The Israel-Palestinian conundrum

How Hamas and the hardliners in Israel politics need each other for their political survival and success

THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The successful attack by Hamas on Israel last week illuminates the folly of the human mind. Israel has been boasting of having built an “Iron Dom” to protect itself from such attacks. Hamas, using rudimentary weapons and means of transport, exposed this claim to be a delusion. Israel remains vulnerable in spite of a massive build-up of a security-surveillance state. Since 2007, Israel and Egypt have imposed a land, air and sea blockade of Gaza. So confident were the Israelis that their officials used to claim even a rat would not pass through without them noticing.

So how did Hamas organise such a big operation under the watchful eye of Mossad, launch it so successfully that it caught the Israel state completely by surprise? The answer is simple but fundamental: Israel has been looking in the wrong place for her security: at the military-industrial complex. Yet Israeli security can only come from ending the occupation and accepting Palestinian freedom and sovereignty. For as long as there is occupation; for as long as Palestinians are treated as sub-humans: oppressed, brutalised and denied any meaningful form of independent existence by Israel, there will never be security and safety for Israel.

Part of the problem with Israel is that its economy is built around military and security. This industrial complex has a powerful lobby promoting a military solution to the Palestinian problem. Investments in security and technology can give Israel five or ten years of safety. But Israel will need to be 100% successful every single day of every year for decades. However, Hamas (or any other Palestinian group) only needs one day and one chance in ten years to deliver a devastating blow and expose the myth of Israel invincibility.

Yet Israel will not seek her security in ending the occupation. On the contrary, the attack by Hamas will strengthen the hand of hand-liners who insist on a military solution. The demonisation of Hamas as a terrorist organisation intent on destroying Israel makes a bad situation worse. Palestinians embrace Hamas because they do not see any benefits Mahmood Abbas and his Fatah faction in the West Bank have gotten from being moderates. Israel has refused or failed to work with them for peace. So, many Palestinians see Fatah as weak and corrupt stooges of America and Israeli.

There are many moderates in Israel who believe in a negotiated peace. These can and could work with Fatah. But they have consistently been weakened and discredited by Hamas’ indiscriminate attacks on Israeli towns and villages targeting civilians. These attacks make them look weak in the face of aggression. Consequently, the way politics has evolved in that conflict is such that the bitterest rivals (subjectively) in this contest are (objectively) strategic allies. Hardliners inside Israel politics need indiscriminate attacks by Hamas to argue for an all-out military confrontation: indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza and permanent subjugation of Palestinians. Hamas needs these draconian measures by Israeli security to argue for a holy war and the destruction of Israel.

By calling Hamas a terrorist organisation that kills innocents, the hardliners in Israel politics not only close all avenues for a negotiated settlement but also free themselves of any moral restraints in responding to Hamas attacks. So, they blockade and bomb Palestinians indiscriminately. Hamas used this to paint Jews as evil. This way it is able to remove sympathy and empathy from its fighters when dealing with ordinary Israel citizens caught in this conflict. This is because when you see your opponent as evil, it removes moral restraints on how you treat them. That is why extremists on either side rely on religion to justify their violence.

Thus, the hardliners on each side needs the other’s barbarity to demonstrate that their positions are legitimate and are tough defenders of their people’s interests. This is because to call for peace negotiations in such heated environments sounds like caving in to the violence of the other side. Israel cannot negotiate with Hamas because that would be a sign of weakness, surrender to violence. For Hamas, to accept a peace offer from Israel which is bombing people’s homes over their heads, is to deal with the devil.

The solution to this conundrum would have come from outside; most especially from the USA backed by Europe. But America is politically compromised by the power of the Israel lobby in her politics. So powerful is this lobby that no American president or politician of any heft can call out Israel for her inhumane treatment of Palestinians without risking his/her political career. Europe in morally compromised by her history of discrimination, violence and genocide against Jews which led to the creation of Israel in the first place. To cover for their political and moral impotence, the Americans and Europeans indulge in hypocritical moralising, selective indignation, double standards, lies and deception.

The West has always presented itself as a moral guardian of the existing international “rules-based” order. Yet Israel has violated this order with impunity for 70 years without any sanction. It has defied every UN General Assembly resolution and relies on the U.S. veto to get away with impunity. By selective application of rules, the West has undermined its moral voice in world affairs. Assume Russians had occupied Kiev and taken lands from Ukrainians, making them live as refugees in their own country. Assume a Ukrainian resistance movement had made this attack on Russia. Would the West have condemned the resistance as terrorists?

The Israel lobby in American politics has made it impossible for Washington to be an even-handed mediator in this conflict. Instead, America’s blind support for Tel Aviv has been injurious to U.S. as well as Israel interests. America has lost the respect and admiration of Arabs and many Muslims around the world. For Israel, by trying to act the bully that America is on the world stage, it has been fated to live under constant insecurity and uncertainty.

America’s military adventures are always far away from its homeland. Whenever it has conducted mass murder – like in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, etc. – America has returned to a home surrounded by two giant oceans and two friendly neighbours – Canada and Mexico. For Israel, however, its mass murder is done close to home and to people who live under its occupation. They can always strike from nearby. In following the American example, Israel has placed itself at high risk of constant attacks. So, I don’t think there can be a solution to this blood-letting, however depressing my conclusion may sound.

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amwenda@independent.co.ug