As I write, the carnage in Gaza continues unrelentingly. Over 1,000 lives have now been lost during the 20-plus days of military action by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). According to local first responders, at least 80 percent of those fatalities have been civilians, including women and children. Tragically, the hard-liners have been holding tightly to the reins of power on both sides of the border.
Hamas, elected by a comfortable margin in 2006, had since become deeply unpopular among Gazans, with an approval rating of 15%. (Source: an unnamed poll cited in an article that appeared in The Guardian with the byline of Ian Black, a Tel Aviv correspondent, dated 5/2/14, predating Israel's latest attacks ). In the wake of the assault on Gaza, Hamas has regained widespread support, according to local journalists. Should we be surprised? Incidentally, Hamas's popularity was initially cultivated, not by the party's toxic view of Israel, but by dint of an array of social programs that helped relieve the plight of many poverty-stricken Gazans. In light of their electoral triumph and its leaders' bellicose declarations, Israeli officials responded by orchestrating an IDF lockdown of the entire Gaza Strip, creating a land of 1.8 million virtual prisoners. Eight years later, it's still in place. Nevertheless, the vast majority of these folks oppose the use of violence: nearly 80 percent, according to the previously cited poll.
In the meantime, a political impasse between the hard-line Hamas and the equally unyielding coalition of right-wing Israeli parties controlling the Knesset prevails. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies insist that Hamas recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Is this a reasonable expectation, given that land's previous history as the nation of Palestine? I don't know. Perhaps one should ask the Palestinians who were dispossessed to make way for the freshly minted State of Israel. (Disclosure: As a secular Jew myself, I'm well aware of our historical longing for a homeland and the advent of Zionism with the iron-bound determination to fulfill that dream, especially in the wake of the Holocaust. Israel was the realization of that dream, but not without a terrible human cost).
Meanwhile, Israel's leadership continues to green-light expansion of the West Bank settlements despite opposition to this controversial policy among the majority of their own citizens. As I indicated in the subject line, Israel has all the cards: The military and technological might as well as the unqualified support of the planet's only super-power. What more could they ask?
Nobody wants to have to live under a constant state of siege, whether in Israel or in Gaza. However, the vast majority of the Hamas rockets lobbed at Israel have been successfully neutralized by the IDF's Iron Dome defense system --- largely financed by the United States. I'm glad that it exists; it has undoubtedly saved countless lives. But the Gazans have no such protection.
I'd like nothing better than to see the Israelis and the Palestinians survive and thrive, be it in one state or two. But Israel holds all the cards. So what is there for them to lose by making the first move? For a start, why not make a concerted effort to do something that the majority of Israelis support: dismantling the West Bank settlements, once and for all.
