Perspective on the Israel/Hamas War

Ever since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel I have been trying to articulate why the Israeli response is not only justified, but essential.  During this time, the world press and many Western governments have shifted from understanding to caution to criticism of Israel’s handling of the war against Hamas, mainly due to the Hamas-reported civilian casualty count.  But very few people in the United States or Europe understand, or are focused on, or reporting, or seem to appreciate what the Israelis understand about this war and the enemy.

First, I would argue that the persuasive and pervasive left-liberal progressive view that (very simply) Jews in Israel are “settler-colonialist oppressors”  is at best ill-informed  and at worst, antisemitic.  This trope denies the fact that Jews are indigenous to Israel and falsely asserts that Israelis are white oppressors of people of color while ignoring the reality that the majority of Israelis are in fact people of color, including Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa who were displaced by Arab/Muslim governments following the founding of Israel in 1948.  Israelis themselves, including liberal Israelis, are baffled by the  US left-liberal progressive “settler-colonialist oppressor” narrative as am I.

Moreover, the actions of Hamas have been defended by student organizations across the United States who adopt the left-liberal progressive world view as do women’s groups, LBGTQ+ groups, and other identity groups, while ignoring the fact that these self-same identity groups would face severely constrained rights (e.g., women) and/or would be targets for violence and murder (e.g., LBGTQ+ individuals) by the people they are supporting.  The illogic of support for Hamas by these identity groups is also baffling.

Second,  I try to point out that, however tragic, the fact that war results in civilian casualties.  But in this war, even if you accept Hamas’ reported but unverified accounts, Israel is actually doing a better job of avoiding civilian casualties than in any other major military conflict anywhere in the world in recent history (WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Russia/Chechen war, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Desert Shield/Storm in Iraq).  In other words, the ratio of civilian to total casualties and civilian casualties as  percent of population is lower in this war than those mentioned above.   And yet, opponents, however, continue to call the Israeli actions a “genocide.”  It is not genocide, it’s a war*.

It is also important to note that Gazan civilians have allowed Hamas to be their government since 2006, allowed Hamas to redirect the aid dollars contributed to help develop Gaza to build and embed their terror organizational infrastructure and weaponry in civilian homes, schools, and hospitals, that a majority of the civilian population supports the actions of October 7, and that the people (Hamas and non-Hamas Gazans) who committed the atrocities on October 7 were celebrated by civilian Gazans upon their return and the hostages abused by those same civilians.

You may argue that many Gazans despise Hamas and don’t willingly “allow” them to do anything and did not celebrate the kidnapping, rape torture and massacre of Jews, but they are trapped and helpless.  Yes, those Gazans exist and what is happening to them is a tragedy.  That provokes the question of  where is or was the left-liberal progressive protest movement attempting to save those Gazans from Hamas?  There wasn’t one, ever.   Apparently, having Hamas, since 2006, trample on Palestinian human rights, eliminate Palestinian voting rights, usurp development aid for weapons, and use women and children as human shields is not worthy of international protest, but Israelis trying to erase an existential threat is “genocide.”  I submit that this is hypocrisy of the highest order, driven by elements that have nothing to do with how Palestinians are treated.

My argument then turns to two factors that I believe are driving the growing pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate cease-fire: a double standard and antisemitism.

First, the double standard: why the outrage and anger at Jews and at Israel when there was none of this demonstrated angst and anger when, for example, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad killed hundreds of thousands (high estimates are above 600,000) of civilians.  Of course, al-Assad’s behavior is a pretty low bar.  OK, where were/are the protest(s) against China for what they did to the Tibetans and what they are currently doing to the Uighurs?  Or what the Russians did to the Chechens?  Or at what the Burmese are doing to the Rohingya Muslims?  Where are/was the outrage, the outpouring of solidarity, the protests?  Where were the accusations of war crimes?  Where were the cities passing resolutions?  Where were the campus protests and vilification of specific ethnic groups in the US and Europe?   I must ask, where was the left-liberal progressive disgust then? Because is there was any, anywhere, I failed to see it.

Ireland is helping South Africa bring charges of “genocide” to the International Court of Justice because they “identify” with the Palestinian struggle.  I thought the Irish fought mightily to maintain their Catholic character against English Protestantism…a battle that continues in Northern Ireland to this day.  The only people in the Middle East trying to violently suppress other religions are Islamic fanatics (note: not all Muslims).  Perhaps the Irish are taking the wrong message from their history.

And then there is the dramatic and frightening increase in world-wide antisemitism unleashed in response to the Israeli-Gaza war.  The term “antisemitism,” by the way, was coined by the German founder of the Antisemites League as a genteel replacement for the more descriptive and accurate term of “Jew hatred.”

This upswell of Jew-hatred results from the unholy alliance of the far-right and their antisemitic tropes of “Jews will not replace us” and Jews have a “dual loyalty” to Israel, and Jews are Communists with the entrenched and unwavering world view of far-left progressives that Jews universally and unwaveringly support Israel’s every action and its current right-wing government, (both contentions highly and demonstrably untrue) and that Jews are Capitalists.  And, goes the argument, Jews are white and therefore must be oppressors of non-whites.  How else to explain chants of “Kill the Jews” and “From the river to the sea” at pro-Palestinian demonstrations and harassment (and worse) of Jews on America’s college campuses?

The Atlantic recently published a devastatingly eloquent exposition of the muddled thinking of the pro-Palestinian effort on campus and its destructive effect on the much smaller Jewish community and even smaller pro-Israel Jewish community,  The War at Stanford by Theo Baker, a Stanford sophomore journalism major. Baker’s description of what is happening and its impact on Jews mirrors what is happening off-campus.  This piece is very much worth the time to read and consider.  (The gift link expires on April 14 – let me know if you need me to re-send.) 

Finally, I have made the argument that, for Israel,  the war against Hamas (and the conflicts with Iran, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and other Jihadist groups) is existential.  The Jihadi perspective is that the Quran requires the genocide of the Jews (and eventually, all unbelievers) and that sacrificing yourself in that quest guarantees the Jihadist a place in paradise.  This is the enemy that Israel is up against.  Let me hasten to add that while this brand of Jihadism is not synonymous with Islam, it is supported by too many Muslims. 

Sam Harris, noted atheist, supporter and promoter of secular humanism, and critic of organized religion overall, has provided a quite nuanced discussion and critical analysis of the threat Jihadism poses to Western civilization.   In a recent article entitled The Bright Line Between Good and Evil, Harris makes his case. (This article is the transcript of a podcast, lengthy but entirely worth the effort.) 

I agree with Harris’ perspective that most of the pro-Palestinian folks (at least in the US and Europe writ large) do not understand the nature or the danger of the Jihadi mindset.  Jihadists will not be deterred, nor are they open to or receptive to any reform.  They believe that they are doing a good deed by killing.  They believe that Islam commands them to do so and they are proud of it.

Here is a transcript (from Harris’ article, his comments in brackets) of a phone call between one of the murderers on October 7 with his family as the attack was ongoing.

 Hi Dad.  Open my WhatsApp now, and you’ll see all those killed.  Look how many I killed with my own hands!  Your son killed Jews!”

And his dad says, “May God protect you.”

“Dad, I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone.  I killed her, and I killed her husband.  I killed ten with my own hands!  Dad, ten with my own hands!  Dad, open WhatsApp and see how many I killed, Dad.  Open the phone, Dad.  I’m calling you on WhatsApp.  Open the phone, go.  Dad, I killed ten.  Ten with my own hands.  Their blood  is on their hands.  [I believe that is a reference to the Quran.] Put Mom on.”

And the father says, “Oh my son.  God bless you!”

“I swear ten with my own hands.  Mother, I killed ten with my own hands!”

And his father says, “May God bring you home safely.”

“Dad, go back to WhatsApp now.  Dad, I want to do a live broadcast.”

And the mother now says, “I wish I was with you.”

“Mom, your son is a hero!”

This exchange is but one example of the real meaning of “from the river to the sea” – massacring all Jews between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, in other words, all the Jews in the State of Israel.  Is this truly what campus protestors and other pro-Palestinian demonstrators are advocating?

My argument is that the progressive left, the “Squad,” the screamers of “from the river to the sea,” “Kill the Jews”,  and “genocide” and “Israel = Apartheid” either do not comprehend or have chosen to ignore (e.g., South Africa) that it is not just Israelis the Jihad wants to kill, it’s all the Jews, then the rest of the unbelievers, and finally Western democracy.  Those protestors are Hamas’ “useful idiots,” spreading the Jihadist aims and gospel across the land,  giving support and succor to those dedicated to their own (Western) destruction. I ask again, for those committed to preventing “genocide”, where is their protests and objections to Hamas?

Israel understands this stark reality: the Jihad will not end until the Jihadists are stopped.  Period.

That is why a cease-fire would simply allow the perpetuation of the Jihadi reign of terror.  A cease-fire might make Americans or Europeans feel good that they stopped “Israeli aggression,” but the reality is it will just push the next atrocity into the future.  A cease-fire will do nothing to blunt the Jihadi mission.  It will not stop the Jihad, it will not stop the terrorism, and it will not make any of us, Jews, Israelis, Europeans, or Americans, safer.  A cease-fire enables Hamas’ and its allies to regroup, re-arm and repeat its atrocities.  A cease-fire only prolongs the inevitable – the only way to stop Jihadists is to confront them with overwhelming force and reduce their ranks to irrelevance.

Now you know why the Israelis, on the front-line of this battle, cannot, should not, and likely will not agree to a ceasefire that leaves Hamas able to continue its mission.  Yes, the Gazans and West Bank Palestinians deserve better – a better government, a better education system, a safer place to live, more economic opportunity, and a path to peace.  We (all of us non-Israelis) need to understand that will not happen until Hamas, their enablers and supporters (like UNRWA, Middle Eastern extremist government, the UN in general, and myriad other NGOs) are forced to stop training, motivating, and celebrating the violence, murder, torture, and rape of Israeli Jews, and Jews world-wide.

* The United Nations claims that typically 90% of war casualties are civilian, but there is some debate around this.