In Gaza, Both Sides Have Lost the War

The Tyee. Excerpt: read on "In Gaza, Both Sides Have Lost the War"  

But both sides can win the peace, too. Here’s how.

Crawford Kilian 22 Jan 2024

The Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Jan. 19, 2024, following bombardment from Israel. Photo by Adel Hana via the Associated Press.

The war in Gaza is now well into its second 100 days. Whatever the Israel Defence Forces do in Gaza, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is already losing the support of Israel’s friends around the world. His government’s chief tactic seems to be to continue the strategy that Hamas exploited in its Oct. 7 attacks, and to convert the conflict into a forever war.

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The charge of genocide is just one example of Netanyahu’s failure. I have read South Africa’s 84-page application to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, and I have read the 74 pages of rebuttals by the team of Israel’s defenders.

The ICJ hearings mean that Israel still has enough concern for world opinion to defend its actions in Gaza, rather than ignoring South Africa and other critics of the war. Canada has said we will abide by the court’s decision. But whatever the ICJ decides, Israel has put itself and its friends in an impossible position.

Both sides argue their cases with passion and complex legal reasoning. Both sides tend to skip evidence that weakens their argument, and to dismiss the other side’s evidence. The most striking example of that is the team of Israel’s defenders when they shrug off Israeli politicians’ violent anti-Palestinian rhetoric: “Sometimes statements are made which are ‘nothing more than a part of the recent war-time rhetoric intending to put the blame and shame on the other side.’ Not to be totally ignored, but not to be ascribed an importance which belies how and when they were made, nor of legal significance.”

Owen Jones, a columnist with the Guardian, presented some of that “war-time rhetoric” from major government officials:

• Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.”

• Israel’s minister of defence, Yoav Gallant: “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”

• Israel’s Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian: “Human animals are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza, no electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”