Additional to ''War In The Middle East''.

                                                                   By Ron Walsh

                                                                              While Putin’s war in Ukraine is only too obviously a genocidal war, the same assertion cannot be made of Israel’s retaliatory war against Hamas in Gaza, following the atrocity of October 7th 2023. However, that assertion has been made by many countries, groups and individuals, and there are many reasons why.

In all wars many soldiers die, which is simply a case of stating the bloody obvious. In all wars many innocent civilians also perish, some deliberately, and many, to use that dreadful euphemism, simply ‘’collateral damage’’. In Gaza many people have died, Hamas fighters, members of the Israeli Defense Forces, and civilians. The exact figures are simply unknown. At this very moment (figures released March 15th 2024) Hamas claim that the death-toll has reached thirty-one thousand. As there is no independent verification of those figures, they are likely to be well over-blown, in order to demonize Israel. This is not to claim that many many innocent civilians, mainly women and children, have not died in the conflict. Obviously, and unfortunately, that has happened.

Hamas’ aims are to annihilate the state of Israel and its Jewish people. To vastly overstate the number of civilian deaths is, in Hamas’ view, great publicity. Not that they care about innocent Palestinians one way or the other, but it helps to paint Israel as out-and-out murderers, while carrying out a genocide. One of the Geneva Conventions rules of war refers to ‘’Proportionality’’, and because of that Israel may very well be accused of not taking enough care in attempting to protect the ordinary people as it seeks to wipe-out every single member of Hamas inside the Gaza Strip. Their intentions are understandable, but whatever the true figure of dead civilians, not enough was done to protect them. Thus, was-crimes. It should also be pointed out that ‘’the taking of hostages’’ is also a war-crime.

Any attempt to second-guess the number of deaths inside Gaza might well be a complete folly. (Three days after Hamas announced 31,000 deaths, a female guest on an RTE Radio show claimed ‘’40,000’’. One wonders what her agenda was?) Early in February of 2024 Israel claimed to have killed between eight and nine thousand Hamas fighters. Even in their convoluted figures Hamas have never mentioned their own attrition, as if all the deaths had been civilians, while Israel has often mentioned the number of IDF deaths. It might not be folly to speculate that at this very moment (near the end of March) the number of Hamas deaths are probably somewhere around half of the total. But that did not stop the prime-minister of this country, Leo Varadkar (before his resignation announcement), claiming on a television programme that some twelve thousand children had died in Gaza. That figure was surely Hamas-produced.

Its certainly true that genocide is being carried out in the Ukraine, but Gaza? If that were true there would have been no need for Israel to have sent ground-troops in. A continuous aerial-bombardment of the area would have obliterated everyone, Hamas and every single Palestinian, with no danger of loosing a single IDF soldier. But that did not happen. The IDF were sent in to take out Hamas! No more, no less. Sadly, many civilians have also perished.

Sad also is the fact that my own country, the Republic of Ireland (of which I am proud to be a member of), did nothing to help the Jewish people prior to and during the 2nd World War, but yet speak out so vehemently against Israel. I have no problem calling out for help and support for the ordinary Palestine people, which should be a given. But to criticise any and every statement coming out of Israel is hypocritical and very one-sided. Despite operating a quota-system, the United States took in 240,000 Jews between 1933 and 1945, and a further almost 60,000 during the following three years. The U.K. took in 80,000 Jews between ‘33 and ‘45, and 50,000 later. This country took in 250 Jewish children between 1946 and 1948.

In 1948, the Department of Justice of the Irish Republic stated ; ‘’It has always been the policy of the Minister of Justice to restrict the admission of Jewish aliens, for the reason that any substantial increase in our Jewish population might give rise to an anti-Semitic problem’’. In a speech to the Dail in 1943 a newly elected independent T.D., Oliver J. Flanagan, advocated ‘’Routing the Jews out of the country’’. Not a very Christian outlook. However, on the other side of the coin, in Rome the Irish Minister to the Vatican, T.J.Kiernan, and his wife Delia Murphy (a noted traditional ballad singer), worked with the Irish priest Hugh O’Flaherty to save many Jews and escaped prisoners-of-war. In 1939, the Bishop of Galway accused Germany of ‘’violence, lying, murder and the condemning of other races and peoples’’. c Since Hamas took-over the Gaza Strip in 2006 its been well-known, by those who wish to know, that they use some sections of at least some of the hospitals for their own use. Amnesty International was one of the organizations who reported that as a fact a number of years back, and then there is the al-Shifa hospitals own CCTV footage which shows two hostages being escorted through its corridors on October 7th, in front of staff. Why would Israel wish to garner very bad publicity by entering hospitals if there was no good reason?

There is an almost unbelievable number of underground corridors inside Gaza, all of which lead to the Israeli border, while many of them connect with private homes, schools and hospitals. That is a fact. And those corridors were paid for by generous donations from the Arab state of Qatar, where many Hamas leaders reside. Much of the money donated from around the world to help the Palestinian people was also used for that very same purpose. And to answer those who claim that Israel contravened The Geneva Convention when allowing IDF soldiers enter Gaza hospitals ; ‘’Hospitals lose their protection if they are being used to commit acts harmful to the enemy’’.

Qatar supports and partly finances Hamas, but Iran is the real bogey-man in the Middle East. Ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that country has been exporting its revolution abroad, and now controls more than one dozen militias and terror-groups across the Middle East, in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, southern Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, and elsewhere. It supports, finances and trains Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, along with other smaller groups, and is regarded as ‘’the foremost state sponsor of terrorism’’. One of its main aims is to completely eliminate the state of Israel and its Jewish citizens. If something seriously is not done to remove the threat of Iran there will never be peace in the Middle East, and not just in Palestine. Israel is a fact, and living in the past is not a serious option. Living in the future would be.

In 2014 Qatati Emir, Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani, donated millions of dollars for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Much of the money was spent in establishing ‘’Hamad City’’, a luxurious neighborhood within Khan Yunis, which included many six-floor buildings, numerous apartment blocks, a mosque, two schools, and a number of parks. Senior Hamas officials and their families moved into the opulent neighborhood, which was turned into ruins after the IDF entered in the middle of March 2024, as part of a ground operation to dismantle Hamas terror infrastructure in the area. It was successful, and further such operations will be carried out until Hamas is eliminated inside the Strip, including the densely-populated city of Rafah, where numerous Hamas fighters have gathered, but from where ordinary citizens will have to be removed firstly.

Most Arab states are simply fed-up with the continuing Palestine problem, although they will not admit that publicly, while some now recognize Israel as a reality. The number of Arab states willing to take in Palestinian citizens is minimal, partially because of fears that terrorists might filter through into their countries, along with ordinary civilians. Saudia Arabia, U.A.E., Qatar, and others, are now courting Western tourists big-time, and are succeeding, despite their almost complete lack of civil-rights. Like many golfers, footballers and entertainers, tourists can also turn a blind-eye. Who really cares if the Pyramids were built by slaves? (More slaves were brought east from Africa into Arab countries, than were sent west.) Lets leave the Moral Compass at home so that we can enjoy ourselves in the sun!

And then we had the wonderful action of South Africa back in January of this year, when that country decided to take a case to the International Court of Justice against Israel, under the Genocide Convention. Back in the summer of last year (2023), that wonderfully democratic idyl of Russia had cut a number of trade-deals with some African countries, including South Africa. When push came to shove, the former apartheid country agreed to support Putin’s request (?) to initiate a case against Israel. Inside the Irish Parliament, the Social Democrats called on the government to support South Africa in its action, but lost out when a vote was called. One might well ask why the Social Democrats, and far more importantly, why South Africa had not taken a similar case against Russia for its quite obvious war of genocide in the Ukraine? Oh dear me, politics had intervened. The triumph of commerce over humanity!

A complete cessation by Israel in its war against Hamas inside Gaza would be an ideal moment for its ordinary citizens, and while there have been some short breaks, there will not be a complete halt as of yet. But Israel will have to do much much more to protect innocent women and children as it continues its offensive. If it were to stop right now before its objectives have been achieved, in five or ten years time we would be back with the very same situation. Hamas, with the support of Iran and Qatar once again, would carry out yet another deadly attack on Israel, resulting in a similiar response.

International calls for a ceasefire in Gaza are perfectly understandable, and are required in order to provide relief and much-needed aid to its citizens. Even a temporary ceasefire would be a great help, but Israel will not call a complete halt to its operations until the threat from Hamas inside Gaza is fully removed. When that has been achieved, hopefully fair-minded people from both sides of the divide will sit down together to work out an agreement that will allow the Palestinian and Israeli peoples to live peacefully together alongside one another.

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Ron Walsh. Copyright 2024.