Although it was predictable ahead of time that so many Palestinian civilians including children would die as a result of Israel’s response to the attack on Israel by Hamas, as the numbers continue to add up it is increasingly hard to watch.

Half of Gaza’s population is under the age of 18. There is not much more sad in this world than children, cut off from electricity and communication, violently dying from air strikes in darkness.

And sadly this happens in other places of the world too.

For much of human history, people were only aware of their own local area. Now we have awareness of large swaths of the world, and so we can keep track of tragedies in real time. We then desensitize ourselves out of necessity. Like, the sheer amount of negative information and unsolvable problems hit us through media, and in order to productively do something to add value to someone else, there is little choice other than compartmentalization it. An electrician can’t be caught up in the troubles of the world as he goes out each day and fixes things and building things, for example. In order to add order to his small part of the world, he can’t be fully caught up with its global chaos.

And then, I see these crazy protestors tearing down flyers about kidnapped Israelis, as though that activity could possibly be the best use of their time. People have a strong tendency to want to be part of something bigger and longer lasting than themselves, whether it is their religion, their community, their ideology, or their work. But some people chose such fruitless ways of doing it. Yes, you can and should advocate for not bombing children. No, you shouldn’t try to erase what happened to murdered or captured Israelis either. It is not rocket science.

The world is an increasingly polarized place, and my biggest concern is for those polarizations to be used to take rights away in a more broader context, or to wage war between larger opponents. Politicians will propagandize any small share of “crypto funding” to bad groups to justify more restrictions on those technologies and privacy in general. As countries go through sovereign debt crises, having some sort of enemy to point to helps their narrative for capital controls and keeping their citizens in currency and bonds as they are inflated away. I’ve studied the 1940s financial environment too much to be unaware of this.

Always look through to the bigger story, and ideally with a perspective of empathy toward many sides of any complex issue. Strive to be able to articulate your opponent’s view as well as they can, so that your counter argument can be most effective and surgical in its nature. And then, when there is nothing you can do about something globally, try instead to bring order and reason and improvement and kindness to whatever small portion of the world that you can.

My partner in war 🙌🙌

So what difference does it make who backed them? Keep in mind they also kicked Britain out then declared independence and were recognised as a country by the US and the USSR. Britain sought to restrict migration of Jewish people to the area. Yet you make out like they're absolutely responsible for what happened. Why didn't the Arab people living in that area take advantage of the league of nations offer to found a nation independent of the British and the Ottomans and the Mamelukes before them?

So what difference does it make who backed them? Keep in mind they also kicked Britain out then declared independence and were recognised as a country by the US and the USSR. Britain sought to restrict migration of Jewish people to the area. Yet you make out like they're absolutely responsible for what happened. Why didn't the Arab people living in that area take advantage of the league of nations offer to found a nation independent of the British and the Ottomans and the Mamelukes before them?

Under the British mandate, which occured because the Ottoman empire was smashed during ww1, both the Jewish people and the Arabs living in the region were supported to create a nation state.

NATO didn't kick the arses of the Arab armies in '49 or '68, that was the people of Israel.

Gaza was taken from the Egyptians, along with Sinai. Sinai was returned and the Egyptians turned down Gaza during the peace talks they held long after that second war. Why didn't the Egyptians want them back? Why do they still lock them out and destroy the tunnels Hamas build?

Under the British mandate, which occured because the Ottoman empire was smashed during ww1, both the Jewish people and the Arabs living in the region were supported to create a nation state.

NATO didn't kick the arses of the Arab armies in '49 or '68, that was the people of Israel.

Gaza was taken from the Egyptians, along with Sinai. Sinai was returned and the Egyptians turned down Gaza during the peace talks they held long after that second war. Why didn't the Egyptians want them back? Why do they still lock them out and destroy the tunnels Hamas build?

I think you’re missing some historical context. This isn’t one or even only a few terrorists. It’s the elected government of Gaza. Hamas sets up their command centers under *their own people’s* hospitals and schools. They use their own as human shields and have a decades-long history of false flags and lying about casualties. When aid of any kind is brought in, Hamas claims it and uses it for their only goal, the destruction of Israel “from the river to the sea”, instead of using it to support Gazans.

Hamas is a terrorist organization that terrorizes the people of Israel as well as the residents of Gaza.

No, I have no skin in the fight. I just recognise that there will be no peace until there is a victory and a defeat. I'd rather they all just got it over and done with.

People like you that just want ongoing violence are the problem humanity must deal with.

You misunderstand me. Not surprising. The same thing would apply which ever side of the conflict I was on.

Which is why I understand there will never be peace there until there is a victory and a defeat, for one side or the other.

An ongoing conflict serves only those who sell the weapons.

What do you mean? Haven't been on Twitter in a while..🙂