Israel’s Iron Dome: The Middle East as a Demonstration of Our Human Rights? Israelis Are Not Helped by the War in Gaza
The crisis in the Middle East is a knotty test of our humanity, asking how to respond to a grotesque provocation for which there is no good remedy. The west is not doing well in this test.
I’ve flown into beautiful, sun-washed Tel Aviv, where the graffiti reads “Destroy Hamas.” The Hamas terrorism and kidnappings felt like an attack that made Israelis want to dismantle Hamas even if it costs them. The anxiety in Tel Aviv is palpable, peaceful though it seems, while Gaza is an inner ring of hell and probably on a path to something much worse.
Israel has suffered a horrifying terrorist attack and deserves the world’s sympathy and support, but it should not get a blank check to slaughter civilians or deprive them of food, water and medicine. The challenge will be not just getting aid into Gaza, but also distributing it to where it’s needed, because of Biden’s efforts.
The Biden administration has called for an additional $14 billion in assistance for Israel and a simultaneous call for humanitarian aid for Gazans. Is the idea of defensive weapons for Israel’s Iron Dome system made sense, if we want to help pay for humanitarians to mop up blood caused in part by our weapons?
What do we to tell Dr. Iyad Abu Karsh, a Gaza physician who lost his wife and son in a bombing and then had to treat his daughter’s injuries? He didn’t even have time to care for his niece or sister, for he had to deal with the bodies of his loved ones.
Biden called for America’s support in his speech, saying that two nations were attacked by forces trying to destroy them. Fair enough. If the Ukrainians retaliated to Russian war crimes, they would attack a Russian city, kill thousands and give doctors the right to operate on patients without anesthesia.
I doubt we Americans would shrug and say: Well, Putin started it. Too bad about those Russian children, but they should have chosen somewhere else to be born.
Israel is better than Syria: Attacking Hamas, Killing Gazans and Bringing Back Humans to the Front Line? A Critique of the Israeli Security Service
Here in Israel, because the Hamas attacks were so brutal and fit into a history of pogroms and Holocaust, they led to a resolve to wipe out Hamas even if this means a large human toll. The former head of the Israel National Security Council thinks that Gaza will be a wasteland with no humans to exist. There is no other option for guaranteeing the security of Israel.
A lengthy ground invasion is probably the most dangerous course, as it will kill a lot of Israeli soldiers, hostages and Gazan civilians. Israel is better than that. The Syrian government did leveling of cities in Aleppo and Russia did the same in Grozny as Israel did in Gaza.
The best solution to this test is to cling to our values even in the face of provocation. That means that despite our biases, we try to uphold all lives as having equal value. If your ethics see some children as invaluable and others as disposable, that’s not moral clarity but moral myopia. We must not kill Gazan children in order to protect Israeli children.
The rescue of hostages is considered too risky and risky at the moment, leaving officials from countries that are part of the constellation trying to continue their negotiations.
Some Hamas political leaders are trying to distance themselves from the worst atrocities carried out by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7 and now contend that it was angry Gazans and members of other armed groups — not their own fighters — who kidnapped the civilians. Yet videos released by Hamas fighters themselves depict the brutal killing of unarmed civilians.
Instead, the Israeli army is amassing tanks and armored personnel carriers on Gaza’s border, primed for a full-scale invasion. And even though Israel allowed a trickle of humanitarian aid — 20 trucks for two million people — into Gaza on Saturday, Israeli warplanes show no sign of relenting in a campaign that is intended to destroy Hamas but has also killed thousands of civilians.
Yaakov Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, said Israel may have agreed to let humanitarian aid enter Gaza on Saturday morning in light of the hostages’ release Friday night. He said Hamas’s motive might have been to inspire Israelis who have loved ones in captivity in Gaza to pressure their government to delay the impending ground invasion until more hostages are released.
The U.S. War on Gaza: What Has Israel Learned about the Raanans? An Associated Analysis of the Security Situation in Gaza
There are still questions as to why the Raanans were let go of all the hostages. Robert D’Amico, a former F.B.I. agent who worked on hostage cases overseas, said it may have been the fact that the two were healthy.
There are up to 10 more Americans in captivity, and it is obvious that the Raanans are Americans. It’s possible that Hamas was trying to gain the good will of the Biden administration to temper Israeli retaliation on Gaza. President Biden and his team have been closely advising Israel on how it is waging its war on Gaza, although it is not clear how much Israel actually listens to what the Americans say.
The Biden administration has advised Israel to delay a ground invasion of Gaza, hoping to buy time for hostage negotiations and to allow more humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians in the sealed-off enclave, according to several U.S. officials.
American officials also want more time to prepare for attacks on U.S. interests in the region from Iran-backed groups, which officials said are likely to intensify once Israel moves its forces fully into Gaza.
The administration supports the ground invasion of Israel in order to destroy Hamas, which has killed more than 1,400 people in terrorist attacks in the Gaza Strip, according to officials.
But fast-moving events since Hamas released two American women on Friday have spurred the administration to more urgently suggest that the Israelis allow time to negotiate the release of 212 other hostages, the officials said.
The White House said President Biden talked to Netanyahu about the developments on Sunday. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Britain all received calls from Mr. Biden.
U.S. Commandment to the Gaza Strip: Advising Israel on the Status of the Middle East and the War with the United States
The Pentagon is helping advise Israel on military actions, including a ground invasion, and so US officials are telling them to hold off on the land war.
Mr. Austin has had a number of calls with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, to discuss various matters, including American arms shipments to Israel. One American official said that he talked about recovering hostages as a priority.
A Hamas official had warned that a ground invasion would make hostage releases less likely, an official with knowledge of the hostage negotiations said. Qatar has close ties to the political leaders of Hamas.
He said that it was important to make sure that civilians are protected in this crossfire of Hamas.
The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza is getting worse, and more food and medical supplies need to be given into the area. Israel imposed a complete cutoff of water, electricity and food on the impoverished coastal strip of two million people soon after the Oct. 7 attacks. The Israeli military has maintained a naval blockade of Gaza since 2007.
American officials say they hope the ground invasion will be delayed, but they are wary of playing into the narrative that Iran and its allies have long spread about the United States secretly controlling Israel.
There have been a number of attacks on U.S. forces in the region. The U.S. officials said that if they thought Biden administration officials were pulling the strings in Israel, they would go to war with Iran.
Mr. Blinken said on NBC that they expect an increase inIranian proxies directed against our forces. “We are taking steps to make sure that we can effectively defend our people.”
The State Department announced Sunday that it had ordered the departure of nonessential American government employees and family members from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq, and increased the travel alert in Iraq to Level 4, meaning U.S. citizens should not go there. There are threats to the U.S. from terrorism and civil unrest and Mission Iraq has limited capacity to provide support, according to the department.
U.S. officials fear that Iraqi militias supported by Iran will attack the 2,500 or so U.S. troops in the country and other American institutions or citizens.