There is a term I've learned in discussing gun violence in the U.S. that seems relevant to this moment in Gaza.
When talking about suicide attempts by gun, we don't like to say that the percentage of "successful" suicides is higher but rather that there are more "completed" suicides when using a gun than with other methods (because no completed suicide is a successful resolution to whatever the causes – mental, familial, economic – that precipitated it).
This use of terms comes to mind when reading that, so far, 2,350 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza during the current crisis. Thanks to Iron Dome and Israel's efforts to build bunkers and safe rooms to protect it's civilian population, those rockets have been largely unsuccessful in their goal.
Without Iron Dome, without the Red Alert system, without Israelis opening their homes and safe spaces to each other, and without Hamas' incredibly bad rocket targeting skills… Hamas and its terrorist cells in Gaza would have successfully completed 2,350 attempted murders these past few weeks… and we'd be having a completely different conversation about the current situation, whatever you want to say about the causes – Israeli or Palestinian – that led up to this moment.
p.s. Now might be an excellent time to thank your members of Congress for the $720 million in American funding that helped make Iron Dome possible, thereby saving countless Israeli lives. Also, you can encourage their support of additional funding for this program.
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