In any future arrangement... Israel needs security control all territory west of the [river] Jordan. This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
On October 7, 2023, Hamas inflicted upon Israel a horrible wound. Hamas slaughtered innocent people, took many hostages and retreated back into their tunnels underneath Gaza. The world, in abject horror, watched the situation play out and develop. The western world, in predictable fashion, gave in to bloodlust and hysteria.
As someone who has long objected to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the continued settlement of the West Bank, and Netanyahu himself (whom I believe should have been put on trial for crimes against humanity long before this recent flare up). I was stunned by the blatant antisemitism that arose from the pro-Palestinian left. I was stunned by the celebration of the actions of Hamas, and the excuses made for their horrific behavior. It must be said, with un-unambiguous force, that principled resistance must never give way to terrorism. And yet, it seems, many of the pro-Palestinian Left struggles with this sentiment. I was astounded to see many of my peers, friends even, suggest that the actions of Hamas were not only fair, but reasonable and righteous. "This is what it takes to resist settler colonialism" was the core claim. The murder of innocents. The rape of women. The slaughter of children. The adoption of the tactics of the occupier. Unprincipled. Self defeating.
What was less stunning to me was the enthusiastic support that was given to Israel to rectify the situation. Emotionally charged narratives, similar to those from the left, arose from pro-Israel voices. Israel must be allowed to defend itself. Israel must be given room to eliminate Hamas once and for all. Any voice speaking in favor of restraint was shouted down. Did anyone tell the United States to exercise restraint in the aftermath of 9/11? No, my friends, the world did not think to ask the United States to restrain itself from its worst impulses. But we all know how that story ends don't we? Afghanistan is still run by the Taliban. Our police forces are militarized to the point of absurdity. We sacrificed our values for security and are still reeling with the consequences of that decision. Is this the fate we desire for our friends in Israel? Should we not, with the benefit of experience and hindsight, stop our friends from making mistakes?
According to the pro-Israel voices, no we shouldn't. We should be giving Israel all it needs to cultivate what amounts to a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza. And here I am, here we are, stuck in the middle together, wondering where everyone's brains went.
Mania, of course, can't last forever and reality is often sobering. The sector of pro-Palestine voices who supported the actions of Hamas, some of whom going so far as to celebrate the attack, have quickly realized that Hamas still lacks the equipment and skill to hold back the Israeli military. The rallying cry of ending the occupation has turned into a plea for a ceasefire. The voices against Israeli restraint begin to fade, as the impossibility of war goals begins to set in. It is impossible to destroy Hamas. The United States couldn't destroy Al Qaeda, we couldn't destroy the Taliban, even remnants of the Islamic State exist still. If Israel wants to be free of the Hamas threat in the south, it must be free of Palestinians entirely. People are not the only things to have died since October 7, the very possibility of a two-state solution has been firmly set six feet below the ground. Which brings us back to the quote provided at the top of this post.
In any future arrangement... Israel needs security control all territory west of the [river] Jordan. This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?
Joe Biden has for his entire career been devoted to the state of Israel going so far as to say that if Israel didn't exist the United States would have to create an Israel. Joe Biden views the interests of Israel and the United States as inherently aligned. Thus, if it is in Israel's interest to occupy all of Palestine and settle the West Bank, then it is in the United States interest for Israel to do just that.
The Biden administration hugged Netanyahu's administration after the attack that took place on October 7th. A firm statement of support given, the United States would back the Israeli state and support their retaliatory strikes against Hamas. A blank check that Netanyahu has exploited to the fullest.
For some reason, somehow, Biden's administration was caught by surprise at the severity of Israel's response and the fact that support for Israel has dropped like a rock in the Democratic Party ever since Netanyahu embraced Trump. Now, three months into this renewed conflict in Gaza, the U.S. is urging restraint. The U.S. government now wants to see Israel scale back its offensive and begin planning for "the day after." The United States wants to see Israel commit to the two-state solution when Israel wrote that possibility off in the early 2000s. Joe Biden, and a startling number of American political "experts" are only now waking up to the fact that Israel has long been on a path to a one state solution. The Israeli state will exist, the Palestinian state will not. This shouldn't be a surprise. Yet it is.
Everyone but me is a dumb fuck.
The latest report from the Associated Press is that 24,600 Palestinians have been killed, 85% of a population of 2.3 million have fled their homes (that is 1.9 million people). There is no sign that this will end anytime soon. The cycle of violence, that has shaped the region for decades, continues. No one can stop it. No one seems willing to stop it. No one seems to know how. No one can stop it.
We (you? should I have to lump myself in with the rest of you despite a decade of opposing Israel's actions?) have bumbled (y)our way into supporting genocide because of the blind and stupid fucking belief that victims of oppression become inherently virtuous through their oppression and would never inflict the same oppression onto anyone else. The Israeli's wont, can't, commit genocide because they themselves are descendants of victims of genocide. What a crock of shit.
Aid to Israel needs to become conditional. Israel needs to become convinced of the desirability of returning to the two-state solution, which means we need to make the prospect of the one state solution unviable. Sanctions, elimination of any and all aid, the end of the all-powerful UN VETO on behalf of Israel. Make it clear that the bed Israel is trying to make for itself is poisonous. Bring Israel to heel, and we might just be able to find a path to peace.
An astute reader may point out that it is unfair to advocate for policies which restrain Israel, while ignoring the ways we could restrain Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. I disagree. The United States has no surefire way of restraining the other parties in this conflict, we have no influence. Israel is the closest thing to a client state that we have, we can thus influence their actions if we have the stomach to do so. The United States alone has the power to moderate Israel's approach if we choose to do so, and we must do so. The alternative is making ourselves complicit in yet another genocide.