Resignation

 

Here, he takes an almost admirable view of the situation while at the same time ignoring the obvious. Namely that the current counteroffensive by Israel has already made that new generation of Hamas. So, the genie can’t really be put back in the bottle with some good PR, or even overt acts of mercy, in the face of IDF killing 2, 5, 10 Palestinians for every one Israeli that was killed.

So why, then? Why does Israel proceed in this way? And the answer seems so painfully obvious, yet no one wants to just say it out loud…

Israel has no hope of peace.

There is no ‘long term’ victory to be had in their minds. There is no undiscovered country waiting for them in the offing. Their actions are a combination of revenge, game theory and resignation. Resignation to the fact that this is how it will always be.

Because that’s the only thing that makes sense. In the context of the occupation. In the context of “For every member of Hamas you killed, how many did you create?” Do we really think that no one in Israel burns at their country being compared to South Africa under Apartheid? That they don’t understand the bad PR of illegal settlements and the occupation? Do we really believe that they want to kill children used as shields? That they don’t bristle at having their military action against civilians drawing comparisons to Nazis?

To believe any of that is either willful ignorance or just incoherent demonization borne of pain and anger. It’s not that they don’t know or don’t care. It’s that they obviously don’t think any act of mercy or gesture to the two-state solution will make a difference. They don’t believe that an autonomous, functional Palestinian state where Hamas is the elected government would be LESS of a threat to Israel. They don’t believe Hamas can be defeated by showing mercy (few people do). There is a need to destroy an enemy — Hamas. An enemy that has SWORN to destroy them. Except the only way to eliminate the threat of Hamas would be to kill every single Palestinian man, woman and child or to drive every one of them out of Israel. Neither of these are options so it isn’t a question of whether Hamas will strike again…

It is just a question of when.

If it is a question of ‘when’, do you show conspicuous restraint now, dismantle settlements and end the occupation, and the answer to the question of ‘when’ is: 5 years? Or do you proceed from the justification provided by Hamas on Oct 7, and do enough destruction to push that out to 10 years? This is the only consideration remaining. Will it be barbaric and inhumane? Yes. Will there be human rights violations? Yes — that’s what war is. That’s what it always is — regardless of whether Hamas are ‘terrorists’ or ‘freedom fighters’. ‘Right’ rarely becomes more of important than ‘might’ once killing starts.

But this question of resignation — of this being the status quo that no one really believes can change — this is the most important part. So long as that resignation remains, Israel will show Hamas no quarter, their mercilessness will be the fertilizer that sows the soil of the Middle East, they will reap a new crop of Hamas recruits that will sprout properly in the years ahead and the whole thing will just start again. As it has so many times already.