The Cost of Atrocities in Gaza: The Three Graves Israel Must Dig

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves,” the insightful Confucius once said. One grave for you and one for the person you are seeking revenge from: two graves — if you allow anger and hatred to drive your actions.

With his wisdom, Confucius stresses the virtues of forgiveness over hatred, of peace over war, and of morality over evil.

Two graves

But that is for revenge; not blatant crimes and horrific bloodshed against the innocents.

For Israel, as it is embarking on its cruel journey of atrocities against Palestinian civilians, with American blind support, the need here is not just for two graves but three.

The first grave is one of honor, heroism, bravery. In it metaphorically lies the honorable Palestinians whom Israel has mercilessly murdered. As of now, this number amounts to more than 25,000 slaughtered under the world’s watch.

Such a figure — more 25,000 deaths in 3 months — is not a usual toll in modern warfare. It is a figure reminiscent of 20th-century wars, not of the 21st. It is “a historic human toll,” as the Washington Post has put it — a modern world record in killing civilians, ruthlessly achieved by the Israeli aggressor.

More than 25,000 are dead; but the suffering in Gaza continues for those struggling for life, and their reality is heartbreakingly catastrophic — far beyond this.

More than 60,000 are wounded, with scarcely any, or no access at all, to hospitals. But what hospitals are we talking about? The hospitals that were deprived of fuel, electricity, and even basic medication to treat the severely injured? Only to become themselves under siege, as Israel made them military targets?

And for the remaining 2.3 million Palestinians, the catastrophe is even more profound than you might imagine. They may seem alive to you, but in the eyes of the world, they are already dead; they scream, but no one is listening.

Israel tells them to evacuate, only to strike the very same locations the Israeli forces ordered them to move to.

Cutting off vital supplies, food, water, fuel and electricity, “[t]he Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip, which is a war crime.” And these are not my words, but those of Human Rights Watch, a New York-based human rights organization.

So in Gaza, everyone is paying the harrowing price. Those who have been murdered just give the ultimate — their lives.

They are heroes

So Israel needs to ensure that their grave is the most honorable; it represents the ultimate sacrifices of the heroic Palestinians.

Still, these great sacrifices have never been in vain.

Their deaths have unmasked Israeli brutality, their deaths have uncovered the hypocrisy of Western governments, their deaths have brought the Palestinian’s just cause, once again, to the world’s attention.

With their blood, they have painted a clear picture of Israeli crimes and Western complicity.

The grave of innocent Palestinians in Gaza is one of honor. One of courage. One of dignity.

Having endured years and years of all kinds of aggression, blockade and humiliation, Palestinians still give the world a masterclass — in resilience.

“All our blood, wealth, sons, and children are all for the sake of Jerusalem and for Palestine,” a man shouted as he buried a member of his family, killed by an Israeli attack. This is just one of the many and many Palestinians who, in times of great misery, have projected a never-seen-before courage.

This comes as the cowardly Israeli soldiers, out of fear, are killing their own citizens.

So it is not surprising that the Palestinians’ resilience is becoming a striking inspiration for people around the world.

People around the globe are turning to the Quran to understand the resilience of Palestinians; some of them are already converting to Islam.

Take the case, for example, of Megan Rice, 34, who lives in Chicago.“I wanted to talk about the faith of Palestinian people, how it’s so strong, and they still find room to make it a priority to thank God, even when they have everything taken away from them,” she said.

Inspired by the Palestinians’ astonishing resilience, Ms. Rice converted to Islam, and she is hardly the only one.

Nefertari Moonn, 35, from Florida, also has a similar story. “I wouldn’t necessarily say that Israel had anything to do with me turning to Islam. It was solely the Palestinian people, and their courage and their faith that had me look into Islam,” she recalled.

“To see all the devastation that the Palestinians are going through… and to see those still call out to Allah is devastatingly beautiful,” Ms. Moonn stated.

Still, Israel has to dig another grave.

The second grave is one of oppression, one of ruthlessness, one of inhumanity; a grave Israel will dig for itself.

A shameful grave

It is a grave Israel needs to dig for its soldiers in Gaza’s rubble, for its reputation in the world, for its standing in history.

It is a disgraceful grave for the soldiers who died — and many still will — as they kill civilians, bombard schools, raid hospitals; and as they suppress, brutalize, starve more than two million Palestinians.

Is this grave one of honor?

They are neither defending Israel, nor eliminating Hamas, nor making Israelis safer.

Instead, the Israeli soldiers are fighting a war against innocent Palestinians. They are scoring a military victory, yes, but against whom? Palestinian women and children? Or against defenseless Palestinian fathers who can offer their children nothing more than heartrending tears?

More than 70 percent of the Palestinians killed in Gaza are women and children, which is a monumental, staggering figure in modern wars, as reported by The New York Times.

Amid this Israeli brutality, a jarring stain in 21st century warfare, there is cowardice and fear, too.

Out of 170 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza, 29 soldiers died from accidental firing by their own forces, according to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Even worse, Israeli forces shot three of their own hostages, who were shirtless, unarmed, and waving white flags.

Out of fear and panic, the Israeli soldiers in Gaza are killing themselves and their citizens.

What is this? An army so powerful, yet so frightened? An army well-equipped with advanced weaponry, yet lacking courage?

This second grave is also for Israel’s world reputation.

Israel is now perceived globally as an oppressive state. Protests around the world are denouncing Israeli crimes, and multiple countries are increasingly severing their diplomatic ties with Israel.

With its far-right government, Israel is now isolated in the whole world, a situation that becomes more acute in the Arab world.

Any Israeli hopes of normalization with Arab countries, such Saudi Arabia, should now be dimmed.

Even more importantly, if any deal emerges, which is surely not anticipated in the foreseeable future, it would be — and I must emphasize this — a de jure agreement with the Arab governments, not with the Arab nation.

Finally, the second grave is also for Israel’s historical legacy.

While Israel has a decades-long history of massacring civilians, today’s atrocities differ from those of yesterday. In the age of TikTok, every act of aggression is open to the public to be seen and remembered.

Israel could and did conceal a series of heinous massacres perpetrated by Jewish Irgun, Haganah and Stern Gang militias, against Palestinians in the 1940s. These acts were just not seen behind a phone screen.

But can the Israeli government today prevent its unfolding and live-streamed crimes from reaching millions? Surely not.

Israel will be remembered for generations to come as a barbaric state that dehumanized, subjugated, and butchered innocent Palestinians.

Still, Israel will have to dig yet another grave; the third grave.

The third grave is one of hypocrisy, one of complicity, one of double standards, a grave Israel needs to dig for the U.S. and its interests in the Arab region.

A meaningless grave

The U.S. already has a weakened image in the Arab world, due to a sequence of decisions. Among others include its formal recognition of Israel in 1948, its invasion of Iraq in 2003, its response to the Arab Spring in 2011 to its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017. Now, the U.S. embrace of Israeli crimes against Palestinians has further isolated the global superpower’s standing in the region.

For decades, the U.S. has been striving to recover its standing in the Arab world, presenting itself as a model of democracy and human rights, economic freedoms and free-market initiative, civil society and the rule of law. The list goes on.

The U.S. has spent billions of dollars on multiple programs and civil society organizations to boost reputation and present itself as a political and economic model for the Arab world to follow.

Yet, with its blind support of Israel, the U.S. is, once again, compromising its fragile image in the Arab region. It is now perceived by millions not only as a country of double standards, but also as one that protects, finances, and arms the aggressive power murdering innocent Palestinians.

Polls are already starting to paint a grim picture for the U.S. standing in the Arab world. A survey by Arab Barometer, a nonpartisan research firm, revealed significant insights.

The survey was conducted, notably, both before and after the October 7 events and the Israeli response in Gaza The results paint a bleak, albeit unsurprising, picture for U.S. popularity in Tunisia — a sentiment that mirrors broader views all across the Arab world.

“40 percent of Tunisians had a positive or somewhat positive view of the United States, compared with 56 percent who had an unfavorable opinion,” the poll suggests. However, after the Israeli war in Gaza erupted, “Only ten percent of Tunisians had a positive view of the United States. Eighty-seven percent, by contrast, had an unfavorable impression.”

Geostrategically, U.S. deterrence in the Middle East is collapsing. American troops in Iraq and Syria are increasingly targeted by militant groups in the region. Once the region’s protector after the first Gulf War, the U.S. now finds itself struggling to defend its own forces.

Currently, the country cannot even assure the safety of its allies’ ships with ties to Israel, which are under attack by Yemeni Houthis in the Red Sea.

Even in Israel — a country to which the U.S. has devoted a massive financial and military aid, — the U.S. seems powerless to influence the Netanyahu far-right government.

Uncle Sam’s hands are tied in the Middle East

Once a protector, the U.S. now seems to be rendering the region less safe with its policies.

Israel could not have committed its heinous crimes without US support. And, the Middle East without the bloodshed from Israeli atrocities would be far more stable – and frankly, far more prosperous.

Because of this, US credibility in the region has been damaged. It was no surprise that Bahrain was the only Arab country to join the Operation Prosperity Guardian, established by the USand its Western allies to counter Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

Not only in the Middle East, but also around the world, the United States’s reputation as a promoter of democratic values and human rights is now in question.

Uncle Sam’s image as an advocate for human rights and democracy stands in blatant contrast to reality, as thousands of Palestinians civilians — the majority of whom are children and women — have been murdered by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Despite eloquent rhetoric, the entire world can see the US as the main blocker of an internationally imposed ceasefire in Gaza. It was the sole country to veto a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to Israeli hostilities.

Between the support given to Ukrainians and the crimes committed against Palestininas, the entire world witnesses a stark illustration of Western double standards.

This marks the third grave; a grave for the U.S. standing in the Middle East, and the entire world.

Before embarking on its campaign of egregious atrocities, Israel expected to dig the grave of thousands of Palestinians he intended to murder in Gaza. What Netanyahu did not realize, is that he would be digging two other graves; for both the prosperity of his country and the interest of his allies.