Trump promised Netanyahu something. Let's wait and find out what it was: to bring more Arab states into the Abraham Accords? To impose harsher sanctions on Iran? To help kill more Iranian proxies? To give the green light to all out war when Hamas violates the ceasefire? More military aid if that happens?
Let's see.
Meanwhile, let's pray that all of the remaining hostages come home alive.
Marshal Ferdinand Foch, a prominent military leader and Supreme Allied Commander during World War I said of the Treaty of Versailles "This is not a peace treaty. It is a ceasefire for 25 years," He wsas off by 5 years - it took only 20 years to prove him right.
While I hope Daniel is wrong, everything I know of history tells me he is as prescient as Marshal Foch
What constitutes genocide? During a four month period from April to July 1994 in the Central African nation of Rwanda more than 800,000 Tutsis were massacred by Hutu fanatics in an effort to “cleanse” Rwanda of all Tutsis and Tutsi culture. The slaughter was carried out mostly by Hutu tribesmen using machetes and knives. Some in the West attempted to excuse this genocidal massacre by falsely alleging both sides were equally guilty. In October, 1994 a Commission of Experts set up by the UN Security Council to investigate the slaughter concluded that….”while both sides to the armed conflict perpetrated crimes against humanity in Rwanda the concerted, planned, systematic and methodical acts of mass extermination perpetrated by Hutu elements against the Tutsi group in Rwanda constitute genocide and no evidence had been found to indicate that Tutsi elements perpetrated acts committed with intent to destroy the Hutu ethnic group as such.” That report marked the first time since the General Assembly passed the Genocide Convention in 1948 that the UN had identified an instance of the crime. Defending your nation and community against intended genocide (from the river to the sea or; by any means necessary) does not constitute genocide. The Rwandan genocide was well documented by Philip Gourevitch in 1998 in his book “We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. - Stories From Rwanda”. The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.
As I read this article, I felt like I was peering into a crystal ball, Daniel! 🔮 The events you foretell here will come to pass it’s only a matter of time. The comparison to World War I and the Versailles Peace Conference is an appt one. Just as World War I did not halt German aggression or end the scourge of war, neither did this war put an end to Hamas and threat of another October 7th. And so it begins…Israel and Gaza will have to go through their own World War II and one final cataclysmic war before Hamas will be eliminated from the face of the earth and peace will finally be possible. We’re basically living in the Middle East’s equivalent of the Interwar years right now. Hamas was definitely diminished by the war and Israel killed many of its top officials including October 7th’s architect Yahya Sinwar. But Hamas is NOT, I repeat NOT destroyed completely! They are still here. They will regroup, rebuild and return for a second round with the Jewish state. All while continuing to terrorize the people of Gaza and continuing their theocracy for decades to come. The Ludendorff lie is back but in a different form. Hamas will tell their people we had the war against the Zionist entity won but the Saudis, the UAE and Bahrain stabbed us in the back and betrayed their brother Arabs. Just as Ludendorff, Georing, Hess, Ernst Roehm, and Adolf Hitler peddled the lie to the German people and disgruntled veterans of World War I that they lost the war because Communists, Socialists and the Jews stabbed them in the back at home. The international community absolutely should’ve backed Israel all the way and pushed for a total, unconditional surrender NOT a ceasefire nor should they have fallen hook, line and sinker for Hamas’ propaganda about a fake genocide. Because they repeated the mistake they made in 1919, another apocalyptic war is on the horizon for Israel and the Palestinians in the next couple decades. But I wanted to add some of my own thoughts along with your excellent points, Daniel. I don’t think one can blame the international community alone for peace and the destruction of Hamas not being achieved. The Israeli government and IDF are also to blame for the sorry state of affairs we face today. They are partly responsible for this war due to not reinforcing the Gaza border with Southern Israel like they should have. The IDF has also waged a war too limited in scope and had not been aggressive enough. They need to unleash the full power of the IDF. I’ll be honest Daniel, I’m beginning to lose hope a peace accords and two-state deal can be accomplished. I think the earliest I could see it happening (and this is being optimistic) is 50 years from now. One thing is for sure, another war is coming. As for the long term goal of peace, it’s going to take the toppling of Fatah and Hamas and Bibi and the current governing coalition. With Likud and the far-right remaining in power, rest assured the eternal distrust of the Palestinians and settlement building will continue. With Fatah and Hamas remaining in power, rest assured the teaching of hate to future generations and terrorists attacks on Israel will continue. I really wish I could be more optimistic. But I just can’t do so. The only silver lining of this situation is some of the hostages are on their way home and the war is winding down, for now at least.
An interesting take on the situation Noah. Ultimately whomever is in power in Israel, her sovereignty and room for manoeuvre is limited by the will of the great powers, the US foremost amongst them.
We can perhaps blame Netanyahu and the IDF top brass for not being as forceful as he ought to have been. But Netanyahu's coalition almost just fell on precisely your complaint: that Israel and the IDF did not adopt strategies which would have ensured total victory. For example, Netanyahu's further-right partners have been calling since day one to stop Israel providing humanitarian aid into Gaza; and to actually clear and hold area, instead of the repeated entry/exit of the IDF into the same areas.
I also fail to see how Israel is supposed to trust the Palestinians, when virtually all Palestinians support Hamas' ultimate goal of destroying Israel; even those annoyed at Hamas because they're now bailing rainwater out of their tents in the humanitarian zone.
Settlement building was never the issue. There were no settlements when the PLO was founded in 1964; and Hamas committed its atrocities on Oct. 7th in the Gaza envelope, an undisputed part of Israel, in the name of conquering Jerusalem (the "al Aqsa Flood"), another undisputed part of Israel.
The constant threat of terror has been a part of life for Jews living in the land since the Arab Muslim imperialists decided the Arabian peninsula wasn't enough for them in the 630s; Israeli politics is - and has ever been - only the excuse.
At face value, it looks like a terrible deal. Our stated objectives have not been achieved. Hamas will retain power and influence, Hostage taking will have proven to be a worthwhile and very rewarding endeavour and will no doubt continue to happen in the future; the enemy is already claiming victory, and their propaganda machine is in full force.
So why did Bibi agree to this? Why did Trump ask Bibi to agree to this? Trump has proven by his 4 years as President to be arguably the best President for Jews and Israel. Bibi has proven since Oct 7th his strength and courage to stand up to America and the world and do what has to be done to fight the war.
Again, so why did these two men agree to this deal?
Well, folks, Our disconnect is because we are looking at this at face value and we are overreacting. The fearmongers are saying Trump is throwing us under the bus? Bibi has gone weak-kneed etc. etc.
I don't think we should change our opinion about these two strong personality leaders based on the face value of this deal. I think there is far more at play here that is not mentioned in the deal.
This is hypothetical ...... If I were Bibi and Trump would have told me to do the deal, and we could then go after Iran right away. I will give you the concrete busters you need and the planes to deliver them, and we take care of destroying Iran's nuclear capability. In addition, This deal will also give us what we need to get the Saudis on board with the Abraham Accords. In the future, we can always go back to dealing with Hamas. If Trump came to me with those conditions, I would accept them. And who knows? I would like to think he did cuz I believe that both these men are strong and on the same page.
I hear your points Jerry and they have a good foundation. It is true: stopping the war may help with tackling Iran and creating peace with Saudi Arabia. But the Palestinian issue is the main issue and until its ideology of hatred is defeated through 1945-like total surrender there will be no peace. In a true Versailles manner, this peace will be the cause of the next war.
Genocide would have to be very liberally applied to assert it in the case of 45,000 killed out of a population of 2.3M over a period of 16months of sustained fighting, with perhaps half of those killed being armed terrorists in tunnels, and hiding among civilians in hospitals, schools, mosques, UN buildings & blocks of residential appartments
Breaking it down into admittedly cold hard stats, that's just under 100 killed a day (half ie 50 terrorists and half ie 50 civilians)
That's most likely an unusually low number for guerrilla style warfare in an urban environment, with one side having had years to dig in & ambush the other side
It seems the Iranians may have bailed out a bankrupt corrupt ANC for rhe price of the South African Government's initial genocide allegation, which was then repeated ad nauseam, unchallenged, by Palestinian and Hamas spokespersons at every opportunity and then chorused by many more
But propaganda aside, the big question remains: why did the world buy into the big genocide lie, or at the very least, let it go unanswered & unchallenged
How & why did such huge moral paralysis set in?
That requires deep analysis
Now to return to hard cold stats
On Oct 7th 2023, Hamas terrorists, aided by 'civilians' who followed them into Israel from.Gaza, murdered 1,200 Israeli civilians in under 24hrs
Had Israel reciprocated in kind,, it would have killed 546,000, that's to say 12 times as many as they did
Yet.. the Big Lie is now firmly entrenched in C21st subculture, from whence it is spawning thousands of poisonous progeny
Hamas’ ideology is one of Islamist supremacy. Captured documents confirm that its plan was not to create a Palestinian state but to take a step toward a worldwide caliphate.
October 7 should have been a clarifying moment that showed what the real Palestinian narrative - not the one carefully curated (initially by the Soviet Union) to appeal to Western sensibilities- leads to. Faced with looking evil in the face, the world not only chose to turn away but blamed the victim forcing it to look in the first place.
Instead, the West intentionally placed Gaza civilians at risk by acquiescing to Egypt’s sealing its border and keeping them in an active war zone. Then the West blamed Israel for not taking sufficient care in seeing to their safety and, more remarkably, general welfare - two things that should have been Hamas’ responsibility. As to the war crime of hostage taking, to say that lip service to their unconditional release was made is to be charitable in the extreme. At every turn, priority 1 was the wellbeing of Gazans and very conspicuously not the release of the hostages.
Repeating its disgraceful conduct in WWII, the ICRC made no effort at all to see the hostages, let alone campaign publicly and loudly for their release, while taking every opportunity to denounce Israel.
Instead, the West has normalized a war crime as a legitimate tactic. The consequences of this moral confusing would be dire but for the fact that we can be confident that this is one among many “Israel only” precedents being set.
The Arab-Israeli conflict began and fundamentally remains one rooted in concepts of Islamic supremacy. If Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords, it is probable that the imams will be preaching a more pacific and accepting version of Islam. One might hope that the price for financial relief for Egypt will be a similar change from religious scholars at Al Azhar (the so-called Sunni Vatican) who will move away from its nakedly antisemitic interpretations.
Should any of that come to pass, Hamas will be isolated in the Arab world and forced to rely on the despised Turks and Persians. Whether any of this changes the view in the West that a bad peace is better than a good war, remains to be seen. Perhaps it will take an ill-advised uptick in jihadist violence in more Western countries to brig it back to the basic lesson set out in this article.
Hi Charles, thank-you for your support and your well reasoned, engaging contribution. I completely agree with your various points and I second your view that the West, through its attitude of keeping civilians in a dangerous war zone, has put lives at risk.
Why do I feel so miserable about this new armistice, even with the return of some of our hostages? I think you have answered that question with your usual dose of eloquent prose and thoughtful analysis. Thanks for that Daniel, and while I hope you are wrong, I can't help but think it's another groundhog day in the middle east.
Thanks for the support Brad. "I hope for the best but fear for the worst:" the words of Chamberlain when he was driving from Heston airfield on "peace in our time" day,
Are you suggesting to do nothing? One can be optimistic if there is a strategy in place. I don’t agree there was a failed strategy. See Sadka’s list of wins. For now, the world sees the thugs rejoicing and the Jews morose, negative, questioning. Guess where the onlookers will gravitate toward?
Let’s not wear our hearts on our sleeves. Show conviction and strength.
Hi Anne, I am not saying that this war hasn't achieved anything, rather that it doesn't solve anything. Until Palestinian hatred is tackled, all other efforts will be of limited effect.
This is heartbreakingly prophetic. It’s almost possible to see future students of history reading about this time and asking “why did they do that?” “Why did they not do this?” Just as so many of us did when we studied the two world wars. I pray that you are incorrect, but I fear that more darkness is to come. As Einat Wilf so insightfully points out, only an admission defeat will bring Palestinianism to an end. Woefully, this is not what has happened.
Sadly, I agree wholeheartedly with the author’s argument. However, using sophisticated intelligence to target individual Nazi/Hamas cells in the future, while encouraging peaceful dialogue with Palestinians, might help prevent a greater tragedy.
Thank-you for your comment Eli. For Palestinian dialogue to be fruitful there needs to be a root and branch reform of their education system. Seeing as we fund it, I wuld say that we have some leverage!
No external actor can reform the educational system. As Dr. Einat Wilf describes, even if the West were to force a new curriculum, the teacher would stand before the class and say, "Children, let's close those Zionist-propaganda books, and I'll tell you how the evil Jews stole Palestine."
Palestinians must accept they have lost - and lost overwhelmingly - before they might consider a change of direction. The good news is that once they have accepted this, the loss itself will provide a powerful incentive to change.
IMO, the only truly agonizingly painful cost is loss of land, and even more - Jewish settlement on the land they've lost. An attempted invasion of Israel that left Israel with more "formerly Arab" land than before, is something Hamas could never spin as a win.
That's why 1967 had an earth-shattering effect on the Arab hegemonies in the Middle East, unlike 1956 or 1973 - because it involved Israel taking previously Arab land.
As (perhaps) Mark Twain said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes”. I see the many parallels of which you speak, but you suggest a parallel of 1:1. It isn't/won't be exactly the same, not even so similar.
Interestingly I too noticed a parallel this week, but not the same one. For 15 months the Bibistim (Bibi-ites) as we call them, and Ben Gvir et al to their rights have been respectively promising and demanding total victory, to entirely wipe out Hamas: something which military analysis say is possible, but would take at least five years and cost the lives of all the hostages and of many more of our soldiers and Palestinians civilians.
Those voices on the right are now going to claim a Great Betrayal, by the generals and the “elites” (even though they've been in power for all but six of the past 48 years): They could have had their total victory if it weren't for the cowardice and betrayal of the generals et al. It's a flip of the German betrayal narrative at the end of the First World War, but no less dangerous.
Netanyahu's coalition has been pushing for total victory, but has made a number of brain-dead choices that make it impossible, such as providing humanitarian aid to Gaza; and refusing to take and hold area, preferring instead to enter and exit each area multiple times.
But it turns out the further-right coalition partners have been pushing forcefully against these choices, only to be stymied by the IDF top brass; the same top brass who assured us prior to Oct. 7th that Hamas was deterred, and provided the same analysis you mentioned.
Which side Netanyahu is on is an open question; for all his grand rhetoric, he threw away at the beginning of the war what might have been the only true cost Hamas would have had to pay, and thus the only true incentive for Hamas to bargain or surrender: loss of land from Gaza to Israel.
Ceasefire?! Hamas never honored a ceasefire in the entire period of their rule in Gaza. What phony ‘progressives’ fail to absorb is that there WAS a fairly lengthy one until 6:29 am October 7.
Suggested reading for those who want to hear both sides of the story, where discussion of the terrorism, intimidation and repression the indigenous Arabs in Palestine are continuously victimized by. A great book by the young Palestinian woman Ahed Tamimi, who has long experience as a hostage taken by the Israeli government. This would be an excellent read when combined with President Carter’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”.
Note that all that is being inflicted on Tamimi is occurring outside of Israel’s borders in the illegally occupied West Bank. It is not happening in Israel.
This is of course the delightful Ahed Tamimi who promised "to drink your blood and eat your skull" and said "we will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke". https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-771102
I’m sure you’d rather get all of your input from the unbiased Jerusalem Post than actually read her book and contemplate what her life has been like among squatters and an abusive IDF when in and out of being a hostage in administrative detention since her mid-teens. All of what has happened to her has occurred outside of Israel’s borders in her land, which is illegally occupied by an apartheid regime filled with squatters who are too often Baruch Goldstein disciples (here’s to you, Mr. Ben-Gvir).
I have no interest in reading the Mein Kampf-like ravings of someone who thinks Jews deserve no rights; and is happy to display her bravery and devotion to her cause by yelling at Israeli soldiers whom she knows won't respond to her antics. All for the cameras of course.
So clear. So absurd. So sad. So clear. So absurd. So sad. The West digging its own grave time and again.
The problem with ceasefires is that by their nature they are temporary. Until the Palestinian violent ideology is defeated there will be no peace.
Amen.
Trump promised Netanyahu something. Let's wait and find out what it was: to bring more Arab states into the Abraham Accords? To impose harsher sanctions on Iran? To help kill more Iranian proxies? To give the green light to all out war when Hamas violates the ceasefire? More military aid if that happens?
Let's see.
Meanwhile, let's pray that all of the remaining hostages come home alive.
I join you in that prayer Penny.
Marshal Ferdinand Foch, a prominent military leader and Supreme Allied Commander during World War I said of the Treaty of Versailles "This is not a peace treaty. It is a ceasefire for 25 years," He wsas off by 5 years - it took only 20 years to prove him right.
While I hope Daniel is wrong, everything I know of history tells me he is as prescient as Marshal Foch
This is great. I'll add it to the post!
What constitutes genocide? During a four month period from April to July 1994 in the Central African nation of Rwanda more than 800,000 Tutsis were massacred by Hutu fanatics in an effort to “cleanse” Rwanda of all Tutsis and Tutsi culture. The slaughter was carried out mostly by Hutu tribesmen using machetes and knives. Some in the West attempted to excuse this genocidal massacre by falsely alleging both sides were equally guilty. In October, 1994 a Commission of Experts set up by the UN Security Council to investigate the slaughter concluded that….”while both sides to the armed conflict perpetrated crimes against humanity in Rwanda the concerted, planned, systematic and methodical acts of mass extermination perpetrated by Hutu elements against the Tutsi group in Rwanda constitute genocide and no evidence had been found to indicate that Tutsi elements perpetrated acts committed with intent to destroy the Hutu ethnic group as such.” That report marked the first time since the General Assembly passed the Genocide Convention in 1948 that the UN had identified an instance of the crime. Defending your nation and community against intended genocide (from the river to the sea or; by any means necessary) does not constitute genocide. The Rwandan genocide was well documented by Philip Gourevitch in 1998 in his book “We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families. - Stories From Rwanda”. The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction.
Hi David, It is an insult to the memory of Rwanda to compare the Gaza war to it. It is a desecration of language and a blood libel.
As I read this article, I felt like I was peering into a crystal ball, Daniel! 🔮 The events you foretell here will come to pass it’s only a matter of time. The comparison to World War I and the Versailles Peace Conference is an appt one. Just as World War I did not halt German aggression or end the scourge of war, neither did this war put an end to Hamas and threat of another October 7th. And so it begins…Israel and Gaza will have to go through their own World War II and one final cataclysmic war before Hamas will be eliminated from the face of the earth and peace will finally be possible. We’re basically living in the Middle East’s equivalent of the Interwar years right now. Hamas was definitely diminished by the war and Israel killed many of its top officials including October 7th’s architect Yahya Sinwar. But Hamas is NOT, I repeat NOT destroyed completely! They are still here. They will regroup, rebuild and return for a second round with the Jewish state. All while continuing to terrorize the people of Gaza and continuing their theocracy for decades to come. The Ludendorff lie is back but in a different form. Hamas will tell their people we had the war against the Zionist entity won but the Saudis, the UAE and Bahrain stabbed us in the back and betrayed their brother Arabs. Just as Ludendorff, Georing, Hess, Ernst Roehm, and Adolf Hitler peddled the lie to the German people and disgruntled veterans of World War I that they lost the war because Communists, Socialists and the Jews stabbed them in the back at home. The international community absolutely should’ve backed Israel all the way and pushed for a total, unconditional surrender NOT a ceasefire nor should they have fallen hook, line and sinker for Hamas’ propaganda about a fake genocide. Because they repeated the mistake they made in 1919, another apocalyptic war is on the horizon for Israel and the Palestinians in the next couple decades. But I wanted to add some of my own thoughts along with your excellent points, Daniel. I don’t think one can blame the international community alone for peace and the destruction of Hamas not being achieved. The Israeli government and IDF are also to blame for the sorry state of affairs we face today. They are partly responsible for this war due to not reinforcing the Gaza border with Southern Israel like they should have. The IDF has also waged a war too limited in scope and had not been aggressive enough. They need to unleash the full power of the IDF. I’ll be honest Daniel, I’m beginning to lose hope a peace accords and two-state deal can be accomplished. I think the earliest I could see it happening (and this is being optimistic) is 50 years from now. One thing is for sure, another war is coming. As for the long term goal of peace, it’s going to take the toppling of Fatah and Hamas and Bibi and the current governing coalition. With Likud and the far-right remaining in power, rest assured the eternal distrust of the Palestinians and settlement building will continue. With Fatah and Hamas remaining in power, rest assured the teaching of hate to future generations and terrorists attacks on Israel will continue. I really wish I could be more optimistic. But I just can’t do so. The only silver lining of this situation is some of the hostages are on their way home and the war is winding down, for now at least.
An interesting take on the situation Noah. Ultimately whomever is in power in Israel, her sovereignty and room for manoeuvre is limited by the will of the great powers, the US foremost amongst them.
We can perhaps blame Netanyahu and the IDF top brass for not being as forceful as he ought to have been. But Netanyahu's coalition almost just fell on precisely your complaint: that Israel and the IDF did not adopt strategies which would have ensured total victory. For example, Netanyahu's further-right partners have been calling since day one to stop Israel providing humanitarian aid into Gaza; and to actually clear and hold area, instead of the repeated entry/exit of the IDF into the same areas.
I also fail to see how Israel is supposed to trust the Palestinians, when virtually all Palestinians support Hamas' ultimate goal of destroying Israel; even those annoyed at Hamas because they're now bailing rainwater out of their tents in the humanitarian zone.
Settlement building was never the issue. There were no settlements when the PLO was founded in 1964; and Hamas committed its atrocities on Oct. 7th in the Gaza envelope, an undisputed part of Israel, in the name of conquering Jerusalem (the "al Aqsa Flood"), another undisputed part of Israel.
The constant threat of terror has been a part of life for Jews living in the land since the Arab Muslim imperialists decided the Arabian peninsula wasn't enough for them in the 630s; Israeli politics is - and has ever been - only the excuse.
At face value, it looks like a terrible deal. Our stated objectives have not been achieved. Hamas will retain power and influence, Hostage taking will have proven to be a worthwhile and very rewarding endeavour and will no doubt continue to happen in the future; the enemy is already claiming victory, and their propaganda machine is in full force.
So why did Bibi agree to this? Why did Trump ask Bibi to agree to this? Trump has proven by his 4 years as President to be arguably the best President for Jews and Israel. Bibi has proven since Oct 7th his strength and courage to stand up to America and the world and do what has to be done to fight the war.
Again, so why did these two men agree to this deal?
Well, folks, Our disconnect is because we are looking at this at face value and we are overreacting. The fearmongers are saying Trump is throwing us under the bus? Bibi has gone weak-kneed etc. etc.
I don't think we should change our opinion about these two strong personality leaders based on the face value of this deal. I think there is far more at play here that is not mentioned in the deal.
This is hypothetical ...... If I were Bibi and Trump would have told me to do the deal, and we could then go after Iran right away. I will give you the concrete busters you need and the planes to deliver them, and we take care of destroying Iran's nuclear capability. In addition, This deal will also give us what we need to get the Saudis on board with the Abraham Accords. In the future, we can always go back to dealing with Hamas. If Trump came to me with those conditions, I would accept them. And who knows? I would like to think he did cuz I believe that both these men are strong and on the same page.
At least, I hope so.
Papa j
I hear your points Jerry and they have a good foundation. It is true: stopping the war may help with tackling Iran and creating peace with Saudi Arabia. But the Palestinian issue is the main issue and until its ideology of hatred is defeated through 1945-like total surrender there will be no peace. In a true Versailles manner, this peace will be the cause of the next war.
I agree. That hatred is their raison d'être, their children being brought up in it from day one.
Genocide would have to be very liberally applied to assert it in the case of 45,000 killed out of a population of 2.3M over a period of 16months of sustained fighting, with perhaps half of those killed being armed terrorists in tunnels, and hiding among civilians in hospitals, schools, mosques, UN buildings & blocks of residential appartments
Breaking it down into admittedly cold hard stats, that's just under 100 killed a day (half ie 50 terrorists and half ie 50 civilians)
That's most likely an unusually low number for guerrilla style warfare in an urban environment, with one side having had years to dig in & ambush the other side
It seems the Iranians may have bailed out a bankrupt corrupt ANC for rhe price of the South African Government's initial genocide allegation, which was then repeated ad nauseam, unchallenged, by Palestinian and Hamas spokespersons at every opportunity and then chorused by many more
But propaganda aside, the big question remains: why did the world buy into the big genocide lie, or at the very least, let it go unanswered & unchallenged
How & why did such huge moral paralysis set in?
That requires deep analysis
Now to return to hard cold stats
On Oct 7th 2023, Hamas terrorists, aided by 'civilians' who followed them into Israel from.Gaza, murdered 1,200 Israeli civilians in under 24hrs
Had Israel reciprocated in kind,, it would have killed 546,000, that's to say 12 times as many as they did
Yet.. the Big Lie is now firmly entrenched in C21st subculture, from whence it is spawning thousands of poisonous progeny
You are exactly right. But I for one will never stop fighting against the Great Genocide Lie.
Hamas’ ideology is one of Islamist supremacy. Captured documents confirm that its plan was not to create a Palestinian state but to take a step toward a worldwide caliphate.
October 7 should have been a clarifying moment that showed what the real Palestinian narrative - not the one carefully curated (initially by the Soviet Union) to appeal to Western sensibilities- leads to. Faced with looking evil in the face, the world not only chose to turn away but blamed the victim forcing it to look in the first place.
Instead, the West intentionally placed Gaza civilians at risk by acquiescing to Egypt’s sealing its border and keeping them in an active war zone. Then the West blamed Israel for not taking sufficient care in seeing to their safety and, more remarkably, general welfare - two things that should have been Hamas’ responsibility. As to the war crime of hostage taking, to say that lip service to their unconditional release was made is to be charitable in the extreme. At every turn, priority 1 was the wellbeing of Gazans and very conspicuously not the release of the hostages.
Repeating its disgraceful conduct in WWII, the ICRC made no effort at all to see the hostages, let alone campaign publicly and loudly for their release, while taking every opportunity to denounce Israel.
Instead, the West has normalized a war crime as a legitimate tactic. The consequences of this moral confusing would be dire but for the fact that we can be confident that this is one among many “Israel only” precedents being set.
The Arab-Israeli conflict began and fundamentally remains one rooted in concepts of Islamic supremacy. If Saudi Arabia joins the Abraham Accords, it is probable that the imams will be preaching a more pacific and accepting version of Islam. One might hope that the price for financial relief for Egypt will be a similar change from religious scholars at Al Azhar (the so-called Sunni Vatican) who will move away from its nakedly antisemitic interpretations.
Should any of that come to pass, Hamas will be isolated in the Arab world and forced to rely on the despised Turks and Persians. Whether any of this changes the view in the West that a bad peace is better than a good war, remains to be seen. Perhaps it will take an ill-advised uptick in jihadist violence in more Western countries to brig it back to the basic lesson set out in this article.
Hi Charles, thank-you for your support and your well reasoned, engaging contribution. I completely agree with your various points and I second your view that the West, through its attitude of keeping civilians in a dangerous war zone, has put lives at risk.
Why do I feel so miserable about this new armistice, even with the return of some of our hostages? I think you have answered that question with your usual dose of eloquent prose and thoughtful analysis. Thanks for that Daniel, and while I hope you are wrong, I can't help but think it's another groundhog day in the middle east.
Thanks for the support Brad. "I hope for the best but fear for the worst:" the words of Chamberlain when he was driving from Heston airfield on "peace in our time" day,
Are you suggesting to do nothing? One can be optimistic if there is a strategy in place. I don’t agree there was a failed strategy. See Sadka’s list of wins. For now, the world sees the thugs rejoicing and the Jews morose, negative, questioning. Guess where the onlookers will gravitate toward?
Let’s not wear our hearts on our sleeves. Show conviction and strength.
Hi Anne, I am not saying that this war hasn't achieved anything, rather that it doesn't solve anything. Until Palestinian hatred is tackled, all other efforts will be of limited effect.
Sad indeed. The contagion of hatred that will inevitably close the door to any future peace.
Just like Germany was deNazified, hopefully the Palestinians can be too.
This is heartbreakingly prophetic. It’s almost possible to see future students of history reading about this time and asking “why did they do that?” “Why did they not do this?” Just as so many of us did when we studied the two world wars. I pray that you are incorrect, but I fear that more darkness is to come. As Einat Wilf so insightfully points out, only an admission defeat will bring Palestinianism to an end. Woefully, this is not what has happened.
I wish that I was wrong Charlotte, but I fear that I'm not. Thanks for yoru support!
Always.
Sadly, I agree wholeheartedly with the author’s argument. However, using sophisticated intelligence to target individual Nazi/Hamas cells in the future, while encouraging peaceful dialogue with Palestinians, might help prevent a greater tragedy.
Thank-you for your comment Eli. For Palestinian dialogue to be fruitful there needs to be a root and branch reform of their education system. Seeing as we fund it, I wuld say that we have some leverage!
No external actor can reform the educational system. As Dr. Einat Wilf describes, even if the West were to force a new curriculum, the teacher would stand before the class and say, "Children, let's close those Zionist-propaganda books, and I'll tell you how the evil Jews stole Palestine."
Palestinians must accept they have lost - and lost overwhelmingly - before they might consider a change of direction. The good news is that once they have accepted this, the loss itself will provide a powerful incentive to change.
IMO, the only truly agonizingly painful cost is loss of land, and even more - Jewish settlement on the land they've lost. An attempted invasion of Israel that left Israel with more "formerly Arab" land than before, is something Hamas could never spin as a win.
That's why 1967 had an earth-shattering effect on the Arab hegemonies in the Middle East, unlike 1956 or 1973 - because it involved Israel taking previously Arab land.
As (perhaps) Mark Twain said, “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes”. I see the many parallels of which you speak, but you suggest a parallel of 1:1. It isn't/won't be exactly the same, not even so similar.
Interestingly I too noticed a parallel this week, but not the same one. For 15 months the Bibistim (Bibi-ites) as we call them, and Ben Gvir et al to their rights have been respectively promising and demanding total victory, to entirely wipe out Hamas: something which military analysis say is possible, but would take at least five years and cost the lives of all the hostages and of many more of our soldiers and Palestinians civilians.
Those voices on the right are now going to claim a Great Betrayal, by the generals and the “elites” (even though they've been in power for all but six of the past 48 years): They could have had their total victory if it weren't for the cowardice and betrayal of the generals et al. It's a flip of the German betrayal narrative at the end of the First World War, but no less dangerous.
A very interesting point well made. We are fighting on two fronts: against Palestinan hatred on one hand and the Israeli far right on the other.
Why do you think Judea and Samaria haven't seen the same atrocities as the Gaza envelope? Do you think the PA is somehow more moderate than Hamas?
The problem is not the further-right.
Netanyahu's coalition has been pushing for total victory, but has made a number of brain-dead choices that make it impossible, such as providing humanitarian aid to Gaza; and refusing to take and hold area, preferring instead to enter and exit each area multiple times.
But it turns out the further-right coalition partners have been pushing forcefully against these choices, only to be stymied by the IDF top brass; the same top brass who assured us prior to Oct. 7th that Hamas was deterred, and provided the same analysis you mentioned.
Which side Netanyahu is on is an open question; for all his grand rhetoric, he threw away at the beginning of the war what might have been the only true cost Hamas would have had to pay, and thus the only true incentive for Hamas to bargain or surrender: loss of land from Gaza to Israel.
Ceasefire?! Hamas never honored a ceasefire in the entire period of their rule in Gaza. What phony ‘progressives’ fail to absorb is that there WAS a fairly lengthy one until 6:29 am October 7.
Suggested reading for those who want to hear both sides of the story, where discussion of the terrorism, intimidation and repression the indigenous Arabs in Palestine are continuously victimized by. A great book by the young Palestinian woman Ahed Tamimi, who has long experience as a hostage taken by the Israeli government. This would be an excellent read when combined with President Carter’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid”.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634628/they-called-me-a-lioness-by-ahed-tamimi-and-dena-takruri/
Note that all that is being inflicted on Tamimi is occurring outside of Israel’s borders in the illegally occupied West Bank. It is not happening in Israel.
This is of course the delightful Ahed Tamimi who promised "to drink your blood and eat your skull" and said "we will slaughter you and you will say that what Hitler did to you was a joke". https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/article-771102
I’m sure you’d rather get all of your input from the unbiased Jerusalem Post than actually read her book and contemplate what her life has been like among squatters and an abusive IDF when in and out of being a hostage in administrative detention since her mid-teens. All of what has happened to her has occurred outside of Israel’s borders in her land, which is illegally occupied by an apartheid regime filled with squatters who are too often Baruch Goldstein disciples (here’s to you, Mr. Ben-Gvir).
Here you can find information about Tamimi's original Instagram post. https://x.com/aradboaz/status/1719103795836158350
I have no interest in reading the Mein Kampf-like ravings of someone who thinks Jews deserve no rights; and is happy to display her bravery and devotion to her cause by yelling at Israeli soldiers whom she knows won't respond to her antics. All for the cameras of course.
When Palestinians stop normalizing talk of Jews as Satanic https://palwatch.org/page/34385 human-waste https://palwatch.org/page/34709 apes and pigs https://palwatch.org/page/35206 , they will of course also stop distracting the world from their true intentions by waving such red flags as "settlement" or "apartheid" before the Western bull.