△➞ ://0021 Hueman ≈ Instrumentality • [1653] ➞ ▲
"We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing." - Donald Trump 2025
October 7th, 2023. Hamas terrorists killed 1,139 people - 695 civilians including 36 children, 373 security personnel, and 71 foreign nationals. They massacred young people at a music festival, killed entire families in their homes, took hostages including elderly people and babies. This wasn't warfare - it was calculated terror designed to kill as many civilians as possible.
But here's the thing - this didn't start on October 7th. Since 2001, over 30,000 rockets have been fired at Israeli civilians. Kids in southern Israel grow up with 15 seconds to reach bomb shelters when sirens sound. That's been their reality for two decades. So when people ask why Israel responds so harshly, remember that October 7th was the breaking point after years of restraint.
Now let's talk about what's happening in Gaza, because the numbers are staggering. The population has dropped by 6% since the war started - but it gets worse when you realize Gaza's population typically grows by 2-2.5% annually. So we're really looking at an 8%+ swing from where the population should be. That's 160,000 fewer people than expected - 100,000 fled through Egypt, over 55,000 are dead or missing.
The whole "open air prison" debate misses the complexity. Yeah, Gaza had universities, shopping malls, beach resorts. In 2011 their economy grew 17%. But what made it like a prison was that the 2 million people residing there couldn't leave. Not for education, not for business, not to visit family. The permit system only allows specific categories - day laborers, medical patients, aid workers. Everyone else is automatically denied. In 2000, there were 480,000 monthly exits from Gaza. By 2022, even in the best month, only 43,360 - just 9% of pre-restriction levels.
Why the restrictions? In 2007, Hamas violently seized Gaza, throwing political opponents off rooftops. Both Israel AND Egypt imposed blockades, fearing security threats. Egypt still keeps its border mostly sealed - they're fighting ISIS in the Sinai and don't want Hamas-style militancy spreading.
Here's where it gets complicated morally. Hamas literally digs up water pipes to make rockets. They've released videos bragging about it. Islamic Jihad leaders publicly state "our weapons are water pipes that engineers turned into rockets." This includes EU-funded water infrastructure and their own irrigation systems. When your government chooses weapons over water infrastructure, that's choosing death over life. At the same time, Israel's military response has destroyed over 80% of Gaza's farmland. UN satellite data shows systematic destruction - bulldozed orchards, bombed greenhouses, demolished irrigation systems. 95% of cropland is now unusable.
So you have Hamas tearing up water infrastructure to build weapons while Israel destroys the agricultural infrastructure that feeds people. Both sides are actively destroying Gaza's ability to sustain life. Before the war, Gaza exported $16.1 million in agricultural products. That capacity is gone - partly because Hamas prioritized rockets over irrigation, partly because Israel razed the farms. The result is the same: children starving.
The 2005 greenhouse project is a separate story worth telling. Israel left 3,000+ greenhouses bought by Jewish donors for $14 million. Israeli settlers destroyed half before leaving, Palestinians looted 30% of what remained, but the project really failed because Israel kept closing the Karni crossing. Farmers lost $450,000 daily when they couldn't export. Perfect produce rotted because only 18% could get out.
Now for the hardest part - the starvation. Pre-war, 500 trucks of aid entered daily. Now it's 28-50 on good days, zero during full closures. Over 120 people have starved to death, including 80 children. And this brings us to the question: should Israel feed its enemy?
Historically, nobody feeds their enemy during war. But we're in 2024. We recognize shared humanity. And here's the real question: are the starving children Israel's enemy? Is the grandmother dying of diabetes because insulin can't get through the enemy? When you collectively punish 2 million people for the actions of Hamas, are you defeating terrorism? Or are you're creating the next generation of it?
The poverty was already bad - 65% under the blockade according to the UN, some sources say over 80%. Despite billions in aid (UNRWA alone had a $1.17 billion budget in 2022), ordinary Gazans stayed poor while Hamas leaders lived in Qatari hotels. The aid built tunnels and rockets instead of prosperity.
Both sides have legitimate grievances and both have done horrible things. Israel faces real security threats no nation should tolerate. Palestinians live under conditions no human should endure. Hamas chose violence over building a functioning society. Israel's response is creating a humanitarian catastrophe. Egypt won't help because they fear the consequences. The international community sends aid that gets turned into weapons.
The water situation shows how insane this has become. Gaza's aquifer is 95% contaminated. They need 400MW of electricity but produce 80MW. Over 150 private desalination plants run because the public system failed. And Hamas digs up the pipes meant to fix this to fire rockets that rarely hit anything meaningful.
What could have been different? Gaza had productive farmland, international support, educated people. They could have built something amazing. Instead, pipes became rockets, aid became tunnels, and children starve while their leaders live in luxury.
Trump's right - they've been fighting so long they don't know what they're doing anymore. Every justification leads to suffering. Israeli people and children hidding constantly in bomb shelters, Palestinian kids suffering malnutrition, soldiers dying on both sides, that's where all the politics and history lead - the suffering of people on our shared planet who deserved better.
But, It's important to note that when Israel withdrew in 2005, they didn't just leave greenhouses. They left irrigation systems, roads, buildings, and more importantly, they left opportunity. Gaza sits on the Mediterranean with beautiful beaches. It has an educated population - one of the highest literacy rates in the Middle East. It received billions in international aid. Singapore started with less and built a miracle. Gaza could have been the Dubai of the Palestinian territories.
Instead, we got Oct 7th, we got war.
The tunnels Hamas built could have been a subway system. The rockets they fire could have been water pipes bringing life to farms. The concrete they used for military bunkers could have built schools and hospitals. Every dollar spent on weapons was a dollar stolen from Palestinian children's futures.
And now those futures are being erased. Not just by bombs but by starvation, disease, and the complete collapse of society. When 95% of your water is contaminated and your government is digging up pipes to make weapons, when 80% of your farmland is destroyed and your leaders live in foreign hotels, when children are dying of malnutrition in 2024 while the world watches - this isn't war anymore. It's civilizational suicide.
When will Hamas say enough is enough and lay down their weapons? The fact is, if Hamas did so, there would be peace and prosperity in the Gaza strip tomorrow. And if Israel did the same, it would be invaded and annihilated in a week. That's the asymmetry nobody wants to talk about. One side is fighting for conquest, the other for survival.
The international community bears responsibility too. They knew where the aid was going. Everyone knew Hamas was building tunnels and rockets instead of schools and hospitals. But they kept sending money because it was easier than dealing with the real problem. Now we have investigators finding Hamas weapons in UNRWA facilities, terror tunnels under hospitals, and command centers in schools. The willful blindness enabled this catastrophe.
Egypt's role gets ignored but it's crucial. They've kept Rafah closed as tightly as Israel has. They flood tunnels, build walls, and shoot smugglers. Why? Because they remember the Muslim Brotherhood. Because they're fighting ISIS in Sinai. Because they don't want two million radicalized refugees. When Arab countries won't help Arabs, maybe the problem isn't just Israel.
The generational trauma runs deep. Israeli grandparents remember the Holocaust and wars of annihilation. Palestinian grandparents remember the Nakba and dispossession. Both sides teach their children that the other wants them dead - and both have enough evidence to make it believable. How do you break this cycle when it's encoded in DNA, when mothers sing lullabies about revenge and fathers teach their sons to hate?
But cycles can break. Germany and France fought for centuries until they didn't. Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland killed each other for generations until they stopped. It takes leaders willing to say "enough" and mean it. It takes people choosing their children's futures over their grandparents' grievances.
Right now, we don't have those leaders. We have Netanyahu on trial for corruption charges, and we have Hamas leaders living in luxury while their people starve.
We have an international community that sends thoughts, prayers, but more importantly they send money that becomes weapons.
We have young men on both sides who know nothing but hate and see no future but war.
The saddest part? Most Israelis and Palestinians just want normal lives. They want to raise their kids, go to work, fall in love, watch the sunset. The extremists on both sides are holding millions hostage to their maximalist fantasies. Greater Israel's vision from the river to the sea, or Palestine's vision from the river to the sea. Both dreams require the other side to disappear. Neither is going to happen.
So what's the answer? I honestly don't know. Maybe there isn't one that satisfies everyone. Maybe that's the point - nobody gets everything they want in a real peace deal. But I know that turning water pipes into weapons while your people lack clean water is insane. I know that starving children to punish terrorists likely just creates more terrorists. I know that after decades of this, maybe it's time to try something - anything - different.
Because Trump's quote keeps echoing in my head. Two countries fighting so long and so hard they don't know what the fuck they're doing. That's not strategy or ideology or even hatred anymore. That's just momentum. Death creating more death because that's all anyone remembers how to do.
The children dying today - Israeli kids with PTSD from rocket sirens, Palestinian kids with stunted growth from malnutrition - they didn't choose this. They inherited it. And unless someone finds the courage to stop this madness, they'll pass it on to their children too. Another generation lost to other people's wars.
What do you think? Because I'm tired of watching kids die for their grandparents' grudges. Tired of pretending there's nobility in this mutual suicide pact. Tired of the lies both sides tell to justify the unjustifiable.
