Trump’s dystopia

It is tempting to fantasize that we Israelis will soon awaken into a new reality, freed from the threat of a society on our border whose people have been taught to glorify Jewish death. The Israeli media is now filled with analyses identifying potential destinations for the people of Gaza, with “expert” assessments of each one’s feasibility.

Most observers now agree that Trump’s proposal for a new vacation resort in the Middle East is unrealizable. No American troops or American funding will be committed to implementing his dystopian plan.

But the question of implementation diverts the discourse from the truly essential issue. The question is not what is possible, but what is worthy of Israel and the Jewish people.

It is strange for me as a Jew and an Israeli to defend the right and ability of Palestinians to remain in Gaza despite the threat that they pose to us. I have no compassion for Hamas, whose highest aspiration is to murder as many Jews as possible.

Yet even while facing a brutal enemy, we are forbidden to emulate its brutality. The pursuit of safety and self-defense is a moral duty. But morality also demands that just wars be fought justly, both during the actual fighting and in its aftermath. The idea of a mass transfer of the Palestinian people living in Gaza is not merely against international law. It is a moral abomination. It is a scenario that Israel and Jews around the world ought to reject unequivocally.

Finding an impoverished site in Africa recalls the desperate search for a homeland for the Jewish people a century ago. Yet when the British offered their Uganda colony as a refuge for Eastern European Jews, the Zionist movement vehemently rejected it. That plan, like others, ignored the fact that the Jewish people already had a homeland. So do the Gazans.

The war in Gaza has created an opportunity for implementing a new order in Gaza and expanding peace to much of the Middle East. This opportunity is being suppressed by our government not because it is unfeasible, but because the current coalition will not pursue it. That plan would replace Hamas with a police and governing force of moderate Arab states committed to peace with Israel. The catch is that those countries will enter the Gaza disaster zone only if Israel accepts an active role for the Palestinian Authority – which Netanyahu’s far right coalition partners have vetoed.

The result is that many Israelis are embracing Trump’s dystopia, with all its moral flaws, while allowing a chance for regional peace to slip away.

For all the dangers and uncertainties involved in a realigned Middle East, that scenario is both more realistic than the Trump Gaza real estate deal and embodies a moral standard worthy of the Jewish state.

Peace is not attained by eradicating one’s enemy. It involves neutralizing their ability to dictate reality and cause harm and then mustering the courage to recognize each other’s rights and start building a new and better future.

Israel’s success in this war has been to achieve that first stage. Let’s celebrate the victory and embrace the opportunities it has generated.