A two-state solution? Been there done that. Israel was state one, Gaza was state two. Gaza was under the armed political leadership of Hamas for almost two decades. It was a violent co-existence and hasn’t ended well.
While President Trump’s controversial ‘Gaza reset’ idea is an optimistic and gymnastic response to the immediate geographic challenge, the real challenge lies not in who rebuilds and runs the Gaza strip but how to shut down the deadly fumes of ideology on which the Hamas engine runs: the inter-generational hatred of Jews as a people and Israel as a nation.
(By the way, accusations that Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza is imperialism or colonisation ignores the fact his announcement was watched with a smile on his face by the bloke on his right at the podium: Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel. They had just concluded a lengthy meeting; it was no doubt discussed. And after all, it was Israel who handed Gaza to Hamas.)
With some 70 per cent of Gazans favouring Hamas and its barbaric, hate-filled behaviour, any sympathy in democracies (and on protest marchers) for the ‘innocent civilian’ population is some 70 per cent misplaced.
As the old saying goes, you can take the population out of Gaza but you can’t take the hatred out of the population. School children grow up staging plays where they kill Jews and shout hate. Beyond the textbooks, a report by UN Watch has exposed how teachers incite Arab Palestinian children to antisemitism and terrorism. That’s a major choke point in the ideology that must be choked shut before any peace can be shaped – no matter where Gazans live. (Where are they living now? Among the rubble? And struggling against broken infrastructure destroyed as a result of Hamas’ violence?)
Lights, music … and guns, as dozens of school children armed with toy assault weapons enact a choreographed assault against other children playing Jews in an arena filled with many hundreds of spectators, comprising their parents, teachers, and jihadists. The music pounds dramatically as the children swing 180 degrees with their weapons thrust forward in threatening unison. A school full of hate.
The performers, aged 10-16, had been recruited by al-Qassam Brigade of the terrorist organisation Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), allegedly focused on the schools run by aid agencies and, of course, some mosques.
Much like the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2021, driven by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s expansionary ideology built on mischaracterised history, the Gaza-based illegal Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, was also driven by ideology, built on mischaracterised history – and the enduring hatred of Jews.
Likewise, it is not the defeat of Putin’s army that is essential for genuine long-term cessation of hostilities, it is the defeat of his ideology, his utterly unrealistic view of Ukraine. Ditto Hamas and Israel.
The world has not eradicated Nazi ideology like some virus, but it has delivered a physical defeat and such a crushing moral victory that the movement is reduced to living like a cockroach.
On the sane side of the world, ‘Nazi’ is shamed as an insult. The sort of extremism that Hamas and their followers practice, requires a similar crushing victory against it.
The ‘pro-Palestinian’ protesters pouring hate fuel on Israel are doing exactly what the Nazis did. May they end up derided and shunned, seeking forever a dark hiding place.
Andrew L. Urban is a journalist and the author of several books, including two on President Zelensky of Ukraine.