Comment on "Instapundit: 'THIS SEEMS RIGHT: Israel must be permitted to crush Hamas.'"

It is tempting to urge Israel to destroy every structure in the Gaza strip and expel 1.8 million people. For over 60 years, that is for three generations, the people of Gaza have been comprehensively indoctrinated to hate and kill Jews.

The only people who have been subject to as thorough a level of control by a regime with a more dangerous and delusional perception of reality may be the North Koreans. While NorK artillery is within 35 miles of Seoul the proximity of Gaza to Israel and the concentration of hostile forces shielded by UN facilities and civilians and the billions of dollars in aid that is promptly diverted to waging war all make Gaza even more dangerous.

If the people of Gaza were not complicit in the crimes of the Hamas regime then they would be welcoming the Israelis as liberators, as did the people of Lebanon when the Israelis first invaded there. As it is the Israelis owe the civilians of Gaza no more consideration than the allies did to the people of Germany and Japan in 1944-45.

So why not clean Gaza out and bulldoze it flat? There is only one reason. The hostile dangerous and even deranged population, almost two million of them, would flood first into Egypt and then into Europe and the Americas. Everywhere they go death and destruction and tyranny would follow. The Israelis are accused of treating Gaza like a prison camp. If only they did. Unless the whole population could be moved to some isolated and deserted island it is best to keep them where they are. What is needed is for them to be reoccupied and controlled and then deprogrammed from the ideology of death. That would take at least another three generations. The only alternative is one the Israelis would reject. That would be to do to the people of Gaza what the people of Gaza would do to the people of Israel if given a chance.

These are the only five choices that Israel has.
1. Status quo. Continue playing whack-a-mole while simultaneously supplying electricity concrete medicine and other resources to Gaza followed by occasional punitive expeditions. Over time the technical resources available to the terrorists and the threat will increase. This strategy will inevitably lead to WMD equipped missiles being launched at Israel from Gaza.

2. Surrender, will lead to the extermination of the Jewish people in Israel.

3. Destroy Gaza and exterminate the Gazan people. That will not happen.

4. Destroy Gaza and expel the people. That will only spread the problem and create more chaos.

5. Reoccupy Gaza and reeducate the people over several generations.

A Garden of Stone

Today I visited Cypress Grove National Cemetery. The National Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York City. Not another living soul was there.

Most of the Civil War era markers have just a name and the home state, a rank sometimes and a unit. The more recent markers usually include dates and a cross. A few have the Star of David.

There are stories here that deserve to be told. Lest we forget.

There are couples here. This is a place of love.

This lady waited over 52 years to join her husband.

Some are to poignant to need elaboration. "Our Hero" was 16 years old.

A portion of the National Cemetery is collocated within the nearby but separate private Cypress Grove Cemetery. The Guard kindly drove me the distance from the entrance to that area. There are also old Jewish sections within the larger Christian cemetery, which is unusual. There is an NYPD memorial section adjacent to the largely Civil War government graves. Within the National Cemetery area some of the graves are for Confederates. Did they die in captivity near here during the war? Their graves and those of the Union soldiers are mingled. Those boys are far from home but now they are all together as Americans. Today perhaps some would object to honoring those who served in the CSA by placing them in a National Cemetery. What were we fighting for if not to say that they belong here?