That's History

The only way I'm going to get through this incarnation of what Israelis call the 'Matzav' (the 'situation') is by disconnecting from it. Not stop reading, but stop connecting emotionally. At the very beginning of this, I wrote here that the only way we were going to get through this is by steeling ourselves. Not steel in the sense of eliminating compassion, but steel in the sense of facing cold hard fact: history is the eternity of subverted expectations. We're supposed to be heartbroken, and it's only when we're too heartbroken to expect triumph that triumphs are made. It's the experience of defeat following victory following defeat following victory. It's the eternal wheel of fate. Everything that rises falls, everything that falls rises. Jews are no exception, if anything we are the ultimate proof.

If Israel doesn't complete the decimation of Hamas, if Israel does not rescue the hostages, if Israel exchanges hostages for Palestinian prisoners, there will be more attacks on Israel, and Hanas will do everything they can to make them deadlier. Steel yourself.

If Israel wins, Netanyahu can take the credit and may win back a narrow voting majority of the Israeli public, thereby staying as Prime Minister, possibly for life, no matter how hated by the rest of Israelis. Steel yourself.

The longer this goes on, the more millions of innocent Jews will be held responsible in unpredictable ways for the mere crime of supporting Israel, even a peaceful Israel. Steel yourself.

The longer this goes on, the more Gazans are likely to die of famine and disease in far greater numbers than have died so far. The longer this goes on, the more likely Hezbollah is likely to bomb saturate the Israeli north to the point that Israel will have to launch another ground invasion in Southern Lebanon. Steel yourself.

If a Palestinian state is recognized worldwide without Hamas stripped from power, if Hamas gets a full measure of foreign aide, Israel/Palestine could experience warfare on a scale only seen in the modern Middle East by Syria and 80s Iraq/Iran. Steel yourself.

The longer this goes on, the more tempted goyisher friends will be to dissociate from Jews for the crime of supporting Israel. Steel yourself.

The longer this goes on, the more tempted American left wingers will be not to vote for Biden, British left wingers not to vote for Starmer, German left wingers not to vote for Schultz, and French left wingers not to vote for Macron should he be in a runoff with Le Pen. Many leftists in all four countries reason that since their supposed liberal leaders advocate for what they construe as genocide, things can't get any worse. They would thereby cause the fall of any liberal bulwark against right wing authoritarianism, and perhaps the fall of democracy in all these major world powers. Thereby endangering the very Muslim communities they think they're protecting. Steel yourself.

The longer this goes on, the more Israel will necessarily become the ally of any Western power that opts for reactionary anti-democracy leadership. Steel yourself.

The longer this goes on, the more willfully the world will overlook the crimes of Hamas and twenty other Middle Eastern dictatorships. Steel yourself.

The longer this goes on, the more Israel becomes a wedge issue between friendships, with potential for explosive fights that turn friends into enemies. Steel yourself.

The longer this goes on, the more tempted other Shia powers are to create other theaters of war: not just Hezbollah in Lebanon but Iran, Yemen, Syria, spurring a war that could inflame the entire region, and perhaps spread elsewhere. Steel yourself.

This is history. History is not just one fucking thing after another, it's the dispelling of each era's illusions. Every solution is temporary. Civilizations have life cycles just like people do, so do policy solutions. Everything eventually lives out its use until its physiognomy comes undone. This is what we read about. You just face the unpleasant truths and realize that you are part of processes so much bigger than you are. Eventually we all are just nodes of data compiled in a book, where our life stories are distilled to historical trends, waves, forces, beliefs, where the reader views our way of life with ironic distance.

Nearly all of us feel the ground under our feet shifting right now, the expectations of our era are coming undone just like the expectations of previous eras. These tectonic shifts are more lethal than any earthquake ever recorded, but just like earthquakes, they always happen, and then they stop, we pick up the pieces, we rebuild, we latch onto new beliefs, and we take care as best we can to provide for a future that doesn't experience our turbulence.

But eventually, the turbulence comes back, and eventually, that turbulence will stop again just as ours will.

Sometimes, you just have to accept that you're on a ride bigger than anything you do, and all you can do is your best to make yourself into metal that doesn't melt in even the hottest climates.