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On October 7, 2023 Hamas conducted a surprise attack on the nation of Israel killing 1200 Israelis and taking 251 people hostage. Since then an innumerable number of Palestinians have been killed, and Gaza has been leveled. The Israeli government destroyed critical infrastructure including hospitals and news outlets. Palestinians have been displaced on more than one occasion, being told to leave Gaza, go to encampments on the outskirts of the city, go to Rafah, go to Egypt or at least the Egyptian border. Israel has halted or limited humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on more than one occasion. They also haven’t allowed journalists to go into Gaza to do their own reporting.
It’s important for me to note that throughout this entire conflict Israel has been conflating Palestinians with Hamas. Hamas is the government of the Gaza Strip, not literally every palestinian that exists there. Their rule over the strip has been undemocratic and oppressive to Gazans. Israeli and American leaders have been saying that Hamas has been using Palestinians as human shields. The human shields they are referring to are children, babies, women and teenagers, people likely not directly affiliated with Hamas. The average age in Gaza is around 18 years old which is an adult, however, the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in Gaza doesn’t equate to however many 18 year olds or similarly prepared teenagers are radicalized or activated and possibly entwined with Hamas. And even if you give Israel that point as benefit of the doubt, how the IDF and Israeli government have conducted themselves with respect to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is still cruel and unusual.
Israel has attacked neighboring states like Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, and Syria. They have annexed land as a “buffer zone” in Lebanon and Syria. They’ve killed Hamas leaders in Iran and have been in combat with Houthi forces in Yemen. There have been several ceasefire deals on the table between the Biden and Trump administrations and Benjamin Netanyahu, most of which haven’t substantially materialized. The United States has been aiding and abetting what is internationally considered an effective genocide or at least adjacent to an effective genocide.
On top of America’s regular support of $3 billion yearly to Israel, reports say the U.S. has provided Israel with over $20 billion in additional aid since October 7th. Since President Trump’s second term, Benjamin Netanyahu has been to the White House four times within the last 10 months. President Trump has called on Netanyahu to “finish the job” on more than one occasion. Today as it stands we appear to be on the path to a lasting peace deal.
Up until recently one of the biggest barriers to that peace has been the Israeli government themselves. Whenever Biden or Trump drew up previous negotiations, Netanyahu would frustratingly violate the terms of peace in some capacity making a peace deal a distant reality. Among all of the aforementioned, one of the most notable moments in this conflict is the more than one occasion when the United States helped Israel defend themselves from attacks from Iran.
Israel with American weapons, engineering, and technology, has a multilayered defense system including David’s Sling and the Iron Dome. Iran has made two retaliatory attacks against Israel since this war started and on both occasions America played a key role in further bolstering Israel’s already strong defensive capabilities. The culmination of America’s support for Israel against Iran during the broader conflict, came via Operation Midnight Hammer, when America struck Iran’s nuclear facilities on behalf of Israel.
The longer this story goes on the more convoluted it gets and it’s been going on in the short term for two years. In the long term for the last nearly 80 years. And within the context of world history, this conflict has directly and indirectly been going on for over 2000 years. The Trump 2.0 administration has not made things more transparent. Well, they have from the perspective of wanting to take over the Gaza strip and build beach front properties, but when you look at how in bed Trump 2.0 has been with Israel the things about this administration that don’t make sense begin to.
Going back to Operation Midnight Hammer, when this operation was being contemplated, the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said that there was no evidence that Iran was building a nuclear weapon. Because of that statement she got the “I don’t know her” treatment a la Mariah Carey from President Trump. Then, one can speculate though she denied it when she was asked, Gabbard released allegations and findings against President Obama and his influence on the 2016 election as a way to seemingly regain favor within the Trump administration. That’s just one example.
The biggest example of the year and potentially for Trump’s second term is Jeffery Epstein. The Epstein files that were sitting on Pam Bondi’s desk are now nowhere to be found and wholly irrelevant. The girls raped themselves and or Jeffery Epsiten was the sole offender. No one really believes that, but one of the reasons that is the prevailing narrative besides Trump’s unwillingness to discuss it, is that Epstein was potentially Mossad or an Israeli intelligence agent.
Then you have the editorialization of Charlie Kirk’s life and legacy, who by the way, some people suspect may have been in Israel’s crosshair at the time of his death. And now, Zionists (put relatively loosely) are buying American media and are trying to strengthen Israel’s ability to control any narrative it wants. Trump also let Netanyahu hijack America First. One of Trump’s main campaign promises was to put America First from a policy perspective; Natanyahu has suggested that Israel first is America first.
America’s legislators besides being bought and paid for have a difficult to sell message about the place Israel has in the world. Most of it is evangelical coded but even when it’s explained that way it’s difficult to understand. There is this infamous moment from a Tucker Carlson interview where Ted Cruz quotes the Bible without further context to support his perspective on supporting Israel.
I’m a Christian, Jesus is Jewish, but I’m not sure what my relationship with Israel should be. I appreciate those with codified ideologies but to say those that bless Israel will be blessed but not explain that in further detail can be difficult to absorb particularly within the context of a genocide. Like what does blessing Israel have to do with being complicit with a genocide? What happened to never again? Oh I got it, never again doesn’t mean we should try to not proliferate this behavior, it means never again will atrocities be done to me; but that doesn’t mean I can’t be the one doing the atrocities to others.
To conclude, these are some of the top line things that have taken place over the last two years. Now, there should be a peace deal on the table. The “20-point peace plan” as announced by Trump last week is a composite of previously failed proposals in addition to other demands to ensure a lasting peace. This plan was curated in person with Trump and Netanyahu, it was announced on September 29, 2025, and the following day Netanyahu and the Israeli government objected to some of the terms in the deal like withdrawing from Gaza. That said, this deal seems to have some traction because Hamas has agreed to release all the hostages dead and alive.
I’ll keep following this war and other relevant stories to stay abreast with what’s going on in our world. Ultimately, at the moment I think that particularly with the direction the Trump administration is leaning towards, if you’re an American, free speech is your right (as is your right to keep and bear arms) and our rights are under attack under every presidential administration.
That alone is enough with respect to we the people of the constitution and our domestic interests; but then, to be allowed to be gaslit by some foreign country particularly because of eschatology is wild to me. Believe what you believe but allow what you believe to have enough grace to make sense. Some American politicians see Israel as a means to usher in the end of the world and the second coming of Jesus. I’ll cover that part in another piece of content, but either way there are conversations that need to be had about the political and moral responsibilities of elected officials.
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