{"id":7046,"date":"2024-04-07T10:58:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T14:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=7046"},"modified":"2024-04-07T11:03:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T15:03:27","slug":"the-gaza-reservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/04\/07\/the-gaza-reservation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gaza Reservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

World Central Kitchen<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been waiting a while, thinking about how to say this.  Like most people in America and across the world, I was shocked and saddened by the death of the seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza.  They were literally doing \u201cGod\u2019s work\u201d, trying to feed the starving under the most dangerous conditions, wartime.  World Central Kitchen is often the first on the scene when  natural disaster strikes; hurricanes and earthquakes and forest fires.  And they are often the group that takes the highest risks \u2013 they are feeding people in Ukraine and in Gaza, the two \u201chot wars\u201d in the world.  To use a Christian analogy:   they are literally the ones creating the loaves and the fishes for those who have none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their convoy of three cars were purposely targeted and destroyed by Israeli air strikes.  The process went on for a few minutes;  one car was hit, the survivors raced to the second.  That was hit, and, predictably, they raced to the third.  Then that vehicle was completely destroyed.  According to WCK, they \u201cdeconflicted\u201d the convoy with the Israeli Defense Forces.  The IDF doesn\u2019t deny that.  Someone didn\u2019t get the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food as a Weapon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Israel will claim this was a \u201cfog of war\u201d mistake \u2013 a too quick-on-the-trigger officer who thought he was attacking a brazen Hamas action.  And it probably was. But there is a pending question which hasn\u2019t been answered.  Is it the policy of Israel, to starve the Palestinians in Gaza?  I am reminded of US Army General Phil Sheridan, sent out west after the Civil War to prosecute the attacks against the Plains Native American tribes:  \u201cIf you kill the buffalo, you destroy the Indians\u2019 commissary\u201d.  Sheridan encouraged the mass slaughter and near-extinction of the American bison, removing it from the Great Plains, to starve the tribes into submission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this an Israeli war goal as well?\u00a0\u00a0Are they choosing to starve out Hamas, forcing them to try to run or come to battle?\u00a0\u00a0And, since Hamas is totally embedded in the general population, is it Israel\u2019s strategy to \u201cstarve them all\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I listened to an Israeli cabinet official interviewed, the former Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0He makes no distinction between Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0They were all \u201cthe enemy\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, he took \u201ccredit\u201d that Israelis were allowing any food at all into Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0To paraphrase his quote:\u00a0\u00a0All of the Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas, and Hamas is like the Nazis in World War II.\u00a0\u00a0The Allies didn\u2019t worry about starving the Germans during World War II, so we shouldn\u2019t have to worry about feeding Gaza.\u00a0\u00a0But Israel is worrying about it, letting some food in \u2013 so there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waging War<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Seven World Food Kitchen workers were killed, and the world took notice.  But over two hundred aid workers in Gaza have been killed in this six month conflict.  Much less notice was taken about them.  And, most importantly, over 30,000 Palestinians are dead in this conflict.  The Israeli Defense Forces will say that close to 20,000 of those were Hamas fighters, some teenagers.  Given that number \u2013 it still means that over 10,000 civilians are dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel certainly has cause good cause for battle.  Over 1300 Israelis were killed in the surprise assault on October 7th<\/sup>, mostly civilians brutalized and murdered.  Over one hundred remain hostages of Hamas, though their fate is still unknown.  And maybe the Israeli government has a point when they claim that the United States and the world are being \u201cholier than thou\u201d.  Are we demanding that Israel wage war differently than the US did in Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan, all conflicts when the enemy embedded itself in the civilian population.  How many civilians were killed in those places?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Enemy, The Solution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The view of the Netanyahu administration, is that all Palestinians are the enemy.  Whether they\u2019re in Gaza or the West Bank, they are not an \u201cequal partner\u201d for a future two-state solution.  They are \u201coccupying\u201d land that Israel believes is \u201ctheirs\u201d, especially on the West Bank.  Even as Israel occupies Gaza, they are building more settlements in the West Bank, establishing Israeli \u201csovereignty\u201d.   They don\u2019t want a Palestinian state, they are moving towards total Israeli occupation of the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current Israeli Government view is much like the United States government of the late 19th<\/sup> Century towards Native Americans.  Put the Palestinians on reservations, and control the rest of the territory.  When the United States wanted reservation land, like Oklahoma, they took it, much as Israel is taking the West Bank.  And what\u2019s left?  In the US, the Plains Native Americans were sent to some of the most desolate places in the Nation, like the Badlands in South Dakota (not called the Badlands for nothing).  Is Gaza the Israeli \u201cBadlands\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law, proposes to clear the Gaza seafront and build resort hotels, a \u201cbeach-a-fication\u201d of that useful slice.\u00a0\u00a0That demonstrates clearly how a Trump victory would align American policy with the Netanyahu government.\u00a0\u00a0On the other hand of November\u2019s binary choice, a Biden victory, like the opposition in Israel politics, would revive the hope of Palestinian sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The death of the World Central Kitchen workers is a tragedy.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u2019s a single point in a whole series of tragedies, that began long before even the October 7th<\/sup>\u00a0terror attack on Israel.\u00a0\u00a0The issue is the ongoing Israeli v Palestinian crisis, and how the Israeli government sees the ultimate solution.\u00a0\u00a0To moderate Israelis and the Biden Administration, that answer is a two-states.\u00a0\u00a0To the current Israeli government, it seems like more of a Final Solution.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamas\/Israel War<\/h5>\n\n\n\n