Let me be clear: I do not approve of Israel's decimation of Gaza. As of this writing, approximately 30,000 Gaza residents have been killed, thousands more have been maimed, and hundreds of thousands are starving. I am outraged by the performative visits to the region by our Secretary of State. So harried, so principled. If the administration wanted a cease-fire, they have a number of other levers they could pull that don't amount to a PR tour.
But...no, per David Remnick, *and* I cannot forget what begat this recent round of violence. 1200 Israelis butchered, 200 taken hostage, on October 7. And I mean butchered, as well as sexually assaulted and tortured before being murdered. I don't need anyone to tell me how much Palestinians have suffered in Gaza and the West Bank; before I heard the details of what had happened, my first reaction was, well, what did people expect? But once I did hear the details, my reaction was horror.
It says something that people defended what Hamas did. Somehow, I think when Frantz Fanon wrote about the necessity of violence, he wasn't referring to the need to rip fetuses from their mothers' wombs so someone could have the pleasure of killing them both. At least, that wasn't my read of Wretched of the Earth.
I wasn't moved to write about this until one of the few internet communities I remain a part of praised the young man who burnt himself to death in front of the Israeli embassy to protest the carnage in Gaza. His words about actions during a genocide have been praised; he could be eloquent when he wanted to be. Less has been made of his statements on Reddit. Here's a taste. My favorite is the part where he says there are no Israeli civilians, even at a music festival. The implication: they deserved to die as they did.
It seems to me this is not a sentiment we should be celebrating, and I am terrified as I take in the number of people that are doing just that.
I appreciate that "and" doesn't balance the scales significantly more than "but". There is scale, and the Israeli government went way too far less than two weeks into their operation, and we are well past that. Was the goal to get the hostages? Get the leadership of Hamas? Make Israeli citizens feel safe? They have failed miserably at all of those, and yet they continue. It is clear this is as an exercise in Netanyahu's vanity, and he needs to be stopped. (And please spare me any speculation about how diplomatic recognition by the Saudis is going to stabilize relations in the region. That's the kind of wishful desperation I recall from Egyptians begging the army to stabilize the country during the Arab Spring. That went as badly as any other deal made in Hell is going to.)
And to everyone who clapped for South Africa when they brought charges of genocide against Israel in the world court, why? That was a more transparently false exercise than the shuttle diplomacy of the Biden administration. Genocide is difficult to prove because of the factor of intent, and South Africa knows that. If they had actually wanted something done, they should have gone with war crimes, because that's much easier. But they weren't going for progress; they, like the Americans, were going for PR (and given the state of the ANC, who can blame them?).
I have my own ideas about The Answer, but right now we need a cease-fire, and we need to repair what is left of Gaza as the hostages are returned. (If you want the leadership of Hamas, please go to Qatar.) We do need the two state solution--needed it decades ago--but it's ridiculous to hold starving people hostage to that prospect in the middle of a disaster.
Israel needs to be better, and they have much to answer for--but they haven't done anything that precludes them from "being". Say "genocide" or "war crimes", and I will say Germany, Cambodia, Syria, the United States, France, the UK, Russia, China..who won't I say? Bring up Israel's age, and I'll ask you to look up the ages of many countries formed during the decolonization movement--and that will include a number of countries who haven't covered themselves in glory, as well as those with--wait for it--territorial disputes. And tell me about the immorality of displacing people; I will agree, but I will also point you to the other countries that have done the same, including other countries in the region who kicked out their Jewish residents after the formation of Israel.
Before anyone calls on Israel to cease to be, they need to ask themselves if they're willing to apply those same standards to everyone else. I suspect not.
The real question: what do we need to do to make things better? I'd rather spend my time on that.
Deb in the City
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