Gaza war's staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead
Gaza war's staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead
More than 20,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas, health officials said Friday.
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This is devastating. And amidst so much debate over Israel's right to defend itself, I feel it's getting lost that this military campaign is only a success if measured by a set of goals even most Zionists would not recognize as productive.
Will it make Israel safer? No, undoubtedly the war has cost international standing, strained the US-Israel relationship, and will inevitably radicalize far more extremists than are killed.
Will it continue the right-ward shift of Israeli policy? Does it cut off avenues for peace and reconciliation and foster militant Israeli nationalism? Yes.
This campaign is only a success if the primary objective is the eventual capture of the entire region at the cost of Israel's safety (and the safety of Jews around the world) and Israel's international standing. By any more conventional aims, it is an unmitigated disaster.
The US's twenty years in Afghanistan should have taught the rest of the world the "forever wars" don't work.
But I suppose not.
Honest question, what is Israel supposed to do? Give Hamas concessions? I think history shows that appeasement only emboldens terrorism. Back out now and let Hamas come back with even more local support?
It's a lose/lose. There is no winning for Israel. It seems that either Israel makes itself a pariah in the international community by killing countless innocent Palestinians or it lets terrorists win.
I would love for you or someone to help me see a different way Israel can get back out of this.
I'm going to answer in two parts.
Part 1: I grew up a Zionist. In most versions, Zionism envisioned a peaceful, multi-ethnic state. In that sense, the zionist project is half-complete.
The first half was accomplished by people who aspired to something that everyone said was madness, totally impossible, completely unfeasible, hopelessly unworkable. And they fucking did that thing.
Now, anyone who considers themselves a Zionist needs to take on the responsibility for continuing that project with the sense of courage and insane vision that brought Israel into existence. 'It's too hard!' 'There are no good solutions!' BULLSHIT. The whole country is founded on the idea that nothing is impossible, so let's stop making excuses.
Part 2: The biggest problem is Jewish radicals. Itmar Ben Givir of the Jewish Power Party, Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionist Party, and Netanyahu of Likud. These are the primary leaders of a genocide, and Netanyahu's special move for decades has been foreclosing peace. Step one is wanting peace, and step two is holding accountable the people who've never wanted it and always tried to keep it out of reach.
Step three, I think, is to help every Palestinian climb what I think of as "the ladder". Israel is an apartheid state. You've got Ashkenazi Jews at the top, and Mizrahi/Sphardeic Jews close but just below. Then you've got Palestinian Israelis, then a whole bunch of tiers of West Bank / East Jeruselum Palestinians, then Gazans / foreign refugees. Each group needs a path to the rights of the group above, and there has to be a roadmap to a roadmap to peace. And that is going to require international brokers. Israeli needs a government that isn't hostile to the UN, and the US needs to reduce its involvement and stay the fuck out of the peace process.
You should think a bit more about that "ladder" concept. In the same way that advocating for manumission doesn't fix any of the issues with slavery a "path to the rights of the group above" doesn't fix any of the issues with an apartheid state.
Unless you're fine with a little genocide, any apartheid state is not a solution.
I'm saying that the apartheid state needs dismantled.
It's just a mental exercise to get people to expand their imagination. I don't expect the end of apartheid to literally require each group to pass through a series of stages.