A trap set for overreaction that grabs the world's attention
The inspiration for today’s meditation comes from Ecclesiastes 1:9: “There is nothing new under the sun.”
What’s happening in Gaza now has happened before — as recently as the American War in Vietnam.
To build on what I wrote in my column of October 29 (“Echoes of wars past in answer to Hamas”), Israel has done just what Hamas wanted them to do. Hamas on October 7 mounted a barbaric, horrific attack expecting Israel to respond with overwhelming, indiscriminate force. The point was to lure Israel into an overreaction that would kill large numbers of innocent civilians, thereby turning people against them. It’s a stratagem right out of Mao’s playbook on revolutionary warfare.
As I mentioned in that previous column, the VC and the NVA lured us into that same trap over and over again. Take a burst of fire from a village and overreact by calling in artillery or even air. That saves American lives while taking innocent ones in said village. Get so angry at losing men in and around My Lai that soldiers of the ironically named “Americal Division” decide to “waste” the whole village, killing unarmed men, women, and children. The first example turned innocent villagers against us. The second helped galvanize Americans against the Vietnam War. Who were the winners in both? Not us!
The variation in the current war, of course, is that the Palestinian people in Gaza were largely out of sympathy with Israel in the first place. The people Hamas sought to inflame against Israel were their fellow Muslims throughout the Middle East, and they succeeded. As an extra-added benefit they’ve managed to turn large numbers of Americans against Israel — and that is unfortunate, to say the least. Worse yet, some are extolling Hamas as noble freedom fighters. Noble freedom fighters don’t do what Hamas did on October 7. And I would remind readers that Hamas is of the same mindset as the Muslim extremists who attacked us on 9/11.
Again, as I mentioned in that previous column, Israel may not be able to eradicate Hamas entirely. As the VC and the NVA were wont to do in my war when they knew they couldn’t win, Hamas may just use their tunnels to slip away and live to fight another day. Please pardon that bit of doggerel. My point is that the cadre of Hamas could escape to Lebanon or Syria, for instance, and then rebuild. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
In the meanwhile, Israel is being accused of committing war crimes — of deliberately killing noncombatants. Israel, of course, rejects that charge. They claim they’re being selective in their targeting and to be doing all they can to minimize civilian casualties. But even if they’re relying on precision laser-guided bombs and missiles, they have been bombing and firing into a densely populated, built-up area. So-called “collateral damage” could not be avoided.
Then again, Israel is up against religious fanatics who think God is on their side. Their strategy includes putting innocent civilians in harm’s way. And in the words of the Bard of my generation, “You don’t count the dead when God’s on your side.” (Bob Dylan, “With God on Our Side”) I fear that the ultra-orthodox and some others in Israel may also be of that mindset.
In any event, Gen. Colin Powell’s pottery barn metaphor applies. Israel is breaking Gaza, so they will own it until they can establish a Palestinian government or state there. If they leave a vacuum, a reconstituted Hamas or some other radical group is likely to come in. Let’s hope Netanyahu and company are thinking about and planning for this.
A postscript. I’ve been reminded that the old axiom about God helping those who help themselves is not scriptural. I knew that. It’s a humanistic principle of secular wisdom. But it is implied in scripture, principally in the “Parable of the Talents” (Matthew 25 14-30). During the Renaissance in particular that parable was interpreted to be a rejection of the contemptus mundi attitude of the medieval church — the idea that the things and activities of this world are vain and spiritually corrupting. To the contrary, the “Parable of the talents” is an endorsement of human activity and accomplishment. God expects us to take an active role in our temporal and spiritual lives and to make the most of our talents in the sense of our abilities and aptitudes. And that certainly includes meeting God at least halfway in the temporal things we might pray for.
Contact Ed Palm at majorpalm@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: A trap set for overreaction that grabs the world's attention
