Conditions continue to deteriorate in Gaza. It is becoming clearer by the day that both sides of the Hamas-Israel war have walked away from any chance at peace. The things most needed now are: caution, a cool head, genuine empathy for civilians on both sides, and a desire to actually reach a resolution instead of engaging in a war of vengeance. There is a dearth of these on both sides. Meanwhile, the international community stands by powerless.
The international community will remain powerless until it comes to terms with the historical fears of common people on both sides. For Palestinians, the air strikes and, now, the threat of a huge ground invasion hearken back to the “catastrophe” that led to the creation of the refugee crisis. And, perhaps more important, and very much less understood, is the way the attacks by Hamas play out in the historical imagination of Israeli Jews. However disproportionate Israel’s response may become, civilian death and international law have little or no meaning for people who still remember the Holocaust–not to mention the thousands of other times Jews have faced programs, exiles, massacres, etc. The whole concept of Israel was for there at last to be a place where Jews could live in peace, free from threat and fear.
Hamas shattered that hope. It should not surprise us that the Israeli response is so forceful and so vengeful. Israel sees itself as fighting for a place where Jews will not have to look over their shoulder. The hard part is convincing them that no amount of air strikes and definitely not forcing a million people from their homes will get them the security they so desperately want and deserve.
It is a moment to convince a people, as well as a nation, that humanitarian law is in their best interests, even when they have trouble hearing. What is really needed is for the international community to convince not only the Israeli government, but the Israeli people, and Jews all over the world, that it is in the best long term security interests of its people to respect the human rights of everyone involved–most importantly the common people of Gaza. Blinded by rage and fears that hearken back thousands of years, Israel cannot see right now that Palestinians having to pull dead children from bombed out houses will in no way bring them closer to security. It will keep them locked in a never-ending cycle of violence and fear of violence.
Israel wants security, not terrorism, at its doorstep. There is nothing wrong with that. And it is human for a people with such a long history of oppression and dispossession to fear the loss of a homeland once they have finally achieved it. Israel must know that its homeland is safe. It must know that Hamas’ threats will never become a reality because the world community will never allow them to become a reality. And, in return, it must learn to not disposes others as it has been dispossessed. It is important to remember that nowhere in Judaism is the kind of behavior Israel is engaged in condoned. Over and over in the Torah, Jews are taught, “Remember the stranger for once you were strangers…”
Progressive Without Apology 