The Gaza Mincer 2014: The Hamas, Netanyahu and who needs this war

On the 8th of July 2014 Israel started a military operation in Gaza, an operation Israel called Protective Edge, launching heavy air strikes killing thousands of innocent people. Day after day the international news were reporting of another horrific number of people killed in Gaza, a number reaching more than 2,000, the vast majority of whom are innocent civilians. Over half a million Palestinians lost their homes, and over 10,000 were injured while the medical services and facilities are “on the verge of collapse” (as reported by the UN). On the Israeli side of the border any criticism against the war and Israeli military actions is being met with aggressive responses, including threats and violent attacks against anti-war protesters. In Gaza, the Hamas implemented a regime of terror against anyone criticising the organisation or its actions.

The Israeli corporate media portrayed the mission as a “self defense” mission, a “response” to Hamas shooting rockets on Israel. In reality, that war was predictable, I would even say, engineered, long before the first rocket was shot. It was engineered by the Israeli PM Netanyahu in the interests of the financial forces standing behind him. As much as the Israeli propaganda attempts to date the conflict only as far as the Hamas rocket shooting started, it is naive to look at the rocket shooting as the cause of the conflict, and it is impossible to resolve the conflict without understanding what caused those rockets to be shot.

To understand what happens between Israel and Palestine, and who maintains this conflict, it is first important to understand what is the Israeli right, and what is the Palestinian equivalent, the Hamas. The right wing, by definition, is a collaboration between the nationalists and the capitalists (and sometimes has religion as part of the nationalism). It’s an alliance, two ideologies that naturally mixed into one as both by definition oppose equality (whether it’s financial equality or racial equality). Each of them has a “resource” the other one doesn’t have, whether it’s financial resources the capitalists have or the appeal to the voters based on racial identity and ignorance, which is the “home ground” of the nationalists. To make it to power and to be able to maintain the system that benefits them, the capitalists formed a historic alliance with the nationalists. The capitalists lack any appeal to the masses and would never manage to establish themselves in a position of power in a democratic society. I mean “we are the 1% that controls 99% of your resources ” is hardly a good elections slogan. Nationalism is an ideology which attracts people through hate and fear, it’s an ideology targeting those who are not developed enough intellectually to be able to analyse society by objectively looking at it. The right wing is like a voucher is blaming all the financial ills and social problems on the minorities, those whose only “sin” is being different in terms of behaviour or looks. The right wing always needs an enemy, and they will always have someone to “mark”. They will always make sure to blame it on the immigrants, minorities, and any other group that seems vulnerable or helpless, to get the votes of the narrow minded, and to help those financially standing behind the party to continue accumulating wealth. If there is a war going on, it’s the ideal situation in terms of attracting voters based on hate, and they will do everything possible to make sure that war will continue.

Fact is, the current Israeli right-wing establishment needed this war, as this is the only thing that keeps them in power. War is the only thing which can distract the Israeli population from the major problems the Israeli society is facing today. The political system in Israel is more corrupt than it ever was. As of today, 20 families control around 50% of the total market share in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (as reported by the Bank of Israel annual report in 2010), and nearly 40% of Israeli families can’t cover monthly expenses (as reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2014). As was demonstrated in The Shakshuka System documentary, which was investigating corruption in Israel using the case study of the Ofer family, the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and other politicians are attending family events and maintain close contact with those families. The public image of Netanyahu suffered even more when a big expenses scandal was exposed and the public found out that while poverty and inequality thrive in Israel, Netanyahu gets the Israeli tax payer to pay for an expensive mezuzah and expensive decorated doors in his private home. Judging by the comments on the Israeli political forums, it’s hard to imagine a prime minister who was so unpopular in the history of Israel.

The thing, however, that always helped Netanyahu to get re-elected, despite his corruption scandals and dodgy connection, is his appeal to the nationalistic emotions of the population, which unfortunately are very strong in the Israeli society. Historically, events like the holocaust and the pogroms created a narrative which the Israeli propaganda conveniently exploits: “Everyone tries to destroy us, therefore we can never do wrong because its self defence”. The result is that the average Israeli is programmed to get defensive and blame everything on the other side whenever confronted with criticism of the Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians. To demonstrate it, it’s enough to look at the comments of average Israelis to images of Palestinian toddlers crying and bleeding in pain after an Israeli bombing. Typical comments will be “The Hamas did it”, “that’s what they want to do to us”. The average Israeli will say whatever it takes to convince those around him, and most of all, himself, that everything is everyone else’s fault and responsibility. It’s not only the holocaust stereotype, however, that plays a role in the nationalistic tendencies of the Israeli population. From an early age Israeli children are being “mobilised” by the Israeli education system to the “love of Zion”. People are being brought up to believe that any criticising the state, or the establishment, is out of question, and any strong criticism is close to be classified as treason. A good example is the Breaking the Silence. Breaking the Silence is an Israeli organisation collecting testimonies from Israeli soldiers talking about violations of human rights and war crimes committed by Israel in the occupied territories. Instead of being made national heroes for exposing corruption and crimes committed by the army, the general public consensus is that the organisation are “traitors”, and top officials and politicians were criticising the organisation.

A big part of the Israeli upbringing is about learning to self-convince and justify aggressive actions towards the Palestinians, by teaching the myth that there is “no partner” for peace on the other side. According to that narrative Israel does want peace, but there is no partner to make peace with. That logic is used to justify why Israel is maintaining and expanding the settlements created for the Jewish religious nationalists on Palestinian soil. By that “explaining” the “need” to rule over the Palestinians. Building strongholds, like the castles England had built in Ireland in mediaeval times, can mean only one thing and that is “we’re staying and we’re going to rule you”. When you occupy someone else’s land and settle it with loyalists its hardly a message of peace.

In the last decade, the “no partner” claim couldn’t have been further from the truth. For the last few years Abu Mazen, the Chairman of the PLO and the President of Palestine, was literally begging Netanyahu to take part in peace talks. Abu Mazen, coming from the left-wing Fatah party and opposing the Islamist Hamas, clearly wants to go down in history as the founder of independent Palestine and the man who ended the long conflict. Despite Abu Mazen’s genuine pleads for peace, Netanyahu ignores him and continues expanding the illegal settlements, by that satisfying his nationalistic supporters, and making sure to maintain the conflict and satisfy his tycoon sponsors. Among the Palestinian population, the Israeli response portrays Abu Mazen as weak and powerless, and by that strengthening the Hamas (the same Hamas the Israeli government claims to be its biggest enemy). In 2011 confidential documents were leaked to the Al Jazeera network from the office of the main PLO negotiator, showing how close Israel and Palestine came to reaching a peace agreement under the administration of the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs from Olmert’s administration, said after the leakage that the negotiations “did not fail and was not exhausted. It did not end, but was not allowed to ripen until an agreement was reached because of elections in Israel and this government’s choice not to continue the negotiations”. Those facts make it clear that the only thing that prevented peace from being signed is Netanyahu winning the elections, and his policy of avoiding peace at any cost.

As for the Palestinian side, don’t let anyone fool you: The Hamas is not a liberation movement. The Hamas is an extreme Islamist organisation that since taking over Gaza uses violence, torture and murder as means to oppress any potential opposition. However, the Hamas would never gain such a grip over Gaza without the direct actions of the Israeli government in the first place. Netanyahu’s choice to ignore Abu Mazen and expand the illegal settlements was exactly the “excuse” Hamas needed to start shooting rockets at Israel, and that is exactly what the right wing government in Israel needed to distract the population from the social problems and corruption in Israel. Mobilised by the old narrative “they are trying to destroy us, like the Nazis” and full of anger, the Israeli population forgot everything about corruption, growing gaps between the rich and poor, subsidies for religious sects (the Yeshivas), and billions being wasted on illegal settlements while the Israeli health system is collapsing. Netanyahu’s popularity is rising for the first time in years – just as planned. It would be naive to think Netanyahu didn’t expect the Hamas to start shooting rockets at Israel, it was obvious and that’s exactly what he wanted. When you make it clear you don’t want peace in a situation of war the other side will obviously escalate it’s actions.

For the Hamas the refusal of Netanyahu to negotiate for peace with Abu Mazen and the rival Fatah was a political blessing, as they also need a war to distract the people from the corruption they created. While the people of Gaza live in poverty and under an Israeli blockade for many years, the leadership of the Hamas managed to make themselves among the richest people in the Middle East, developing schemes to “protect” their wealth by registering their wealth in the names of their children or other family members. As shown by reports from different magazines, the fortune of the Hamas comes directly at the expense of the suffering blockaded Palestinian people. The whole of the Hamas leadership is pocketing money from the 20% tax that is being charged from the people of Gaza for the goods brought into the Gaza strip through tunnels. Professor Ahmed Karima from the Al-Azhar University in Egypt provided statistics stating that the Hamas leadership now has 1,200 millionaires among its ranks. As reported by the Rose al-Yusuf magazine in 2010, Ismail Haniyeh, the senior leader of the Hamas, bought $4 million worth of land in Rimal, best described as an oasis of luxury isolated from the poverty and suffering of the people of Gaza. The land itself was registered to one of his son in laws. That was not the end of it, and he bought a few more homes that he registered in the names of few of his other offspring’s.

Another senior Hamas member, Khaled Mashal, managed, through the Hamas, to invest money into property projects all over the Middle East, and building a personal wealth of more than two and a half billion dollars. While living in luxury, the leadership of the Hamas “pocketed” large amounts of money which should have went into the welfare of the Palestinian people, and spent the rest of the money on rockets and tunnels to hide themselves and their weapons while the Palestinian population is slaughtered under Israeli bombings. The Hamas spend millions of dollars on tunnels meant to smuggle goods from Egypt into Gaza and sell them for high prices to a starving population, and to transport rockets. However they didn’t bother building any shelters for the Gaza population. Just like the Israeli right wing Likud, in order to hide and maintain the corruption and greed which they take part in, the Hamas is trying to blind the people of Gaza by fear and distractions. The Hamas is achieving that by show trials and brutal execution of “Israeli collaborators”, by violent clashes against the Fatah, and by passing Islamic laws (religion was always a way to control the ignorant through fear). Fact is, just like the Israeli right, the Hamas wants to have people full of anger and hate, people easy to manipulate. The Hamas doesn’t want independence, that’s why, just like the Israeli right, they set unachievable goals and obscure demands. The Hamas doesn’t want Palestine independence, because in an independent Palestine they will no longer have control over the goods being smuggled into Gaza, and therefore, will not be able to continue accumulating their millions.

That is what both sides, the Israeli and the Palestinian, seem to fail to realize. The Hamas on the Palestinian side and the right-wing parties on the Israeli sides are the same force, there is a strong correlation between the strengths of one and the strengths of the other. The Hamas and Netanyahu will do everything in their power to make sure there is no peace. The smoke of the bombings is the only thing that hides their corruption and financial business ventures, which come at the expense of those people whose common sense is too clouded with fear and hate to realize. Humanity, in general, will reach the next stage of intellectual evolution only when people stop thinking in the shallow terms of “Jew against Arabs”, in terms of ethnic groups against ethnic groups, but rather in terms of class war, an exploiting class against the exploited. The fact is, even a conflict that seems to be an ethnic conflict, is still a class war, highlighting how one class can manipulate another class into fighting their battles, and believing it’s their own.

At the end of the day: Israelis, if the Hamas doesn’t want peace with Israel, that must mean that peace is good for Israel. Palestinians, if the Israeli right doesn’t want peace with Palestine, it must mean that peace is good for Palestine. I am not going to go into details about different existing peace proposals. The fact is, there were many great initiatives created. To name a few, the Geneva Initiative created in 2003 by top people in the Israeli and Palestinian political establishments, the Arab Initiative created in 2002 and promoted by the Arab League, the Israeli Peace Initiative, created in 2001 by top people in the Israeli military and security intelligence establishment. There are people on both sides willing to negotiate and make it possible, it’s up to the governments to answer for their actions why they are not a part of this process.

In his “victory” speech after the horrible massacre, the Israeli PM Benjamin Netnyahu, when asked what are his plans regarding negotiating with the Palestinians, said “we’ll wait and see”. That is a quote perfectly summarizing his whole “policy”. He will “wait”, wait for the next war to boost his rating among the ignorant brainwashed herd, creating a reality which makes both sides more extreme in their beliefs an action. Making sure peace will never come and maintain the reality which keeps his sponsors in power.