As of today, October 17, 2023, the death toll resulting from the Hamas attack is: 1, 400 Israeli dead and 3,400 injured. In return, Israel’s response to that attack is: 3,000 Palestinian dead and 12,500 injured. This is the most recent renewal of hostilities between Palestine and Israel, an adversarial relationship that began with the post-WWII creation of the State of Israel. The Palestinian people, at that time, occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The history of these two differing religious and ethnic populations goes back much, much longer than 1948. Historians still write about this particular point of friction. What happened on October 7, is, sadly, another chapter in this ongoing, tumultuous reality.

I am not a historical scholar on this matter, but I write this post to reflect upon what is happening right now, not knowing what may happen next, short or long-term. Whatever that may be, my guess is nothing will ever be diplomatically resolved between Israel and Palestine. Apparently it is unsolvable. The history of our world is rife with wars, carnage, devastation, and massive losses of human life. We, as a species, are indeed our own worst enemies, dare I opine? Israel and Palestine are not exactly a shocking new chapter in the narrative of wars that preclude effective diplomacy, or an innate sense of human compassion for one another. No, Rodney King, we clearly cannot all just get along.

But back to my first paragraph. Can anyone, anyone, assert with even the flimsiest amount of reasonable thought, that the counter-attack by Israeli forces can target only members of Hamas? Palestine’s population is close to 5 million. It is estimated that the number of Hamas militants is 30,000. Israel has close to twice the populations of Palestine. It has a formal military of 169,500 active troops and 465,000 reserve personnel. Palestine has no formal military. Hamas and its 30,000 militants largely acquire their various weapons through smuggling or local construction, and has Iran as an ally. Israel has a highly trained fighting force, and the full backing of the United States, which has, between 1946 and 2023, provided its military with 124 billion dollars of support. Indeed, Israel possesses 90 nuclear warheads. Clearly, Palestine, labelled by many world organizations as an “open air prison” has no possible means of destroying Israel. The Hamas attack was pure evil, but are we to assume that the other 4,970,000, people of Palestine knew what was about to happen, or overwhelmingly approving of that attack? Based on Western media reporting, it would seem so. At best implied and in some cases overtly stated as such. Recall the expression that the first casualty of any war is the truth.

When I hear that Joe Biden has approved of sending Israel thousands of bombs, as he pledges–not at all surprisingly–that America stands with their Middle-East ally, I cannot help but feel a combination of nausea and revulsion. Will these be “smart bombs” that somehow will only kill those who senselessly attacked its neighbor? Of those 3000 dead and 12,500 injured during Israel’s counter attack are we to assume that no innocent men, women and ESPECIALLY children have not paid with their lives? The knee-jerk and angry attacks on any such line of reasoning and as is threaded throughout this dispatch from my perspective reflects some really cold-hearted hate and and a detachment from any consideration of big picture morality.

Right now, in hot-spots around the world, innocents are dying because of racial, ethnic and religious differences. Again, this is the human history of the world in which we all must live together, like it or not. The only side I am taking here is that of those innocents, especially the children. In any country. Repeat. Any country. To those who want to attack pro-Palestinian protestors, or read or hear any suggestion that any lethal counter attack by Israel is righteous, try and stop for just a moment and dare imagine growing up in that so-called open-air prison that is Palestine, with its electric, water and food supply now in crisis since the the counter-attack. Will the complete annihilation of Palestine be good enough for those who wittingly or unwittingly assume that whatever hell any civilians are catching in response to October 7, is morally correct?

Just the other day, a six-year old Palestinian-American boy of a Muslim family was stabbed umpteen times and died at the the hand of the family’s twisted and toxic white landlord. The mother is recovering from stab wounds. Let us hope she survives although then having to constantly relive the evil that caused such a tragedy. This little boy had to die for…what?

Please excuse me now while are try to locate the office in which one can resign from the human race.