Gaza
It appears talk of a ceasefire may be able to prevent an Israeli ground attack on the people in Rafah. We must hope it does, but we should still ask ourselves how Israel could funnel the civilian population into Rafah by progressively destroying Gaza, and then threaten to put nearly two million displaced people into the middle of a fire-fight with Hamas. That ought to be something even Israel’s right-wing war cabinet wouldn’t contemplate.
To begin to understand how it could have come about we need to start by recognising how deeply affected most Israelis were by the scale and barbarity of the raid by Hamas on October 7, and that even those whose relatives were neither killed nor kidnapped are constantly reliving the horror. Israeli domestic media continue to focus on the events of that day in October, portray the Israeli armed forces as carrying out a hazardous but necessary task, and carefully avoid broadcasting evidence of the death and suffering being inflicted on the Palestinians. In that context the suggestion that the Israeli armed forces are committing genocide must be puzzling, when many Israelis believe Hamas would annihilate Israel given the chance, and that the action in Gaza is defensive and vital for the survival of Israel. They must think the rest of the world just hasn’t grasped how precarious life seems in Israeli.
In contrast to that, the widespread feeling in the UK, in the Liberal Democrat Party and to a large extent in the nation as a whole, is that the wholesale killing in Gaza must end now, and is the-decades long oppression of the Palestinians reaching its logical conclusion. Many in Israel, including senior government figures, have made wild assertions about the Palestinians – that they are all terrorists, or even that they are “animals”. We are, of course, all part of the animal kingdom, but the intention is to brand Palestinians as ‘sub-human’, a call which illuminates the level of unreasoning hatred which is a part of the political debate in Israel, and not just on the fringes.
The world community was appalled by October 7 but not traumatised or overcome by raw emotions, so allies like the UK and the US had a duty to tell Benjamin Netanyahu there is no rational basis for killing tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, because it won’t finish off Hamas, it won’t solve the Palestinian grievances with Israel, and it will make matters worse. And yet, apart from one reported comment early on by President Biden, very little was done in the first weeks and months by the UK, the US, or the EU countries to cool the heads and calm the actions of Israel’s leaders. Now, four and a half months on, there are signs of movement towards another cease-fire, potentially with the start of peace talks to follow. However, Netanyahu still claims, publicly at least, that he thinks Hamas can be destroyed by military force, and that doing that is the only choice available to Israel.
Widespread fear of an undefined ‘annihilation of Israel’ is clearly one reason why Netanyahu’s brutal tactics in Gaza still have the backing of the Israeli people, but that doesn’t completely explain why so many Israelis are impervious to calls from abroad to halt the killing, or why those calls have been so muted.
Failure to influence Israeli opinion
A key problem for many years has been the not always unfounded belief by many Israeli Jews that antisemitism has made Israel a target for criticism, and that when other countries complain about Israel all they are doing is expressing an innate hatred of Jews. That has allowed Israel to forgive itself when it flouts international law or ignores censure by the UN, and for some Israelis, standing up to the rest of the world has actually become a badge of honour. However, that is not the worst example of antisemitism invading discourse about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
The most pernicious consequence has been the self-censoring of politicians in the UK and around the world, who are afraid to speak honestly and openly when Israel breaks international law or offends against deeply held beliefs about the norms of civilised behaviour. Retaliation for the horrific attack by Hamas on October 7 was expected, but the extent of the destruction of human life and property must be far beyond anyone’s worst fears, and yet British politicians tie themselves in knots trying not to say Israel is carrying out ‘collective punishment’ and have had enormous difficulty finding the nerve to call for a cease-fire. So the inability of world leaders to rein in the ambitions of right-wing Israeli politicians like Netanyahu didn’t come out of the blue. We have for too long, although arguably often for good reasons, tip-toed around the sensibilities of a people who created their nation as a beacon of hope for Jews after hundreds of years of oppression in Europe and Russia, but have now found themselves struggling to realise that dream.
The Promise
What is needed is a clear-eyed vision of the future for both Israel and Palestine, and we in the UK should be helping to provide it. It was the British government in the 1920s which made the promise to the Palestinian people that we would protect their interests, a promise soon broken and seemingly long forgotten, but we are still being held accountable by the Palestinians, and rightly so – when we took on our role as midwife to the proposed nation of Israel we told the League of Nations we saw it as a “sacred duty for civilisation”. We are no longer an imperial power, but our voice is still heard in Israel, and if we act together with other countries and apply pressure, we can end the bloodshed and get people talking, as we famously did with equally implacable enemies in Northern Ireland.
The tragedy unfolding in Gaza, the tens of thousands of innocent people dying as Israel vents its rage, is the moment, 75 years after the Nakba, when it is our turn to be tested. We have spoken – on the streets, in polls, and in the thousands of letters and emails we’ve sent to MPs of all parties – but our elected government is not listening. Our duty to the Palestinians will only be discharged when we have made sure they do.
This week’s Saturday March in London
Please join us, the LDFP, the Lib Dem Muslim Forum (LDMF), and other Liberal Democrats, marching for peace and justice for the Palestinians and the Israelis in London on Saturday. You will know that the Prime Minister and some Conservative MPs have characterised vocal opposition to the government’s weak response to the Gaza crisis as “undemocratic”, so it’s more important than ever that we Liberal Democrats join the crowd marching on Parliament, to make a peaceful, lawful, and very necessary protest at government inaction.
If you can come, please email us at http://contact@ldfp.org and we’ll share our meeting point and contact for the day.