In my heart I am holding a rifle in my hands firing back at Palestinian gunman defending innocent Israeli civilians from imminent slaughter. But my rational mind will not be silent.

Three Arguments That Utterly Fail in This Moment

First that any grievance, no matter how heartfelt could justify the acts of violence that have been visited upon Israeli citizens, in the October 7th attack. None Can.

The second argument that fails now and forever is that these attacks will benefit the Palestinian people and their cause. Throughout the entire history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict nothing has done more to harm the wellbeing of the Palestinian people than the homicidal actions of the most militant, anti-Israeli factions among them.

The third argument, that external actors such as Iran, Hezbollah or Russia are helping the Palestinian people, could not be further from the truth. Those specific actors and other similar ones have a strategy and an agenda. The Palestinian people are just pawns, a means to an end. Many Palestinian people are all too aware of this. Their lives again cast into another cycle of violence they cannot control.

Israeli Provocations

There are Israelis, some but not all who do not believe in a two state solution. Nor do they believe that any Palestinian should have any rights at all west of the Jordan River. This ideology is as old as the state of Israel.

Many Palestinians are born, live their entire lives and die without any hope of having land rights, employment rights, water rights and much, much more. It is a tremendous contributor to sense of rage Palestinians feel.

Giving Peace No Chance

There are hard-liners in both the Israeli and Palestinian camps. Each with ideologies that reject solutions that would lead to peace. To accept peace would in their minds legitimize the existence of the other in what each view as their holy land.

What We Can Expect Now

The degree of savagery visited on unarmed Israeli civilians during the course of events in recent days is unimaginable and it may be just the beginning.

This will be a transformative conflict. The middle east will never be the same again. Israel cannot in this round of conflict with Hamas simply reduce to rubble large swathes of Gaza. The Hamas strategy of taking scores of Israeli civilian hostages will make a massive bombing campaign on the Gaza strip untenable.

While that may initially frustrate Israeli defense forces it might also forestall a reaction conceived in passion and provide a crucial window for well conceived strategy. The Israelis have reduced Gaza to rubble three times in the 21st century. It’s never worked before and it isn’t likely to work now.

The Israelis officially say they want to destroy Hamas without subjecting innocent civilians to what would essentially be war crimes. It’s a best case scenario for Palestinians and Israelis alike. The Israelis need to formulate a well conceived strategy customized for the current situation.

Forethought, planning and precision will be invaluable to the Israelis as they manage this crisis. Three things Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not noted for.

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Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.