Yesterday (on October 7th, 2023), several periodicals - including The
Wall Street Journal - published articles asserting that the State of
Israel, and its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have "declared
war" on the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Leaving aside the issue of whether "declaring war" on Hamas
serves to legitimize it as if it were a state or political entity, it is
necessary to address the mainstream media's narratives regarding the recent
violence exchanged between Israelis and Palestinians in the last several weeks.
This
"declaration of war" against Hamas follows what Reuters, C.N.N.,
and others described as "surprise attacks", carried out by Hamas
against Israeli targets.
http://www.cnn.com/2023/10/07/middleeast/sirens-israel-rocket-attack-gaza-intl-hnk/index.html
However, "surprise attacks" is hardly an honest way to
characterize these attacks.
Two
weeks ago (on Sunday, September 24th, 2023), N.P.R. published an article titled
"Israel strikes Gaza for the third straight day as West Bank violence
escalates".
Right
off the bat, it is plain to see, from this article, that the attacks on Israeli
targets which were carried out by Hamas over the last several days, were, most
assuredly, not "surprise attacks", but were carried
out in response to the strikes on Gaza which occurred on
September 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, 2023.
Despite this fact, the Israelis - and Israel-sympathetic media - have
been quick to point out that the attacks which occurred in the first week of
October, were (apparently) timed to coincide with the fiftieth
anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, which began on October 6th,
1973.
But if
these attacks were, in fact, timed to coincide with that anniversary, then that
narrative would not make sense, if it could be proven that there had been
exchanges of violence in the previous two weeks leading up to that October 6th
anniversary.
In fact, if you read the article that N.P.R. published on September 24th, you will find that – in the very first sentence of the article – it reads:
“Israeli
airstrikes struck militant sites in Gaza on Sunday for the third straight day,
the Israeli military said, after Palestinian militants near the border
fence launched incendiary balloons into Israel and threw an explosive at
soldiers.” [emphasis mine]
The aforementioned incendiary balloons might not have taken place before those "three straight days" of Israeli attacks, after all.
The following article from Al Jazeera clarifies that the recent violence began when "stone-throwing protesters" in Palestine threw stones at Israeli soldiers, prompting the closing of the Beit Hanouna border crossing between Israel and Gaza, which itself prompted Palestinians' launching of incendiary balloons into Israel.
This article also mentions that Israel killed 12 Palestinians in Jenin in July, which runs contrary to the mainstream media narrative that there was no violence between Israel and Palestine between May 2023 and October 7th, 2023.
You can read that article by clicking on the following link:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/22/israeli-military-attacks-gaza-strip-amid-protests-at-border]
This
suggests that the Israeli airstrikes were carried out in response
to the aforementioned border violence (although it’s not clear exactly
which day those incendiary balloons were launched).
This
shows why it is important to read articles about the Israeli-Arab conflict very
carefully.
Especially because there’s no indication that
those incendiary balloons (which started two fires within the State of Israel’s
borders) – nor that explosive which was thrown at I.D.F. soldiers – killed or
injured anybody.
I suspect that, if these bombs had killed
anybody, then the articles reporting on it, would have mentioned that fact.
We
might feel tempted to conclude - from the information above - that those
late-September Israeli airstrikes killed Palestinians in
response to Palestinian bomb-throwing that killed nobody.
But
that is not accurate either.
If N.P.R.’s reporting is correct, then so is the sentence from the fourth paragraph in that article, which reads as follows:
“There
were no reported casualties from the strikes in Gaza.”
Let
us assume - for a moment - that “no reported casualties” means “no casualties
occurred”, rather than that casualties on the Gazan side occurred but were
simply not reported.
If
that is an accurate assumption, then this would mean that the late-September
Palestinian bomb-throwing killed zero people, and then was met with Israeli
retaliation that also killed zero people.
On
March 11th, 2004, nearly two hundred people were killed, and over
two thousand people were injured, in a series of coordinated
bombings upon the commuter train system in Madrid, the capital city of Spain.
Shortly
thereafter, my high school Spanish teacher, Ken Finkelstein, told us that the
people of Spain responded to these attacks by calling for peace and
forgiveness. He contrasted this against America’s response to the terrorist
attacks of September 11th, 2001, after which President George W.
Bush declared “the world will hear from all of us soon”. This statement
foreshadowed America’s invasion of Afghanistan the following month, and its
invasion of Iraq eighteen months later.
My
teacher’s statement affected me profoundly, and (obviously) I still remember it
to this day. And I agree that there is a time for forgiveness. Although it may
be difficult to forgive atrocities which see hundreds of deaths (as in the
Madrid train bombings) or even thousands of deaths (as in 9/11), it is much
easier to forgive attempted acts of violence which result
in zero deaths or injuries.
And
that is what has just happened.
Both
sides – Israeli and Palestinian – have just declined to forgive attacks, by
one-another, which (evidently) resulted in zero injuries or deaths.
I
would never condemn someone for defending oneself; even if it’s an individual
human being, or a political entity which claims to have the right to use
violence legitimately. But self-defense is far from what is happening here.
Yesterday
(October 7th, 2023), The Times of Israel reported
that 1,600 people are wounded, and that at least 230 people are dead, in Gaza,
following Israel’s attacks.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/gaza-reports-some-200-palestinians-dead-1600-wounded-after-hamas-assault-on-israel/
An
article, published today (October 8th) by A.B.C., stated
that 1,790 Gazans are wounded, and over 300 Gazans
are dead; while Israeli death tolls number over 100, with some 900 Israelis
injured.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/israel-gaza-hamas/?id=103804516
This article from N.D.T.V.
claims that six hundred Israelis have been killed in the
fighting.
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/hamas-rocket-attack-on-israel-israel-gaza-conflict-palestine-over-500-dead-in-hamas-surprise-land-air-sea-attack-on-israel-4460666
If
the worst of these reports is accurate, then this means that at least
900 people are now dead because of both the Israelis’ and the
Palestinians’ refusal to forgive attacks that killed nobody at
all.
Throwing a bomb at someone does not automatically mean that the target was killed or harmed in any way. We have to read these reports more closely, instead of lashing out, and killing by reflex.
We have no choice, now, but to forgive attacks that harm nobody; or else we should expect the bloodshed to continue into the holiday season.
Thus, the
only alternative to forgiving casualty-free attacks, is to endorse the murder
of not only our enemies, but ourselves.
As musician Kimya Dawson sang – in her song “Hold My Hand” – “the cycle of violence has to end somewhere”.
http:
Written and published on
October 8th, 2023.
Update added on October 12th, 2023.
Correction written and added on October 20th, 2023.
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