Israel October 7th 2023

Wars are nothing new. Yet the Ukrainian and Israeli wars have hit home very hard. It is like Americans are feeling the fierce consequence of war more than ever before. The massive communications explosion has taken hold. I think that when confronted with these realities with such frequency we have come to feel the horrific pain associated with war. The media has insured that in the forefront is the innocence that is caught up in war and slaughtered.

Hamas and the Palestinians started this current horror. 1200 innocent Israeli’s were murdered with vile cruelty. Towering despicable horror. How do you measure a response to their sick murderous spree? It is hard to digest, but I do not believe that the answer lies in response that is so angry and reckless that thousands of innocents die.

I believe Israel let an opportunity go by here that would have won international support for decades. It is sad that Israel’s leadership did not seek to choose every path of intellectual pursuit available in humanity to find peace and balanced compassionate answer at this time. A fitting military response followed by response with this thinking would have saved so much for Israel. Had they done this they would have had international respect. An Eichman like commission with international participation and support would have been a smart way to proceed. With Hamas as the targets. Hamas would have been deemed an unacceptable scourge of humanity throughout the world. 

It was an opportunity to walk tall at a critical window in history. A time to win international support into perpetuity. To show unprecedented quality and let the evil of HAMAS glow in its’ vile reality. That window has passed and so to this opportunity. The good will garnered from the past is gravely harmed. It matters not how much “right” Israel can attach to their pursuit. The good will of public opinion throughout the world was overlooked and has been damaged. There is never a time when excessive innocent death is okay. Netanyahu and his ilk do not comprehend these wisdoms. It is tragic that great nations elect these people. Netanyahu and his ilk leadership have gravely harmed this great and deserving land.    

As you read it is urgent you realize the Israeli predicament. No matter what Israel offers, Palestinians continue to pursue vicious terror. This has continued for nearly a lifetime now. The Palestinians chose the PLO and Hamas to lead them. Both refused several peace deals. Palestinian leadership chose terror and hate every time. They have been killing Israelis since WWII. Hamas leaders have bragged how October 7th will be repeated over and over until there is no Israel. And they retreat into civilian domains. It is hard to blame Israel for digging them out. Hamas does use Israel’s compassion against them. Yet October 7th was the last straw. Accompanied by decades of death and anguish and the refusal of Palestine to end terror. Israel’s far right leadership went from justified to excessive and this will be the Achilles heel for Israel’s good will. Far too high a price for this great land and this great effort of and for a people that have been through more than any other.

They elected a “Trumper,” (Netanyahu) who twisted their government into an entity okay with overkill, revenge and dispassion. This redirected Palestinian condemnation onto Israel in far too many quarters. Many will be dead that do not need to be as this political wing tries to save itself at the expense of harming the Israeli effort for a peaceful homeland. America is on the same leadership path unless it can save itself in time.  

It was around 1955. My family lived in Hyde Park, New York on the Hudson. That is where I was born. I was watching a war movie on our brand-new K-part TV. Lots of folks did not have TV in those days. We were lucky. This was my first exposure to the holocaust. Near the end of the movie, as the camps were being liberated the director zeroed in on a camouflaged tank and you could see the Star of David appear. I still get chills thinking about that.

On October 7th 2023, 1500 of perhaps the most vicious on earth invaded Israel and slaughtered 1200 innocent wonderful human beings doing nothing but living their full of hope lives. Pure horror was inflicted. According to witnesses, much of it with glee.

At least 6 million Jews and at least 5 million others, all from peaceful populations were viciously murdered in the holocaust. After the war it was clear that Jews had to have a place to safely exist. Israel was formed in post war agreements between Britain and others. Only a very small parcel of today’s Israel was included. A parcel of land without natural resources or any special value. And they made it flourish.

Arabs and Jews have conflicted off and on for thousands of years. This effort to give Jews a chance to breath air somewhere on earth did not please many Arabs and Palestinians considering it a breech of their land. (This must be put in historical context where that claim is not black and white) Jews are a cooperative peaceful and compassionate people. At the time and today, there was and is no other answer.

Efforts at negotiations have been massive and fruitless. Due, every time to Palestinian refusal to allow Israel to peacefully exist. Palestinians believe violence to be the solution rather than finding common ground. Regardless of efforts for peace, Palestinians have chosen hate and violence. They chose to slaughter 1200 Israelis on October 7th, 2023. Their leadership vowed to do this over and over and then hid behind civilians. They have bombed and killed relentlessly since 1948. This has created a hate in many Israelis as so many have been brutally slaughtered.

I do not agree with Israel colonizing the West Bank as that land may be key to a final long-term answer. There must be a place for Palestinians to live where they can thrive free of executing terror. The only hope is for cultural adjustment pursuits to begin. There must be an environment where hate can heal and cultural adjustments can begin. And a path with these goals. After all this it will take decades. This cannot be done without quality of life for everyone. The West Bank is the best place for this to happen as best as I can see. 

Palestinians are so religiously and culturally conflicted and indoctrinated that they have consistently chosen leadership that has violently slaughtered Arabs in Egypt and Jordan and more. They have disrupted non-Israeli Middle East processes before and since WWII. No one wants them. Wherever they go they foster violence and hate. Google their history just since 1948 and you will clearly see that violence is their way.  Palestinian’s consistently foster and elect these menace leaders preventing any kind of solution that would bring about a decent way of life for the Palestinian people.  

Israel’s pursuit is justified and excessive. “Excessive” will harm them into the future. Yet no matter where you are, when the course is wrong, a proper path must have a beginning. 

Humanity must be part of war as all wars embrace the innocent. Emotions are intense.  It is the people that pay. Yet, we must always remember that if the Palestinians stopped fighting there would be peace. If the Israelis stopped fighting they would be eliminated.

Bill McClellan