THE CONSEQUENCES OF HAMAS’S  BARBARISM  AND THE GENESIS OF THE CONFLICT

The genocidal unspeakable attack by the terrorist group Hamas on Israeli citizens will have consequences, nationally, regionally and internationally. The conflict that produced this indescribable barbarism has modern day roots which can somehow help explain the context of what transpired. The Hamas shock attack has a crucial inbuilt corollary that Israel’s response must inevitably kill large numbers of Palestinian civilians whom Hamas uses as human shields. So cynically they reckoned that as the people, on whose behalf they had murdered, raped and abducted, suffered more and more the narrative, would turn against Israel as it is beginning to They are not a movement representative of the aspirations of the Palestinian people but rather Jihadist who have no value for human life, even their own.

WHERE THE CONFLICT WAS DESTINED TO GO - THE DEATH OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA

The inevitable result of mass Palestinian civilian death was part of Hamas’s calculation in executing their barbaric assault on Israeli citizenry. As Yair Lapid leader of the Israeli Opposition forecast, this phase eventually had to follow as it was part of the Hamas playbook. Hamas knew that Israel had to respond. Lapid himself admitted that as Premier on three occasions he held back at taking out perpetrators of terror because they were embedded with children This time Israel would have to follow the playbook that Hamas has laid out and go in and obliterate the organization. They have warned the populations of the North of Gaza to move South to avoid collateral damage and Hamas have tried to persuade them to remain and be annihilated. 

It is not unimportant to mention that one of the reasons for the Israelis being surprised was that Hamas had maintained that they were ready to work with Israel. As a result work permits had been issued. This rapprochement took place while Israel was still subject to daily rocket attacks from Gaza reinforcing the argument that Netanyahu had totally misread Hamas. The Israeli Prime Minister had time and again expressed his support for their existence as a counterbalance to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. 

THE IMPACT OF THE EVIL PERPETRATED BY HAMAS

There are several threads to the recent unmentionable horror that was unleashed in the Middle East. However the overriding narrative is the savage planned slaughter of 1300 Israeli citizens and the abduction of another 150 by the terrorist group Hamas. The latter are responsible as well for all that follows including the leveling of Gaza and the killing of Palestinian civilians. It is impossible to view Hamas without taking into account that it is funded by Iran and is allied with Hezbollah all of whom with Syria form “The Resistance” in a holy war against the Jewish State of Israel. The bottom line is that they are part of the Jihadist movement to wipe out all Jews and are allied in an unholy alliance with the right wing fascist anti semitic movements. If was any doubt that the struggle was against all Jewry Hamas called for an international day of rage thereby placing Jewry throughout the world at risk. This resulted in antisemitic incidents across the globe especially in the Arab states.

President Biden by his actions of unconditional support for Israel in this existential struggle simultaneously put America Jewry on guard for attacks from anti semites in America.This time round the nations, from both sides, who fought WWII have joined with Israel to echo, the refrain following the Holocaust, “Never Again”.

The rationalizations of Hamas’s perfidy are frankly nauseating and lack context of the organization’s mission whose avowed aim is to kill every Jew on earth. One apologist argued that Hamas did not expect to be so successful! Presumably they can’t be blamed because the Israeli response was so poor. Then there is the mantra in one form or another of the Israeli "occupation” as being the reason for burning babies alive, shooting children in front of parents, raping, abduction, kidnapping holocaust survivors in wheelchairs, shooting into portable washrooms, killing and an old man and forcing his widow to hang onto the murderer as they abducted her. 

The timing  of the inhuman exercise so as to coincide with a peaceful youth festival has no connection with any political objective except to create sheer terror and sow hate and evoke an Israeli response. This was a well planned attack which rather than being too successful never succeeded in getting round to the elementary schools on their list. So spare the sickened viewers the tautologous logic of the apologists.

Not that there aren’t other issues to address, including the inexcusable lapse of intelligence by a right wing Government led by Bibi Netanyahu who had been warned that his ill timed authoritarian maneuvering was dividing the country making it vulnerable to its enemies. Not only was there the hubris exhibited by the Netanyahu Government, the failure to respond to the attack was inexplicable, leaving the defense of the Southern border to civilians. The long time Israeli Premier often when criticized has countered that his legacy would be a secure Israel.  

Another feature of this sick saga is the confirmation that the Arab world has abandoned the Palestinian people and have basically maintained that they are Israel’s problem. Also the obvious objective of this suicide mission of Hamas at the expense of the Gaza population was to kibosh the alliance of Israel with the Gulf States and in that they they might well have achieved their objective. Then there is the international perspective with Russia firmly allied with Iran and consequently with "The Resistance". China too has been derisive towards Israel following the attack. The second millinneum world is shaping up

The most immediate security threat is that Hezbollah, who regard the Ayatollah of Iran as their leader, attacks from Lebanon in the North. 

Just by the way the Trump loving Jews should take note of his petty remarks which can only give encouragement to Israel’s enemies. Compare the response of Biden, who has had fundamental disputes with Bibi, with the narcissistic manner Trump conducts foreign policy. His infantile squabbles with the Israeli Premier dictated his loose remarks on the biggest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

Jay H. Ell will attempt to put the “Palestinian” problem in some sort of modern day historical context

IN THE BEGINNING…..THE MODERN DAY GENESIS OF ISRAEL

 As Jews survived for over three millennia they daily prayed that they would return to Israel where they had been expelled by the Romans. However modern day political reality began over a century ago. Following WW1, The League of Nations gave the area known as Palestine to Britain as mandated territory. Already streams of Jews, particularly, from Eastern Europe, where they were subject to periodic pogroms, had been migrating to the territory then under Ottoman rule. 

The widespread antisemitism culminating with the framing of a French Jewish Army Officer Dreyfus for treason created an awareness of a need to create a Jewish Homeland were Jews could have a safe haven. Then largely as a result of the intervention of Chaim Weizmann a British Jewish scientist who contributed vastly to the Allied WWI effort, the UK Government passed the Balfour Declaration of 1920 which labelled Palestine a future home for Jews.

In the next decade and a half the Jewish population grew acquiring land by purchasing it from the landowners. However from the mid 1930’s the situation gradually deteriorated between the Palestinians and the Jews.  Matters reached a fever pitch during WWII when the Jewish soldiers obviously fought against the Axis powers and the Palestinians backed Germany. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem broadcast propaganda from Berlin for the Nazis.

AFTER WW11 THE GENESIS OF THE REFUGEE PROBLEM

The existential crisis resulting from the Holocaust with hundreds of thousands of Jews in limbo in Europe culminated in large scale attempts of Jews to enter Israel. The rest of the world was not much ready to accept them. This migration resulted in anger from the Palestinians causing the British to create a quota on the number of Jews allowed in. Tensions grew and within two years there was a civil war between the Jews and Palestinians. In November 1947 the United Nations declared a two state solution to the land. Each side would constitute a state on the territory they occupied. What followed sowed the seeds of today’s problems. 

Immediately ensuing the UN Resolution the Arab States declared war on Israel. The Palestinians caught in the middle either voluntarily fled, were told to get out by the invading Arab states or were forced out by the Israeli army. Those that fled regardless of the reason have never been allowed to return. Those that remained became full citizens of Israel. The fact that the rag bag Israeli army defeated the Arab states was nothing short of a miracle, Israel ending up with 60 percent more territory. 

The majority of the Palestinian refugees were settled in Gaza and The West Bank where they and their descendants are to this day. The former was administered by Egypt and the latter Jordan. Other than Jordan where a number of disenfranchised Palestinians live to this day, no other Arab countries were prepared to resettle them. In a historical quirk virtually the same number of refugee Palestinians were replaced by Jews that were expelled from Arab countries. 

THE 1967 SIX DAY WAR AND THEN THE 1973 YOM KIPPUR WAR AND THEREAFTER.

Israel won an historic battle in 1967 with preemptive strikes and within 6 days had conquered much territory including the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, Gaza and The West Bank. In addition they captured East Jerusalem. Israel made it quite clear that they were prepared to swop land for peace. In 1973 almost fifty years to the day Israel was surprised by the Arab countries only to eventually win what was labelled the Yom Kippur war. Seven years later Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, signed the Camp David Accords and offered peace in return for the Sinai Peninsula. Sadat was not remotely interested in the return of the Gaza. Peace with Jordan was attained previously and they too were not inclined to incorporate the West Bank. 

THE PLO AND THE TWO STATE SO;UTION.

The Palestinian Liberation Front, (PLO), became the political arm of the Palestinians in 1964. Their policy was terror versus the Israelis as well as world wide. The most infamous of their atrocities was the Munich Massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and one Western German Olympic official at the Olympic Games. 

In 1984 the Palestinians accepted the “Two State Solution” mandated by the UNO in 1947. Endless negotiations took place.  In 1993 the PLO leader Yasser Arafat following the Oslo Accords signed a Peace Treaty for a Two State solution. Negotiation followed negotiation till the summer of 2000 when Ehud Barak the Israeli Prime Minister according to President Clinton acceded to every demand of Arafat who then reneged and declared the second Intifada against Israel. 

The latter was the turning of the tide in Israel against a two state solution. Barak’s effort was a last gasp following the assassination five years earlier of Israel’s arch peacenik Prime Minister Yitchak Rabin. Already Bibi Netanyahu had entered the scene as vigorously opposed to a Two State solution. His vitriol against Rabin was such that he was even accused of stoking the environment that caused it. 

It is fair to say since the Second Intifada, a period of over twenty years which Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics the goal of a Two Party State as Israeli policy has become a more and more distant reality.

AFTER ARAFAT ENTER HAMAS TO A LIBERATED GAZA

Mahmood Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat as leader of the PLO in 2005. Abbas for practical terms is the Head only of the West Bank and is completely reliant on Israel for security. In 2005 Ariel Sharon a Right Wing Israeli politician took the bold and unpopular decision to give Gaza independence. He not only handed over a going concern he cleared the area of Israeli settlements including using force in some instances. 

In 2007 Hamas a terrorist organization took over power with a social agenda that it has since then forgot about. Rather it became the purveyor of terror. It has received humanitarian aid as well as military aid from Iran all of which has gone to the war effort. One of the ironies to emerge is that Netanyahu was supportive of Hamas as a counterbalance to the PLO.

The philosophy of Hamas is that of Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and Il Qaeda. There are nearly fifteen hundred victims to prove its credentials in the largest terror attack since 9/11. It has 2,000,00 other victims all living in the tiny area the size of New Jersey, that have been kept in poverty in subservience to Hamas's principal aim to rid the world of Jews. It is interesting to note that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are trusting Israeli pamphlets more than they are exhortations from the terror leadership and moving South, prior to an Israeli land invasion. However at the time of writing the humanitarian crisis has grown playing into Hamas’s hands as intense diplomacy takes place to return the hostages and create a safe haven for the Palestinians.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Hamas and its allies ultimate aim is the elimination of all Jews. In this they are allied with fascist groups in several countries. 

What has the potential to spark off a regional and even global war has been ignited by an extremist group. Iran is threatening on the sidelines and hostilities are increasing with Lebanon on the Northern border.  Biden has moved two aircraft carriers into the Mediterranean Sea.

Israel is in the fight for its existence. It cannot tolerate a force that is not only verbally committed to its destruction but with allies who could effect it.However the world looks to them to alleviate the abysmal situation the citizens of Gaza have found themselves in.

Jay H. Ell can only pray that the Israelis will triumph speedily with minimal casualties and civilian death. 

If Netanyahu is history it will be one of the positives of this war and maybe just maybe out of the ashes a two state solution will evolve…….

Biden has emerged as a leader for the ages.