Israel’s dilemma

The war between Hamas and Israel is an asymmetric conflict, where the residents of Gaza Strip contribute the dead and Israelis receive condemnation, despite being right in not wanting to live under the threat of rockets and Palestinian raids through a tunnel network.

The government in Jerusalem has made efforts each time, expressing its concern to avoid killing innocents by issuing warnings before bombings. That sounds civilized and humane within the context of a war.

In reality, as has happened, that expression also translates into Israel not being prevented from attacking a military target if there are children nearby, even if they get killed, because they were warned.

This does not avoid responsibility, and neither does accusing Hamas of using civilians as shields and blaming these extremists for the deaths caused by Israeli attacks. Hamas’ strategy is more similar to a guerrilla than a conventional war like the one Israel would want, where the enemy is easily identifiable and can be attacked. This is not happening, even less in the overcrowded conditions in Gaza.

Israel and part of the world would like for the civilian population to rise up against Hamas, to put them in that position. Again, this is an illusion that ignores the context that Israeli missiles and artillery are doing the killing.

It is impossible to go back to the past and correct mistakes, in the creation and development of the State of Israel without massively displacing Palestinians who lived in Jerusalem, and in the recognition and respect of neighboring Arab countries that never came.

The decades after wars, massacres, intifadas and religious settlements led to isolation and even at times, mutual hatred. This has all led to the civilian population becoming radicalized.

The more than 1,700 dead Palestinians, the large majority civilians, reflect the asymmetry of the conflict and how in these cases, the strongest and the one that causes the most casualties is the one that loses the war in the long term.

The present and the future put Israel in the dilemma of seeking an immediate solution for a cease-fire in Gaza, knowing that this creates martyrs and revenge that will result in new attacks.

The path to peaceful coexistence is through diplomacy and the decision by Palestinians and Israelis to accept concessions and sacrifices in both sides