On May 12, my friend Noz, a Jewish-American, wrote a good explainer of what caused the latest blow-up in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship and why the coverage we’re seeing in America is misleading.
1. About 10 days ago, an Israeli court ordered several Palestinian families to be expelled from their homes in Jerusalem. The deputy mayor of Jerusalem later admitted that the city brought the eviction case as part of a broader strategy of installing “layers of jews” throughout East Jerusalem to make sure that Jerusalem is “a Jewish capital for the Jewish people.”
2. Palestinians protested the evictions as ethnic cleansing.
3. The Israeli government escalated the hostilities by cracking down on protesters, including assaulting worshippers trying to pray and forcibly clearing the al-Aksa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan, injuring 178 people.
5. Israel retaliated with an assault against Gaza which killed 20 people, including 9 children.
I’m sure it will only get worse from here.
Meanwhile, the American media paid very little attention to the evictions, the protests, the IDF’s assault of worshippers at al-Aksa, really anything until #4. When Hamas started firing missiles, it was suddenly a top story. Because the story started there, it looked like Hamas just started attacking for no reason.
Some of the details here are a little inaccurate. For example, the New York Times reports that it was the police, not the army, that raided the al-Aska Mosque, and they didn’t do it to crack down on protestors but rather to assure the call to prayer wouldn’t drown out the Israeli president’s speech.
“Twenty-seven days before the first rocket was fired from Gaza this week, a squad of Israeli police officers entered the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, brushed the Palestinian attendants aside and strode across its vast limestone courtyard. Then they cut the cables to the loudspeakers that broadcast prayers to the faithful from four medieval minarets. It was the night of April 13, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was also Memorial Day in Israel, which honors those who died fighting for the country. The Israeli president was delivering a speech at the Western Wall, a sacred Jewish site that lies below the mosque, and Israeli officials were concerned that the prayers would drown it out.”
The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians has been going on so long and has involved so many outrages that it’s a fool’s game to talk about who started any particular blow-up as though that will help us decide which side is in the right. In any case, both sides are fully capable of squandering any high ground they might initially have by targeting innocents in response.
As Noz, says, “I think Hamas’ attack was pretty counterproductive and was little more than a desperate attempt for the group to remain relevant.”
Still, wherever you stand on Israel or Netanyahu, it’s pretty hard to justify what Israel did to instigate this latest bout of violence. The core of the problem is an effort to take over East Jerusalem, which is a dubious goal and unsupported by the international community. But even leaving aside the land grab, violating the sanctity of the al-Asqa mosque and cutting its sound system during Ramadan so the Israeli president can give a speech is a senseless provocation.
I agree with Noz that it’s a shame that Hamas hijacked the legitimate protest against this.
Lost in all of this are the ordinary Palestinians who continue to protest and who are getting unfairly lumped in with Hamas in the eyes of most Americans. In our media Hamas is an easy villain. The story is only worth telling if we have a good villain.
From Netanyahu’s perspective, he’s grateful for the rockets precisely because almost no one supports indiscriminately launching rockets at civilian populations. It’s a conversation ender.
Despite this, Democrats in Congress are increasingly impatient with this pattern of behavior on Israel’s part and they’re beginning to assert themselves, even voicing strong criticism of the Biden administration’s weak response.
Not much will come of this in the short run. An effort to postpone or cancel arms sales to Israel will certainly fail. But this movement on the left away from Israel is only beginning. It will get stronger.
When it comes to Israel’s self-defense, the bipartisan support they enjoy on Capitol Hill is nearly as important as their nuclear deterrent. It ought to be more of a concern for Israelis that Netanyahu is losing that support.
Israel’s most powerful supporter in Congress is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Schumer is calling for a cease-fire. It would be prudent for Netanyahu to listen.
I initially supported Israel on this thinking Hamas started this food fight. Then I gravitated to Hamas when I heard about the speaker bullshit. But now the Israeli attacks are clearly way out of bounds such that there is nothing “fair” about this shit. Hamas is simply outclassed and outgunned and Bibi knows that. Israel has to stop, and I don’t much like bullies. End of story.
Israel loves nothing more than for this to become about Hamas rather than the ongoing effort to push Palestinians off the land. They don’t want anyone to notice that what they’re doing is both racist and unjust. Hamas’ response is counterproductive and plays right into Israeli hands. Thus, it’s completely boneheaded. But what does one expect? How much can an occupied people take?
By the way, I’m Jewish. I’m also Muslim. Born Jewish, my spiritual journey eventually brought me to Sufism which is the mystical branch of Islam. I have a deep appreciation for both religions but no tolerance for political bullshit, injustice or unprovoked violence. Sure, there’s been inhumanity all around but at this point in time, I see Israel as the powerful entity with zero interest in pursuing peace. I’d love to see the United States lead (rather than resist) international efforts to hold Israel accountable.
Israel is waging slow-motion genocide, just slow enough that they can ghettoize and concentrate Palestinians into smaller and smaller camps until they no longer exist as a people. Over the course of half a century or so, thus far.
What they learned from Nazi Germany is that you don’t start a program and then fire up the trains and death camps. You just box people into smaller and smaller territories, make it appear as if they are just defending themselves, and then murder hundreds of Palestinians for every Israeli who gets injured. Over time, the 100s:1 death count just, uh, results in there being no more Palestinians.