That the news from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel has come to us “not single spies but in battalions” is to state the obvious: wave after wave of published and broadcast opinion, outraged letters and cartoons have flooded our psychic space.
But it is the relentless flow of video footage beamed on to our screens by legacy and social media that has kept this hideous conflict at the top of the news agenda, fuelling protest and division.
In Ireland, the outpouring of rage against Israel has been especially intense. But unlike most people talking about the issue publicly here, I have a personal connection to this conflict that goes far beyond making common cause with human suffering. I’m Jewish, have a Holocaust legacy and cousins in Israel. I run an organisation advocating for Holocaust awareness. The last 20 months have heightened emotions, exposed stultifying ignorance and cemented cultural biases. In the wreckage of Jewish community relations with the Irish establishment and broader society, there have been many examples of empathy and support, although these have often come privately or in silence.
In print and on radio, I have tried to explain the complexities and dynamics of the conflict in the Middle East, how it spills out on to the lives of diaspora Jews and how demonising Israelis, Zionism and Jews will not bring justice to the Palestinians. I have warned about the global rise of anti-Semitism and called out the crude exploitation of anti-Semitism by Netanyahu and his followers. Swastikas do not belong anywhere in this argument.
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As I have said previously in these pages, Israel’s continuing military action in Gaza and the West Bank is due to Netanyahu’s desperate need to stay in power. The alternative for him may well be jail as his current trials for corruption unfold and only the immunity he enjoys as prime minister guarantees his liberty. The support of Bezalel Smotrich and Itmar Ben G’vir, two ultra nationalists, props up his government and keeps him in power. They represent 10 per cent of the government and 3 per cent of the population. Democratic systems often see the tail wagging the dog but this is a coup, by any measure.
In Gaza, Hamas is losing support. A recent BBC report detailed hundreds of demonstrators calling for the removal of Hamas, chanting “Out, Out, Out, All of Hamas out”. In March, 22-year-old Oday al-Rabay was abducted and beaten to death for taking part in an anti-Hamas protest. His body was dumped outside his family home as a warning.
In power for almost 20 years, Hamas banned elections and treated its constituency like a fiefdom, ruling with the same theocratic cruelty and zeal as their paymasters in Iran. Spending hundreds of millions on a tunnel network and weapons contributed to the impoverishment of their citizens, for a jihadi fantasy on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.
Sometimes simplistic media narratives mean that in the West, Palestinian voices deeply opposed to Hamas go unreported or are dismissed as propaganda. Similarly, the opposition to Netanyahu in Israel is not being galvanised by Israel’s allies.
Hamas and Iran were emboldened by the level of support they received in the West, mere days after October 7th. This support took many forms: marches with Hamas flags, proclaiming them as the resistance, an explosion of anti-Israel protests on university campuses and the Irish President sending warm wishes to the new Iranian leader.
However, it is now clear to all but Netanyahu’s most ardent supporters that the Israeli government’s destruction of Gaza cannot continue: deliberate starvation of an entire people is a monstrous strategy, openly endorsed by cabinet members – horrifying, illegal and counter to Jewish morality and collective memory, one that jars so keenly with me. My mother knew hunger in the Warsaw Ghetto as a four-year-old, where 100,000 Jews were starved to death deliberately by the SS.
During the Nazi occupation, finding food was the single preoccupation for Jews. My grandmother returned to a burning building during the Warsaw uprising in 1944, to retrieve a jar of goose fat. My mother refused to share food at a boarding school in England as an eight-year-old, an act anathema to her survival instinct; even today the food on her plate is not taken for granted.
Food and medicine must never be deliberately withheld from a civilian population. Four-year-olds are guilty of nothing.
The minimum requirement for Gaza now is 600 trucks of aid, daily. This must happen today. Donald Trump could threaten to suspend trade and arms and sanction every member of Netanyahu’s government and their families. The EU, Britain and Canada would follow suit.
Israelis must redouble their protests against the government, and cohesively. Trade unions must mobilise a general strike. Army reservists, especially pilots, must refuse to serve. The mass protests, organised by the hostage families, kibbutzniks, students and a cross-section of society must bring total gridlock to Israeli streets. The cost in human treasure to Palestinian dignity, to Israel’s reputation and to the welfare of Jews globally will be counted for generations. Israel must depose its government.
For the war to end, Hamas must release the remaining hostages, leave Gaza and disband. Pressure can be applied to Qatar and Iran to stop funding Hamas. Qatar wants to grow its already sizeable influence in the West: supporting Hamas, an Islamist terrorist group, is counterproductive. Iran is desperate to negotiate a deal with the US to retain its nuclear programme and lift sanctions, given the parlous state of its economy. Israel’s degrading of Hizbullah has left Iran militarily exposed. By forcing Iran to stop funding its proxies and stop promoting the destruction of Israel, the international community can sell the reality of peace and security to the Israelis.
The October 7th attacks echo the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914, murderous moments that ushered in greater, unimaginable horror. The first World War showed us how growing militarisation and failed diplomacy can lead to world war. Similarly, malignant regimes in Israel, Gaza, Iran and surrounding countries have militarised for decades, beating war drums – the Palestinians abandoned as geopolitical pawns. The Palestinians, Iranians and Israelis need to be liberated. No one deserves to be held to ransom by their government.
Oliver Sears is the son of a Holocaust survivor and founder of Holocaust Awareness Ireland.
