Now that they have finished burying their dead, fighting for the lives of the injured and discovering the vast scale of property damage, the citizens of this war in the Gaza Strip — or rather, its victims — are trying to return to their lives. It takes a lot of inner strength. The sense of desperation must be repressed. The fear and the horror that war inevitably brings need to be overcome. The wounded will recover, the homes will be rebuilt and sooner or later, life will return to normal. But the hatred … it will seethe and grow. It will rise from the fresh graves and crowded hospital corridors. It will emerge from beneath the ruins. And with it will come the desire for revenge, as it always does.
Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz, former deputy commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Flotilla 13 commando unit, wrote a very insightful article about the implications of Operation Protective Edge, which appeared on the website of the Molad Research Institute. In it he said, “We have turned tens of thousands of Gazans into potential terrorists, thirsting for blood after losing their innocent relatives or their homes and property. Using pressure to leverage the population has never provided the anticipated results. … The method is immoral. … There is not, nor can there be, any justification for attacks on this scale.”
