The conflict will only grow as Hamas has taken over a hundred hostages and Israel has mobilized hundreds of thousands of soldiers and reservists in preparation for a ground operation. The U.S. has sent an aircraft carrier to the region in order to support Israel and discourage other hostile actors.

Hamas’s attack came on the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and was clearly planned for months. That conflict decades ago resulted in tens of thousands of casualties and wounded in less than 3 weeks.

I fear that this conflict will extend well past that length of time and incur even greater human cost.

President Joe Biden gave an impassioned speech about America’s continued commitment to Israel. At the same time, House Republicans are engaged in a contest to determine the next Speaker and key military appointments – including two picks for the Joint Chiefs and officers leading US forces in the Middle East – are stalled in the Senate for political reasons. American institutions are sputtering and our dysfunction may hurt our ability to help a close ally in its time of need.

Lost in the shuffle right now are continued aid to Ukraine and making sure the government can pay its bills in mid-November, priorities that seemed very serious before the prospect of war in the Middle East descended and put everything in a different perspective.

The human suffering is devastating. I know people who are close to the conflict and the personal toll is clear and heartbreaking. Parents looking for family members and frantic calls that sometimes go unanswered. The comparison has been made between this attack and 9/11 22 years ago, and I think the comparison is apt; the unthinkable has been made real and the world is changed in a way that will never again be the same.

Prayers for the families affected and a safe journey home for those who are now apart from their loved ones,