Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Israel Kills 400 in Gaza
The Israeli military has resumed attacks in Gaza, despite the cease fire agreed about 6 weeks ago. Airstrikes in the last couple of days have killed over 400 people. Prime Minister Netanyahu said he was giving the order to attack after he alleged Hamas had refused to release half of the remaining hostages the group seized on October 7, 2023, a precondition for extending the cease fire. The PM said this was just the beginning, a rather odd thing to say after killing people for 16 months. He added that the IDF would continue operations until Israel had achieved its objectives, destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages. In truth, he wants to continue the war to retain office and avoid prison.
The New York Times reported,
Daniel B. Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said on Tuesday: "Hamas's insistence on holding on to hostages as leverage, and Netanyahu/s politically driven refusal to proceed with Phase 2 of the cease-fire, which called for an end to the war and the release of all living hostages, led to this escalation."
This journal predicted the day the cease fire started that it would fail before phase 2, which went beyond trading hostages. The Netanyahu government has no intention of leaving Gaza, and that would have been part of the serious phase 2 negotiations. Such negotiations are not underway. There is little reason to believe they will start any time soon. Any talks that do take place are likely to be undertaken in bad faith by one or both parties.'
Of course, both sides claim they want to talk and hash it out but they are blameless for the fact that they are not doing so. The same paper stated:
Mr. Saar, the Israeli foreign minister, suggested that Israel would return to the negotiating table if Hamas made major concessions over Gaza's future.
"If we could achieve the same goals in a different way, fine," he said. "But if it's impossible to advance that way, you resume military operations."
Hamas officials have vowed that would not happen.
"War and destruction will not bring the enemy what they failed to get through negotiations," Izzat al-Rishq, a Hamas official, said.
So, the war is back on regardless of what either side says about a cease fire. The hostages still held are not going anywhere. The death toll is up. There is less reason to believe this is not an attempted genocide. There is no reason at all to believe Hamas is willing to sacrifice itself for the good of the Palestinian people. Hamas is prepared to fight to the last Palestinian. So is Israel.
Hamas and others in Gaza hold 59 hostages, of whom 24 may be alive. Israel holds hundreds of Palestinians hostage in its prisons. These people are collateral damage to the Likud/Hamas alliance against peace. The children killed on October 7, and all the kids who have been murdered since then are as well.
The solution to the problem has not changed since the attack 16 months ago. The people of Palestine and the people of Israel must remove the leaders who have brought them to this pathetic place. If this can be done by the ballot box, that would be ideal. If it cannot, it must still be done. The problem is that the leaders have different interests than the people and will do what is good for the leaders not the people.
It would not be the first time that a war brought about a revolution. And that path has its own landmines. Bertolt Brecht was right, “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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