When Self-Defense Becomes Self-Destructive

This is not self-defense. This is vengeance. And the saddest thing about it is that it will come back to haunt Israelis and the nation of Israel.

Originally published by the LA Progressive.

A reader of one of my recent columns on Israel and Gaza—he did not specify which one; I’ve written several since October 7th—pointed out to me that my “condemnation of Hamas occupies 2 out of 28 column inches.” He then goes on to argue, among other points in support of Israeli conduct of this war, that “the Jews are a ‘people’ and Israel is a nation” while “the ‘Palestinians,’ on the other hand, ARE not a ‘people,’ nor is Israel trying to wipe Gaza off the map.”

I replied that on October 7th, 2023, Hamas killed just under 1200 people, mostly Israelis and mostly innocent civilians. Since then, the Israeli Defense Forces have killed around 27,000 people, mostly innocent civilians, and the death toll continues to rise daily. I said I thought, in light of these figures, 2 out of 28 was about right.

I don’t know what Likud and Netanyahu’s goals are for Gaza, but they have said that they are going to put an end to Hamas once and for all. But if any Gazan survives this war, I will bet my bottom dollar that Hamas or some similar organization will have plenty of new recruits. So if Likud and Netanyahu think they are going to get rid of Hamas once and for all, I’d say they’ll have little choice but to kill every last Palestinian. And not just in Gaza.

As for the Palestinians not being a “people,” good luck convincing the Palestinians of that. Meanwhile, back in December, I received this e-mail from Chuck Yates, a friend of mine who spent his career teaching at Earlham College:

“I learned this morning that a former student of mine—a Palestinian in Gaza—has lost his sister, her husband, and several other members of their family, including a couple of children. They were not members of Hamas. They were just ordinary people trying to live ordinary lives. I’m trying to work out how their existence posed any threat to Israel’s right to exist, or how their extinction contributes to Israel’s security.”

And this early December post from the Palestinian poet Mosab abu Toha: “My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family a few minutes ago. We loved to pick strawberries together.”

In late January, I received this follow-up from Ammiel Alcalay, a professor of Hebrew who teaches at Queens College-CUNY, himself a Jew: “Poet and scholar Refaat Alareer, professor of comparative literature at the Islamic University was incinerated on 7 December 2023 in a targeted strike that also killed his brother, his sister, and her four children.”

In an open letter to university administrators and professors, he also wrote that on January 17th the University of Palestine was completely destroyed, leaving only rubble. The Islamic University of Gaza was destroyed on October 11th. Every university in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged, resulting in thousands of students and teachers killed or wounded. In addition, 281 state-run and 65 UNRWA-run primary and secondary schools have been completely or partially destroyed.

By late December, ABC News was reporting that there were no more functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, and just nine out of 36 health facilities still operating in southern Gaza, all only partially functional.

On January 18th, NBC News reported that there had been 645 attacks on the health system in the Palestinian territories, including on hospitals, ambulances, and vehicles delivering supplies, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries.

And as of February 2nd, the Committee to Protect Journalists stated that 85 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza: 78 Palestinians, four Israelis, and three Lebanese. Trying to report what is happening is a dangerous occupation.

If you Google “Post-October 7th damage in Gaza” and then click on “Images,” you will find hundreds and hundreds of photographs that rival the damage done to Germany and Japan during the 2nd World War. If what you see in these photos is not an attempt to “wipe Gaza off the map,” it is certainly a good imitation of it.

Meanwhile, several hundred Israeli soldiers were among the 1200 people who died on October 7th. Since then, according to The Times of Israel on January 31st, 224 IDF soldiers have died fighting Hamas. Every one of those deaths leaves a family without a loved one: a father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, cousin, son or daughter. I do not wish to minimize or trivialize Israeli deaths.

But the numbers of dead and injured among Israelis and Palestinians are just plain wildly out of any reasonable proportion. This is not self-defense. This is vengeance. And the saddest thing about it is that it will come back to haunt Israelis and the nation of Israel.

When I enlisted in the US Marines in 1966, I was told that the Viet Cong forced Vietnamese civilians to help them at the point of a gun and at peril of their lives. What I learned once I’d been in Vietnam for only a few months was that all the VC had to do was wait for a Marine patrol to go through a village, and the VC had all the recruits they wanted.

One of the bravest men I’ve ever known, a South Vietnamese soldier fighting against the communists, one day in September 1967 came into our battalion command bunker and quit. Just plain quit. I will never forget what he shouted. “You Americans come here with your tanks and your planes and your arrogance, and everywhere you go, the Viet Cong grow like new rice in the fields.”

What is growing in the midst of the rubble and misery and death that Gaza has become? A young Palestinian man wrote to a friend of mine recently that he is “against violence of all kinds,” but added that “IDF soldiers forced me and others to undress in front of them at the checkpoint. They made fun of us at gunpoint.”

This is a married man with three small children. He has spent his life struggling to avoid hatred and create an environment where Palestinians and Israelis can live together in peace. He is a teacher and a poet. He was arrested, stripped, beaten, and detained for several days before being released and allowed to join his immediate family in Egypt. His parents, siblings, and their families are still in Gaza. One can only wonder how much longer he will continue to be against violence of all kinds.

Israelis have the right to live in peace and without fear. But so does this man and his family. They are people. They are Palestinians. In the end, only two choices remain for Israel: kill them all or learn to live with them. Even if it were attempted, I do not think the first option is achievable. I’ve said this before, but the choices haven’t changed, and aren’t going to change: kill ‘em all, or learn to live with them. Oh, yes, there’s one other option: endless, perpetual war.