Too Many Have Died - A Cease Fire Must Happen

Right after the attack on Israel by Hamas, the sympathies of Americans were solidly with Israel. In both November of 2023 and January of 2024, a 40% plurality of Americans said their sympathies lay with Israel.

But that was before the seemingly never ending attack by Israel on Gaza (and the blocking of food and medical supplies). Now tens of thousands of Gaza civilians have been killed (including 14,000 children, and famine is raging in Gaza.

That has caused American support for Israel to decline. In April of this year, sympathy for Israel has dropped by 9 points (to 31%), while sympathy for the Palestinians has climbed. 

Netanyahu says he will continue the months-long war until Hamas is destroyed. That won't happen. Hamas can just hide and wait out the war (no matter how long it is). And that attack of Gaza civilians is just creating more Hamas recruits.

There must be a cease fire! And President Biden needs to cut off military aid to Israel to make that happen.

I would like to think a cease fire would lead to peace. But that won't happen until both Hamas and the Netanyahu governments are replaced by entities will to negotiate a two-state solution.

But a cease fire is better than more months (or years) of this war. And it is the first step in the hope for a peaceful future in the region.

NOTE - The figures above are from Economist / YouGov Polls done in November, January, and April. At least 1,500 adults were questioned in each, and the margin of error was about 3 points. 

Netanyahu/Hamas Want The Same Thing - ALL Of Palestine

 

Note the top image. In November, most Americans approved of the Israeli military action in Gaza. In March, that has reversed. Now only 36% approve while 55% disapproves. Why? I believe it is because people are starting to understand that Netanyahu is conducting an illegal and horrifying genocide of Palestinians.

This should not really surprise any of us. Most Americans understand that only a two-state solution can solve the Mideast situation - with Israel being free of terrorism and a Palestinian state being free of Israel oppression. Most Americans also believe that its Hamas that has been the main obstacle to any peace talks. But most also don't realize that Netanyahu has been just as big an obstacle.

We hear the phrase "from the river to the sea", and we rightly identify it a Hamas' belief that they should control all of Palestine (including the part that is now the state of Israel). That is true. But it is just as true that the statement could also apply to Netanyahu. He also wants to control all of Palestine (making the West Bank and Gaza a part of Israel). Neither Hamas nor Netanyahu want a two-state solution.

Netanyahu has refused to negotiate with Palestinians for a two-state solution. He has refused because doing so would mean he would have to stop building Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, and would likely have to give back some of the settlements already built. That's not acceptable to him because his policy is to expand the borders of Israeli - not find any other solution.

A year before the October attack on Israel by Hamas, Netanyahu was told by Israeli intelligence that Hamas was planning the attack. He didn't increase Israeli defenses. Why? I don't think he realized the attack would be as effective as it was, but I do believe he wanted the attack to happen. He wanted the attack to happen so he would be justified in attacking Gaza in revenge.

Now he is not only slowly encroaching on the West Bank with more and more settlements, but he is waging a genocidal war on Gaza - bombing innocent citizens and denying them food, shelter and medical aid. It has become obvious that he wants to force the Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank so he can complete his expansion of Israel.

Hamas is wrong in its desire to control all of Palestine, but so is Netanyahu. And as long as both remain in power, there will be no peace.

Seven Moral Principles On The Israel-Hamas War

The following is a post by Robert Reich: 

Last weekend, I met with a group of students to talk about what’s happening in Israel and Gaza. Some were Jewish, some were Palestinian, one was Israeli, some were from other nations in the Middle East.

 

The purpose of the meeting was to see what they could agree on, morally. 

As you can imagine, emotions ran high. 

I suggested that, at least for the purpose of our conversation, they not think of themselves as either “Pro-Palestinian” or “Pro-Israel” but instead look deeper into what basic moral principles were at stake. 

After several hours, they agreed to seven moral principles.

 

I list them here — along with the process we went through — in hopes that they might be helpful to you in thinking about and discussing this ongoing tragedy.

1. What Hamas did on October 7 was morally despicable. (Some of the students wanted to explain why Hamas did it — about the accumulated grievances and gruesome history suffered by many Palestinians, especially those in Gaza — but they finally came around to distinguishing between an explanation and a justification. In the end, even those who understood why Hamas did what it did on October 7 agreed that the killings and kidnappings of innocent civilians were not morally justifiable.) 

2. Hamas’s avowed aim to murder all Jews is morally despicable. (Again, we spent time distinguishing between an explanation and a justification.)

3. What the Israeli government has done since then in Gaza is also morally despicable. Some students initially wanted to defend Israel by saying that after October 7, Israelis could not feel safe as long as Hamas existed, and therefore Hamas had to be rooted out. This precipitated a discussion about how Hamas could be rooted out without the killing of innocent civilians, including large numbers of children. Which got us to our next principle. 

4. The murder or kidnapping of innocent civilians is morally wrong. This was not a difficult principle for them to agree on, although several argued that warfare always involved the killing of innocent civilians, while others charged that Hamas was intentionally using innocent civilians as shields. 

5. Israel’s policies toward Palestinians have been segregation and discrimination, based on ethnicity and religion, which are morally wrong. This was a hard principle for many of the students to accept, because they had different understandings of history. So the discussion was difficult. But all of them finally came around. (Most, although not all, decided that a so-called “two-state solution” was necessary, but we didn’t get into the specifics or how it could be achieved, because I wanted to keep them on the track of seeking moral clarity and agreement.)

6. It is morally wrong to urge genocide against any group — whether they constitute a religion, ethnicity, race, or nation. No disagreement on this. Some participants were initially unsure of whether universities should permit such advocacy on campus (the presidents of Penn, M.I.T., and Harvard temporized when asked this at a congressional hearing last week), but all finally agreed that it should not be permitted.

7. All of us have a moral obligation to do everything within our power to prevent and stop all forms of genocide, all killing of innocent civilians, and the promotion of hate. All agreed on this.

Biden Says We Must Not Let Putin And Hamas Win

The following op-ed was written by President Biden in The Washington Post: 

Today, the world faces an inflection point, where the choices we make — including in the crises in Europe and the Middle East — will determine the direction of our future for generations to come.

What will our world look like on the other side of these conflicts?

Will we deny Hamas the ability to carry out pure, unadulterated evil? Will Israelis and Palestinians one day live side by side in peace, with two states for two peoples?

Will we hold Vladimir Putin accountable for his aggression, so the people of Ukraine can live free and Europe remains an anchor for global peace and security?

And the overarching question: Will we relentlessly pursue our positive vision for the future, or will we allow those who do not share our values to drag the world to a more dangerous and divided place?

Both Putin and Hamas are fighting to wipe a neighboring democracy off the map. And both Putin and Hamas hope to collapse broader regional stability and integration and take advantage of the ensuing disorder. America cannot, and will not, let that happen. For our own national security interests — and for the good of the entire world.

The United States is the essential nation. We rally allies and partners to stand up to aggressors and make progress toward a brighter, more peaceful future. The world looks to us to solve the problems of our time. That is the duty of leadership, and America will lead. For if we walk away from the challenges of today, the risk of conflict could spread, and the costs to address them will only rise. We will not let that happen.

That conviction is at the root of my approach to supporting the people of Ukraine as they continue to defend their freedom against Putin’s brutal war.

We know from two world wars in the past century that when aggression in Europe goes unanswered, the crisis does not burn itself out. It draws America in directly. That’s why our commitment to Ukraine today is an investment in our own security. It prevents a broader conflict tomorrow.

We are keeping American troops out of this war by supporting the brave Ukrainians defending their freedom and homeland. We are providing them with weapons and economic assistance to stop Putin’s drive for conquest, before the conflict spreads farther.

The United States is not doing this alone. More than 50 nations have joined us to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself. Our partners are shouldering much of the economic responsibility for supporting Ukraine. We have also built a stronger and more united NATO, which enhances our security through the strength of our allies, while making clear that we will defend every inch of NATO territory to deter further Russian aggression.

Our allies in Asia are standing with usas well to support Ukraine and hold Putin accountable, because they understand that stability in Europe and in the Indo-Pacific are inherently connected.

We have also seen throughout history how conflicts in the Middle East can unleash consequences around the globe.

We stand firmly with the Israeli people as they defend themselves against the murderous nihilism of Hamas. On Oct. 7, Hamas slaughtered 1,200 people, including 35 American citizens, in the worst atrocity committed against the Jewish people in a single day since the Holocaust. Infants and toddlers, mothers and fathers, grandparents, people with disabilities, even Holocaust survivors were maimed and murdered. Entire families were massacred in their homes. Young people were gunned down at a music festival. Bodies riddled with bullets and burned beyond recognition. And for over a month, the families of more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas, including babies and Americans, have been living in hell, anxiously waiting to discover whether their loved ones are alive or dead. At the time of this writing, my team and I are working hour by hour, doing everything we can to get the hostages released.

And while Israelis are still in shock and suffering the trauma of this attack, Hamas has promised that it will relentlessly try to repeat Oct. 7. It has said very clearly that it will not stop.

The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own and a future free from Hamas. I, too, am heartbroken by the images out of Gaza and the deaths of many thousands of civilians, including children. Palestinian children are crying for lost parents. Parents are writing their child’s name on their hand or leg so they can be identified if the worst happens. Palestinian nurses and doctors are trying desperately to save every precious life they possibly can, with little to no resources. Every innocent Palestinian life lost is a tragedy that rips apart families and communities.

Our goal should not be simply to stop the war for today — it should be to end the war forever, break the cycle of unceasing violence, and build something stronger in Gaza and across the Middle East so that history does not keep repeating itself.

Just weeks before Oct. 7, I met in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The main subject of that conversation was a set of substantial commitments that would help both Israel and the Palestinian territories better integrate into the broader Middle East. That is also the idea behind the innovative economic corridor that will connect India to Europe through the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel, which I announced together with partners at the Group of 20 summit in India in early September. Stronger integration between countries creates predictable markets and draws greater investment. Better regional connection — including physical and economic infrastructure — supports higher employment and more opportunities for young people.

 That’s what we have been working to realize in the Middle East. It is a future that has no place for Hamas’s violence and hate, and I believe that attempting to destroy the hope for that future is one reason that Hamas instigated this crisis.This much is clear: A two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term security of both the Israeli and Palestinian people. Though right now it may seem like that future has never been further away, this crisis has made it more imperative than ever.

A two-state solution — two peoples living side by side with equal measures of freedom, opportunity and dignity — is where the road to peace must lead. Reaching it will take commitments from Israelis and Palestinians, as well as from the United States and our allies and partners. That work must start now.

To that end, the United States has proposed basic principles for how to move forward from this crisis, to give the world a foundation on which to build.

To start, Gaza must never again be used as a platform for terrorism. There must be no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, and no reduction in territory. And after this war is over, the voices of Palestinian people and their aspirations must be at the center of post-crisis governance in Gaza.

As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution. I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable. The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank.

The international community must commit resources to support the people of Gaza in the immediate aftermath of this crisis, including interim security measures, and establish a reconstruction mechanism to sustainably meet Gaza’s long-term needs. And it is imperative that no terrorist threats ever again emanate from Gaza or the West Bank.

If we can agree on these first steps, and take them together, we can begin to imagine a different future. In the months ahead, the United States will redouble our efforts to establish a more peaceful, integrated and prosperous Middle East — a region where a day like Oct. 7 is unthinkable.

In the meantime, we will continue working to prevent this conflict from spreading and escalating further. I ordered two U.S. carrier groups to the region to enhance deterrence. We are going after Hamas and those who finance and facilitate its terrorism, levying multiple rounds of sanctions to degrade Hamas’s financial structure, cutting it off from outside funding and blocking access to new funding channels, including via social media. I have also been clear that the United States will do what is necessary to defend U.S. troops and personnel stationed across the Middle East — and we have responded multiple times to the strikes against us.

I also immediately traveled to Israel — the first American president to do so during wartime — to show solidarity with the Israeli people and reaffirm to the world that the United States has Israel’s back. Israel must defend itself. That is its right. And while in Tel Aviv, I also counseled Israelis against letting their hurt and rage mislead them into making mistakes we ourselves have made in the past.

From the very beginning, my administration has called for respecting international humanitarian law, minimizing the loss of innocent lives and prioritizing the protection of civilians. Following Hamas’s attack on Israel, aid to Gaza was cut off, and food, water and medicine reserves dwindled rapidly. As part of my travel to Israel, I worked closely with the leaders of Israel and Egypt to reach an agreement to restart the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance to Gazans. Within days, trucks with supplies again began to cross the border. Today, nearly 100 aid trucks enter Gaza from Egypt each day, and we continue working to increase the flow of assistance manyfold. I’ve also advocated for humanitarian pauses in the conflict to permit civilians to depart areas of active fighting and to help ensure that aid reaches those in need. Israel took the additional step to create two humanitarian corridors and implement daily four-hour pauses in the fighting in northern Gaza to allow Palestinian civilians to flee to safer areas in the south.

This stands in stark opposition to Hamas’s terrorist strategy: hide among Palestinian civilians. Use children and innocents as human shields. Position terrorist tunnels beneath hospitals, schools, mosques and residential buildings. Maximize the death and suffering of innocent people — Israeli and Palestinian. If Hamas cared at all for Palestinian lives, it would release all the hostages, give up arms, and surrender the leaders and those responsible for Oct. 7.

As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a cease-fire is not peace. To Hamas’s members, every cease-fire is time they exploit to rebuild their stockpile of rockets, reposition fighters and restart the killing by attacking innocents again. An outcome that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza would once more perpetuate its hate and deny Palestinian civilians the chance to build something better for themselves.

And here at home, in moments when fear and suspicion, anger and rage run hard, we have to work even harder to hold on to the values that make us who we are. We’re a nation of religious freedom and freedom of expression. We all have a right to debate and disagree and peacefully protest, but without fear of being targeted at schools or workplaces or elsewhere in our communities.

In recent years, too much hate has been given too much oxygen, fueling racism and an alarming rise in antisemitism in America. That has intensified in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Jewish families worry about being targeted in school, while wearing symbols of their faith on the street or otherwise going about their daily lives. At the same time, too many Muslim Americans, Arab Americans and Palestinian Americans, and so many other communities, are outraged and hurting, fearing the resurgence of the Islamophobia and distrust we saw after 9/11.

We can’t stand by when hate rears its head. We must, without equivocation, denounce antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of hate and bias. We must renounce violence and vitriol and see each other not as enemies but as fellow Americans.

In a moment of so much violence and suffering — in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and so many other places — it can be difficult to imagine that something different is possible. But we must never forget the lesson learned time and again throughout our history: Out of great tragedy and upheaval, enormous progress can come. More hope. More freedom. Less rage. Less grievance. Less war. We must not lose our resolve to pursue those goals, because now is when clear vision, big ideas and political courage are needed most. That is the strategy that my administration will continue to lead — in the Middle East, Europe and around the globe. Every step we take toward that future is progress that makes the world safer and the United States of America more secure.

U.S. Public Opinion On Ukraine and Israel/Hamas Wars

 

The charts above are from a YouGov Poll -- done between November 5th and 7th. The margin of error is about 3 points.

Statements About The Israel/Hamas War That Are WRONG!

The following post is by Robert Reich: 

The warfare in Gaza is calamitous and heartbreaking.

 

But many of the things I hear or read about it from otherwise intelligent people strike me as blind to its realities. For example:

“Gazans are unfortunate collateral damage.”

I heard this today from an Israeli official. This view is morally bankrupt. Innocent children, parents, grandparents, brothers, and sisters are not “collateral damage.” Their lives are no less valuable than any other lives. Their deaths and suffering add to the deaths and suffering of everyone. 

“Jews should be ashamed.”

I heard this yesterday from a so-called “expert” on the Middle East. It’s an absurd and antisemitic remark. Even if you condemn the decisions of the Israeli government that have led to this cataclysm (as I do), assigning complicity to all Jews is morally repugnant.

“No one should hire any student who blames Israel.”

I heard this from a titan of Wall Street. It’s outrageous. Students should be free to express their views, even if you believe them misguided. Harming their careers because of the views they express when at college is a form of blacklisting akin to the worst of Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch hunts. Wealthy donors from Wall Street and C-suites who seek to silence young people are morally wrong.

“I won’t vote for Biden because of his support for Israel.” 

A young progressive activist told me this yesterday. I told her she has a right to vote for whomever she wishes, of course, but that a vote withheld from Biden will in effect be a vote for Trump. And no matter how much she disagrees with Biden’s support for Israel in the present conflict, Trump’s foreign policies will be far worse — giving authoritarian tyrants whatever they want.

“Israel has no choice.” 

I heard this from a graduate student who specializes in the Middle East and says a ground invasion of Gaza is the only way to destroy Hamas. I think he’s wrong. Israel is wealthy and powerful. It has other ways to contain Hamas. The ground invasion will not destroy Hamas — it may even enlarge it, as more Gazans and other Palestinians are radicalized by it.

 

Israel can invest more and better in intelligence about Hamas (its intelligence failures in the current crisis are mind-blowing). It can infiltrate Hamas and destroy its leadership. It can work with other Arab states to isolate Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran’s other terrorist clients.

 

I fear that the choice Israel is now pursuing — a ground war in Gaza — is exactly what Hamas hoped for when it launched its October 7 assault, because it is undermining whatever sympathy Israel had, deflecting world attention from the murderous regime in Tehran, and forcing Israel to stretch its forces to permanently occupy Gaza and the West Bank.

“America can’t afford to support Israel and Ukraine simultaneously.”

I heard this yesterday from a senior House Republican who wants to send additional billions to Israel but not to Ukraine. It’s a foolish and misleading position. Of course we can afford to send additional aid to Ukraine even if we’re also sending aid to Israel. Trump Republicans must not reward Putin’s aggression.

The tragedy unfolding in Gaza requires clear thinking and a moral compass. I’m not observing a lot of either.

Could Hamas Be Winning The War?

The following is part of an op-ed in The Washington Post by Yuval Noah Harari (professor of history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem):

War is the continuation of politics by other means. Many people recite this mantra, but too few pay it enough attention — especially in the midst of war. With the massacre Hamas perpetrated in Israel and the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, the deep logic of war is hidden by the immense human misery it produces. As the bodies keep piling up, who will win this war? Not the side that kills more people, not the side that destroys more houses and not even the side that gains more international support — but the side that achieves its political aims.

Hamas launched this war with a specific political aim: to prevent peace. After signing peace treaties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Israel was on the verge of signing a historic peace treaty with Saudi Arabia. That agreement would have been Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s biggest achievement in his entire career. It would have normalized relations between Israel and much of the Arab world. At the insistence of the Saudis and Americans, the treaty’s conditions were expected to include significant concessions to the Palestinians, aimed to immediately alleviate the suffering of millions of them in the occupied territories, and restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The prospect of peace and normalization was a deadly threat to Hamas. From its founding in 1987, this fundamentalist Islamist organization never recognized Israel’s right to exist and committed itself to uncompromising armed struggle. In the 1990s, Hamas did everything in its power to disrupt the Oslo peace process and all subsequent peace efforts.

For more than a decade, Israeli governments led by Netanyahu abandoned all serious attempts to make peace with more moderate Palestinian forces, adopted an increasingly hawkish policy regarding the occupation of disputed territory and even embraced the right-wing messianic ideas of Jewish supremacy.

During that period, Hamas showed surprising restraint in its dealings with Israel, and the two sides seemed to adopt an uneasy but functional policy of violent coexistence. But on Oct. 7, just when Netanyahu’s government was on the cusp of a major breakthrough for regional peace, Hamas struck with all its force.

Hamas slaughtered hundreds of Israeli civilians, in the most gruesome ways it could devise. The immediate aim was to derail the Israeli-Saudi peace deal. The long-term aim was to sow seeds of hatred in the minds of millions in Israel and across the Muslim world, thereby preventing peace with Israel for generations to come.

Hamas knew its attack would make Israelis livid, distraught with pain and anger, and the terrorists counted on Israel to retaliate with massive force, inflicting enormous pain on Palestinians. The codename Hamas gave its operation is telling: al-Aqsa Tufan. The word “tufan” means flood. Like the biblical flood intended to cleanse the world of sin even at the cost of nearly wiping out humanity, Hamas’s attack aimed to create devastation on a biblical scale.

Doesn’t Hamas care about the suffering this war inflicts on Palestinian civilians? While individual Hamas activists surely have different feelings and attitudes, the organization’s worldview discounts the misery of individuals. Hamas’s political aims are dictated by religious fantasies.

Unlike those of secular movements such as the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas’s ultimate goals are not of this world. For Hamas, Palestinians killed by Israel are martyrs who enjoy everlasting bliss in heaven. The more killed, the more martyrs.

As for this world, according to the views of Hamas and other fundamentalist Muslim groups, the only viable aim for a human society on Earth is unconditional adherence to heavenly standards of purity and justice. Because peace always involves compromises on what people consider justice, peace must be rejected, and absolute justice must be pursued at any cost. . . .

If Hamas’s war aims are indeed to derail the Israeli-Saudi peace treaty and to destroy all chance for normalization and peace, it is winning this war by a knockout. And Israel is helping Hamas, largely because Netanyahu’s government seems to be conducting this war without clear political goals of its own.

Israel says it wants to disarm Hamas, and it has every right to do so in protecting its citizens. Disarming Hamas is vital also for any chance of future peace, because as long as Hamas remains armed, it will continue to derail any such efforts. But even if Israel succeeds in disarming Hamas, that’s just a military achievement, not a political plan. In the short term, does Israel have any plan to rescue the Israeli-Saudi peace deal? In the long term, does Israel have any plan to reach a comprehensive peace with the Palestinians and normalize its relations with the Arab world? . . .

As a historian, I know history’s curse is that it inspires a yearning to fix the past. That is hopeless. The past cannot be saved. Focus on the future. Let old injuries heal rather than serve as a cause for fresh injuries. . . .

I do know that war is the continuation of politics by other means, that Hamas’s political aim is to destroy any chance for peace and normalization, and that Israel’s aim should be to preserve the chance for peace. We must win this war, instead of helping Hamas achieve its aim.