The dilemma of 'proportionality' in perspective:
- Israel does is not only “responding” but defending itself from an existential war: Golda Meir warned us back in the 60s: "When the Arabs love their children more than they hate us, then there will be peace”. However, we underestimated this statement. We did not expect that Gaza's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, would be Hamas's largest operational center, where thousands of munitions and charred bodies of hostages were found (in fact, Gaza has 36 hospitals, an unusually high number of health centers per capita, while Palestinian leaders undergo surgeries in Israeli hospitals). Nor did we imagine that so many schools, refugee centers, hospitals, and mosques would be used as operational bases, weapon storage, and missile launch sites, which have a surprising capacity of firing more than 13,500 so far. We did not expect to find so many tunnels, totaling over 500 km² in a city 40 km² long. This is, a city of almost 5 levels underground filled with terrorist infrastructure. We also did not expect that, in addition to the October 7th attacks, more than 1,000 terrorist outbreaks would occur in the West Bank (yes, not only Gaza), summing 569 attacks with lethal objects on cars, 143 Molotov cocktail attacks, 70 with war weapons, 287 bombs and 319 incendiary tires thrown at cars, resulting in 53 victims. In Addition, Israel is waging a war on 7 fronts: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran, plus multiple attempts of anti-Semitic attacks in at least 10 European countries and 2 in Latin America. Let's not lose perspective that Israel is in an existential war, whose circumstances of "lack of proportionality" are provoked precisely to prevent Israel from defending itself.
Israel and the complex battle against propaganda:
- Antisemitic academia: According to the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), it was recorded that the government of Qatar injects more than USD 13 billion into about 200 North American universities. Thus, the rise of anti-Semitism in several of the most prestigious university campuses is not surprising.
- Real Politik: Iran has been working several years successfully on positioning themselves as a “harmless nuclear power country”. Their diplomatic efforts have been ultra successful even getting sometimes support from all western countries including the US.
- Anti-Jewish media: According to Google analytics publications, it was registered that 18% of TikTok publications two months after the conflict are of an anti-Semitic or anti-Israel nature, and the vast majority of world media, in an 95-5 ratio, published anti-Semitic or biased content against Israel.
- New generations sensitive to propaganda: This propagandistic influence is especially sensitive amidst young generations (aged between 18 till 24), where 48% of them support the terrorist cause of Hamas, unlike the population over 45 years old, where more than 88% are more inclined to support Israel (the percentage of support for Israel increases with age due to the historical memory of people about terrorism and the holocaust).
Palestinian civil society and their complex relationship with the terrorist tactics:
- Terrorism as a business: It is known that both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority pay USD 10,000 to their citizens for each Jew killed, in addition to rewarding them with a residential apartment. Similarly, the families of the "martyrs" (actually murderers, receive a lifetime pension of USD 350 per month. If the murderer dies, his descendants receive an additional USD 1,500 in compensation. This turns terrorism into the best-paid employment for any Arab in the region. It is estimated that around USD 4.4 billion are used for these payments each year. The birth rate of Palestinian women is close to 4 children, creating the concept of "disposable children" (or expendable children) that ensure future family support by killing Jews. This in a context where 46% of the population lives in poverty under the threat of authoritarian governments where no elections have been held for almost 20 years.
- The absence of official Palestinian dissent: The international Palestinian community did not express at any time condemning the crimes of Hamas. It is at least questionable to ask for a differentiation between Hamas and the rest of the Palestinians when neither the Palestinian Authority nor Palestinians abroad have expressed a stance condemning the October 7th attacks (although they have recognized it in private recordings and internal international summits anonymously). Similarly, according to the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), 75% of the Palestinian civilian population expresses its approval in some extent of the massacre perpetrated on October 7th.
- State Budget that Incentivizes Terrorism: The Palestinian leadership receives a shocking amount of monthly “free” budget: The UN provides USD$120 million, Qatar USD$30 million, the European Union USD$50 million, and the United States of America USD$30 million. This does not include hidden sponsorships of money and arms coming from China, Russia, and of course Iran, either directly or through simulated NGOs. This constant influx of money is subject to maintaining a status quo of conflict with Israel, a clear perverse incentive that also explains the billionaire enrichment of terrorist leaders.
The double standard:
- UNRWA Unmasked: We know that the UN has become an antisemitic organization. The UN created UNRWA (a specific agency for Palestinian refugees), different from UNHCR (the refugee agency for the rest of the world except Palestine). UNRWA, besides having 2 times the budget of UNHCR, changed the refugee law to make it “specifically hereditary for Palestinians”, thus turning the initial 700,000 refugees into 6 million, a standard thar does not apply to any other historical conflict. According to the Associated Press, between 2014 and 2020, the UN spent USD$4,500 million on Palestine. Similarly, UNRWA is the largest employer in Gaza, with about 30,000 employees. Inside these UN “schools” we find tunnels, armaments, and missile launch sites. Likewise, the educational material of these schools has always promoted antisemitic indoctrination (the perpetrators of the Munich Olympic massacre of 1972 were raised and educated in UNRWA schools, as well as Mohamed Deif, the commander of Hamas's Al Qassem Brigades who planned the October 7th massacre). This arm of the UN celebrated the October 7th on social media and also UNWRA was the first agency to condemn the false bombing of the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, which was ultimately attacked by Palestinian terrorists themselves. As for today, 80% of UN resolutions are against Israel. Just in 2023, the General Assembly condemned Israel 7 more than the rest of the world combined and abstained from condemning conflicts like the Syrian or Iranian. Officials have pretended to be "in shock" when shown videos of kidnapped Israelis being led into hospitals and schools under their supervision.
- The feminist betrayal: Similarly, UN Women took almost 2 months to condemn the violations against Israeli women, an unprecedented act and contrary to the solidarity of feminist movements and #MeToo, suggesting justified violations. Weaponizing rape is a crime against humanity that was deliberately ignored when denounced by Jewish woman.
- Shame on the Red Cross: The International Red Cross for the first time declared itself "unable" to visit kidnapped civilians, where they have not pressured Hamas's refusal to show proof of life and health, even with babies as young as 9 months when taken as hostages. Likewise, several humanitarian ambulances were discovered transporting drones and terrorist material for Hamas in a concealed manner.
Evil does exist:
Murder of pacifists: The nearly 1,200 Jews killed near the Gaza border were mainly left-wing politically oriented, where Netanyahu would have obtained less than 5% of the votes. Among those killed was Vivian Silver, who had one of the largest Palestinian-Israeli NGOs, and was thought to be kidnapped only to later discover that she had been dismembered and burned, making her remains unrecognizable. The same happened with Eyal Waldman, an Israeli businessman who created the largest high-tech center in the Middle East to employ Palestinian developers, and whose daughter was brutally beaten and murdered. The victims of Hamas were those who believed the most in peaceful coexistence with the Palestinians, even working together most of the year. In fact, 85% of Palestinian income comes from jobs with Israeli wages.
Unprecedented hostage protocols: Considering all historical wars, including the world wars, there were no records or procedures for the kidnapping of minors. Babies had never been kidnapped. There was no knowledge of how to react or receive raped, mistreated, beaten, and drugged children in captivity. Nor a situation where the entry of the Red Cross to attend to hostages is prevented.
Conclusion:
Despite October 7th, we like to believe that a two-state solution is achievable. However, this will not be possible without unmasking (and removing) the governments of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and the UN organizations involved. It is not possible to negotiate with organizations that seek the destruction of the State of Israel and genocide of Jews as their main goal. Israel has already negotiated peace agreements on almost all its borders: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon (except for Hezballah); and has normalized relations even with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Palestinian issue, unfortunately for everyone, is not a peace-for-territory one. Hopefully, it will be one day.
Dr. Enrique Presburger
@epresburger