Never forget: "Ninety-eight percent of respondents said the Oct. 7 slaughter made them feel "prouder of their identity as Palestinians." — according to a survey by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) research firm.
Ryan, fascinating conversation between you and Chuck Holton. I thought your Ukraine scenario describing the rolling effect of Ukraine’s finally getting trained pilots and F16’s and improving its military position was really interesting. Great thoughts on Gaza too.
I thought I would make a point about the Gaza war. I know that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is immensely complicated because of the history of the region, and the starkly different view many people have of that conflict in terms of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. A Palestinian journalist once said to me that the conflict is not between right and wrong, it is a conflict between two rights.
In my view, history really matters. The simple history of that place is that in the late 19th century, a group of European Jews decided to look for a safer place to live than Europe and landed on the idea of the biblical homeland of the Jews, which is Palestine or greater Israel. Problem was, all the arable land already had people living on it. They pressed on anyway and Arabs starting resisting them in the 1920’s, with a particularly ugly massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1928 followed by the Arab Revolt of 1936. Let’s just fast forward to October 7th and the present Gaza war to point out that the Arabs never stopped violently resisting them and the Israeli’s never found the national will to deal with the problem politically. In my mind, the October 7 terrorist attack was just the third Intifada, the first being the Intifada of stones, the second being the intifada of terrorist suicide bombs and the third being the awful attack on Israeli civilians next to Gaza, rapes, murder, kidnapping and so on. Each time has been more deadly than the last.
So who are the good guys? The Israel’s, who executed a text book 19th century colonial project and maintained it with military oppression long after its sell-by date in modern political terms? The Palestinians who gnawed on their murderous rage and never stopped hating the Jews who displaced them for three generations? Certainly not all the victims, Jews killed by terror bombings, always living under a cloud of fear, Palestinians living with no civil rights for 50 years, imprisoned, stopped and humiliated at check points, losing their land year by year to illegal settlements, or locked away in Gaza in squalor.
The Gaza war has done more to damage Israel than anything the Palestinians have ever done. Was this the Hamas strategy? They surely knew, after what happened to Lebanon, that the Israeli’s would take the gloves off after October 7th. Now the world has turned more hostile to Israel than at any time in its history. Israel is accused of genocide in the World Court. Their relationship with their chief protector, the United States is more damaged than it has ever been. And the younger generation of American Jews is turning against Israel to a degree that we have never seen before. The Saudi deal is in the tank. And of course, the Palestinian issue, which had pretty much faded from international consciousness, is back on the front burner, eclipsing even the Ukraine war.
So who is winning this war? Nobody is, but Hamas has dragged it out with no end in sight and October 7th is yesterday’s news compared to the 30,000 dead and mass starvation. Israel is never going to defeat Hamas in the total victory that Netanyahu wants. They will certainly kill all the leaders eventually, but the war will have created a whole new crop of Hamas enthusiasts. And Biden is now publicly (or through leaked commentary) threatened to limit arms sales to Israel if they attack Rafah.
It is all a wheel within a wheel. I have no idea why we are talking about building this pier with all the potential problems you have commented on, or parachuting aid into Gaza (killing the people it falls on) instead of just leaning on the Israeli’s to let the stuff come in on trucks.
Obviously this is just my opinion, based on work I have done in the region in the past. I have sympathy for both the Israelis and the Palestinians. Both are right. Both are wrong.
Never forget: "Ninety-eight percent of respondents said the Oct. 7 slaughter made them feel "prouder of their identity as Palestinians." — according to a survey by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) research firm.
Ryan, fascinating conversation between you and Chuck Holton. I thought your Ukraine scenario describing the rolling effect of Ukraine’s finally getting trained pilots and F16’s and improving its military position was really interesting. Great thoughts on Gaza too.
I thought I would make a point about the Gaza war. I know that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is immensely complicated because of the history of the region, and the starkly different view many people have of that conflict in terms of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. A Palestinian journalist once said to me that the conflict is not between right and wrong, it is a conflict between two rights.
In my view, history really matters. The simple history of that place is that in the late 19th century, a group of European Jews decided to look for a safer place to live than Europe and landed on the idea of the biblical homeland of the Jews, which is Palestine or greater Israel. Problem was, all the arable land already had people living on it. They pressed on anyway and Arabs starting resisting them in the 1920’s, with a particularly ugly massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1928 followed by the Arab Revolt of 1936. Let’s just fast forward to October 7th and the present Gaza war to point out that the Arabs never stopped violently resisting them and the Israeli’s never found the national will to deal with the problem politically. In my mind, the October 7 terrorist attack was just the third Intifada, the first being the Intifada of stones, the second being the intifada of terrorist suicide bombs and the third being the awful attack on Israeli civilians next to Gaza, rapes, murder, kidnapping and so on. Each time has been more deadly than the last.
So who are the good guys? The Israel’s, who executed a text book 19th century colonial project and maintained it with military oppression long after its sell-by date in modern political terms? The Palestinians who gnawed on their murderous rage and never stopped hating the Jews who displaced them for three generations? Certainly not all the victims, Jews killed by terror bombings, always living under a cloud of fear, Palestinians living with no civil rights for 50 years, imprisoned, stopped and humiliated at check points, losing their land year by year to illegal settlements, or locked away in Gaza in squalor.
The Gaza war has done more to damage Israel than anything the Palestinians have ever done. Was this the Hamas strategy? They surely knew, after what happened to Lebanon, that the Israeli’s would take the gloves off after October 7th. Now the world has turned more hostile to Israel than at any time in its history. Israel is accused of genocide in the World Court. Their relationship with their chief protector, the United States is more damaged than it has ever been. And the younger generation of American Jews is turning against Israel to a degree that we have never seen before. The Saudi deal is in the tank. And of course, the Palestinian issue, which had pretty much faded from international consciousness, is back on the front burner, eclipsing even the Ukraine war.
So who is winning this war? Nobody is, but Hamas has dragged it out with no end in sight and October 7th is yesterday’s news compared to the 30,000 dead and mass starvation. Israel is never going to defeat Hamas in the total victory that Netanyahu wants. They will certainly kill all the leaders eventually, but the war will have created a whole new crop of Hamas enthusiasts. And Biden is now publicly (or through leaked commentary) threatened to limit arms sales to Israel if they attack Rafah.
It is all a wheel within a wheel. I have no idea why we are talking about building this pier with all the potential problems you have commented on, or parachuting aid into Gaza (killing the people it falls on) instead of just leaning on the Israeli’s to let the stuff come in on trucks.
Obviously this is just my opinion, based on work I have done in the region in the past. I have sympathy for both the Israelis and the Palestinians. Both are right. Both are wrong.