Poor Tom Friedman. He’s still living in a delusional world where rational people can think rational thoughts and come to rational conclusions. That all went away with the Palestinian attack on Israel. Tom, nobody is rational anymore, anywhere. But his latest column did contain a powerful insight. Hamas had … “access to endless supplies of humiliated young men, many of whom have never been in a job, power or a romantic relationship: a lethal combination that makes them easy to mobilize for mayhem. Shades of our January 6th gang of marauders, eh? But I digress. Back to the point about rationality.

If we think clearly, and aren’t beholden to money interests or eaten up with politics, we’d see that this wasn’t a state attacking another state, any more than what’s happening in eastern Europe is the state of Russia vs the state of Ukraine. These are individual MEN attacking other individual men. Mohammed Deif aka Masri is attacking Bib Netanyahu; Vladimir Putin is attacking Volodomyr Zelenskyy. It’s personal on both fronts. Why?

Deif lost an eye and part of an arm from Israeli attacks. They killed his wife and children. He’s been blown up and had to undergo very painful rehab multiple times. That’s generally enough to make anybody mad. Putin didn’t respect cute little Volodomyr, the sitcom actor turned President. He thought he’d be easy to bump off. He wasn’t, and instead he’s won the PR war ever since. Very dumb move, Vlad the Invader.

Bibi is accountable for the lax response from the military, both because he and his government allowed settlers into the West Bank and because of the internal dissent over his power grab against the judiciary. Those two realities put the military into a lax enough stance that Deif took advantage and sent the boys into the kibbutzes to commit murder and mayhem. But we can’t call Bibi out for that anymore. He’s still in charge, and Israel has to mount a concerted response, right? Of course they do. If they don’t, he’s a coward. If they do, he’s sealing the fate of his country, sooner or later. Not a good situation to be in.

Ok…what about Iranian support for the incursion? Surely you don’t contest that. I do. Iran is Shia. Hamas is Sunni. Case closed from my perspective. This incursion is brought to you courtesy of cryptocurrency sent by … by whom? Doubt that it was Iran…oh, they send money, but so does everybody else and here’s the thing. Some of that money gets delivered in cash from Qatar to Israel to Gaza, ostensibly to pay for living expenses for the citizenry. But cash is cash, and along with crypto, buys everything the fellas needed to carry out this attack. So does that make Israel complicit in this drama? Sorta.

By assuming they could eternally abuse the natives without consequences, Israel – nay, Bibi – set up this slaughter. The citizens of Israel know that, but at the moment, are they free to say that without looking like traitors? Think America after 9/11. Was Bill Maher rewarded for admiring how Al Qaeda pulled off flying into buildings? Nope – his show was cancelled immediately. Conclusion? You have to pick a side. Could you have empathy for Crazy Horse & the Sioux after Little Big Horn? Nope. Goodbye Sitting Bull – not because he did anything wrong, but because he didn’t condemn the attack. Gotta toe the official line.

Is there hope for Eastern Europe and the Middle East? Sure – but that requires leadership. Who do we have in leadership positions at the moment? Craven opportunists, cynical ideologues and incipient senility. And crooks. Not much to see here, no sir.

So what’s to be done? If you look under the writing tab, I wrote a three act play back in 2013 lampooning the situation we find ourselves in. It’s called “Fear of the Sixth Extinction”, and was supposed to be comic. Instead, it’s all coming to pass. Nukes are involved, as well as a baseball strike treated as equivalent news. Damn. Irrational, then..But now?

Love isn’t the solution at the moment. There’s no room for it in these endless debates on CNN, Fox and MSNBC. Hate and retribution are the emotions of the moment. Don’t see anything working out well for anybody anytime soon. No cheer here – get used to it.