An Eye for an Eye makes the World go Blind

 

The current war between Israel and Hamas has been an exceedingly emotive affair. If you look any social media feed, you will see plenty of horror stories from both sides. Israelis and their Western friends point to the brutal slaughter of civilians and the hostage taking. The Palestinians and the Islamic world have been pointing to the fact that Gaza has been starved and bombed.

Unfortunately, this is a case where both sides are wrong and at the same time, they have a point. There is no other way of describing the attacks on 7 October 2023 as anything other than barbaric. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians went beyond any justification of resistance and its understandable that public opinion in Israel is for vengeance.

At the same time, the bombing of the Gaza strip, which has killed even more innocent people has gone beyond any form of “self-defense.” In addition to the bombing, Gaza has been  deliberately starved and humanitarian aid was been blocked. The only way you can argue that this hurts Hamas is that it will wipe out most of the population of the Gaza strip.

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-gaza-hamas-war-netanyahu/

 

 This is Horrific

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/10/16/israel-refuses-ceasefire-carries-out-most-intensive-bombings-of-gaza-yet/

 

 But this is not the answer

If you look at the root of the problem, you’ll realise that it is caused by the fact that both sides have a point and both sides are wrong. Every atrocity committed is justified by an atrocity committed by the other. What is needed is for someone to break this vicious cycle.

Let’s face it, most places in the West are sympathetic to the Israelis and the phrase “our nine-eleven” is now being widely used, particularly when Israeli politicians meet the Western, or more specifically the American media. However, as the journalist, Medhi Hassan (who is Muslim, born and raised in the UK but now holds US citizenship) points out – the lessons of September 11 are not being learnt. After the Twin Towers were felled, the American public was justifiably angry and wanted revenge. The President of the time, George W Bush vowed to wage “War Against Terrorism” and the “Axis of Evil.” How well did this global campaign against the “evils of terrorism” work. The Invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussain led to the creation of ISIS, which made Saddam Hussain look like a Teddy Bear. As for the Invasion of Afghanistan, the US has in twenty-years of occupying the country, spending some twenty trillion (nearly the GDP of China, its main geopolitical competitor) and countless American lives, left with the Taliban back in charge.

So, leaving aside the morality of bombing the Gaza strip, there is no evidence to suggests that bombing and starving the Gaza strip is going to rid the world of Hamas or improve Israel’s security. If anything, the bombings are either going to help Hamas recruit more people or strengthen someone even more radical.

One only has to watch that brilliant Israeli series, “Fauda” to understand that Israel needs to make the first move. As shown in Fauda, the Palestinian side is “reactive” and “emotional” when its nasty. The Israelis are calculative when they are nasty. As much as most of us who grew up in the Western influenced world believe Israeli to be the bullied “non-Muslim” small kid in the neighborhood; that is not the reality on the ground. As much as everyone is talking about the other side being “backed by Iran,” the reality is that Israel is considerably more powerful than the enclaves of the West Bank and the Gaza strip and happens to be backed by the USA and just about every rich and powerful European country.

So, it is the so called “rational” and “powerful” side that needs to take the first step. This is the side that has the capability of bothering to find out why the other side is reactive, which is a point often made by Israeli journalist like Amira Hass.

Again, the solution was clear. Land for peace works. The late Yitzhak Rabin showed that it was possible. He could tell the Israeli public that they needed to give up land in order to be secure. Mr. Rabin, for the record, was a decorated solider – he actually proved he was a damn good fighter. Unfortunately, he was assassinated by a Jewish Settler.

Nobody has ever said that Israel does not have the right to defend itself. However, Israel has to play by the same rules as everyone else. Let’s go back to the issue of land for peace. On 30 April 2001, the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee Report chaired by then US Senator George Mitchel (the man who pushed and got peace in Northern Ireland) proposed that “The GOI should freeze all settlement activity, including the "natural growth" of existing settlements,” as one of the key elements required to achieve peace.

https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/nea/rls/rpt/3060.htm

The idea is simple, strengthen the Palestinian leaders who are willing to negotiate so you can negotiate. Even Hamas has its radical and moderate elements. In 2006, when Hamas won an election and acknowledged the “reality of Israel,” not withstanding its charter to destroy the Jewish State, the first reaction of the Bush Administration was to impose sanctions thus making it impossible for the moderates to do anything and strengthening the extremist.

Nobody denies that the slaughter of children on October 7 was horrible and should be condemned. Nobody says that Israel should not go after the perpetrators. Bombing and starving the Gaza strip is not the way to do it. It will only sure that there will be a repeat on this incident.