Israel and world Jewry are facing a future of unending hostility. Why?

In 1944, George Orwell wrote that if only the Germans had behaved with ‘ordinary generosity (i.e. by the standards of the time’) after they had defeated France in 1870, the revenge of the French which led to the imposition of humiliating terms on Germany after the First World War might have been averted.

Orwell goes on to speculate what Bismarck might have said if he had been told that harsh terms then would mean the terrible defeat of Germany forty-eight years later and he adds: “There is not much doubt of the answer: he would have said that the terms ought to have been harsher still…..and on the same principle, when the medicine makes the patient sick, the doctor responds by doubling the dose.”

I was reminded of this when reading about Netanyahu’s determination to continue the attack on Hamas with no other objective in mind than the total capitulation of Hamas, of which there is as yet no sign. Perhaps he is encouraged by the support given to him by the unscrupulous President of the United States, or perhaps he is on a mission to hold on to power for as long as possible, by whatever means and at whatever cost. Probably both.

Either way, Israel is facing a bleak prospect. The country has had no time to recover from the trauma inflicted on it and is riven by internal dissent, and Netanyahu’s conviction that the answer lies in squeezing Hamas ‘until the pips squeak’ only provokes further counter-violence. There is scant comfort in the recent wave of Palestinian protests against Hamas, which is not matched by any correspondingly pro-Israel sentiment and is more a cry of desperation.

Settler violence is following the same prescription: to double the dose of a remedy which patently does not work. The mentality which holds Palestinian families responsible for the deeds of individuals and punishes them collectively, runs counter to the principles of natural justice and merely spawns a new generation of Israel-haters. The myth holds sway that the Arab mind is a monolithic entity intractably set against any form of cooperation and that the only solution lies in battering Palestinian communities into submission while continuing the bombardment of Gaza, with escalating casualties.

In the process, immense damage is being done to both the reputation and the actuality of Israel as a democratic state. Defenders of Israel are having to justify the actions of a leader who has aligned himself with European racists of the far right and has nailed his colors to the mast of an American President who himself is an out-and-out racist and who, to put it bluntly, has other fish to fry.

Meanwhile, Jews living outside Israel are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they are having to protect themselves against attacks from the usual spectrum of ideologically motivated antisemites. On the other hand, their consciences demand that they oppose what they see as an unjust and ultimately futile policy on the part of the Israeli government, which is dragging both Israel and world Jewry into a situation of unending hostility.