With Friends Like These; You Better Get Some Enemies

 Let’s give credit where credit is due. Donald Trump looks like he might actually have stopped the fighting in the Unholy Land. Yes, there is undoubtedly much to criticize about his peace plan but for the moment, we should just be grateful that there’s been an end of the mindless slaughter. Israel’s hostages are being released and everyone seems happy. How long this happy state of affairs last is anyone’s guess but at least we have the moments of peace that we have.

What’s become clear though is that this entire war should never have happened in the first place. The entire Israeli justification of “self-defense” was anything but to anyone with the good fortune of not being a Western politician. Yes, Hamas was horrible in executing its actions of October 7, 2023. However, an inconvenient truth came out on October 8, 2023 in the Israeli press that Hamas would never have had the capabilities to do what it did were it not for its convenient backer – Israel’s perpetual Prime Minister, Mr. Benyamin Nethanyahu:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/

 

 Let’s face it, Mr. Netanyahu built his entire political brand on ensuring that there would be no peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He was an opponent of the Oslo Accords and the underlying principle of “Land for Peace.” Since, Oslo was signed with the more moderate Palestinian Authority, Mr. Netanyahu found ways to back Hamas with the sole purpose of weakening the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Netanyahu turned a blind eye to the car loads of cash being funneled to Hamas.

It's not like Hamas were very subtle about their intentions. Hamas’s charter clearly calls for the destruction of Israel, even if its more moderate members tried to reframe it as “recognizing the reality of Israel.”

So, why would a man selling himself as the only one strong enough to keep Israel safe, support a group that clearly calls for the destruction of Israel? The answer lies in an unfortunate truism that extremist need their polar opposites to survive. The opposite number justifies their existence. Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant need Hamas as much Hamas needs them. The Netanyahu-Gallant end of Israeli politics represses the Palestinian territories in the name of security whereas Hamas attacks Israel in the name of stopped repression. The cycle is inevitably endless.

It's not that nobody tried to change. Unfortunately, every leader in the region has seen what happens when you try and break the cycle. Your “own side” will end up gunning you down. Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian president who signed the Camp David Accords in 1978, making the Arab world’s most populous nation the first to achieve peace with Israel was gunned down by the Muslim Brotherhood:

https://en.topwar.ru/101653-pokushenie-na-prezidenta-kak-tridcat-pyat-let-nazad-ubili-anvara-sadata.html

 

 

Then, fast forward nearly two decades to 1994. An Israeli Prime Minister, who had spent his whole life fighting for Israel’s peace reached out to his life long enemy in the PLO, Yasir Arafat and signed the Oslo Accords. Yitzhak Rabin found that swopping land brought peace and security and after he signed peace with the Palestinians, he reached out to the late King Hussain of Jordan and signed the second ever peace treaty with an Arab Nation that Israel once fought.

Rabin’s reward for giving peace and security to Israel was to be assassinated by an Israeli extremist settler, whose brother shows no remorse for his role in the murder:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/9245468/Accomplice-to-killer-of-Israeli-leader-Yitzhak-Rabin-defiant-after-release-from-prison.html

 

So, the lesson is clear, change results in death – specifically your own. In a land that the Abrahamic Faiths call Holy, nobody with power worries about the afterlife and everyone focuses on the here and now. Mr. Netanyahu knows that stepping down means a corruption trial. Hamas’s leaders know that being reasonable will get them shot.

The war had two clear winners. Mr. Netanyahu wins in as much as he’s going to stay in power. Israel’s increasing international isolation is just an unfortunate price to be paid. The extremist in Hamas also wins. Now, they have plenty of recruits, angry at the nation that kept them down and blew their lives away.

Compare what happens in Gaza with what happened in Northern Ireland. There, extremists were not allowed to win. The Ulster Unionist were pushed by the British Government to sign peace agreements and America stopped allowed Sinn Fein and the IRA to get gun money. The Irish Government made it clear that it was in no rush to take over. All parties fought for compromise and today, the “troubles” are left in comedy series like “Derry Girls” as Northern Ireland looks for things like fintech investment.