Wars have always been a rejection of all humanity. Waging them in accordance with rules is a contradiction in terms – just as if you were to ask your opponent for permission before shooting him. Wars are about merciless murder, often about the extermination of other people. Only states with far superior military power could afford – and have agreed in the last century by treaty – to reduce the killing of others and the concomitant cruelties, if and insofar as this can be reconciled with a complete victory over the respective enemies. But as soon as such superiority does not exist, only brute force in all its varieties counts among opponents who want to kill each other.
What is currently happening to the Palestinians in Gaza is an example of brute force. It began with the slaughter of Jews on 7 October last year and the cruelty towards the hostages that continues to this day. It ends with thousands of victims, mainly children and women, on the Palestinian side. Who is to blame for these massacres?
The international public has the immediate cause in mind: Israeli bombs. For many, the question of guilt is thus settled. I would argue that the Palestinians are at least as much to blame, but I am surprised that I hardly ever hear this argument from the Israelis and their allies.
Hamas is a terrorist organisation, but it would be difficult to deny that the Israelis have done a lot in the past to make themselves hated by the Palestinians. Injustice on both sides – and above all the additional fuelling of hatred by powers such as Iran – ultimately led to the outbreak of hostilities. António Gutierrez is certainly right when saying that this explosion of hatred did not occur in a „vacuum“. This is true, but that so many Palestinian civilians die is primarily the fault of the Palestinians themselves, namely their government in Gaza. It is Hamas that deliberately turns its people, i.e. its own people, into sacrificial victims by seeking and finding shelter wherever – as in hospitals – the sick, the dying, newborn babies or – as in public squares – simply large numbers of people are gathered. Hamas chose to set up its headquarters precisely where schools, public buildings and, above all, hospitals offer refuge to vulnerable people. Hamas accepts the slaughter of its own population by forcing the Israelis to bomb such targets.
War was and is always a diabolical exercise in inhumanity. It is a matter of my life or your life, of victory or defeat where human sacrifice does not count for much – not even the victims on one’s own side. It is not only Hamas that sacrifices its own people on a grand scale. Benjamin Netanyahu is doing the same with the Israeli hostages. He is probably right that any prolonged ceasefire will only give Hamas the chance to refresh its forces. A premature peace agreement would even put Israel completely on the defensive, because in a year or two the murderous game would start all over again.
I am afraid that Netanyahu is thinking still further ahead. As soon as Iran has the nuclear bomb, Israel will no longer have a chance of survival, so his country must do everything it can to prevent this from happening. Just now it has a chance to do so by provoking this most relentless opponent into battle. By bombing the Iranian embassy, Netanyahu has taken the first step towards escalation and he is presumably hoping that Iran will launch such a massive counter-attack against his own country and the US that the latter will then be forced to eliminate the military power of the mullah regime. That would, however, be a very big war.
It would be a gain for Israel, a chance of survival, but what about the survival of the world if it actually happens?
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Protests immediately followed this article. I responded as follows:
Dear Mr (Mrs) **,
I was quite aware that this article would stir up a hornet’s nest – something I have tended to avoid so far. Especially in this case, you usually only get away with a clear statement in favour of either Israel or the Palestinians. I have tried to do justice to both sides. Obviously I have not succeeded, because your indignation proves to me that I am hurting your feelings. In your opinion, am I doing the Israelis or the Palestinians an injustice? Unfortunately, this is not clear from your protest.
Yours sincerely
Gero Jenner