Dear TEE Community,
Those of you who read The New York Times’ columnist, Maureen Dowd, may be familiar with her annual custom of handing over her column to her brother, with whom she profoundly disagrees on almost every topic. I’ve been thinking about this since the war in Israel began, as I corresponded with a dearly beloved Israeli-American cousin, Perry Wittman, with whom I disagree on few things except Israel and Palestine. I value our community’s commitment to civil disagreement and, in that spirit, wanted to offer Perry the opportunity to write a “guest column” for our newsletter. Here is what he had to say.
Rabbi Drorah Setel
Perry Wittman writes:
As an American, I am still horrified by the violent, brutal attack by Hamas against the people of Israel on October 7. And -like others- I was surprised that both the ferocity and sheer viciousness was captured on video by Hamas. Murdering people in their houses, destroying entire families, and capturing hostages may make the Palestinians feel good, but it won’t do much to advance their cause for their freedom from Israeli surveillance and suspicion.
I was nicely surprised that, immediately following this terror-filled pogrom, there was some sympathy from the world. And I salute the Biden Administration for its immediate response to move the two US Navy groups to the Eastern Mediterranean, as a way of reminding the other on-lookers: Syria, Hezbollah, and Iran, to keep quiet. I also salute CNN and other media outlets for their continuing coverage.
When Israel began to strike back, Hamas put up Palestinian civilians as human shields while continuing to fire rockets at Israel. So the casualty numbers began to look lop-sided. Apparently, since the number of dead Israelis was static at about 1,200 people, it’s not fair that the number of Palestinians keeps going up, half of whom -we’re constantly reminded- were women and children. However, while reporting the increasing numbers of Gazans dead, CNN kept up with the more individual stories about Israelis who were slaughtered in the various settlements and how. In the old days, this sort of thing was considered fair reporting with some balance: both sides having their stories told. Now there is just the outrage that ‘so many’ Palestinian people have died.
Prominent persons like Rashida Tlaib did express some sadness that both Israelis and Palestinians have died, but nowhere I have heard that she or the Palestinian establishment condemn Hamas for the murder of innocent people in Israel. Does she really think that every Israeli anywhere is a legitimate target? If so, how can she be so hypocritical as to call out the Israeli response for attacking Hamas by going through their human shields? Does she see Hamas with its murderous tactics as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people? Maybe she sees no justification in Israel defending its people from more war. Maybe she doesn’t know that November 29, 1947, is the day the UN voted (33 in favor, 13 against, 10 abstained) to create both Israel and an Arab state. I heard Golda Meir z’l say that it was not what they wanted, but the Jews accepted it, but the Arabs launched an all-out war to throw the Jews into the sea.
As an Israeli, I am still in shock some 5 weeks later. The surprise was so complete, the devastation so thorough: Hamas went looking for people to murder individually – by name. The enormity of the Hamas attacks was great. It included the utter lack of preparedness from the Netanyahu government and the IDF. Huge lesson in humility learned. First lesson learned: maintain vigilance always; never trust the type of thinking which produced Hamas ever again. If they say they want the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, believe them.
The slaughter was complete in some places, but -fortunately- not in others. Where possible, our people fought back successfully. But the men of Hamas overwhelmed the defenders, while their camera-crew recorded the killings, along with the hostages being carried away. The modern equivalent of einsatzgruppen. And Hamas has said that they will do it again and again, until the state of Israel is destroyed. Believe them.
Next lesson is more of a question: How do we prevent this from recurring? The rest of the world is waiting to see what Israel will do next. The Israeli government has -rightfully- declared ‘war’ on Hamas, and the thing about war is: it’s ‘total’ with the objective being to reduce the other side to rubble, to kill off the opposing army, and to persuade the surviving citizens that the previous way of thinking is not acceptable. Consider the denazification following WWII. The leaders were captured, tried, hanged (or took poison); and their ‘master race’ soldiers suddenly became ‘just soldiers following orders’ as they returned to civilian life. Germany was rebuilt successfully – without the National Socialist movement, and their ideology of hate dissipated for some 60 years.
At the moment, after a few days of truce, where Israeli women and children held hostage have been allowed to return to their homes & families and Palestinian women and teen-agers have been released from prison, it’s clear that the IDF has not been able to destroy Hamas per se, but maybe it did manage to send a strong enough message to the people of Gaza that supporting Hamas means paying a heavy price with loss of life and of habitation.
So, what’s next? Will there be more war? If so, then since Hamas started this round, the IDF should be able to finish it. I would hope that Hamas could be: if not fully destroyed, then at least degraded to the point where it can’t be harmful anymore to anyone: the people of Gaza and of Israel. I’d like to think that, once the active warfare settles down into some form of tranquility, the people of Gaza will be able to stand up for themselves and chose peace with Israel over more war from Hamas.
Gaza has been Judenrein since 2005, thanks to the late Ariel Sharon, so the Gazans have lost direct contact with their Israeli neighbors. I would hope that there are still some Gazans willing to live with a two-state solution: Israel and some form of non-violent Palestine. But, if this includes the West Bank (or: Judea & Samaria), then this will take more effort to achieve.
How about a 3 state solution? Israel, Gaza, and Palestine. It’s been done before in Arab countries: when India & Pakistan became independent in 1947, there were two parts to Pakistan separated by India. Then in 1971 Eastern Pakistan seceded to become its own country Bengladesh. Why not let Gaza do the same? Home-rule, independence at its most local. True Israel will likely have something to say about its newly revived neighbor with respect to regional security, but having a real peace would be worth a lot. See the first lesson above. Never again.
Final thought about ‘almost’ : There should be some discussion about the ‘almost’ peaceful resolution of the summer 2000, when Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak gave Yasir Arafat everything he asked for, but Arafat decided not to become a statesman and create the state of Palestine. His decision was to remain a terrorist and launch the Second Intifada. Opportunity lost.
Where would we be now, 23 years later, if that summer of 2000 had produced an acceptance of Israel, the creation of a tranquil Palestine, and a real end to the war?