Pouring Water on a Grease Fire

On Oct.7 Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel killing innocent civilians and kidnapping others. It was one of the most brutal attacks since the advent of ISIS. But it wasn’t just the loss of life that was so horrendous but also the loss of something less tangible, hope. Hope for normalizing relations between Israel and the rest of the Arab world. Some speculate that it was the possibility of that which led Hamas to conduct this attack now.

 Israel has responded with massive force, pummeling Gaza with airstrikes. While it is understandable that Israel would need to bring to justice those who perpetrated the Oct.7 attack the humanitarian catastrophe that is now Gaza is not justice. It will not bring any solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, it will only feed hate. Just as Hamas wants. Hamas has been using the people of Gaza as human shields and by bombing Gaza Israel has fallen into the trap set by them.

As I type this the anger around the world towards Israel is growing stronger. There are protests in many countries and fears of the war between Hamas and Israel spreading in the region are growing. Attacks against American forces in the region by Iranian proxies have escalated leading the US to respond with missile strikes. The US has sent ships to the Mediterranean Sea as a warning to Hezbollah, but fighting is now occurring on the Israel Lebanon border between Israel and Hezbollah.

As of this writing there are over 200 hostages being held by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza. Hamas has also been refusing to allow American citizens to leave Gaza. They too are being used as human shields. I would say this really is not working for Hamas.

None of this has been of benefit to anyone except perhaps Vladimir Putin, whose war in Ukraine has been going rather badly for Russia. The Middle East going up in flames is something that would certainly distract the world from his own brutal war.

The realities of the suffering of the people:

One Minnesota family's tragedy

Israel's tragedy

The protest at a Russian airport which, as rumor has it, may have bought those arrested a one way ticket to the Ukrainian front line.

Crazy Town during War

It has been a tumultuous week, with the Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy removed from his seat at the instigation of the far right of his Party as represented by Matt Gaetz.   It has been a struggle for him to lead since he was given the gavel due to the inability of the far right of the Republican Party to compromise.  His standing up to prevent a government shutdown, instead of being lauded was instead derided by this group of people.  There are those who say they don’t want to govern.  I would go one better and say they don’t want to govern a democracy.  Given the rule change which allowed only one person to move to vacate the Speaker’s seat it was probably a forgone conclusion that the rule would be invoked eventually.  It is why it was a condition for their support in the first place.

This is just the latest in a long string of actions the far right Republicans have taken in various areas of the country.  The reactions in some areas have been rather interesting.

In North Carolina:

There are other young people who are looking very critically at the MAGA Commander in Chief:

So there is a glimmer of hope that people are starting to understand that MAGA Republicans’ desire is not to govern a democracy.  The reason behind our government of checks and balances was to prevent the rule of a single individual.  

In the wake of the bumbling actions of those in the House the United States is ill prepared to deal with international crises such as what is happening in Ukraine and what has happened just the other day in Israel with the attack by Hamas.  One of the things President Biden has been intent on in the Ukraine war was trying to prevent the spread of fighting.  Now we have Israel declaring a state of war.  While this is not, on the surface, connected to the Ukraine war Hamas’s backer is Iran, which is also involved in supplying Russia with weapons to use in Ukraine.   No they are not connected, yet both Ukraine and Israel are supported by the United States.  

Israel has been racked with division recently with the right leaning government of Netanyahu passing a law that removes the power of Israel’s Supreme Court to cancel government decisions deemed “extremely unreasonable”.  Some have speculated that this distraction has led to Israel’s not being prepared for this kind of attack.  It is something we should be thinking about in our own House. 

It only takes a spark and the Middle East has always been volatile.  The spread of the war in Israel is a very real concern.  

I stand with all the innocent people caught up in the horrendous fighting in Ukraine and Israel.