harry rakowski: gaza's path to peace will be difficult, but there is a way
it's up to palestinians to reject their leaders' hatred for israel and the poor quality of life that comes with
5 minute read
a child wrapped in an israeli flag looks over a river during the "walk for peace in israel" in support of the people of israel, in belgrade on oct. 15, 2023, following the oct. 7 hamas attacks in israel.
andrej isakovic/afp via getty images
as much of the world condemns the degree of death and destruction in gaza, let’s put the war into historical perspective. the conflict between israel and hamas has been filled with the ravages of war and antisemitism that the world has seen before. hitler wanted to exterminate all jews in the 1930s and 1940s, as does hamas now with its supporters. in hitler’s war against the world, six million jews were rounded up and murdered. the need to defeat hitler’s visions of world domination led to immense numbers of civilian and military deaths. this included about 24 million russians, about eight million germans, three million japanese and more than 400,000 soldiers from each of the united states and the united kingdom. canada also suffered about 45,000 military deaths. much of europe was in rubble after the destruction that resulted, yet an enduring peace finally came, and germany and japan eventually thrived.
in gaza, there have been upwards of 20,000 deaths. many of those killed have been hamas terrorists. the bombing is not simply indiscriminate. it targets areas of hamas rocket sites and bases of operation, as well as the network of tunnels whose sole purpose is to support terrorist activity. it tragically kills and wounds civilians purposely put in harm’s way. if a person’s house is used to launch rockets, why should they expect to not have their house targeted? as in all wars, there is also unintended collateral damage despite best efforts to limit it.
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there are no winners in war, only those who lose less. the war against the evil that is hamas is no exception. the group’s brutality was evident as it slaughtered 1,200 israelis, raped women, butchered babies and confirmed its commitment to destroy israel “from the river to the sea.” no peace can come until hamas is neutralized and ceases to be an existential threat to israel.
terrorist leaders prosper by keeping their people in poverty and misery to blame an external enemy. the acceptance of israel as a scapegoat is likely why the majority of gazans are reported to support hamas, despite the harm the group has done to palestinians. hamas’s leaders live in opulent luxury, while their siphoning-off of aid leaves their supporters in dire poverty.
when israel goes after those who would destroy it, there is furious condemnation. when turkey murders kurds, china kills uyghurs, iran and russia murder dissenters, there is polite and limited disapproval. when the iran-iraq war of the 1980s resulted in more than one million deaths as muslims killed each other, did we see protests and marches in north american streets? where were the demonstrations at harvard? where were the protests in 1971, when king hussein of jordan cracked down on palestinian extremists in jordan, killing about 3,000 and expelling 20,000?
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israel isn’t going to eliminate all of the tens of thousands of hamas terrorists, let alone their non-combatant suppliers in the gazan population. at best, it can degrade their ability to launch more attacks by destroying infrastructure, eliminating hamas leadership and restricting the influx of new weapons. hamas will only stand down when it is on the brink of failure and its remaining leadership wants to survive. hopefully, that day is near.
gaza and the west bank have a history steeped in war. in 1948, egypt, syria, lebanon, iraq and jordan attacked israel after it became a state. their defeat and the eventual ceasefire resulted in jordan controlling the west bank and egypt the gaza strip. after the six-day war in 1967, israel took control of both regions, as well as the golan heights and east jerusalem, in the hope of reducing further attacks on its soil. the history of war is that losers usually give up territory and control.
in 1993, the oslo accords resulted in yasser arafat, the leader of the palestine liberation organization, and israeli prime minister yitzhak rabin agreeing to cede control of gaza and the west bank to a newly-created palestinian authority. the hope for peace didn’t ensue. rather, decades of conflict and the loss of thousands of arab and israeli lives followed. it intensified after hamas seized control of gaza in 2006.
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so what is the path to peace now if a ceasefire can be negotiated, more hostages are released and arab countries such as egypt, qatar and saudi arabia broker negotiations? the easy part will be the rapid flow of aid and the establishment of field hospitals to treat the sick and injured. the hard part will be to establish a government that excludes hamas and recognizes israel and its right to exist. the palestinian authority has been proposed, but it is highly corrupt and remains hostile to israel. yet it may be the least bad choice for now.
the large amount of humanitarian aid for reconstruction has to be funnelled through an honest broker who will limit its misuse. egypt may be the best option as a u.s. ally and the country in control of gaza’s southern border. israel can play a role in supplying technical support for building schools, hospitals, agriculture and sustainable industry. gazans will have to choose whether their long-term quality of life will be degraded by ongoing hate, or improved by the acceptance of israel and the rewards of peace.
germany and japan, members of the axis of evil in the second world war, chose peace and thrived. their populations, however, weren’t radicalized. rather, they simply followed their leaders who promoted antisemitism and world domination. gazans have endured hamas’s theft of their aid while rejecting agricultural and technical support from israel.
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a cessation of hostilities may be on the horizon, and perhaps even a path to long-term aid and reconstruction if hamas is ousted from gaza’s leadership. long-lasting peace will not come until the poison of hate against jews is replaced by a savouring for the fruits of peace. for now, we need to accept the possible and hope for that which still seems improbable.
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editor’s note: a previous version of this column stated that arabs killed each other in the iran-iraq war. it has since been revised to reflect the fact that the war was fought between muslims, not arabs.
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