Israel, Hamas, and the Social Structure of Evil
Vengeance on the Children
Author’s Note
The social structure of evil is made up of the incentives, rewards, and power that individuals and groups receive by violent, exploitive, and oppressive acts and laws that deprive others of freedom, safety, and control over their own lives.
Let’s take the View from 30,000 Feet of the social structures behind the recent tales of horror and trauma that will be with us for a long time.
President Biden characterized the attack in a special address on October 10.
The shocking events of the Hamas attack on Israel and its atrocities
You know, there are moments in this life — and I mean this literally — when the pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world. …
This was an act of sheer evil. …
Parents butchered using their bodies to try to protect their children. Stomach-turning reports of babies being killed. Entire families slain.
Young people massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace — to celebrate peace.
Women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies.
– President Joseph Biden, October 10, 2023
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on Gaza, saying authorities would cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid group, warned that Israel’s siege would spell “utter disaster” for Gazans. “There is no doubt that collective punishment is in violation of international law,” he told The Associated Press. “If and when it would lead to wounded children dying in hospitals because of lack of energy, electricity and supplies, it could amount to war crimes.”
LeMonde, Thursday, October 12, 2023
Between 30 and 40% of those wounded in airstrikes on Gaza are children, surgeon tells CNN
Social Structure – The Fabric of Our Lives
History – as it is normally written – focuses on the deeds of great men and a few women. Usually, we overlook the broader social and cultural forces that gave rise to the events we record. We focus on Hitler and the German acceptance of Nazism without looking at the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. The devastating economic and political sanctions made Germany fertile ground for the voices of evil, seeking revenge, and blaming the Jews for their defeat.
Social structures – the pattern of relationships that govern our lives – are the water that we as fish do not see.
Often, these patterns of oppression work their evil not only in the social realm but in the interior of the soul. Depression, anxiety, addiction, self-harm, and suicide are all signs of deeper internal violence (turned inward unconsciously) or a rage that sears consciousness. The destruction and displacement of indigenous peoples in the United States and around the world, the enslavement of Africans to create wealth for brutal masters, the destruction of small-town America and the opioid crisis are all the results of social structures that were created and enforced by cultural agendas codified in law and the not-so-invisible hand of economics. Attempts were made to change the structural evil of separate-but-equal American racial discrimination laws but not before they became the model for South Africa’s apartheid system. Environmental protection efforts – indeed, global survival efforts – are still opposed by economic and policy structures that support the fossil fuel industry.
“Even as we see the effects of climate change multiplying around us – deadly heat waves, lengthy wildfires, flooding, and drought – the world's economies are still subsidizing the price of fossil fuels. Those subsidies for oil, coal, natural gas, well, they add up to nearly $6 trillion a year globally. At least, that's according to a new report by the International Monetary Fund.”
– Audy Cornish, NPR All Things Considered, October 11, 2023
Israel and Palestine – More than Real Estate
That area of the Fertile Crescent at the junction of Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean world which the Romans called Palestine and the Jews called Israel, is not only a geographic entity. It is sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Conquering armies of ancient empires over time reduced the size of King David’s realm (about 1000 to 962 BCE) which covered what is Isarel and Palestine today. When the Romans occupied Palestine in 63 BCE it was a small state made up of the historic lands of the Jewish tribes of Judah and Benjamin around Jerusalem. At that time, Jews also lived in Galilee in the north in a more mixed society. Jesus of Nazareth was a Galilean. Protracted resistance and open rebellion against the Roman Empire led to the destruction of its temple and people in 70 AD.
The land was occupied by others and only a small remnant remained. Jews always longed to return and celebrated the Spring festival of Passover with the saying “Next year in Jerusalem.” The dream was to return to the holy temple mount called Mt. Zion. The ongoing persecution and marginalization of Judaism by Islam and Christianity saw antisemitism as a divine precept. The Zionist movement led to the return of the Jewish people to Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th century. This required the resurrection of Hebrew as a living language since Jews worldwide had no common daily language. Hebrew was the language of worship. After World War I the Ottoman Empire was broken up. Great Britain took control of Palestine under what called the British Mandate.
The Holocaust created support in the West for Jews to have their own homeland. The Jewish state would provide refuge for Jews around the world in which they could have a favorable social structure. It would be a Jewish state. The resident Arab population was resistant, if not hostile, to Jewish immigrants and their goal of having their own state carved out Palestine.
As part of the wider post-war movement to break up the great European empires, the British Mandate was broken into two parts, Israel, and Palestine, by a 1947 UN Resolution. It called for the establishment of Israel and Palestine as separate states in May of 1948. Jerusalem was to be an international city not belonging to either state. The Arabs rejected the plan because they did not want to be under Jewish rule in areas that were to be part of the State of Israel.
Israel and Palestine - Chess Pieces
Arab militias and underground Jewish forces began fighting. Large scale hostilities began in 1947. After Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, it was attacked by Arab armies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Saudi Arabia sent troops that fought under the Egyptian command. The Israelis prevailed with help from the British. Egypt retained control of Gaza and Jordan controlled the West Bank.
In the 1967 war, Israel defeated Jordan, Syria, and Egypt in what has become known as the Six Day War, from June 5 to 10. After a surprise attack by Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, the Israeli air force swiftly attacked the Egyptian air force on the ground and knocked out the air forces of Syria in Jordan. Within a week, Israel defeated the three Arab armies and became four times larger. Israel became the became the strongest military power in the region, which created a sense of Israeli invincibility.
The Six Day War was a byproduct of American and Soviet competition for influence in the Arab world. The war had been precipitated by a false report from the Soviet Union to Egypt and Syria that Israel had massed troops on the Syrian border.
The current conflict with Hamas is also about the influence and agendas of larger countries in the region. Saudi Arabia has been pursuing the creation of an alliance to offset an increasing zone of Iranian Influence in the Middle East and Central Asia. Iran’s support of Houthi rebels in Yemen next door to Saudi Arabia has been a special irritant. There have been ongoing talks between the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel on normalizing diplomatic relations. This would involve Saudi Arabia’s recognition of Israel and its right to exist. It would also mean the end of Palestinian aspirations for their own state and relief from Israeli occupation. At the time of this writing, Iranian involvement in the attacks of this week has not been confirmed. However, it appears that Iran was just as surprised as Israel and the United States.
Tragically, the blood and the atrocities of this current conflict are nothing new in the region. It continues to be an area of great political instability even within Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Visioning A Social Structure of Hope
Is there any way to change these structural arrangements that precipitate individual and collective acts of pure evil? The solution and encouragement require a closer look at areas of success. At the close of World War II, the victors did not repeat the mistakes of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. Instead of crushing or colonizing Germany and Japan, the policy was to help them recover and become democracies. Clearly, the absorption of Central and Eastern Europe into the Soviet Union was a factor. The reform of social structures in a defeated western Europe, the creation of the European Common Market and later the European Union, created an environment today in which France and Germany work together closely. Most importantly, it created an environment which played a major role in the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union. There were successful attempts to incorporate Russia and former Soviet Republics into a greater Eurasian network until Putin invaded Ukraine for a second time in 2023 to annex the country as part of Russia. (Russia took Crimea and the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014 with no opposition.) NATO has helped thwart Russia’s attempt to take all of the country.
Non-violence has also played a central role.in overcoming the social structure of evil. The British suffragists fighting for the vote for women pursued a non-violent program of protest and hunger strikes and overcame tremendous opposition to be recognized as legally autonomous human beings. Ghandhi’s non-violent campaign for Indian independence bore fruit, although the struggle was very violent. Martin Luther King, Jr and other civil rights leaders espoused Ghandhi’s non-violence tactics to obtain civil rights for African Americans. César Chavez and Latino leaders used a similar non-violent approach in their efforts to attain equality and justice. Non-violence has also been successful for indigenous people in the United States and around the world.
Clearly, these efforts have been bloody. The pictures speak volumes: men, women and children bitten by attack dogs, beaten by clubs, tear gassed, severely injured by high pressure water from fire hoses.
There were many battles in legislatures and courts which were not always successful but prevailed over decades. Books, speeches, musical composition, the fine arts provided and reinforced new social arrangements and solidarity. The social structure of good – the belief that we can wake up in a better tomorrow is not an easy path.
In the present circumstance, there is a need to de-escalate the situation and spare Palestinians trapped in Gaza by restoring power and water, achieving safe passage corridors, and providing for the safe passage of humanitarian aid. A military assault by Israel would lead to street-by-street urban warfare in which there would be no clear victor. The destruction of entire districts in Gaza would mean the death of large numbers of women, children, and adolescents since 50% of Palestinians - approximately 1.15 million people - are under 20.
As horrendous as the attacks were on settlers, they were seen as part of a settlement policy that deprived Palestinians of their land and livelihood. Two million people living in an open-air prison was going to explode at some point. Current plans call for the defeat of Hamas but trying to defeat a movement is at best futile. The Palestinians have no place to go. The West Bank is now becoming restive. There are fears that Hezbollah, another powerful Islamist group in Lebanon and Syria, may enter the hostilities.
The continued deprivation of Palestinians in Gaza of food, water and power are war crimes under international law. As of today, October 13, 2023, the Israelis have warned Palestinians - 2.3 million people - to evacuate northern parts of Gaza which will be invaded. This cannot be done since there is no fuel, electricity, or transport and large parts of Gaza, which is the size of Manhattan and one of the most densely populated areas on the earth, have already been destroyed. Engaging in such brutality will cost Israel significant support in Europe and the United States.
As of March 2023, Israel’s population is 9.73 million The Arab community within Israel is about 21% of the population or about 2 million people. There are about 5 million Arabs in disputed territories. This population disparity must make Israel uneasy. The trends are not reassuring for Israel since the Palestinian birth rate is about 3.6 compared to Israel’s 2.9. If Israel were to incorporate Palestinians, which it has done to some extent, and they were given full and equal rights, Israel would cease to be a Jewish state. Due to the difference in birth rates, Arabs will become the majority and potentially control the government of Israel. Unfortunately, the unrest and violence would not cease in a country with two hardened radicalized groups,
The challenge is to be a force for good and not absolute evil. We bear witness not by choosing one side over the other. We bear witness by taking positions on our social media feeds that promote de-escalation and countering false narratives that demonize Palestinians or Israelis. The fury on both sides will not abate quickly but we can support international aid agencies. Most importantly, we can monitor laws, policies, and initiatives that would intensify social structures that promote evil and work for those relationships and structures that promote peace. One of the great advantages of peace advocacy in the digital age is that we can do it in a few minutes from our homes.
Solutions will not come easily, but as a first step we can protect the future. We can protect the children. Donate to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency