Opinions of Peter Belmont
Speaking Truth to Power
| How did we get to October 7th? |
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by Peter A. Belmont / 2023-12-18
Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, was part of a long negotiation between Zionist Jews and Palestinian Arabs about the proper governance and proper population of the territory of Palestine (now Greater Israel). Moreover, a Jewish Home in Palestine built up on bayonets and oppression is not worth having, even though it succeed, whereas the very attempt to build it up peacefully, cooperatively, with understanding, education, and good will, is worth a great deal, even though the attempt should fail. Magnes’s words had little effect. In 1945-50, Jewish terrorists working to create a Jewish State expelled the British from Palestine, seized 78% of the Palestinian territory, and by 1950 had expelled or frightened off 85% of the Palestinian Arabs then living there. These people became refugees and were never allowed to return to Palestine (by then, Israel). This was for Palestinians the beginning of the great tragedy callled the Nakba. The Nakba never ended. Not only were the refugees of “1948” never allowed to return, but further expulsions occurred in 1967, and the Israelis imposed an oppressive regime—today by many characterized as an apartheid regime—both within pre-1967 Israeli territory and within the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 —Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Since the 1970s there was a fad for conducting what was all too hopefully called a “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians, but those who could read the tea leaves saw that Israel wanted “process” as a substitute for “peace” and was never willing to agree to any proposal for a Palestinian State acceptable to the Palestinians. Recently, of course, and despite the never-ending ritualistic intoning among many leftists of the phrase “two-state solution” to the Israel Palestine conflict, the Israeli government has declared unequivocally that no two-state outcome is possible—and that the only one-state outcome possible is today’s actuality: an apartheid system gradually squeezing Palestinians off the land. Much violence occurred from 1948 until today, but since 1973 the violence has chiefly been that of the Israeli oppressor. This violence included a 16-year Israeli blockade (siege, closure) of Gaza which cut off or cut down imports of food and building materials and medicines and most commercial exports. That is the history. With “peace process” progressing from charade to silence, what was left to the Palestinians—apart from hope for a never-occurring international intervention—was a choice between acceptance of slow erasure by Israel or violent uprising. Which brought us to October 7th. Eschewing more than 16 years of slow death, Hamas chose spectacular violence to catch the world’s attention, to induce an Israeli genocidal response, and thereby to change the status quo in a way that might just possibly lead to some relief from Israel’s slow suffocation of Palestine. How it plays out is anyone’s guess: the world’s governments have a bottomless capacity to ignore both war crimes and the opinions of their own citizens. The USA is a case in point. Dreadful as the October 7th attack was, it has stimulated international attention and sympathy for Palestinians as never before. Israel’s genocidal response may create the international “intifada” that finally brings about positive change. |
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