Myths, Realities and Tragedies
Thoughts hopefully tightened to precision
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One month in, the Israeli-Hamas war has demolished two myths.
-- That the Palestinian issue had receded as the basis of Middle East turmoil. So much for Abraham Accords equanimity and dealmaking with Arab states. The reminder is that the pursuit of profit does not always prevail.
--That antisemitism in the United States and Europe was no more than a side issue in the shape of modern bigotry. The Holocaust was a very long time ago. “Zionism is racism” and Israel is an apartheid state have congealed in what feels to Jews as widespread enmity at a astounding level. Ask one.
Israeli victims. Palestnian victims. Combatant victims. Victims all.
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At the start, grieving imagery of Israeli families were all over the news and there was video of roaming militants massacring Israelis, taken largely with their cellphones and terrified Israelis in kibbutz safe rooms and running terrified from a rave concert.
Now the imagery is mainly of Israeli military force in and around Gaza and IDF spokesmen. Most video being aired, some verified, some not, is of devastation in Gaza especially of civilians. Hamas is embedded in tunnels and in the civilian population. What Hamas leadership might give up to end the mayhem and the Palestinian deaths is unknown.
Hamas is now invisible.
The result: Early empathy for Israeli deaths has been widely overwhelmed by the framing of Israeli’s activity as war crimes and far beyond the scale of retaliation. This is a war in which rules of engagement do not seem to apply to either belligerent.
So far, Israel seems to be losing by winning.
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Dangerous global realities can be tracked to intractable political figures tenaciously holding to their nefarious objectives:
—Valdimir Putin’s quest to absorb Ukraine by force.
—Donald Trump’s determination to outmaneuver criminal indictments on the way to a second White House term.
—Bibi Netanyahu’s affinity to extreme interpretations of Israeli national ideology.
When so much anguish and distress can be accountable to the obstinacy of these men, obstacles to any resolution. What can be done now to break their grip?
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Do listen: David Shipler on what happened in 1948 when Israel declared independence, Arab states declared war and the consequences to this moment. The New York Times Daily, A former Jerusalem bureau chief for the Times, arriving in 1979 after years in Vietnam and Moscow.
This is a sophisticated history in the best sense for a situation in which the facts are lost in the rhetoric and the passage of time.
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Next week on Platfom: Jeff Bezos, Marty Baron and Their Washington Post.
And then Triumph and Trouble at The New York Times.
Without understanding history, understanding the present is impossible. These reflections help, and so does David Shipler's interview on The Times site, well worth the hour it takes to listen.