Israel-Hamas war: Politicians are making matters worse, not better
An explosion at the al Ahli hospital in Gaza on Tuesday killed many – officials linked to Hamas said up to 471 were killed.
This latest round of fighting has inflamed anger and violence well beyond the confines of the Israel/Hamas conflict.
The Israelis insist they have evidence which suggests that the damage was not inflicted by them, but instead by a misfired rocket by Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
That is not believed in the Arab world, most of whom say they want to see an independent investigation into what happened.
Regardless, “the first casualty of war is the truth” – so what prospect is there of stopping this current spiral of violence to avoid a significantly wider regional conflict?
Whether attributed to US politician Senator Hiram Warren Johnson in 1918; Dr Samuel Johnson in 1758, or even the ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus around 550 BC, the quote about the truth being the first casualty of war would appear as true today as in Aeschylus’ time.
Despite the horrific and despicable events committed by Hamas on Israel on 7 October, it suits Hamas to frame the current conflict as one between Arab and Western ideals, and nothing appears off-limits.
And it has worked.
Violence has erupted all over the region in protest at Israel’s actions.
Even Jordan’s foreign minister has made clear that “no one is buying” the Israeli narrative about the Gaza hospital explosion.
A wounded baby in al Ahli hospital in Gaza
A member of the media walks in the area of the hospital
The West, and indeed most of the world, tolerates a wide range of religious beliefs in its population provided that the shared values of the nation endure.
However, having been responsible for creating the Jewish state of Israel, in the middle of an Arab region – which supplanted the resident Palestinian population at the time, the West has more than a degree of responsibility for solving the ensuing problems.
All sides know there is no military solution, yet in the absence of a political determination to chart a course for peace, the politicians take the easy route, hide behind inflamed rhetoric, and the casualties mount.
People clash with security forces during a protest near the US embassy in Awkar, Lebanon, after the explosion at al Ahli hospital
A man holds a Palestinian flag during a protest in Turkey after the hospital blast
Military action should be the route of last resort – and only then if it offers a clear objective. Instead, each side seems determined to inflict growing levels of violence, destruction and pain on each other, which makes the path to peace even more challenging.
Every country is entitled to protect its people – indeed, it is a priority.
However, in the current conflict, a perpetuation of the violence makes future conflict more – not less – likely.
So, the politicians involved are making matters worse, not better. Real political strength is not the ability to inflame, antagonise and incite – that might play to the crowd, but it is a negligent folly.
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Instead, great statesmanship is walking the hard road, of working tirelessly to get beyond the anger, to understand your adversary’s position, to seek compromise, understanding and accommodation.
This is no idealistic dream, this is the harsh reality that without supreme efforts, violence risks spiralling out of control. And, for normal Palestinians and Israelis, nobody wins.
The conflict in Israel is a direct result of a failure of politics and diplomacy.
Periodically, events attract the interest of international politicians, who then seek to apply a “quick fix” by focusing on the “symptoms” of the problem – such as now with the humanitarian crisis and hostage situation – and a few deftly placed sticky plasters are applied.
US President Joe Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Tel Aviv
Rishi Sunak meets Mr Netanyahu in Israel. Pic: No 10 Downing Street
But the central disease endures, conveniently dormant but unresolved, until circumstances dictate, and the violence erupts again.
Occasionally, leaders can look beyond their own polarised view, swallow their pride and engage in slow but meaningful progress.
Yasser Arafat was the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, but gradually shifted his approach from open conflict with the Israelis and instead engaged in a series of negotiations with the Israeli government to end the conflict between it and the PLO.
These included the Madrid Conference of 1991, the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2000 Camp David Summit.
The success of the negotiations in Oslo led to Arafat being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, in 1994.
From left, Shimon Peres, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin
And, despite Arafat being a polarising figure, progress was made. Following his demise, who was prepared to build on those foundations – from either side?
Who, on either side, is prepared to make such brave and potentially unpopular steps today?
Politicians are supposed to speak for their people rather than pursue firebrand rhetoric, and all are aware that there is no military solution to the Israel/Palestine/Hamas issue.
Normal Palestinians and Israeli families cannot want the current conflict to continue, to blight their lives and that of the next generation.
Palestinians gather around residential buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes in Zahra City in southern Gaza City
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As a former military officer, we had to have faith in our political masters, that they would explore every avenue available before committing their military to war – with all that war entails.
Can that test be passed today? In the absence of true political leadership, the violence continues – taking sides does not help, it simply hardens resolve.
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Each side blames the other, third party proxies fuel the hatred, and in the tsunami of casualties and anger, the truth becomes hard to find.
What a sad indictment on the apparent power of democracy that we know the path to peace, but systematically avoid taking such brave and difficult steps.
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
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Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
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