ISRAEL’S UNFORCED ERROR IN DESTRUCTION OF GAZA
*One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you. (Joshua 23:10) “And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.” (Joshua 6:21).*
By Babatunde Jose
This is the scenario being played out in Gaza but being denied by the Israeli high command. It is purely genocide by no other name.
In the days of old in Apesin village, a thief was tied to the stake early in the morning and people going to the market all saw him and abused him with hisses and condemnatory remarks. On their return in the evening, they were astounded to still meet the thief tied to the stake. To them it has become overkill. They started raising questions: What did he steal? Is it not ‘common’ goat? Must he be killed because he stole…….? This narrative exemplifies the current public opinion on the Gaza issue. In short, the punishment is seen as very disproportionate to the crime.
The central slogan of the war in Gaza is ‘Together we will win!’, to which the governing Israeli right automatically adds ‘with God’s help’, giving the conflict with Hamas a religious dimension.
At a press conference in Tel Aviv on 28 October 2023, and in a letter of 3 November to IDF soldiers that praised their ‘fight against the murderers of Hamas’, Binyamin Netanyahu quoted from the book of *Deuteronomy (25:17): Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore, it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.*
Although such language aims to give the conflict a religious gloss, it predates the reaction to the Hamas atrocities of 7th October. The Israeli authorities have used this sort of rhetoric for several years, albeit less overtly.
Testimony from an officer of the Golani infantry brigade published by *Breaking the Silence*, an organization of veteran soldiers opposed to the occupation of Palestinian territories, exemplifies this: during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09, the IDF’s chief rabbi Avichai Rontzki urged the soldiers of ‘God’s army’ to show no mercy towards the enemy, invoking the wars of conquest in Canaan, the Promised Land.
And in 2014, during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, General Ofer Winter, commander of the Givati infantry brigade, wrote in an official dispatch, ‘History has chosen us to spearhead the fighting against the terrorist Gazan enemy which abuses, blasphemes, and curses the God of Israel’s [defense] forces.
In 2003, Matti Steinberg an expert on Palestinian issues was summarily dismissed because he had gone against government policy by criticizing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s outright rejection of the peace initiative that Saudi Arabia put forward at the March 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut. This plan, which remains the Arab League’s official position, offered normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors in exchange for Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territories it occupied in June 1967.
In addition, Steinberg had questioned the targeted killings of Palestinian leaders; but above all he felt the government was putting the country’s future at risk by looking at the Palestinian question merely in terms of security. In his view, only the creation of an independent Palestine would allow Israel to remain both a Jewish and democratic state. Now a respected academic, Steinberg has continued to voice his opinions over the last two decades.
The current aim of Israel is to freeze the diplomatic process, freeze the political process, and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and also prevent a discussion on the subject of refugees, return of the same to their former abode and talks on borders. However, with the current acts of genocide and wanton wholesale destruction of Gaza, the whole strategy has become an unforced error.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Israel not to reoccupy Gaza, to refrain from a major Rafah operation, and to finalize a day-after plan for the enclave; he spoke to reporters during his visit to Kyiv. “When it comes to the future of Gaza, we do not support and will not support an Israeli reoccupation,” Blinken said, but this is exactly the game plan of Netanyahu.
It would be clear that Israel does not have a day-after plan, a step that had only prolonged the military conflict in the enclave. The open secret is that Israel wants to seize the Palestinian land and annex it.
The world should ensure that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza strip, nor establish military governance in Gaza. And if they are not disposed to Hamas rule in Gaza, a governing alternative to Hamas in Gaza should be raised immediately. Afterall Hamas is an Israeli creation used to supplant Fatah.
In an interview with CNBC, Netanyahu stressed that once the war is over, Gaza should be governed by a “non-Hamas civilian administration,” but the IDF would retain military responsibility. What exactly is the meaning of that?
It is not possible to put in place a local alternative to Gaza, as long as Hamas remains there, he said. Therefore, millions of Gazans should be displaced, and thousands killed, particularly children and women, in order to flush out the 4 battalion Hamas troops in the Gaza Strip. How many months will it take to achieve this? Unfortunately for the Israelis, every Gazan is Hamas, even the children who are currently the victims of the genocide. The situation in the last eight months has swayed opinion against Israel.
In his interview with CNBC, Netanyahu stressed in particular his position on Palestinian statehood, which, coming in the aftermath of the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, he said would be a reward to terror.
The US has said it wants Israel to promise to leave Gaza once the war is over and support Palestinian statehood. The “two-state solution that people are talking about, basically would be the greatest reward for the terrorist that you can imagine,” Netanyahu said.
“It would be a state that would be immediately taken over by Hamas and Iran. And it wouldn’t advance the purposes of peace. It would just be a launching ground for a future war against Israel,” he said.
As the matter stands therefore, Israel is against Palestinian statehood and the United States knows that. All the shuttle diplomacy and long talks about the war in Gaza are mere transparent sham and the ruse of Two-State solution an opaque sham. It is therefore left to the Arab neighbors to gird their loins and find a lasting solution to the 75-year-old Palestinian question.
A two-state solution on the formula of the partition of India in 1947 that led to the creation of West and East Pakistan, might be a feasible solution. Hence, we would have West Palestine in present Gaza and East Palestine comprising present West Bank.
The question also arises, who will rebuild the Gaza Strip? The United Nations must step into the matter to make the State of Israel pay reparations that would help pay for the rebuilding of the infrastructure it destroyed in Gaza, just as Germany was made to pay after the First World War. Israel must not escape paying reparations for the present orgy of destruction in Gaza.
Egypt says it will formally join the case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which accuses Israel of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention in its war on the Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last Sunday that Cairo intended to join the case due to escalating Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians.
Egypt will join Turkey and Colombia in formally requesting to join the case against Israel. This month, Turkey said it would seek to join the case after Colombia asked the ICJ last month to allow it to join to ensure “the safety and, indeed, the very existence of the Palestinian people”.
Egypt said it is calling on Israel “to comply with its obligations as the occupying power and to implement the provisional measures issued by the ICJ, which require ensuring access to humanitarian and relief aid in a manner that meets the needs of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”.
It also demands that Israeli forces do not commit any violations against the Palestinian people. This is exactly the demand made by the American President when he threatened to stop further arms shipment to Israel.
Egypt is the cornerstone of Israel’s standing in the Middle East. The connections that Israel has in the Middle East and North Africa today, including with Jordan, the UAE and Morocco, are all “a result of what Egypt did 40 years ago”, referring to the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries.
“With Egypt joining South Africa now in The Hague, it’s a real diplomatic punch. Israel would have to take it very seriously.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the Rafah offensive was needed to defeat Hamas. However, it is now 8 months the genocide started, and it has not defeated Hamas. It is clear, Israel is not after Hamas but the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Will the world allow that to happen? Videbimus.
It is said that ‘Malu ti’o niru. . .. . a cow that has no tail. . ..’ . A word is enough.
All is not lost, it shall be well with Palestine, In Sha Allah.
Subhana Rabbika Rabbil ‘izzati ‘amma yasifun, Wa salamun ‘alal-Mursalin, Wal hamdu lillahi Rabbil ‘alamin. Thy Lord is Holy and clear of all that is alleged against Him (by the non-believers); and He is Exalted.
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend
* Babatunde Jose
