‘So, what do you do Camp, if your sworn enemy’s only goal is your destruction. As in the Iranians and by extension Hamas’, Hezbollah’ and any other Jihad’s group’s stated goal. They want the whole state of Israel and its Jewish residents annihilated and their whole country wiped off the map and replaced. It’s what they publicly stated over and over and what prompted the horrendous latest attack on Israeli civilians. Let’s face it Camp it was murder.  Indiscriminate, pre-mediated mass-murder of woman and children, concert goers and farmers.’

‘Are you finished? Was that your question? And now you expect me to have the answer? I tell you what you cannot do. You cannot round up a population, half of which consists of children, and hope to find and kill the perpetrators of this horrendous crime. I agree, Hamas should be rooted out, their armed wing destroyed but that will be very difficult, especially if they hide amongst the civilian population or in hospitals, schools and shelters. These holy warriors are fanatics and nothing will deter them from their stated goals, one of which is to die as a martyr in the Jihad and go straight to heaven, into the arms of 72 virgins. Here is a quote I found: Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir of Surah Al-Rahman (55), verse 72, quotes “the Prophet Muhammad saying: ‘The smallest reward for the people of Paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby.

            ‘How crazy is that. Which goes to show that religion is the root cause of all evil in the world, closely followed by money and greed. In other words, there are no easy answers but the slaughter has to end at some point. Will some sane people from both sides sit down together and hammer out a path forward? Or will history just keep repeating itself?’

            ‘As in all arguments, the solutions lie in compromise. Give and take. Forgive and move on, for the children, for the future. We cannot right the past and revenge is an endless bloody cycle. Common sense over dogma. In theory that should work.’

            ‘How can you separate Hamas, the terrorist group, from the Palestinians who are ruled by them. You cannot separate the cream from the milk after it’s mixed and pasteurized. Withholding fuel which drives pumps, generators and desalination plants is starving those who cannot control their lives, most of them women, children and old men.’

            Dag Hammarskjöld, the second UN secretary-general, once said: The UN was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell. The reality today in Gaza is that there is hell for the civilians, who have not chosen this war.’ 

            ‘Imagine a beautiful surf beach at the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, with a temperate climate of mild winters and warm to hot summers with people relaxing on the sandy beach, children playing and the blue water sparkling in the sun. That could be Gaza beach, except today it is littered with glass and debris, nobody is relaxing or surfing and the 1 million children are not playing in the rubble. Instead of laughter you can hear the endless cries of pain and desperation, interrupted by explosions and gunfire.’

            ‘How will this end?’ I asked and for once Camp had no answer.