1
0
October 7, 2023 was a very sad day. Forget that Israeli intelligence should have been aware of the treachery that Hamas was plotting. Forget that the Netanyahu government has provided both Jews and Arabs plenty of reasons to be angry. Anger is one thing. The violence of war is another. But the kinds of atrocities committed by Hamas are of a whole other dimension.
These were unforgivable acts that strike at the soul of every Israeli, every Jew. The foolish Harvard students who rushed to sign a letter saying that Israel was entirely responsible for the actions of Hamas should be reminded that one cannot claim the moral high ground for these terrorists after they spilled the blood of murdered children upon that ground.
But my key question is what now? I have just listened to a brilliant podcast by Ezra Klein analyzing in detail how America went wrong by its reaction to 9-11, asking what the effect will be of Israel’s all-out attack on Gaza. Klein’s point, with which I entirely agree, is that a response that is driven by vengeance and retribution simply plays into the hands of one’s enemy. Israel has said that its goal is to eradicate Hamas, and yes, at the level of rage and revenge, it makes perfect sense to have the goal of hunting down these beasts, finding their tunnels, hiding places, and weapons and turning them into dust.
But there is one inherent problem in all this. If this version of Hamas is destroyed physically, it will certainly be at the cost of thousands of Palestinian lives and further misery for the people there, innocents who just want to live their lives while caught between powerful forces beyond their control. Isn’t it a certainty that a new version of Hamas under a new name will rise out of the ashes, led by a generation of young men who hold the same hatred of Israel, whose parents and brothers and sisters have been killed in the course of the Israeli attacks.
So should Israel show constraint? If your worst nightmares came true, if your “neighbors” emerged from the shadows, killed your friends and relatives savagely, and took hostages, would you be in the mood for restraint? As the leader of a nation whose people were brutally attacked, Netanyahu has no real choice other than to show strength and power and outrage, saying to all, “This is what happens when you mess around with us.” Not only that, but as the politician who promised that only he could assure safety and security on his watch, it is to his political advantage to play the role of powerful leader and call for all outraged Israelis to follow his lead and coalesce around his “strength.”
Following the tragedy of what happened on that terrible day, we now have a catch-22 of what happens next, both short and long-term? Restraint? It’s a strategy that is not realistic given the trauma that the Israels experienced. Vengeance? It will only cause more suffering and hatred on both sides, and virtually guarantees that other Arab groups will arise with the same intentions of Hamas?
I’m searching for short term solutions that make sense long-run, and long-term solutions that can be carried out in the short term. The problem is that right now I haven’t heard any solutions proposed that don’t come with with severe downsides.
Knowing what not to do is so much easier than knowing what to do, and each way I turn for a really good answer I hit a wall. I’m frustrated and depressed, left with little more than a sorry conclusion: Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Entirely reasonable–and troubling. I believe in the Palestinian right to resistance but what Hamas did is not resistance. It is brutal, terroristic, savagery, with no justification whatsoever. So, yes: Hamas needs to be destroyed. But as Professor Krupat says, if that destruction involves–as it will–the further murder and immiseration of Palestinians, it will produce several more generations of young people who hate Israel. The needles that have to be threaded here are more than my eyesight can handle–and Netayanhu is willfully blind and callous. President Biden last night said he had told President Abbas that the U.S. remained committed to… Read more »
Ed, I think you summed up the situation very well.