Hamas’s October 7th attacks had more in common with a vengeful pogrom than a military action. Much more. It was outrageous terrorism of the most savage and inhuman variety and an unprecedented level of personalized slaughter.
I can’t speak for the Palestinian population inside Gaza, but suspect for many it might be extreme anger along the lines of “a pox on both of the their houses.” Both being Hamas’ leadership and the Israeli occupation and massive bombing response, which together have inflicted most of their damage and suffering on civilian targets.
The Only Solution . . .
The only solution to this conflict is a negotiated settlement. Both sides have dinosaur sized skeletons in their closet. The moral high ground in this present conflict was lost a long time ago.
We could debate who’s more in the right than in the wrong, and who threw the first stone, but that’s precisely what makes this war go on indefinitely.
It is my understanding that negotiations for the lives and welfare of the 200+ kidnapped hostages by Hamas are in progress. It’s time to not only negotiate their safe release, but to expand those talks to both resolve the conflict once and for all and prevent a much wider loss of life.
The cycle of violence has flared up every few years leading to both massive rocket attacks into Israel and massive terror bombing and loss of life for the mostly civilian population under military occupation in Gaza.
Heart of the Conflict
One conclusion which could have been reached some time ago is that the struggle between the Palestinians and Israel is a self-perpetuating conflict, like many wars, replete with frequent inhumanities and war crimes.
At the heart of the conflict are millions of Palestinian Arabs mostly of the Muslim and Christian faith, living in lands occupied by the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years competing with a large influx of Jewish settlers added to a smaller number of native Jews, the former motivated to escape persecution and genocidal conditions in Europe and as well as return Palestine to Jewish control as it was once over 2,000 years ago. Both competing for the same territorial lands and a state of their own since the Turks were defeated in WWI. Why should anyone have believed this would turn out OK?
War Breaks out
The original settlement proposed for the two parties by the U.N. after WWII was rejected by Arab interests, and worsening war-like conditions developed when a Jewish state was announced that accepted the U.N. proposal. And while the latter won the 1947-48-49 conflict, it hardly made for peaceful relations between the two opposing interests, which went down starkly different future paths.
Under the U.N. Proposal, even though Palestinian Arabs still had 2 times the Jewish population in 1948, they received only 44% of the land in two separate areas, which they never got control over from Jordan and Egypt to form an authentic state apparatus. Not surprisingly they rejected the U.N. proposal. Whether you believe that was justified or not may determine what side of the political fence you’re on. But it does nothing to resolve the problems still with us today.
The conflict has had its ebbs and flows, cease fires, wars, and escalations. It features a powerful modern country today with an advanced military machine opposed by a much lesser militarily one tied to hundreds of years living in an occupied, stateless condition.
An unhealthy arrangement which has produced 75 years of conflict and war. And largely silenced rational voices for a peaceful settlement in both Israel and the Arab world, one that both sides can negotiate and live with.
About Hamas
The unfitness of the Hamas leadership to lead their own people was clearly demonstrated by their October 7th pogrom-like revenge attacks on Israeli citizens and their totalitarian and repressive treatment of their own people in Gaza. They are best described in Hamas’ own original covenant’s words:
In The Name Of The Most Merciful Allah
. . . Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” . . .
The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews.
When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say, “O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.”
The above quoting is from this original covenant text from 1988.
To read the full revised 2017 covenant click here. It omits some of the worst anti-semitic references stated above. The charter allegedly accepted for the first time the idea of a Palestinian state within the borders that existed before 1967 but rejected recognition of Israel, which it terms as the "Zionist enemy".
Why Hamas Prevailed
After Hamas took over Palestinian leadership in a 2005 election from Fatah, formerly known as the Palestinian Liberation Movement, now headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, it appeared in some ways to be a god-send for both Hamas and the right wing in Israel who were both in practice opposed to a negotiated settlement of the conflict, perhaps for different reasons.
It was widely believed that Hamas was able to defeat the Fatah leadership at the polls because of the latter’s wide spread corruption in distributing aid to Palestine’s many impoverished refugees and because Hamas’ social wing had done a much better job providing social services.
It’s also worth mentioning that the right wing Israeli governments that followed literally surrounded parts of Gaza and blockaded it inside a perimeter from about 2007 to the present, 16 years! During this time, many war level conflicts erupted, mostly Palestinian rocket attacks fired into Israel and assassinations along with massive bombing attacks against Gaza by Israel, every few years. Each side blaming the other for throwing the first stone.
About the Irgun
I mention the Irgun’s ideology and structure as it was in the distant past because it remains in the dominating political picture right up to the present. Right wing terrorist groups like the Irgun began in 1931 during the period of British control of Palestine.
Irgun policies and beliefs stemmed from an extreme faction of Zionism and was based on, to summarize, a belief that every Jew, anywhere in the world, had a right to settle in Palestine and that only armed force would guarantee such a right. That armed force was expressed with via acts of terror directed against both the British and Palestinians.
War Beaks out in 1948
The Irgun developed into a highly organized and sophisticated para-military organization and opposed the more peaceful policies of mainstream Zionism and early Jewish settlers, and pre-1948 was believed to have been behind many terrorist attacks against the Palestinian population and even the British.
They remain a major ideological influence on the right wing in Israel up until today’s still explosive conflict. Menachem Begin, a former leader of the Irgun, even became the 6th prime minister of Israel.
Failed Negotiations
The failure to come to a peaceful settlement and agreement by both parties to the U.N. plan put forward in 1948 led to the Arab side declaring a formal state of war after the state of Israel was announced. Conflict became more or less constant after that war ended in a resounding victory for the Israeli forces, cementing the integration of the Irgun and other para military groups into the new country’s military defense forces known as the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) under Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister.
Controversial Statement
In a controversial statement allegedly said in private by Ben Gurion, as claimed by Nahum Goldman, a leading Zionist and founder of the World Jewish Congress, he remarked:
Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?
Believe it . . . or Not
Whether one believes that Ben Gurion statement was ever made or not, it does sum up the opposing perspectives that were dominant among the two sides that went to war in 1948. Those differing perspectives remain today. You don’t have to support either side’s current political platform to conclude that war will never lead to a peaceful or permanent solution to the conflicts that have haunted that region of the world.
Pathological Opposition
The framework of the conflict has worsened in numerous ways. Hamas has demonstrated in word and deed it’s unfitness and unwillingness to seek a negotiated settlement. The Israeli right has dominated Israel’s national politics and is also pathologically opposed to the concept of negotiation and compromise with a militarily weaker adversary.
Some think Netanyahu has cynically played a deliberate role in cementing Hamas control of Gaza, the twin motives being dividing the Palestinians and being able to perpetually justify avoiding peace negotiations and to establish firmer control over the Israeli government. It is also noteworthy that Hamas has dared not hold another election since 2005. Maintaining the authoritarian nature and rule of their backward extremist views.
Terrorism by any other Word is . . . still Terrorism
Israel had suffered relatively little loss of life from Hamas rockets up until the murderous October 7th ground attacks. Before that, Netanyahu had managed to justify his massive terror bombing of “100 Gaza Palestinians killed for each Israeli lost” as a “necessary deterrent strategy.”
Massive Bombing Campaigns
Such wide scale Gaza bombing occurred on several occasions (perhaps 4 by my count) before October 7th in Gaza since Hamas took control of it. You cannot convince me that bombing raids over a large densely populated city that destroy entire neighborhoods and kill thousands off non-combatants and children are justified, and are not also unspeakable acts of terrorism with genocidal intentions. They are reminiscent of American policy in Vietnam which increasingly turned to futile, criminal bombing attacks under Nixon.
Aspects of the occupation also include massive unemployment, poverty and the maintenance of inhuman living conditions, a state under which most Palestinians have been living under for decades and long before the deadly Hamas pogram of October 7th. The emergence of extremist groups and actions shock the conscience but are not surprising. We see them develop as well in advanced and stable industrial countries like our own and Israel.
Ever Greater Attacks Ordered
Netanyahu, as expected, has ordered even greater mass bombing missions since the October 7th Hamas attacks. He appears to be going back into Gaza ending his 14 year policy of blockading it and launching massive bombing raids but staying out of their occupationally.
Above all, Netanyahu seeks to maintain his own power by committing an even greater slaughter than Hamas has just perpetrated. He knows he’s in grave danger politically. And just might be willing to kill thousands more Palestinians to keep his hold on power. And has so far the internal support to do so.
Many in Israel and elsewhere have argued that these attacks are justified revenge attacks. But many also believe that Netanyahu and his right wing own the policy and outcome of blockading Hamas into Gaza for 14 years into a virtual jail cell that is Gaza, allowing them to build tunnels all through Gaza and move underground. Many go even further, quoting an article in Haaretz, an Iraeli news source: “The MO of Netanyahu’s policy since his return to the Prime Minister’s Office in 2009 has and continues to be, on the one hand, bolstering the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and, on the other, weakening the Palestinian Authority.
A Cynical, Failed Policy Some say is Genocidal
It is not only an abject failure, it has also resulted in increased radicalization and power to a known opponent of peace. Netanyahu’s government has clearly demonstrated its unfitness to lead.
Most Hamas leadership and fighters may not even be presently in Gaza since the October 7th massacres. The recent Palestinian body count at this writing is reported to be over 8,000 dead and rising, including an estimated 40% children. Living conditions have gone from atrocious to deadly.
Many groups maintain, including some Jewish groups in Israel, that present Israeli government policy towards the Palestinians has genocidal intentions and has met international criteria for it long before the October 7th Hamas attacks.
A cynical and deliberate policy that has further cemented into place the deplorable conditions in Gaza and served only to recruit more followers for Hamas and increase support for his own revenge killing of thousands.
Netanyahu’s massive bombing campaign is an effort to prove to Hamas and its leader, Ismail Haniyeh, that he can outdo them in the mass atrocities category.