A good quote is like poetry, people find meaning in aesthetically pleasing combinations of words and I am not immune to such beauty. A few choice quotes have stayed with me for years. One example is attributed to Mark Twain and goes something like “it is easier to fool someone than to convince them that they have been fooled”.

I see this everywhere today from politics to the dinner table, but nowhere is it more apparent than in the narratives surrounding the Israel/Gaza war.

If you are a westerner with no regional affiliation to the Middle East and you are outraged about the roughly 45,000 dead in Gaza like so many, then surely you must be livid about the 150,000 dead in Yemen, and probably needed sedation after protesting the 500,000 dead in Syria, right?

If not then I regret to inform you that your outrage is just a product of marketing. The same marketing that tells you that you need to be thin to be beautiful or that you would be happier if you would just conform to some other social norm.

Perhaps you are just outraged by bloodshed of any kind. Many who feel this way scream “Genocide” as loud as they can.

Words matter so let us consult the mighty Google. Genocide means “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.”

Today there are over 5 million Palestinians between the West Bank and Gaza. The 45,000 dead (assuming these numbers are accurate) represents roughly 1% of the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West bank.

I do not mean to make light of the 45,000 dead, it is certainly a tragedy, but let’s gain some perspective. The Israelis are considered to be a top 20 military power in the world, so how could it take them well over a year to kill one percent of the Palestinians in the densely populated Gaza strip and West Bank if their goal was to “destroy that nation or group”?

The answer is that clearly genocide is not their goal. To say so is to simply ignore reality, and perhaps to just flex your hatred like South Africa has at the ICJ.

There are less than 16 million Jewish people alive today while there are over 1.8 Billion muslims in the world. That means that for every one Jewish voice there are over 100 muslim ones, so it is not surprising to see the prevailing message on social media, news outlets, and from governments around the world pushing the muslim narrative.

It is however surprising to see so many westerners leap to the Palestinian’s defense when they share almost none of the same values and have nothing invested in the region.

Early in the war, prominent news outlets including the New York Times jumped at the opportunity to blame the bombing of the Al-Alhi hospital in Gaza on Israel, publishing within minutes that 500 Palestinians had died from an Israeli attack. About a week or so later those claims were walked back as clear evidence showed that the offending bomb was launched from within Gaza and was a Hamas misfire. Coincidentally the numbers were also revised down to about 50 from 500. Of course the damage created by a headline cannot be repaired with a backpage editors note or retraction.

Many people say that they advocate for peace by calling for a cease-fire. If you have family in Gaza or Israel then you know that every previous ceasefire has just resulted in more of the same.

Personally I feel bad for everyone involved. When Israel completely pulled out of Gaza in 2005 the Palestinians held an election. The bloodthirsty group Hamas came to power in 2007, has life improved for Gazans since that time(17 years)? No. Women have been treated like dogs and homosexuals thrown off of rooftops.

Many in the west doubt the legitimacy of that election and believe that threats of violence and retribution intimidated Gazans into allowing Hamas to win. Who can really say? They haven’t held another election since.

If you believe that Hamas represents the views of the people that they govern, then the death of 45,000 Palestinians is on them, as they chose to launch this war knowing what kind of response they would get, have done nothing to protect their people, are still holding hostages including children, and have made no serious efforts toward peace.

If however you believe that Hamas took power and subjugated their populace for their own stated objective of destroying Israel and killing Jewish people, then why aren’t there more western voices calling for the ousting of Hamas so that Gazans can live in peace?

You can’t have it both ways.

The bottom line is that a ceasefire won’t bring peace when Hamas has stated on multiple occasions that given the opportunity, it will repeat the atrocities of October 7th again and again and again.

The longer this war goes on the more it seems to be clear just how well the Islamic Jihad message has fooled so many in the west, but of course many will never be able to see that because “it is easier to fool someone than to convince them that they have been fooled”.

*updated numbers from 25k and 0.5% in January 2024 to 45k and 1% on Dec. 2024