“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

Bring on the elephants!

As most people know, elephants are among the most intelligent animals in nature and when they have a rogue Pachyderm in their midst they have been known to gather in a circle around the miscreant and stomp it to death.

That’s tough justice for sure, but for the safety and welfare of the herd, elephants will do this because elephants appear to put more value on their collective survival than they do an aberrant member who’s upsetting the peace and tranquility of their hitherto peaceful society.

In other words, elephants venerate the norms of their society to such a high degree they will kill to protect it. As horrific and offensive as it sounds, I am moved to postulate maybe it’s time we homo sapiens considered doing the same.

Fast forward to NBC News Tuesday and Dr. Gharson Abu-Sittah, who was working with Doctors Without Borders at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, tells the cameras, “there were bodies all over the courtyard.”

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Aznan Safadi said the carnage was mostly women, children and civilians seeking refuge from the missile attack. “We’ve got to stop this madness and start talking.”

Witnesses at the scene say the death toll inside the bombed-out facility could be as high as 500. However, later reports cited lower death figures with the final casualty total unlikely to ever be known.

And then the recriminations began.

Palesinians in Gaza, the West Bank and their supporters around the world blamed Israel and logic appears to be on their side because of the intense bombing campaign the Israelis have been carrying out ever since Hamas started the war by crossing the border and slaughtering Israeli civilians including quite possibly a yet to be named Canadian at what was supposed to be a peaceful, outdoor music festival.

But an Israeli communication officer denied this and said the hospital atrocity was deliberately caused by one of the Islamic terror groups when one of their missiles accidentally went astray and hit the hospital. This is not an implausible story because in the fog of war missile accidents happen on all sides of the conflict.

So, who do you believe?  How can anyone living a hemisphere away from the fighting say with any certainty they know who’s to blame? Most of us have never even met a Palestinian or Israeli citizen. But we can draw our own conclusions and with much trepidation I offer mine, which of course, could be entirely wrong.

I think in this one incident and ignoring the atrocities on both sides it is more likely that the Israelis are telling the truth because I don’t believe the Israeli military is stupid enough to commit an atrocity like deliberately bombing a hospital which would force them to face the ire of world opinion that would surely turn against them.

At the same time, I can easily understand why the Palestinians are denying blame. They’ve endured more than a thousand years of being the hapless victims of both the Western, colonial powers and their own Arab neighbors who won’t give up any land of their own for a Palestinian homeland.

So, who is the elephant in the room in this seemingly endless conflict? Sadly, I’d say it’s anyone on either side who’s prepared to kill for their religion or willing to deny a homeland for a historic people. Perhaps if they faced a rogue elephant, or the equivalent, ready to stomp them into the ground they’d acquire some sense, if not a conscience. If not, this war will only escalate and we’ll all be losers.

Maybe that’s what we deserve?

– Gerry Warner is a retired print journalist, a rapidly disappearing profession.

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