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September 2, 2024 - 10:30am
The past 11 months have seen thousands of deaths in Israel and Gaza, while numerous false hopes of a ceasefire have quickly been quashed. Yet the reports from yesterday detailing the killing of six of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, hours before they were discovered, have caused particular horror and pain.
It has been obvious for a while that few if any more hostages will be recovered alive via military means. And as the fighting continues, many have drawn the conclusion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has effectively accepted the deaths of the remaining hostages as an acceptable cost of continuing the war.
Just days ago, when Netanyahu informed the war cabinet that he would not agree to IDF troops leaving the “Philadelphi Corridor” between Gaza and Egypt, Defence Secretary Yoav Gallant told him this would mean sacrificing the remaining hostages. Bibi is reported to have responded that “this is the decision” he has made.
Some of the relatives of the dead have explicitly blamed Netanyahu for the murders of their loved ones, and mass protests have erupted across the country. In Tel Aviv, protestors are blocking the main road through the city, while in Jerusalem thousands demonstrated outside the Prime Minister’s office. In Haifa, thousands blocked a major intersection in the city, setting up barricades with blazing tires.
The latest outrage has even prompted the Histadrut – Israel’s equivalent to the TUC or the AFL-CIO – to call for a general strike, demanding an immediate ceasefire and an end to the war.
This is significant, as Israeli unions are traditionally Right-leaning, with close links to Netanyahu’s Likud party. And much of their rank and file is made up Mizrachi working-class voters who are especially likely to back Bibi, and who prioritise continuing the campaign in Gaza even at the expense of rescuing the hostages.
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SubscribeThere are many Israelis, myself included, who think that putting pressure on one’s own side will only increase the price demanded by the terrorists, make them greedier, more determined, and less likely to come to an agreement. This has been my view for the last 300-odd days, but out of consideration for the many people whose loved ones are being terrorized by Hamas, I would not dream of shouting this out loud.
Were my offspring, brother or grandsons hostages I would surely want a ceasefire in exchange for their release, alive. However, it would surely signal to Hamas that this is the way to do business with Israel and ensure more such evil transactions in future. It’s a terrible dilemma.
It’s not a dilemma if you understand that you are in war. If you think you are in a rational world, it’s a dilemma.
Unfortunately the world is not rational, that is what West doesn’t understand. Barbarians are within the gate.
Time for a rethink. Time to do a lot of shouting out loud.
“It has been obvious for a while that few if any more hostages will be recovered alive via military means. And as the fighting continues, many have drawn the conclusion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has effectively accepted the deaths of the remaining hostages as an acceptable cost of continuing the war.”
Really. And the author thinks they will be released by negotiation! In your dreams. The reason this has taken so long is the Biden administration holding the Israelis back. The IDF needs to go in there full on and raze Gaza and Hamas to the ground so that Hamas never remerges again. Nothing short of total victory will suffice. And playing nice coupled with appeasement never works.
It was a strange statement by the author, given Farhan al-Qadi’s rescue last week. And I agree, the idea that negotiation will work with Hamas who ultimately only want the destruction of Israel is laughable, unless they expect Israel to release all Hamas’ terrorist prisoners.
Indeed, during the last set of negotiations they committed a terrorist act inside Israel, and during the so-called “ceasefires” Hamas was still firing hundreds of rockets.
Why would they negotiate when their leaders are safe outside of Gaza, their tunnels keep their army mostly safe and any civilians killed only increases the world caving into Hamas’ demands. It’s a win-win as they don’t care for the Gazan people only the destruction of Israel.
“Hamas who ultimately only want the destruction of Israel”
One might note that John O didn’t reference the charter platform of the Likud party, which explicitly states there can never be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. Which is an open demand for the destruction of Palestine. This apparently doesn’t count. Or maybe, as is more likely, John O simply doesn’t know about the charter.
The overwhelming reference is to the Hamas charter, which until 2006 called for the state of Israel’s destruction. This charter was created by a minority under conditions of siege in ’88. It has had little influence with Palestinians in general. Hamas leaders have repeatedly made it clear that they would accept a two-state settlement aligned with the international consensus which the U.S. and Israel have frustrated for more than four decades. However, that charter has played perfectly into the hands of Israeli propaganda, repeated verbatim in US media.
Israel has long wanted Hamas to dominate Palestinian politics and has even helped organize it. The reason – and Israelis have been open about it, so there’s no excuse – is that Israeli leaders fear moderate, secular, nationalist Palestinians since they press for negotiations and diplomatic settlement. That can’t be tolerated.
The history of this approach is longstanding. You can read it in statements by Zionist leader and first President of Israel Chaim Weizmann. He made it plan that the problem is the Arab moderates, not the radicals. Much later, one saw it in the example at the beginning of the intifada, when Israel sponsored Islamic fundamentalists to run interference, bussing them in to disrupt Palestinian strikes and protests. And look up Israel’s protection of Sheikh Yaseen, extremist leader of the fundamentalists who was going around shouting “Kill the Jews.” Same thing in Lebanon, when Israel backed extremists to frustrate the moderates, greatly contributing to the growth of Hezbollah. That should sound familiar. The US got similar results in Afghanistan supporting the Northern Alliance.
“Raze Gaza.”
“Raze” is doing some serious cover work there. It allows Johann to avoid admitting that he recommends genocide. He wants to seem reasonable, not a moral monster.
Of course he’d condemn an equivalent statement by Hamas about Israel. He’d immediately notice that “raze” soft-peddles the practical implication.
Remind me which side has openly talked for decades about the other’s extermination, which one talks of the river and sea, and which raises its young to find joy in killing.
I would remind you that you just provided a rationale for genocide. It takes a lot of effective indoctrination to get someone to hold such a view.
A good reminder would be to read the history of Zionism. Because the Israeli side fits your description.
To that end, I’m grateful for the opportunity to recommend Miko Peled’s book The General’s Son: Journey Of An Israeli in Palestine. You can also find video interviews with him, ex. on YouTube.
We can also listen to people like Yaakov Peri, Maj. Avraham Shalom and Carmi Gilon, and Gen. Ami Ayalon, former chiefs of Shin Bet, Israel’s Security Service, which has primary responsibility for anti-terrorism (Gen. Ayalon was also former Commander of the Navy). According to the 2003 translated interview in the Israeli daily paper Yediot Aharonot, also reported in the New York Times, The Washington Post:
That’s it. “A lack of desire to think deeply.”
“Raze Gaza” is not thinking deeply. It’s not thinking at all.
Maybe the solution is to build a wall between Israel and Gaza that has no gates at all in it, ensuring that Palestinians cannot not enter Israel for any reason. If there are no jobs in Gaza, tough luck. If there is no water in Gaza, build desalination plants. I appreciate that this may be impractical for a range of reasons though.
That opinion depends on ignorance of what Gaza was like before the state of Israel.
The first thing to note is that there was no “Gaza strip” before it was established by Israel in the early ’50s. It was a city, with towns around it. Israel drew a line and pushed refugees out of Southern Palestine into an area that was once flourishing, known for its fertility, especially citrus, and for its fishing resource. Gaza city itself had a vibrant culture and wealth that traces back thousands of years.
The potential sustainability of Gaza is not inherently limited. It has become unsustainable due to Israeli policies.
Yes. And?
If X was in good shape before Y, then the first step is to stop Y’s negative influence on X. Ensuring that X can’t access Y isn’t going to solve the problem at source. What you want instead is to ensure that Y can’t access X, can’t keep causing the distortions that would otherwise not exist, as history shows.
edit double post
There is only one right response against the death cult Hamas and that’s the one taken by Netanyahu and the IDF, it’s hardly surprising they pay no heed to the antisemitic obfuscation thrown around on the MSM. The image of Netanyahu with blooded hands is pure ‘blood libel’ and is more representative of Hamas propaganda. The appeasers are playing into their hands.
“Death cult.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240316-former-shin-bet-director-ami-ayalon-if-i-were-palestinian-i-would-fight-against-israel/
Interview with Ami Ayalon, former head, Shin Bet, former Commander, Israel Navy:
If you were a Palestinian living in the West Bank or Gaza, what would your view be of Israel?
“I would fight against Israel to achieve my liberty.”
How hard would you fight? How dirty?
“I would do everything in order to achieve my liberty. And that’s it.”
Your wet dreams…
Once the State becomes an idol the people are dispensable
“Israeli unions are traditionally Right-leaning, with close links to Netanyahu’s Likud party. And much of their rank and file is made up Mizrachi working-class voters who are especially likely to back Bibi”
This says all. The traditional Israeli left totally liquefied and the Likud ironically represents the left of the extreme right. Bibi won’t budge.
I sincerely hope they do.
Odd that nowhere in the calculus is there mention of Hamas freeing the hostages and effectively calling Israel’s bluff. If that happened but Bibi kept pushing the offensive, there would be a cost to his govt internally and externally. But to read this, I get the sense that there is only one party to the conflict.
It doesn’t seem likely that Hamas will do that. Who would Hamas leaders hide behind if they did? Plus, Hamas don’t seem to care about Palestinian civilians any more that the Israelis do.
I thought Israel’s trade unions were made of sterner stuff but obviously not.
While I have always been a friend of Israel, I am no friend of Netanyahu. Even leaving aside the fact that he is personally corrupt, his job was to guard the people of Israel from events like October 7, and in that, he failed utterly any completely.