Ever since the horrible events of that day last year, I’ve been scratching my head, wondering, why did the Hamas attackers go to such grotesque extremes such as raping women to death and chopping off the heads of babies?  Add to this that not one square inch of land was added to the Gaza territory as a result.

One can easily surmise that such primitive violence lurks in the cultural fabric of Hamas and its subjects.  But there may be a more clever reason behind this horror.

Suffice it to say that Hamas is not alone.  Could it be that the over-the-top hideousness of the Oct. 7 attack was precisely intended to provoke the Israelis to wage war against Gaza — where civilians will likely suffer the most?  Leftists everywhere, even in Israel, are chiming in and calling for a ceasefire, so the slaughter of innocent Palestinian children will come to an end.

Why would Hamas bring such misery onto its own people?  Answer: That’s what they do.  Hamas’s muckety-mucks are holed up in opulent palaces in Qatar, far, far away from being in harm’s way.  Driving this process is Hamas’s realization of the latent antisemitism found among leftists the world over.  To them, Israel is an oppressive, colonial hegemon, and Judaism is the epitome of bourgeois self-aggrandizement.  Though both his grandfathers were rabbis, Karl Marx was a vicious antisemite for this very same reason.

Also, had the Oct. 7 attack been significantly less evil, the Israelis may have just responded more defensively rather than aggressively.  In other words, they might have built more obstacles at the border and installed more surveillance technology.  That would not have galvanized the global leftists the way the actual Israeli response has done. 

Perhaps a major flaw in this alleged strategic decision is the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu is the head of the Israeli government.  He doesn’t care one bit how many American blue city councils vote to end the war against Hamas.  He has specified Israel’s objective — extermination of Hamas — so there won’t be any confusion over how this is supposed to end.

Back when Hamas wormed its way into being the “official” government of Gaza, I realized then that the conflict we are seeing now was inevitable.  Abject hostility is not sustainable in close proximity.  Something has to give.  And the oft-rejected “two-state solution” does little, if anything, to help things along.

The latest horror at Rhafah supposedly serves to further condemn the Israelis.  But the “fog of war” discounts the precise accuracy of the telling of events.  Hamas claims that IDF soldiers fired on the starving civilians.  The Israelis say that a) many were run over by trucks and b) others were trampled to death in the ensuing panic.  Such sometimes happens at Pakistani soccer games.

Having been asked, “Why are these Palestinians so hostile?,” I replied, “Because they have such miserable lives.”  This condition is not necessary.  To some degree, it is intentionally being enhanced by the corrupt opportunists of — guess who! — Hamas. 

Bringing the rest of the world into modernity is not, apparently, a slam dunk.  Old grievances and harbored animosities don’t always go away easily.  But we modern people sincerely expect this to eventually happen...as well it should.

Basically, war sucks.  People get hurt and often killed, but for what?  We mostly all share the same ambitions: peace and prosperity.  Perhaps the elimination of Hamas from the planet will contribute to this objective.  But there are others who also need to be dealt with.

Image via Pexels.