The Israel-Hamas battle

 

I see with the current crisis in Israel we are once again into the predictable cycle: (1) terrorists attack Israel, (2) the world expresses outrage against the terrorists for a few days, (3) Israel tries to figure out how to stop the next attack, and (4) the world expresses outrage against Israel for whatever effort they come up with. Rinse and repeat.

It is remarkable how many commentators seem to be completely ignorant of history, and this certainly seems to include the student and academic circles these days. Yes, it was unfair of Israel (or actually, the British) to displace so many Palestinians in the first place when Israel was first established, but remember that Israel was established because Europe and Russia threw out the Jews and persecuted them with pogroms and finally the German Holocaust. And America wasn’t blameless in this either, since at the time we turned away boatloads of dispossessed Jews. In fact, it wasn’t fair that the Israelites conquered the land in the first place from the Canaanites, nor that the Romans then drove the Jews out of Israel 2000 years ago, nor that the Muslims later overrun the area and built a mosque right on top of the most sacred site for the Jews, the site of the second temple in Jerusalem. One can imagine how the Muslim world would feel if the Jews built a Jewish temple on top of the Kaaba in Mecca. Fairness is simply a useless concept in a history as tangled as that of the land of Israel, conquered repeatedly by one wave of invaders after another over the centuries.

Then there is the argument that Israel’s response is disproportionate. What is the proportionate response to a mass terrorist attack killing hundreds or thousands of civilians? The 9/11 attacks against America took down two buildings in New York. In response, we took down two whole nations (Afghanistan and Iraq). Was that “proportional” enough? If Mexico started firing rockets into LA, what do you suppose the American “proportional” response would be?

Yes, it is true that the Palestinians in Gaza seemed to be incapable of governing themselves, at least to the extent of preventing Hamas from doing something stupid that got them bombed every few years. Looking at the clown show in the American Congress these days, from politicians that we the voters elected, I don’t think we are in a position to be judgmental. It is unfortunate that the Palestinians in Gaza are in the hands of a ruthless group like Hamas. But while the world feels for them (or at least claims it does), it certainly doesn’t seem to feel the need to help Gaza to throw off the yoke of Hamas. It is worth remembering that Israel tried to govern Gaza, but under (probably unwise) world pressure withdrew from Gaza in 2005 to let them govern themselves, after which Gaza promptly fell under the harsh rule of extremists. Hamas, remember, when in 2006 they took over from Fatah in Gaza, threw many of the Fatah leaders off high buildings.

And yes, Israel is in the hands of a hard-right government at the moment, with some really fairly nutty parties in the coalition. Again, given the nuttiness of some of our own far-right- and far-left political extremists these days, and given that we may well unwisely elect a convicted felon as president in our next election, are we in any position to judge them?

Yes, the Israeli government has made some questionable choices, especially about expanding settlements into Palestinian areas. Again, looking at our own American history, are we in any position to call the kettle black? Governments are fallible, and government leaders sometimes are foolishly mislead by their own ideologies (Putin, I’m looking at you). That is nothing new in history.

Yes, Israel’s response will no doubt cause some inadvertent civilian deaths, perhaps even many of them. If anyone has figured out how to wage war in urban areas without civilian casualties, especially if the opponent is using civilians as shields and hostages, they certainly haven’t advertised it. The American military certainly hasn’t figured out how to wage war without civilian casualties, so it seems pretty unfair to criticize Israel on this account. And notice that Israel does try its best to warn civilians before striking, something the terrorists certainly don’t do.

Israel is in an impossible position, with mortal enemies embedded in territory right in the midst of its lands, and Arab enemies on all its borders. Enemies sworn to wipe Israel off the map entirely. Imagine if, say, the Midwest of America was inhabited by mortal enemies who constantly sent terrorists across the border and fired rocket into adjoining American cities, and that Canada and Mexico were also mortal enemies. That is roughly what Israel faces.

And then there is the fact that the Palestinian cause is such a handy issue for everyone from Arab and Persian (Iran, I’m looking at you!) governments to American activists and politicians to use cynically as a tool to advance their own interests and agendas, (and incidentally, often to give cover to their own obvious antisemitism) when in fact most of them really don’t give a hoot about the Palestinians themselves, and will happily ignore them or throw them under the bus as soon as they are no longer useful.

The level of hypocrisy, and of ignorance, displayed in so many of the media and political commentaries on this unfortunate affair boggles the mind. But then, antisemitism is so firmly embedded in so many cultures, including unfortunately our own, that I suppose nothing Israel does will escape criticism.

There is no good response to this terrorist attack. Wiping out Hamas for good, if they can actually manage it, is probably the best of a series of bad choices, despite the massive casualties on both sides that will probably result. The next time Hamas might have a bootleg nuclear weapon, and they certainly wouldn’t hesitate to use it, so any government worth its salt (in Israel or anywhere else) owes it to its people to do the best that it can to prevent a repeat of this kind of terrorism, despite the costs.