The Crisis in Gaza

The Crisis in Gaza

Right now, the people in Gaza are enduring a heavy pummeling from air, sea and land. There are about a million and a half of them, already living in poor conditions, before being attacked by a well-equipped army. Now, the water supply system in the city is ruined; the hospitals are barely functioning; the place is under daily siege by a very efficient Israeli army, navy and air force.

The Israeli Government argues that they are only responding to rocket attacks from Hamas. Surely, their spokesmen say, nobody can argue with their right to defend their citizens from attack. It seems that the rocket attacks have been getting worse every month, creating fear and terror in some of their towns. Also, the rockets are getting more sophisticated, reaching farther into Israel and creating more destruction.

There is a cold logic to revolutions and wars. For Hamas there are old scores, going back to 1948, to be settled, and all the accumulated hatred against what they see as an occupying force. Their logic is summed up by a Shakespeare quotation from Macbeth: “Things ill begun make strong themselves by ill!” Thus, they argue that only the destruction of the State Israel deals with the core of the problem.

The rocket attacks on their people justifiy the Israeli position. You started it – we will end it! Tit for tat! You attack us and we will show you what a powerful response is. All the political leaders in Israel seem to accept and support the logic of this war.

Yet, the killing on both sides will solve nothing; in fact, I would argue that it will exacerbate the situation. Most of the casualities are on the Arab side because Israel has far superior weaponry and the means to deliver it. The hundreds of deaths, including the inevitable killing of women and children, will certainly breed hatred of the oppressor. Will they blame Hamas for drawing the violence on their homes? No, the finger will be pointed at Israel and at the United States, which supplies the sophisticated armaments. The children who are being terrorized now will surely be the terrorists ten years from now.

In a famous speech, after the death of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy asked a profound question: “What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by an assassin’s bullet. Violence breeds violence. Repression breeds retaliation.” Will the Israeli attacks, the daily bombardment of populated areas, somehow break Hamas or make Jewish towns and cities safer? Not likely! Instead, young people will respond by swelling the ranks of Hamas and other similar organizations. In Northern Ireland, during “TheTroubles,” the military actions of the British army were the biggest recruiting agent for the IRA. The same dynamic applies in Gaza. Furthermore, the news reports say that the number of rocket attacks by Hamas has increased since the sea and air bombardment began.

Hamas is a revolutionary movement. They know that the escalation of violence by their enemy is just what they want. It inevitably enhances their position. Martyrs create more martyrs. The center gives way and violent actions are more and more accepted as somehow normal and even appropriate.

In 2006 Israel decided to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon in an effort to have two of their soldiers, who were being held by Hezbollah, released. Their bombardment of Lebanon resulted, not in the freeing of the soldiers, but in Hezbollah becoming part of the government of Lebanon – not to mention the inevitable hatred that such actions elicit.

I hope that the new Obama administration will make a peaceful settlement in the Middle East a top priority. The outlines of an agreement are well known, based on UN resolutions and the Oslo negotiations. The Palestinians must have a viable homeland and Israel must be guaranteed secure borders. It is possible to achieve such a lasting peace, if only because the Gaza war shows the serious limitations of the military approach.