Thinking about Richard, My Father in Law

 So Israel and the "government" of the Palestinians, Hamas, have reached a cease fire after 11 days of bombings. That's a nice development. It caused me to think about my late father in law Richard, and IDF veteran.

Richard was born and raised in Lodz, Poland, one of 7 children. His family was relatively affluent -- his father was a high level cabinet maker, and provided furniture for the elite of the city. Well, things turned to shit in the 30s, as the Nazis invaded Poland. Three of Richard's siblings were killed in the camps, including a beautiful sister who had been a model. Richard's parents, grandparents, and cousins and aunts and uncles were also killed, by the Nazis and scores of "innocent" helpers from Poland and Germany.

After the War, he emigrated to Haifa, and was recruited into the IDF. Richard was tall and strong and a wonderful athlete. He would win most of the athletic contests held in the DP camp in Germany where he lived before leaving Europe. The IDF brought him into Special Forces, since, as they told him "You're an orphan and so if you die for the cause no one will really grieve that much."

He used to share some of the tales of the War of Independence. They weren't pretty. He secured the first house for his family by politely asking some Arabs to leave. Well, maybe not politely. The house was "conquered," as he called it.

I met Richard in 1983, and we spoke many times about the Arab/Israeli conflict. He spoke to me as one who was actually there. He wasn't an educated man, but read widely about the War -- he loved to watch TV shows about WW II, Israel, and nature. He loved animals -- thought they were far more noble than people.

So, asked this pampered American Jew, who had only been to Israel as an 8 year old but was imbued with Zionism by my parents -- what's the deal there?

Richard told me he and his fellow IDF soldiers were constantly amazed at the sheer stupidity of their Arab opponents -- the only way tiny Israel won the Independence War, the Six Day War, and Yom Kippur Wars was due to a completely unmatched battle of intelligence.

"They are so stupid, we couldn't believe it," he would tell me.

I asked how he would finally settle things there. His response: give the Arabs land, like Gaza and the West Bank, and then go take it back when they caused too much mischief. It was that simple. Since the military sophistications would remain so one sided, this would really be no big deal.

And how have things played out? Precisely that way. Gaza was given back to the so called Palestinians, things got dicey for them since their leaders are Hamas, a terrorist group, and they started firing thousands of rockets into Israel -- each one, with no true target, a war crime.

And then Israel, the mean old man with a gun telling the misbehaving kids to get off the lawn -- well -- made them get off the lawn. They bombed the crap out of blocks of Gaza -- going after Hamas leaders and stores of rockets.

Will this cycle ever end? Well -- a big game changer is that the Gulf States no longer support the Palis. As one British pundit wrote, the elite in the UAE wants to deal with the tech wizards in Tel Aviva, not the rock throwers in Gaza. Maybe that will finally change the calculus.

I hope so. No one wants to see dead children, whatever their background.

But I'm smiling today, thinking of my late father in law, Israeli military veteran and hero. On his gravestone, the inscription is his name, dates of birth and death, and the letters "IDF." That was the recognition he wanted. And damn if he wasn't spot on as to how things would play out.