It’s Hard to Say but Must Be Said for Israel-Hamas War
We are getting what we deserve
We want to believe that we want peace. It makes a good narrative; it gives legitimacy to violence.
The perpetrator says our violent means are a mandatory precursor to peace. Then they also say that violence begets violence and nothing else.
Jews were persecuted for centuries. During WWII, it more than passed its crescendo before the new world order emerged.
Ever since, Israel's dominance and atrocities have gained a sense of legitimacy. During wartime, Israel cuts water, food, and electricity supplies altogether; during peacetime, it rations food and electricity indiscriminately to Gazans.
Is oppression not an insidious form of terrorism?
Israel is like my boss at my place of work. He doesn’t break any rules, but his intentions are vicious. I can’t take it all lying down; when I retaliated, it was considered an act outside of professional decorum. The truth is, I was left with no other option—his actions brought about the worst in me.
The question is not whether my act was right or wrong; the question is: what else could I have done if I’m not a spineless man?
Hamas has nothing else but rockets and fighters who are happy to lose their lives. They have nothing else to lose.
The cradle of reprisal
With more than 2 million people cramped in a tiny piece of land, no economic activity, and an unemployment rate of 50%, Gazan’s have little to lose or fall back on.
The insecure and impoverished society breeds profusely—Gaza has one of the highest fertility rates outside the African continent.
Hamas, for sure, had no fantasies of toppling Israel with it’s thousand armed gunmen and a few thousand missiles. The raison d'être of Hamas is to provide hope to its citizens that their lives are not meaningless—they too have representation.
And in a David vs. Goliath contest, they can at least hurt the beast to redeem some semblance of identity.
When we analyze a situation as a neutral person, we tend to take the side of the weak. There is no denying the fact that Hamas’s act is barbaric and deserves retribution.
What did the last act of retribution bring forth? In 2022, 2014, and 2006, and back and back—to the beginning of time. We find reasons to blame or justify as per our side of the debate.
Muslims say the land was theirs, and Jews occupied it in plain sight. And to their utter chagrin, Israel gained legitimacy over their illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Some blame the British occupation for the current state. The U.N., too, barely did anything except stamp on the two-nation solution. The British Army departed from Palestine, leaving the Jews and the Arabs to fight it out in the war that followed.
The Arab world is at odds with Israel after it defeated them in the 1948 war and took control of 30% more land than was originally intended for it.
Israel wants to go farther back in history, when the Ottomans snatched their land, and back to the times of the Assyrians and Babylonians—2500 years back in history. Their rightful claim to this piece of land spans several hundred years of history.
A plain fact is digging into the past has not solved any of the world’s problems.
The enigma of peace
The closest we ever got to peace was in 1993, when the Oslo accord was signed after months of secret negotiations between Israel's Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and the PLO.
It fell apart due to internal political dissent, an outbreak of violent protests, and an overall lack of trust between both parties.
The right-wingers assassinated Rabin in 1995. We don’t see the assassinations of warlords and dictators for creating chaos and killings. We consider war an act of valor and peace a submission.
Egypt is not allowing a corridor for Palestinian refugees from Gaza because a mass exodus will dilute the cause of Palestinian nationhood. Letting mass killings happen to their brethren is more admissible than a possible nationhood consequence.
A cargo of life-saving medicines and supplies is waiting across the Rafah crossing, but the borders are firmly closed. Getting Israel to turn on water taps in a small part of Gaza is considered a concession.
There are no innocents in Gaza—this is Israel’s official response.
Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian President, was killed in 1981 because he signed the peace accord in 1979. It was to bring about the establishment of an autonomy regime in the West Bank and Gaza. It also provided the framework for peace between Israel and Egypt.
War, therefore, is a time-tested weapon in the hands of political leaders to become dictators. War brings about complete power and control for the tyrant.
Natenyahu has washed the intelligence failure of incomprehensible proportions with a full-scale war. Hamas doesn’t talk of administration. It launches missiles, orchestrates fighter suicide missions, and supplies hardline rhetoric.
And both are winning elections after elections.
The inevitable
The young generation in Gaza comprises 50% of its population. That’s over a million under 20 years of age. All they have seen are Hamas, missiles, and bombs.
There isn’t anything in them about life to cling on to. The scary visuals of people who don’t even cry for their deceased family members—they just sit by their side and recite verses of the Quran. Their tears have dried; their emotions are dead.
In that numbness is another war in the making.
Israel can steamroll Gaza easily. What will it do after that? The USA can retreat ignominiously but easily from Iraq and Afghanistan. They are thousands of kilometers away and pose no threat.
Israel shares the same air and water. They have no recourse. There will not be a retreat without devastation.
This war is laying the groundwork for a bigger war in the future. It is a process with no endings.
