Graham E Fuller
9 October 2023 http://grahamefuller.com/
As long as Israel could keep the lid on over its imprisoned Palestinian population, particularly in the massive open air prison of Gaza, there was no compelling reason for the world to pay much attention to the ongoing ugly situation for Palestinians under Israeli occupation. The killings of a number of Palestinian civilians-- every single day-- over recent years, doesn't really register on the screen of global affairs. Indeed, typically, the American press has mainly been focusing for months now on whether a reconciliation can be achieved between Saudi Arabia and Israel, two regimes that might deserve each other. Such a normalization would essentially remove much further pressure for Western attention to the plight of the Palestinians, now under occupation for over 75 years. Let Israel handle it.
But the ugliness of this three quarters of a century-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory has yet once again broken out onto the world scene. Might there be enough telegenic bloodshed, fires and explosions here perhaps this time to force greater global attention upon the deeper cancer eating away at this troubled Israeli society?
Yes, these casualties are shocking. It is rare that hundreds of Israeli civilians perish in any kind of confrontation with Palestinians who have otherwise been kept under tight humiliating surveillance and military control decade after decade. And in such situations of despair for Palestinians there apparently is no exit except through suicidal resistance of martyrdom--an existential cry.
But again, typically, American and western media is focusing on the drama of the situation and the tragedy of Israeli deaths. Death of civilians — any civilians —is always tragic. But there has been virtually no statistical comparison made to the number of Palestinians who have died in Israel either at the hands of Israeli security forces or at the hands of vengeful and expansionist settler communities who are determined to ultimately wrest all of Palestinian lands into their own hands.
Indeed a harsher analysis of the situation suggests that the Israeli right, at least, is engaged in a long term unspoken process of ethnic cleansing across Israel. No, this is nothing like the horrors of the Holocaust or the savage butchery of Rwanda or Kosovo. Perhaps it can be described as a "gentler form of a ethnic cleansing" in which life is simply made increasingly intolerable at the daily level for Palestinians in any number of transactions to make continued living in dignity within the borders of Israel impossible . The aspiration of a final solution is, bit by bit, that the Palestinians will get the message that they have no future whatsoever in Israel and will eventually leave their ancient homes, emigrating to Jordan, other locales in the Arab world or to the West. Done quietly enough , under the radar, and without too much explicit violence, such a long-term ethnic cleansing project could be completed within perhaps half a century. Problem solved.
Initial western analysis has rushed to point out how badly this bloody assault by Hamas against military and civilian targets in Israel has deeply damaged the Palestinian cause. “Well, you Palestinians,” the world might say, "we once had sympathy for trying to work on your problems,, but this kind of violence is simply unacceptable and basically takes your problem off the table of International sympathy and concern indefinitely.” After all, how much is a Palestinian life on the scales of international justice compared to the life of an Israeli? Deep western guilt at the horrors that Western civilization has inflicted upon Jews over the centuries simply complicates the problem even further. Yet these are simply the ugly realities that the western press simply does not wish to address, especially if such opinions might be characterized as “antisemitic."
It is too early to tell whether this astonishing and bloody assault by Hamas against Israeli communities and institutions will in the longer run ultimately force greater attention to the plight of the Palestinians. Or whether it will simply serve to tarnish their cause and represent a massive setback to Palestinian aspirations for greater justice, freedom and equality. My hunch is that in the short term public revulsion against bloodshed, particularly when it involves civilian targets, will set back Palestinian aspirations and moral authority in the world. it will likely destroy whatever passes for formal Palestinian “leadership" in Palestine, particularly in the person of Mahmud 'Abbas, the sclerotic and hapless official "President" of the Palestinians who enjoys not one shred of respect among the Palestinian population, but is kept in place because he is neutered and pliable, and therefore convenient to the Israeli government.
Note: some sloppy American reporting has rushed to link Hamas as an instrument of Iran--as if thereby to compound the Evil at hand. This is simply untrue. Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood that is a longtime purely Sunni Islamic political force – with branches across much of the Arab and even Muslim world. The name Hamas itself is the Arabic acronym for "Islamic Resistance Movement-- and not to be confused with the highly influential and powerful Shi'íte organization Hizballah in Lebanon. Iran will unquestionably be pleased at this demonstration of force by Palestinian resistance. But give the Palestinians enough credit to be able to organize their own very long-standing movement of resistance against Israeli occupation.
It will be some time before the long-term political, social, and strategic implications of these events shake down in public and private comprehension.
One might hope that this massive shock to iIsraeli society and government might serve as a wake up call to bring about a reconsideration of the wisdom of Israel's ever harsher apartheid policies against the Palestinians. That would be the most fruitful outcome of these brutal events. But sadly, it is more likely to strengthen the hand of the powerful and dominant ultra-right wing forces in Israel, increasingly under the ideological control of the powerful settler movement. It's hard to see how even international horror at these events could effectively move international organizations to fruitfully impose greater rationality and justice upon Israel's treatment of its captive and opressed Palestinian population.
-------------