Alan Zendell, October 18, 2023

The worldwide popularity of the endless spinoffs of the CSI television franchise suggests that millions of people are fascinated by forensic crime investigations and the pursuit of truth. It also suggests a high level of credibility of the technology that allows investigators to dissect and analyze complex events after the fact and construct an accurate picture of what actually occurred. That’s critically important in figuring out what caused the explosion at the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza that killed hundreds of civilians.

The war raging in Gaza and Israel began when Gaza’s governing body, Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by most western countries, launched an unprovoked attack on settlements in southern Israel that killed more than a thousand Israelis. That truth is undisputable, since the attackers posted celebratory videos that show them indiscriminately murdering hundreds of innocent, defenseless people.

In a reasonable world, Israel’s right to defend itself would be a given, but there’s nothing reasonable about the Middle East. When people are aroused by long-standing religious bigotry, and caught up in the frenzy of Jihad, truth and verifiable facts are the first casualty, and that’s the kind of thing that turns local conflicts into major wars. When one side openly prods its people into suicidal behaviors based on a sickly distorted interpretation of their religious dogma, there is no limit to the damage that can result.

That is precisely the situation that exists today. Radical Muslim leaders have triggered anti-Israel and anti-American demonstrations in major cities throughout the western and Arab worlds, based on Hamas’ claims that the hospital explosion was caused by a bomb dropped from an Israeli aircraft. It’s not clear whether the people attempting to create a region-wide uprising against Israel believe Hamas’ claim or if they even care, as long as the event achieves their goal of destroying Israel. But to the rest of us watching all this unfold, it matters very much. Not only does the insane lust to kill threaten Israel, but the irresponsible behavior of leaders who support Jihad threatens the entire world.

The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) found verifiable evidence in surveillance videos, radar imagery, and intercepted conversations between Hamas terrorists, that the hospital explosion was actually caused by a misfired rocket launched by Islamic Jihad aimed at Israeli cities. It’s an impressive analysis that in the world of CSI would have viewers applauding the ability of forensic analysts to find the truth. But in the Middle East, truth is a variable commodity that is often trumped by religious fervor.

The jihadists have already achieved one goal: scuttling President Biden’s diplomatic effort to arrange humanitarian aid and relief for nearly a million displaced Palestinian civilians. Make no mistake – the reason they’re displaced is the action of their own terrorist government, who have a long history of hiding behind innocent civilians and using them as human shields. The last time Islamic terrorists caused this kind of destruction, when they killed more than 3,000 innocent people on nine-eleven, the result was a twenty year war in Iraq and Afghanistan in which there were no winners. Every entity involved, including the United States, suffered grievous harm. This time, with Iran pulling the strings of their terrorist clients, and Russia and China supporting their efforts, we could be witnessing the opening act of a third world war in which everyone on Earth loses.

Americans find all this very familiar. Since 2015, when Donald Trump announced he was running for president, truth and facts have been casualties of a different kind of war. The situations are different only in that we’ve so far been able to contain the resulting domestic violence. But with Trump supporters perpetuating lies and threatening civil war if they don’t get what they want, the future of American democracy is in jeopardy. Americans are finally realizing what’s at stake, as efforts to pacify our political terrorists have undermined our government’s ability to function.

The comparisons between our internal political crisis and the diplomatic crisis in the Middle East are chilling. Who would have imagined, ten years ago, that a small group of extremists willing to fall on their swords and take everyone else down with them could threaten our Constitution and totally disrupt the functioning of the government of the United States? We’re less surprised by what’s happening in Israel, because we should have seen it coming, but the situations are eerily similar.

Truth deniers at home used social media and technology to create the worst domestic crisis we’ve seen in 160 years. The same thing is happening on a global scale, as anger, hatred, and bigotry in the Middle East threaten to overcome reason with deadly consequences for everyone. If we’re to get through this intact, saner heads need to step up, or the fogs of war and politics might kill us all.