ISRAEL, HAMAS AND NETANYAHU

 

The recent flare up in the Middle East, which involves both a Civil and a Regional war, is both straight forward and complex. It needs to be assessed as to what the political mileu was and what the impact was in Israel, the Palestinian territories, the region and the world. In addition the roles played of the key dramatis personae, especially Bibi Netanyahu, Mohammed Dief, Head of the Military wing of Hamas and Ben Gvir, an ultra right wing Israeli Knesset member who has a picture in his office of terrorist Baruch Goldstein, who murdered twenty - nine Palestinians. 

The incidents leading up to the confrontation need to be spelt out and have resulted in hundreds dead in Gaza over ten in Israel and thousands of rockets fired. Jay H. Ell believes this disaster didn't happen in a vacuum. To quote Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, ".... Just as a mob was unleashed by President Donald Trump to ransack our Capitol on January 6 in a last ditch effort to prevent a healing unifier from becoming president, so Bibi and Hamas exploited or nutured their own mobs to prevent an unprecedented national unity government from emerging in Israel - a cabinet that for the first time would have included Israeli Jews and Arab Muslims together..."

JUST TOO MANY COINCIDENCES

It will be seen that it stretches credulity that it was coincidence that the focus for the civil and regional wars was the emotional city of Jerusalem, which has religious connections to all faiths and is resident to Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. Ground zero was the plaza where the Muslim Asqa mosque is situated, (known to the Jews as Temple Mount), which structure abuts the Western Wall of the Second Temple and is the site of both the first and second temples. Abraham is said to have offered Isaac as a sacrifice at the site while Mohammed is believed to have ascended to heaven from there.

  In contention as well was housing in East Jerusalem which Arabs have occupied since 1948. All this taking place in the holy month of Muslim Ramadan and where three significant holidays in Israel are celebrated - Memorial Day to commemorate Israeli soldiers who died in defending the country, Jerusalem Day which salutes the unification of Jerusalem in 1967 and the Festival of Shavout, the day God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. The Israeli Arabs also honor Nakba Day which signifies the displacement of seven hundred thousand Palestinians in 1948 as well as the month long holy Ramadan.

The scenario was dripping with religious and racial overtones just right for some arsonists to light a fire and throw petrol on it.

THE EVOLUTION OF TWO WARS - ONE CIVIL THE OTHER REGIONAL

In April Israel launched a cyber attack on Iran. Iran is currently Hamas's most paramount supporter. Iran threatend retaliation. April was also the month that Bibi was struggling to form a governing coalition. The principle reasons for his failure was the religious right refusing to sit in the same coalition with Arab Israelis and the abandonment by two of his partners. Somehow Netanyahu had to get the right wing and center parties that had deserted him back. 

APRIL 13 Israeli police officers entered the Asqa Mosque and cut the microphone cords that blast out the prayers across the area. This was the first day of Ramadan and also Israeli Memorial Day where speeches were to be made at the nearby Western Wall. The police also closed down the plaza near Damascus Gate where Palestinians gather in Ramadan.

APRIL 21 The Lehava right wing rabid anti assimilation group begins its attacks on Arab groups. They are led by Ben Gvir. This was the beginning of several confrontations in integrated cities such as Lod, Acre and Jaffa. Soon Arab vigilantes did likewise. The Israeli Police Commissioner within the earshot of Netanyahu stated that it was the extreme right wing religious groups led by Gvir that were responsible. He stated that everytime that a situation appeared to be under control Gvir and his mob would stir up the flames.

APRIL 23 The first rockets fly into Israel and are easily intercepted by the iron dome. 

APRIL 25 There appears to be some stepping back by Netanyahu as the police lift their ban on gatherings of Arabs. However the rioting, looting and alleged police brutality continues as the protests of the removal of Arab families from their East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheik Jarrah heats up as the date, MAY 10 to hear their appeal in the Supreme Court

 neared. (The court was persuaded to postpone the hearings in order to try not to escalate the situation).

APRIL 25 This is also the day that the ante is racked up big time by Hamas. Mohammed Dief, head of the military wing of Hamas who threatened even more rockets, having decided to become the defender of Jerusalem. Hamas's position suddenly strengthens as the Gaza population had become restless in that they never saw any of the Qatar money that had come in monthly, presumably to stop them from attacking. 

APRIL 29 Mahmoud Abbas head of the Palestinian authority and situated on the West Bank once again postpones elections fearing defeat from a rejuvenated Hamas.

MAY 5 As Netanyahu has failed to form a Government President Rivlin invites Yair Lapid to do so. It looks promising as two major parties that were in Netanyahu's coalition are backing him and enough Arab Israelis are willing to join.

MAY 7 The police inexplicably raid the Asqa mosque again on the last day of Ramadan with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets. The wars are now on for real and escalation is the name of the game. The rockets really start to fly to an extent never seen before and ten percent are penetrating the Iron Dome inflciting death and damage in Israel. Both Arab and Israeli vigilantes continue their confrontations

MAY 17 Nakba day and Shavout and both the wars intensify.....

MAY 18 The West Bank Palestinians join the Israeli Arabs in a strike in support of Hamas. Two more Israelis are killed and the Israeli Defense Force talk about diminishing returns. 

NETANAYHU'S RESPONSE

Netanyahu "thanked" Hamas for uniting the country as his band of hooligans stoked more confrontations within the country. In answer to the Sheik Jarrah evictions, this was a "real estate" issue. He stated further, "Jerusalem is Israel's capitol. We have the right to build there. That is what we have done and that is what we will continue to do". The rationale for reclaiming the Arab homes was that Jews lived there prior to 1948. On that basis he has no moral right to keep out the seven hundred thousand Palestinians who also had places of abode before 1948.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert opined that maybe Netanyahu didn't want a war with Hamas but he wanted the "passions to boil". He didn't add that he, Dief and Gvir had agendas and everyone's objectives were being met. This is not the first time that Netanyahu has been accused of inflammatory behavior which had dire consequences. He was outright blamed for creating the climate that resulted in Yitchak Rabin's assassination following the Oslo accords. 

For the moment Lapid has been stopped in his tracks. Bennett a former Netanyahu coalition partner is talking to Bibi because of the crisis situation and the Arab participants are holding back from discussions.

The longest standing Prime Minister was once asked what he wanted his legacy to be, "Israel's security", he answered, Does he seriously think this is the war to end all wars and he has brought peace within the land? Netanyahu should have answered more truthfully that his own aggrandizement, power and wealth came first.

REGIONAL AND WORLD RESPONSE

The regional response ain't what it used to be. The Arab Sunni are aligned with Israel against the Shia Muslims led by Iran. Likewise international pressure other than from the Civil Rights groups isn't so deafening. USA and the European Union have long ago declared Hamas a terrorist group and everyone is bored with Mahmoud Abbas's impotence. However the growing disparity in death and destruction is forcing world leaders to act in one way or another. 

The USA is where this matters most. (Even there Covid, and Trump's "The Big Lie" are bigger news items). Biden's statements up till May 16 were calls for peace and backing Israel's right to defend themselves. The Democratic Party are not all ad idem. Netanyahu's name is mud ever since he smeared Obama in a Joint Session of Congress as an invitee of the Republicans. Also the Democratic Party has moved more left. Half of the Democratic legislators have indicated that this unconditional support of Israel is unacceptable. It is actually a miracle that Biden has been so supportive because Bibi humiliated him when he was on an official visit to Israel to discuss differences, notably about settlements. The Israeli Government announced an extension of the latter while he was there. 

With the escalation of civilian casualties Biden supported a ceasefire on May 17. If Biden's behind the scenes efforts don't help he will have to at least issue a joint statement with the Security Council. 

Between Israel and the USA ninety percent of the world Jewry reside. There are about eight million in Israel and about a million less in the US. However in the US they represent less than two and a half percent of the general population. Of those seventy to eighty percent vote for the Democratic Party. Large numbers of the Jewish population are more and more dissaproving of Israel's current policies. In addition the largest religious groups are Conservative and Reform and have had two major disputes with the Netanyahu coalition. As the latter are totally beholden to the strictly Orthodox for power they have stuck to their rules about marriage, conversion and the like. In short they don't recognize the non Orthodox on these issues. In addition Bibi offered to open a new part of the Westen Wall to women and men to pray together which has been kiboshed. Israel's largest support comes from the Christian Evangelicals who believe that for the Messiah to return Israel has to exist.

Whichever way this sordid period in Israeli history is viewed it will not help Israel's image or standing in the free world. All that matters to Bibi is that it will help him. 

WHAT WILL AND WILL NOT CHANGE WHEN THIS IS OVER

Whatever the outcome will be, the demographic composition of Israel and Jerusalem will not change and Israel will still be a nation state. There will be eight million Jews in Israel and two million Arab Israelis while the populations in Jerusalem will be six hundred thousand Jews and approximately three hundred and seventy thousand Arabs. The loss of blood and treasure won't change what the wars were ostensibly about.

The Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank likewise are going nowhere. This war has united them in a manner yet experienced and has strengthened Hamas and weakened Abbas.

The question of how everyone has to live together in peace has become exponentially harder. Bibi if he survives this could have a permanent civil war situation. Hamas may have an angrier society but they will be hungrier and poorer. 

There is no way that Israel will agree to the return of the seven hundred thousand Palestinians that were displaced in 1948 when five Arab nations attempted to wipe the new Israeli nation of the map. That is about as likely as the Arab countries who forced eight hundred thousand Jews out inviting them to return.

Bibi Netanyahu in order to cling to power has made deals with religious fundamentalists, settler groups and more lately engineered a move to get Ben Gvir of the Religious Zionist Party into the Knesset. Gvir is a vowed segregationist who wants Arabs and Christians out of Israel. There have been attempts to outlaw his organisation as being terrorist. Any hope Netanyahu has of remaining in power is still based on the support of these extremist groups.

Whichever way this is viewed Hamas is a terrorist organization and Israel has every right to defend itself while Israel is a dual ethnic society where Arab Israelis may have the vote but they have every right not to be treated as second class citizens, not to be harassed or discriminated against. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Lapid still has a few weeks to persuade the coalition groups that their initial assessment that Bibi had to go is even more valid after this debacle. Lapid is arguing that and there is no unanimous support and solidarity in Israel with this latest conflagration. These wars are getting old and tragic. Some cannot be helped but this one need not have happened. There are many dissolutioned with the self serving Premier. 

Not only did Netanyahu create violent discord in Israel between the two ethnic groups, he gave power and prominence to the extreme right and he rescued Hamas from its dissolutioned electorate and gained them some much needed sympathy and legitmacy on the world stage. 

Maybe Bibi should just settle down and apply himself to the defense of his corruption charges. 

While Jay H. Ell hesitates to give biblical comment but in no less than thirty - five times in the Torah, in one way or another, the following directive is expressed, You must love the stranger, because, remember you were a stranger in Egypt.