Thoughts After a Year of War in the Middle East
Today is the one-year anniversary of the brutal Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians and the subsequent Israeli invasion and utter devastation of Gaza where a disproportionate number of Palestinians, many of them children, have been lost as “collateral damage,” as they say in the inhuman parlance of military operations. This last year has been a long and divisive one, not just in the Middle East but domestically as American support for Israel has fostered a protest movement and a fierce reaction to it that has only deepened entrenched divisions as events have unfolded.
Nothing about it has been good.
The Biden Administration’s initial full-throated embrace of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the attacks has left it unable to find its footing as the most rightwing government in the history of Israel has doubled down on its brutal assault on Gaza and responded to attacks from Iran and Hezbollah by broadening its war aims further, risking an even more catastrophic, ongoing regional conflict that will not end well. Even as the U.S. administration has sought to temper Israel’s response, the Netanyahu government has routinely rebuffed calls for a ceasefire and/or a more measured response that might spare civilian lives.
As the Washington Post reported last week, despite Biden’s ill-advised hawkish approach, Netanyahu, facing a political reckoning at home if the war stops, has ignored and undermined the President with increasing regularity:
While personally committed to supporting Israel’s goal of obliterating Hamas, Biden had repeatedly stressed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the need to adhere to international norms requiring protection of civilians and provision of humanitarian aid — guidelines that Israel had just as often shown itself unable or unwilling to follow.
Biden’s overriding concern was preventing an all-out conflagration in the region. Yet as he sought a path for long-term peace and stability for Israel, Biden was undermined at every turn by Netanyahu’s conduct of the Gaza war, his refusal to consider establishment of a Palestinian state, and the territorial ambitions of his right-wing government in the occupied territories.
Thus, Biden has been left flatfooted, unable to exercise much if any influence on Netanyahu who seems bent on keeping the war raging both to help his own dire internal political situation and perhaps elect Trump, who he gleefully visited in Mar-a-Lago during his last trip. It seems abundantly clear that Netanyahu, despite significant support from the Biden Administration, would prefer to see Trump back in power so he can “finish the job,” as the former President puts it, without even a whiff of pushback from the United States.
Of course, the United States could obey its own law and cut off arms shipments to a country that has violated human rights, but that simple act is clearly off the table for the President and a large bipartisan majority of our representatives, with the notable exceptions of Senator Bernie Sanders and his allies.
Thus, an emboldened Netanyahu is free to call the shots as the world stumbles toward an even more dangerous precipice. Eager to match his nihilistic foes in heartlessness, Netanyahu seems less concerned about the fate of Israeli hostages than he is with taking advantage of the opportunity to keep the fires of war raging, maintaining his domestic power, harming his erstwhile American allies in the White House, and, like crazy Ahab, navigating us all toward the abyss where only Orange Jesus can save us.
Interestingly, last week at his impromptu appearance before the White House Press Corps, Biden was asked if he thought Netanyahu was trying to influence the election, and his reply was “I don’t know.” He should.
Looking back on the column I wrote on the conflict in Words and Deeds in the immediate aftermath of October 7th, it seems sadly prescient:
We are not faced with a simple choice between good and evil; we are faced with a series of very complex, key decisions about how to spend billions of American taxpayer dollars and what role the United States should play on the global stage. And, as recent history shows, we have made a host of bad decisions over the last several decades that have cost us much blood and treasure while not making the world any safer or more just. Hence, principled skepticism and a strict insistence on necessity that all parties value basic human rights are merited. Leaning into compassion rather than rage is the only road out of this nightmare.
It’s difficult not to be deeply pessimistic as long as Hamas maintains power, the hard right rules Israel, and America risks repeating its historical mistakes despite Biden’s protestations. But without resolution to this conflict AND the war in Ukraine, the only winners are the masters of war making billions on arms salesand the big oil companies profiteering in the midst of global conflict and impending planetary climate catastrophe.
Like Kurt Vonnegut who, in Slaughterhouse Five, pondered the futility of writing an anti-war novel in the wake of the horrors of World War II, I see the absurdity of writing a column about compassion amid an ongoing catastrophe. Inevitably, Israel’s vastly superior firepower aided by the United States’ global hegemony will pound Gaza into a city of ruins. There will likely be horrific responses by Hamas along the way, and the entire region and the world could erupt into deeper chaos and conflict. And no one will win.
What rough beast is slouching towards Bethlehem to be born?
Nobody knows.
It pains me to write this, but I wouldn’t change a word. As the Washington Post article notes, Biden is keenly aware that “any Israeli desire to have the last word militarily would keep the region locked in a cycle of dangerous brinkmanship.”
Yet here we are, trapped in a heedless dance of death where an eye for an eye will surely leave the whole world blind.