Fear and some hope in the Israel-Gaza War

The past is still present

Micha Brumlik provides us a reminder of how we inevitably see the events of the past in light of the present. In a 2021 book that describes some academic and political controversies over Zionism and Israel, with a focus on recent ones in Germany, she writes in a postscript:

It was right during the last corrections to the proofs of this book that another of the nearly uncountable wars between Israel and Palestinians broke out, beginning with the shelling of Tel Aviv by rockets fired by Hamas. Against this background, the forms of engagement with postcolonial critique of Zionism analyzed in this book ... appear in a new, glaring light.

In any case, with this rocket war launched on May 10, 2021, by the Islamist group Hamas against Israeli cities, the World Spirit has allowed itself a particularly bad joke - in Hegelian terms: After all, this terror led to an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitic demonstrations in Germany, of all places, which wanted to proudly celebrate 1,700 years of Jewish life.¹

This in itself is a reminder that the conflict between Israel and the Gaza-based Hamas had scarcely been completely quiet in recent years. And that the conflict has complicated political implications far beyond Israel and Gaza.

Humanitarian organizations rightly complain about the high number of civilian casualties caused by the Israeli air strikes against Hamas' infrastructure in Gaza. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that Hamas consciously desire and provoked this armed action, knowing that the Israeli response would be bloody and would also claim the lives of Palestinian children, women, and men in Gaza, but also in Israeli cities. From this point of view, the blame for the children, women and men killed in Gaza clearly lies with Hamas.

From a functionalist observer's perspective, however, Hamas can be as grateful to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his airstrikes as Netanyahu can to Hamas, whose rocket attacks have given him the chance to remain in office despite prosecutors' charges and ongoing protests against his policies.

Then as now, Hamas was willing to be ruthless in placing the lives of Palestinians civilians at high risk. And the Netanyahu government then as now was happy to provide large numbers of civilian casualties, regardless of how it played into Hamas’ plans.

And then as now, this has to be seen also in light of Netanyahu’s own legal and political troubles. Netanyahu’s longtime crassly pragmatic but morally and politically extremely dubious boosting of Hamas is relevant to both situations.² This policy of his is apparently far more an active issue in Israeli politics than it is in US and European discussions of the current war.

This latest war is on a much larger scale than the ones since 1973. But policymakers in Israel, the US, and the European Union can’t legitimately claim that they didn’t know there were big unresolved issues that were causing serious conflict and could be expected to cause much more. Instead, they largely stuck their heads in the sand. As Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan now-embarrassingly wrote not long before October 7: “although the Middle East remains beset with perennial challenges, the region is quieter than it has been for decades.”³

Oops! To be fair, he did add in the next sentence, “the progress is fragile, to be sure.” Very fragile, as it looks now.

A moment of hope for the hostages

A hostage release will happen when it happens. As we’ve seen over and over since October 7, what happens next is very hard to predict. But as of this writing, we are expecting a pause in the fighting for a hostage release. Laura Rozen reports on the current agreement:

President Biden tonight [11/20/2023] welcomed approval of an initial deal to free 50 hostages kidnapped by Hamas, including three American citizens.

Under the deal negotiated by Israel, the United States, Qatar and Hamas, 50 women and children kidnapped by Hamas should be freed starting on Thursday. It will be accompanied by a four day ceasefire, that could be extended if Hamas releases more hostages.

Biden thanked Qatari Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi “for their critical leadership and partnership in reaching this deal,” as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government “for supporting an extended pause to ensure this deal can be fully carried out and to ensure the provision of additional humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinian families in Gaza.”⁴ [my emphasis]

She gives Thursday the 23rd - Thanksgiving Day in the US - as the agreed-upon date for the first hostage releases by Hamas under this agreement.

It would be nice to think that this negotiation for a military pause and a hostage release brings the possibility of a lasting ceasefire and progress toward a permanent peace agreement closer. But that seems to much to hope for based on what we know at the moment. Still, it will be great to see a hostage swap happen.

Deutsche Welle English reports on the deal here as of today.⁵

It gives a quarter-hour - a full third of the report to a interview with a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). I’m not sure that makes good journalistic sense, because an IDF spokesperson is about the last source you would expect to give an critical perspective on the record.

The messy road forward

This is a recent interview Katie Couric held with Richard Haass on the current war⁶:

Haass was president of the stereotypically Establishment Council on Foreign Relations for 20 years. If there is something like official foreign policy establishment credentials, he holds them. So he’s someone that policymakers in the State Department and the Biden Administration. He’s also very well informed on the current situation. So what he has to say is interesting, even though he doesn’t indulge in what one might call fundamental criticism of current US foreign policy.

It’s notable in his interview with Couric that he is clearly frustrated at the Netanyahu government in Israel and stresses the US needs to be pressing it hard for less reckless conduct by Israel and also to be serious about moving toward a realistic, longterm solution for Israel-Palestine.

He even suggests that Biden should try to address the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) in person to put on pressure against Netanyahu’s policies in the same way Netanyahu himself did when appearing before the US Congress to lobby against Obama’s policies which Netanyahu though were insufficiently warlike. Specifically, to lobby against the nuclear nonproliferation deal Obama negotiated with Iran.⁷ It still seems amazing to me that Obama didn’t engage in a stronger pushback against that speech. I would be even more amazed if the Knesset would agree to one by Biden now. But it would be a great idea to publicly demand it.

But the Biden Administration is unquestionably supporting the Israeli government current actions by a big infusion of military aid, even though the Administration might be unhappy with a lot of it. If they are not upset with a lot of the Israeli actions, they are on a very bad track.

It would be awkward for the US to take a straightforward stance against Israeli war crimes in Gaza, though it certainly should. Israel and others could certainly use it to accuse the US of hypocrisy on everything from mass killing of civilian in urban bombing and targeting of vital civilian facilities like water plants to the Bush-Cheney torture program, the continued operation of the Guantanamo prison, and the ongoing drone assassination program. And that’s fine. The US needs to get more international pressure to clean up its act on things like that, too.

But the Biden Administration by having both Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting directly with Israel’s war cabinet⁸ early in the current conflict as well as by their public statements and material aid has identified itself heavily with the Netanayhu government’s actual conduct of the war.

Daniel Larison writes about the seriousness of the depravations that Israel has imposed on the people in Gaza using the war as a justification.

The trickle of aid that has been allowed in under international pressure is not nearly enough to sustain the civilian population. According to the World Food Program, only 10% of the necessary food is entering the Gaza Strip, and the people there now face an “immediate possibility of starvation.” The WFP also warns that the “food infrastructure in Gaza is no longer functional,” and what little food is available is being sold at inflated prices and much of it cannot be used because people have no means to cook it.

There is a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes in Gaza. People are not just starving, they are being starved, and it is happening with the support of our [US] government.⁹ [my emphasis]

Hopefully the hostage swap will give the international community the chance to provide more vital supplies and services for civilians, at least for a few days. Larison also cites a piece by Adil Ahmad Haque, who wrote earlier this month:

As of now [Nov. 6], it appears that Israel will not accept a ceasefire, even if Hamas stops firing rockets and releases all its hostages, because Israel’s stated war aim is to destroy Hamas as a military and political organization, in light of the group’s intent and capacity for further attacks. If Israel pursues this war aim until it is achieved, or until it proves impossible to achieve, then there is only so much that IHL [international humanitarian law] can do to limit the total number of Palestinian civilians that the Israeli military will kill, maim, and dispossess.¹⁰

Larison concludes:

Acting in self-defense doesn’t free a government of its obligations under international law, and self-defense isn’t a catch-all excuse for violating the law. Some political and military goals can’t be reached at an acceptable cost. The harmful effects of waging this war are already too great to justify continuing it, and they will only get worse the longer that this war is allowed to continue. [my emphasis]

1. Brumlik, Micha ([2021] 2022 revised edition): Postkolonialer Antisemitismus? Achile Mbembe, die Palästinenische BDS-Bewegung und andere Aufreger, 139-140. Hamburg. VSA Verlag. My translation from German.

2. Schneider, Tal (2023): For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces. Times of Israel 10/08/2023. <https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/> (Accessed: 2023-20-10).

3. Sullivan, Jake (2023): The Sources of American Power. Foreign Affairs 6-2023, 23.

4. Rozen, Laura (2023): Biden welcomes deal to free hostages from Hamas. Diplomatic (Substack) 11/22/2023. (Accessed: 2023-22-11).

5. Israel announces hostage release deal with Hamas. DW News YouTube channel 11/22/2023. (Accessed: 2023-22-11).

6. Israel Hamas conflict: "This is not going well." Katie Couric YouTube channel 11/21/2023. (Accessed: 2023-22-11).

7. Calamur, Krishnadev (2023): In Speech To Congress, Netanyahu Blasts 'A Very Bad Deal' With Iran. NPR 03/03/2015. <https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/03/03/390250986/netanyahu-to-outline-iran-threats-in-much-anticipated-speech-to-congress> (Accessed: 2023-22-11).

8. Editors (2023): Biden Demonstrated America's Commitment to Israel and Its Security. Haaretz 10/18/2023. <https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2023-10-18/ty-article-opinion/biden-demonstrated-americas-commitment-to-israel-and-its-security/0000018b-4449-df22-a5eb-4d79e7ce0000> (Accessed: 2023-22-11).

Blinken Emphasizes Israel’s Right to Defense, While Calling for the Protection of Palestinian Civilians. Voice of America 11/03/2023. <https://www.voanews.com/a/blinken-emphasizes-israel-s-right-to-defense-while-calling-for-the-protection-of-palestinian-civilians/7340505.html> (Accessed: 2023-22-11).

9. Larison, Daniel (2023): The warfare of starvation: The siege will kill Palestinian civilians and by doing nothing, the US is supporting it. Responsible Statecraft 11/22/2023. <https://responsiblestatecraft.org/siege-gaza-aid/> (Accessed: 2023-22-11).

10. Haque, Adil Ahmad (2023): Enough: Self-Defense and Proportionality in the Israel-Hamas Conflict. Just Security 11/06/2023. <https://www.justsecurity.org/89960/enough-self-defense-and-proportionality-in-the-israel-hamas-conflict/> (Accessed: 2023-22-11).