Good versus evil? - The Middle East conflict is exhausting and uncomfortable
Who is right in the Middle East conflict? The answer is easier if the line is not drawn between Israel and Palestine, good and evil. It's about how we all want to live.
We humans like simple stories. The hero here, the devil there. The oppressed against the oppressor. Maybe that's why it's easy for us to side with the brave Ukrainians. To support the courageous women in Iran. To tremble with the people of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO. But the latter only for a short time. The fact that Pakistan is in the process of deporting up to 1.7 million refugees to Afghanistan is of no interest to the global public. Our sympathy has already moved on, and perhaps the story is becoming too complicated.
Unfortunately, conflicts of this kind usually last a long time and are very complicated. "Good and evil have rarely been clearly divided in human history," historian and author Yuval Harari ("A Brief History of Mankind") never tires of explaining in countless interviews these days. Victims of one situation could be aggressors in another and vice versa. This is relatively banal, but many people have difficulty accepting it.
In conflicts as complex as the Israel-Gaza war, the victim and perpetrator are reversed again and again in the public narrative.should we have any sympathy at all for Israeli victims while the Palestinian population suffers? Should we be relieved when abducted children return to Israel when children are dying every day in Gaza? These are, pardon me, cruel, cold questions.
It is not a contradiction to mourn children and innocents on both sides of the conflict, quite the opposite. If, for whatever reason, we find this difficult, we must make the effort to take a closer look.
Under the magnifying glass
Because so much has happened since then, let us remind ourselves once again: one of the triggers for Hamas' attack on Israel was the advanced talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia. If these two countries had actually signed a peace treaty, it might have changed the Arab world and made new peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians possible.
Neither is in the interests of the terrorist organization Hamas and its ally Iran. Accordingly, the attack on October 7 was not a fight for freedom, nothing post-colonial, whatever. No matter how loudly this is shouted at demonstrations around the world and how little the atrocities openly committed and proudly documented by Hamas are talked about. The aim of Hamas and its allies is to destabilize the region as much as possible.
One of the bitter details of the terrorist attack in Israel is that the attacked kibbutzim in the south of the country are a stronghold of the left and the inhabitants are passionate peace activists. One of the special details is that the relatives of the hostages and those killed are among the loudest voices calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Which is why they are not only criticized but also threatened by the right-wing camp in their own country, despite the fact that overall there is far more support for the hostage agreement with Hamas than rejection: The hostages appear to radical, extreme forces in Israel as an annoying obstacle in their desire to wage war their way. The discussion culminated in the dream of being able to imprison them in order to have peace.
A few kilometers away, in the West Bank, radical religious Jewish settlers are trying to take advantage of the current atmosphere to illegally occupy more territory, including by force. There are deaths and injuries. So are those who have spent a lifetime working for reconciliation partly to blame for a group of radicals taking advantage of their situation for their own agenda?
What about the Israeli army, which seems overpowering compared to Hamas? Shouldn't we be talking about proportionality in view of their actions in Gaza? Yes, and this is happening every day, every hour, under the eyes of the international community. What is permissible in the fight against terror? What does the right to self-defense entail? These are questions that have been discussed again and again, and rightly so, not only since October 7.
What about the population in the Gaza Strip? Aren't there mainly children living there? And isn't the population as a whole innocent, oppressed by the occupying power Israel and misused as a shield by Hamas? Or do we mainly see supporters of the terrorist organization celebrating the massacre of Jews on the streets? More than half of the population of the Gaza Strip is 19 years old or younger. The Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip ended in September 2005, and Hamas took over in June 2007. The population includes both people who cheer for Hamas and others who suffer massively under the terror regime.
There are currently pictures of demonstrations in southern Gaza against Hamas. They cannot be independently verified at present, but "such protests give us hope that in future the fate of the Palestinians may be determined by forces other than the extremists," writes journalist and human rights activist Düzen Tekkal. It is to be feared that the demonstrators are exposing themselves to massive danger. Images of a lynching against two Palestinians who were considered collaborators with Israel are making the rounds on social media. They cannot be independently verified either, but they are worrying.
How do we want to live?
Why it is so important to take a closer look may become more obvious if we redraw the line in this and so many conflicts around the world. All these conflicts are about ways of life. Do we want to live in a free, tolerant, empathetic and cosmopolitan way? Or do we allow the opposite, a society controlled by an elite, however defined, with harsh rules against anyone who does not conform to an arbitrarily set norm?
There is already talk of how things should continue in the Middle East after this Israel-Gaza war, and people are thinking about how the war between Russia and Ukraine could come to an end. What we all need is a world in which neither terrorists nor dictators nor radical populists with strange hairstyles and their respective supporters make us suffer for their world views. We need a world in which women and minorities can lead a safe and self-determined life.
For Israel and Palestine, this means that talks with Saudi Arabia must be resumed after the end of the war, that there must be prospects for the people of Gaza - otherwise terror groups like Hamas will win again and again. Israel itself will have to reforge the cohesion in its society that was lost even before October 7, during the weeks of protests against the judicial reform and Netanyahu's right-wing nationalist government.
There are realities in which good and evil can be clearly assigned. Hamas is undoubtedly evil through and through. Conversely, however, this does not mean that everything the Israeli government does is right and "good". It has allowed itself to be lured into a trap by Hamas and, as calculated by the terrorists, the war on terror is hitting civilians, including thousands of children. This is causing anti-Semitism to flare up around the world. At the same time, not fighting terror is not an alternative. Not only would the threat to Israel continue to increase, but the status quo with Hamas also offers no prospects for the Palestinian population. It is tedious, exhausting and painful to keep looking at the sources of conflict and to consider points of view that go against your own convictions and feelings. You have to practise it.
Lesen Sie auch:
In the complex context of the Israel-Gaza conflict, Hamas and its allies openly aim to destabilize the region, utilizing terror attacks like the one on October 7 to serve their objectives. This hostility towards Israel and its peaceful communities, such as the left-leaning kibbutzim in the south, is evident in the threats and criticism directed towards advocates for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Israel war is a source of global antisemitism, as the perpetuation of violence against Israel, often portrayed as the oppressor, fuels pre-existing prejudices against the Jewish state and its people. Furthermore, the unjustifiable deployment of military force against civilians, including children in Gaza, in the name of self-defense, generates international outrage and fosters misery for the Palestinian population.
In light of the profound complications of the Israel-Gaza conflict, it is crucial to recognize that the roles of the victim and the aggressor may shift repeatedly within the public narrative. Therefore, it is essential to maintain empathy towards children and innocent civilians on both sides, acknowledging the complexities and nuances involved in reaching a peaceful resolution.
Source: www.ntv.de
