Circle the Wagons is Not the Way to Go

This, indeed, is very serious stuff and it is being received here in various ways, including in extremely defensive, tunnel-visioned, and hostile reactions, e.g., from right-wing, Trump-supporting news anchors, like Ayala Hason, lamenting last night about, how if the US was “truly great,” it would not be doing this.

Here is what I say about all this, composed in response to a pained, outraged, email from someone on his way to the funeral of yet another young person to whom he had been very close, his 7th such funeral, he said.

No words to offer any comfort for the losses.

I see the US letter differently. I agree it is very serious. I also think that wiser Israeli policy, not to be expected from this government, could have gotten us to a very different place. And theoretically, still could.

It is clear that the US sees Israel’s security as its own national interest; has for a long time and certainly does now. The quantity and type of weapons and tactical support the Biden administration has given us since Oct. 7, 2023 is unprecedented, right up to the recent decision to send us the THAAD anti-ballistic missile system vs Iran, on its way here and possibly, already here, as Israel’s next action in that theater nears. Biden has consistently backed up his, “don’t” to Iran and its proxies with actions– US navy destroyers, aircraft carriers and planes– in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf. The administration has sent massive supplies of ammunition for a year and offered close and ongoing tactical and logistical support and cooperation. It is to our inestimable benefit that the US sees vital interests of its own allied with ours. There is no other country on earth that perceives its interests in this way. And also is our main supplier of weapons.

All this being the case, why this letter, now?

The US is convinced, probably correctly, that, without declaring it as policy, Israel is implementing retired general Eiland’s proposal to empty the north of Gaza of population, not allow food supplies there, and drive the population– including embedded Hamas fighters– south. This, in order to hit Hamas with the only punishment Eiland argues Hamas cares about: loss of territory, in order to create pressure for a deal more to Israel’s liking than those which, all informed opinion agrees, was achievable in April and May, which Netanyahu torpedoed: suddenly, ten months into the war that began in the north and slogged south in Gaza, the phildephi corridor on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt is the end-all-and be-all of the  war (this, after Netanyahu and his people hyped the same about Rafiah; then, the Netzarim corridor, etc., etc.) Netanyahu talks, poses as caring about the hostages: watch his behavior, his actions. We all know why he does not pursue a deal. There are many reasons, none of them honest, worthy, or conscionable.

Months ago, Biden and Blinken presented Israel with a comprehensive proposal for a regional approach that would involve the US and Sunni regimes in replacing Hamas in governing Gaza, a plan necessarily involving Palestinian partners. Replacing Hamas, and in the case of Iran, outflanking it through a US-Sunni-Israel coalition, is the one thing that truly scared them both, offering Israel something beyond tactical achievements, however stunning, to a broad vision of  alliances of common interests, which all the above-named absolutely share, and a real possibility for a better future. Not perfect, far from it– but there is no perfect. Only bad, and worse. And we are in worse.

Such a plan would have meant that Israel’s problem– that Hamas seizes food and health supplies for itself and sells the rest to Gazans at exorbitant prices, thereby, keeping itself afloat– would have become the problem of the US, Saudia Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, as well. We could have worked smart with this opportunity, engaged it, participated in fashioning its details– but instead, Netanyahu rejected it. Because he has no strategy that offers Israel anything better, even the possibility of such. And plenty of self-serving reasons to do what he is doing.

So, Israel is implementing Eiland’s proposal, doing what the US has told us from the start it will not tolerate: using food and health supplies as a weapon. Technical arguments about international law aside, which Eiland makes; the parsing of which, obviously, convinces no one in Washington, or in the capitals of other countries whose cooperation with us is vital.

A smart government here serving the national interest would understand that the US is not our appendage, the tail we wag. That the US has its own interests and needs, and that we need to work with them about their interests to find ways that accomodate ours and not childishly expect them not to have any interests that conflict with ours. I believe such actions are entirely possible, given the US’ clearly demonstrated behavior and their extraordinary support. Even now, they are giving us a month to “get a brain,” and work with them.

Netanyahu has consistently demonstrated open contempt and arrogance to the US and to Biden, in particular. That he is a Republican is not news. That he has sacrificed Israel’s national interest in the pursuit of his personal, political, agenda, turning Israel into a partisan issue in the US, is also not news.

Israel absolutely could, and should, have worked with the US– and even now, at this very late and extremely dangerous stage, should do so– about Gaza. We have known for months– it’s been said ad nauseam– that the way, the only way, to defeat Hamas is to replace them. Not just defeat them militarily, but deprive them of their civilian functions and governance. These are its lifeblood. They employ– pay– thousands for governing functions. They control food and health supplies. They recruit people who just want to eat, have medical care, who join Hamas in order to survive, replacing however many Hamas fighters we take out, and they beat and kill any who oppose them– including now, people who just try to comply with Israel’s demand to move south. Should we keep the conditions that support this unholy alliance going, and then complain about it? Or take the necessary, and necessarily imperfect means availabe to radically alter this situation, replacing it with an alternative that has any chance of success? These are our options. Not the ones we would wish but the ones that exist.

This, Netanyahu refuses to do. That he endangers us thereby, does not concern him. He is happy to endorse the truly insane notion that we can go it alone; absurd talk of “fingernails.” He knows that is not true; he is many things and stupid is not among them. But he sells that dangerous nonsense to uninformed or willing buyers because it serves him. Because he is a genius of cynical, self-serving, manipulation.

It would be mistaken to misread this crisis in a “circle the wagons” direction. We need to apply some of the intelligence which we have often lauded in ourselves to understand not just what the US is doing and why– but what we can do about it– which is plenty– and not just feel sorry for ourselves, as if we have no role in our catastrophes.