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November 12, 2023
Key Takeaways:
- Those calling for a cease-fire have yet to address the unacceptable result it would likely bring about: Hamas left in place, with more than 200 hostages, with the capacity and stated intent to repeat October 7– again and again and again.
- Hamas embeds itself in civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. Arguing that Israel cannot bomb those targets is arguing that terrorists can grant themselves immunity by operating from civilian areas and that victims of terrorism cannot defend themselves with force.
- The images from Gaza are horrible. Innocent Palestinians do not deserve this. The difference between Israel's war with Hamas and the wars we read about in textbooks is that unlike most governments, Hamas does not care about its civilian population except for its utility in advancing an ideology that requires Israel's destruction. Israel is complying with the rules of war; the blame for the civilian casualties that occur despite Israel's efforts to prevent them rests on Hamas.
- A two-state solution remains the ultimate objective. It is the only solution that will allow Jews and Palestinians to live in peace and security. But that solution is viable only after Hamas is defeated.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events.
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Hi Steve,
On November 8, Secretary of State Antony Blinken articulated what proponents of an immediate cease-fire have failed to do: "Those calling for an immediate ceasefire have an obligation to explain how to address the unacceptable result it would likely bring about: Hamas left in place, with more than 200 hostages, with the capacity and stated intent to repeat October 7th – again and again and again." On October 7, more Jews were murdered than on any day since the Holocaust. The 1,200 murders included gang rape and other sexual assaults. Hamas took roughly 240 people hostage, including babies an children.
Amb. Daniel Kurtzer points out that a cease-fire would "give Hamas and others the opportunity to regroup, rearm, move around, and enhance their positions ... Weeks of Israeli reconnaissance trying to locate Hamas fighters and the hostages would go to waste." A cease-fire now is unrealistic and morally indefensible.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog summarized the stakes in the Israel-Hamas war in this op-ed on November 6: "Against our will, we in Israel find ourselves at a tipping point for the Middle East and for the world and at the center of what is nothing less than an existential struggle. This is not a battle between Jews and Muslims. And it is not just between Israel and Hamas. It is between those who adhere to norms of humanity and those practicing a barbarism that has no place in the modern world."
Blinken said last week that “Hamas cynically, monstrously embeds itself in the midst of civilians; puts its fighters, its commanders, its weapons, its ammunition, command and control in residential buildings, under schools and in schools, under hospitals and in hospitals, under mosques and in mosques — monstrous." Arguing that Israel cannot bomb those targets is arguing that terrorists can grant themselves immunity by operating from civilian areas and that victims of terrorism cannot defend themselves with force.
If you doubt the moral imperative of Israel's war with Gaza, read Israeli journalist Amir Tibon's account of the Hamas attack on his kibbutz. It's not long but it's essential reading. If you cannot access Haaretz you can get the key points in his Twitter thread. Tibon is one of Israel's best journalists and a fierce critic of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Tibon writes that "No country in the world would have accepted what happened to my family on that awful morning – and you must multiply that by many hundreds of families. A country that doesn’t kill the people who tried to murder my daughters, and those who sent them, has lost its right to exist. That’s as true for Israel as it is for any other country on the planet.
"This hasn’t changed my belief, based on a cold, calculated reading of reality, that in the long run we must find ways to share this land, provide measures of sovereignty to the Palestinians, protect their human rights. But first we must survive. We can’t do anything constructive with the Palestinian people, who deserve equal measures of freedom and security, if we’re all dead."
President Biden confirmed on Thursday that Israel would formalize humanitarian pauses but that there is "no possibility" of a cease-fire. Max Webb explains the difference between humanitarian pauses and a cease-fire, arguing that unlike a cease-fire, humanitarian pauses could work to Israel's advantage. Time will tell.
What is Israel's long-term objective? Step one is to defeat Hamas. Step two should be establishing a stable government in Gaza without Hamas and without Israeli re-occupation. As Blinken put it, "it must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority. And it must include a sustained mechanism for reconstruction in Gaza, and a pathway to Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in states of their own, with equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity, and dignity.'
A two-state solution remains the only solution that will allow Jews and Palestinians to realize their national aspirations. Israel's current government does not favor a two-state solution, but that does not mean it cannot achieve the first two steps. But if Israel does not elect a new government willing to work toward a two-state solution, Israel cannot survive as a Jewish and democratic state.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said last week that the objective must be a two-state solution "because we have a compelling imperative to disengage from the Palestinians to protect our own security, our own future, our own identity.
"If there is only one political entity reigning over this whole area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, it will inevitably become either non-Jewish or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians can vote, Israel will become overnight a binational state, and within a short time, historically speaking, a binational state with a Muslim majority. That's not the Zionist dream. If they cannot vote, permanently, this is not a democracy. But the present government, and probably a little bit more than the majority of the Israeli people, believes in a one-state solution, which I think is a very bad solution."
The Republican Party dropped support for a two-state solution from its platform in 2016 and nixed language supporting a two-state solution in the Israel 75th birthday resolution the House passed in April. The Democratic Party remains committed to realizing the Zionist dream articulated by Ehud Barak, the most decorated soldier in the history of the Israel Defense Forces.
Blinken said on November 3 that even as the U.S. works on the urgent needs of Israel's war with Hamas, "we’re focused on setting the conditions for a durable and sustainable peace and security. The United States continues to believe that the best viable path – indeed, the only path – is through a two-state solution. That’s the only guarantor of a secure, Jewish, and democratic Israel; the only guarantor of Palestinians realizing their legitimate right to live in a state of their own, enjoying equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity, and dignity; the only way to end a cycle of violence once and for all."
Hamas can be defeated militarily, but Michael Koplow explains that Hamas is "not a run-of-the-mill terrorist group seeking a specific objective. It is a deeply ideological group that is organized around an idea rather than an attainable goal." Ultimately "Israel can only beat Hamas by doing everything it can to ensure that an alternative path appears viable to Palestinians." In other words, progress toward a two-state solution. Israel cannot unilaterally make it happen. But Israel can unilaterally prevent it from happening--that's the path Israel's current government is taking in the West Bank, and that's why Israel needs a government that will heed Ehud Barak's advice.
Join us at the march this Tuesday. Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations are hosting a massive march for Israel, to free the hostages, and against antisemitism in Washington, DC at the National Mall from 1:00 to 3:00 ET on Tuesday, November 14. Gates open at 10:00. Politics with Dana and Steve will be there along with many other organizations, including Jewish Democratic Council of America. You should be there too, for all the reasons Yehuda Kurtzer outlines in his Facebook post.
Corrections. I'm entitled to my own opinions but not to my own facts, so I appreciate it when readers bring errors to my attention. In last week's newsletter I misspelled Carly Pildis's last name.
In Case You Missed It:
Tweets of the Week. Kaya and Socialists for Pritzker.
Video Clips of the Week. Try to take this poster down, Eylon Levy, and Hillary Clinton.
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I periodically update my Medium posts on why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism and on why the Antisemitism Awareness Act and the IHRA definition are the wrong solutions to real problems. You can read my most recent effort to define "pro-Israel" here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
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