Today, we are discussing an issue that has been outright dominant in the public consciousness for about a month now, that issue being the incredibly troubling war in Israel and Gaza. This war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands already and is only becoming more and more of a total war. Case in point, concerning developments from October 31 indicate that Israel has conducted an airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp. This comes after what has amounted to a month-long Israeli siege of Gaza, initiated in response to heinous attacks conducted by Hamas on October 7th, 2023. These attacks killed over 1400 Israelis, but I’m going to argue today that Israel has responded in such a way that calling it incredibly flawed would be incredibly charitable. 

After all, the Gaza Strip, as the besieged region is more formally known, is home to over two million people with almost all of them in abject poverty. As the present war with Israel continues to rage, the humanitarian aid the region depends on has been nearly completely cut off, too. And now, the people of Gaza are digging impromptu wells into a contaminated aquifer just to get the water they need to survive. They previously depended on desalination plants for water, but most of those have since been shut down due to energy supplies being included in the Israeli blockade. Sure, aid has been restored to portions of the Gaza Strip, but it is far from sufficient, and probably just a token concession from Israeli leadership.

Speaking of Israeli leadership, their current Prime Minister is a familiar face to many involved in international politics, a man named Benjamin Netanyahu. To be blunt, I’ve never liked the guy, considering his authoritarian tendencies and many corruption scandals, and polls are pretty sure a majority of the Israeli population has at least somewhat similar stances on this. He has long since begun to warp Israel’s institutions around his specific form of Zionism, and such warping can very well be seen as a secondary cause of this war.

However, I want to be clear that in my opinion, Zionism itself isn’t the cause of the war. The two main causes of the current crisis are, based on my analysis, Hamas’ indefensible attacks on October 7 as well as Netanyahu’s overly heavy-handed response to them. Now don’t get me wrong, any leader would defend their people after such a massive terrorist attack. It’s just that bombing refugee camps and cutting off access to aid, even temporarily, is a really ugly look. Such actions are causing needless death and suffering, and greatly reduces the moral high ground that Israel has in this conflict.

But perhaps now is a good time to explain what Hamas even is. They are a terrorist organization that has practical control over the Gaza Strip and is openly opposed to the existence of Israel specifically and Jewish people more broadly. They are the reason that there are more rockets in the region than the number of people with access to clean drinking water. They are the current reason for Gaza’s suffering, and this can absolutely be backed up. Israel’s military, the IDF, have alleged the use of human shields by Hamas, which is absolutely a war crime if proven true. It also shows contempt for the people they claim to govern, when all they are doing is ruling over them. Again, such a statement can be backed up by their words and actions, as it is plainly clear that they see the excess deaths of Palestinian civilians as useful for their purposes. Simply put, they are a reprehensible movement.

So what could Israel do differently in this situation? One answer I can think of is that they shouldn’t be indiscriminately bombing Gaza hoping and claiming they take out Hamas leaders. They need to be more tactical about this, and that means not lumping together Hamas and the civilians of Gaza. That means making evacuation routes and zones for Gazan civilians work more effectively in practice, and it means collaborating with the leaders of the West Bank to deal with this greater threat. Think more Seal Team Six operations, and not hopes and prayers through bombs. 

However, I understand that this conflict is extremely complicated, and I only scratched the surface, for sure. Therefore, anything you have to add on to this can be a comment, and if you like what you read, I’d appreciate your support. Other than that, let’s hope the next story I cover is a bit lighter, for all of our sakes.