Tom Kando
(References in this piece are to David Remnick’s article In the Cities of Killing published in the New Yorker on November 6, 2023)
It has been over a month since Hamas’ attack ignited the current war and prompted Israel to retaliate with a vengeance. On October 7, Hamas invaded southern Israel and murdered fourteen hundred inhabitants of kibbutzim such as Kfar Aza and Be’eri and revelers at the Nova music festival. Babies were beheaded, parents were executed in front of their children, rape and other atrocities were committed. Over two hundred and forty hostages were taken, and remain in Hamas custody. Some of the civilian inhabitants of Northern Gaza followed the terrorists into Israel and participated in the slaughter and plunder. Hamas labeled the event the Al-Aqsa Flood. Israel calls it Black Saturday. History may remember it as October 7, as America remembers 9/11.
Within a few days, Israel’s IDF began a bombing campaign against Gaza, a campaign of increasing ferocity. It told the one million Palestinians who live in Northern Gaza to evacuate the area, which was identified as the target area. In fact, all of Gaza became the target. Leaving the northern part to find safety elsewhere was an impossibility. Hence, hundreds of children, women and other non-combatants were killed every day, thousands every week. Entire neighborhoods were pulverized, including hospitals, refugee camps, shopping areas and residential housing.
Hamas and its supporters have vowed to destroy Israel. Its charter remains clear: Its basic goal is the total elimination of Israel, “”from the river to the sea.” Their ultimate ambition, as that of supporters such as Hezbollah and Iran, is the elimination of the “Zionist entity.” In 2001, a founder of Hamas said that “the goal is to establish an Islamic state in Palestine, in Egypt, in Lebanon, in Saudi Arabia, everywhere, under a single Caliphate...we will not tolerate a non-Islamic state on Islamic lands.” (P.33).
Israel is permitting practically no humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. The supplies of water, medicine, food and fuel to two and a half million people are approaching zero. Mass death from starvation, disease and bombings is imminent.
The world continues to see a sharp rise in anti-Semitism: According to FBI director Christopher Wray, hate crimes against Jews make up 60% of all religious hate crimes in the US, where Jews make up 2.4% of the population. The original Hamas covenant describes Jews as “cunning, greedy, seeking world domination, as starting the First World War and the Second World War in order to make huge profits from trading war material” (p. 34)
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet’s planned solution to the crisis is to continue indiscriminate bombing indefinitely, or at least until all the hostages are freed. Their stated goal is the total destruction of Hamas. They do not contemplate any temporary cease-fire, arguing that this would be tantmount to surrender.
In 2005, Israel evacuated Gaza. Two years later, Hamas established its rule over that territory. Instead of using its significant resources (including generous aid from wealthy Arab states) to develop Gaza into a prosperous and peaceful territory, Hamas proceeded to arm itself to the teeth and to devote itself to chronic war with Israel. In a way, this was an experiment in “two-states coexistence “ and it failed..
The Netanyahu government has turned its back on any “two-state solution.” It has encouraged the continued and increasingly uncontrolled colonization of the West Bank by hardline orthodox Jewish settlers. Netanyahu also bears responsibility for being caught off-guard by the October 7 attack, despite Israel’s vaunted Mossad and its past excellence in intelligence. The prime minister and his cronies were too busy trying to reduce the power of the Israeli Supreme Court, and other shenanigans.
Remnick writes that “the task of holding in one’s head multiple thoughts - multiple facts (is) nearly impossible.” (p. 41).
The tragedy of October 7 was quickly glossed over by a majority of the public, which now focuses almost exclusively on Israel’s disproportionate response. Israel’s fight is existential, as its enemies stated goal is the country’s total elimination.
As secretary of state Antony Blinken said, “there will be no partners for peace if (Israel) is consumed by humanitarian catastrophe and....indifferent to the plight (of the Palestinians...)”
When the Ukraine war began, I wrote here that NATO going to war against Russia was not an option. This was not because I sympathized with Russia, but because escalation towards a nuclear World War Three was unthinkable. I now write in the same vein.
October 7 and its aftermath have made the problem more difficult and the solution more remote. Positions are hardening. The realization of a two-state solution and the peaceful coexistence of Jews and Palestinians seem more remote than ever. The current crisis radicalizes both sides, strengthening the Right and support for Netanyahu in Israel, and anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism elsewhere. Diplomacy, compromise and negotiations have become less likely. Israel may make the same mistakes which the US made after 9/11, and its enemies seem to be ready for all-out war.
The past cannot be changed. Only the future can. The rise of Zionism, great power agreements in the previous century and the creation of Israel in 1948 are accomplished facts. Today, America remains the only conceivable broker in this mess. Today, both sides speak of war as the solution. This must change, even as the problem has become much more intractable.
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