The Dissonance of Opposing Existential Narratives

Israelis and Palestinians

By Anil Madan

It is heart wrenching to read about the atrocities of Hamas that left 1,400 Israelis dead on October 7, and of the suffering of the Gazan Palestinians as their homes and infrastructure are destroyed by relentless aerial bombardment by Israel. Watching video broadcasts on television and seeing photos of grief and suffering on both sides is almost impossible. The death, destruction and suffering we humans can inflict on each other is unfathomable.

Israelis v Palestinians. Pic – Financial Times

The explosion at the Al-Ahli Hospital left hundreds dead and wounded. Israel and Hamas both deny culpability. Israel claims that a rocket launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad failed and exploded in the vicinity of the hospital and points to an Al Jazeera livestream video to support its claims. Al Jazeera asserts that its video does not support Israel’s claim. But Al Jazeera shows no airstrike around the time of the explosion.

NPR concluded that the damage is not consistent with an Israeli airstrike, but they hedged about it possibly being some other Israeli low yield weapon. There is no evidence of any such weapon being used. Regardless of who is culpable, it is unconscionable that Israel did conduct airstrikes in the vicinity of the hospital and that Hamas and Islamic Jihad used the hospital and Palestinian civilians seeking shelter in its parking lot as human shields.

My Jewish and Muslim friends talk to me and send me messages of support for Israel or for the Gazans. And there is either praise for, or revulsion at President Biden’s unwavering support for Israel.

The sense that each side, Israelis, and Palestinians, view their mutual and ongoing struggle as existential is palpable. Not for the first time, I have pondered how to reconcile these conflicting claims that for each, this is existential. And with President Biden’s brief visit to Israel, the geopolitical implications of this ongoing and evolving crisis spring to mind.

It is easy enough to understand Israel’s views that it is engaged in an existential struggle for its very survival. After all, Hamas and Hezbollah have clearly stated aims to kill every Jew and to destroy Israel itself. Hezbollah’s attacks some years ago, and Hamas’ attack on October 7, tell us that it is dangerous to dismiss the rantings of these two terrorist organizations, for they are well supplied by Iran and egged on by its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei who has long threatened the extinction of Israel and even recently praised Hamas’ for its attack as did Iranian President Raisi.

Understanding the Palestinians’ basic claim of an existential struggle is also easy. This is, of course, the overarching claim that the very creation of Israel that led to the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948 was the “catastrophe” or Nakba. The more nuanced claim is that Israel is systematically displacing Palestinians and seizing land in the West Bank as settlers expand and build new settlements. This, they say, is a long-range goal of Israel to make a two-state solution impossible. Then there is the claim that Gaza is nothing more than an open prison where Palestinians are trapped in some of the most densely crowded conditions and denied basic human rights. Only the destruction of the evil of Israel can remedy that.

Competing claims

How does one resolve these competing claims which from the perspective of each side are entirely justified? It is of little value to look at the historical record. Depending on the point at which one starts the concatenation, the land belonged to the Jews or to the Palestinians. Does one go back to 1948, or to the Balfour Declaration, or even as far back as 2000 years? Ultimately, Israel is in possession of what it describes as the eternal Jewish homeland, and it is not about to give up any of that.

To some extent, they are both right. One can poke holes in either position if one is so inclined. That is not a productive exercise. Most troubling is that both sides also have the notion that their survival is dependent on the destruction of the other. For any hope of peace, we must find a way to prove them both wrong in this mutually consistent deduction that appears seemingly logical to them, but irrational to any objective onlooker.

Is it possible for the Israelis and Palestinians to live together in peace, if not in harmony? Given what has happened, the obvious answer seems to be no. But if that makes it equally obvious that each will continue to try to destroy the other, somehow, we must find a way to change the answer to yes.

At this point, the Gazans are afraid to leave their land for fear that they will not be allowed to return. These concerns are justified and given Israel’s evacuation order to clear northern Gaza, who knows if an order to evacuate southern Gaza will follow?

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi expresses the same fear: “What is happening now in Gaza is an attempt to force civilian residents to take refugee and migrate to Egypt, which should not be accepted,” he said, and “Egypt rejects any attempt to resolve the Palestinian issue by military means or through the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land, which would come at the expense of the countries of the region.” He added that any such move would turn the Egyptian peninsula into a base for attacks against Israel.

The urgent necessity for Israel to avoid such an event is palpably clear. Egypt and, indeed, the Arab countries would find themselves once again in conflict with Israel. The hope for a rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia has faded to the back burner with Israel’s unrelenting bombing of Gaza. The explosion at the al-Ahli Hospital could cause the flame on the back burner to be extinguished, Certainly, it caused the President Biden’s trip to the Middle East to devolve into a love fest with Israel and not a wider diplomatic overture.

A game of death and destruction

So, what is to be done? Obviously, Israel is bent on destroying the subterranean tunnel structures that Hamas has built in Gaza. Hamas is unlikely to give up the hostages because they will be valuable bargaining chips in this vile game of death and destruction. And Israel will be hard pressed to avoid killing the hostages as it continues to bomb. A ground invasion of Gaza promises only more death and destruction.

There may be a faint hope. Gaza will have to be rebuilt. Israel will certainly have to pay for most of that reconstruction. But perhaps if Israel were to guarantee the right of return to Gaza for its civilians and cede control of Gaza to a joint administration with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan, contributions to the rebuild could well come from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, both with the resources to help.

A rebuilt Gaza with new homes, schools, factories, libraries, universities, farms, and a socially secure setting would go a long way to restoring dignity to the Palestinians. Can Israel bring itself to do this? If there is a better way, I have not seen any evidence of it.

On the geopolitical front, there is the grave danger here that Israel will once again become isolated and the US, seen as the chief backer of Israel, will lose even more influence than it has. But an alliance of Israel with the Arab states would undercut Iran’s ambitions and as well Russian and Chinese hopes of destabilizing the Middle East to the further detriment of the US.

One can only hope for a bit of enlightenment and enlightened self-interest. President Biden’s unwavering support for Israel is not incompatible with exerting pressure on all concerned to achieve a lasting peace.

Cheerz…
Bwana

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 20 October 2023