BY JONATHAN LEVITT
I wrote an article for Country Squire shortly after the start of the Israel-Gaza war entitled ‘Genocide or War?’, broadly in favour of the war, setting out the reasons I thought it was justified at the time. At this point, a few weeks short of a year after October 7th, I am now of a different opinion. I think people on all sides need to strive for another ‘solution’ or ‘other means’ as the eighteenth century Prussian general, Carl von Clausewitz, might have put it. (He famously wrote that ‘War is the continuation of policy by other means’). Maybe it is now time to look for the first steps on the difficult and long journey towards peace. Even finding a way to make an initial step is proving very difficult, so deep and intractable are the issues and problems involved.
The nature of the problem is easy enough to describe but seems close to impossible to solve. Space, or land, is at a premium in the state of Israel. It is not a large country and the population (including Arabs) has gotten bigger in recent years with the influx of Jews from various places, including Russia. The Palestinians have been crammed into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and basically supported from outside by what one might call a charity culture. It is not sustainable and it is not producing healthy results.
Genetically speaking, there is not such a big difference between the Israelis and Palestinians. The differences are very large when it comes to economic prospects, freedom to travel, education and political governance. In all of these aspects it is of course much better to be an Israeli. The political governance of the Gaza Strip has been a disaster. Religious fundamentalists with extreme views have been in control, channelling charity funds into tunnels, rockets and other weapons, ‘educating’ children with hatred and antisemitism and openly working towards the destruction of their neighbour, the state of Israel.
Given the nature of Hamas, many Israelis now view the Palestinians in general with great hostility, essentially as an enemy. The Palestinians naturally view the Israelis in the same way, as their oppressors, people who have stolen their land, limited their freedom and economic potential. The history is of course complex, with land purchases, wars and foreign powers involved in shaping the current reality.
Those Israeli apologists who blame Hamas for everything and do not wish to admit to any Israeli wrong doing at any stage should understand that human nature is what it is. Even the better educated Palestinians have a natural distrust and dislike of the people that they see responsible for their hardship. Yes, you can blame Palestinian problems on Palestinian attempts to wipe out Israel in earlier armed conflicts, on Palestinian intransigence in accepting a reasonable deal at various points in the past. But the harsh reality remains as mentioned above, that a large number of human beings are living in poor conditions, with dreadful prospects and the current Israeli leadership has been at least part responsible for engineering that.
That said, it was of course Hamas that started this current war with a major act of atrocity.
There is a degree of dehumanisation of the other side occurring on both sides of the border. More so on the Gazan side because of the shockingly poor education/indoctrination. The Israeli side has a significant number of critics of the current government and voices which take a balanced approach. Such voices are absent on the Gazan side because of brutal repression of anyone who speaks against Hamas.
Hamas has been greatly weakened by the war. Maybe half of their active military fighters have been killed. The remainder still have enough guns to remain in some kind of control of their population, enough control to terrorise them and stop anyone speaking out against Hamas anyway, which is why, when polled, the Palestinian public shows such support for them. It is hard to believe that average Palestinians can have much faith in Hamas, given that they are as responsible as anyone else for the total obliteration of Gazan infrastructure and normal life.
It is hard to envisage any road to peace where Hamas, or any other Islamic extremist group remain in power. There is a real problem taking the guns out of their hands (we are talking tens of thousands of weapons). Maybe it can be done with the help of an Arabic or international peacekeeping force, but it will not be easy.
Equally Netanyahu, who is 74 years old and carrying a great deal of baggage, will have no part in the future. The hostages, or those that are left, will hopefully soon have their horrifying ordeal over with. The current crop of political leaders will pass. The long journey needs to start with a few small steps…
That road to peace will be hard and dangerous, with the risk of reversion to hatred and violence ever-present. The situation is not helped by Iran and its network of religiously ‘inspired’ proxies all set on attempting the destruction of Israel.
Certain fundamentals must change. Education leading to dehumanisation and hatred needs to change, political control needs to change, extreme religious views have to change or be undermined, or at least those in power not be swayed by them. Even with all of that, i.e. a significant change in what is inside the heads of large numbers of people on both sides of this conflict, the problem with population numbers and a small area of land remain.
If Israel and Gaza are a box then it may be necessary to think outside the box. With sufficient will and sufficient resources, absurd sounding solutions are possible. One or other (or both) populations could be moved to some large island somewhere. If they are going to continue hating each other, it would be better if they are far apart. Of course this is all fanciful thinking, but the current situation or ‘strategy’ of trying to kill and bomb a way forward is not making progress. It is in fact starting to make it a lot worse. What started a justified war is no longer looking that way and it is the side with the military muscle, Israel, that is in danger of of being seen as responsible for the worsening mess and for all the human misery and tragedy that stems from it.
Even that perspective (Israel as the major power beating up the little guy) gets turned completely on its head the moment you bring Iran into the equation or start to think of Israel as the front line in a wider conflict between Islamic fundamentalism and western values. The tension in the north between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah is significant, with massive exchanges of fire over a long period and large numbers of people displaced from their homes for months.
Jonathan Levitt is a retired chess Grandmaster who played for the very strong England chess team that beat Russia in Reykjavik 1990. He is an Oxford maths graduate and lives in Suffolk with his wife Maria, making a living betting on live cricket. He is also an author. Jonathan’s most recent book, Contemplating Comedy (The Conrad Press, 2020), is an exploration of the psychology and philosophy of humour, packed full of examples.