The Ongoing Gaza Operation

The retaliatory ongoing full-scale Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip indicates a gross miscalculation by Hamas. Tel Aviv showed that after all these years it still has the will and determination to go after militants who seek to harm its population. Tel Aviv has also shown that despite cries of anguish not only of the Gazans but also of a considerable part of the world, the Israeli military might will not hesitate to turn into rubble the entire Gaza Strip in search of those terrorists. At the time this article was penned, northern Gaza had been flattened. It isn’t just another combat zone (Israel’s Message in Gaza to Iran and Hezbollah: Yonah Jeremy Bob: The Wall Street Journal: Dec 21, 2023).

The Israeli attack, the veracity of it, has surprised many; but the response from the Arabian countries so far has been cautious. One likely reason is Hamas’ alignment with the Muslim Brotherhood, which most Arab countries consider a political threat, and its weak relations with the mainstream Palestinian political organization, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) based in the West Bank. Media reports indicate that Turkey is planning to expel Hamas, and some rumblings were heard against Hamas also in Qatar, where some of its leaders are based.

But the infrastructure destruction in Gaza because of Israeli bombings is massive and is continuing. According to the United Nations, 60 per cent of housing in northern Gaza has been destroyed. The extent of destruction means it will take years before the Palestinians if they so choose, can return to where they lived before. To rebuild these areas will involve staggering costs and many years. The widespread devastation of northern Gaza has also sent a message to Hezbollah in Lebanon, to Tehran, and all those in Syria who allegedly back Hamas and provide them with arms.

Time will tell whether the Israeli Defense Force will succeed through this operation to eliminate Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel is fully aware of the growing ‘comradery’ developing between Hamas and the West Bank militants. These militants are already restive about illegal Jewish communities getting set up within the West Bank. The devasting nature of Israel’s Gaza operation could spell danger for Tel Aviv in the West Bank in the coming years.

More immediately, what will the post-Gaza operation be for the Gazans? Analysts have laid down four likely scenarios:

1] Israel sets up a new Palestinian governing body, which could be infiltrated once again by one or the other anti-Israel terrorist groups. In other words, a new form of status quo.

2] Israel occupies the northern part of Gaza, pushing the entire population of 1. 2 million people to a tiny portion of southern Gaza. Simultaneously, Israel annexes 60 per cent of the West Bank, known as Area C, or a part of it. (The 1995 Oslo II Accord established the administrative division of the Palestinian West Bank into areas A, B, and C as a transitional arrangement, pending a final status agreement. Oslo II intended for the divisions to be temporary, with full jurisdiction of all three areas gradually transferred to the Palestinian Authority over time. Instead, the divisions persist, with Area A administered by the Palestinian Authority, Area C by Israel, and Area B under joint control). One consequence of this scenario is that Israel reinforces its occupation and blockades and expands its settlements.

3] Israel annexes the West Bank and Gaza, using October 7 as its justification. This scenario would entail driving out the disgruntled now-landless Palestinians from both West Bank and Gaza. That would mean enacting another al-Nakba.

4] Israel curtails its operation in Gaza under pressure from the United States due to the escalating risk of a regional conflict and a growing global outcry about the humanitarian crisis.

Conclusion

Historically, the State of Israel was formed by the British in collaboration with a perpetually anti-Semitic Europe and the World Zionist Organization. Both the Jews and the Palestinians are Semitic people. Semite is the name given in the 19th century to any people who speak one of the Semitic languages, a family of languages spoken primarily in parts of western Asia and Africa. The term therefore came to include Arabs, Akkadians, Canaanites, Hebrews, some Ethiopians (including the Amhara and the Tigrayans), and Aramaean tribes (Britannica). When they fight each other, it is incorrect to say one or the other is driven by “anti-Semitism.” But the West - where a vast number of anti-Semites reside - has always depicted all attacks on Israel or Israelites as anti-Semitic. When Hamas committed the atrocities in Israel bordering the Gaza Strip on October 7, the Western media identified “anti-Semitism” as the core motivation.

Perhaps the real reasons were different in the earlier days as today. Palestinians saw in the emigrating European Jews, who resembled the European Crusaders when the Christian armies from Western Europe fought both Muslims and local Christian factions for control of their religions’ holy sites, the arrival of another wave of Europeans sent to take over their land. It could have been an irrational fear, but recent history proved otherwise. A large portion of the land that once belonged to Palestine and its native inhabitants no longer belongs to them.

The real issue has always been the land. It is likely that if any other ethnic or religious group had been allocated land through the Balfour Declaration, a similar reaction from the Palestinians would have occurred. The facts are on the ground, as of February 2023 are that almost 700,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - 465,400 live in settlements in the West Bank in addition to 229,377 who live in East Jerusalem. One out of 10 Israeli citizens live in the West Bank. But the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not only impressive because of the sheer numbers of settlers, on the rise every year, but also because the Jewish settler movement in the West Bank has become an extremely powerful force of its own in Israeli society, army, and politics (Lords of the Land: The Settlers and the State of Israel, 1967- 2004: Idit Zertal and Akiva Eldar).

The 1948 and 1967 wars have further added to existing complexities. Led by Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, the Arabs’ refusal to accept the UN mandate for the State of Israel was wholly untenable. In his quest for power and glory, Nasser sought a new cause that would elevate Egypt’s and his stature. Nasser viewed Israel’s existence as a physical obstacle to Arab unity, which separated Arabic-speaking North Africa, known as al-Maghreb, from the Arabic-speaking Middle East, known as al-Mashriq. He described Israel’s creation as a crime against the Arab nation and voiced that Palestinian rights could only be restored by reversing the events of 1948, a euphemism for the deconstruction of the Jewish state.

My observation suggests that the 75 years of conflict, which raised its ugly head again on October 7, 2023, cannot be resolved unless a secured international border is established, and approved, by the contending parties. The atrocities committed since the Balfour Declaration by both the Palestinians backed by the Arabs, and the Israelis, aided by physical and vocal support of Europe and the US have left many scars, and those scars are difficult to remove. It is those scars that have bred a generation of militants on both sides who believe the solution lies in killing each other.

What happens next in the Gaza Strip and the growing legal and illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are elements that need to be dealt with using both heart and mind, setting aside the raw emotions the past evokes.

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Appendix A: The Balfour Declaration

Balfour Declaration 1917: November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur James Balfour

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Appendix B: The Palestine Mandate: The Council of the League of Nations

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have agreed, for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, to entrust to a Mandatory selected by the said Powers the administration of the territory of Palestine, which formerly belonged to the Turkish Empire, within such boundaries as may be fixed by them; and

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible  for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favor of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country; and

Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country; and

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have selected His Britannic Majesty as the Mandatory for Palestine; and

Whereas the mandate in respect of Palestine has been formulated in the   following terms and submitted to the Council of the League for approval; and

Whereas His Britannic Majesty has accepted the mandate in respect of Palestine and undertaken to exercise it on behalf of the League of Nations in conformity with the following provisions: and

Whereas by the afore-mentioned Article 22 (paragraph 8), it is provided that the degree of authority, control, or administration to be exercised by the Mandatory, not having been previously agreed upon by the Members of the League, shall be explicitly defined by the Council of the League of Nations...

(Concluded)