Before beginning, I would like to say this first because I cannot emphasize this point enough: this conflict and this violence are nothing new. Hamas' violence predates the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. The blockade of the Gaza Strip has been going on since 2007, and the "Right to Return" has been contentious since the Six-Day War in 1967. As I brought up when analyzing Hamas in 2014, Hamas was and still is a terrorist organization that has in its charter to wipe Israel off the map. Israel has not had military forces in Gaza since 2005. So what is really going on? I hope to answer that in the upcoming points.
- This riot had its fair share of violent protestors. While there were a fair number of protestors who tried to keep it peaceful, there were enough that were inciting violence. Not only were a number of protestors were carrying weapons and planting explosives, but many were hurling stones, throwing Molotov cocktails, and flying flaming kites over the border in hopes to set fields ablaze. Protestors were encouraged to storm the fences, thereby suggesting a goal to incite the Israeli Defense Forces. There were multiple failed attempts for these individuals to sneak across the border intent on killing Israeli citizens. If any other country were to respond to an angry, armed mob of hundreds of individuals amassing on their border calling for its destruction, they would have in all likelihood shown less restraint than the Israeli Defense Forces showed in recent events. However, when Israel partakes in the most basic form of self-defense, Israel ends up vilified. Ask yourself why.
- Hamas used these protestors as human shields. This is part of Hamas' MO. Hamas placed terrorists among the civilian protestors so when civilians die among the terrorists, Israel gets blamed for the deaths. 50 of the 60 individuals killed were Hamas members, which further illustrates this point. I would hardly consider the European Parliament a friend of Israel, but even it recognized a couple months ago that it is standard Hamas tactics to use civilians as human shields.
- The "Right to Return" is not a valid grievance. I wrote on this three years ago, but my argument can be summarized thusly. One, larger refugee crises have already been resolved, so why would this be an issue? Two, if this were that bad, why haven't other Arab countries opened their borders to their Arab brothers and sisters? Three, a "right to return" is a nonstarter. Four, the Gazans are technically are not refugees since their ancestors were the ones that fled Israel during the War for Israeli Independence. The expectation was that after the surrounding Arab nations destroyed the fledgling Jewish state, the refugees could return. The Israeli government offered them passage with the conditionality of an oath of loyalty, but they refused to accept. The individuals protesting are Palestinian citizens living under an oppressive Palestinian terrorist organization known as Hamas in a Palestinian territory.
- The blockade is Hamas' fault. Israel cannot be accused of occupying the Gaza Strip because it has not had a military presence there since 2005. According to the Israeli government, there were three stipulations that Hamas could not agree to. What were they? One, recognize the land of Israel. That one is difficult to do if your stated goal is to wipe out the Jewish inhabitants of said land. Two, disavow violent actions, which brings up an important question for pro-Palestinian individuals who have an issue with the Israeli government's recalcitrance: "How can you have compromise when one side wants the other side dead, and the other side doesn't want to die?" And three, accept the previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Plus, Israel helped set up Gaza with 3,000 greenhouses in 2005 to get its economy going. What did Hamas do after it won the elections? Destroy the greenhouses, as well as funnel humanitarian aid towards military operations. Clearly, Hamas does not want to take actions towards peace, but war. Israel's blockade was to minimize further bloodshed.
- Israel is not trying to kill as many Palestinians as possible. If Israel wanted to inflict maximum damage, it could have (although the political fallback would be too much for Israel to risk). Israel has the military technology to take out protestors on their border, but instead, they did much more than any other nation would have done to minimize casualties. Plus, if genocide were really taking place, how is it that Gaza's population went from 63,000 in 1950 to 624,000 in 2015? The Palestinian population has been increasing substantially (World Bank), which either means claiming the absurdity that Israelis are genocidal maniacs that are lousy shots, or b) the reality that there is no genocidal intent from the Israeli government because they are trying to live in peace with their Palestinian neighbors, even in spite of their antipathy towards the Jewish state.
- The grievances date back further than a blockade or embassy. As previously stated, Hamas has it codified in its law to eliminate the Jewish state. What about with the more "moderate" Fatah party? Surely there is some legitimate gripe (Spoiler: the grievance about settlements being an obstacle to peace is invalid). If you listen to Abbas' speech from April 30 in which he blamed the Holocaust on "Jewish social behaviors," such as greedy banking practices, it should be a sign that the real grievance dates back to 1948 when the State of Israel came into being. As the Chicago Tribune pointed out, "The reality is that nothing will change until Palestinian leaders stop inciting violence on the ground and start telling their people the truth: Palestinians can have a state. But not until they can accept that the Israel they loathe is in the neighborhood to stay."
"No decent Palestinian society can emerge from the culture of victimhood, violence, and fatalism symbolized by these protests. No worthy Palestinian government can emerge if the international community continues to indulge the corrupt, anti-Semitic autocrats of the Palestinian Authority or fails to condemn and sanction the despotic killers of Hamas. And no Palestinian economy will ever flourish through repeated acts of self-harm and destructive provocation."
Maybe Hamas should focus on economic recovery, diverting its concrete on building houses for Gazans instead of building tunnels, or cutting its ties off with Iran. Or better yet, a diplomatic solution in which the Palestinian leaders can accept the existence of Israel is their best way to end the bloodshed. But let's be honest: accepting the existence of a sovereign Jewish state is too much for Hamas. This just leads me to my pessimistic conclusion of "expect more of the same, just like we have in the past."
Well said.
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