Something I'm thinking about, that's not yet a fully-formed thought. Looking for input.
The problem that I see is, it's not that things are
bad in Gaza and the West Bank. It's that they are
not bad enough.
When things get
bad enough, big political changes are possible, because they become necessary. The Democrats ignored our southern border crisis for decades, but are only now doing something about it because the problem became
bad enough. American colonists tolerated all manner of grievances until things became
bad enough and they rebelled. The British fought us until things became
bad enough and they tapped out. We were on the ground in Viet Nam until things got
bad enough and then we folded up our war machine and headed home. And the list goes on.
There is a body of thought in international relations theory that holds that when peace breaks out before one side of a conflict sees itself as defeated, the war isn't over and in fact could go on indefinitely. When well-meaning interlopers coerce a separation between committed belligerents before one side is a clear victor, it merely prolongs the conflicts and protracts the misery.
example:
https://peacelearner.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/edward-luttwak-give-war-a-chance1.pdf
That's what we have here today with Hamas in particular but also with the Palestinian Authority. Hamas keeps acting the way they do because we continue to allow it. No matter how many times Israel drops bombs or fires missiles into Gaza, no many how many tanks are on their streets for a few days at a time, and most importantly no matter how many civilians are accidentally killed, the Israelis are pressured into stopping short of a full victory. Hamas doesn't see the constant string of ass whippings they receive as a defeat; indeed, they see the struggle itself as a victory. Hamas can wait the Israelis out and rearm and retrain and regenerate in perpetuity, because the international community props up their governing structure, we enable their malfeasance. Iran is the chief funder of Hamas, but Hamas also gets a lot of money and political support, directly or indirectly, from places like Qatar, the EU, and, yes, the US.
The argument that "this money is just for humanitarian purposes" is utterly laughable. First of all, money is fungible. You're dealing with a literal terrorist organization who is willing to do or say literally anything, to include killing themselves, in support of their cause and you expect them to keep their word?? LOL. And even if you give them say $50 million worth of food, even if they don't sell it or barter it for something else, you just saved a terrorist organization $50 million. And what do you think they're going to do with it? "Looks like jihad is back on the menu, boys!"
So, what do we do about it? Gazans are definitely suffering under Hamas' leadership. Things are bad. But they are not
bad enough. When things get bad enough in Gaza, the people will rise up against them. Instead of giving them $50 million a month to prop up the government in Hamas, we should be spending twice as much to undermine it. And twice as much again to directly and indirectly target the people, organizations, and countries that are supporting them. Not because this makes things better for Israel, but because it's in the US's national interests. We need to cut off funding not only to Hamas but to the PA as well. No more support for terrorists and despots. No more financial support for people who
literally give money when an American citizen is murdered in Israel. No more supporting
"education" that teaches how evil the US and Israel are, and that promotes perpetual conflict. Make it
bad enough to cause meaningful change.
Article 13 of Hamas' charter literally states "there is no negotiated settlement possible." Anyone who tries to achieve a political end short of the complete elimination of the state of Israel runs the risk of getting murdered. That could be an average Palestinian or the leader of an entirely different country. And as bad as things are in Gaza day-to-day, it's not
bad enough to risk one's life over.
Yet.
But I think it's hard for a lot of people to understand right now how big an event this most recent attack was to Israel's national psyche. Voices of restraint are going to be drowned out by howls for blood. Things just got
bad enough for Israel. We'll soon see what that translates to for Gaza.
(her seat us up next year too)
