Guest Blog: Gunfighter on the Israel/Hamas Conflict

You know something? Despite what I think about my broad foreign-policy experience, there is no one in the world who is looking for my advice in diplomatic matters. Now, that could be for a number of reasons, the first and foremost would probably be that I have no experience in foreign relations… I have never been trained as a diplomat, you see, so I suppose that you could (if you were an uncharitable soul) say that my opinions don't really mean much in this arena. Having said that, whether it is true or not, I still have some things to say about the things that I see happening in the world. In this case, I am talking about the current Israel/Hamas conflict.

You see, I don't need to be a diplomat, or a General, or a Senator, or an academic to get right down to the elements of what's going on there. Why not, you ask? Because it isn't very complicated… that's why not.

From where I sit, this little fracas (well, it's little if you ain't under fire) is a lot like two kids who live on the same street. One of the kids is bigger, stronger, and more capable than the other kid, who is scrappy, full of fight, and determined to be out of the other kid's shadow. This little kid demands respect, even though nobody likes him. No one likes him because he is the local criminal, thug, hooligan and all-around pain in the ass. This doesn't mean that the bigger kid is a saint… far from it, but at the end of the day, the bigger kid usually leaves people alone unless they threaten him.

Well, eventually, the smaller kid decides that he needs to get the attention of the big kid. He seems to have forgotten that the last time he made a real pest of himself; he took a good smacking…. So what does this kid go and do? He takes a sharp, pointy stick, and starts jabbing the big kid (I told you, this kid wasn't very bright). The little kid figures that the big kid will just take it, since the last time the big kid got a lot of grief for smacking the little kid around.

He was wrong.

In this instance, most of the people on the block, except for the real idiots, figured that the little kid really earned his beating this time, and while they weren't happy that the little kid was getting his a$$ kicked, they figured he had it coming, and kept silent.

The moral of this story is that smaller countries shouldn't pick on their bigger, stronger neighbors, unless you want to bring a beating (or air strikes) down on your own heads.

I'll tell you what: If I were in charge of the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) in this little fracas, there wouldn't be two bricks standing in formation in Gaza. Nor would there be anyone capable of carrying an AK-47 left standing.

It's time for this crap to end.


When he isn't pontificating about world events, teaching combat firearms for a federal law enforcement agency, or cooking, Gunfighter can be found blogging about other things that he knows nothing about at Gunfighter: Life of a Modern Warrior