Look Who’s Seeking the Final Solution Now

It’s a scene straight out of the Zombie apocalypse”. With these words Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, the solemn-faced Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, began his broadcast. Over the next 15 minutes he walked his horrified audience through the merciless torture inflicted by Hamas upon innocent Israelis, babies included, sleeping in their beds in settlements bordering Gaza.

The “ISIS-style brutalities”—the worst attack by Hamas, the radical Islamist group that governs the Gaza Strip—on Israeli soil, has triggered Tel Aviv to declare a “state of war”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is returning fire “of a magnitude that the enemy (Hamas) has not known”.

Whether the Israeli counter-offensive will ultimately suc­ceed in eliminating the attack’s mastermind, Mohammed Deif, the shadowy leader of the Hamas military wing, remains to be seen. But as of now, Israel’s counter-measures have galvanised the global ‘wokery’ to protest the “never-ending occupation” of Palestine. Many rights activists, some in Israel too, have urged the world to focus on the “root causes” of the conflict.

There’s no doubt that Israel has been in occupation of Pales­tine since 1948 and has been, self-admittedly, high-handed in its treatment of Palestinian Arabs. Israel has often exhibited a predilection—verging on paranoia—for pre-emptive action, going into Gaza in hot pursuit of Palestinian ‘insurgents’, with little regard for colateral damage or even due process. It is true that Israel’s excesses have spawned a cycle of retribution that has escalated into war. Could Israel have done more to negotiate a just solution? Sure. But to be sure, there can never be any justification for terrorism. And Hamas’ cross-border murder and kidnapping of ordinary Israelis—no matter the provocation—qualifies as a gross outrage against humanity.

But then Hamas is a terror organisation.

‘Islamo-leftists’ will take offence to Israel’s ‘apartheid’ against Palestinians and the “illegal occupation” of Palestine, but they won’t tell you that Hamas isn’t fighting for mere independence.

The war being waged on Israel, much like in India’s Kashmir, isn’t about liberating Palestine, but it’s about liberating the land from ‘infidels’.

The Hamas Covenant that outlines the organisation’s goals is a shocking document that drips with vengeful xenophobia. It’s a call to every Muslim to strive for the annihilation of all Jews.

Sample Article 7 of the foundation document of Hamas. It advocates a veritable ‘Final Solution’ of Hitlerian proportions: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’”

If the conflict was merely a battle for ‘azaadi’, why would that freedom have to come at the ghoulish cost of the total annihila­tion of the Jewish race? Why would Taliban fighters want Iran and Syria to open their borders so that the Afghan Mujahideen can fight someone else’s war?

It isn’t as if US-based Christian supremacists are calling upon the European Union (EU) to open all its land borders so they can get a clear passage all the way to Nagorno-Karabakh to fight along­side Armenian Christians against Azeri Muslims.

Make no mistake, Hamas is fighting a 21st-century version of the medieval crusades and what’s scary is that it has been voted to govern Gaza by ordinary, so-called peace-loving, Palestinians.

It’s not even as if the State of Israel was set up to wage a holy war on Muslims, so that there’s not a trace left of them on earth. There are no parallels between the Israeli constitution and the Hamas Covenant.

Today, those who so readily draw a moral equivalence between Israelis and Palestinians must ask themselves what would truly happen if Israel were to suddenly open the Gaza border. What if it were to allow unsupervised passage of Palestinians into Jewish neighbourhoods? Can these votaries of Palestinian rights guaran­tee that Israelis won’t be murdered in their homes like they were a few days ago? Especially when one considers that a fair share of ‘peace-loving’ Palestinians voted with a mindset that remains ob­sessed with ensuring that “Jews will hide behind rocks and trees”.

The ‘root cause’ argument being so blithely put forth is an abominable attempt to normalise xenophobia. The peddlers of this narrative just as easily rationalise terror attacks in Kashmir. After all, doesn’t Pakistan say that there can be no peace till the ‘root cause’, code for the Kashmir issue, is addressed?

Even so, one could have had some sympathy for the ‘root cause’ argument had Palestinians not voted for Hamas to cleanse the Holy Land in their God’s name.

A recent poll conducted in Gaza concluded that a majority of Palestinians would vote again for ‘The Islamic Resistance Movement’, aka Hamas.

The Hamas mission statement leaves no room for compromise, no pull-back to “pre-1967” status or a “two-state solution”, where Israelis and Palestinians can live side-by-side in eternal peace. Hamas instead believes: “[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peace­ful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement… Those confer­ences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitra­tors in the lands of Islam… There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals, and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.”

It is this fear of a looming genocide that keeps Israel up at night. It is this fear of genocide that makes it retreat into a carapace of exclusivism: to raise the metaphorical drawbridge of human intercourse to distance the blood-thirsty rabble at its border.

In the face of such existential peril, is it fair to place the onus of peace on Israelis alone? To grudge them the right to defend their nation? Haven’t the majority of Palestinians who have voted for the modern-day iteration of a mid-20th century version of the Final Solution surrendered their right to be called victims?

About The Author

Rahul Shivshankar

Rahul Shivshankar is Consulting Editor, Network 18

•