The current Israel / Palestine conflict is looking pretty bad for Israel, despite the fact that it started with Hamas murder of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians.
Let me make this very clear. All the current deaths, the 1,000+ Israelis, and the 35,000+ Palestinians, are entirely, utterly the responsibility of Hamas, for setting this pointless conflict off in the first place. They are a bunch of murderous incompetents. Now, incompetents are very good at blaming everyone else for the consequences of their mistakes, so it’s hardly surprising the Hamas leadership has avoided even a hint of doing the honourable thing, namely collectively throwing themselves off the top of the nearest tower block.
But Israel has behaved very badly too, as is made very clear by the International Courts. Israel reacted in anger, immediately attacking the Gaza strip. I believe this was a mistake (as Eugène Sue nearly said, revenge is a dish best served cold). Israel’s stated goal is the quite laudable decapitation of Hamas, but by rushing in with guns blazing, they’ve managed to slaughter many civilians, and, so far as I can see, fuck things up mightily.
Both sides are creating and feeding on hatred. Thus both sides are making sure that, whatever is the result of this particular conflict, there will be more. Thus both sides are led by myopic incompetents.
I very much hope the International Courts—ICC & ICJ—can bring them all to justice, although I’m not exactly holding my breath on that.