One Year Ago Today

On 7 October 2023, early in the morning, local time, Hamas, a terrorist organization, attacked Israel, a sovereign state, killing about 1,200 people, and taking about 250 hostages, the youngest hostage being an infant.

Agence France-Presse (AFP), which cross-referenced numerous data sources to verify the number of people killed, has assessed that 815 of a total of 1,195 people killed were civilians, including 79 foreign nationals. Among them were at least 282 women and 36 children. Source.

Hostages included Israelis, Israeli dual nationals, Palestinian citizens of Israel, Palestinians from Gaza, and foreign workers, including Chinese, Filipino, Nepali, Sri Lankan and Thai nationals, and at least one national each from Cambodia, Canada, Eritrea, Germany, Mexico, Sudan, Tanzania, and the United Kingdom. In addition to the rockets, there were crimes against humanity, focused on civilians, although some troops were also killed, raped, and taken hostage.

The planning had occurred over a period of years, very well organized by Hamas. The group claimed that the incursion was led by Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the “Qassam Brigades”) and included fighters from four other Palestinian groups.

As the horror unfolded, much of the world recoiled in horror. The rest cheered.

Over the past year, many more people have been killed: both terrorists and civilians in Gaza, both Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Jaffa, not to mention people in both Northern Israel and Lebanon. Millions have been displaced. Source.

There is a huge amount of blame to go around. Let’s start with Hamas. Hamas’ goal in attacking was to derail the then-likely peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. This article details the preparations for the October 7th attack. The article is well-researched and sourced, it’s long, and it will appall you. It shows how Hamas built more than 300 miles of tunnels and underground weapons factories: virtually underground cities. How Hamas was funded, not just by Iran, but by siphoning aid money, charitable contributions, tax revenue and — after Oct. 7 — shareholder deposits stolen from Gazan banks. YEARS of donations that never made it to the civilians and infrastructure for which the monies were intended.

Let’s move on to Bibi Netanyahu. His goal is simple: to do whatever is necessary to stay in power, and thus out of jail. He spearheaded the goal of destroying Hamas, no matter what the cost to the civilian population of Gaza, at the expense of the goal of getting the hostages back, preferably alive. For many years, he has held fast to the idea that Iran is such an existential threat to Israel that it must be destroyed. It’s why he was against the Iran deal (that was successful in slowing Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon) and for the Convicted Felon (who removed the US from the Iran deal, and enabled Iran to become closer to a viable nuclear weapon.)

And finally, Iran and its proxies, including, but not limited to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis. Full list of proxies and their actions here.

You know who is NOT to blame? The innocents. Civilians who never did anything other than endeavor to just get up in the morning, go to work or school, not get bombed, not end up in a bomb shelter, come home, eat dinner, go to sleep, and make it through the night without getting bombed. Especially the children.

My heart aches.

The bottom line is that neither the Netenyahu administration, nor Hamas, WANT a solution. They WANT to continue battling one another. Both sides committed to destroying one another, no matter what the cost to themselves and their people. The PEOPLE (Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese) overwhelmingly want an end to the hostilities, but the leaders in power do not. Sadly, this is a situation that the US CANNOT rectify. Cannot change. There is NOTHING we can do to move the leaders at this time.

Like many people, I have ties to the Middle East. So many of us have friends and relatives currently living there. Most of us have ancestral ties to the area through our religions: Jewish, Muslim and Christian.

My first visit was in the late 1960’s. My most vivid recollection is how much the Dizengoff in Tel Aviv reminded me of the Champs-Élysées in Paris. My most fun memory was of a restaurant in Haifa where one star meant “takes a little longer, please be patient” two starts meant “we may or may not have the ingredients for this” and three stars meant “if the chef feels like it.” The simple memories of a child.

I have been back several times, and each time there was more of a sense of danger, of bad possibilities occurring. As I visited more of the country beyond the three major cities, it was obvious how different parts of the country were from one another.

As I write this, we are all awaiting Israel’s response to Iran’s unsuccessful bombing of Israel. I assume they'll strike prior to Yom Kippur, but I don't know if they'll hit only military targets, or military plus command and control - both of which might slow things down in the same way that destroying command and control has taken out much of Hezbollah. BUT - if they hit the oil fields and transport lanes, that is disastrous for oil prices around the world. It would hit Iran where it hurts economically, but there would be a lot of pain to go around. And as for taking out one or more nuclear facilities? That's under the heading of "and you better not miss". Iranian engineering students spend a lot of time learning about concrete and hardening, and it's possible that the current nuclear facilities cannot be destroyed with the armaments that Israel has. I've heard that the US could do it, but it would take 3 - 6 months to ramp up and execute a solution. Then, you'd have to get ALL of them, or for sure Iran would fire a nuclear warhead at Tel Aviv. And we know how that ends.

I wish, I hope, that there comes a way of decreasing the hatred. That there is some way to get to the two-state solution that so many have proposed over decades. That somehow the powers that be in the region reach the conclusion that there has been enough death, enough suffering, enough enduring fear and loathing.

Perhaps this will be the year, although I am not optimistic.