Israel

When I wrote about warfare yesterday I posed the question:  "Did I leave anything or anyone out?" 

Of course! Let me share a few thoughts on Israel by prefacing my remarks with a comment. I am no more anti-Semitic than I am Islamophobic.  Any who would bring the accusation do not know me, neither have they ever met me,  nor have they been been seated in my presence.   I have my faults. Hatred is low on the list.

So let's discuss Israel and warfare.

7 October 2023:     The Nova Music Festival Carnage which Metastasizes into Adjacent Communities

For what Hamas did to Israel, there is a heavy price to be paid.  I doubt the majority of readership have viewed a small, select handful of images which I saw coming off the GoPro cameras of Hamas as they attacked innocent civilians on 7 October.  These actions quickly made it to X feeds.  Al Ansar (the helpers) were apparently ready and highly anticipating their proxy participation in this military action. There was a waterfall of information, images, videos, and communiques coming off X.

One particular video was so incredibly hideous that I could not bring myself to archive it.  I did not want it finding habitation on my computer or floating about in a cloud. I did not even want to pass it along to any other individual. Once seen, certain things leave an imprint on the mind.  What Hamas did - places them in the category of monsters.  

They chose the wrong target.  Israel has a long history of brutally dealing with their enemies.  They have wire in the blood. And that wire carries tremendous voltage.

 https://www.sefaria.org/I_Samuel.15.3?lang=bi

What should never be acceptable is this:

https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/09/lebanon-israel-unlawfully-using-white-phosphorus

For those unfamiliar with the devastating consequences of white phosphorus - familiarize yourself with the work of Dave Roever.  I have met this remarkable American veteran.

https://www.daveroever.org/about

War is about the worst imaginable cruelty but it should never become a calculated unimaginable cruelty. If atrocity is matched with atrocity, we become what we hate.  And while there is nothing this journalist can do while seated at my desk, it is important that as we read things each day for pleasure,  that we also  educate ourselves about the greater world by sitting back and reflecting on the headlines. 

Here is a blurb taken from an X account:

"A recent investigation by Al Jazeera shows that at least 2,842 Palestinians have been "martyred without a trace" by prohibited thermal and thermobaric weapons used by Zionist forces. The extreme heat (up to 3,000 degrees Celsius and more) produced by such weapons often causes victims to burn to such an extent that very little remains of them. The weapons Israel has used to achieve such results apparently include the following: MK-84 bombs loaded with Tritonal, a mixture of TNT and aluminum powder that generates immense heat upon explosion BLU-109 bunker-busting bombs that are also loaded with Tritonal or PBXN-109 and produce temperatures exceeding 3,500 degrees Celsius GBU-39 small-diameter bombs loaded with AFX-757 and designed to kill through a combination of pressure and thermal waves upon explosion."