There are a number of fundamental crises which need to be addressed very quickly or Israel, diaspora Jews, and the entire Middle East could blow up like never before.
The slaughter by Hamas terrorists of totally innocent civilians sleeping or awakening in their homes in the early morning of October 7th or leisurely enjoying music at a fall music festival is unforgiveable and unforgettable. As was the case for innocent Americans going to work on September 11, 2001, or the Nazi extermination of six million European Jews in the Holocaust, there is no explanation for such heinous crimes.
Similarly, there remain today serious questions surrounding the Allied bombing of Dresden in the closing months of World War II or the dropping of one, and certainly two atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945. America’s exhaustive and largely unresolved campaign against Iraq, Afghanistan, and its pursuit of Osama bin Laden also have produced serious questions. The U.S. failed to manage it strategic goals in the Iraq War and produced extensive meaningless losses of lives both among American combatants and the thousands of innocent civilians. The deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians as a result of Israeli retaliation for Hamas’s attacks on October 7th as well as the obscene use by Hamas of civilian human shields, raise the same issues concerning how the Gaza War has been conducted and needs to be resolved.
As was the case, for example, concerning Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, investigations will eventually establish how and why Israel was so militarily vulnerable on October 7th. Today, however, it is Israel’s immediate, visceral response to the tragedy which appears to have placed it in its current strategic and moral straitjacket.
Israel’s failed or misinterpreted intelligence directed the political leadership to react to Hamas’s slaughter without the semblance of a game plan. Israel expected a typical several weeks long engagement with Hamas and then back to the status quo ante. It appears now that already at that point the political hotheads were driving a politically vulnerable Prime Minister and a very embarrassed military/intelligence operation. The problem now is that Israel is unable to construct a reasonable strategy to extricate itself from its military operation in a way that this right-wing Israeli Government can accept.
Israel faces a number of decisions, but it continues to be unable, politically, to make them:
1. The Government must prioritize the release of the hostages coupled with an immediate extensive cease-fire.
2. There must be an immediate increase in humanitarian assistance by conveys flowing into Gaza on the ground from Israel.
3. Israel needs to either design a plan for the removal of Palestinians from Rafah or it must forsake any effort to move into Rafah.
4. The Israeli Government needs to repair the damage done by the petty political bickering employed by the Prime Minister in his more recent interactions with the Biden Administration and the Democrats in Congress.
5. Israel cannot presume that the Biden Administration will continue to issue Israel a blank check for its military needs. This is untenable strategically as well as domestically for the Biden Administration.
6. Regardless of how effective Netanyahu’s leadership is perceived by his followers, Bibi’s day of reckoning is rapidly approaching. Israeli political leaders need to confront the deep damage the Prime Minister continues to cause to Israel, to its relations with the United States as well as other allies, and to Jews around the world.
7. Increased anti-Semitism may be dangerous for world Jewry but is similarly bad for Israel.
8. Israel needs to remove Hamas, but in this iteration of its war in Gaza it may well not happen.
In the midst of these specific issues on the ground, American Jews need to address the growing unrest--frequently expressed by well-intentioned but misguided, largely Jewish writers. Some voices are advocating scenarios for future relations between Israel and world-wide Jewry which demonstrate ignorance or lack of comprehension of Jewish history and the essence of Judaism. These voices are feeding anti-Israel feelings as well as anti-Semitism. They are being expressed in the name of intellectual honesty and political wisdom. In fact, they are extending legitimacy to anti-Zionism which they deny being anti-Semitism.
Perhaps the most disturbing response to October 7th that needs to be repaired is what has happened on college campuses. The explosions of pro-Palestinian demonstrations have fanned extensive expressions of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel rhetoric. As has been observed noted, many of those chanting support for Palestinians have no idea what their words mean.
The lack of historical knowledge of the history of African Americans and Native Americans must be forthcoming as well for that of the Palestinians. At the same time, people need to learn about the history Jews and the Jewish people—eight million of whom reside in Israel as part of their expression of the Jewish faith and peoplehood.
Comments