I don’t envy Israeli decision-makers

Childred died, got torn to shreds. It’s not just a tragedy, it’s as low as you can get. I won’t be sending thoughts and prayers because that’s pointless and I won’t be playing armchair general, either. Unlike some, I don’t like being an ”uncle good advice,” or a ”peasant philosopher” as we say in Polish, giving pointless advice to people who couldn’t care less.

The escalation/conflagration is unavoidable. I’m an outsider and I see it clearly. There are so many groups, so much hatred, there’s no other way to resolve this than a direct confrontation. One crisis ends, another starts. I understand how important it is to use diplomacy but – in this case – you can’t hope to resolve things diplomatically. It’s a web so vast, diplomatic gestures are a joke. Conflict is terrible, yes, but conflict can also be cathartic and constructive in the long run.

This isn’t just one conflict. These are many, many conflicts going back decades, if not more. It’s likely the most convoluted environment in the world. Diplomatic protocol won’t work here, it’s just for show.

Urging restraint is pointless and it only creates an illusion of having done something. I can also urge restraint. It means absolutely nothing. All this ”condemns in the strongest possible terms” means nothing. Who cares if it’s in the strongest possible terms or not? Dead children don’t care. Their parents don’t care. Diplomatic protocol is total nonsense at times. Completely detached from reality, an echo chamber of well-paid ivory-towerists who are rarely actually smart and mostly know how to take part in fancy conferences contributing to nothing but their egregious egos. This isn’t what we need. We need lateral thinkers and real think-tanks. As one actually smart diplomat once told me, ”We have mostly book keepers, not leaders.”

Israel must block the diplomatic noise from around the world and make a decision based on its national interest rather than some diplomat or politician thousands of miles away who won’t have to live with the direct consequences of constant appeasement and would’ve been much more decisive had he or she been living in the region.

It’s not warmongering, it’s just how things are. All you can do is try to control the escalation. Shocking the enemy into submission rather than playing the limited-response-game while knowing there will be another crisis around the corner if the response is weak is another option but it’s a really risky move if the enemy doesn’t cower in fear and responds strongly.

A weak response almost guarantees there will be similar attacks, as well as causing chaos in Israel, because people hate it when their country doesn’t respond decisively to the slaughter of children. It’s a complicated chain of events, for sure. I don’t evny the decision-makers.

Huge, potentially history-altering, responsibility rests on their shoulders. But a decision, they will have to make. And soon. No way around it. One wrong move and the chain reaction could cause the Middle East to erupt. With a lot of power, comes a lot of responsibility.

The world is watching and waiting. With bated breath.