Narrative and Reality 2

This line from Stephens’ article, Why Israel Won the War, is so telling.

Do earnest progressives really think that if the Jewish state were to vanish tomorrow, to be replaced by some utopian binational state, the anti-Jewish furies in the Middle East, Europe or North America would somehow abate? Or would those furies simply find easier targets?

The first thing to note is the framing. Jewish safety is the primary concern. This is evident throughout the entire article. And the message is, Jewish people will never be safe.

Yahya Sinwar, the former Hamas leader and Oct 7 mastermind, figures prominently in Stephens’ piece. He is proof that Jewish people are irrationally hated, a hatred that can only be combated with ruthless military might.

Stephens dismisses the notion that justice (“some utopian binational state”) could lead to peace and safety for Jewish people. My answer to his first question above is yes, unequivocally yes. I do earnestly believe that a binational state of equal rights for all could work and would lead to less hatred of Jewish people around the world.

Since the foundation of the state of Israel, the most dangerous place for Jewish people has been inside the state of Israel. Stephens believes this is mainly due to an irrational hatred of Jewish people, especially by Muslims. I believe this is mainly due to a rational and legal grievance that the Palestinian people have concerning ethnic cleansing, land theft, and apartheid.

I do not believe Palestinians, including Hamas, have a unique propensity for violence. If you put millions of people under occupation and apartheid for decades, some of them will become violent.

Roxane Gay was recently interviewed on Pod Save America about a column that she wrote in the New York Times on Sept 24 entitled, “Civility is a Fantasy.” Here is a short clip that reminded me of a simple truth.

“You cannot expect people who are dealing with oppression to simply kneel and bow their heads and smile as you oppress them.”

And sometimes, the way in which people rebel is ugly, awful, as it was on October 7, 2023.

But they will rebel. This is a simple truth.

I recognize that Islamic fundamentalism is playing some role in all of this, but so is Jewish fundamentalism. At this point, with Israel having killed at least 56,000 Palestinian civilians after Hamas’ awful massacre that killed about 800 Israeli civilians, I don’t know how to calculate which side is more dangerous, except to say that disparity in those numbers seems meaningful.

Stephens’ article makes no mention of justice, human rights, or international law. What would he say? What could he say?

Stephens is impressed, inspired even, at how tough Israel proved to be. And here, Stephens and I can agree. Israelis are more ruthless than I had imagined.

They killed as many Palestinians as the world would allow them to kill and they leveled as much as Gaza as they could. The Israeli military literally hired private contractors to bulldoze as much of Gaza as possible.

I’ll leave you with what Stephens sees as the price of this “war.”

For all this, there’s been a heavy price. A shattered Gaza, with many thousands of civilian deaths and terrible suffering for those trapped in the crossfire. Rising antisemitism. A generation of Western progressives — joined by growing numbers of cohorts on the far right — who think of the Jewish state as the apotheosis of evil.