Truth Is A Casualty DAN RATHER AND ELLIOT KIRSCHNER OCT 18 (Photo by Belal Khaled) Truth is the first casualty of war, as the saying goes.  There’s a brutal irony that the truth of this sentiment survives every war.  And here we are once more.  The latest example is a scene of horror — hundreds dead after a massive explosion at a Gaza hospital. Each side in this rapidly escalating conflict places blame for the carnage on the other. As of this newsletter’s writing, the clarity — the truth — of what took place remains shrouded in the fog of war (another repeated phrase that’s constantly proven). The U.S. National Security Council has reportedly assessed that Israel is not responsible for the blast. We will have to await a final verdict, but will it be decisive? Will it be believed? What we do know already is that the death toll of civilians is immense. That is the most important and immediate tragedy. It is sickening to think of the families torn apart, as it was sickening to think of those slaughtered in Israel by the murderous terrorists of Hamas, who sparked this conflagration that now risks engulfing the Middle East.  As an already bloody and volatile war careens even farther in dangerous directions, clarity around what is transpiring can be illusive. There are multiple lenses through which to view this war and the larger circumstances that laid the groundwork for what we are witnessing. We can view it in light of the tortured history of the Jews and the very founding of the state of Israel in the wake of World War II. Many have noted that Hamas’s slaughter of innocent civilians marked the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. It takes a moment for that truth to register, and it places this moment in a litany of tragic days for a long-persecuted people.  At the same time, there is the plight of the Palestinians, who have also suffered for decades and generations. They have their own list of days of mass death — including at the hands of Arab leaders. Yesterday’s tragedy will now be added to this sad tally, along with the days that preceded it and the days that will almost inevitably follow.  There is always a vortex of volatility around war. And destabilizing forces can emanate far beyond the immediate theater of combat. This is even more true in this digital age. If truth has historically been the first casualty of war, that danger is being amplified at warp speed by the misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories that explode on unfiltered social media platforms with instantaneous global virality. The added specter of generative artificial intelligence makes one wonder how much further accepted notions of truth will be debased.  No matter what is ricocheting online, we still live in a world rooted in inescapable reality. This war is all too real. And so too are its complicated causes and uncertain next steps. There are numerous unknowns that can plunge the region into even greater chaos. How and when do Israeli troops move into Gaza? Does Hezbollah attack northern Israel? Does Iran become more directly involved? And, perhaps most terrifying of all, what are the questions we can’t even predict? Into this chasm, President Biden has now traveled. What had once been envisioned as a diplomacy effort, entailing meetings with both Arab and Israeli leaders, has been thrown off track by yesterday’s mass death. But it is essential that the contours of the war, as fraught as they now are, do not crowd out a path for peace, as narrow as it may seem. In public comments, Biden has tried both to support Israel and to acknowledge the immediate and long-term trauma to the Palestinians. What have he and his administration communicated privately, to Israel and to others? This could get worse, much worse, depending on what those fighting or currently sitting on the sidelines decide to do. But there could also be actions that prevent the worst from happening and maybe even turn a corner toward deescalation.  War creates a momentum all its own. It is literally a matter of life and death, and as casualties mount, so do pain and hatred. War has a habit of fueling more war. The spigot, once opened, tends to run with increased ferocity. But eventually this war will end, or at least be paused. What will we be looking at then? President Biden and the United States are deeply involved in this conflict. Israel has always been an important ally. The president and other government officials were right to issue immediate forceful condemnations of the carnage from Hamas. Now two American carrier groups have been deployed to the region to try to stave off further spread of war.  But this involvement must also include impressing upon the Israeli leadership the various costs incurred by how they wage this war. It is not clear what that country’s plan is, either for the deployment of troops or what might follow. While Israel was brutally attacked and has every right to defend itself, it still, as President Biden and other supporters have emphasized, needs to act within the laws of war. This is the moral thing to do, and it is also a strategic imperative.  These are the hard truths in a war where the truth is already a casualty.