March 23, 2026
The events in Gaza

Taken in isolation, they appear (and are) an immense tragedy; however, when compared not only with those of the Second World War but also with wars in recent years in the Middle East, they are not particularly bloody, and the Israelis appear far less bloodthirsty than the Arab factions that have fought each other in Syria, in Yemen, within ISIS, in the Iran–Iraq War, in Saddam’s repression of the Kurds and the Shiites, and so on.

When I see the destruction in Gaza, it does not seem very different to me from that of Berlin in 1945.

Even the blockade of food supplies that is so often discussed seems exaggerated to me: in Leningrad it caused at least 600,000 deaths; in Gaza, a few dozen are mentioned.

One must always remember that war is not a sporting competition in which whoever breaks the rules loses, but something horrific in which the winner is whoever uses the means necessary to win, however dreadful those means may be.