Hamas, Israel, and War

Some personal observations and reflections on the Israel-Hamas conflict, now exploded into full-scale war in the Gaza Strip:

--There are two different manipulative propaganda devices used by both sides (Arab and Israeli) to justify their stances and accusations. One: “we were here first, so it’s our land”. Instead, they should be looking at where “we” are NOW (and who “we” really are as well) and trying to make things better for all parties involved. Two: whenever one side attacks the other, the “victims” zero out time and behave as if the attack were something unprovoked and spontaneous, not as the consequence of a long-term exchange of assaults. So the current Israeli attack is based on the “unprovoked” Hamas missile attacks, while those protesting the Israeli incursion were nowhere to be heard objecting to the earlier Hamas missile attacks.

--Hamas leaders are often characterized as being irrational and acting according to hate. But I see an additional reason for their refusal to reasonably behave in a peaceful manner with their neighbor Israel (knowing in advance that they will most assuredly be attacked in retaliation). I believe that the leaders of Hamas are most interested in holding on to power over their own people. To achieve this, they employ the time-tested manipulative tool of setting up an evil enemy as a scapegoat to unite their people behind them. And the enemy? Why Israel, of course. Just look at America for another example of this. The Bush administration was able to enjoy enough popular support to achieve reelection in 2004, largely done by scaring enough of the population with their hysterical color alerts and terror warnings.

--I see Hamas as more analogous to the organized crime families that dominated immigrant neighborhoods during the last century in the U.S., claiming to be “protecting” their own people, but instead bleeding their energy like vampires. This type of behavior is rational, but also very malevolent. It has been pointed out the the Palestinians actually elected Hamas into power in a free democratic election (observed and endorsed by former President Jimmy Carter). But I’d like people to ask themselves whether Hamas will ever allow any more open, free elections (with or without Carter) once they perceive their hold on the people diminishing.

--It can correctly be said that Israel has been on a war footing since its independence in 1948. In 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973, other Arab nations have engaged in war against Israel. A loss by Israel in any of these would have meant the end of its existence as a state. But since peace was made between Israel and its chief historical antagonist Egypt in 1979, the nature of war there has changed. There have been no more direct attacks from other Arab countries since 1973 (unless you count the diversionary scud missile attacks from Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991). But within the Palestinian Arab territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, along with southern Lebanon, Israel has fought their enemies in response to terrorist and missile attacks launched by extremist opponents. And the scenario for this seems to be a continual, dreadful process: Israel gets attacked, they bomb and invade the attackers, they occupy the land a while, and then leave. Then, after a while, the attacks resume and Israel repeats the process. This chain must end.

--In the interests of protecting civilians and civil society, different parties across the world (and quite naturally the Arab parties) want Israel to agree to a truce and withdraw. But the way I see it, they are in a war. War is a terrible thing which should be avoided as something to resort to only when all other options are exhausted. The never-resolved situation that has been going on in Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon for the past three decades reminds me of the Star Trek episode I saw where two different planets had been in a war with each other for 500 years. To protect their “civil” society, they agreed to combat through computer attacks, where those “hit” voluntarily reported to special chambers to be killed. In this way, “civil” society was protected but the sanitized war went on unresolved for centuries. Right now, I see those clamoring for a cease-fire and withdrawal by Israel as enabling a similar “sanitized”, unresolved situation. War IS terrible and should be avoided. But one side in this war really does seem to be largely a criminal element that is deliberately aiming their aggression at civilians on the other side. And their actions need to be dealt with.

--Having said all this, is this all really a dance that the various leaders (not just those directly involved) are performing with each other in order to enhance their own political standings among their own peoples?

--I believe that most of the people living in Israel and Palestine want to put aside their conflicts with each other and go about living their lives. There are some very serious civil rights issues that pertain to how the Palestinian population stands in relation to Israel. But these issues will only be resolved in an environment of peace and security. Israel and Palestine really should be one unified nation. Unfortunately, in this part of the world, the peacemakers desperately needed to bring this about tend to be vilified (and sometimes assassinated) as “traitors”.