My father was an Israeli soldier in Lebanon during the first Lebanon War. My mother was Israeli Intelligence during Desert Storm. No matter who I talk to in my family, they all claim that this war is different from anything we’ve seen before. I’d like to turn attention to the article on Foreign Policy “Israel’s Rewarding Road to Normalization”. This article paints a picture of immense progress by Israel in stabilizing the situation between itself and most Arab countries through the Abraham Accords. In that same vein, the Friedman article “Biden and Mother Nature Have Reshaped the Middle East ” literally sings the praises of certain Middle Eastern countries becoming less antagonistic to one another as a result of America becoming less involved.
To me, there seem to be two conversations about the Middle East that it is important to differentiate between. The first, is the larger area that people often refer to as the Middle East but often includes any Muslim country East of Morocco and West of Afghanistan. The second, is Israel and its neighbors plus Iran. The important distinction here is that the Arab-Israeli conflict does not generally hinge on trade or economics. Meanwhile the larger Middle East conversation is often very much about trade deals and normalized relations. The Abraham Accords are a sign that Israel is becoming more interested in the larger Middle East conversation. This has the potential for immense good, as Israel has a lot to offer in technology, agriculture and entrepreneurship. However, it would be a mistake to assume that one conversation becoming more normalized and peaceful has any bearing on the other.
One of the novel parts of this war with Hamas is that it is not against an internationally recognized government and there was no formal declaration of war the way there was in 48′ or 67′. This was a surprise attack by a terrorist organization that was met with a sizeable military response which is still ongoing. When dealing with organizations like Hamas or Hezbollah it is important to remember that no matter what countries Israel normalizes relations with, Hamas, Hezbollah and PIJ will still want to wipe Israel off the map. The articles I mentioned above made the mistake of thinking that peace applies equally everywhere. This could not be further from the truth.
Iran continues to back Hezbollah both politically and materially, and it continues to run operations in Syria. Hamas and PIJ continue to purposefully target Israeli civilians and use the most densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods as bases of operation to force Israel to drive up the civilian casualty count in order to fight them effectively. These actors are not interested in peace with Israel and without regime change for all of them no one should expect anything different.
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One reply on “Week 9”
Yehuda,
Sadly, I cannot disagree with your final conclusion in this interesting blog post. Obviously, I chose the readings for this week’s assignment long before the horrific attack in southern Israel by Hamas. Somehow, much of the world had somewhat come to overlook the threat posed by Hamas and Hezbollah (and Iran) and mainly saw the potential of what could be accomplished after normalization of relations. But the barbaric Hamas attack has brought the focus back sharply to the immediate threat(s) that Israel faces. I do believe that, this time, Israel has no choice but to eliminate Hamas as a political and military threat, no how difficult and bloody the challenge of doing so. –Professor Wallerstein