Netanyahu Falls Into the Trap Set by Hamas and Iran. Israel Forgets “Noblesse Oblige”. The Grave Risk of Political Leaders With Legal Problems.
Hamas’ atrocious and outrageous October 7 2023 attack on Israeli civilians was probably carefully developed with Iran to provoke an over-the-top counterattack on Gaza by Israel which would justify a subsequent coordinated massive missile attack on Israel by Hezbollah and Iran, proportional to the destruction caused by Israel’s counterattack on Gaza. Iran has understood that Israel, increasingly under the sway of unempathetic religious extremists, will never agree to the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state so long as it never pays the price of a devastating war.
For decades, Israel has been practically free of any suffering for its denial of Palestinian rights and its brutal subjugation of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians. Tragically and stupidly, Israel has ignored the concept of “noblesse oblige”. Being by far the strongest side militarily and economically, as well as the most educated, it has been incumbent on Israel to be empathetic regarding the plight of the Palestinians, and to understand the true cause of the conflict, the only way to find a solution acceptable to both sides. Perhaps Israel’s intellectual and diplomatic shortcomings, and its inflexibility, have been due to the long lasting trauma of the Holocaust along with the repeated Arab wars intended to erase Israel from the map. Of course, subsequent repeated intifadas and Islamic terrorism along with unrelenting Palestinian religious animosity have made a peaceful resolution of the conflict even more remote.
The sad reality is that the interminable Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which dates from the biblical times of Samson and Delilah and David and Goliath, is essentially based on mutual religious discrimination, not on land disputes. In fact, no truly educated and well informed person can rationally deny that there would be no conflict if the Israelis were Muslim, or the Palestinians were Jewish, or they were all atheists. Who can rationally deny that the conflict derives from the religious absolutism, discrimination, and violence incited by both the Old Testament and the Koran? Only those who have not read the Old Testament and the Koran. The sad, tragic truth is that hardly anybody with political influence and the desire to help end the conflict fairly has read both holy books. The conflict will not be extinguished until the religious animosity is well understood and intelligently confronted with a secular 21st Century mentality, leaving behind a mentality shackled by the monotheistic holy books.
Unfortunately, the Netanyahu government has fallen into the trap set by Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, and the ultimate results may be catastrophic for Israel. The outrageous destruction of Gaza by Israel mimics the shocking, immoral destruction of Mariupol by Russia. One would never have expected Israel, an educated democracy, to fall to such moral depths, nor to be duped into carpet-bombing Gaza, giving Palestinians’ allies Iran and Hezbollah the moral justification to retaliate in kind. They have been waiting for such moment, understanding that the only way to achieve their objective of liberating the Palestinian people in the face of Israeli intransigence, is to carpet-bomb Israel, which might well lead to its end, as many Israeli survivors would emigrate to the West, leaving the state of Israel with few resident citizens.
The Iranian leadership does not fear severe Israeli retaliation, being highly religious Muslims willing to become martyrs for the cause of Islam whose primary enemy, as forcefully proclaimed in the Koran, is the Jewish people. Iran’s calculation is that Israelis are far outnumbered by Muslims in the Middle East, and that after an all-out war the last people standing will be Muslims.
The Israeli people have not learned the lesson of an indebted and seemingly corrupt Donald Trump with multiple legal problems, who befriended Putin and became an existential threat to the United States’ democracy. It’s becoming clear that Trump’s only way out is to become a dictator, with Putin’s help. Netanyahu also befriended Putin, which should have alarmed most Israelis, particularly since he, like Trump, has legal problems, along with an image of being a ruthless, possibly corrupt opportunist focused mainly on his own power and wealth. Typically, government leaders in political and legal trouble look to start wars to distract attention from their own misdeeds, and to rally their citizens behind them.
Netanyahu might be innocent, but he very possibly intentionally took advantage of the national outrage caused by the October 7 massacre to engage in an extreme military operation of monstrous destruction instead of limiting Israel’s response to a surgical attack (the moral, though more difficult, choice) on Hamas and creating a well defended buffer zone in northern Gaza along the Israeli border. Not to be forgotten, the Hamas attack was greatly facilitated by an egregiously porous border defense, practically an invitation for the Hamas attack, which can be blamed on Netanyahu and the entire Israeli military and political establishment. Netanyahu has destroyed the image of Israel, even though many Israelis have been opposed to him politically. The problem is that Israel did not get rid of him in time, and therefore it is held politically and morally responsible, just like Germany was for Hitler, and just like the United States will be if Trump is reelected and destroys our democracy, turning it into a fascist dictatorship. Citizens, even in opposition, are ultimately responsible for their governments’ misdeeds. They cannot remain passive and plead innocence or lack of responsibility.
The big risk for Israel is now truly existential. It can do nothing against a massive barrage of missiles from Hezbollah and Iran. Any belief that its atom bombs will dissuade Iran from launching its missiles is naïve. Iran will happily pay the price of martyrdom in order to eliminate the state of Israel. As for Israel launching atom bombs, that would result in its total disgrace internationally, affecting innocent Israelis and all Jews worldwide opposing Netanyahu and his criminal devastating counterattack in Gaza.
Without delay, President Biden must explain to the world that an all-out war between Israel and Iran, which would be an even greater tragedy than the destruction of Gaza, must be avoided. Contemporaneously, Biden must explain that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essentially a religious conflict, not really about land but about religious discrimination and hatred deriving from the Old Testament and the Koran, in violation of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And Biden must immediately give Netanyahu an ultimatum to resign and require the new Israeli government to agree to peace talks with the Palestinians, organized and supervised by the United States with the goal of creating a peaceful sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and imposing reparations to be paid by Israel for the wholesale destruction of Gaza, a totally non-proportionate, unnecessary, and counterproductive tragic enterprise by an immoral and stupid leadership which Israel countenanced. Biden must take these courageous steps without delay. He must be a real leader for the good of Israelis, Jews worldwide, Palestinians, Iranians, Lebanese, Muslims worldwide, Americans, and humanity. He must set in motion the worldwide discrediting of religious discrimination and hatred even when it derives from “untouchable” holy books.
© Edward Sonnino 2024
April 6, 2024
