Who Cares About Buffalo?


Reading time – 75 seconds  .  .  .

Let’s do a thought experiment. Imagine:

– that you live in Buffalo, NY;

– that a militant group in Toronto was firing rockets into Buffalo;

– that the rockets and other war materiel were stored and launched from the homes of civilians, from hospitals and from schools in Toronto;

– that the Canadian authorities did nothing to stop the militants;

– that the militants had dug tunnels that ended in Buffalo and they were murdering Buffalo residents from the exits of those tunnels (ignore the geological impossibility of this thought experiment tunnel);

– that the militants were committed only to the destruction of Buffalo, NY and driving its citizens into Lake Erie;

– that the militant group refused to discuss its grievances or to negotiate for any non-violent solution;

– that the entire world community was indifferent to all of that/

As a citizen of Buffalo living with a rain of rockets that kill your people every day, what would you do? You would do exactly what the Israelis are doing now as they endure the conditions listed above. You would do whatever is necessary to stop the murdering of your people. Yet none of that is what we’re shown by the world media in today’s coverage of the Middle-East conflict.

The sensation-seeking world press is playing into the hands of the Hamas murderers, who seek to become the world’s greatest victims, as the reportering media seek ever more gruesome pictures to tweak us into subscribing to its offerings. We are shown images of dead and maimed Gazans, children and women, tragedies every one. And none of those deaths had to happen.

We are not shown Hamas militants encouraging or ordering people to stay where they are, living with rockets ready to be fired from their midst, but that’s what happens. They are told to stay even after the Israelis have dropped pamphlets from airplanes and sent text messages warning the people to leave because an attack to destroy Hamas rockets is coming. The children and the women – all the non-combatants – die because they weren’t allowed to leave – and because they allowed Hamas to dig tunnels into Israel from their houses and to store rockets in their schools. And we are shown interviews of people complaining about their deaths and the brutality of the Israelis.

We never feel or hear of the terror that visits the people of Hebron and Tel Aviv, as they repeatedly get alerts to incoming Hamas rockets and have 15 seconds to find shelter. And we don’t know what it feels like to live with the knowledge of the imminent violence of over 2,700 rockets already fired at Israeli civilians and 8,000 more awaiting a Hamas militant to light still more fuses because that image doesn’t sell TV advertising. We don’t know what it’s like to live just a few miles from Islamic terrorists who are dedicated solely to killing us, because the world press has largely ignored this truth for decades.

So grieve for the wailing mothers and ailing children, of course. But don’t imagine for a second that their pain stands in isolation or that it was necessary. The world should be careful about condemnation of Israel as its government seeks to protect its citizens. They are doing what you would do if this were happening in Buffalo.


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
Reproduction and sharing are encouraged, providing proper attribution is given.


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4 Responses to Who Cares About Buffalo?
  1. Barak Reply

    Billions were given to the Arabs in Gaza and the houthouses of economic prosperity were given over.What did they do withe money?missiles tunnels and they burned the Jewish houthoses down.

  2. Ed Lawlor Reply

    Jack,

    If I existed in Gaza without hope I’d likely do what Hamas is doing. I’ve been to the West Bank (Bethlehem) and seen the entrapment of of citizens and their anger over, among other things, Israeli settlements. Peace will come when both sides grow tired of killing each other. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. US efforts to mediate seemed doomed.

    Ed

    • JaxPolitix Reply

      Ed, your comments bring to clarity that the current hostilities don’t stand in isolation and that a long term solution will have to deal with quite a lot of very difficult issues. This is most a complex problem that is enormously complicated by hot passions on both sides that do not respond to reason.

  3. David Lindgren Reply

    Jack, sorry to not agree with you. Using a comparison of an American state with Israel and another country like Canada as Palestine is really doctoring the issue. I don’t like that you did this. It’s too cute. The more that I read re the conflict, the more I see Israel as literally killing any future chance of reconciliation and the recognition of each as a separate and respected state. And you omit just how much we subsidize Israel, not Palestine. We paid for their “dome” to protect them against the rockets. We have subsidized their military. And how many people are killed in Israel from the rockets? Not many compared to the hundreds of Palestinians. And how do you explain the UN School of children killed? Were they told to leave? No, I see Israel as internalizing the Victim to Perpetrator mentality. It’s easy to rationalize actions when one is in the victim place. I want Israel to be protected but their recent action is without regard for human values, like other than their own nationalistic values. At this point, how can there ever be peace. Peace as defined for both countries. My sense is that Israel only thinks of themselves. Sorry!