But the familiar reasserts itself. Unity breaks apart. We start blaming each other and arguing over the right response. And we discover that we are much more comfortable fighting each other than Islam.
In Israel, it's beginning to happen already just as it did in America.
A week ago, Israelis on the left were seriously asserting that Netanyahu was planning to make himself king. And then suddenly a shocking and horrifying reality arrived. Will Israelis pull together? They have for the moment. But the usual political players are maneuvering for advantage. The families of the hostages are threatening to shake the government. There's grousing about inadequate preparation. And the conspiracy theorists have already arrived to explain that the whole thing was clearly done by the government because how else could it have missed the Hamas attack. (This shortly after the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur during which the government missed a much larger invasion.)
All of this is normal. But normalcy is exactly the problem.
An excellent article, voicing the thoughts that we all have. Please read and share. Reprinted in full here ... Thank you, Chad.
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Indeed: how was it that most of the Kibbutz within easy range of Gaza didn't have arms closely available to every family and defensive works prepared for use?
How is it that Israeli intel missed or ignored the preparations for these attacks?
How was it that the IDF was too few/uncoordinated at the opening of these attacks? The IDF was finally present after most of the victims were already dead or kidnapped back into Gaza. They did a great job of policing up the bodies afterward.
Who were the bright folks that thought the security fences were unbreachable?
Who were the smart folks to site a large 3,000 person open-air party - without appropriate security - right next to Gaza?
The casualties would have been vastly fewer if someone with experience in antiterrorist experience (or maybe a healthy case of PTSD) was in positions of responsibility before this atrocity.