Vicksburg
Warfare is often ugly; but seldom uglier than the form called “laying siege”. A siege is not a battle, at least, not in the World War II, mobile armor sense. I’m an old American History teacher and a Civil War “buff. So I look to Grant’s siege of the Confederate Army of Mississippi at Vicksburg for my example. For forty-seven days, the Union Army surrounded Vicksburg, and controlled the Mississippi River above and below the town. Confederate General Pemberton was unable to break his 43,000 troops out, and Grant’s 77,000 cut all supplies.
But it wasn’t just the Confederate soldiers who suffered in Vicksburg. The 4,000 civilians, including some who were enslaved, were trapped along with the Confederate forces. They not only endured the artillery barrages and the constant small arms fire, but they were starved as well. When they ran out of regular meat, they ate horses, then dogs, then rats. Pemberton had to consider the condition of his troops, but also those 4,000 civilians. He finally surrendered his forces and the city on July 4th, 1863. With the fall of Vicksburg, the Confederacy lost the Mississippi River; and the breakaway South was split in two.
Rafah
What’s the difference between the siege of Vicksburg and the Israeli siege of Gaza today? Like Grant’s Union forces, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) used overwhelming numbers to push Hamas forces into smaller and smaller sections of the region. The problem for the IDF, is that they are unable to distinguish between the 2 million Palestinians who live in Gaza, and the 20,000 to 30,000 actual Hamas terrorists and their leaders “embedded” (hiding) among them.
Unlike Pemberton’s Confederates, Hamas is unconcerned about the condition of civilians. In fact, Hamas welcomes the suffering. It makes their position stronger in the world. And, of course, Grant didn’t have the entire world watching the conditions in Vicksburg, the women and children hiding in caves as the artillery shells exploded, disease and death around every corner. But if he did, Grant would have placed the blame on the Confederates. He was willing to accept Pemberton’s surrender at any time.
Israel is trying to place the blame on Hamas. But the world sees something different. We see the truly innocent children of Gaza starving to death. And even though Hamas controls most of the information coming out of Rafah, the reality and scope of hundreds of thousands starving is evident.
Responsibility
Perhaps the responsibility for the starving in Gaza should be on Hamas, but the world, rightly, says different. And so the IDF, set to destroy every vestige of Hamas for the terror of October 7th, is forced to break the first “rule” of siege warfare: don’t supply your enemy.
Two hundred trucks a day were coming from Egypt to Israel, and then into Gaza. The Gazan Police, a branch of Hamas, took direct responsibility for distribution of aid. But the IDF saw the police as “the enemy”, and so the trucks dwindled to less than fifty, to feed millions. As John Wayne said: “My fault, your fault, nobody’s fault”: many are starving.
The United States is pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to get more food into Gaza. Netanyahu is trying to shift the blame to Hamas, just as Grant would shift the blame to Pemberton. But in the eyes of President Biden, and much of the rest of the world, the fact that Hamas doesn’t care about its own citizens, doesn’t “absolve” Israel of responsibility. And with the Gazan Police out of the equation, the few food convoys are targets, not just for thousands of starving families, but for Gazan street gangs who recognize that food is power. And for Hamas, chaos is “good”.
Ramadan
It’s a setup for the kind of “food massacre” that happened the other day, when over one hundred Palestinians were killed, some by Israeli bullets, and some in the crush of a panicked crowd. It puts the IDF right where Hamas wants them – in the spotlight of world opinion.
Meanwhile, the United States and other nations are air-dropping military rations (MRE’s – meals ready to eat) onto the beaches of Gaza. There is no control over who gets the rations; and they are “a drop in the bucket”, maybe 100,000 meals to a starving population of at least 300,000. But it’s something, and more air-drops are planned. Some say those drops make the US look weak, unable to “force” their ally Israel to their will. But the US is drawing a line: starving the population is not acceptable, for either Hamas or Israel. If you won’t do something about it, we will. It places pressure on all sides to solve the problem.
Israel publicly plans on ending the siege by destroying Hamas. The goal: destroy Hama’s leadership whatever the cost.
But there are ongoing cease-fire talks: the United States, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and Hamas are negotiating in Cairo. They are indirect. The Hamas delegation talks to Qatari mediators, who bring proposals back and forth to the rest. The thought of Hamas and Israel sitting down together is too much to bear.
And the high Islamic holiday of Ramadan begins next week. Ramadan, “Honors the time when Allah, via the angel Gabriel, revealed the first verses of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, to a caravan trader named Muhammad (Almanac)”. It is a holiday celebrating the founding of Islam, and to observe it, Muslims fast each day from dawn to dusk. This year it lasts for a month.
For the people of Gaza, fasting is not a celebration, it’s a forced reality. Hopefully Ramadan is the right time for all sides to stop bleeding, and start feeding.
