The bait and switch protocol

My people have a saying that a human being is a work in progress until the day he or she dies. By implication, this saying qualifies the notion that life is a journey of discovery through the valley of the shadow of death.  The Middle East has been in overdrive for the last one month […]

My people have a saying that a human being is a work in progress until the day he or she dies. By implication, this saying qualifies the notion that life is a journey of discovery through the valley of the shadow of death. 

The Middle East has been in overdrive for the last one month following the events of October 7. The reprisal for the attacks on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza has been absolutely savage as the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) insists on annihilating Hamas at all costs, even if it has to exact a prodigious human cost exceeding 10,000 innocent civilians and destroying the lives of more than two million Palestinians who were really only barely surviving prior to the latest flare-up in the 75-year-old conflict. 

Apparently, because the people of Gaza celebrated the attacks that killed about 1,500 likewise innocent Israeli civilians, they are accessories to the crimes curated by Hamas and therefore legitimate targets. At least that is what I keep hearing from the IDF’s cheerleaders. 

In the last one month, my eyes have been opened to a reality that has among others absolutely shaken my faith in humankind. And it isn’t only the emotionally tasking visuals from Gaza, but the utter despoliation of the concept of human morality. I am of course old enough to know that human beings and their societies are fundamentally flawed, but nothing has prepared me for this sobering reality.  

Down the line, I realised that I could rave and rage for an endless eternity at the depraved rot of the Israeli/Zionist (im)morality, but at the end of the day, when all is said and done, I have to accept that, I too, harbour that same perversion somewhere in my spirit. I discovered that that perversion is a consequence of a blind spot, a disease of the human heart. I, too, have a heart that happens to be human. And that blind spot, that disease is a story as old as Adam and his two sons. 

When a human being wants something, apparently, a certain bait and switch protocol is initiated. It sells only the end to your conscience; it either launders the means or generates a substitute ethical system that justifies it. And, kid yourself not, we all do this. We become feral animals when we want something someone also wants. Of course, we don’t go on a homicidal rampage every time this protocol kicks in, but it exists in every one of us. 

The Israelis want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to live in peace, while they perpetrate injustice against the Palestinians they have lived alongside on an industrial scale. They want the Palestinians to leave them alone, even though they are not willing to also leave these Palestinians alone. It’s almost as if it doesn’t even occur to them that it was really that simple, it’s almost as if they are incapable of this much objectivity because of that moral blind spot, because of the bait and switch protocol. 

I realised that I have also wanted many things before. Some bad enough that, perhaps absentmindedly, I too have once or twice suffered the twisted hand of the bait and switch protocol. I am not alone either. I am only one of the eight billion human beings alive today, one of the 117 billion men and women estimated to have lived since the dawn of mankind. And we all carried the same disease. Tinubu wanted to be president, Buhari wanted to be president. Atiku wanted to be president. I want a ride on SpaceX next year. Israel wants Palestine. 

This is perhaps the saddest discovery I have made in my life. Some valley of the shadow of death October 7 truly is. This is what I am, and this is also what everyone is. Today, I am a truly depressed, subdued, demoralised and disillusioned. Because I have seen who I am, and I have seen who I have lived with. I have seen what I have to live with. 

I have talked over the internet with many people about this conflict. Many have written me off as a terrorist apologist. Hell, many have written me off as a terrorist. There was a lady who said that the UN Secretary General should be a legitimate target to be hunted down and… “”. 

I wonder what the world would think if someone like me ever made such a statement in public.  

She thought that the UN Secretary General should have asked no questions, he should have applauded Israel; that he had a responsibility to unconditionally sing the praises of the State of Israel as it fights the good fight. But he failed. He called for a humanitarian ceasefire. He asked Israel to allow aid in. He questioned the targeting of schools and refugee camps flying the UN flag by IDF fighter jets. Such degenerate insolence. And from a person no less the Secretary General of the United Nations. Utterly reprehensible! 

It was incredible. It was easy for me to see that, if losing 1,500 innocent civilians hurts, losing 10,000 innocent civilians should hurt even more. It was also easy for me to see that Hamas did not actually start this war because, for one thing, it is only about 35 years old whereas the Israel/Palestine conflict is about 75 years old. It was easy for me to understand that without justice, there would be no peace. It was easy for me to see that Palestinian blood is not any less sacred than Israeli blood. It was easy for me to remember that the UN Secretary General was in fact one of the first to condemn Hamas for crossing the line on October 7 and therefore has the credibility, and indeed the official responsibility, to also condemn Israel for crossing so many more lines than Hamas actually did. And it was certainly easy for me to see that making such comments with respect to world leaders should be an absolute no-no. 

I discovered that that lady wasn’t being mischievous. It wasn’t deliberate mischief; it was a blindness. A disease that infests my spirit inasmuch as I can call myself a human being too.  She absolutely believed in the righteousness of Israel’s hand against Gaza, she absolutely believes that Israel is the victim. 

I am heartbroken. Because of the heartrending scenes from Gaza. And because in the course of my journey through life, I discovered the bait & switch protocol.