(The following is an excerpt from Stanley Jonny’s ‘Original Sin: Israel, Palestine and the Revenge of Old West Asia’, which is being published with the permission of HarperCollins India. Based on his many reporting trips to the region and dozens of interviews But, Johnny unearths the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict.)
After the Hamas attack, Israel launched a devastating bombing campaign on Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “Israel is at war,” vowing to take “powerful retaliation” against Hamas. Israel said that it has the right to respond to the terrorist attack by Hamas. The world stood with Israel. The United States offered full support. President Joe Biden, who traveled to Israel and met with Netanyahu and members of his Cabinet, said, “I don’t believe you have to be Jewish to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist.”
Netanyahu set two goals for the IDF. “Crush Hamas” and release the hostages. The IDF carried out airstrikes into Gaza for weeks, before launching a full-scale offensive, first in the north and then expanding throughout the enclave. In the initial phase, more than 1 million people in northern Gaza were ordered by the IDF to leave their homes within 24 hours. Gaza City in northern Gaza, the enclave’s largest city, was reduced to a pile of rubble in a matter of weeks.
(Cover of Original Sin. Courtesy: HarperCollins India)
The use of disproportionate force against the enemy is a well-known Israeli method (Dahiya doctrine). Dahiya in Lebanon was a stronghold of the Shia militia Hezbollah. In the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Israel carried out a massive bombardment of Dahiya, devastating the city. In October 2008, while warning Hezbollah amid tensions in northern Israel, General Gadi Eisenkot, then head of the army’s Northern Division, said Israel would use “disproportionate force” to destroy Lebanese villages from which Hezbollah was firing rockets. Was. “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired upon… From our point of view, these are not civilian villages, these are military bases,” said General Eisenkot, who later He became Israel’s Chief of the General Staff and then a minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet. After 7 October, the IDF adopted the same tactics in Gaza.
In April 2024, I met an Israeli journalist in Jerusalem who calls himself a right-winger. We had an open discussion about the war and Israel’s objectives in a restaurant in the Old City.
‘This war has a price’
The effect of war was visible everywhere. The last time I was in Jerusalem, the flea market near Jaffa Street was so crowded that I found it difficult to navigate among the traders and buyers. This time, it looked like a haunted street, with only a few shops open. The restaurants were mostly empty. A tour guide I met on my last trip told me that the war had taken a huge toll on the economy. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a fourth-century church considered the holiest place of worship in Christianity, had hardly anyone except our group when we went there in the evening. The journalist told me that like every war, “this one also has a cost.” And the Israelis are tolerating it”.
He said that October 7 changed everything. “Things cannot go back to the status quo of October 7,” he said. I raised the issue of collective punishment to Gazans. The journalist, a kippah-wearing, bearded man in his 40s, said there was debate over whether the people of Gaza were to blame for the entire disaster.
“In what ways?” I asked him. “They voted for Hamas,” he said.
“So are you saying they should be punished overall?”
“No, I am not saying that. Hamas is part of Gaza’s society. You look at their charter. They are committed to the destruction of Israel. And they still came to power.”
“But in that case Likud’s founding charter also lays claim to the land between the river and the sea,” I said. “And how many years has Likud been in power in Israel!”
“You cannot compare a legitimate ruling political party with a terrorist entity,” he said.
Then he told me that he did not agree with the military tactics the IDF was using in Gaza. By that time almost the entire population of Gaza had been displaced. People from north and central Gaza were pushed south to the Rafah border. There was increasing international demand for Gazans to be allowed to return to their homes in the north. “Everyone says that people in Gaza should be allowed to return to Gaza City and Khan Yunis. But where will they go? Not a single building is standing in northern Gaza. The entire city has been razed to the ground,” he said.
“Is this not mindless vengeance? “Does this help Israel meet its long-term strategic objectives?” I asked him.
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if there’s a strategy,” he replied.
‘The war will last long’
Two days later, in a committee room of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, I met Boaz Bismuth, a member of the Knesset (MK) from Netanyahu’s Likud party. I asked him if he had seen the end of the war. Six months into the war, Israel has not accomplished any of its stated objectives. “The war will last long. At least one year. We are making progress. We will achieve our objectives,” the MK said.
Bismuth, a bespectacled, clean-shaven, tall man with dark hair, wore a dark blue suit and tie. He seemed to be in a hurry, but was careful in his use of words. “I was also a journalist,” he said, possibly remembering his stint as editor Israel HayomA Hebrew language daily. In 2022, he joined Likud and became an MK. Since the October 7 attack, Bismuth has taken a hardline stance on the war and called for the eradication of Hamas. “The cruel and monstrous people of Gaza took an active part in the genocide in Israeli settlements, the systematic murder of Jews and the shedding of their blood, the kidnapping of children, old people and mothers and the tying up of babies and burning them alive!” He wrote on Twitter on October 16. “One must not pity the cruel, there is no room for any humane signs – the memory of Amalek must be erased!” Added referring to the nation.
“We have two objectives,” Bismuth told me in the Knesset committee room. “One is to bring back the hostages. And the second is to eliminate Hamas.” Asked about increasing civilian casualties in Gaza, he said, “I am not at war against civilians. I am at war against Hamas. People in Gaza chose Hamas. Still, I am not at war against them.”
For Bismuth, lasting peace in the region is only possible if Hamas is defeated. “If we lose the war, we lose the idea of peace. If I lose, I will lose everything. So, I am not going to lose it,” he said, adding that instead of attacking the way Israel is waging the war, other countries including India should support Israel in this war. “Every country that respects itself must call Hamas a terrorist entity.”
‘We are aware of the dangers’
This was the politician’s view of the war. Later in the day, I went to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, where, inside a meeting room, I met Michel Ronen, a senior diplomat who was head of the Southeast Asia bureau at the ministry. I asked him about the diplomatic consequences of the war. By that time, most global opinion had turned against Israel. There were cracks in Israel’s relations with its biggest supporter, the US, which was growing impatient with increasing civilian deaths in Gaza. “We are working to ensure that political and international legitimacy remains for our military operations. We are aware of the dangers. We lost international support for our military campaign in 1973. The United Nations demanded a ceasefire within three weeks. But this time, we see more flexibility,” the ambassador told me.
When I met him, Qatar and Egypt, with the blessing of the United States, were already mediating ceasefire talks between Israel and Egypt. Cairo hosted the talks. I asked the Ambassador about the role of diplomacy amid the military goals set by Israel and the ongoing war. “We are not looking at a winning formula,” he said. We want the hostages back. That is our immediate priority,” he said.
But will the hostage deal lead to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza? Hamas, which signed a limited agreement with Israel in November and released about 100 hostages in exchange for a week-long ceasefire, later sought a permanent ceasefire in exchange for another hostage agreement. “I can’t guarantee what will happen after the deal. There could be a ceasefire or there could be more attacks,” said Ambassador Ronen.
I asked him about the larger Palestine question. He gave the standard answer: Israel will continue to work with its allies for peace.
“Ambassador, as a diplomat, do you still believe that a two-state solution is possible?” I asked him before ending our conversation.
“Some people here call the two-state solution the two-state illusion,” came his quick reply.
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