Enough of blood and tears.
- Yitzhak Rabin
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
I’ve long felt the classic definition of insanity is taking sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yes, both sides have what they feel to be compelling arguments and claim they occupy the moral high ground. Unfortunately for humanity, particularly Israeli and Palestinian civilians, both sides are so wedded to their version of the truth that they fail to see the reality they’ve created for themselves. Hamas cares only for its goal of destroying Israel; Palestinians are merely bargaining chips and political pawns whose lives are useful only for propaganda value. Israel would carpet bomb Gaza and roll over it with a steamroller if they thought they could get away with it.
Neither strategy is useful except for creating more bloodshed and destruction…yet both sides refuse to negotiate in good faith, perhaps because neither side has proven that their word is worth anything. For Hamas, a ceasefire is merely a chance to rearm; for Israel it’s a chance to redeploy. Peace isn’t the absence of war and bloodshed; it requires trust and the willingness to coexist, however unpleasant that prospect might be. As has been the case for almost 70 years, peace in the Middle East is the very definition of elusive.
In the battle to the death between the irresistible force and the immovable object, the latest manifestation of the bloody tug of war is taking place in Gaza. Rather than make a legitimate effort to create peace, both sides are so heavily invested in demonizing their adversaries they can’t (or won’t) see the evil inherent in their actions. A key Hamas strategy is using children and civilians as human shields. Their fighters fire rockets into Israel from civilian zones, daring Israel to retaliate and knowing full well the cost in innocent lives will be horrific, which it most certainly has been. This allows Hamas and their apologists to hold up Israel’s overreaction and seemingly wanton slaughter of children as evidence of the Jewish state’s desire for to ethnically cleanse territory they want for themselves. How can they not fight back against such evil?
For its part, Israel has staked its case on swatting mosquitoes with a howitzer. They say they’re targeting Hamas fighters, which may well be the case…but the people doing the suffering and dying are innocent men, women, and children. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is completely tone deaf when it comes to Israel’s conduct of military operations in Gaza. They seem to have no issue with being seen as heavy-handed and willing to tolerate significant civilian casualties…as long as they’re Palestinian. Then again, that’s pretty easy to do when so many Jews in Israel view Arabs as subhuman and worthy only of extermination. Israel has a legitimate right to defend itself, and when Hamas indiscriminately fires missiles into Israel from civilian areas it’s hard to argue a response isn’t warranted. Still, the scale of destruction, bloodshed, and suffering wrought by Israeli forces seems absurdly disproportionate. Given that Gaza is one of the poorest and most densely populated areas in the world, Israeli air and artillery strikes are virtually guaranteed to kill civilians in large numbers. When they continue bombing hospitals and UN schools, it’s increasingly difficult to grant Israel the moral high ground.
The war in Gaza proves yet again that violence and bloodshed can’t create conditions for a lasting peace. Until both sides tire of blood and tears and demonstrates the political will (and courage) to make peace, the broken record of the past 70 years will continue playing and innocent people will be indiscriminately slaughtered.
Brave people make peace, because creating and maintaining peace requires courage, a desire for change, and resolve. Peace is hard. War is easy, and the cowardice demonstrated by indiscriminate killing is easily found in Israel and Palestine. Perhaps someday the tolerance for blood and tears will finally be exhausted.
