Thanks to Rob Morse for publishing his 700 words on this subject and allowing us to repost with some additional commentary.
Regardless of your opinion regarding the State of Israel, Hamas, and the status and condition of the Gaza Strip and its 2+ million, we can and must learn from the attack on the 7th of October by fighters exploding out of the so-called “open-air prison” by land, sea, and air. Not as partisans, but simply as people interested in protecting themselves and their family and community.
(TPOL’s comments are in [brackets] andwe have italicized and made bold some key points. TPOL does not agree completely with Rob on some of the political aspects, but value his observations and points.
Terrorists attacked innocent victims in Israel. This is a war of ethnic cleansing. The victims were chosen precisely for their innocence. The murdering terrorists sought out the vulnerable and the harmless. This attack was a show of force, a show of violence, and a show of brutality. It was Hamas and their Iranian enablers saying that they are willing to be barbarians. They wanted other nations to hold them in awe. I don’t think it will work out that way. An Israeli politician said you can’t negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you. Here in the United States, there are things we can learn from both the Israeli civilians and from the Israeli government.
We watched thousands [1300+] of Israelis die at the hands of armed terrorists. More were wounded. Women and children were murdered or kidnapped. Those are exactly the results you would expect. The point is not that the attackers were some type of super-warriors. Those are simply the results that any trained combatant would expect when disarmed victims face armed attackers.It didn’t need to unfold that way.
Where Israelis were armed and on alert, they defended themselves very well. Examples include Kibbutz NirAm and KibbutzMefalsim. There we also saw the sort of results we expected. Attackers need to outnumber defenders by a ratio of over six-to-one in order to advance. The terrorists did not bring that number of attackers to bear so the defenders prevailed.
In the United States of America, I noticed that another million of us went out to buy guns and ammunition in the week after the attack. Most of these were first-time gun buyers. Again, ordinary citizens like us came to some far-reaching conclusions.
They recognized that the world is not safe. People who look just like them are capable of horrific acts of violence. Law enforcement and other government authorities will only arrive long after the attack is over.
Far from being conclusions drawn from worse-case estimates, I think those conclusions are simply a sober evaluation of the truth.
Israel faces a threat to their very existence. That threat has existed since the state of Israel was formed. [Made worse by Israel’s own actions.]
Despite the pictures we see of young Israeli soldiers on leave, very few Israeli citizens were allowed to be armed. Those who were allowed to be armed were only allowed to have a single handgun and only 50 rounds of ammunition in their homes.
Given the level of threat that ordinary Israelis faced, the politicians who disarmed them were both cowardly and indifferent to the loss of innocent life.
Like the politicians in the United States, the Israeli politicians responded with too little and far too late. Israeli politicians changed the law and now a few more citizens are allowed to go armed. They also doubled the amount of ammunition that can be stored at home. [Whoopie!!!] It is not clear to me that ordinary Israelis are yet allowed to go armed in public and carry concealed. I know that about 100-thousand Israelis (archived source outside the paywall) applied for a permit to own a firearm in the last few weeks.
My takeaway is that we allow politicians to lie to us.
Depending on your firearms being locked up at home is depending on good fortune.
Last week, relying on luck killed thousands of innocent victims. It is true that locking yourself and your family into a safe room buys you time. It took the police and military several hours to respond to an attack. The murderers had all the time they wanted to kill or kidnap at will.
Like the citizens of Israel learned last week, we are on our own during an emergency. Luck favors the prepared. If you are a new gun owner in the US, then there are centuries of civilian gun ownership from which you can draw. Welcome.
(~_~_I gave you 700 words for free. Please leave a comment and share them with a friend. RM)
The key lessons to learn?
Because the Israeli government does not trust its own citizens, many of them died with no good way to defend themselves.
It is the same error that most States here make to some degree or another – even if all they do is submit to the Federal BATFE garbage.
In addition to the usual inability to protect themselves against criminals, sooner or later Americans will face something like those around Gaza did: regardless of who or why such attacks are launched. As Rob points out, only 1 in 4 Americans own guns and only 40% of households have anyone with one. It is, for criminals and invaders, a target-rich, undefended target.
Americans have far less protection from police and military than Israelis do.
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
Lessons learned from the opening of the 2nd Yom Kippur War
Thanks to Rob Morse for publishing his 700 words on this subject and allowing us to repost with some additional commentary.
Regardless of your opinion regarding the State of Israel, Hamas, and the status and condition of the Gaza Strip and its 2+ million, we can and must learn from the attack on the 7th of October by fighters exploding out of the so-called “open-air prison” by land, sea, and air. Not as partisans, but simply as people interested in protecting themselves and their family and community.
(TPOL’s comments are in [brackets] and we have italicized and made bold some key points. TPOL does not agree completely with Rob on some of the political aspects, but value his observations and points.
Terrorists attacked innocent victims in Israel. This is a war of ethnic cleansing. The victims were chosen precisely for their innocence. The murdering terrorists sought out the vulnerable and the harmless. This attack was a show of force, a show of violence, and a show of brutality. It was Hamas and their Iranian enablers saying that they are willing to be barbarians. They wanted other nations to hold them in awe. I don’t think it will work out that way. An Israeli politician said you can’t negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you. Here in the United States, there are things we can learn from both the Israeli civilians and from the Israeli government.
We watched thousands [1300+] of Israelis die at the hands of armed terrorists. More were wounded. Women and children were murdered or kidnapped. Those are exactly the results you would expect. The point is not that the attackers were some type of super-warriors. Those are simply the results that any trained combatant would expect when disarmed victims face armed attackers. It didn’t need to unfold that way.
Where Israelis were armed and on alert, they defended themselves very well.
Examples include Kibbutz NirAm and Kibbutz Mefalsim. There we also saw the sort of results we expected. Attackers need to outnumber defenders by a ratio of over six-to-one in order to advance. The terrorists did not bring that number of attackers to bear so the defenders prevailed.
In the United States of America, I noticed that another million of us went out to buy guns and ammunition in the week after the attack. Most of these were first-time gun buyers. Again, ordinary citizens like us came to some far-reaching conclusions.
They recognized that the world is not safe. People who look just like them are capable of horrific acts of violence. Law enforcement and other government authorities will only arrive long after the attack is over.
Far from being conclusions drawn from worse-case estimates, I think those conclusions are simply a sober evaluation of the truth.
Israel faces a threat to their very existence. That threat has existed since the state of Israel was formed. [Made worse by Israel’s own actions.]
Despite the pictures we see of young Israeli soldiers on leave, very few Israeli citizens were allowed to be armed. Those who were allowed to be armed were only allowed to have a single handgun and only 50 rounds of ammunition in their homes.
Given the level of threat that ordinary Israelis faced, the politicians who disarmed them were both cowardly and indifferent to the loss of innocent life.
Like the politicians in the United States, the Israeli politicians responded with too little and far too late. Israeli politicians changed the law and now a few more citizens are allowed to go armed. They also doubled the amount of ammunition that can be stored at home. [Whoopie!!!] It is not clear to me that ordinary Israelis are yet allowed to go armed in public and carry concealed. I know that about 100-thousand Israelis (archived source outside the paywall) applied for a permit to own a firearm in the last few weeks.
For perspective, that would be the same proportion as 3.7 million US citizens applying for their carry permit in two weeks. Again for perspective, that 3.7-million is between the population of Connecticut and Oklahoma. Only 1.5 percent of Israelis were allowed to own firearms while US firearms ownership is about 25 percent. In contrast, 4-out-of-10 of US citizens live in a home with someone who owns a firearm.
My takeaway is that we allow politicians to lie to us.
Depending on your firearms being locked up at home is depending on good fortune.
Last week, relying on luck killed thousands of innocent victims. It is true that locking yourself and your family into a safe room buys you time. It took the police and military several hours to respond to an attack. The murderers had all the time they wanted to kill or kidnap at will.
Like the citizens of Israel learned last week, we are on our own during an emergency. Luck favors the prepared. If you are a new gun owner in the US, then there are centuries of civilian gun ownership from which you can draw. Welcome.
(~_~_I gave you 700 words for free. Please leave a comment and share them with a friend. RM)
The key lessons to learn?
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.