Nobody wants the death of innocent civilians in Gaza, but nobody seems to realize that this carnage can be laid on the doorstep of Hamas, who explicitly and admittedly use civilians as human shields. Hamas officials have in fact said that the terror tunnels are not for protecting civilians, but for protecting Hamas itself. Hamas has sequestered billions of dollars it could have used to improve the lot of Gaza and its people, but they use the money to build tunnels and rockets, and to sequester food and goods for themselves.
Yet the damnation you hear is directed not at Hamas, but at Israel, because the Jewish state isn’t allowed to win a war.
But there’s another Big Lie promulgated by nearly all the mainstream media, and by Westerners and NGOs: the strife in the Middle East could be ended if there were just a cease-fire in Gaza. My beef is that people don’t realize that any such solution would be temporary, and would certainly not end the hatred of Israel and Jews on the part of Hamas. The best way to begin ending the war, at least for the nonce, is for Hamas to surrender and turn over the hostages.
They won’t, of course, but the US and other countries are not powerless to effect that solution. There’s a big and important airbase in Qatar, Al Udeid Air Base, that houses the forces not only of the U.S., but also of the UK’s Royal Air Force. That base is not essential to the US or UK, but is essential to the government of Qatar, for without it Qatar would quickly be invaded by countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Why is Qatar afraid of invasion by other Arab countries? Because those countries realize that Qatar is a major supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which includes Hamas. Much of the Arab world has outlawed the MB. Qatar houses many of the leaders of Hamas, some of whom are multibillionaires, funnels money to Hamas, and supports Al-Jazeera, which broadcasts MB propagands. All the US and UK would have to do is threaten to remove the air base, which could be relocated in countries like Saudi Arabia (where we already have a base) or the UAE, and Qatar would bend. That would be accompanied by a demand that Qatar arrest Hamas members and put the clamps on Al-Jazeera. This seems to me likely to end Hamas in Gaza, and it’s surely worth a try.
Qatar’s involvement in supporting Hamas is no secret: it’s a fact the whole world knows. So why isn’t the world putting pressure on Qatar to quash Hamas? Why isn’t the world demanding a UN resolution against Qatar like it does, repeatedly, with Israel?
Well, you know the answer. Qatar is not a Jewish state. This kind of pressure seems to me to be the most effective way to bring peace to Gaza. Hamas, of course would have to surrender unconditionally and release all the hostages, and that’s dicey. But if they don’t, they should suffer the world’s opprobrium, which has been directed at Israel instead. We hear a lot about Israel’s “war crimes” (this is wrong), but nothing about Hamas from activists like Greta Thunberg, who wouldn’t even look at the Hamas brutality that started the war on October 7, 2023.
But I digress. What I am trying to say is that a simple cease-fire, in which Israel stops attacking Gaza and withdraws from the territory, is not any kind of solution to the problem. The main reason is that it leaves Hamas in power, and Hamas has sworn (in its initial charter) not only to wipe out Israel and kill Jews, but to repeat Oct 7 over and over again. Why on earth would people think that leaving Hamas in power is any kind of solution to the war? It would simply start the war all over again. (Hamas is still firing rockets into Israel.)
One of the brainless and useful idiots for terrorism happens to be the NYT’s Tom Friedman. His “solution” to the war is given in this NYT op-ed (archived here). His thesis is that Israel’s conduct in the war is so shameful that it endangers Jews throughout the world. I don’t think the conduct has been shameful, but yes, the ignorance of the West—its belief in the Big Lies like “genocide” and “apartheid” and “two-state solutions”—is what endangers Jews, for this ignorance breeds a lassitude about the hatred of Jews.
Here, indented, is Friedman’s “solution”. He admits that Hamas is horrible, but, as with many like Greta, he claims that Israel’s response has been “disproportionate,” without understanding what “disproportionality” means in the international law of war. (See Natasha Hausdorff for an explanation.)
Israel months ago destroyed Hamas as an existential military threat. [JAC: I don’t believe that.] Given that, the Netanyahu government should be telling the Trump administration and Arab mediators that it’s ready to withdraw from Gaza in a phased manner and be replaced by an international/Arab/Palestinian Authority [PA] peacekeeping force — provided that the Hamas leadership agrees to return all remaining living and dead hostages and leave the strip.
That is ridiculous, for Hamas will never accept an “international/Arab/Palestinian Authority peacekeeping force. Hamas hates the PA and killed many of them when Hamas narrowly won the Gaza elections in 2006. Further, the PA is also a terrorist organization (they maintain, after all, the “pay for slay” program that pays terrorists to attack Jews). If you think they can rule Gaza without having designs on Israel, you’re misguided. Now if they could find decent, moderate, leaders in the international and Arab community to run Gaza, that’s another matter, but nobody thinks this is feasible.
No, a cease-fire will not work until Hamas lays down its arms, lets all the hostages go, and disbands. That is the only kind of cease-fire that has a chance of working, and is about as likely as asserting that, at the moment, a “two state solution” will end strife in the Middle East. It won’t—not right now. The first thing to do is get Qatar to do what it should to get rid of Hamas. And those actions involve not violence, but political and financial pressure.
As Malgorzata commented when I sent her this article, “Tom Friedman seems to be on the same intellectual level as Greta Thunberg.”
I doubt there will ever be a ceasefire in Gaza in the next 10 or 20 years. It may ebb and flow over time but this is probably the new normal.
Someone called it “mowing the lawn”.
I’m not sure what they mean by that.
The IDF itself, I think, uses this expression to characterize its periodic maintenance of civilization beyond the Gaza frontier, to curtail the barbarians at the gates who predictably grow unwieldy and need to be cut back.
As you say, a ceasefire would be at best a temporary measure. It may buy months or even years of relative calm—as was the case before October 7—but Hamas will inevitably restart the effort to achieve their stated goal of destroying the Jewish state. And, thanks to UNRWA and other institutions in Gaza, even Hamas’s successor—if Hamas can be removed—would likely want to continue the fight. No country can accept legions of terrorists threatening its citizens. The minimum that a government must provide for its citizens is safety from foreign attack.
It will take generations for the poison of antisemitism and anti-Israelism to work its way out of the Palestinian psyche, if ever. Poisoned minds won’t change. Anti-Israel animus can only happen one funeral at a time.
The world is weary of the conflict and is looking for a way to stop the carnage, even if doing so is only temporary. A ceasefire is shortsighted and cannot not lead to a permanent peace.
Is it too late for this policy, which Israel should have adopted, in my opinion, the day after the massacre…
1) declare the hostages soldiers. All Israelies, men and women, were already combatants just by being Israeli.
2) In this dire situation, declare them expendable.
3) descend on Gaza like the most vengeful angel in the Torah.
4) before the world woke up, IDF would be in full control, Hamas smashed, it’s leaders eradicated.
5) take Gaza back. It is now Israel. Open it to all law-abiding humans, of any creed or tribe. Maintain police state for 20 years
The hostages would likely all be dead. Israel would be considered an outlaw nation.
This is the most humane resolution.
John that’s a pretty hard headed dispassionate analysis from a hostage point of view…. but it is the only one available given the wider circumstances.
Given the background of Yahia Sinwar (and all his mates) being traded in the LAST iteration of this mess… on Oct 7th I came to your conclusion also.
Sadly these precious lives must be treated as forfeit.
The ruination of Hamas (and Gaza as there is no distinguishing the two) is obviously the next step. War is war.
I often imagine my nearest and dearest are in chains in tunnels beneath Gaza…. and I can’t get to it in that context, but (as a lawyer I admit) we don’t arrange our societies around such ethics.
The hostages are mainly dead anyway… for the living Gaza must be crushed.
And crushed in a “Middle East manner” – as that is the cultural milieu. The Syrians in Hama in 1982 provide moral exemplars of this context. (you can look it up).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Hama_massacre
How things are done there.
D.A.
NYC
I think the most effective solution would have been to declare the hostages dead and then immediately capture the border with Egypt and stop any and all goods flowing into Gaza.
Declare supply will only be resumed once all hostages have been returned and the perpetrators of Hamas surrender and all arms destroyed.
Any Gazans who deliver a hostage alive and have no direct link to Hamas can emigrate with their family.
The situation would have been over within half a year.
Although focus is now on Hamas, important to note that unfavourable views about Jews (vs Israelis?) are rampant in the middle east. Below is PEW data from 2010 or so. Notable observations include over 95% unfavourable ratings of Jews by neighbours, including Christians in Lebanon (??) and markedly less unfavourable ratings of Jews by Arabs in Israel. Lots of factors going back many years, including Arabic-language Nazis propaganda in Middle East to create unwelcoming environment for Jews. What would be the response of such countries if Israel was ever seriously weakened?
https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2010/02/2010-muslim-nations-18.png
Yes! 100%. We don’t understand this in the west. Such a model is not in our mental or moral inventory.
It stretches us to “get” fundamentalist Christians who – however wrong they are – mainly want to be left alone from secularism.
An aggressive, expansionist murderous Islam…. we just assume – so wrongly – they’re “Just like us.” And by many metrics they are just like us – but not this one. And that makes all the difference.
cheers Jim my friend, again.
D.A.
NYC
Qatar generously funds such philanthropies as a gift airplane for the current US
chief executive and departments for Georgetown University. In turn, the well funded Hamas executives resident in Qatar no doubt contribute to the Qatari economy. Was not the Prophet (PBUH) a merchant, as well as a secretary to the angel Gabriel?
”[T]he Jewish state isn’t allowed to win a war.” I recall Richard Nixon being particularly helpful in this matter.
“Nobody wants the death of innocent civilians in Gaza…”
Sure. I agree. The problem is finding the “innocent civilians” there. We in the west are unused to a society whose whole moral and intellectual architecture – in its entirety – is devoted to killing all of its Jewish neighbors. The elite and masses repeat this all the time… all our lives.
We (and, respectfully… WEIT) don’t get this – it is new to us and beyond our ken.
I used to feel for the “poor innocents” on that side of the conflict – so I looked for actual EVIDENCE these people existed. For 30+ years now.
I have been unable to find any.
https://themoderatevoice.com/there-are-no-two-sides-in-gaza/
Fire at will.
Onwards Israelis heroes.
D.A.
NYC
” But if they don’t, they should suffer the world’s opprobrium, which has been directed at Israel instead. ”
Indeed, boss. But Qatar owns a lot of the news. Al Jaz throughout the Third World (you have no idea how big it is outside the USA), and via places like SkyNews etc. as owners. Qatari fingers are long.
State broadcasters – seeped in decolonialist lefty nonsense do the rest.
That is why there is still a Qatar – and a Palestine – at all.
D.A.
NYC
[NSFW]
Al Jiz?
Right, that’s Israellycool/David Lange’s nomenclatural bit of fun.
David Lange? I don’t get the reference. (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Lange
gives some plausible candidates, but none stand out.)
Malgorzata is spot on. Friedman and Thunberg are useful idiots for the anti-Israel cause.
I am a NYT subscriber. I stopped reading Friedman several years ago. I sometimes read Douthat if I need to feed my crazy.
On the evidence of the paragraph that you quote, I have to conclude that Tom Friedman really is the idiot that I have heard some call him. According to him, an Israeli withdrawal will end the war, “provided that the Hamas leadership agrees to return all remaining living and dead hostages and leave the strip.” This reminds me of the Monty Python sketch in which “Jackie” explains “how to rid the world of all known diseases”:
“Well, first of all become a doctor and discover a marvelous new cure for something, and then, when the medical profession really starts to take notice of you, you can jolly well tell them what to do and make sure they get everything right so there’ll never be any diseases ever again.”
To which the host replies: “Thanks, Jackie. Great idea!”
Edited to add a remark about your opening sentence: “Nobody wants the death of innocent civilians in Gaza, but nobody seems to realize that this carnage can be laid on the doorstep of Hamas.” The first “nobody” is reasonably close to the mark: say “nobody who is not a moral monster” and you have it. But the second “nobody” is way off. The people who recognize that Hamas bears primary responsibility for the mass death in Gaza may be a minority, but we are far from being “nobody.”
Yes, I shouldn’t have said that; I should have said “it seems that relatively few people realize. . ”
Thanks for the correction.
When I think of wiping out Hamas (which many have said is basically impossible since every child in Gaza has been brainwashed and once old enough to hold a weapon will take the elders’ positions), I picture those fumigation tents they cover structures with to rid them of infestations. I’m not suggesting this really can be done but short of that, I sorrowfully believe they cannot be stamped out. They will somehow leave Gaza only to return later. They will crawl into the cracks in the earth waiting to slither back out. That’s how I view them. Israel is in a horrible position.
Sad metaphor but one I agree with.
I am still hopeful that something like postwar denazification and demilitarisation could work. What other hope is there?
Let us not forget that German children were brainwashed before and during WW2 with Nazi propaganda. That didn’t seem to last all that long after WW2.
I fear that even if Hamas were defeated, the hatred of Israel in Gaza would still not end.
so if one seeks for solutions one should do a crossword.
So there are some scorched earth opinions up there, and I can expect that as a reflection of the intractable opinions among Palestinians. But I would instead favor more indirect means of bringing this back to a dull roar so that those who want to eliminate the state of Israel are left to just pound sand as they watch area countries, one by one, open up diplomatic relationships with the Jewish homeland. That would involve toppling the regime in Iran which supplies weapons to this area of unrest. Also, as was said, persuade Qatar to arrest the terrorist leadership that is sheltering in their country. I believe there are more heads to this monster, including elimination of UNRWA as we know it, but those would be a start.
Any end of the war before HAMAS surrenders, returns the hostages, and goes into exile would be a victory for HAMAS and a defeat for Israel. It would also prove to Iran and its various terrorist proxy groups (not just HAMAS) that terrorism works and it the best way they have to get what they want. Those Western governments and campus protestors pressuring Israel to agree to lose the war are endangering not only the survival of the State of Israel, but of all Western Civilization.
Wars usually end by one side surrendering to the other. The quickest way to end a war and minimise suffering is for one side to win it, using overwhelming force, rather than dragging it on for years. Nobody argued for a ceasefire during WW2 against the Nazis. A German surrender was the only way to achieve peace.
I got a “special report” on the screen that Israel bombed Iran