It appears that the first two are inevitable…the last one, not so much.

WAR; an intense armed conflict…where one side is determined to ELIMINATE the other for various reasons. Civilian causalities are just to be expected…in WWII, they were 2x the total of the actual combatants.

ANTI-SEMITISM; hostility, to or prejudice against Jewish people. Throw in HATRED too.

PEACE; a state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended. Has mankind EVER enjoyed ‘peace?’

I must apologize to those readers who I offend by defining common words, those who may think I’m condescending or such…I am just trying to get us on the same page.

And speaking of pages, WHY cannot we ‘Right-leaning’ contributors have the RIGHT hand column instead of getting the LEFT side all the time? Just saying…

Probably virtually ALL wars are for economic reasons primarily, but the ISRAELI-HAMAS WAR is different. THIS one is fueled by HATRED…ugly, ugly, ugly hatred along perceived RACIAL lines no less!

Consider this please; The Jewish religion and the Jewish RACE are not NECESSARILY the same thing. That really sums-up a lot what we are witnessing..Some hate JEWS along racial lines.

You can identify most races a mile away…Black, Asian, American Indian, but a lot of Jews look like some other ethnic group…it took a Hitler to figure out who was who and which was which.

HAMAS seems to have figured it out too…anyone living across the border must be a Jew and should just die. You see. a Jew cannot ‘change stripes’ because he/she is still racially Jewish.

“Step forward, we are giving out free wrist tattoos today even if you converted.”

For whatever reasons they may harbor, Antisemitism appears to be reaching a world-wide high these days.

I do not think it’s because the BIG guy is beating up the SMALL guy and people tend to side with the underdog. I think it’s the underlying Antisemitism that is rising to the surface again. ALL it needed was the ‘spark’ and on October 7th HAMAS rubbed the flintstones together.

DIDN’T we, the USA, drop bombs on German cities and really big ones on Japan during a time of WAR? And we called them Krauts and Nippers…sort of a racial thing, no?

In order to ignite the fuse, HAMAS chose to do such despicable acts that they knew Israel would call for their total destruction and eventually suffer the wrath of the ‘civilized’ world. A cleaver trap laid by those who care less about their own people’s lives as much as they care less for the lives of Jews.

The hostage taking was a brilliant move because without them, this whole thing would have ended quickly. After Israel ‘got even’, the massacre would be soon ‘forgotten’ and the status-quo would return. It is the HOSTAGES that makes this so different.

Everyone knows that if Israel gives one inch…they lose. Think about that Joe Biden as you flip-flop and tell your best ally how to wage a war.

HATRED of JEWS, of CHRISTRIANS, of MUSLUMS…of just about everyone is the New Normal because someone thought up a plan for October 7, 2023…a plan to get undeserved recognition to a Jew-hating bunch of MURDERERS.

What does the future hold for Israel, for Gaza, for the rest of the world…for Jews, Arabs and Ukrainians?

Can the world’s leaders figure this all out or are we doomed to ‘shoot-bury the dead-repeat’?

I, for one, hope we can dig us out of this one this time.

Richard Phillips

New Iberia