Inevitable Consequences Of Extremism

Those collectively responsible for the recent madness and bloodlust in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are the same people who had opposed the thawing ‘Oslo Peace Accords’, on both sides. These forces believe in the complete destruction of the other.

The path of peaceful engagement and resolution is an anathema to them. Hamas and Netanyahu have the same denominational spirit, albeit, anchored on the exact opposite sides of the same coin.

When the leader of the armed resistance group, Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) i.e., Yasser Arafat, heeded to the reformatory call of peaceful engagement and signed the ‘Oslo Peace Accord’ he had said, “We will need more courage and determination to continue the course of building coexistence and peace between us. This is possible and it will happen with mutual determination and with the effort that will be made with all parties on all the tracks to establish the foundations of a just and comprehensive peace.” But all parties were not on track.

Many Palestinians thought of the same as a ‘sell-out’. In any case, many within PLO ranks were uncomfortable with its relatively secular, moderate, and progressive anchorage, and therefore sought succour in more religion-inspired and hardline alternatives. The Rejectionist Front of the PLO broke ranks and joined the Islamists.

Opposition to the ‘Oslo Peace Accord’ afforded such forces that opportunity and public legitimacy. One such group was the offshoot from Muslim Brotherhood: Hamas, led by the quadriplegic Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

It is believed that the Israeli authorities had secretly helped Yassin’s organisation to counterbalance the bigger force then, the PLO. Historian and commentator Avner Cohen goes to the extent of suggesting that Hamas was created by Israel.

Nonetheless, the birth of Hamas gave the PLO-led initial struggle a religious context and framework for disagreement. It would settle nothing short of an ‘Islamic State’ and commitment to the destruction of Israel.

The purported ‘muscularity’, purity and inherent religiosity made it appealing for Palestinians who were tired of the PLO for many other reasons, as well. As Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said, “The so-called peace path is not peace, and it is not a substitute for jihad and resistance.” Peace became collateral damage.

Similarly, the most prominent and bitter face and voice of opposing the restorative ‘Oslo Peace Accord’ on the Israeli side, was the head of the opposition, Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu. From his early years he was known to conjure up a toxic, hateful, and incendiary atmosphere.

An outcome of the vengeful environment was the cold assassination of Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzak Rabin (he was a signatory to ‘Oslo Peace Accord’), by a right-wing and extremist Jew, Yigal Amir. Weeks before Rabin’s assassination, Netanyahu had attended a right-wing rally where protestors called Rabin a ‘murderer’, ‘traitor’, ‘Nazi’, all for daring to sign a peace accord.

Another infamous man from that era is Netanyahu’s current right-hand, the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir. He is notorious for his xenophobic rhetoric and hate mongering.

Ben-Gvir was seen in a television clip from that time, with a hood ornament from Yitzak Rabin’s car and he is heard saying in a chilling manner, “We got to his car, and will get him too”. Weeks later, Yitzak Rabin was shot dead by a fellow-Israeli, who was vehemently opposed to peace.

Creating a situation that is inimical to peace or one that led to Yitzak Rabin has haunted Netanyahu ever since, but he remains defiant as he says, “Since the murder, there have been continuous attempts to distort the historical truth and to blame me for the incitement that preceded the murder.”

Like all unhinged leaders, he too invokes plausible deniability after creating dangerous circumstances. Till date, he unrepentantly grandstands against the ‘Oslo Peace Accord’ as he believes that he could suppress Palestinians into total submission.

As the longest serving Prime Minister of Israel, he has done so by sullying the narrative, continuously. His role over the years in creating an explosive tinderbox like situation in Gaza Strip, cannot be underestimated.

Like all illiberal authoritarians who can endanger the entire social fabric and constitutional framework at the altar of power in the name of ‘nationalism’, Netanyahu did exactly that. For long, Israel’s cohesion as a society was getting routinely fractured. A group of 180 eminent and top former leaders of agencies like Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Mossad, Shin Bet, had forewarned of Netanyahu’s government as a threat to Israel’s security.

A recently fired Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant (who had opposed Netanyahu’s attempt to diminish judiciary and therefore, democracy) had addressed the security forces to remain “vigilant and prepared.” He warned about forces inimical to the security of Israel who could “try to test the frontiers” and that, “this is a clear, immediate, and real danger to Israel’s security”.

All the while Netanyahu remained supremely dismissive, taunting, desperately electoral focused and openly deriding any voices of opposition to him or to his policies as ‘anti-national’, ‘pro-Iran’, ‘pro-PLO’ etc. Then the Hamas attack happened, and a confused and polarised Israeli security system was caught dangerously off-guard.

Despite the ensuing show of unity in terms of pressing the pause-button when it comes to opposing Netanyahu politically, given the sheer enormity and depravity of the Hamas attack, there is an undeniable and unbelievable pent-up anger on the failure of the ‘State’ headed by Netanyahu. And also of his withering, deflective, and incorrigibly accusative ways that counted for nought, when the actual crisis struck.

On their part, the unpardonable Hamas attack has inadvertently hurt the just Palestinian cause. the lazy affixation of every action that Hamas undertakes, could regrettably be conjoined to the issue of Palestine. Hamas must be delinked from the Palestine cause, just as Netanyahu is not necessarily Israel. There was, is, and will increasingly be, a lot more dissent against Netanyahu amongst the well-meaning Israelis.

Even though the ensuing counterattack from Israel is brutal, disproportionate, and encompassing even those Palestinians who do not agree with Hamas’s ways – this is the inevitable and terrible price a region and its people pay when extremists, intolerant and bigoted leadership emerges on both sides of the fence.

Those in leadership of Israel and Hamas are exactly those forces who had once lampooned peace and instead invested in belligerence, bravado and hate.

Lt. Gen. Bhopinder Singh is the former Lieutenant Governor of The Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Pondicherry, and an Indian Army officer who was awarded the PVSM. Views are personal.

Cover Photograph: Children hit by Israeli bombs in Gaza, death and destruction.