A Desperate Plea to the Israeli People to Stop Being Idiots, Part 1
I planned to make this a single article, but it ended up being too wordy, so I’ve decided to split it into two parts. What can I say? Tackling stupidity of this magnitude is not easy.
Sadly, the majority of Israelis from left to right hold a stupid position. I had hoped the death of 2000 Israelis and the destruction of several towns would change their minds, but sadly, it changed absolutely nothing.
Arrogance and stupidity are a potent mixture.
What am I talking about? The view that Arabs are not a serious threat. Sure, they can get a lucky sucker punch here and there, but otherwise, they’re nothing more than a nuisance. We can deal with them at our leisure.
The specific form in which this insanity is expressed these days is in the following position:
“Let’s make a deal with Hamas to get the hostages back, then renew the war at our convenience.”
This holds two terribly wrong assumptions:
You can get back all hostages.
You can pause and restart a war like a video game.
I guess at this point I’m supposed to say a few words about how this position is understandable due to concern for the hostages, hope is a beautiful thing, it comes from a place of kindness and love, blah, blah, blah, but fuck that.
I’m not a politician. I don’t give a shit if you hate me. I want you to think.
So yallah. Let’s start with the first assumption. I’m sorry to be “that guy” but…
No matter what happens, we’ll never save all the hostages.
I’ll explain this using empathy. Real empathy, not the suicidal brand alec-intellectuals are paddling in the West in these times of poverty.
Imagine you're Hamas.
Don't judge them, just put yourself in their shoes. And remember: they’re not less intelligent than you, they just have different values. Assuming your enemy is stupid is not good for your health.
You launched an attack against Israel under several assumptions, the most important of which turned out to be false: that the world will stop Israel from destroying Gaza. If the Jews suffer from suicidal empathy, you just discovered you suffer from suicidal antipathy. Hey! I said assumptions are bad for your health.
One by one, your allies bowed out of the fight.
Hezbollah was decapitated and is now barely clinging to existence in a country that’s growing increasingly tired of it. Syria was taken over by Iran and Hezbollah’s worst enemy. The Houthis are being pounded by America like it’s the good old days. Iran turned out to be a paper tiger. Iraq just gave up.
Your friends in the West were revealed to be no more reliable.
The UN is barely making any noise. The international "justice" machine turned out to be impotent, its chief prosecutor now facing more legal trouble than the ones he’s prosecuting. The progressive protestors and celebs who supported you got distracted by the next shiny thing. The strongest nation in the world is not only not restraining Israel, but encourages it to act more harshly.
Things are not great.
Your only leverage is the hostages. Not only because you know Israelis put huge importance on redeeming hostages (and stupidly can’t stop talking about it) but also because you know there's a major schism in Israeli society and the opposition will use this issue to destabilize the country in the hopes of bringing down its political foes.
This is the only weapon left in your arsenal.
So what do you do? You lean into it.
You hope to widen the rift into a chasm. You engage in psychological warfare, play off the parties one against the other, ask your rich friends in Qatar to help Israelis who serve your purpose to be seen and heard. Basically, you fight a media war using the hostages and their families.
Now, do all hostage families help you in this? No.
Many support military pressure to release the hostages. Some call for a swift and bloody revenge. These hostages are of less value to you because their families don't serve your purpose. If anything, they're harmful to you because their families increase Israel's resolve and call for your destruction.
However, some families 100% align with your goals and do everything in their power to fragment Israeli society, demoralize the nation, and invite foreign and domestic pressure on Israel. These people have huge value to you. Releasing their loved ones would be insane. It will be giving up on your only weapon in a conflict that’s going quite poorly for you.
At the same time, there are idiots in Israel constantly crying, “let’s get all the hostages back and then destroy Hamas.” What are they thinking? That Hamas is run by babies? That they don’t read these posts? That they don’t grasp this basic truth? Why would you do the one thing your enemy says you need to do in order for you to be destroyed?
Would you?
Take a day to think about it. If you think I’m wrong, let me know, because I’d love to be wrong. Really, nothing would make me happier.
You can read the second part here.
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The emphasis on hostages is only an incentive to take more hostages in the future. Israel’s emphasis should be on arming every Jew to assure no hostages are ever taken again. The corrosive liberal Jewish mind set will never allow anything rational to occur, and will never give peace through strength a chance. The cycle of Jews being their own worst enemy has been going on for 2,000 years. Jews are the only people that eat their own. Jews for Jews is the only answer. The Kapos must be eradicated and excommunicated. https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1AN1BXVenj/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Well said. It endlessly frustrates me that Jews are unable to put themselves in their enemy's position for a minute. This is like playing chess under the assumption that your oponent won't respond to your moves or take your open pieces when available.
It's just insane to pretend that Hamas will give up the hostages - there's no outcome where they are better off without them.
EXCEPT. If the people of Gaza are getting obliterated by the tens of thousands each day then Hamas knows they are chosing between certain extinction and a chance to fight another day. That is the only scenario where they can release the hostages. And that probably requires killing 500k+ Gazans, not that the world will miss them.