You can’t understand the Gaza war without understanding history, and our role in it | Opinion
As you probably know, on Oct. 7 Hamas terrorists spilled out of the Gaza Strip and murdered about 1,400 Israelis. There is no excuse for such horrid behavior. Unarmed people should not be gunned down in cold blood, nor should grandmas be abducted. I don’t think Hamas has done themselves or the Palestinian people they claim to represent any favors. Regular Palestinians have suffered from bad leadership ever since Israelis started pouring into their homeland after WWII.
A quick appraisal of the Hamas massacre might conclude that the Palestinians are the overall villains and the victimized Israelis have carte blanche to defend themselves. Such a view, however, would be rather superficial.
The disputed land was demarcated in 1947 into two states: Israel and Palestine. The lands Palestinians currently occupy are only part of the territory they were supposed to receive according to international law and United States policy.
Today, the Palestinian people are mostly segregated into the areas we call the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israelis tried to colonize Gaza, but the hostility of the local people successfully drove them out – perhaps a lesson learned by the Palestinians. Israelis, however, covet the West Bank vastly more, and have used their overwhelming military power, always with US support, to annex increasing amounts of land.
Last April, I wrote an op-ed on this topic where I drew an analogy: “Imagine having foreign invaders take our country, forcing us to live under the oppression of their occupying military. Each year more of their citizens are relocated into the small area we retain, which according to international law, should be our own country. The colonial invaders regard us with racist disdain, restrict our movements, and are euphemistically called ‘settlers’ by the occupying power. When we futilely fight back, the invaders label us ‘militants’ justifying our murder. Their military then blows up the parental homes of our deceased fighters, and the grieving parents are sometimes forced into exile. This is the life of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territory of the West Bank...”
Palestinian life in Gaza is even worse, for the Gaza Strip is alternately described as the world’s largest prison or slum. Israeli state is brutal to the people there. On Oct. 7 some Palestinians escaped from their cage and ran amuck in a murderous rampage. Who is responsible? I submitted that both Hamas and the Israeli state are responsible for creating that level of hatred.
In their ongoing conflict, Israelis usually kill Palestinians at a ratio of about 20 to 1. The Israeli state insidiously pilfers land on the West Bank, and many gun-toting “settlers” murder Palestinians. The state of Israel has a horrible record of following international law and standards of human rights.
Israel is not a “great ally” of America, as is often spun, but instead a major source of animosity against us. Many Israeli leaders, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the racist zealots with whom he is now partnered, are terrorists in suits.
The Evangelicals and Pentecostals seeing all this as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and precursors to the return of Jesus are not being realistic. President Joe Biden traveling to Israel and hugging Netanyahu was ridiculous. This is what happens when religion and politics merge.
So long as we allow Israel to continue usurping the West Bank from Palestinians, the Palestinians will fight back, and killings will continue. But we can stop the violence by following the law and our own policies. We have the leverage over Israel to force them to accept a Palestinian state. I’ve visited Israel and found it to be a beautiful place. I want it to be even better by granting the Palestinians their homeland too.