Another Violent Week

The recent Missile Attacks in Israel explained

Last week Israel was back in the news as it came under a barrage of missiles courtesy of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a Gaza-based and Iran supported terror group. The media reports are of course often lacking context and in a lot of cases are biased, so let me wrap it up in bullet points and add some personal notes at the end:

What Happened - An incarcerated Palestinian terrorist and member of the PIJ succumbed to a month’s long hunger strike in an Israeli prison. In response and in retaliation, PIJ launched some missiles at Israeli cities from its base in Gaza, a sliver of Palestinian land governed by Hamas. Israel retaliated by taking out some of the PIJ leadership and in the process some Palestinian civilians got killed. PIJ then retaliated with a multi-day indiscriminate attack on Israeli territory with 1,468 missiles launched, resulting in two deaths in Israel and many more in Gaza.

Who are the Parties - So the aggressor was not Hamas this time, but PIJ whose presence in Gaza is tolerated by Hamas and is militarily supported by Iran. Note that the other Palestinian territory is what the world knows as the West Bank and that area is governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), an entity very different from Hamas. Israel works with the PA and never talks to PIJ, of course. With Hamas and PIJ things are generally handled through Egypt as the intermediary. There is only one Israeli who has had direct chats with Hamas (resulting the release of an Israeli soldier years ago) and that is Gershon Baskin. I only know that because I spent a day with Baskin and his brother during a tour as part of a tech conference in Jerusalem a few years ago. A pretty unique guy to say the least.

War Crimes - Who is committing war crimes here? Very simple, PIJ as the key perpetrator and by extension Hamas (and Iran) who are condoning and facilitating the attacks. And what is the war crime? Directly and purposefully attacking civilians while launching these attacks from civilian areas, effectively using your own people as a shield. Around a fifth of the fired missiles exploded on Palestinian soil, never reaching their intended targets, creating significant casualties there and something which PIJ (and Hamas) count as their cost of doing business. It’s criminal. Nothing Israel does can be qualified as such. It defends itself and takes out select PIJ targets only once it is confident that no civilians get killed in process. Of course that does not always work, but the extreme length to which Israel goes to avoid civilian casualties stands in stark contrast to the deliberate murder the PIJ and Hamas engage in.

What is the Iron Dome - So yes, talking about tech, this is the Israeli radar system that tracks and destroys incoming missiles and artillery shells. It has prevented mass casualties on the Israeli side and no wonder Ukraine is now starting to use it.

The Casualties - Nothing is perfect and a small malfunction in the Iron Dome caused a missile to land in the central town of Rehovot killing 82-year old Inga Avramyan while she was bringing her wheelchair bound husband to safety. The other fatality was Abdullah Abu Jaba, a Palestinian father of six who was working in Israel, by the way not the first time that these attacks have killed Palestinians working in Israel. The attack in Rehovot struck a chord with me, I have stayed there a number of times, most notably during another missile attack in late 2019 and the photo above is of the deserted streets in the town at that time. Many stay home or are in a shelter, in fact most houses in Israel have a safe room designed for these things, you are urged to move there during an attack and the Israeli owner of my place advised me by e-mail to follow local instructions which I pretty much did. I did fail however to follow my wife’s calls to hop on a plane and flee the violence, it seemed inappropriate to me to take the easy way out while the Israelis were enduring a daily barrage of missiles. Life under attack has real challenges in particular for children and the elderly, but most Israelis tend to carry on doing their thing.

The Cease Fire - As always these attacks serve no purpose and in the end inflict incredible damage on both sides. Through the back channels mentioned above there is usually a negotiated way out and with Egypt’s help a cease fire came into effect over the weekend.

The Bigger Picture - Never forget what is happening here. Most Arab countries have checked out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a while ago and enjoy increasingly good relations with Israel. There is nothing to be gained from extending the conflict, yet much to gain from peace. Nor is there a reason to believe that the Palestinian people want any prolongation of the conflict. A radical, un-elected, Iran supported and also wealthy leadership is running this conflict to the detriment of its own citizens. An Israeli reporter on Twitter, Imshin, tracks life in Gaza and tweets on a daily basis what goes on there and it is not at all so bad, for some life there is even quite enjoyable.

A Resolution - And this brings me to the possible end game, something for which we have been looking for no less than seventy-five years. Remember that Israel vacated Gaza back in 2005 and gave it up for Palestinians to own, develop and run it in the best way they saw fit. Given its strategic location between Egypt and Israel, right on the Mediterranean the city state could have been turned into another Hong Kong or Dubai, think trade, tax breaks and tourism. There is no shortage of talent, capital and international support to make things like that happen in Gaza. The same by the way can be said for the West Bank.

Any resolution is therefore not one rooted in territory, land grabs, or moving artificial lines on a map which is what the planet’s entire foreign policy establishment has been doing forever. A real way forward for all will be in economic development, collaboration, science, and in creating opportunities. There is no Palestinian kid that wants to die as a suicide bomber or die in a self-inflicted missile attack that seeks to kill innocent Israelis. They want the same as everyone else and that is a prosperous future with opportunities, and have tech start-ups much like Israelis do. Why can’t they have it?

Whenever the international press comes down on Israel and in particular on Nethanyahu, bear in mind the various points that I am raising here. Israel has no other option than to defend itself in the best possible way while the Palestinian leadership, from the PA to PIJ to Hamas (and all the way to Tehran) has many more options to advance their grievances.

Photo above: during my 2019 trip I drove highway 34 coming from Be’ersheva and going to Ashkelon and when you drive that route, you just pass Gaza. I drove over the intersection on the photo above a day before this photo was taken the moment a missile landed there. No casualties, just a truck driver who could not believe his luck the thing did not hit him.