Confucius supposedly said that "who seeks revenge should dig two graves one for himself." What motivates the war between Israel and Palestine validates the adage. Critical intellectuals should not spend time fervently cheer-leading for one side or the other, which is becoming the norm. They should use their wisdom to clarify the costs of rage and revenge. They can also forward even speculative proposals that might prevent the acceleration and geographic expansion of the war. Fourteen hundred Israelis died in the assault unleashed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, over 200 hostages were taken. But those memories are fading fast. They will fade faster still during the Israel's ground assault that will cost thousands of lives and its proposed occupation of Gaza. World public opinion has already concentrated on what are surely more than 4,000 dead and 10,000 wounded Gazans, the 6,000 Israeli bombs dropped, the 11,000 buildings fallen, and the plight of more than 1 million displaced people. There is no excusing any of this. Disproportionate acts of retribution contravene the basic premises of international law and they will leave Israel ensconced in a tradition of mass homicide that is best symbolized by Picasso's "Guernica" (1937).
President Joe Biden has called an Israeli occupation of Gaza "a big mistake". Annexing it, ruling it, or setting up a puppet government will only compound the error. Israel most likely plans to take over Gaza for a few months, free the hostages wipe out Hamas, but then... What happens afterwards? Right now, Israel does not know what it wants. Its assault probably will not liberate the hostages, surely hidden in the most imperiled locations among civilians, or obliterate Hamas. With an infrastructure and roots in the Gazan community, it is not a sect like al Qaeda or Isis, but instead a movement-regime in control of a paramilitary-political apparatus; it will likely resurface following even the most ferocious attempts to stomp it out.
Hamas rules Gaza with an iron hand and identifying its organizational interests, or those of Islamic Jihad, with those of its subjects is misguided and naïve. These organizations have their own interests to pursue, and they are willing to incur collateral damage. Hamas has long been engaged in a vicious civil war with Fatah, the moderate and corrupt faction that controls the West Bank. This bloody conflict hampers peace talks if only because Palestinians cannot speak with a single voice and Israel is left without an authentic negotiating partner. Moreover, Hamas has no meaningful institutional plan for governing Palestine whether in terms of a two-state or a one-state solution. Critical of any two-state solution because its power in a single Palestine would diminish relative to Fatah, while aware that Israel will not surrender its Jewish identity or placidly transform itself into a minority in a bi-national state, Hamas hangs in political limbo. This explains its infuriating vacillation between secular and theocratic aims, moderation and violence, democratic proclamations and authoritarian rule.
Neither Israel nor Hamas is clear about their actual war aims, which is why a cease-fire is paramount. It all hinges on that. As the dead bodies of Gazans numerically increase, and the media shifts its sympathies, so will much of the world. Israel will have squandered the moral high-ground it derived from the original barbarous attack while, perhaps even worse, increased support for Hamas will necessarily bring with it some degree of legitimation for Islamic Jihad, whose aims lie in its name. Since Islamic Jihad split from the Muslim Brotherhood in 1979. and Hamas arose during the first Palestinian intifada in 1987, they have sabotaged every gesture toward regional peace, including the Abraham Accords. and the peace overtures of Saudi Arabia.
However, the most self-serving and derisive disregard for Gazans was surely expressed by Hamas' demand that its subjects stay put in the North and helplessly face Israel's strategic aerial bombardment. In other words, Hamas insisted that Gazan citizens should senselessly die for the "cause" -or, better, for Hamas, rather than heed Israel's warnings, avoid the coming offensive, and seek relative safety in the South. The last time that such mass suicide was ordered, as far as I know, was during Hitler's last days. Nor is a broader regional war off the table. Iran and Hezbollah have been loyal allies of Hamas, which makes sense given their competition with Saudi Arabia for hegemony in the Middle East, intra-religious tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims, and perilous as against delicate relations to the United States. With the support of Iran, and its 150,000 missiles, Hezbollah threatens to create a second front by entering the war. Western allies need to use both the carrot and the stick in order to prevent a regional cataclysm and persuade those who would intervene to follow a more prudent path.
None of this gives Israel a free pass. Over two million people are still inhabiting a small strip of land twenty-five miles long, experiencing the destruction of public life, and awaiting the devastating impact of bombing and invasion. As Israel becomes ever more of a world pariah, however, its stubborn resolve will strengthen. Its existential fears are real. Consumed by the Holocaust, for right or wrong, Israeli citizens believe that anti-Semitism has exploded, double standards are being imposed on them, and that the history of the Jews shows that all their allies are unreliable and that their state must proceed without regard for world public opinion. For its own sake, however, its rage should not turn Israel into an unregenerate vigilante intent on inflicting collective punishment on Gazans and ignoring distinctions between civilians and combatants.
Genocide looms over Gaza like the sword of Damocles. But there are glimmers of hope. Pressured by the Biden administration, which is preparing a $14 billion military package to bolster its defense, Israel is now allowing humanitarian aid, food, water, and fuel into Gaza. The next step is a cease-fire perhaps monitored by the United Nations. Creating a relief fund to rebuild Gaza should also become an international enterprise, and global media should widely publicize and shame those nations that won't contribute. Western allies might also consider coordinating a massive air-lift for Gazans reminiscent of what overcame the East German blockade of West Berlin in 1948. Egypt and perhaps Jordan, which admittedly suffered a horrific civil war between its residents and Palestinian refugees during the "Black September" 1970-71, also should receive incentives to create humanitarian corridors and refugee camps for Gazans.
Genocidal injuries suffered in the past don't warrant dismissal of civilized norms in the present. Not everything is permitted the victim, nor does criticism contradict solidarity. There are no saints in this conflict. Politics has been disfigured by feelings of rage and dreams of revenge, and reason is under siege. That is what makes this war so gruesome and difficult to resolve. Legitimate grievances on one side are denied by victims on the other whose own histories, ironically, should have taught them to know better.
*Stephen Eric Bronner is Co-Director of the International Council for Diplomacy and Dialogues and Board of Governors Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rutgers University.
.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
