Israel has exposed own underbelly by responding to Hamas provocation

The problem for Israel right now is that it does not understand why many in the world now see this is way over the top a response.

PERSPECTIVE | I have finally found something to talk about and reason over that I have known for a very long time. The difference between the big boys and the not-so-big-ones, my dad often emphasised, was how they dealt with provocation.

If you are easily provoked by small boys into a fight, and you fall for it then you are said to have a very soft underbelly. There was always that one big boy in my primary school who never yielded to provocation. He often shot back quickly that were he to fight back then definitely someone would end up in a coma or dead.

No amount of provocation ever got him into a fight. He definitely had a very large set of shock absorbers.

This then leads to the next question: what is the point of amassing a level of ability to respond to provocation that you are not going to use in the first place?

Well, it would serve as a deterrent. What if those who provoke you just want to know and measure the exact level of your might? It then means you give away vital information on the cheap - which is not exactly the smartest of things to do.

This here is the same reason I have asked men never to fight their wives no matter the extent of the provocation. Men often call it that.

My argument has always been that men are better than beating up someone known and perceived to be weaker than them. I have never known why a man can think that beating up someone he knows to be stronger than himself makes him any stronger than he is!

Most of these men are frowned upon even by the law of the land. The very same thing with rapists who argue that the way she dressed provoked me.

Really? You are that easy to provoke? Your power is absolutely difficult to manage and bring under control? That seems a very light weight defence in the big scheme of things in the world of sane minds.

There is no sane human being who can argue against the recklessness of HAMAS (often written Hamas for very obvious reasons) in killing innocent lives on October 7. That was deplorable and heinous a crime that ought to be condemned by all and sundry.

Israel was provoked and most of us who have followed international news knew that Israel was to respond. The question in our minds was how was it was to respond? It did not take long for us to get the answer.

Over 35,000 Palestinians have died, hospitals, schools, prayers places, aid workers killed, water and electricity withheld and now mass graves being found. What a response!

Israel argues that this is a response befitting of what was shipped to its frontdoor on October 7. In fact is says it is not done responding until is has flattened Rafah, too.

They also argue that in the process they have killed 13.000 Hamas fighters. I have listened to their spokespeople and they cannot explain how they can tell a child from a Hamas fighter. Half of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18, it has to be remembered.

The problem for Israel right now is that it does not understand why many in the world now see this is way over the top a response. Israel say they are the most humane military on the surface of the world even after 35,000 are dead and Gaza literally flat.

Students in American universities are not convinced that this was necessary and they want their universities to divest from anything that benefits the Israeli military.

Why this matters is  because the students from these Ivy league universities are the leaders in America in the very near future. When they think Israel is a monster it will have a huge bearing on America-Israel relations very soon when they make decisions.

Israel has enjoyed a free pass for so long in its dealings with Palestine and not many ever questioned its actions. What Hamas have succeeded in doing is changing the that tide. Israel, sadly, was provoked into a massive loss that it cannot find a way out of right now.

The label 'anti-Semitic' that had saved it most of the time is not able to fly. Huge voices of discontent, Jews in America as significant as senator Bernie Sanders, a former candidate for President, are the ones opposed to the actions in Gaza and the US funding that war with no strings attached.

You cannot get away from the demands of Bernie Sanders by slapping him with the label anti-Semitic.

In the end if Israel has taken its losses and not flattened Gaza as it has, I am sure it would not be in such a massive PR conundrum as it does find itself in right now.

We must always be very smart and strategic when responding to provocation is the lesson I carry away here.