Asymmetrical War: A Euphemism for "Shooting Fish in a Barrel"

A Fox News correspondent reporting on the conflict between Israel and Hamas declared: "This is a war between good and evil." No, it is not. 

Israel has occupied Gaza since 1967. It has blockaded Gaza by land, air, and sea for the past 16 years, rendered that impoverished territory of over two million Palestinians on open-air prison. President Carter has likened Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people to apartheid. The Gazans, like any humans would anywhere, have resisted the occupation and the subsequent blockade, at times resorting to terrorist acts because they have no vote, no say in this Israeli democracy. Neither side is good; neither side is evil. They are occupier and occupied; oppressor and oppressed. One side is strong, and the other refuses to be weak. 

In the wake of Hamas' brutal attack upon Israel's border communities on Oct. 7, Israel has been lavished with goodwill from the international community. It is predictable that Israel will squander that goodwill by committing an even more brutal act of vengeance. Israel's prime minister, Netanyahu, has already vowed to "exact a price that will be remembered by Israel's enemies for decades to come." Of course you will, Netanyahu. It is your nature to "out-cruel" all adversaries. Israel will attack Gaza with tanks, planes, artillery, and over 300,000 soldiers. Hamas will counter with a forces less than 20,000. They call that imbalance "asymmetrical warfare." 

What is to come in Gaza will remind us of the movie, "Cool Hand Luke" and the prison fight between Luke and the hulking, Dragline. When the fight starts, the other prisoners look on. The scrawny, Luke, played by Paul Newman, is game, but the entire time, he looks like he is trying to fight his way out of the proverbial "paper bag.," Each time Dragline, played by George Kennedy, hits Luke, Luke goes down and the crowd cheers. Soon, the cheering stops as Dragline pummels the pathetic Luke. Finally, one of the prisoners, shamefaced at his participation in the spectacle, turns away and mumbles, "Somebody ought to stop this thing." 

That is a glimpse of coming attractions. The world community will soon beg for a stoppage of the slaughter. Even the warden, Joe Biden, who vowed, "unending support" for the Israel effort, will have seen enough.