Hamas/Israel Crisis: Circling the Wagon, by Afolabi Akinbola

    In 1948 when David Ben Gurion along with other Zionist leaders proclaimed the birth of the state of Israel, he emotionally vowed that Israel will never again experience the horrors of Hitlerite Germany and in the mid seventies the first and only prime minister of the state declared before the United Nations General Assembly that Israel will not hesitate to pull down human civilization when it faced potential existential threat from whichever quarters. She was speaking from a position of strength for as early as 1965, Israeli Dimona nuclear facility had been in operation with the full knowledge of America. It even lent a helping hand to the rogue apartheid regime in South Africa in its own nuclear programme.

    The horrific and unprecedented ghastly experience under Nazi Germany where an estimated six million Jews were done to death on an industrial scale; the years of humiliation and exclusion in virtually all the European statesand their own peculiar notion that they were the chosen of God on earth bred universal aversion among the nations. Adolf Hitler’s pogrom had fertile ground to germinate in Germany and the rest of the countries in Europe. Anti-Semitism was pervasive even among the leading philosophers in Europe and the Nazis were not slow to find intellectual and historical justifications for their crimes not only against the Jews but other designated ‘sub-humans’. We should also not forget that the royalties of Europe were not averse to fund their wars and lavish lifestyles by borrowing from affluent Jews who charged enormous interests for the transactions. There was the fatal lie that they were responsible for the execution of Jesus and that they used to drink the blood of babes during the Jewish Passover.

    This negative historical baggage was accentuated by their extreme clannishness and exceptionalism. Twice Nebuchadnezzar warned the race to desist from this sense of determinism; twice they rebuffed him and turned him into an animal in their hagiography. They were deported en-mass and scattered to the four points of the world. They survived and thrived in captivity but never forgot their native land. Emperor Cyrus had them return to Israel only for them to face a new and a redrawing of cartography and realities. Nature abhors vacuum. The Jews were never the aborigines in the Middle East. But the land became an obsession and its acquisition and retention by blood and tears is non negotiable.

    After the establishment of the state of Israel, it became a warrior nation due to sheer necessity. Every able bodied man and woman had to fight and if necessary die for the country. The division between the Ashkenazim (Jews from Europe) and Sephardim (Jews from other parts of the world) became blurred in the of face clear and present danger from all sides particularly their venal Arab neighbors. Most of its leaders from the birth of the state were battle hardened combatants. Budding soldiers had to climb the forbidden Masada fortress to take their oath of allegiance. Masada was the site where besieged Jews committed mass suicide rather than fall into the hands of Roman soldiers who were sure to execute them. They jumped to certain death from the cliffs of Masada. Thus Masada became a symbol of suicidal defiance to the world.

    My generation admired the pluck and incredible military nous of the Jews. In 1948, 1967 and 1973, they humiliated and defeated the combined military forces of the Arabs who had vowed to drive them into the sea. After each stunning victory against seemingly overwhelming odds Israel grabbed Arab lands for ‘security’. It took Menachem Begin, a Likud ultra nationalist prime minister to see this ‘security’ as totally illusory. He signed the Camp David Agreement with the most powerful Arab country—Egypt and returned some seized lands. Other Arab lands remained; the most notable being the Golan Heights. Meanwhile settlements continued at a frenetic pace on stolen lands. Apartheid on the South African model was standard. The third holiest Islamic site at Al Aksak which was itself built on the site of the Temple of Solomon had been desecrated times without number. Palestinian Gaza and other lands became Israeli fiefdoms. The West, the U.S in particular continued to protect and subsidize these infractions

    Enter the Hamas which supplanted the P.L.O. in Gaza. Waiting in the wings in Lebanon are the Hezbollah. Both are tired of the double standards of the West. The unprecedented attacks on Israel are acts of desperation. Needless to say the reaction of Israel will be massive and totally disproportionate. Binyamin Netanyahu says Israel is at war. True. The Arab world is not sleeping. Iran should not be overlooked Truly Israel is at war with itself.  

Mr Afolabi Akinbola is a global affairs analyst based in Ibadan, Oyo State. He can be contacted via akinbolaafolabi152@gmail.com.