The Israeli army, given its war machine's extraordinary destructive capacities, can crush the Gaza Strip in its entirety. If the Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu wants, he could fulfill the hope once publicly voiced by his late rival, Israeli Labor Party leader Yitzhak Rabin, to wake up one day and find that the sea had swallowed Gaza and everyone in it.
Netanyahu, who had ripped Israeli domestic politics apart by launching a battle with the Israeli judiciary, has the power to turn Gaza into Israel's Hiroshima. He could be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize afterward, and he could even win it. That would come as no surprise. Indeed, on several occasions – to avoid absolute generalization – this prize was politicized for all to see.
However, assuming all of this actually happens despite the speculation about hypotheticals it involves, it would not erase the shameful stain on the myth of Israeli security, nor would it change anything about the impact of what happened on the seventh of October, 50 years and one day to when Egypt crossed into Sinai and Syria launched its assault. Israel and all its allies were gripped by the same sense of shock that they felt after the unexpected “incursion” by Hamas and other factions.
We ask ourselves: has all the pain inflicted upon these two peoples been inevitable? The straightforward answer is: No, it is not at all necessary. This question then leads us to another: Could both sides have been spared the pain they have both endured? Yes, absolutely. This is also a short answer that avoids circumvention and beating around a matter as clear as the midday sun.
However, this hasn't been the case since the wars of the time of Judea and Samaria in ancient Israel. Some they fought against one another, and others they waged against the ancient Palestinians. That is, we did see peace thousands of years ago, nor have we seen it since the State of Israel was built over most of historic Palestine 75 years ago.
However, it is probably better to avoid drowning in the depths of a distant past and remain focused on the present and the events unfolding before our eyes. Can we find a convincing answer to the question: Why all this pain?
As we go through history in search of an answer to this question, we must begin with the role of the British. Going through Britain's involvement in various phases of the Arab region’s history before the emergence of Israel as a state, it is easy to pinpoint why British governments, since the early 19th century, share the lion's share of responsibility for everything that eventually transpired in Palestine: from the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917, through to opening the doors to Jewish migration to Palestine, up to the end of the British Mandate on April 29, 1948, weeks before the establishment of Israel.
Before London stuck its nose in Palestinian affairs, followers of all religions in Palestine coexisted in peace. London's alliance with the founders of the Zionist movement, who laid the groundwork for the trajectory that would eventually unfold, played a direct role in undermining this coexistence and paved the way for the establishment of Zionist terrorist organizations that even targeted British soldiers themselves.
Given this context, it could be said that Britain's abdication of its responsibilities as an occupying power in Palestine will always mean that it is largely responsible for the subsequent developments.
Some may argue that all this has no direct bearing on the course of events that have been seen since last Saturday. Yes, that is true. However, remembering the past allows for understanding the present, in the hope that this could be of some use.
In any case, the most important question now is: Where will this violent course of events lead? Certainly, to more destruction. That is clear and obvious. What we do not know about are the clandestine understandings that may have been agreed upon before the "Al-Aqsa Storm" that engulfed the Gaza and shocked us all.
