Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) released the following statement in response to escalating violence in Israel.
“I am deeply troubled by the tragic and ongoing loss of civilian life. The escalation of tensions and deadly violence is beyond devastating and puts more lives at risk every day. I unequivocally condemn the rocket attacks and terror inflicted by Hamas, and fully support Israel’s right to defend itself. Saving lives and minimizing ongoing civilian casualties, especially for the children of Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, must be an immediate priority. Neither Palestinian nor Israeli civilians should have their homes and livelihoods devastated by this conflict. I fully support President Biden’s efforts to engage our allies and partners diplomatically, and stand with him in supporting an immediate ceasefire to prevent further loss of life. The United States must continue to exercise its role as an ally in support of a peaceful two-state solution.”
Interesting. You condemn the Palestinians of inflicting terror. You speak of civilian casualties. While I also support Israel’s right to exist, and to defend themselves against attacks, I do NOT support the Zionism that continues to take place. I do NOT support Israelis evicting Palestinians from homes their ancestors have lived in for generations, to provide housing for Jews who’ve immigrated to Israel. Are you not aware that Israel controls the power, and water, and from time to time cut off power and water to Gaza, just to display their power and authority? Are you not aware of how militarized Israeli police officers are harassing Palestinian women and children on nearly a daily basis?
Are you not aware that an Israeli general recently admitted that he’d received direct orders to instruct his snipers to purposefully target Palestinian women and children, as well as foreign aid workers, medics, and journalists as Palestinian people held a peaceful protest? I support Israel’s right to exist, but this was Palestinian land, and even during the era of Jesus…it was still a part of Palestine. Jesus would have essentially been a Palestinian Jew, from the Palestinian province of Nazareth. So I also support the Palestinian’s right to exist. Their casualties and the damage inflicted by Israel to their city, their homes, and their lives have been far higher than casualties and damage inflicted by Hamas.
If Hamas had not fired rockets into Israel, this recent event would not have happened. When Hamas ceases to fire rockets into Israel, the fighting will cease.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
? Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Perhaps Rep. Strickland does not understand tribal values and principles; the first step in defeating them. Tribal members exist for the benefit of the tribe: they are not individuals in the sense of individualist based societies. Tribal member fate is dependent upon the success or failure of the tribe, not themselves individually. Hamas specifically and Palestinians generally are tribal societies. Hamas and the Palestinian cause view their tribal members as just assets to be used for the success of their ultimate mission: destruction of Israel. This in their minds justifies placing weapons in and firing them from civilian areas with the expectation that the deaths of their tribal members in retaliation are better politically for their cause than preventing those deaths. To them it is a matter of their civilians worth more dead than alive. The more deaths the better and they understand the impact of those deaths on societies based on individualism like Western democracies. It is also the reason that Hamas et. al. target Israeli civilian centers! They know that Israel is a society based upon individualism and that it is the individual that is most important, not any tribe or group. Attacking Israel’s most important asset, its individuals, is bound to elicit the desired response: massive retaliation, resulting in civilian casualties which was the aim of Hamas from the very beginning. It is a cynical calculus that most Westerners fail to appreciate because they have little idea of the values and principles employed by tribal opponents.
A very difficult situation, but to equate an illegal occupation that has existed for generations to ‘the Art of War’ ? That seems more than odd. If you’re not familiar with the phrase ‘mowing the lawn’, then you probably haven’t been following this long.
Illegal occupation? Really? Explain. Israel fought and won 4 wars against overwhelming odds to establish itself as the sole democracy in the Middle East and you have a problem with that? I’m sure Abbas and Hamas run a much more democratic society when they’re not at each other’s throats: typical of tribal societies. Apparently the Israeli’s not only understand Sun Tzu but also the interrelationship of tribal warfare and Islam. Mowing the lawn? So an unsophisticated opponent starts firing rockets at you and you respond creaming them with lopsided casualties and you find fault with that? Your heart bleeds for them does it? Exactly what Hamas wants politically. Asymmetrical warfare is like that; not tit for tat but BOOM for tat! Yet Hamas is willing to absorb casualties, indeed welcome them, as dead Palestinians are held up as “innocent” victims even as they are actually intended victims………….intended by Hamas for political advantage. Don’t be so naive.
Thank you!
I do not see true empathy for innocent civilians killed on either side as naievty. To some it’s like a game and the phrase ‘mowing the lawn” (much like creaming an opponent) was favored by the Israeli government to describe their asymmetrical repercussions against captive enemies. The UN has declared this ongoing occupation as illegal, but I think currently ‘might makes right’ and it’s ignored. Just as in dialog or debate, yell loud enough and often (have big weapons) and they will assume you’re correct. Bleeding heart? no apologies.
Gaza is not occupied: Israel abandoned it years ago. Certainly civilian deaths on either side within the context of Western values is not naivety but rather regrettable. However, Hamas is not operating within the context of Western values but rather tribal and Islamic values where individualism isn’t central to their value system. It’s what allows them with “clear conscience” to manufacture, store and fire weapons from within civilian neighborhoods and strap explosives to suicide bombers who typically target Israeli civilians. It’s not by chance that this occurs but rather deliberately in the pursuit of a tribal and religious objective: Israel’s destruction. The West is chagrined by the carnage but that was their intent all along.
Hamas looks for every opportunity to ‘come to the aide of the Palestinians’ except to finance making Gaza an economically and physically decent place to live. If Ismail Haniya and Khaled Meshaal had used their influence and the availability of money from Iran and Qatar to build a liveable prosperous society in the desert, instead of devoting their funds and abiities to killing Jews, Iran supposedly has given Hamas $100 million for war. Imagine what Gaza could be if it were devoted to building an economically civil society. Netanyahu’s thirst for continuing to hold power makes Haniya, and before him, Meshaal, partners in crime.
Haniya and Meshaal are in the mold of Fawzi Al Qawugji, the Arab military leader who led the assault on a very, very small Israel in 1948, which had been created along with a Palestinian state. Al Qawuqji had ‘refined’ his military skills as a colonel in Hitler’s Nazi armed forces.