Gaza, Israel, Palestine and October 7th: Gaza Faces History

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Gaza Faces History

Enzo Traverso

Footnote, 2024

Where does the world satnd on the tragedy of October 7th 2023 when the 59 kilometer border between Israel and Gaza was berached and thousnads of HAMAS men stormed into the settlements along the breached wall and massacred with extreme brutality and violence around 1300 civilians and by definition non-combatants. Babies were killed in front of their parents in Be'eri Kibbitz and some even thrown into micro wave ovens by HAMAS militants. In the Supernova Music Festival barely a kilometer within the perimeter fence another 350 young revelers were gunned down and in the Re'im Kibbutz the same scene of nauseating violence was reeneacted all over again. The breach in the Erez border was further widened by JCBs that were pressed into service and HAMAS men trooped into Israel in SUVs and other vehicles. Soon paragliders with heavily armed Palestenians were seen over the Mediterranean near Gaza. By 8 in the morning the Palestenians had uploaded the videos of the horrendous acts of violence that were committed in Israel on Social Media with live coverage on Telegram channel of the HAMAS.

The author of the book cited above dismisses October 7th as an irrelevant detail and launches in a tirade against the Israeli response. Before discussing the book, one point must be cleared. Israeli response was brutal and highly destructive and though nearly 44 000 Gazans were killed we cannot term this as Genocide as the Palestineans in the West Bank were largely unaffected though Israel has launched punitive strikes against Palestenian targets in the West Bank as well. The UN Convention is clear in its definition of what constitutes Genocide and the savage attack against Gaza falls short of Genocide. And in terms of sheer numbers the US and NATO attacks on Iraq, Syria, and Libya caused at least 5 to 7 million deaths.  By 10 30 the IDF swung into action and started engaging the Palestenians near the breached border and in 3 days of intense fighting killed all the Palestenians holed up within Israel. The retreating HAMAS militants took nearly 250 civilians hostage and the number included Israelis, Americans, Germans and other nationalities. The capture and the cynical use of the hostages as "bargaining chips" added a new dimension to the tragedy of October 7th. 

The map illustrates the attacks on Israel and the counter launched from Israel. The militants in the early phase of the October 7 attacks launched more than 5000 rockets against targets in Israel which completely overwhelmned the Iron Dome Missile Shield and at least 2 500 rockets landed in residential areas. Israeli Air force started bombing targets in Gaza though the ground troops The ground troops entered Gaza only after 2 months  in January 2024 when full scale invasion of Gaza and limited attack on Hezbollah positions in Lebonon were carried out. This book is a critique of Israel and its policies in Palestine which the author has termed a Genocide with War Crimes galore. The western press which is inherently anti semetic/Israel and Russophobic has largely been scating in its reportage regarding the Gaza War.  Let us look at some of the criticism made.

The HAMAS has carried out attacks using civilian infrastructure as shields. In pursuit of this policy Schools, Parks, Hospitals and housing areas were seeded with rocket launching pads and in the counter offensive many civilians lost their lives. It is necessary to keep this context in mind and Enzo Traverso ignores this reality. The Jabaliya Indonesian Hospital housed the control and command post of the HAMAS along with a huge cache of arms and ammunition. Western public opinion has been moulded by generally  overstating the Palestinian case and ignoring the political and strategic reasons for Israeli action, And if the past conduct of Israel is any guide we know that Israel will take decisive and brutal countermeasures. HAMAS ought to have known the consequences of its misadventure of Ocober 7th. 

The UN Convention on Human Rights and Genocide were signed in the heady days after the victory in World War II. Terrorism since has morphed into a multi dimensional threat with or without State support. HAMAS, Houthis, Hezbollah are all non state groups and therfore operate outside of the constarints of UN charters and conventions. Israel therefore chooses not to be restrained by laws that act as fretters that bind States and not non state actors. 

This book is an excercise in intellectual polemic that is aimed at the liberal white audience,

The Tamils: A portrait of a Community Critical Review

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

The Tamils Portrait of a Community

Aleph: New Delhi 2025

This book provides a close look into the dark world of politico-ethnic fantacies that is being promoted by the "Dravidian Model" partly as an ideological carapace to gloss over the rather bizzare social experiment that has been enacted in the Tamil region under the leadership of E V Ramasamy Naikker and his acolytes and to further the political objectives of the ruling dispensation. Academia and Media act in concert one furthering the discourse of the other. If indents for Zyklon are not being filled in Tamil Nadu, the answer lies in the reality that the Indian State is a reassuring presence. Like every kind of fascism Tamil Nadu, for political reason has identified one particular ethnic/caste group for instense campaign of hate and marginalization. And Stockholm Syndrome prevents its victims from even apprehending the scale and scope of their own debasement.

Let us start with the positive elements in this book. Though highly repetitive, especially on the historical aspects of medieval History, the book rests on a solid base of secondary material culled from the published work of Burton Stein, Noboru Karashima, Y Subbarayalu, Nilakanta Shastri amomg others. The geographical locus of the study is entirely Madras and Nothern Tamil Nadu with ocassional forays into Tanjavur and Madurai. The rich history and culture of the Kongu region is completely neglected except for the interegmum of Tipu Sultan and his father. The Kongu region has had a complex history and became the hub of entrepenuership and industrialization early in the twentieth century and as such deserves more engagement. 

The obsession with the so-called Sangam Age is paraded throughout the book. Using  literary narratives to frame an archaeological culture is always problematic in that it presupposes a clear and unambiguous chronology. The bardic compositions associated with the narrative poems are beset with intractable controversies relating to the dating of these poems and their modes of transmission down to the nineteenth century when they were "discovered" by Dr U V Swaminatha Aiyer. Whitney Cox has demonstrated that the Manuscript Culture prevalent in the medieval period presupposes a professional literate group with the skill set necessary to curate copy preserve the literary works. This being the case there is no truth in the oft repeated fable that the "Sangam Age" and its literary heritage was lost until the Tamil Renaissance rediscovered it.

On page 125 the author writes: "...the general boost that Brahmins received socially from royal diminished the resistance and gave brahmin landlords an inbuilt advantage that servered  them multigenerationally in the accumulation of wealth and resources". Of course when grand sweeping generalizations of this nature are made whose purpose is to play along with the dominant dravidianist narrative, we cannot expect evidence to stand in the way. Historical facts tell a different story. The brahmadeyas endowed disappeared from the agrarian landscape in the turbulent thirteenth century when the Chola Empire preciptously declined. Burton Stein has shown through a detailed study of inscriptions that brahmadeyas were not extablished after the 13th century. In fact during the later Chola period the base of royal patronage shifted from brahmadeyas to the rapidly proliferating Saiva mathas that were coming up in the Kaveri region and its environs.  So much for intergenerational accumulation that she talks about. This fixation on brahmin privilege is hardwired by vigorous propaganda in political, cinematic and media channels and of course organic intelllectuals will parrot this "wisdom" ad nauseum. Coming to more recent evidence, the fact that less than 40% of the graduates of Madras University  who got their degrees in the first commencement were of non brahmin origin. And the list of voters who were elibible to vote in the elections held as per the Minto-Morley Reforms which was on the basis of property qualification is even more damning to this self serving argument trumped up through political grandstanding.

The tales of persecution of Jains of course offends modern sensibilities. But there is no evidence to substantiate the oft repeated horror stories about jains being killed in Madurai on the orders of a Saivte King. Geograhical details are spotty. Is Udayagiri near Sanchi as stated on pg. 94. Does Marco Polo refer to the "Tower of Malla" near Nagapatinnam as remarked on pg. 79. The author ignores one of the most amazing cultural and intellectual contributions of medieval Tamil region. The appropriation and transformation of Kasmiradesa Saiva religion into the Saiva Siddhantha which became institutionalised in the mathas referred to above. Perhaps the reason for ignoring such developments can be traced back to the cautionary words spoken by a prince of the dravidianist movment. 

This book written by one trained in "Post Colonialism" must be read with extreme caution as it presnts contentious facts as though they have no context and are beyond debate.