The massacres underway in Gaza and nearby have been so ugly that it would be churlish – or worse – to nominate another victim. But Talleyrand is finding it hard to resist doing just that.
If anything should be put to rest, it should be the facile historical analogy.
Sometimes analogies are useful. Sometimes they are entertaining. Usually they are devices invented by lazy writers for lazier readers. And sometimes, therefore, they are dangerous.
For example, the following analogies are current for explaining (or rather, for not explaining) what is happening over Gaza:
‘September 11’ (2001)
‘Lebanon’ (1982)
‘Yom Kippur’ (1973)
‘Tet Offensive’ (1968)
‘Pearl Harbor’ (1941)
‘Sarajevo’ (1914)
And, of course, ‘Munich’ (1938).
Needless to say, none of these analogies augurs well.
If drawing analogies were a contest, one could suggest ‘King Philip’s War’ (1675). Civilisational discourse; atrocities, horrors, and outrages; stakes (land, survival, etc); collective punishment; ‘captivity narratives’; passion for ‘extermination’ – are all there.
But it is not a contest, not that sort of contest.
Fallujah?
Guernica!