Israelis Who Lie: I’m Going In!

Um, I mean, in Gaza and Lebanon, YOUR KID Is Going In!

Danger in my neighborhood! Terrorists? Jihadists? Another Boston Bomber?!?!

A few days ago, I took the photo above, walking Benji on Garden Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Harvard, a half mile down the road.

Fenno Street was cordoned off, but the police standing around weren’t concerned. They laughed; kidded around with each other. Later, a SWAT truck arrived and more police. And after the sun set, someone got on a megaphone and said, “Come out, all we want to do is talk. You won’t be harmed.”

The situation lasted around 24 hours.

I don’t know what the Police Department meant by “take him into custody without incident.” I don’t believe they ever entered the house.

Why?

Because no one ordered anyone to.

There is no “tactical” gear that will prevent someone hiding in a room from killing a policeman or soldier — with gun or explosive — should they enter. No one in their right mind would enter a place where someone has the means to kill them.

This is understood by EVERYONE who might ever be asked to do it in real life (not a video game).

The ONLY reason anyone enters such enclosed spaces is when they’re ordered to! Or they’re acting out a scene in a make-believe movie or TV show.

Fortunately, the Cambridge Police didn’t need to order anyone into the house because the City of Cambridge could afford to keep policemen camped outside indefinitely.

For Israel to capture or kill Hamas fighters in Gaza it MUST order soldiers to enter enclosed spaces or operate in open spaces surrounded by enclosed spaces — from which Hamas fighters can hide — making those open spaces enclosed spaces too.

Many Israelis have commented on my pieces that I don’t get the necessity hunting down and killing every Hamas fighter. When I point out that the probability that those who obey those orders will get maimed or killed, they never say, “oh no, the IDF has figured out how to solve that problem so its soldiers don’t get killed.”

They believe it anyway. The IDF has always been a citizen army that goes to great lengths to keep every soldier safe. They put their tank engines in the front, so it takes the blow of a missile and protects the Israeli crew in the back. But is that ethos still true?

I don’t believe it is. I believe Israelis with working-brains realize those days are over. But they can’t come to grips with what it implies about the future of Israel.

There aren’t enough Israelis to hold the Israeli government to account — about the real cost in life. Instead, their priority is to deal with people like me, antisemites! Like if I agree with them less Israelis will be killed.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in Cambridge, Mass or Gaza, Israel. If someone is ordered into an enclosed space with a known threat they have a good chance of getting killed. Yes, once that happens, other soldiers can blow up the room, or storm it under smoke grenades — but whatever they do, that first soldier will not come back to life.

The number of those first soldiers killed are beginning to pile up and, if history is any guide, the accurate numbers will be slow to come out.

The way I see it, many people who support Israel’s invasion of Gaza are paying the price with other people’s children. For it is isn’t old men going in those tunnels. Another aspect of war unchanged.

Back of the envelop attacker-to-defender math, if Hamas has 30,000 fighters defending its tunnels expect 90,000 Israelis to die killing them. (That math explains why the front-line hasn’t changed much in the Ukraine War).

Of course, those people just shout-down such arguments with “Did you see what Hamas did!” Or “We can’t live in peace with them next door.” I don’t need to belabor the point.

The IDF entering Gaza fixes none of the root problems. Hamas fighters have a choice of getting starved out or fighting to the death. It no longer matters who is right or wrong. What someone should have done, or not done, years ago.

The fact is, Israel is on a path where there will be more families in Israel grieving over their kids getting maimed or killed in Gaza than those who lost loved-ones to Hamas on 10/7.

All you have to do is count, 1,2,3… But Israel won’t count.

At some point, the fever-dream Israelis have about eliminating Hamas and going back to a normal life will break. They will realize that the only thing they can be certain about is more Israelis killed in Gaza.

1,2,3…15,322 Dead kids. PTSD. Maimed for Life.

The must-win war will not bring them back. Not today, not ever. The same well-off Israelis who sent them into the tunnels will move on with their lives.

In the future, expect wealthy Israeli kids to somehow not be stationed in Gaza and the North. Expect Israel to visibly splinter apart, as I’ve predicted and been ridiculed for.

Put yourself in an IDF soldier’s shoes. These are the three options:

• Stay in tank/personnel carrier guarding a street and wait for a Palestinians to stick a bomb underneath
• Go outside for a pee and get killed or get shrapnel up the a__
• Enter a room/tunnel for tea and biscuits

If I had a kid in Israel I would get him out of the country ASAP.

I’m not arguing that Israel should or should not fight Hamas or anyone else here. I am only laying out the well-understood costs that haven’t changed for hundreds of years.

If Netanyahu is true to his word, and Israel has no desire to re-claim land in Gaza, then the only question is how many Israeli soldiers will die in Gaza to satisfy the unknown number of Palestinians that Israelis want dead, to feel they have exacted the right amount of revenge.

The argument that Israel needs to degrade Hamas enough to feel secure is a blatant lie because Netanyahu already promised it once, it didn’t happen, so no reason to believe it won’t happen again.

believing in old men’s lies, then unbelieving came home, home to a lie, home to many deceits, home to old lies and new infamy; usury age-old and age-thick and liars in public places. — Ezra Pound

PS: Corinne posted this link in comments. If I lived in Israel, would my stories get me arrested? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/13/it-is-a-time-of-witch-hunts-in-israel-teacher-held-in-solitary-confinement-for-posting-concern-about-gaza-deaths