Current Affairs

The soviets argued that Israel was an apartheid state, but on the ground is there a difference between the Israeli state and its citizens – and is discrimination determined by ethnicity. The declaration that Israel is a Jewish state negates the rights of twenty percent of its population, and disenfranchises those that live, work or are schooled in Israel. But the statement that the state is Jewish does empower some who use racial arguments to distinguish difference. This transforms the argument into who has rights and this is divisive for Muslims, Christians or Palestinians whose number plates are used to distinguish their ethic identity and forces those without the right papers or number plate on their car to queue when trying to get to their work place, business, or school in Israel.

But this does not excuse what happened last weekend, this war is between Hamas and Likud, both with extreme views, but the argument has developed into a national crisis for both Israel and Gaza. The hard headedness of the political extremism coming from the Israeli government means that they are to blame for the bloodshed. Hamas & Islamic Jihad in a press release blamed the incursion on divisive and violent events in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the al Aqsa Mosque. The extreme behaviour of Hamas has made matters worse and whether this will impact Israel politically is yet to be seen.

Though Israel is a multi-cultural country, it is divided by ethnicity, the Palestinian Israeli’s, the Bedouin and Druze have been alienated by the state because of the declaration that Israel is a Jewish state. There has already been a drop in minorities serving in the Israeli military and as minorities they are more isolated than ever before because of the declaration.

The hard arguments that the Israeli government have been making destroys any hope of a two state solution and questions concerning Jerusalem remain. Those who once could find answers are being sidelined and those looking to find a solution are being accused of anti-semetism, which challenges the world to find answers to the continuing conflict in the Middle East.

But this does not excuse what happened this weekend, the ugliness of what Hamas has done can be seen in their murder of concert goers, simple farmers, farm workers and others.  The voices that once tried to find solutions are now silent and will be silent for some time. But the ugliness of this conflict is that the people who probably did not vote for the hard right government have been harmed and those that have taken a hard-line are now empowered, in much the same way that Hamas have been.

So the violence spirals into an uncontrolled blood bath, all a reaction to the hard right government and a hard Islamic party that does not identify with anything that is positive. Europe has ceased its funding of those in Gaza in most need, but this spiral of violence is likely to progress as each side takes a tougher stance. The arguments will be compounded by violence and with the amount of violence that will come, there will be arguments of whether the Israelis and Hamas have taken an approach that is to hard.

But there are a number of factors that challenges those who will look for a peaceful outcome , the prime argument is public opinion in Israel. Before the public look for a peaceful outcome there will be hard arguments that challenge any thoughts of compromise. The voices that once dominated the conversation have been silenced by their own mortality, so the dominant voices today are determined by a hard edge who will not try and find an outcome that is positive.

There are people who will be grieving and there are those that will not know whether to grieve. The taking of hostages was a base reaction to what is coming. There are over 100 hostages in Gaza today, they come from different communities around the world. Some are Thai farm workers, some are Brazilians, Americans and Europeans. They are now hostages that have been taken across the border into Gaza. The vast majority are Israeli, those that went to a concert or just lived a simple life farming. None guilty of the poverty that distinguishes Gaza, but they are there and it is time to find an answer that enables them to be free and returned to their homes unless of course Hamas try and replicate the downright depravity of Lebanon.  

But of course the language is full of absolutes, the Israeli Prime Minister has argued that what they do now to Gaza will be echoed through the generations. The absolutes from the defence minister that all of the inhabitants of Gaza are animals and Israel will treat them as animals. These statements of course are extreme and they will be remembered as extreme. But like all politicians they are playing to their electorate who have extreme views that do not differentiate from the innocent, the opposition or those that just do not want anything to do with the violence that is being fed through by the extreme.

But of course this language has been countered by further threats from Hamas, who have said that they are going to start executing people if the bombing does not stop. But the absolutes have been seen before, the radicalisation of Gaza took place under Sheikh Yassin, a ninety year old blind cleric who was responsible for suicide bombers that targeted Tel Aviv in the 1990s.

But Israel has its own extremists, Kahana Kach is one of those, and members who were once extreme are in government today. So the hard arguments are being fed to the most innocent by an extreme in both Israel and Gaza, so it is difficult to see the spiral end in any such way that could lead to nations that are at peace with themselves.

It is shameful that Israel and Gaza are at war, there is on the one hand a nation that has everything that it could wish for and on the other is a failed state that only has its pride. Neither side comes out well, the continued arguments will continue to affect the weakest and those that do not want a war now or in the future. But it is all to late for them, they must either mourn, serve in the Israeli army or be willing to fight in Gaza for one of the factions or suffer from the siege, bombings or if the Israeli government is true to its word, starve.

If it had not been for the heavy handed behaviour of the present Israeli government you can ask yourself whether this would have happened. The honest appraisal is that it is likely that Hamas and Islamic Jihad would have carried through with their plan whatever government was in power, but the outcome could have been very different if the voices that are not caught up in the spiral of violence were given an opportunity to realise that there is a way and that is to sit and talk about the hopes and aspirations of families and their future, which happened thirty years ago. But as said, the old heads are no longer with us, and the idea that the innocent are bargaining chips in a game that spans from Gaza, to the West Bank and into the prison cells does not fill anybody with confidence.