trap Has Snapped On Israel

Israel Has Fallen into a Trap Set by Hamas 




By James Terminiello 

The October 7, 2023 atrocities committed by Hamas against innocent Israelis were fueled by many factors - economic disruption, despair, corruption, greed, bigotry, and that old standby antisemitism. And the Israelis, being only human, have responded with very human righteous indignation. And because Israel is a military power, that righteous indignation has taken the form of a furious military action. 

And now the offended party (Israel) is being accused of being the offender because their military response to an unquestionable military operation is killing many innocent Palestinians.  

Sadly, this is exactly the trap that Hamas hoped for. 

If anyone thinks that Hamas did not expect Israel to respond the way it has, they should check their naivete at the door. 

Of course, Hamas knew that Israel would punch back hard. Of course, they knew that many of their own people would get in the way of that punch. In fact, they placed their people in the way by developing their ponderous web of decentralized underground tunnels intermingled with dwellings and schools and hospitals. Of course, they knew that gut-wrenching pictures of mangled little children would be the result. Of course, they knew that their supporters would leverage those pictures and videos and the recorded sounds of wailing women so that the easily duped would turn on Israel and, against all reason, begin to support a conniving, soulless, band of greedy terrorists. And, of course, in this TicTok-infected age, it worked.  

Israel bad/Palestine good. Thinking made simple.  

I mean just look at the blood, the craters, the fires, the plumes of smoke. And who is doing it? Those blood-thirsty Israelis. This is, of course, nonsense. 

I get it Israel. You want to remove Hamas root and branch from the face of the earth. It is hard to resist the urge to avenge the poor souls who woke up to absolute horror on October 7. And those miserable hostages!  

But we all know how this is going to end. 

There will be a cease fire. There will be a withdrawal. There will be a costly global effort to rebuild from the wasteland and Israel and the U.S. will foot the bill. There will be negotiations. Hard negotiations. Deals will be made. Money will be exchanged. Hamas will continue to exist. Israel will continue to exist. No one will be satisfied. Fingers will be wagged and pointed. Many will be blamed. The dead will be mourned. 

It is the oldest story in the Middle East. I believe it was the Romans who tried to eradicate the Jews by destroying their temple a few thousand years ago.  The Empire eventually fell but the Jews endured.  

I don’t have the wisdom to know how this tragedy (part of an ongoing series of tragedies that have repeated themselves nauseatingly for blood-stained centuries) can finally end. The issues touch on race, money, power, and religion. A daunting combination. 

But I do know that this war will end. And if history is any kind of benchmark, it will merely set the stage for the next one unless ideas of shining brilliance somehow emerge. I doubt it.  

And that is the ultimate pity.  

James Terminiello, author of the satire Junkyard, writes from Mount Laurel, New Jersey.  

 

 

 

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