Two aspects of the world are interacting within my professional sphere. I work with very many people from a range of different backgrounds. All creeds and all races.
In one small part of the world two of these groups are at war. Actually in many parts of the world many of these groups and nationalities are at war. However, according to our glorious propaganda/industrial complex only one of them matters. It used to be Ukraine/Russia, it is now Israel/Hamas.
I am sent directly and see on social media propaganda from both sides.
So let’s get some things clear:
- This is not my war
- In war both sides claim moral supremacy
- In war both sides blame the other side
- I am sure the suffering is terrible
- Life for the rest of the world goes on.
If you want my view, it does not matter who I support and who I want to win. It is not my war. Get it over with as quickly as possible and let the poor buggers on both sides get back to normal life.
If you believe we live in an age of internationalism and globalism, historical claims of indigenous status are absurd. The political establishment as a whole employs both globalism and indigeneity in an act of politically targeted emotional manipulation when it suits them. We must have open borders but we have to ignore the indigenous rights of some groups and not others based on what is the political flavor of the month. You are only indigenous if a politician allows you to be.
None of this makes sense and is used and abused as our ‘leaders’ see fit. Wars based on this are politically incoherent and politically expedient at the same time.
I am not proximal to the conflict but I am proximal to supporters of the two sides. I cannot take and should not take a side in the war but I can take sides when it comes to the supporters.
So the question comes down to which group has done the least to repel me.
Hamas attacked Israel after a prolonged, uneasy ceasefire in a conflict that has been ongoing for over 70 years, and possibly for thousands of years. I will not describe what Hamas did, if you are interested in the details of their conduct they filmed themselves and I am sure you can find the footage online.
Almost immediately cities in the west ‘protests’ started. The initial attack by Hamas on the 7th of October 2023. Israel’s invasion of Gaza started on the 28th of October 2023. There were ‘protests’ against Israel immediately afterwards, here is one from the 10th October.
As Israel’s military response had yet to start it is hard to see what they were protesting. It is hard to say these were protests at all because they look more like celebrations.
On examination of when these events happened and what was being displayed and said, these events were explicitly and obviously celebrations of the actions taken by Hamas.
Over time these organized events have transitioned from celebrations into protests as the response from Israel caused suffering in Gaza.
However at no point have I seen large scale organized celebrations of the killing of Palestinians from the other side.
The moral justice of either side’s remote cause is entirely obscured by the morals displayed by the supporters proximal to me.
Hamas ally with the most extreme left wing political factions in the west.
I see a group allying with a political faction that is openly Marxist with all of the potential for mass killings that ideology brings. They are openly and repeatedly celebrating an act of war whose only aim was to target civilians for indiscriminate killing and torture and are calling mostly implicitly but also occasionally explicitly for genocide.
The war is not proximal to me but the supporters are.
I will go further and state some more things that appear obvious to me.
The Hamas attack appeared to be specifically formulated to cause the most provocation possible to Israel, short of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack. The Hamas attack intended to create the most extreme response. It placed Israel in a political and military position where they would have little choice but to respond at the largest scale possible.
I grant Hamas the intelligence and foresight to fully understand this and I have to believe that not only was the attack intentional but the Israeli response was both predicted, expected and desired.
The allies killed 25,000 people in one night in the Dresden bombing in World War 2. At the time no-one celebrated this. The morals of war are strained and dubious at best. No movement with moral legitimacy publicly celebrates the slaughter of their enemies.
Celebrate the victory when it happens, not the barbaric acts that might eventually win you the war.
Taken from “The Second Coming”, by William Butler Yeats:
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
It will be the best 3 minutes of time you spend today if you read the whole poem.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming
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