The complete idiot’s guide to Mideast peace – part 255

If Hamas attacks, Israel will hit back ‘sevenfold,’ Netanyahu warns | The Times of Israel  ‘PM says no guarantee of long-term truce, but Israel had ‘great’ achievement in Gaza and didn’t cave into a single Hamas demand  Hamas’s Haniyeh also claims victory; fighting heats up on Syria border’

With both sides claiming to be victorious here, it’s hard to reconcile such views with the deaths of well in excess of 2,000 persons and the huge amount of destruction witnessed in Gaza and, to a far lesser extent, Israel.

If death and destruction are still seen as the only valid criteria whereby ‘victory’ can be measured, then the road to an ultimate decision in this matter is clear enough. It must feature nothing but yet more dead bodies and ever larger amounts of twisted rubble and bombed-out buildings. And can the next such ‘victory,’ especially if purchased at a ‘sevenfold’ price, really be worth that much?

I think we would all do well to look around for a far cheaper alternative, one in which ‘victory’ comes only with the death of a few brain cells and very little more. This would validate us all as human beings, masters of our destiny and not slaves to a fate ever beyond our power to change.

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