On the Palestine Question: Resolving the ‘Samsonian’ riddle?
By Tiko Okoye
Last Sunday incredulously marked a whole six months since a war between the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and Hamas was ignited by a very deadly cross-border attack in Israel. The ‘conflict’ between Hamas and Israeli fighters is eerily mirroring the same path Russia’s much-touted two-day “special military operations” took in Ukraine – an operation that has transformed into an over-two-year war of grinding battles!
Several developments have occurred within the six-month period of the war. Latest reports indicate that more than 33,000 Palestinians have since been killed and over 75,000 injured – about two-thirds of the casualties being women, children and the aged- amid massive destruction of infrastructures.
The Israeli government foisted a crippling economic blockade against the enclave, meaning no food, no medicines, no electricity, no fuel and no water for the Palestinian population. While my sympathy goes to Israel for bombing several hospitals, apartment buildings and offices based on credible intel that Hamas operatives were using fellow Palestinians in such places as human shields, Netanyahu still ought to have known better than to fall into Hamas’ trap and succumb to its propaganda.
Truth be told, Hamas must’ve decided before October 7 what the most likely response of Israel would be and would’ve factored in advance what catastrophes and sacrifices must be endured in terms of the numbers of deaths and injured as well as infrastructural degradation prior to when a moralistic world would intervene.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hawkish ultra-Orthodox partners constituting the Israeli government are at a military crossroads. They should either focus on getting the hostages safely out or remain focused on exterminating Hamas no matter the cost. The choices are mutually exclusive. Given the manner they’ve neither deeply cared for the safety of the hostages nor vigorously sought their early release is a clear indication that Israel has opted to bestially focus on forcing Palestinians off their lands, beginning with the Gaza Strip, in the guise of stamping out Hamas.
It’s indeed very ironical that just as the Nazi German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler had considered the extermination of the Jewish race as his “final solution,” Netanyahu and his hawkish cohorts, in failing to imbibe the hard lessons taught by history, have equally seen the extermination of the Palestinian “animals” as their “final solution.” The silver lining in the dark cloud is that the question of whether the world could accept such a mindless ethnic cleansing project was recently emphatically answered in the negative.
The Gaza Strip is a relatively tiny ‘thread’ of land, measuring 41 miles long and 12 miles wide – just about one-third the size of Greater London. Given the intensity of the Israel onslaught against an enemy without tanks, military jets and warships of its own in the longest war involving Israel in recent memory, it is a wonder that even an insect is still crawling on the soil in that narrow space. An increasing number of cynics are beginning to question – in light of Netanyahu’s very low popularity rating (low 20s) and massive street protests calling on him to resign for his underwhelming performance since October 7 – whether he isn’t just dragging out the conflict to prevent the collapse of his extremist right-wing ruling coalition and extend his time in office.
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The war has since caused ramifications beyond the borders of Gaza. It has frozen the Abraham Accords so painstakingly crafted by the President Donald Trump administration. It has strained Israel’s standing within the international community. It has also sparked unrest in many Arab and western countries, especially in the USA where young and progressive voters and Arab-Americans are vowing to punish Biden at the November presidential election for what they perceive as his blind support for Israel.
Israel’s bombing of the Iranian Consulate in Syria, where several military attaches, including a visiting top general, were killed might just expand the war into a much wider regional conflict with very grave consequences for the peace and security of the entire Middle East region. The world now awaits with bated breadth for the nature and extent of an inevitable Iranian reprisal attack.
I remain convinced that if the Catholic Sinn Fein and the Protestant Ulster Unionist/Democratic Unionist Alliance could sign a peace treaty in Northern Ireland after more than 40 years of very brutal sectarian violence, the same is possible between Israel and Palestine. It’s just that politicians currently occupying top leadership positions are more interested in using fear-mongering to promote their political careers at the expense of their nation.
A raging and vengeful Israeli government is now clearly on a collision course with its top allies over the fate of Rafah. While Netanyahu is maintaining that the city must be invaded to uproot the last Hamas bastions in Gaza, Israel’s allies beg to disagree. The allies aver that a likely collateral damage involving an estimated 10,000-15,000 Palestinian civilian deaths is a steep price the world isn’t ready to accept and have warned that it be “a grave mistake.”
The UK’s foreign minister David Cameron has warned that his country would temporarily halt the shipment of arms to Israel as a retaliatory measure should Israel invade Rafah, with another top ally, the USA, demanding to first be presented with a credible plan to protect the civilian population – a request Israel is yet to accede to.
And just when it seemed Netanyahu has blinked first by reportedly ordering a withdrawal of IDF troops from southern Gaza, a defiant announcement came like a thunderbolt from his office that the invasion must still proceed at a time of his choosing, if Israel’s goals of “releasing all hostages and achieving a complete victory over Hamas are to be realised.”
Netanyahu’s outburst came just hours after news reports suggested Hamas and Israeli negotiators – joined by negotiators from Egypt, Qatar and the US – were only two days away from signing an agreement that would’ve temporarily halted the fighting, while progress continues to be made towards sustainably ending the bloodiest war in the Middle East since the war between Iran and Iraq.
Maybe and maybe not it was intended to serve as a nothing-is-off-the-table negotiation tactic to further arm-twist the Hamas leadership. Whichever it is, someone like US President Joe Biden would certainly loath to see riotous mobs protesting the way he has handled the conflict in front of the venue of this year’s Democratic Party National Nominating Convention (DPNNC) in Chicago – the very same city where similar spectacles organised by anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 DPNNC played out on television screens across the nation.
The horrifying images of fully armed policemen engaged in bloody battles with protesters was adjudged to be one of the major reasons why Vice President Hubert “the Happy Warrior” Humphrey – whose electoral victory was taken for granted until that very moment – ultimately lost to the GOP candidate, Richard Nixon. Biden certainly won’t allow lightning to strike in the same place twice, meaning that he must find a way to make Israel agree to an immediate ceasefire to allow relief materials to go into Gaza, and hostages to go out to his electoral credit.
And this is where the Samsonian riddle comes into play. The Scriptures recount how Samson easily tore a lion that came roaring against him apart with his bare hands. After some time, when he passed by the place, he was amazed to find a swarm of bees and honey inside the carcass of the dead lion. Samson then asked a group of Philistine men to correctly solve and explain the riddle he was going to pose with an attached reward: Out of the eater came something to eat. And out of the strong came something sweet.
After ferreting the secret out of the woman Samson was intending to marry, by blackmailing her to entice Samson to divulge the answer to her, they then approached Samson with a swagger in their gait: What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? Ruing the powerful influence a woman’s cunning, Samson lamented: If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle!
It has become imperative for the USA to plow with the Israeli heifer to correctly solve the more than 50-year-old riddle posed by the Palestine Question. America may be Israel’s major supporter, but it’s worth noting that every landmark peace accord and positive behaviour involving Israel have been spearheaded by American administrations.
With Netayanhu deeply unpopular right now in Israel, and given the way young and progressive segments of the US population are openly pushing for a more balanced and equitable handling of the Israel/Palestine riddle by a US President, the opportunity now avails itself to extract sweet honey out of the strength of the Israeli lion. All that’s required is a US President with the political will and a visionary Israeli PM trusted by his people.