Devastating Attack, Day Four

And the end of humanity in Kfar Aza

With a number of days into the deep crisis, more and more horror stories emerge and it is often impossible to find the words to describe the cruelty and carnage. The specific targeting of Jewish families and youngsters defies anything any of us have seen in our lifetimes. Even one of Joe Biden’s top national security people, John Kirby, broke down on CNN. It is how so many of us feel and react. And Joe Biden himself today vented his anger clearly and underlined the strong support for Israel. Let me give it a bit more context based on the latest news.

The Abyss

One report today brought us the news that in Kfar Aza 40 babies and children were murdered, some of them beheaded. This is how pogroms unfold. Anything that lives, anything of value is killed and gets destroyed. Babies are murdered in their cribs. Even dead bodies are desecrated. It takes us to a point where we no longer have any comprehension or words, a place that is beyond evil. It is outside the ability of any sane human being to grasp. It’s the abyss where no human should ever find him or herself. And now that Israel has gone in Gaza to neutralize Hamas, a process in which many civilians will inadvertently die, we have to understand that this is not revenge. It is a battle for civilization, a crucial fight to preserve human dignity or what’s left of it in today’s Middle East. Hamas has deliberately left it all behind and is dragging even its own people into the bottomless pit where all humanity has disappeared. We cannot ever let this stand. The world did not let Hitler get away with it and this is no different. A nihilist death cult has put human dignity and decency at stake and we all have a vested interest to see this battle succeed. In Israel, but also in Ukraine.

Global Impact

And that battlefield is indeed not just Gaza. The links between Hamas and Syria, Iran and Russia make it abundantly clear that the global conflict is pitting the free world against authoritarian darkness. The war in Ukraine is just another frontline and all the attention on Gaza plays right into Putin’s scheme to make progress in that war. The need to support Israel may take energy, supplies and political capital away from the war that is now raging in Europe and Moscow loves it.

When I mentioned the first skirmishes on the Lebanese border yesterday I omitted to say that Israel had issued a stern warning to Hezbollah and that an attack on Syria’s capital Damascus would follow if its northern cities came under missile attacks from the Tehran sponsored group. At that point the US fleet in Eastern Mediterranean would likely give the necessary support to Israel. At the same time the United Arab Emirates have come out and given Syria the same type of advice. Urgent advice one might say. And noteworthy also as the rest of the Arab world is beginning to walk away from the madness that Palestinian leaders have unleashed.

From there it is not a stretch to go one step further and warn Iran to reign in its proxies like Syria and back it up by pointing to Israel’s nuclear capabilities. It has happened before in 1973 when the world was dangerously close to a nuclear conflict when the US and the Soviet Union almost collided over the Yom Kippur War. No one wants to ever go there, but the stakes are accelerating and the alliance of the darker side of humanity with now Moscow, Tehran and Hamas aligned does not bode all that well.

Some in my family have suggested that my pieces are very informative but tend to end on too much of a pessimistic note. We all hope for better outcomes and I will comment on the bright side if it is there, absolutely. But if in the streets of major western cities attacks where babies are murdered are celebrated, actions backed up by the world’s new power centres, it is hard to see any redemption soon.

Photo: Israeli soldier speaks to the press after uncovering the massacre in Kfar Aza.