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,

Israel's Attack on Gaza

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books
                                                           
Israel has shocked the world with the savage violence it has unleashed against the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, a thin sliver of land with an area of 365 square kilometers.  Nearly 2 million people crowd that strrip making it one of the most densley populated areas of the world. And Israel has been bombing the civilian sectors of the Gaza Strip for the past three weeks without any letup. The death toll has crossed 1200 already and is climbing. The fact that Barack Obama, the Nobel Prize Winner has not said a word condemning the barbaric conduct of Israel is eloquent.  The death toll among children is horrendous as Israeli air force has struck schools, hospitals, UN compound, shopping complexes and residential areas. The justification give by the israelis for the savage attack is disingenuous: The rockets fired by HAMAS has not killed a single Israeli civilian and in retaliation the Israeli Air Force that the IDF have killed more than thousand civilians. Thee objective seems to be to terrorize the entire population of Gaza into absolute subjection.

The people living in Gaza are facing a whole range of problems created by the blockade imposed by Israel and shortages of food, fuel and medicines have become part and parcel of life in Gaza. Hospitals such as Kamal Adwan, European Hosp[ital and al-Shifa Hospital have been bombed so badly that the buildings have been reduced to rubble and these were the institutions in which the wounded in the earlier attack were being treated. The UN Compound in which women and children took refuge has been attacked killing nearly 20 refugees. The most amazing aspect of this savage war is that the Palestinians continue to  go about their daily chores paying little heed to the Israeli war machine. The UN has become a silent spectator and I am afraid that the uN is also headed the League of Nations way. F16s presented by the uS to Israel have been used in these attacks and USA under Obama has not expressed even the proforma concern at the loss of civilian life.Israel has perfected its regime of terrorization: Operation Protective Eagle as this wave of attack is called was preceded by Operation Pillar of Defence in 2012,Operation Cast Lead in 2009, Operation Hot Winter in 2008, Operation Autumn Clouds in 2006, Operation Summer Rains in 2006, Operation Days of Penitence in 2004 and finally Operation Rainbow again in 2004.

In all these operations Israel has targeted civilians in direct violation of International Law. A case can be made against Israel for potential arraignment in the International Court of Criminal  Justice at the Hague. The violent and disproportionate attack on civilian non combatants constitute war crime and it is time for the International Community to gather evidence and bring up the case before the UNHRC. The death of a few civilians during the closing days of the Sri Lankan Civil War has come before the   world tribunal. However all the European countries who are baying for the blood of Rajapaksha are now ominously silent when it come to the crime of Israel. The Arab nations which should be supporting the Palestinians have all but abandoned the residents of Gaza. Egypt and Jordan wary of the influence of HAMAS are eagerly encouraging the depredations of Israel. The tragedy is that rather than degrading the HAMAS, Israel by its savage attack is helping the regime strengthen itself. The rocket fired by HAMAS are nothing more than fire crackers and Israel uses the rocket attacks as the pretext for savaging Gaza from time to time. What Israel is doing is making the people of Gaza suffer collectively for the actions of HAMAS.

India under Narendra Modi has followed a rather tepid policy with regard to the crimes committed by Israel. The BJP has always enjoyed a stable relationship with Israel whenever it is in power. Many of us believe that Israel is an example worth emulating especially in the manner in which it deals with terrorism. However, the recent attack on Gaza should disabuse Indians of the notion that Israel is a peace loving country willing to extend the hand of friendship to the Palestinians. Each time the world moves toward a two state solution, Israel scuttles the issue by its festival of gore and bombings. It is time for the world to say No to Israel just as it did with South Africa.

ISRAEL AND ITS VIOLENCE IN GAZA; THE WORLD CANNOT WATCH THE UNRELENTING VIOLENCE AGAINST THE PALESTENIANS

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

The State of Israel owes its origin to the crimes of the Europeans, the Germans who massacred around 6 million Jews during the last two years of the Second World War. Of course this horrendous crime had to be expiated and the Americans and the British made the Palestinians pay for the crimes of their fellow white men. Israel is fast losing the sympathy it has rightly won for its several outstanding achievements: its civic programme, its educational institutions, its fairly successful practice of democracy. However, in its treatment of the displaced Palestinians, Israel is showing its true colours. Even John Kerry, the US Secretary of State in an unguarded moment called Israel an Apartheid State. one in which racial discrimination is legally enforced. The Arabs living in the territories are treated as second class citizens with limited access to education, employment or health. And the Right Wing parties like the Likud are further aggravating the situation by opposing the two state solution. The cycles of violence unleashed by Israel as retaliation for the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teenagers from one of the settlements that has sprung up in the occupied territories is both disproportionate and beyond the limits of civilized state conduct. Without unleashing such fire power against the people of the Gaza Strip, Israel could have dealt with the crisis in a more balanced manner. In any event, the Israelis too extracted their revenge when they killed a young boy, by beating him and burying him alive. The silence from the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, the President of USA, Barack Obama is disquieting. Both Obama and Kerry are not willing to even condemn  the aerial attacks on Palestinian civilians.

The Hamas has been firing rockets into Israel and the Israeli media justifies the full blooded attack on unarmed civilians by saying that Hamas deserves to be punished for firing rockets. It must be stated that Hamas rockets have not caused a single casualty in Israel while in the current round of bloodletting, the Israelis have killed 166 Palestinians and wounded more than 1000 civilians. It appears that the motive behind this state sponsored massacre is to weaken the resolve of the Palestinians in the Gaza strip who are supporters of the Hamas. Therefore the killing of civilians is part of a strategy pursued by Israel and if the Bosnian Serbs can be tried for killing Muslims during the Balkan Crisis of the 1990s. by the same logic the Israeli political leadership is also culpable. The Arab League, the organization of autocratic Oil Rich state which legitimized the invasion of Iraq and Libya are keeping quiet. Saudi Arabia which is usually very eloquent on issues dealing with Muslim affairs is keeping a deathly silence over this entire issue. It appears that the Arab world has decided to allow Israel to solve the Palestinian Question like Hitler solved or attempted to solve the Jewish Question. The UN has lost its legitimacy before the entire world due to its inability to prevent USA from invading Iraq in 2003 and most people now believe that UN is just a facade behind which the white nations hide to carry out their atrocities on non white people. Unfortunately the discourse on Palestine centers around the muslim identity of the people forgetting the fact that a considerable number of them are Christians.

In 2009 when Israel invaded Gaza Strip it killed more than  hundred people and wounded around 1, 500. With this kind of violence unfolding can the World be silent.