This commentary is by John Payson, a retired schoolteacher who lives in Thetford Center.
If I were in an expensive lamp shop, and because of my clumsy elbow or my out-of-control toddler, a lamp got broken, I’d expect to pay for it — damn it.
This basic principle of responsibility — “you break it, you buy it” — applies to all social interactions, including the present horror show in Gaza. It is no secret, to anyone, that American money and American political support are being used to commit war crimes in Gaza. It’s also generally understood that without American money or American political support, those war crimes wouldn’t be happening.
Like it or not, we’re responsible for crimes committed on our nickel. And like it or not, the United States will have to pay for breaking Gaza — one way or another.
On Oct. 7, Israel suffered an outrageous terrorist attack that, relative to scale, dwarfed America’s 9/11 in the shock to its country. It bears mentioning — and repeating — that Israel has the absolute right to defend itself. But as Israel’s oldest friend and chief military supplier, we must also ask: How well, then, IS Israel defending itself? Are its present defense practices producing good results?
The answer from Israel itself, reported by the Jerusalem Post: “Four out of five Jewish Israelis believe the (Israeli) government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are to blame for the mass infiltration of Hamas terrorists into Israel and the massacre that followed.”
It’s surely a challenge for a government so unpopular with its own people to mount an effective defense. And what we are seeing in Gaza is not effective defense, but collective punishment.
Should Israel follow through on the worst of its threats, and expel Gaza’s population, almost 2.4 million stateless, dispossessed refugees will become the United States’ problem, exclusively. Sure, we could all shrug our shoulders and turn our backs. What could possibly go wrong with that?
Or, if we don’t want our sons and daughters to die in a new World War we will be blamed for starting — a stiff price, I think — we need to do our American best to restore the human rights of the Gazan people. If they all become refugees, this may mean paying for:
- Airlifting each Gazan to a destination of their choice in the USA
- Once arrived, presenting each Gazan with a green card
- A lifetime pension for each Gazan, including free health care
This offer should include all Israeli victims of Oct. 7.
Making a quick assumption that No. 3 costs $200,000 per person multiplied by 2.4 million, we are left with a price tag close to $500 billion, or about two-thirds the cost of the Inflation Reduction Act. (Like the IRA, we could pay this off within a decade with a 15% corporate tax, perhaps on our defense industry, which has been having some excellent years lately.)
Expensive, isn’t it? The American people will totally hate paying the tab for destroying Gaza. I can hear the explosions of outrage already. “Half a trillion dollars?” “Offer green cards to Muslim terrorists?” “Are you insane?”
No, just trying to guess how much this mess is going to cost us. Do you know what’s really insane? Responding to a massive terrorist attack by committing weekslong, grossly disproportionate war crimes. In the long term, or even in the short term, spare a thought for hundreds of helpless Israeli hostages — how can that be a rational defense strategy?
In plain fact, it isn’t. Israel is not acting rationally.
If this sounds like casting blame, we should reflect on the rationality of America’s two-decades-and-counting response to our own single day of terror, 9/11, and how Israel naturally follows our lead. Truthfully: Are we proud of our conduct in the never-ending War on Terror, in Afghanistan, in our Black Sites, in Abu Ghraib, in Guantanamo? Have we learned anything from these experiences?
Perhaps Gen. McChrystal’s hard lesson of Insurgent Math, which says that for each innocent civilian you kill, you recruit 10 terrorists. By that grim logic, Israel has raised 10 divisions of terrorists in the last six weeks — and counting. (Current estimates of Hamas’ strength range from three to five divisions.) If we say we’re Israel’s friends, why are we helping it make such deadly blunders?
When an expensive lamp smashes, we don’t have to like it, but we do have to pay for it. If the United States can’t put a stop to crimes committed with our support — surely the cheapest option available, right, President Biden? — we have to step up and pay for them. If we refuse to do so, we should expect a lot more “broken lamps,” costing way, way more than half a trillion dollars.
