Norris McDonald | Yitzhak Rabin, Israel, peace and humanitarian crisis in Gaza

A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Gaza following the Palestinian group Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. Over 1,500 Israelis were killed, including women and children.

Hamas kidnapped some 200 hostages who they want to trade, they say, for 6,000 prisoners held in Israel.

Israel appears to be in no mood for such political posturing and games playing by Hamas.

What is clear is that both Hamas and Israel are causing catastrophic, sheer humanitarian disaster in Gaza, and there appears to be no end in sight.

Israel has unleashed a mass bombing campaign that has levelled complete areas of Gaza.

Water and electricity have been cut and a total blockade imposed on the area that is even worst than the 16 years of blockade that existed before.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that 1.1 million Palestinians living in Gaza must move south, saying anyone remaining in the area will be considered a combatant.

TENT CITY DISPLACEMENT

But the practical effect of the Israeli campaign appears to tie to a broader plan to empty Gaza.

Danny Ayalon, an Israeli political leader, said the aim of “Israel is creating Palestinian tent cities in Egypt’s Sinai desert for Gaza’s two million people”.

Press reports say that Mr Netanyahu asked US President Joe Biden to pressure Egypt and Qatar to allow this mass exodus of Palestinians to the Sinai desert where “a new tent city will be created”.

Given this stated goal, it would amount to an ethnic cleansing of Gaza which is illegal under international humanitarian law.

Egypt said they warned Prime Minister Netanyahu “that something big was coming”.

Why did Mr Netanyahu ignore this warning?

Israel’s response to the Hamas outrage was even more shocking than many expected.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

The effect of the Israel bombing campaign has been extremely devastating, disrupting all civilian life. Children make up a sizable amount of the people killed in Gaza since Israel started its revenge campaign.

“Since October 7, more than 3,257 Palestinian children have been reported killed,” Save The Children said in an October 29 statement.

This includes 3,195 in Gaza, 33 in the West Bank and 29 in Israel.

“Children make up more than 40 per cent of the 7,703 people killed in Gaza,” Save the Children added.

Overall, 7,700 Palestinians have died, with another 17,000 wounded.

There is almost no functioning hospital in Gaza.

But even if Israel can destroy Hamas, does it mean that they have solved their “Palestinian problem”?

This is the crux of the matter.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres says the Israeli response cannot solve the problem. “It is the 75 years of occupation that is the root cause of this, and it must end in a two-state solution,” he said.

In other words, Israel and Palestine must finish the job that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat started.

“Put yourself in the Palestinian shoes,” President Barack Obama once told a group of Jewish students. “Would you like to be living in the conditions in which Palestinian children are forced to grow up?”

JAMAICAN POLITICAL ATTITUDE

Given the unfolding conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Jamaica’s prime minister and leader of the Opposition have both called for a peaceful resolution.

“My heart goes out to the people of the Middle East who are in conflict now,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. He condemned “the senseless killings” in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian groups, emphasising that “Jamaica supports a peaceful resolution to the conflict”.

Despite the “strategic relations between Jamaica and Israel”, Mr Holness cautioned Israel that those who have power, have a greater responsibility of ensuring that the human rights of people are respected.

Opposition Leader Mark Golding said the People’s National Party “do not support what is happening in Gaza right now. Thousands of children are being killed in Israeli airstrikes and the condition of life with the blockade, no food and no water, is totally wrong.”

Several Jewish organisations are voicing protests which would surprise many observers who see this issue as a narrow Israel versus Hamas, or Israel versus Palestine problem.

These are truly apocalyptic times.

Wars, and their political nature and the mentality behind them, have changed.

It is unfeasible for two million Palestinians to be driven into Egypt’s Sinai Desert to live in tent cities, as Israel demands.

Israel said it would allow these two million people to return once they finish their war with Hamas.

But after each conflict and mass Palestinian migration, they are always refused permission to return.

The only clear solution is to end the humanitarian crisis now.

A SALUTE TO YITZHAK RABIN

My friends, Yitzhak Rabin was a man of peace.

Once a military leader of Israel, he eventually became a peacemaker.

This is the loss Israel, and the Middle East, must see, in my opinion, as truly irreplaceable.

Peace is highly desirable to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza but is it possible?

My friends, Hamas and Israel are causing untold catastrophe to the innocent just to prove a political point. In the end no one will win since, what will victory look like?

Clearly the result will be devastation for all. This is unacceptable!

My dear friends, when we see the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, doesn’t it create a sense of nostalgia for visionary Israeli leaders such as Yitzhak Rabin?

We must salute forever Mr Rabin as a true martyr of peace, a man of vision, a man of courage.

Peace is a sustaining nectar!

A living fruit to nurture

To sustain our love

To nurture our soul!

It takes strong moral courage to work for peace.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was a man of strong, moral courage whose leadership can be contrasted with perfidiousness we see in today’s politicians, whose followers fawn over them with undeserved praises.

My friends, if we are to find true peace in this world, what is needed now is the type of moral leadership, as offered by Mr Rabin. It is only through moral courage that we can work for everlasting true peace that is beneficial to all.

That is just the ‘bitta’ truth.

Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, political analyst, and respiratory therapist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorris@yahoo.com.