It will be misguided to think that the current bloody war in Middle East started on 7th October. It also didn’t start in 1948 when the modern State of Israel was set up. These are just battles in a long war, perhaps the longest war in history of the world.
The Jews have had a very complex history since the first lot of exiled Jews in some 770 BC from the Kingdom of Israel and later Kingdom of Judea. Most of Jewish history and narratives have been of exile, persecutions and yearning for a return to a peaceful land of Israel. Israel is the land promised to Abraham by God.
Palestinians are also descendants of people who lived in these lands. Over the centuries there have been migrations into and out of the land. Palestinians became Muslims under Islamic rule but were of Christian, Jewish and other indigenous faiths before then. There are still a lot of Christian Palestinians.
Christians also believe in the idea of the Promised Land and Paul is considered to have said that the Land was promised to Abraham for the seed of God, meaning followers of Christ.
And then there is Jerusalem, a small piece of earth holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims. The holiest of land in there is only about 3000 feet (900 m) quadrangle in each direction. In there is the Western Wailing Wall, the Al Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of The mount, the Temple Mount and the Church of Holy Sepulchre. There is also the oldest Armenian settlement with parts of this small real estate divided into Jewish Quarter, Christian Quarter and Armenian Quarter as well as of course the Muslim part.
Without going into the history of bloody conflicts between the three religions for control of this small piece of earth and why it is important to each of them and the reasons for the wars over the larger Promised land, it is not difficult to see why the war has been going on for well over two and a half thousand years.
Since the exiles, of which there have been a few, the Jews have also maintained their cohesion through a vision of taking back the Promised Land. Sometimes they went back, only to be pushed out again.
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Christians have waged crusades to take back the land where Jesus grew up and Muslims have defeated the Crusaders to regain control over the area where Prophet Mohammed rose to heaven.
When Israel was formed in 1948, it was land of hope and peace for Jews who had just suffered the worst form of European antisemitism at the hands of Germans, the holocaust. Israel was carved out of land where Palestinians lived. The Botching British as usual were behind this and just as everywhere else the British have carved States without regard to regional communities, they didn’t consult Palestinians, but left a legacy of bitterness and conflict. India and Pakistan are still not reconciled to their borders and neither are many tribes in ex colonial States in Africa to their countries. Not surprising, Israel and Palestinians are not the best of neighbours either.
The rhetoric on both sides is unrealistic when transposed on the longest tapestry of history. Jerusalem is more than 5,000 years old! The Promised Land is also one of the oldest narrative over which conflicts and more conflicts have influenced people.
Efforts to eliminate one or other, of depriving one or other of access to this land and of destroying ‘forever’ one movement or other have just been pendulating from one side to the other. Even today, Christian Evangelists in USA dream of retaking the land, but first letting Jews take it all and then either to make a pact with them or some think, drive them out.
When Netanyahu and members of his Government and some western countries say that Hamas must be destroyed and eliminated, neither history nor reality is on their side. Hamas is an idea of resistance against what it perceives as Israel oppression and deprivation of its land. It can be called terrorist etc, but the idea will carry on.
When Hamas and its backers say that Israel must be wiped from the land, they too are talking nonsense. A yearning, a hope and a vision that has been deeply embedded in the religious, cultural and national narrative of Jews for thousands of years, isn’t going to rest or be ‘wiped out’ if it hasn’t so far.
Currently both are pawns in power games of others. The United States is desperate to show a win after disastrous ventures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. A win in Israel-Hamas conflict, even if diplomatic, will be seen by it as a road to regaining its posture in the world. Obviously America does not want to expend much resources, as it considers a looming conflict with China could be very draining. Moreover it is already stretched in Ukraine and seeking an end to that conflict.
On the other side is Iran which is seeking dominance in the Muslim world. It is often shunned by many Sunni Arab countries both for being non Arab and being Shia. Iran sees Israel a major obstacle and exploits Israel’s unpopularity among Muslims as a leverage to dominate the Israel-Arab relations.
Almost all Arab States are dictators or Monarchies. They don’t have any appetite for wars as long as they are comfortable in their Kingdoms and not under threat from Israel. But their populations are unhappy with Israel, so they have to show anger and support for Palestinians.
Ultimately, just as it is up to Indians and Pakistanis to find peace with each other to escape enslavement to the narrative left for them by the British, it is for wiser Israeli Jews and Palestinians to sit and find areas of compromise and settlement.
Otherwise this is an ever ending war. In the short run, Israel can indeed push all Palestinians out, given its colossal firepower. However Hamas has learnt a lot from previous conflicts and is trained by Iran. It will weaken Israel if not resist it altogether. So far Iran has been deft at winning conflicts through very clever manoeuvrings and tactics.
A weakened Israel can face great danger. Judaism is not a proselytising religion as Christianity or Islam is. The Jews are surrounded by millions and millions of Muslims with huge resources. If Muslims rise en masse, the history of exile and conflicts will return. Let not history repeat itself. This is an opportunity to find long lasting peace. That is the only desirable final solution. There are no other final solutions that have worked in history.
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