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He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—”The horror! The horror!”
–Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness
One of the dead at Gaza Buriej refugee camp (Yasser Saymeh/AFP-Getty)
Nothing better sums up my own emotions concerning the devastating blow that Israel has inflicted on Gaza in the past 24 hours, than Kurtz’ final words on his death bed as he contemplates the utter disaster that he and his fellow colonialists have inflicted on the Congo.
It is the seventh night of Hanukah, and Sol Salbe tells me that the military operation’s name, Solid Lead (or “Cast Lead”), derives from Chaim Nachman Bialik’s children’s poem, For Hanukah:
Teacher bought a big top for me,
Solid lead, the finest known.
In whose honor, for whose glory?
For Hanukkah alone.
It is just like modern Israel and Zionism to appropriate Jewish history, holiday and tradition to justify its own agenda. Quite macabre also to think that the IDF has defiled a delightful children’s poem by Bialik in order to convey the power of its onslaught against Hamas (“solid lead”).
Gaza dead removed from site of Israeli strike (Mahmud Hams AFP-Getty)
According to Al Jazeera, 271 Gazans are dead (along with one Israeli), nearly 1,000 wounded. Sol Salbe tells me this is the worst loss of life in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict going back to 1967. Devastation is everywhere:
…There was a shocking quality to Saturday’s attacks, which began in broad daylight as police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market, and children were emerging from school.
The center of Gaza City was a scene of chaotic horror, with rubble everywhere, sirens wailing, and women shrieking as dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out on the pavement and in the lobby of Shifa Hospital so that family members could identify them. The dead included civilians, including several construction workers and at least two children in school uniforms.
By afternoon, shops were shuttered, funerals began and mourning tents were visible on nearly every major street of this densely populated city.
Phil Weiss quotes an eyewitness report from Safe Joudeh:
…People are going through the dead terrified of recognizing a family member among them. The streets are strewn with their bodies, their arms, legs, feet, some with shoes and some without. The city is in a state of alarm, panic and confusion…hospitals and morgues are backed up and some of the dead are still lying in the streets with their families gathered around them, kissing their faces, holding on to them. Outside the destroyed buildings old men are kneeling on the floor weeping. Their slim hopes of finding their sons still alive vanished after taking one look at what had become of their office buildings.
And even after the dead are identified, doctors are having a hard time gathering the right body parts in order to hand them over to their families. The hospital hallways look like a slaughterhouse. It’s truly worse than any horror movie you could ever imagine. The floor is filled with blood, the injured are propped up against the walls or laid down on the floor side by side with the dead. Doctors are working frantically…
It is an Israeli Shock and Awe (and you remember how that turned out). Ehud Barak has prepared a veritable 12 course feast of blood, gore, and mayhem for Gaza. It is Barak’s ultimate political play for the coming elections. If he wins, then he helps Labor maintain its ever-fainter role in Israeli national politics. If he fails, then he and Labor sink together.
The Israeli government had seemed to be preparing Israelis for a tactical short-term operation meant to punish Hamas for recent rocket barrages against southern Israel. But Operation Solid Lead seems anything but that. It may fall short of the full-scale invasion and reoccupation of Gaza which some had feared, but it won’t fall short by much:
Ehud Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Sky News on Saturday that he would not rule out widening the offensive in the Gaza Strip to include a ground invasion.
“There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight,” he said.
…Asked whether Israel would follow up the air strikes with a ground offensive, Barak said, “If boots on the ground will be needed, they will be there.”
“Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game,” he said.
How many times have we heard this delusional thinking before? Lebanon 1982, Lebanon 2006, countless Gaza operations, and on and on. And how many times has the IDF changed the rules of the game? Not once. It has never eradicated opposition whether in Gaza or Lebanon, and it never will by military means. In fact, as George Bush discovered in Iraq, instead of eliminating a terrorist threat, by taking the fight to the “enemy” (whether Iraqi or Gazan) you actually create enemies you never had before.
Keep in mind that until today, no Israeli had been killed in the most recent round of rocket attacks going back for the past few weeks.
We see how effective the IAF operation has been so far in its stated aim of ending the missile barrages against Israeli targets: Hamas has ratcheted up its capabilities by striking Ashdod and Ashkelon with longer range missiles than it has used before. Scores of rockets are raining down on Israeli towns and cities. We can probably expect more, and perhaps much more, of this to come. If Israeli troops move into the Strip we can expect not only larger Palestinian casualty counts, but IDF casualties as well.
Khaled Meshal has called from Damascus for a third Intifada. Even if you attribute this to a grandstanding gesture of a militant desperate to retrieve some sense of honor from the brutal slaughter, you cannot fully discount the rhetoric. A third Intifada is entirely possible especially if Israel intends to occupy Gaza or continue this operation for any length of time.
I was struck by this statement of bold defiance by Ismail Haniyeh because the images he conveyed of Palestinian leaders suffering death for their people reminded me of an account of Jewish suffering called Eyleh Ezkerah (also known as the Martyrology) and recited on Yom Kippur. The prayer recounts the martyrdom of such holy rabbinic figures as Rabbi Akiba in similar terms to these:
“We say in all confidence that even if we are hung on the gallows or they make our blood flow in the streets or they tear our bodies apart, we will bow only before God and we will not abandon Palestine…”
Ehud Barak and his fellow Israeli ministers never seem to learn that no matter how many tons of bombs they drop on this tiny scrap of land, they cannot cow Hamas into submission. The dispute will only end when the issues are negotiated and resolved. It will never end at the butt of the rifle. Has it been any different with our own? Have we been willing to be cowed by the Greeks, Romans, European Crusaders, Spanish Inquisitors, Czars, Nazis, British or any Arab state through our own history? Then why should we expect things will be different with the Palestinians?
When Joe Biden said during the recent campaign that a foreign leader might seek to “test” Obama in the early days of his presidency, he seemed to be referring to Vladimir Putin. Who would have thought that it would be the two Ehuds, Barak and Olmert and that they would test Obama EVEN BEFORE assuming the presidency. Steve Clemons has spoken acutely on this subject:
Part of what is going on today with Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s unleashing of massive Israeli airpower against Hamas [and]…Hamas’s decision to end its “lull”…with Israel, also has a lot to do with testing the U.S. and seeing what the outlines of Obama’s policy will be.
Barack Obama cannot afford to allow his presidency and its foreign policy course to be hijacked by either side in this increasingly blurry dispute. Israel’s actions today just created thousands of aggrieved and vengeful relatives committed to delivering some blowback against Israel.
Hamas, at the same time, overplayed its hand at a fragile time…Its resumption of violence before the Israeli elections and during a time of transition in US politics triggered a devastating response from Israel that significantly undermined its own interests as a potentially responsible steward of a Palestinian state.
The violence we are watching is just yet another installment in the blur of tit-for-tat violence from both sides of this chronic foreign affairs ulcer.
The US — and the incoming Obama administration — must move an agenda forward in Israel-Palestine negotiations that works at levels higher than the perpetrators of this violence. It’s…time to stop allowing any actors in this drama to hijack the foreign policy machinery of governments trying to push forward a Palestinian state.
America has to get out of the role of “managing” this conflict — and must solve it…
So far, Obama has maintain a studied silence while the Bush Administration has unsurprisingly placed the onus on Hamas for the violence. This virtual rehash of the statements made against Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon war is the best that that nitwit could come up with:
…The Bush administration issued blistering criticism of Hamas, saying the group had provoked Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza by firing rockets into southern Israel.
Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said that Hamas…was responsible for the outbreak of violence and called its rocket attacks ”completely unacceptable. These people are nothing but thugs,” he said. “Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas.”
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice…said: “The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the cease-fire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza. The cease-fire should be restored immediately. The United States calls on all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza.”
Of course the ceasefire should be restored immediately. This was Israel’s position till it began bombing Gaza back to the Stone Age. Israel would love to have calm in the south restored while continuing the Gaza siege. In this, Condi is doing nothing but carrying Israel’s water. And calling for attention to the humanitarian needs of Gaza precludes you from paying attention to the political issues at the heart of the humanitarian crisis. In other words, Bushites are calling for band-aids in the middle of a raging epidemic.
Obama will have to take a stance. This will not do:
Brooke Anderson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama, said that while Mr. Obama was monitoring global events, “There is one president at a time.”
He cannot leave this mess to the outgoing Bushites who have made such a mess of it over the past eight years. Obama’s position must be more flexible, creative and vigorous than Bush’s. He simply cannot side with Israel and provide nothing for the Palestinians. I hope he and his advisors realize this.
J Street has made a magnificent statement that attests to its willingness to tackle the truly tough issues in this conflict. I only wish other American Jewish organizations could be as boldly proactive:
…Real friends of Israel recognize that escalating the conflict will prove counterproductive, igniting further anger in the region and damaging long-term prospects for peace and stability.
Respecting Israel’s right to defend itself, we urge leaders there to recognize that there is no military solution to what is fundamentally a political conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.
Today’s IDF strikes will deepen the cycle of violence in the region. Retaliation is inevitable, though we don’t know how far the violence will spread or how many more Israelis and Palestinians will die and suffer in the days and weeks to come.
We call for immediate, strong diplomatic intervention by the United States…
We urge the incoming Obama administration to lead an early and serious effort to achieve a comprehensive diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts.
This is a fundamental American interest as we too stand to suffer as the situation spirals, rage in the region is directed at the United States, and our regional allies are further undermined. Our goals must be a Middle East that moves beyond bloody conflicts, an Israel that is secure and accepted in the region, and an America secured by reducing extremism and enhancing stability. None of these goals are achieved by further escalation.
Even in the heat of battle, as friends and supporters of Israel, we need to remember that only diplomacy and negotiations can end the rockets and terror and bring Israel long-term security and peace.
J Street plans a petition campaign which they will announce tomorrow.
As bloggers blog about Gaza, if they send me their links I’ll include them each day in my own posts so readers can sample a broader discussion of these issues. What I want to avoid at all costs is the mirage that some in the media saw during the last Lebanon war when several reporters wrote wonderingly about the supposed lack of opposition among liberal bloggers to Israel invasion. Let American Jewry, Israel and the U.S. media know that there IS Jewish opposition to the Gaza massacre.
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Tags: 271 gazans dead, bush supports incursion, cast lead, israel attacks hamas, j street opposes gaza escalation, jewish opposition to israeli invasion, operation solid lead
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Shmit undz in ayzerne keytn,
Vi blutike khayes undz rayst
Ir kent undzer kerper nor teytn
Nor keyn mol undzer heylikn gayst.
It seems Haniyeh knows his Edelstadt, the quote you cite being almost a direct translation of this verse.
“While this morning’s air strikes by Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza can be understood and even justified in the wake of recent rocket attacks,…”
This from the J street statement, which I went to from your blog.
I think this is a totally disingenuous statement. It seeks to strike the “balance” sought for by liberals.
To say that this unprecedented violence which your blog brings to us in such stunning graphic truthfulness can be “justified” is bull.
It is like saying if some person from my neighborhood kills a cop, and the police force then swoops in and arrests and beats every man over 18 [and since I live in an African-American neighborhood, this is not totally unrealistic], such an action is “justified”. Or, in a better analogy, they carpet-bomb the neighborhood.
I often wonder how long people can deal with contradiction thru delusion and denial. It is strange Richard how you seem to have such feeling of outrage for the actions of Israel, and yet by praising the statement of J Street, you adhere to the idea that this is “tit-for-tat”.
This is not two guys in a bar having a brawl. This is the 4th largest military power in the world, backed by the 1st strongest military power in the world, wiping out a people.
Face it.
You can’t face it. Why? Because they’re Jews, and Jews don’t do this?
You mean to tell me if everything was exactly the same for the last 40 years, except that it wasn’t Jews, it was someone else, that you would feel the same way?
I don’t think so.
This is a truly terrible situation. Let’s hope that in the future, Hamas will stop attacking Israel so Gaza doesn’t need to be routinely blown up. Those people deserve better lives than that.
Perhaps there is a silver lining though. If all of the aggressive Hamas members get blown up, perhaps there is a real possibility for peace in that area. At least until the next wave of palestinians indoctrinated on hatred grow up.
@Richard:
“Khaled Meshal has called from Damascus for a third Intifada.”
Hasn’t that already started,-or the 2nd never ended? Israel is reacting to their provocation. You mention that only briefly by saying that Israel’s haven’t been killed lately.
“there IS Jewish opposition to the Gaza massacre.”
When Israel defends itself-it is a massacre? If Jews in the US went through what Jews here went through, wouldn’t all the Jewish organizations over there rush to protect your interests? Why should Israel be punished for having a military?
@ellen
“Because they’re Jews, and Jews don’t do this?”
Again, Jews aren’t allowed to defend themselves? This goes back to the idea that Jews in the gallut (exile) have that a Jew was born to be stepped on. A Jew is supposed to be yelled at by his overbearing mother and then become an accountant. There is a conflict here between the always-defensive liberal Jew and the “new Jew” (Zionist). Why can YOU face it ellen? If you are progressive, then you must believe that Jews have been emancipated!
I blogged about it last night. My comments on the conflict are buried toward the end of this post (http://davidsaysthings.wordpress.com/2008/12/27/chanukah-vii-a-holiday-for-every-jew-a-holiday-for-todays-gaza/) about the broad appeal of Chanukah.
Some good insights here, Richard.
My blogging is more about recontexualizing than generating a lot of original content. Important observations I’ve had are on Obama’s lack of leadership in this crisis, and that the latest ceasefire was first broken by Israel on November 4th with a raid that killed six Palestinians. Thereafter, the rockets started up again.
I think if Israel wanted peace it could have had it awhile ago, because Hamas is willing to talk truce. See Chris Hedges:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081215_israels_crime_against_humanity/
if they send me their links I’ll include them each day in my own posts
Here’s my latest scribblings on what’s going on: http://falsedichotomies.com/2008/12/28/five-comments-on-the-situation/
I keep finding hard to stomach that such a gifted people like the Israelis have this ruthless, unreasonable, ugly side. Thank goodness, as you have shown us, there are better ambassadors for the Jewish people.
These commentators who were reporting on toilet seats while Israel was bombed daily instead of telling any body who care that this game can not go on do have some blood on their hands. While Hamas was having a public show mocking the shalit family every body was silent. As for leaders in five stars hotels calling for intifada, well the Iranian will fight Israel till the last Hizb. drop of blood and the Hizb. will fight Israel till the last Pal. drop of blood. Right now Egypt is telling it clear and stright that the Hamas does not let injured Pal. to leave Gaza and empty Ambulances are atanding on the border. The Hamas declared iternal war on Israel and this is war. It is high time for the Pal. to realy accept Israel. Also the settlers should be kicked out of Hebron, with bullets if need be.
I’ve been blogging about it since yesterday, but I doubt you’ll link to me.
I’m a liberal on social issues, but a hawk on Israel.
Hamas does not want to negotiate with Israel. They state quite clearly in their charter that “Palestine is an Islamic waqf” and will be so to the end of days.
How does one negotiate with that?
If Hamas wants a truce so badly, why did they use the last six months to upgrade their weapons capacity? The only reason they want one is to rearm and regroup, and live to attack another day.
I know, I know, I’m horrifying you.
J Street doesn’t speak for me.
What Israel is it that Palestinians should “really accept” barni? The Israel of the 1948 armistice lines? Of the 1967 borders? Facts have to be faced here. Israel is not an “occupying power.” It has carried out a policy of defacto annexation of all of historical Palestine. So Israel has some choices to make, which the U.S. keeps protecting Israel from facing. It can either become a normal state and withdraw to the 1967 borders and take the boot of the neck of the Palestinian population which has lived under its rule (the P.A. is a gendarme not a sovereign government–it’s only “there” to carry water for Israel, the Palestinian leadership who signed Oslo is not just corrupt, they are incredibly incompetent to think that open ended talks in which Israel never said it would grant Palestinians their national rights would somehow deliver Palestinians from the injustices that they have suffered) for over forty years. Or Israel can absorb the Palestinians into the state of Israel. What it cannot do is to expect peace and security while it keeps dispossessing Palestinians. The war of 1948 is over. Israel exists. The only question today is exists as what kind of state? One in which Israeli Jews are fast becoming a minority ruling over a Palestinian Arab majority in the West Bank and Gaza, over Palestinians in East Jerusalem and denying Palestinian citizens of Israel basic rights, like the right to marry a Palestinian from the West Bank and live in Israel? or one that is democratic with a national minority whose rights to be Palestinian rather than Jewish must be respected?
This is Israel’s decision, and it had better make it soon, or it will face a Palestinian leadership that is neither Fatah nor Hamas that begins to demand equality rather than freedom. And as Ehud Olmert has warned, that will be a far cleaner struggle.
[...] Read more here. [...]
Today is the Feast of the Innocents……………..
‘It is an Israeli Shock and Awe (and you remember how that turned out).’ Yup, sure do. With one of the most comprehensive victories in the annals of warfare, at the cost of the fewest lives. I assume thats what you meant.
‘It can either become a normal state and withdraw to the 1967 borders and take the boot of the neck of the Palestinian population which has lived under its rule ‘ Why should Israel retire to borders which the Palestinians don’t recognise as valid? In 1947, the Arabs tried to destroy the two-state solution devised by the UN because they didn’t accept ANY borders other than a Palestine ruled by themselves. There are no valid borders now other than the ones achieved via the hazards of military action. Which of course has mostly gone Israels way. Boo hoo for you.
People are dying and I am responding by replying to a blog post.I feel helpless.Obama is not saying much also.
Neil
Cape Town,South Africa
@Alex Stein: Thank you. I will include you in e mails if I get any links fr. authors. I’ll check out yr own post in a bit.
When I replied to yr comment I was trying to absorb the horror of what’s going on in Gaza. I’m reading the most vile racism sent to me as “presents” from right wing pro Israel Jews. I allowed it to get to me I guess. My apology if I overreacted to yr comment.
Jewish Voice for Peace has also issued a statement:
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1146.shtml
The only ‘horror’ is that arabs have been launching attacks on non-combatents since day one. If the arabs want peace they have but to stop the attacks, lay down the weapons and join the civilized world. It is their choice. If they choose leaders who condemn them to live in misery to fulfill the leader’s political goals, well, people get the government they deserve (I say this as a non-Obama American). As long as the arabs put the destruction of Israel before the well-being of their children, they will consistently fail.
Richard,
My friend. Please listen to me. I admire you. Your blog. But….
“This is the 4th largest military power in the world, backed by the 1st strongest military power in the world,”
Right, so why do something stupid like shell the 4th largest military power, KNOWING that the 4th largest military power has a predictable penchant for massive retaliation?
May I suggest a reason? The Palestinian leadership knows that the Israelis are gonna come in with their non-surgical strikes that kill civilians and make Israel look terrible. They are willing to do this. They shove their broken bodies and bloodied children in the face of the world to manipulate. They have absolutely no plans to create a modern state, no means to do so. They are just basically welfare custodians who are great at blackmailing soft-hearted fools.
“wiping out a people. Face it.”
No, I won’t, because that’s not what’s happening. 300 people have been killed. This is a horror and a tragedy, but there are 1.5 million people in Gaza. The Israelis aren’t wiping anything out. Stop exaggerating.
The only way this insanity is going to stop is if the US puts pressure on both sides equally and the rest of the international community follows suit. This means the US must cut off all aid to Israel, suspend diplomatic relations and support condemnatory resolutions in the UN. It also means we have to force Hamas to come to reason and stop doing things like shell Israel. The chances of this happening are nil. But that’s what I think must happen.
@Meryl Yourish:
You’ve clearly got it wrong Meryl. I’m perfectly OK with you being a hawk. But even hawks have to get their facts right & yours aren’t. Hamas has clearly & repetitively agreed to negotiations with Israel. It is ISRAEL which has refused to talk to Hamas. You may argue that Israel shouldn’t negotiate with Hamas. But saying that Hamas doesn’t want to negotiate w. Israel is just plain wrong.
If you read Haaretz, btw you’ll find that Ehud Barak used the past 6 months to upgrade the IDF in preparation for this invasion. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, don’t you think?
Believe me, you’re not horrifying me. People who horrify me (in terms of making me aware of how depraved Jews can be) are the ones who call me “vile filth” as one did today. You’d have to go a lot farther than what you’ve done to horrify me.
@jsilverheels: THere is much that I agree with toward the end of yr comment & much that I strongly disagree with earlier in it. But you should be more careful in your reading. You’re criticizing statements made not by me, but by another reader.
@barni: You and Aussie Dave are truly pathetic. Are you complaining about FOXNews which published a story about toilet seats which I merely commented on? I didn’t think so. Really, you’re so transparent it’s ridiculous.
How did Hamas mock the Shalit family? I must’ve missed that. We all agree that Shalit should be free. But do pls. inform us about the privileged info you have that hasn’t been shared by anyone else on this subject.
As for fighting to the last drop of blood, you seem quite willing to fight to the last drop of Israeli blood. Are other Israelis quite as willing to do so? Especially if there are serious casualties in the coming ground assault?
Israel declared war on Hamas, buddy. Hamas fired rockets at Israel that hardly injured anyone in the past few months & certainly never killed anyone. That’s what you call war?
This is absolutely disgusting.
These rockets have killed 15 Israelis in 8 years. The Gazan mortar fire has killed 8 Israelis in 8 years.
The reporting on this massacre suggests it’s Hamas fault. Yea, Hamas continued to fire rockets AFTER ISRAEL broke the truce and AFTER ISRAEL starved the Gazans.
This is a joke. The only reason this is tolerated is because of US support. There is no good or evil. There is only interests.
And Richard praises J Street as if they’re any different from OUR Left-wing.
They are just a faction of 1 party. The left harps on about the rocket fire as well.
So Israel kills almost 300 people IN ONE DAY as opposed to 15 people in 8 years. Israel injures 1000 people in ONE DAY. Many of these 1000 people will die because before the massacre Israel wouldn’t allow medicine and food into Gaza. With further fighting how will these people get medical attention?
This is disgusting. Israel should be dismantled. It is a STAIN on humanity and a cause for ALL the conflict in that region.
“Have we been willing to be cowed by the Greeks, Romans, European Crusaders, Spanish Inquisitors, Czars, Nazis, British or any Arab state through our own history? Then why should we expect things will be different with the Palestinians?”
BECAUSE THEY ARE INFERIOR!
It occurred to me that this is like one of Dick Cheney’s “canned” hunts. In fact, this may be one of Dick Cheney’s “canned” hunts! No, on second thought, this is more likely to be Elliott Abrams’ handiwork.
When I saw Pelosi’s comments on Israel’s “Ynet News”, I immediately went to the Democratic Party website. I used their ‘contact us’ to paste in her insipid remarks and inform them that I was leaving the Democratic Party for the Green Party. I’m beginning to regret having made several thousand dollars in contributions to the Democrats (party & candidates) this past election cycle.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3645321,00.html
Pelosi: US must stand strongly with Israel
Published: 12.28.08, 03:13 / Israel News
Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi issued a statement concerning the Israeli operation in Gaza in which she wrote that “When Israel is attacked, the United States must continue to stand strongly with its friend and democratic ally.”
According to Pelosi, “Peace between Israelis and Palestinians cannot result from daily barrages of rocket and mortar fire from Hamas-controlled Gaza. Hamas and its supporters must understand that Gaza cannot and will not be allowed to be a sanctuary for attacks on Israel.” (Yitzhak Benhorin, Washington)
“the IDF has defiled* a delightful children’s poem”
*THE WORD “PERVERTED” COMES TO MIND!
@Marc: Your comment is full of hopelessly out of date ideas about what constitutes a Diaspora Jew & what constitutes a Zionist. In fact, if things go on for Israel as they have lately, it will be the Diaspora that will survive while Israel self-destructs.
“Hamas does not want to negotiate with Israel.”
Yawn.
Hamas has no more interest in peace than Israel does.
Both sides bide their time, carry out acts of aggression, then everything goes quiet again.
It just so happens one side is militarily more sophisticated and has the ability to cause utter destruction, while the other does not.