The last thing a writer wants to say is “I have no words.” But in the case of the latest Hamas terrorism inside Israel, I’m close. Oh, I have words alright, but none that adequately describe the horror, the outrage. Truly, how do you voice a response to the deliberate murder of babies, the slaughter of unarmed civilians in their hundreds? Does “barbaric” do the job? What about “disgusting,” “horrific,” “repugnant,” “disgraceful?” No words I can think of convey the horrors of the deeds, the anguish of the victims and the anger in response.
But whatever words we choose, “evil” shouldn’t be one of them. It’s been used by as disparate figures as Joe Biden and liberal journalist Bari Weiss, but shouldn’t be. Why? Because, if something is evil, no response to it can be too extreme, which brings us to the supreme irony: “evil” is also what Hamas calls Israel and Israelis, and that is exactly what allowed them to commit the atrocities of the past week.
Are they wrong and we right? What exactly do they mean? Perhaps the murder of hundreds of Palestinian Arabs in the 1940s by Zionist terrorists and the violent displacement of thousands more? Maybe the 1982 slaughter of as many as 3,500 Muslims in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps for which the Israeli government admitted responsibility. Possibly the more than 200 Palestinians killed so far this year in the West Bank or the forcible removal of Palestinians to make way for Israeli settlements. What say you Mr. Biden, Ms. Weiss? Should we, like many Palestinians, call those Zionist and Israeli perpetrators evil? If not, why not? If so, what is to be done?
Twenty-two years ago, Gore Vidal wrote in Vanity Fair about Timothy McVeigh, the man who, in 1995, detonated a bomb outside the federal building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people. Vidal’s words are as true and needed now as then.
Since McVeigh had been revealed as evil itself, no one was interested in why he had done what he had done. But then “why” is a question the Media are trained to shy away from. Too dangerous. One might actually learn why something had happened and become thoughtful.
Yes, to paste the label “evil” on another is to relieve oneself of the burden of further inquiry. With evil, there is no “why.” Evil doers do evil because, well, they’re evil. There is no cause, no “why.” And to ask “why” is to court thoughtfulness, rationality, to exit the comfortable clarity of black-and-white and enter the boundless, pathless gray.
Now is the time of maximal outrage. Of course it is. But because of that very thing, it is more than ever also the time for the coolest consideration about how best to proceed. But, in many quarters, exactly the opposite is happening. Israel has already cut water and power supplies to Gaza City, bodies are piling up in hospitals that have no way to preserve or dispose of them and medical officials are warning of an infectious disease epidemic. No one seems to want Gaza refugees, making the evacuation of 1.1 million people itself a potential humanitarian disaster. Israel may simply level all of Gaza City and use massive “bunker busting” bombs to destroy Hamas militants hundreds of feet underground rendering the whole city a wasteland. What will happen to 2 million Gazans then?
Many people want Hamas destroyed, but is it possible without countless other deaths perhaps by starvation and disease, the anguish drawn out over months or years? Out of such a disaster would come the next generation of Palestinian militants, as determined and murderous as the present one. Perhaps more so.
But the dogs of our political “leadership” are baying for blood. Nikki Haley calls for Netanyahu to “finish them,” Congressman Ben Crenshaw feverishly imagines a “war to end all wars” and Senator Lindsey Graham urges the president to bomb Iran.
Haley especially imagines the impossible – that somehow Israel can locate, isolate and kill every member of Hamas. It can’t, but more importantly, she ignores one obvious fact – that, while Hamas is an organization that perhaps can be destroyed, it’s also a face of a movement, one that will only sprout again from fields irrigated by Hamas blood. Does any serious person imagine that, with Hamas dispatched to the dustbin of history, the Palestinian cause will simply vanish? Anger and righteous indignation make bad policy.
Meanwhile, the current spate of terrorism is part of a larger picture, one that Iran would like the world to unsee.
I think two developments explain why Iran encouraged Hamas to attack Israel and at this time. First, the Biden Administration has been, for months, trying to build on the success of the Trump Administration’s Abraham Accords that normalized diplomatic relations among Israel, Morocco, Bahrain, the UAE and possibly Sudan. It’s trying to do something similar with Saudi Arabia, a move that, if successful, could significantly undermine Iranian power in the region.
Second, the fascistic theocracy that rules Iran has never been in such danger as it is now from its own people who seek an end to the police state imposed on them. The “Woman, Life, Freedom” demonstrations have been going on for over a year and, whether ultimately successful or not, show a regime in open conflict with vast numbers of its people, and more and more held in place by naked force.
For that regime, an overly aggressive response to Hamas by Israel, one that, for example, causes the deaths of large numbers of civilians or that precipitates a humanitarian crisis, would be a positive outcome. It could discourage Saudi Arabia from normalizing relations with Israel and divert the attention of Iranian demonstrators away from their oppression at home and toward Palestinian suffering in Gaza – a win-win, albeit a profoundly cynical one.
Whatever happens in the next weeks, whatever the fate of Hamas, the issue of Palestinian Arabs will not go away. Since 1947, when the U.N.’s Plan of Partition for the British Mandate was accepted by Jews and rejected by Arab states, that issue has simmered near and, as now, beyond, the boiling point. Seventy-six years later, it’s still the closest anyone’s come to addressing the issue of Israel and Palestine. But Arab and Muslim states can no longer ignore the Palestinian problem. Any solution will require their input and cooperation, including, probably, assimilation of Palestinians into their societies and clamping down on anti-Israeli terrorism.
We’re a long way from that now, but maybe, just maybe, the Camp David Peace Accords, the Abraham Accords and a potential agreement with Saudi Arabia will help clear the way toward curbing anti-Israeli terrorism and a peaceful future.
For now, though, Israel needs to keep in mind that, as legitimate as its desire for revenge is, the long game demands a measured response.
Hmm. You say the piece is uninformed, but offer nothing to back up your assertion. I'm intrigued because there's not a word in my piece that's not either accurate or an informed opinion.
Well, I can give you a bit of a response.
Let's start with the first 2 assertions in 1 sentence "Perhaps the murder of hundreds of Palestinian Arabs in the 1940s by Zionist terrorists and the violent displacement of thousands more? "
Without attacking your # for the murdered Arabs, (there were 117, not hundreds), that is a loss of innocent life and it is reprehensible. Many communities have lost civilians without using the injustice as a source for generations to follow. I would direct you to the increasingly large number of Jews in Germany and the good relations between Israel and Germany. Yes, Germany has done a great deal to own up to their Holocaust history, as Israel has for this murder spree.
Check here for the Expulsion Myth https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myths-and-facts-the-refugees#e
You reference the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Again, leaving aside the issue of whether these are camps or filled with refugees ( these are towns with an economy and long-term residents who are not free to return to Jordan, Egypt nor Lebanon, all arab states), the Israelis were responding to massive and long term terror campaign emanating from those places. There were 6,000 foreign mercenaries, from Chad, Libya, Mozambique, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka hired by the Palestinian Arabs to terrorize the Israeli villages.
Please ask why the Palestinian Arabs have not conspired to eliminate by murder all of Syria due to a 1985 attack on the same camps by Muslim militiamen. According to UN officials, 635 were killed and 2,500 wounded. During a two-year battle between the Syrian-backed Shiite Amal militia and the PLO, more than 2,000 people, including many civilians, were reportedly killed.
You then write if Israel destroys the Hamas tunnels with bunker-buster missiles, "What will happen to 2 million Gazans then?". Please remember that the tunnels are in northern Gaza, where 1 million live. Not the 2 million, but a very large number of civilians. To date, Israel has dropped well over 6,000 bombs on that portion of Gaza, completely or partially destroying well over 17,000 homes and buildings. The death toll is claimed to be about 2,000. How is it possible for civilians to withstand a bombing of this magnitude and destruction without significantly(let's say 50 people live in half of those buildings, 400,000 should have been killed or seriously wounded)? I'll leave you to answer.
I'll skip to this sentence: "First, the Biden Administration has been, for months, trying to build on the success of the Trump Administration’s Abraham Accords that normalized diplomatic relations among Israel, Morocco, Bahrain, the UAE and possibly Sudan.".
Biden has NOT tried to build on anything Trump has done, let alone what may be one of his most lasting legacies for which anyone else would have been given the Peace Prize. On the contrary, Biden has fomented, exacerbated and enabled this conflict by enriching Hamas's benefactor, Iran. Iran has received well over 50 billion dollars in the last year from Biden's lack of enforcement of the sanctions on Iranian oil. Then there is the issue of releasing the $6 billion in frozen assets, none of which has gone out but is there to be relied on.
The slow pace of America coming to terms with Saudi Arabia motivates Iran to scuttle now or at least delay that agreement. Please watch this from a Saudi commentator.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1713906312340295934
Finally, there's this kumbaya sentence - "We’re a long way from that now, but maybe, just maybe, the Camp David Peace Accords, the Abraham Accords and a potential agreement with Saudi Arabia will help clear the way toward curbing anti-Israeli terrorism and a peaceful future.".
Where have you been for the last several decades? This fight is not about Arabs who want to "just go home and live in peace". For that small minority who have been expelled by all their homeland and brother Arab nations, they make a living as mercenary refugee victims funded mainly by Iran and to a lesser but still large amount by the Western countries, directly and indirectly through the UN.
You find a soft place for these refugee victims and take their revised history as given. Why won't you also take their written declarations at face value as well?
The Hamas Covenant - 'The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: 'O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.' (Article 7).
Israel has already surrendered the entire Sinai desert and the entire Gaza strip. Not good, not even close to good. Robert, Hamas and their supporters will be peaceful when Article 7 above leaves no Jew on the face of the earth.
Best