Innocents abroad

Does anybody ‘win’ these things?

El Rushbo used to tell his listeners that nothing will change in the Middle East’s hotspots, especially between Israel and the Palestinians, until somebody wins. This week, there are articles from the American commentariat about what winning will look like in Gaza, and what both sides want. And what the columnists want. (“We can’t let Iran win!”) It’s as if there is a cheering section in these matters. And there damn sure shouldn’t be.

But it’s easy to see who the losers will be.

First, there are the Israelis who have died and have been captured. And their families who are either burying their young—or old—or waiting by the phone, hoping for news that their daughters or sons are alive and perhaps coming home one day. They know of loss. Many are probably preparing for more of it.

Then there are the Israelis who will lose come tomorrow, the next day, and maybe next year. Surely the invasion of one of the world’s most population-dense places will not come without casualties for the invaders. More families are preparing for loss.

But then you have millions of Palestinians in Gaza (and elsewhere) who have done not a thing wrong, literally. Babies are born every day. We saw one figure in the news that indicated that there were something like 50,000 pregnant Palestinian women in Gaza today. What happens if their hospitals lose power?

Speaking of electricity, it takes power to pump water. We heard that the Israeli government has turned the water back on, but how get it to homes and hospitals with no electricity? Maybe water towers can help for a week—if they have water towers—but after that water is gone, what then?

Palestinian infants aren’t the only innocents. See the photographs and video of all the Palestinian families moving south. They have left their homes. They have left their lives. When will they get “south” enough? When they’ve crossed into Egypt? Will Egypt be prepared for hundreds of thousands of refugees? What will these people eat? What will keep them warm and dry? Will they ever have anything to go back to? That’s if they live. Hamas has a habit—a tradition—of hiding among civilians, like terrorists are known to do worldwide. That’s why they hide behind, even in, schools and mosques.

There is also another group of losers in this: Peace-promoting True Believers of every stripe. How explain your beliefs with dead littering the streets?

We don’t know how much good it will do to think about what winning looks like in Gaza. We just saw a Palestinian man on CNN pull a baby stroller out of the rubble.