Including me.
Some specific events can unequivocally be categorized: Hamas' October 7th attacks against civilians were horrific. Israel's bombing of Gaza, killing tens of thousands, was horrific. Yet every act of violence can be traced back and rationalized as a response to previous barbarism by the other side. No matter how terrible the retribution, those exacting it always believe that they are justified.
But you have to begin somewhere.
The beginning is the release of the surviving Israeli hostages (which as of this writing has been accomplished) and the cease fire, which started once the hostages were freed. Both of those things are unambiguously good. The hostages were nothing more than pawns in the hands of Hamas and the war was extremely one-sided in favor of Israel, reducing much of Gaza to rubble, and killing tens of thousands of civilians in pursuit of Hamas fighters.
Trump is claiming credit for the agreement. How much he had to do with it is debatable. It's true that the United States was part of the mediation between Israel and Hamas, but so was Qatar, Egypt and Turkey. It's likely that Trump finally got tired of being played by Netanyahu, and decided to apply some pressure. If only he had chosen to so earlier. For all his talk about being the "Peace President" he made no effort to restrain Israel's government from their campaign of "kill 'em all and let God sort it out", even suggesting that the path to peace was through Israel's annihilation of Gaza's population. Even today, on a day that was supposed to be about celebrating the first phase of the peace accord, he commented about the contribution our weapons made to the effort.
It's pretty obvious that Trump thinks he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Despite his attack on Iran earlier this year and his continuing destruction of boats of alleged drug traffickers in international waters near Venezuela, he regularly claims to be the "president of peace" and boasts about having ended seven wars (might be eight or nine by now). The problem with that claim is that none of them were actually wars, a few didn't even involve fighting (one was a disagreement over water rights), and one was entirely fictional, involving countries that were nowhere near each other. But we all know that Trump lies and exaggerates. If the killing stops, I don't care if he claims credit. I don't even care if he gets a Nobel.
Trump has been touting this agreement as an "historic dawn of a new Middle East", and proudly characterizing it as an "end to the war" and a "lasting peace". Netanyahu called it simply a "proposal to end the war and free the hostages". It's not even clear what was in the document that Trump and leaders and representatives from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey signed. What is clear is that not only are there parts to the so-called 20-point plan that have yet to be agreed to, but the underlying conditions that led to the war and the terrorist attack that preceded it, still exist. Without going into the history of the State of Israel in detail, or debating whether Israel is "legitimate", the current state of affairs is not one that can continue without violence erupting once again. Since 1967 Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza (which had previously been occupied by Jordan and Egypt) and the Palestinians have lived in a stateless limbo. They do not have their own state, nor are they citizens of Israel, and therefore have no civil rights. (Palestinians who live within Israel proper are citizens and can vote -- some are members of Parliament). In addition to the war in Gaza, the West Bank, ostensibly Palestinian territory, has seen increasing encroachment by Jewish Israeli "Settlers", often violently taking land and even whole villages from Palestinians, usually with no repercussions. Palestinians have no legal recourse against these depredations. None of this has changed.
Let's not forget, before we get all giddy about lasting peace in the region, that Trump began his term with a similar "peace" deal in place that would facilitate the freeing of the hostages and a cease fire leading to an end of the war. Negotiations started during President Biden's term with a Trump representative joining the team towards the end, with Trump of course claiming credit for the agreement. Hostages were released, but the cease fire was soon broken with each side blaming the other. Israel is already saying that failure to deliver the remains of the deceased hostages would be viewed as breaking the agreement by Hamas. Hamas is claiming that they don't know the location of all the remains and will have to look for them. And how many cease fires have come and gone over the years that ended up being broken?
We all hope that war doesn't break out again, but let's hope that justice for the Palestinian people breaks out in the aftermath.
No comments:
Post a Comment