A child smiles in thanksgiving for a food box. An older man cries out in disgust and despair as he tosses an empty food sack.
What is the statute of limitations on atrocity? When do the oppressed become the oppressors?
Before and during World War II, the world did nothing about the Holocaust, nothing. Never forget, people rallied when it was all over, never again.
But they did forget. And it has happened in varying degrees again and again and again.
Which brings us to the systemic, systematic starvation of the Palestinians in Gaza in a war that has seen passive-aggression at its most brutal play out in a zero-sum game whose end strategy now is the elimination of the Palestinians from Israel in one form or another. There is no question that the passive-aggression perpetrated by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,000 Israelis, was barbaric and justified a military response. Hamas was elected by the Gazans, and they have paid the ultimate penalty for that fatal, fateful choice.
And there should be no doubt that the starvation in Gaza plays into the strategy of Hamas, which, having lost the military war, still hopes for a public relations victory and is doing what it can to gum up the distribution of food. But starvation also plays into the strategy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who used Hamas to stay in power and then was blindsided by a tiger he should’ve known he could never trust and control.
Power is all about the maintenance of power before it can be about the attainment of more power. Netanyahu needs to stay in power if he is to avoid conviction and jail time on corruption charges, and the only way he can do that is with the far-right in his government, who aren’t particularly concerned about the starvation in Gaza.
So there is little incentive on Hamas’ and Netanyahu’s part to feed Gaza or release the remaining hostages. In Hamas’ and Netanyahu’s thinking, these people are just so much collateral damage when compared to their political survival.
In a war that has been all about passive-aggression, starvation is a most appropriate passive-aggressive end, particularly when combined with a lack of drinking water and sanitation. Why shoot or bomb an entire population when you can just let their bodies feed on themselves? This breeds madness. It is itself a kind of madness.
But the end of Gaza and the dream of a two-state solution will only isolate Israel. It may prove to be the last man standing, but it will stand alone.
Meanwhile, the images of crying children begging with bowls will only inflame a worldwide antisemitism that will make the Republicans’ weaponization of antisemitism in an effort to muzzle the universities and public discourse pale in comparison.