"I'm an American doctor who went to Gaza. What I saw wasn't war. It was annihilation."

[ColinC]

23. I find it a strange mindset that is frankly incredibly human

The need for bloodlust as a response to bloodshed certainly fulfills an emotional band aid of sorts. But existentially it accomplishes little.

Israel has probably killed far more people in retaliation for the killing of less than 2,000 people, than the United States had for 9/11 (approximately 2,000). Both were terrorist attacks in which the response was to attempt to forcefully acquire territory.

I imagine Israel won’t be any more successful at holding the territory as historically any other government in a similar situation has.

Yet they still try. Give it another 20 years and we will likely see a similar horrifyingly disproportional response to an isolated terrorist attack where an entire society is upended over political desires and personal vendettas.