{"id":26876,"date":"2014-07-18T07:14:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T11:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=26876"},"modified":"2023-10-10T14:55:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T18:55:47","slug":"the-israeli-palestinian-situation-is-difficult-to-solve-but-not-complex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/07\/18\/the-israeli-palestinian-situation-is-difficult-to-solve-but-not-complex\/","title":{"rendered":"The Israeli-Palestinian situation is difficult to solve, but not complex"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2014\/07\/18\/sorry-vox-theres-no-equating-israel-and-hamas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">David Harsanyi<\/a> responds to a silly post at <em>Vox<\/em> by Max Fisher:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<p><em>This is the one thing that both Hamas and Israel seem to share: a willingness to adopt military tactics that will put Palestinian civilians at direct risk and that contribute, however unintentionally, to the deaths of Palestinian civilians. Partisans in the Israel-Palestine conflict want to make that an argument over which \u201cside\u201d has greater moral culpability in the continued killings of Palestinian civilians. And there is validity to asking whether Hamas should so ensconce itself among civilians in a way that will invite attacks, just as there is validity to asking why Israel seems to show so little restraint in dropping bombs over Gaza neighborhoods. But even that argument over moral superiority ultimately treats those dying Palestinian families as pawns in the conflict, tokens to be counted for or against, their humanity and suffering so easily disregarded.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A \u201cpartisan\u201d writing about a conflict as if he we an honest broker is distracting, but read it again. You might note that one of the institutions he\u2019s talking about is the <em>governing authority of the Palestinian people in Gaza<\/em>, which, applying even the most basic standards of decency, should task itself with safeguarding the lives of civilians. Instead, it makes martyrs out of children and relies on the compassion of Israelis to protect its weapons. This is a tragedy, of course, but Israel <em>does<\/em> have to bomb caches of rockets hidden by \u201cmilitants\u201d in Mosques, schools, and hospitals. Since Hamas\u2019 terrorist complex is deeply embedded in Gaza\u2019s civilian infrastructure there is really no other way. And that only tells us that one of the two organizations mentioned by Fisher has purposely decided to use Palestinian as pawns and put civilians in harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n<p>It is also preposterous to claim that Israel is showing \u201clittle restraint in dropping bombs over Gaza neighborhoods.\u201d Actually, Israel is far more concerned with the wellbeing of Palestinians civilians than Hamas. This week, 13 Hamas fighters used a tunnel into Israel and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jpost.com\/Operation-Protective-Edge\/Hamas-planned-wholesale-slaughter-of-Kibbutz-Sufa-members-says-Peres-363222\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">attempted to murder 150 civilians in Kibbutz Sufa, with Kalashnikovs and anti-tank weapons<\/a>. On the same day, Israel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/thetwo-way\/2014\/07\/13\/331122214\/palestinians-flee-gaza-after-israel-drops-warning-leaflets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issued early warnings<\/a> before attacking Hamas targets \u2013 as it often has throughout this conflict in an effort to avoid needless civilian deaths Hamas is hoping for. It was Israel that agreed to a five-hour cease-fire so that <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/articles\/palestinian-death-toll-rises-as-israel-threatens-broader-hamas-offensive-1405498640\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">UN aid could flow into Gaza<\/a> last week. It is Israel that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cija.ca\/?searchsubmit=Search&#038;s=gaza+aid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sends<\/a> hundreds of thousands of tons of food to Gaza every year, millions of articles of clothing and medical aid. That\u2019s more than restraint.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>I often hear people claim that the Israel-Palestinian situation is complex. It isn\u2019t. It\u2019s difficult to solve, indeed, but it\u2019s not complex. One side refuses to engage in any serious efforts to make peace with modernity and with Jews. So, for those like <a href=\"http:\/\/dish.andrewsullivan.com\/2014\/07\/14\/understanding-the-permanence-of-greater-israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andrew Sullivan<\/a> and some of the folks at <em>The American Conservative<\/em>, who argue that Israel is the one drifting from Western ideals, I think Douglas Murray <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.spectator.co.uk\/coffeehouse\/2014\/07\/the-west-has-drifted-away-from-israel-and-itself\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has the best retort<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>A gap may well be emerging. But not because Israel has drifted away from the West. Rather because today in much of the West, as we bask in the afterglow of our achievements \u2014 eager to enjoy our rights, but unwilling to defend them \u2014 it is the West that is, slowly but surely, drifting away from itself.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Update<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/383024\/truth-about-gaza-charles-krauthammer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Charles Krauthammer<\/a> says this is a rare moment of moral clarity.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Israel accepts an Egyptian-proposed Gaza ceasefire; Hamas keeps firing. Hamas deliberately aims rockets at civilians; Israel painstakingly tries to avoid them, actually telephoning civilians in the area and dropping warning charges, so-called roof knocking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere\u2019s the difference between us,\u201d explains the Israeli prime minister. \u201cWe\u2019re using missile defense to protect our civilians and they\u2019re using their civilians to protect their missiles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rarely does international politics present a moment of such moral clarity. Yet we routinely hear this Israel\u2013Gaza fighting described as a morally equivalent \u201ccycle of violence.\u201d This is absurd. What possible interest can Israel have in cross-border fighting? Everyone knows Hamas set off this mini-war. And everyone knows Hamas\u2019s proudly self-declared <em>raison d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em>: the eradication of Israel and its Jews.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Why? The rockets can\u2019t even inflict serious damage, being almost uniformly intercepted by Israel\u2019s Iron Dome anti-missile system. Even West Bank leader Mahmoud Abbas has asked: \u201cWhat are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It makes no sense. Unless you understand, as a <em>Washington Post<\/em> editorial <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/hamas-is-playing-a-dangerous-game-with-gazan-lives\/2014\/07\/15\/cc5f101e-0c3b-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">explained<\/a>, that the whole point is to draw Israeli counterfire.<\/p>\n<p>This produces dead Palestinians for international television. Which is why Hamas perversely urges its own people not to seek safety when Israel drops leaflets warning of an imminent attack.<\/p>\n<p>To deliberately wage war so that your own people can be telegenically killed is indeed moral and tactical insanity. But it rests on a very rational premise: Given the Orwellian state of the world\u2019s treatment of Israel (see: the U.N.\u2019s grotesque Human Rights Council), fueled by a mix of classic anti-Semitism, near-total historical ignorance, and reflexive sympathy for the ostensible Third World underdog, these eruptions featuring Palestinian casualties ultimately undermine support for Israel\u2019s legitimacy and right to self-defense.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David Harsanyi responds to a silly post at Vox by Max Fisher: This is the one thing that both Hamas and Israel seem to share: a willingness to adopt military tactics that will put Palestinian civilians at direct risk and that contribute, however unintentionally, to the deaths of Palestinian civilians. Partisans in the Israel-Palestine conflict [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,370,5],"tags":[432,1528,291,709,292,257,691],"class_list":["post-26876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-middle-east","category-military","tag-diplomacy","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-missiledefence","tag-palestine","tag-terrorism","tag-unitednations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-6Zu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26876"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85135,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26876\/revisions\/85135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}