Obliterating Gaza

On October 7, 2023, Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas launched a coordinated offensive in which 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and 240 taken hostage. The attack triggered Israel's mass mobilization and lethal counter-offensive, underwritten by U.S. weapons and financing. With tens of thousands killed, two-thirds of them women and children, some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced, while the West Bank is in turmoil with risks rising for regional and...
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On October 7, 2023, Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas launched a coordinated offensive in which 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and 240 taken hostage. The attack triggered Israel's mass mobilization and lethal counter-offensive, underwritten by U.S. weapons and financing. With tens of thousands killed, two-thirds of them women and children, some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced, while the West Bank is in turmoil with risks rising for regional and global escalation.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said that "nothing can justify the deliberate killing, injuring and kidnapping of civilians," adding that "Hamas did not happen in a vacuum." Obliterating Gaza is the story of that vacuum.

The path to the destruction of Gaza was paved not just by the most far-right government in Israel's history, but by a broad set of longstanding forces. These include the rise of Israel's ultra-orthodox population; revisionist Zionism; increasing economic polarization thanks to neoliberal policies; and far-right extremists' Messianic politics. Dr. Steinbock shows why these forces prevail, even though most Israelis do not support them, and seek to transform Israel from a democracy to autocracy, despite warnings of great collateral economic and social damage in Israel.

The horrifying devastation of Gaza is not an anomaly, but merely the latest, perhaps culminating, episode in a century-long ethnic cleansing. The international neglect of the Palestinian refugee crisis, the unwarranted wars and dehumanizing occupation, coupled with the failure of the peace process and the rise of settler violence set the stage for Palestinian resistance, from the PLO to the uprisings in the West Bank and protests in Gaza. After the triumph of Hamas in democratic elections, Gaza's economic blockade by Israel, the United States and European powers underlie the present nightmare, unleashing an international debate on apartheid practices and genocidal intent, compounded by the struggle for untapped energy reserves in the Occupied Territories.

Distressingly, the central role of U.S. military aid to Israel has resulted in a 50-year-long failure of American diplomacy, leading to the possibility of a regional escalation that threatens Israel's survival, posing global repercussions and nuclear risks. The costs of missed opportunities, Dr. Steinbock argues, are overwhelming and have enormous implications worldwide.

What happens in Gaza won't stay in Gaza.