Till Death Do Us Part

US Vietnam War protestors in the 1960s

NY students against Israeli attacks on Gaza

It’s clear that Israel – now having found hostages’ corpses in the tunnels and buildings they have blown apart… adding the hostages (holding white flags) shot by over-anxious IDF soldiers – truly does not prioritize releasing those kidnapped individuals. Israel’s leaders were loathe to stop the fighting, even for a few days, to enable “prisoner/hostage” exchanges, feeling that the time needed to effectuate these humanitarian gestures only gave Hamas time to regroup and distribute their stashed weapons and ammunition to their fighters.

As Israeli PM, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, now pledges to deepen the attacks, particularly as new, massive Hamas tunnels are discovered, there is also a touch of reality that the world, including the United States, is moving closer to demanding a sustained if not permanent cease fire. So, pressure to get “major success” on the battlefield is forcing Israel to push harder. Like Donald Trump, Bibi the master of the outrageous “double down.”

Palestinian civilians clearly do not matter to either side. When Hamas uses them as human shields, and Israel is more than willing to decimate these “shields” in its efforts to purge Hamas from the earth, Hamas rejoices! Huh? The bodies of women, elders and children, the vision of hospitals devoid of medicine in total ruin, residential structures leveled and food lines everywhere, are the stuff of Hamas’ dreams. As these horrific visuals permeate global media, shoving the Hamas’ October 7th horrors into the “distant past,” most of the world now only sees Israeli excess retaliation and retribution. Hamas seems to have more than enough medical supplies, weapons and food stashed for its soldiers. Thank you, Iran. And Israel relies heavily on the United States for the bulk of her weapon systems and munitions.

In the United States, those of us old enough to remember the anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s that brought down President Lyndon “LBJ” Johnson, might also remember how they started. Angry students marching in the streets, carrying banners, assaulted by tear-gas wielding cops, some with spray cannons. Today, protests against US Universities, where university leadership is being challenged from all sides… and wider protests, even shutting down Los Angeles streets and freeways… provoking a massive rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia… remind me how support for US involvement in Vietnam just shriveled away as LBJ was replaced by Richard Nixon. Could these protests escalate, pressure against US Security Council vetoes against a real call for a cease fire, and become the final nail in the coffin of Biden’s stumbling reelection bid? Peace is necessary for humanitarian reasons… but without peace there is a political price to pay.

As I have blogged before, the United States is no longer a credible potential mediator to end this war. The only forces that have a shot would be Arab nations in the region, perhaps under UN supervision. Iran, an avowed enemy not only to US and Israel but also to regional Sunni Arab nations (most of them), most certainly does not want the Gaza War to end, a sentiment shared among Iran’s surrogates, particularly Hamas. Bibi’s doubling down is a less-than-subtle statement he wants the fight to continue. But there is now a proposal, from Gaza neighbor Egypt, not particularly warmly received by the combatants, that is a nascent effort to stop the war.

Writing for the Associated Press (December 26th), Samy Magdy, Najib Jobain and Melanie Lidman explain: “The Egyptian plan calls for a phased hostage release and the formation of a Palestinian government of experts to administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, according to a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat familiar with the proposal.

“The Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal, said the details were worked out with the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar and presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments. Egypt and Qatar mediate between Israel and Hamas, and the U.S. is Israel’s closest ally and a key power in the region…

“Israel and Hamas on Monday [12/25] gave cool public receptions to an Egyptian proposal to end their bitter war. But the long-standing enemies stopped short of rejecting the plan altogether, raising the possibility of a new round of diplomacy to halt a devastating Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip…

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited soldiers in northern Gaza on Monday [12/25], did not comment directly on the proposal. But speaking to members of his Likud Party, he said he was determined to press ahead with Israel’s offensive, launched in response to an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 240 others hostage… ‘We are expanding the fight in the coming days, and this will be a long battle and it isn’t close to finished,’ he said.”

Finding a path to a sustainable and permanent cease fire requires the United States, while supporting Israel as a longstanding ally in the Middle East, to stop blindly providing “anything Israel wants” in the way of military hardware without asking questions. We have repeatedly uttered our longstanding official support for a two-state solution, yet passively watching as Netanyahu encouraged militant Jewish settlements on the Palestinian West Bank… until Bibi totally rejected any possibility of a separate Palestinian state.

Netanyahu is so certain that the US will never stop that “anything Israel wants” policy that by doubling down, he arrogantly ignores US pressure to use targeting weapons against Hamas and limit casualties against civilians. The world is watching, and much of Israel’s unrestrained decimation of Gaza is now being blamed squarely on the US. Netanyahu doesn’t care. But in the United States, Gen Z – including a vast contingent of Jewish Americans – and an increasing number of others do. Biden’s position is untenable unless he takes real steps toward a real peace, a real cease fire… and uses American clout to moderate Israel’s vicious quest for vengeance. Or else till death do them part.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as I have blogged before, there are no possible winners in this egregious contest… except Iran and her supporters.