Not "Mowing the Lawn," But Burning the House Down

If You Don't Value Palestinian Lives Stop the Genocide to Save Israeli Lives

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For more than eight months, Israel has waged a war on the population of Gaza, devastating housing, health, education, religious, and every other institution you can name, destroying Gaza in every way while killing over 37,000 people, most of whom were women and children.

For that kind of devastation, and the widespread support it has received in the United States and Europe, to be sustained, virulent, racist dehumanization of the affected people is required. I’m hardly the first to point this out, nor is this the first time I have done so. The vicious hate directed at Palestinians for decades is a phenomenon that has been growing like a voracious tumor.

The genocidal hate directed at Palestinians is not at all confined to the right, as we have seen it repeatedly from those who are identified as moderates and even liberals. Images of Palestinian children slaughtered, dismembered, beheaded, starved to death have had no impact on these people, often exposing the true face behind a mask of liberalism and highlighting the depth and danger of the “progressive except for Palestine” crowd.

It’s clear that there is no changing the attitudes of those who deem Palestinian lives worthless. Yet to simply wash our hands of these people ignores the grim reality that those irredeemable racists have enormous influence over policy, in Israel, in Europe, and in the United States.

So, if they will not consider a different course for the sake of universal values, for the humanity of Palestinians, for the lives and futures of Palestinian children, then maybe they will consider what they are doing to the lives they do at least appear to value: Israeli lives.

Israel’s actions, fully supported by the United States, Germany, the UK, and others, are unquestionably putting Israelis at considerable risk now and in the future. The current strategy is not new, but it is a significant amplification of the militaristic and belligerent approach that Israel has based its defensive doctrines on since the pre-state era of the Zionist movement in Palestine.

Amplifying Old Policies

In one sense, Israel has no alternative to an approach based on militarism. It is, after all, an ethnocracy which views its very reason for existence as elevating the rights of one group of people above another. Inevitably, this necessitates apartheid policies and the dispossession of, and denial of rights to, the subjugated people, as diplomatic resolutions necessarily mean an end to discriminatory policies.

While it’s true that Israel’s current Jewish population is majority non-European, the immigration of European Jews was the engine of Zionism, and those European immigrants remain the major players in the country, despite their non-majority status. Also, even the Middle Eastern Jews are overwhelmingly not Palestinian. So, the dispossession and denial of rights for 76 years is entirely the doing of colonizing immigrants.

Under such circumstances, resistance is inevitable, and that resistance has remained steadfast. There are possibilities of compromise, but they all demand the end of ethnocracy and discrimination, at a bare minimum. That is a non-starter for Israel, which defines such outcomes as the “destruction” of their state. Violent repression, then, is indispensable.

Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s “Iron Wall” theory—a theory which, though originated by the father of the Revisionist movement, which was the forebear of today’s Likud, was eagerly adopted by Labor Zionism even before 1948—posited that if the Palestinians were met with overwhelming Zionist force, they would eventually realize they couldn’t fight the Zionists and would reach an accommodation.

One could argue that the point of accommodation was reached in the 1970s and 1980s when the PLO decided to agree to a two-state solution. Or one could argue that the Palestinians never reached that point and have been steadfastly resisting all along without ever flagging.

Either way, Jabotinsky’s theory failed. The result has been the resort to ever more draconian force to suppress Palestinian resistance. That, however, is a strategy that cannot succeed, as the more force is used, the more resistance is bred.

Worse for Israel, the Palestinian cause is enormously popular in the Arab world. This has made Israel a target and led to Israel’s military doctrine of deterrence. Israeli insecurity about its position has grown despite peace or normalization agreements with Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco.

The policy of deterrence leads Israel to regularly launch attacks in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. And with those attacks and the concomitant enflaming of anger among Palestinians and their many supporters throughout the region, the policy of deterrence is constantly reinforced and the prospect of ending conflict and confrontation moves farther away from reality.

All of that has been Israel’s reality, in one form or another, from 1948 on. And all of it places Israelis at risk every day. That was before this ultra-right government came into power. And it was before Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Both of those factors magnified the intensity of the cycle of Israeli belligerence feeding resistance, which, in turn, increases Israeli belligerence, and so on.

The sharp right turn

For years, many of my colleagues and I have warned that the status quo was unsustainable, and that a real explosion was coming. Our warnings became louder after the Abraham Accords threatened to completely sideline the Palestinians from the diplomatic stage, as it obstructed what little space for non-violent action there was for finally securing Palestinian rights.

With tensions incredibly high, Israel and its criminal prime minister ushered in the most radical, proto-fascist government in its already ugly history. The effects were real, as Israeli raids, violence, and draconian measures escalated almost immediately, growing bolder as they were met not just with silence but with implicit approval from Joe Biden’s administration.

The West was thoroughly oblivious to the threat that was boiling over, as highlighted by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s infamous statement that “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.” Eight days after displaying just how badly the entire Biden administration had misread conditions in the region, Hamas attacked.

The October 7 attack demonstrates the futility of security by repression. The more the occupation squeezes, the more resentment is built, and the more imperative armed resistance becomes. This is magnified by the blockage of international diplomacy and any mechanism to create a level diplomatic playing field that presses the stronger party, Israel, to compromise. Eventually, something had to give, and it was the Gaza wall.

While the Palestinians who breached the wall that day clearly committed grave war crimes, Israel’s response has been beyond all measure.

Israelis and their supporters responded with blind rage and a burning desire for vengeance. The Israeli leadership displayed a strong drive to divert people’s attention from their abject failures on October 7, failures which are continuing to become more and more evident.

But they also defend the deterrence theory, arguing that if Israel doesn’t respond with massive force, Hamas or other Palestinian groups will be emboldened to take similar actions in the future. The reasoning is fatally flawed; it is the violence meted out to Palestinians that leads to actions like October 7, not the absence of such violence.

Regardless, what has the toll of Israel’s response been?

Again, we know the horrors that have been visited upon Gaza, with over 37,000 killed, over 85,000 injured, complete destruction of much of the Strip, mass starvation and disease rampant. But it is painfully obvious that this human toll means nothing in Israel or in Washington.

More than 1180 people were killed in the attacks on October 7. Some were killed by Israeli security, though the numbers are unknown. More than 660 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Some will still argue that Israel’s slaughter in Gaza is necessary for the long-term security of Israel. Some will object to the high civilian casualty toll (ignoring the fact that the destruction of civilian life and infrastructure was the intention from the start), but they will insist that the basic goal of extreme violence in response to October 7 is necessary. Rubbish.

The short and long term danger for Israelis

We can begin with the most obvious point, the hostages Hamas and others kidnapped—itself a serious war crime—on October 7. Israel has freed seven hostages in military operations, the last of which killed over 270 Palestinians and, according to reports, three other Israeli hostages to bring out four hostages. In December, Israeli forces shot dead three hostages who were shirtless and waving a white flag, because they thought they were Palestinians.

While reports are inconsistent, it is also clear that some hostages have died from medical conditions or lack of medicine, and dozens of others have been killed by Israeli bombings and other attacks. By contrast, 105 hostages were freed in a hostage exchange, with no bloodshed, during a brief ceasefire, something Israel has made clear they would not do again, and which Hamas has stated they will only repeat if the slaughter in Gaza ends. Four ither hostages were released unilaterally by Hamas.

The opportunity to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to Israel’s genocidal campaign has been there from the start, and the offer has remained on the table from Hamas all along.

Israel’s insistence on a military, rather than a diplomatic resolution to the hostage issue has killed many Israelis, even if one is indifferent to the more than 110,000 Palestinians killed and injured. The argument that this is necessary to “destroy Hamas” was always a baseless one, as such a thing is not possible. Many of us have argued it from day one and now, after all these rivers of blood have been spilled, even the IDF Spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, has pointed out this obvious truth.

But this is only the beginning. Consider the long-term ramifications of Israel’s genocidal campaign.

Among the more than 80,000 wounded are many amputees and other people who will bear a lifetime of physical scars that will serve as reminders of what Israel has done in Gaza. More than 17,000 Palestinian children have lost one or both parents. Entire family lines have been wiped out, and many people have lost over a hundred family members to Israel’s assault. Some of those Palestinians live in Gaza, others in the West Bank, still more in the global Palestinian diaspora.

Those people have been given every reason to hate Israel, and to hate Israelis. They have seen the videos of Israeli soldiers mocking Palestinians, humiliating them, and filming themselves as they play with the toys or put on obscene routines with undergarments as they plunder the homes of people they have killed or chased away. Does anyone doubt that many of these traumatized people, denied any sort of hope or realistic possibility of living the life of relative freedom and opportunity that so many of us in the Western World take for granted will turn to violence as the only path that offers a glimmer of hope?

These are not scars that will go away. They are not memories that will fade over time. I have heard from many Palestinian friends and colleagues that they simply do not know how they can live with Israelis after this. Those Palestinians span the spectrum from the most accommodating believers in a two-state solution to the most radical one-staters. But the one thing all of them had in common was that they believed there was a future for Israelis and Palestinians in a post-apartheid, and, yes, post-Zionist future where equality, rather than discrimination, was the order of the day.

How can a better future be built without cooperation? That possibility has been undermined.

Moreover, in the medium term, there is a grave risk of escalation with Hezbollah. If anyone thinks that is likely to look like a repeat of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, think again. Hezbollah has upgraded its capabilities significantly since then. They are easily capable of targeting any site in Israel.

In 2006, Israelis could flee from the north and wait the war out. That will not be the case now if all-out war breaks out. Of course, Israel can more than match Hezbollah’s firepower and capabilities. But if the fighting gets to that pitch, it is certain that other militias in Syria and Iraq will join in, and the possibility of a real confrontation with Iran is strong.

Could Israel win that war? Of course it can. But the devastation that would sweep the region is unimaginable, and, unlike any war Israel has fought since 1948, that devastation will include Israel.

There is only one way, to veer away from this possibility and that is to end the genocide in Gaza. That will avert the calamity in the near term. Long term, the only way to avert calamity is to finally agree that Palestinians have the same rights and freedom to exercise them as Israelis.

Israel must recognize that there is no way to ensure demographic superiority without eventually being forced to resort to the most extreme violence. It must recognize that security does not come from intimidating your neighbors, as Jabotinsky posited, but from living with them in a friendly and cooperative manner.

The policy of deterrence has failed. Worse, it has led to massive suffering among Palestinians. If that suffering does not move Israel, the United States, Europe, and the Arab dictatorships to finally end their support and enforcement of apartheid, maybe the grim future of death, insecurity, and increasing global isolation for Israelis will.

In the end, whether they move toward equal rights and a real settlement, including reparations and return, for Palestinians for ethical reasons or for racist ones based on concern only for Israeli lives is less important than finally ending this slaughter.

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News Roundup

Israel's alliance with Europe’s fascists is the greatest threat to Jewish people

By David Hearst, Middle East Eye, June 21 2024

“Utterly Dismayed”: Air Force Engineer Resigns as Dissent Against Gaza War Slowly Spreads Within Military

By Prem Thakker, The Intercept, June 18, 2024

A settler shot my husband. Then Israel bulldozed my childhood home

By Shoug Al Adara, +972 Magazine, June 20, 2024

Israel’s Nuseirat massacre and Gaza’s wounds that won’t heal

By Maram Humaid, Al Jazeera, June 21, 2024

A Trip to Israel Changed Jamaal Bowman’s World View — And Could Cost Him His Reelection

By Calder McHugh, Politico, June 21, 2024

I’ve Just Been Canceled For Talking about America’s Israel/Palestine Policy!

Jeet Heer, The Nation, June 21, 2024

Israeli Official (Bezalel Smotrich) Describes Secret Government Bid to Cement Control of West Bank

By Natan Odenheimer, Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, June 21, 2024

IDF transfers powers in occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants

By Peter Beaumont, The Guardian, June 20, 2024

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My Latest Articles

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AUDIO: KPFK Middle East In Focus

On June 16, I spoke with my friend Estee Chandler on KPFK’s Middle East In Focus about Gaza, the ICC and more. You can listen to it below or at KPFK’s archive here. And you can support KPFK’s programming, including Middle East In Focus here.

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The Biden administration is playing a shell game with the Gaza ceasefire that aims to trick the Democratic base into thinking meaningful action is taking place to end fighting while still allowing Israel to continue its genocidal campaign.

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