In these trying times for Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims and Jews, it is important for American Muslims and their supporters to be morally consistent. We are on solid ground condemning an Israeli government which regards Palestinians as second class. We are justified in demanding a course correction for our own government which essentially gave a green light to Israel’s war on Gaza, knowing full well that it would be reckless with Palestinian lives.

At the same time, we need to take an unequivocal stand against groups which seek the annihilation of Israel in the name of Islam. 

Put aside for a moment anything one could find in the Qur’an to supposedly justify that stance. Consider only what is best for Palestinian families, Israeli families, and everyone else. Apart from ego gratification, no one benefits when a Hamas leader promises more attacks like that of October 7, with the goal of annihilating Israel.

No one. Such talk and thinking will only lead to more horror and suffering. It should infuriate Muslims everywhere.

Hamas is bad news. If Allah wants a Palestinian state from the river to the sea, Allah will find a way. In the meantime, Muslims are obliged to observe Islam faithfully, and reject terror and hatred of any people. Muslims are called to return evil with something better.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Allowing for some difference of opinion as to what that phrase means exactly, it is fair to say the most obvious one envisions the elimination of Israel. 

That is not helpful now, and I cannot imagine a time when it will be. 

Muslims everywhere should rally around the two-state solution, including the abandonment of every Israeli settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

With all settlements removed from Palestinian territory, Israel would still retain 78 percent of historical Palestine. That is not fair to the Palestinians, but it is the best deal within reach. Someday, Allah-willing, there might be some accommodation of the Palestinian right of return, but first there must be sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Because 78 percent of historical Palestine is plenty fair to Israelis, it is eminently reasonable for peace-loving people to insist on it.

What Israel has unleashed on Gaza will far exceed the horrors Hamas committed  on October 7, and the on-going hostage nightmare. It will fuel more unrest and worse in both Gaza and the West Bank. 

Since trying to destroy Hamas will surely backfire, what should Israel do instead? It can undermine Hamas politically, and any other Palestinian elements that resort to terror, by reversing its settlement policy and committing to an honest-to-God Palestinian state.

America has made clear its unflinching support of Israel’s right to defend itself. But once again, Israel’s way of going about defending itself seems unconcerned with Palestinian lives. We would be a better friend if we were frank that our support henceforward depends on Israel negotiating a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority.

President Biden should have known better than to give a green light to Israeli retaliation. True, he has pushed for humanitarian assistance, warned Israelis not to be consumed by rage, sought to delay an invasion, talked of a Palestinian state, and condemned settler violence in the West Bank.  He strongly advised against a preemptive attack on Hezbollah to the north. (His questioning the credibility of fatality figures coming out of Gaza was not helpful. Suppose they are inflated: hasn’t Israel’s collective punishment destroyed enough lives, families and neighborhoods?)

Ending the carnage and the siege of Gaza, ending settler violence in the West Bank, and pushing for a Palestinian state need to be our priorities. If we have fourteen billion more dollars to spend on Israeli security, on top of the billions we annually provide, let’s earmark it for making the new Palestine a reality. How many Israeli settlers could be enticed to relocate to Israel proper? With billions to spare, we could rebuild Gaza.

In the immediate, we need a cease-fire, as Congresswoman Cori Bush’s resolution of October 16 calls for.

Marc Lynch recently wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine that Israeli leaders had come to believe that “massively disproportionate” military responses to Hamas attacks in 2008, 2014, and 2021, which killed thousands of Gazan civilians, had taught Hamas a lesson. 

More recently, Lynch writes: “the steady escalation of Israeli land grabs and military-backed settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank created an angry, mobilized public….”

In 2018, the “Great March  of Return”, a nonviolent campaign to challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza, ended in bloodshed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on protesters (as well as journalists and medics). In 2021, by contrast, Lynch writes that “Hamas leaders believed that they scored significant political gains with the broader Palestinian public by firing missiles at Israel during intense clashes in Jerusalem over Israeli confiscation of Palestinian homes and over Israeli leaders’ provocations in the al Aqsa mosque complex…”

As long as it has enjoyed military preponderance, peace has simply not been urgent for Israel. Why? Because power does not check itself. (see: https://getrealwithisrael.com/2023/10/29/good-theory-and-the-moral-clarity-trap/). And no one in the Israeli government wants to tell those settlers they are going to have to leave. But that will be the price of real peace. With all settlements vacated, Israel would retain 78 percent of historical Palestine.

In 2011, Hamas temporarily suspended violence in order to attempt a unity government with the moderate faction, Fatah. This was an important opportunity, and it would not last long. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could not be bothered: Israel would not negotiate with any government that included Hamas. (But when was Netanyahu ever serious about negotiating peace with Fatah?)

Netanyahu said at the time that the 1967 border was indefensible, the occupation of Palestinian territory was necessary for Israeli security, Israel needed a military presence on the Jordan River, and there would be no division of Jerusalem. Further, George W. Bush had assured Israel it could count on keeping major settlements. But the American President was never authorized to negotiate for the Palestinians.

In 2010, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas proposed an international force to guard the 1967 border. That idea needed to be, and still needs to be, considered seriously.

Israelis will not know real peace and security until Palestinians know the same (see Appendix below). The best way for us to honor the lives of those slain on both sides, and put Hamas and terrorism in retreat, is to insist that Israel can no longer maintain an unjust order. As the prophets of the Abrahamic traditions warned, any society that ignores justice and oppresses others may not be long for this world.

Appendix

The following statements by members of Congress who voted against HR 771 on October 25, 2023 are excerpted from: “These 9 Democrats voted against resolution backing Israel, condemning Hamas”, The Hill, 10/25/23

(https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4276005-these-democrats-voted-against-resolution-backing-israel/)

Summer Lee (D-Pa.):

“The violence that continues to escalate in Israel and Palestine is devastating to watch. I once again strongly condemn the violence, terrorism, and hostage taking by Hamas that tore away the lives of over a thousand Israeli civilians….But we cannot allow innocent civilians in Gaza – including children – to continue to be collectively and inhumanely punished for Hamas’ horrific actions, as we’ve already seen Israeli airstrikes kill thousands of civilians against international human rights law, and force hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes….Continued retaliation against civilians will do nothing to end this tragic cycle of violence.”

Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.):

“The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer. No person, no child anywhere should have to suffer or live in fear of violence. We cannot ignore the humanity in each other….As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”

Cori Bush (D-MO):

“War and retaliatory violence doesn’t achieve accountability or justice; it only leads to more death and human suffering….The United States bears a unique responsibility to exhaust every diplomatic tool at our disposal to prevent mass atrocities and save lives…we need a ceasefire now.”

Jamaal Bowman (D-NY):

“We need open discussion of the root causes of this conflict to end this violence and stop Hamas once and for all and bring us to a peaceful two-state solution,” 

Andre Carson (D-Ind):

“This latest escalation of violence painfully demonstrates the urgent need for just and lasting peace….To achieve this, the US must rededicate ourselves and our resources to a real two-state solution, and call for the end of Israel’s unfair, two-tiered rule over the Palestinian people. This includes concrete steps to preserve the future of a Palestinian state.”

Al Green (D-TX):

“Winning a war while losing the peace likely portends future wars. Regrettably, the resolution at hand does not mention a two-state solution in tandem with the necessity to provide aid to the Palestinians, yet both are part and parcel to any hope for lasting peace….I was proud to see President Biden take a similar stance in his address to the nation of Israel on October 18th.”

Alexadria Ocasio-Cortex (D-NY):

“Today is devastating for all those seeking a lasting peace and respect for human rights in Israel and Palestine. I condemn Hamas’ attack in the strongest possible terms. No child and family should ever endure this kind of violence and fear, and this violence will not solve the ongoing oppression and occupation in the region….An immediate ceasefire and de-escalation is urgently needed to save lives.”

Ilhan Omar (D-Minn):

“Our position should be consistent in defending innocent lives. We must use diplomacy to secure the release of hostages, end the violence by negotiating a ceasefire, restore water, food, and fuel to Gaza, and work toward lasting peace….My unwavering commitment to human rights and peace compels me to oppose any action that perpetuates a crisis that has already ended many lives….For this reason, I cast my vote against House Resolution 771.”

Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.):

“We cannot unequivocally support or condone the Israeli government’s collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The Palestinian people are not Hamas. ….We must use our collective voice and influence to end the siege that has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 Palestinian children, displaced thousands of Palestinians, and limited the humanitarian aid that can reach the region. Violence cannot bring peace, and atrocities cannot justify further war crimes.”

Americans are big on “moral clarity” when it comes to justifying their own conduct or that of allies at war. Americans have little patience for international political theory. 

That is unfortunate, because one well-established theory in particular, structural realism, could help us better understand what is going on when nations and combatants come to blows.  Good theory can also forewarn us of brewing conflict before it explodes.

For instance, in the early 1990’s, Realists foresaw that the steady expansion of NATO eastward would encourage the resurgence of nationalist political forces in Russia. But since our intentions were presumably not to threaten Russia, American leaders pushed for expansion of the military alliance.

When the Biden administration, during Russia’s military build-up along the Ukrainian border, dismissed its security concerns as “non-starters”, Realists were undoubtedly alarmed. Such could not possibly deter an invasion by Putin, who had been warning against NATO expansion since 2007.

Similarly, some notable Realists opposed the Iraq War, warning of the sorts of blowback which indeed followed.

Conscious purposes and moral clarity do not explain behavior. What we might be “certain” of may be nothing more than a story we tell ourselves and which we want others to believe.

What is unfolding in Gaza, indeed what has unfolded in the last few decades between Israel and the Palestinians, cannot be explained by any presumed attributes of the actors. Notwithstanding that Hamas’s original charter sought the destruction of Israel, or the barbarity of its October 7 attack, and notwithstanding the extreme nature of the current Israeli leaders and their commitment to the settlement project, power dynamics may best explain events.

First, preponderant power does not restrain itself, and Israel has enjoyed a decisive power advantage for many years. Second, the less powerful actor often, if not usually, will resort to tactics the more powerful one will insist are out of bounds. In this case, Hamas and the more extreme Islamic Jihad commit full-blown terrorism. In turn, the more powerful actor in this case resorts to collective punishment of the population in which the perpetrators of terror embed themselves, which punishment is really no improvement over the atrocities it is responding to.

If circumstances and the distribution of power are strong determinants of behavior, it follows that were the situation reversed, with the Palestinians enjoying preponderant power, they might very well be oppressing the Israelis in a similar manner.

None of this is to excuse or gloss over the behavior of either side. But it can inform us about how best to help Israel and the Palestinians reverse this terrible dynamic.

Since power does not restrain itself, it is eventually checked by opposing power. This often happens at a colossal cost in lives. World War II is one example. 

If American policy toward Israel remains unchanged, the human toll will be tremendous. If we wish to avert that, we need to restrain our ally, Israel. We need to make it absolutely clear that our assistance is no longer unconditional. If Israel does not get the message, we should, for starters, cut that aid in half.

It should be no mystery to anyone what Israel needs to do in order to maintain its special relationship with its main backer: it needs to end its collective punishment of Palestinians and get deadly serious about a Palestinian state. It needs to reverse its settlement policy in the West Bank, beginning today.