Like many internet users, you've likely seen some of the devastation in Gaza as Israel continues to lay waste to the strip over the slaughter that took place on October 7. On that day, Hamas showed their brutality. Not only that, they displayed their callousness toward human life with the torture, the kidnapping, the rape, and the murder of innocent civilians.
The thousands of Israeli lives that were taken that day devastated thousands more. Even now, Hamas continues to rain rockets down on Israel.
It needs to be understood that this is a war that Israel has no choice in. It has to wage it and win it, and the only way to win it is to hunt down and destroy Hamas, root and stem. Its leaders and its soldiers must be put to death. Nothing of it can survive.
Once Hamas is eliminated, then not only will Israel be that much safer, but so will the people living in Gaza. In a fair and just world, Israel will reclaim that land and govern it like it governs the rest of the country, with solid law enforcement and a fair judicial hand.
But in order for that to happen, a lot of painful and horrible things are going to have to happen first.
Hamas's grip on the strip is total. Its mental control over the people there is deep. Children are taught from their youth to believe lies about the Jewish people and the history of Israel. They use every opportunity of retaliation from the IDF to reinforce the idea that Israel is truly a great evil and that the people who dwell within aren't human, but monstrous oppressors.
And so Israel's job becomes all the harder. You're going to have Gaza citizens that are willing human shields for Hamas. Hamas will use any location they can, from schools to hospitals, as bases for their military operations in the hope that Israel will strike there, creating more martyrs and anti-Israel sentiment both within and abroad.
People are going to die, homes are going to be destroyed, and people will suffer. Children will die in the crossfire or lose their parents, becoming orphans who may never know what it's like to have a whole family.
Our view of northern Gaza this morning. The entire neighborhood we can see is reduced to rubble. pic.twitter.com/AA47wtrJ09
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 29, 2023
Some people will live with the horror of war tattooed in their hearts and minds forever.
But Hamas started this, and the people of the Gaza Strip allowed it to happen. Even now, cheers go up from within and without for the success of Hamas against Israel. It's a war that the anti-Israel crowd fully endorses.
So they shouldn't be surprised that war isn't fair, or "proportional."
(READ: Proportionality in War Is a Joke)
They shouldn't consider themselves victims or be asked why Israel has leveled entire areas because the answer is simple.
They tried to punch way above their weight limit out of some ridiculous sense of hatred they came up with thanks to generations of propaganda and believing their own lies. They courted this disaster when they committed horrible atrocities on innocent people who had no intention of ever harming them. They made it clear that they would never stop trying to wipe Israel off the map and everyone in it...so Israel has no choice but to bring absolute destruction upon its enemy.
It's tragic that it had to come to this, but this is war. It's not clean or orderly. It's not without innocent casualties. It scars both the land and the heart. It's so nightmarish that people still fight the war in their dreams long after the battles are done. They see its horrors with their waking eye.
War is something to be avoided at all costs because the cost of war is higher than anyone can truly anticipate. But should you find yourself in a war as Israel does, then there's no choice. Devastation and death are the only options.
It's okay to feel sad for the innocent bystanders of Gaza, especially the children, but Israel didn't start this. The people who gather around now to wave Palestinian flags and chant slogans about Israel's destruction should feel ashamed for helping manifest the suffering of these innocents. These people don't know what war is, and may never feel its bite. They'll never cower as bombs go off nearby or be forced to flee before the building they're in is leveled by a precision missile.
They'll sit there and cheer on Hamas, hampering Israel however they can, and prolong the suffering of people they'll never meet or truly care about. They'll terrorize Jewish people where they can thinking they're helping fight this war in some meaningful way.
But they aren't fighting in a war. They don't even know what war is.
The people of the Gaza Strip do, and the sooner Israel wins the war, the better.
