The Gaza Conflict Gerry OShea
James
Baldwin, the great writer and civil rights leader, reflecting on the origin of
most wars wrote, "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in
them.” His words certainly resonate throughout the Middle East when we think of
the unending conflicts between Shia and Sunni or Jews and Arabs.
I read
recently about an event that happened back in 1956 at a kibbutz located near a
border fence where Palestinian fighters attacked the Jewish settlement. A
security officer named Roi Rotberg confronted the attackers but lost his life
in the ensuing fracas.
Moshe Dayan,
then Israel’s chief of the general staff, happened to be in that neighborhood
attending a wedding and was asked to give an oration at Rotberg’s funeral.
Speaking of the
Palestinian killers he asked: “Why should we complain of their hatred of us?
Eight years they sat in the refugee camps of Gaza and saw in front of their
eyes how we turned their lands and the villages where they and their
forefathers once dwelled into our homeland.”
Israeli
leaders no longer articulate this magnanimous perspective. Dayan was not
advocating a right of return for the displaced community; in fact, he ended his
speech by arguing that Israelis had to prepare themselves for what he dubbed a
permanent and bitter war.
These words are
particularly prescient because that area, Nahal Oz, where Rotberg was killed in
1956 now consists of a 300-metre buffer zone with several layers of razor-wire
fences. Over 200 Palestinian fighters were shot dead in a battle there during
the outbreak in 2018-2019, and hundreds more were injured.
In 2006
Hamas won around 40% of the vote in Gaza. It took political control under the
watchful eye of the Israeli army which controlled provisions of food, medicine,
electricity and petrol. Almost half of Gaza’s population is unemployed and close
to 80% depend on aid to meet daily needs.
On October 7th
hundreds of Hamas fighters breached the boundary between Israel and Gaza. The
scenes of devastation are spoken about as being beyond description. Children
were killed in their homes, babies taken from their mothers’ arms, and old
people slaughtered in their living rooms.
Three nearby
kibbutzim were ravaged with scenes of death and desolation all around. The
streets of the nearby city of Sderot were littered with corpses. The vast
majority of the 1200 or so who were killed were civilians with no ties to the
Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). In addition, around 240 Israelis – young and old -
were taken as hostages by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants.
We read too of
women being raped as part of the devastation. Later the IDF admitted that they
had no evidence of that horrible crime happening during the raids or afterward.
Similarly, the IDF couldn’t confirm rumors that 40 babies were beheaded during
an attack on one of the kibbutzim. Exaggerating the tale of the human wreckage only
heightens the anger and hatred.
Why did
nobody see the attack coming? Israelis told themselves that they needn’t worry
about a surprise attack because their system of surveillance, including an
extensive network of informers in Gaza, was the envy of every other country in
the Middle East.
According to
the Associated Press, Hamas carried out trial runs of their plans in plain
sight and even posted videos of these practice attacks online for weeks before
the massacre. In addition, the Egyptian secret service passed along an alert to
their Israeli counterparts days before the attack but this important information
was not taken seriously.
Iran was seen
in the top power echelons in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as their greatest threat,
not the beleaguered and impoverished Palestinians who were viewed disdainfully as
incapable of mounting any kind of meaningful attack against the most heavily
fortified country in the region. It was this arrogance bred over years of
occupation and apartheid rule that led to the intelligence failure of October 7th.
In a
revealing interview on Sky News, the former Israeli prime minister, Naftali
Bennett, remonstrated with the reporter interviewing him “What is wrong with
you? We are fighting Nazis.”
This hateful
rhetoric is part of the language of the right in Israel. A few years ago, the
prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, made the amazing suggestion that the Nazis might
have deported rather than exterminated the Jews in Europe until the mufti of
Jerusalem intervened and put the Final Solution into Hitler’s head.
Each side,
Palestinians and Israelis, demonizes and dehumanizes the other, which,
unfortunately, is part of the verbiage associated with every war. Hamas despises
Jews to the extent that they want to obliterate them all based on their ethnic and
religious identity while Israeli leaders frequently resort to comparing their
Arab enemies to various brute animals who should not be treated as human
beings.
Netanyahu’s
days are numbered as prime minister. According to a poll conducted by the Israeli
newspaper Maariv, 84% of the people blame him for making Hamas’ atrocities
possible, and more than half say he should resign after the war. The highly
rated investigative journalist Raviv Drucker predicts he will be swept out of
power at the next opportunity.
The impact
of the war on American politics is less sure. For some, President Biden’s
vigorous support for Israel is resented including his quick October visit to
embrace President Netanyahu who is not popular with Biden’s liberal base. The
president is viewed as giving a benediction to the aerial strafing of Gaza which
has resulted in over 11,000 deaths, including close to 4500 children.
The foreign
policies pursued by any government in Washington usually have only a minimal
impact on voting preferences in presidential elections. However, with emotions
running high about the carnage that began in October, this situation may well
have a major impact on the voters in swing states, especially Michigan.
The Israelis
will, of course, assert their military superiority in Gaza. But what do they do
then? The core problem there is political and not amenable to a military
solution. Israelis will never know security as long as Palestinians remain
under their boot. Hamas likewise should release all the hostages immediately.
Only America
can end the continuation of Gaza as a tinder box. Only Biden can call the
parties together and insist on working out details of a two-state solution that
honors the legitimate priorities of both sides, negotiating as equals.
A tall order
for sure but the alternative is unthinkable. This uphill drive for peace could become
President Biden’s greatest leadership achievement.
Gerry
OShea blogs at weustbetalking.com
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