The End of the Beginning

I’ve been watching the War in Gaza just like ten million other Jews since it began on October 7th 340 days ago. But it looks different from here in New Jersey some 5000 miles away. I serve on the Board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern NJ and have done my best to educate and represent and identify anti-Semitism and go to Washington and help our agency defend our Jewish Community here even as we raise money for the state of Israel there. That’s what I’m suppose to do along with utilizing my experience to help build an Interfaith Religious Leaders Committee to bring the faiths together to talk and listen and learn how we can get along better and even try to support each other. It’s easier to write than to do especially in the aftermath of the October 7th massacre and the War in Gaza.

There’s a lot standing in the way of the end of the War. Hamas just slaughtered six young hostages and to say the nation of Israel feels their pain is a fantastical understatement. There has been a extraordinary demonstration here in America on behalf of thousands upon thousands of Palestinian deaths calibrated by Hamas as the cost of fighting a war against a hidden enemy protected by almost two million human shields waiting to be killed by Israel. Yahya Sinwar still lives likely concealed in a tunnel buried somewhere out of sight of the IDF. Benjamin Netanyahu is caught in a War that must terminate Hamas control over Gaza or await the invasion of the Negev by a new wave of Hamas troops. That’s the same Netanyahu who was Prime Minister on October 7th when Israel lost some 1200 citizens with over 5400 casualties and 250 hostages. There will be an investigation when the War is over and Netanyahu’s other legal peccadilloes will finally catch up with him as well, causing many to believe that he’s in no hurry to end the War.

So Ceasefire negotiations come and go and mostly go nowhere positive. Joe Biden and his Secretary of State, CIA Director, National Security Adviser and Vice President have been negotiating with Qatar and Egypt and Jordan and Israel seeking an end to hostilities, the return of the hostages for many prisoners and a way forward to rebuild Gaza and tie together enough disparate interests to give peace a chance. It has been a long shot for seventy five years and Hamas is connected with other proxies such as Hezbollah, the Houthis and Syria to Iran.

While a Ceasefire would stop Israel and Hamas the others play their own game under different rules. Then there are the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem along with some five million refugees if you use UNRWA’s unique method of counting. Firstly both the Palestinians and the Israelis will have to hold elections and select new leadership if there is to be a day after. That is one crux of a multi-headed problem. Mahmoud Abbas is 88 years old and its been a long time since there were Palestinian elections. Bibi Netanyahu has been re-elected so many times one loses count or might wish to.

But none of that resolves the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu is Prime Minister and unwilling to allow Egypt to police the same Philadelphi Corridor that it has been policing with its eyes covered for the past fifteen years. I’m not a
supporter of Bibi or the Occupation. I am an old fashioned peacenik who has witnessed Israel’s slow but steady move to the right over the past twenty plus years. There needs to be a formula for all sides to stop the killing. We have moved far afield for too many reasons. But this War gives everyone the opportunity to submit to one or even two steps forward. It’s a reach! I’m convinced our World truly needs a reach.

How to get there from here? I have an unusual idea. I don’t even know if it is possible. But I’ve come to believe that without it the odds go off the boards and what is left is a mess that’s going to cost many more lives!
So here goes: Bibi has reasons to keep fighting and maybe even consider expanding the battle if Iran or Hezbollah attacks. Well, I think its time for Bibi to retire. He needs a very large incentive. There are those in Israel and beyond who believe that Benjamin Netanyahu belongs in jail. They may be right. But there is a bigger issue:

What if Bibi retired because he knew that the state of Israel decided to give him a pardon for everything he has done? I know that’s not the way things are done in Israel. 700,000 is like thirty million here in the United States. There is more than enough well founded anger to send that kooky idea to the garbage can and fast. But we have to get past Bibi to make any progress. And if the cost of progress is a pardon for the Prime Minister, Israel will have a chance to try and create something better. Just maybe two interdependent states with security and equality for all the residents of the Holy Land. It won’t happen overnight. It will take enormous efforts on all sides. But looking forward is better than waiting for the next attack. Just maybe.