doubttrigger

What is being observed recently is a direct result of the never-ending Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people and the Israeli normalisation with other Arab states, including the Israeli-Saudi Arabian reconciliation attempt, who are no longer vouching for the Palestinian cause. For the majority of them, it can be assumed they never actually did. The biased involvement of the United States and the European Union’s indirect support for the occupation further complicate matters.

The Gaza Strip faced repetitive destructive assaults in the last decades; it endured seventeen years of sustained open-prison/concentration camp conditions and lost a huge number of civilians (who are descendants of the actual Palestinian refugees from 1948), all of which remain a question of statistics within the global media coverage. The ‘retaliatory’ capacity of Islamist groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad (labeled as terrorists by many), is repetitively resurfacing. They might be considered proxies in a larger geopolitical game, such as the regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

According to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, following the meeting of the European Council on October 26, 2023, “Hamas has provoked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” If that were the case, then the civilian Palestinians would have been spared in every way possible. Unfortunately, their lives do not count equally like others.

In addition to the ruthless military occupation of their government, the Israeli illegal settlers (labeled as civilians) throughout the occupied territories are often backed by the Israeli Defense Forces. The documentation of acts of violence perpetrated by the settler-colonisers against Palestinians dates back to the earliest stages of the occupation. Settler violence is structured, institutionalised, adequately armed, and executed with the same strategic objective in mind as state violence: the conquest of Palestinian territory and the expelling of the natives. That is what the Palestinians outside Gaza continuously struggle with.

Going back to the statement of the EU Commission President, there is not a single word mentioned about the persistent Israeli violence and not a single reference to the occupation. The EU High Representative Josep Borrell added that “Hamas shouldn’t be confused with the Palestinian people, and the civilian population of Gaza cannot be held collectively responsible for its criminal actions”. Until the present day and possibly in the future, his righteous remark will remain in the realm of rhetoric while Israel continues its rampage of destruction. Once again, the ‘international law’ has no application or validity for Israel. The latter’s reality is based on absolute exceptionalism and total impunity, while the unnamed occupation’s illegality is taken for granted. Thus, the blame is put on the “genocidal terrorists” of Hamas, while Israel does not want to “recognise the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum”, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres specified. Furthermore, the shameless and arrogant attitude of the Israeli government can be best summarised by the permanent representative of Israel to the UN, Gilad Erdan, during the UN Security Council meetings on October 26, 2023, who used the victim card by claiming that “in Israel we are fighting for our very survival.” Collateral fatalities, human shields, and self-genocide are some of the few explanations for the thousands of Palestinian civilian losses, according to the Israeli defense for survival.

Killing in any form should be unacceptable, and this is why the majority of states are brave enough to vote for a ceasefire. The violence, expulsions, and systematic murders are constant and deep-rooted in the Israeli occupying power’s fabric. Victimhood in terms of lost life should have no grade or be compared. Both sides suffer immensely. The life price is the same for every human being. Dehumanisation brings only division and hatred. The desperate resistance through terrorist means is proof that every prolonged, unquestioned aggressive policy will provoke a retaliatory reaction sooner or later. The actors who make the real decisions keep their eyes shut to the latter fact while allowing Israel to commit its current brutal atrocities.

In terms of Palestinian leadership, Fatah, the corrupted ruling party of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, has no real democratic legitimacy. It is part of the problem, as it does nothing for the Palestinian cause in the long run apart from suppressing its own population and using strong but useless rhetoric. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip have nothing productive to offer the Gazan Palestinians in the long term either. The Palestinian leadership needs a total reconfiguration to achieve something tangible.

Moreover, Hezbollah, the military party in Lebanon, a proxy of Iran, which successfully resisted Israel in 2006, might get involved in the conflict if Israel does not stop its short-sighted revenge policy.

In that conflict, the former’s reputation and Iranian security are both at stake. The current European Union solidarity with Israel in fact represents an abnormal support for collective punishment, while the USS warships Gerald Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower are watching from the Mediterranean Sea to monitor and deter the ‘orange and banana plantations’ in Southern Lebanon that might be triggered in case of any miscalculation or further provocation. No matter how many of these resistance forces Israel aims to destroy, there will be more to come unless there is a civil and political solution for the Palestinians.

Israel and its supporters do not want to accept that immorality, double standards, genocidal policies, violence, racism, and disproportionate power will always provoke an opposing force. It is not a question of morals, but rather the law of physics. Unfortunately, in the upcoming days and weeks, we will keep reading and listening about disproportionate number of casualties from the Palestinian side and hypocritical cries from the ‘civilised’ world unless reasonable forces and actors decide to put an end to that ongoing violent madness. Therefore, the influential western governments must be challenged on a permanent basis.

In terms of long-term developments, a potential scenario might include limited attacks from Islamic militants and guerrilla warfare inside the Gaza Strip, which could hypothetically continue for years. This might be combined with a potential social uprising from the West Bank to be named the Third Intifada (where the youth might clash in direct confrontation with the Israeli civilians and military), as it already happened twice within two generations—back in the 1980s and in the 2000s. Depending on the next step of the Israeli government, which possesses the upper ground, the likely involvement of other regional players should not be underestimated. However, on a positive note, that latest human tragedy might finally provoke some power alterations and real attempts for political solutions. Every actor involved knows extremely well that violence creates more of the same.  The lives of hundreds of thousands of people are at stake, and someone must be held accountable for their loss sooner or later. That might lead to further radicalisation and have awful repercussions back in the US and in Europe as an answer to hypocrisy, cowardice, and political impotence. If the powerful Israeli intelligence can take such a blow (it is early to say whether it was intended or not), it is unthinkable what disaster the intelligence of Belgium, for example, or any other European Member State might lead to.

Critics should use their voice to enlighten minds and provoke constructive thoughts that might lead to fruitful action and a positive change rather than simply remain a useless noise within the already deaf ‘international community’. Solely being vocal and not being afraid to speak the truth is a good start. During the latest UN Security Council meeting, Zhang Jun, China’s UN envoy, rightfully concluded that “we cannot deny that the rights of the Palestinian people have not been fundamentally safeguarded for a long time” and that only “with honesty, respect for the facts, and adherence to justice, we can work together to solve current problems.”