The Fog Of War

​The Fog Of War

       For all the time I spend reading about the tragedy that continues to unfold in Israel and Gaza, I'm starting to find that the more I read about it the more I think about it, and the more I think about it the less clear my thinking becomes, except  that it's all so heart-wrenching and terrible, and gets worse with every new picture, 

...and every new story.

      There's been too much suffering of innocent people on both sides for me to understand how, whatever one's stand on Israel was before October 7, one could not be horrified by the cold-blooded brutality of Hamas on that day and feel no empathy for Israeli victims of the violence and kidnappings, or however horrified one was by the Hamas attack on Israel, one could not be heart-sick over the plight of the Gazans who are the victims of the harsh retaliation by the Israeli military.
         How does all that suffering not cloud one's thinking, trouble one's pre-October 7 notions and opinions about Israel and Gaza? Especially for those of us who watch the war unroll on the news in comfort and safety 6,000 miles away?
         A little while ago I was talking with one of my children-in-law, who made the perceptive point that the only aspect of all this that's easy to talk about is Hamas, 

...the terrorist group that set off the war that's accomplishing nothing except to bring down mass carnage on both Israelis and Gazans. But, ruling out Hamas, how does one take a side in this war?
​       In fact, in the post-October 7 context, how does one not take the side of both the Israelis and Gazans?     
        I can't figure that out, either.