The Gaza war will politicize an entire generation that had not previously been invested in the complexities of the “Palestinian cause.” However, this conflict is being seen through a distorted lens because of the unprecedented degree and form of violence that is unfolding. Those being introduced to the “cause” now are seeing a struggle between both sides’ most violent elements. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu is the most extreme in the history of Israel, and the Hamas movement goes against the foundations of the Palestinian national project, be in terms of what the PLO stands for, the meaning of the project and its lexicon, or their conception of the nature of the relationship with Israel in the present and the future.
Therefore, presenting this war, with all its viciousness, as representing the essence of the Palestinian struggle, and being the only alternative to the national project for sovereignty and political and human rights for the Palestinians, threatens to distort youths’ conception of the fundamental values and objective of the Palestinian struggle. This misconception would have serious consequences for the Palestinians and others across the region.
The complexities of the shift in the meanings of the conflict are being exacerbated by the Biblical and Quranic framing of developments by Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas. In a significant speech he gave last Saturday, Netanyahu went back to the 11th century BC and quoted a story about the Jews’ struggle with “the people of the Amalek” from the Book of Samuel. He used the cruelty of this text to justify the brutality of the Israeli military machine and the number of Palestinian casualties being left by its attacks. If a man heading a “secular” party, the Likud, “twisted” the narrative in this way, there are no limits to the willingness of Hamas to theologize all aspects of the conflict it is waging and the project it is leading.
The religious connotations are not concealed in the title that Hamas has chosen for this war, “Al-Aqsa Flood.” It links the Abrahamic mythology of “Noah’s Flood,” which an overwhelming divine force gave rise to with the aim of putting an end to injustice, to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is an Islamic religious symbol that “God promised” the believers would be liberated. This religious framing of the political conflict, linking it to supernatural narratives and turning it into an existential battle, is a horrifying proposition for Palestinians, Israelis, and the entire region. This course makes individuals and groups see things from a sacrosanct perspective to a terrifying degree, undermining the rational dynamics needed to shift towards practical solutions, making our political psyches more rigid and fanatical, and perpetuating conflict and suffering.
This battle over the psyche is what concerns us outside the military battlefield. This battle must be fought to liberate the youths currently being politicized from this trap of distorting their perception of the Palestinian question and the Arab-Israeli conflict more broadly. The essence of the Palestinian cause, which is a struggle for justice, statehood, and self-determination, is being threatened with extinction as the supernatural religious narrative becomes the vogue. The unprecedented degree of violence that Israel has unleashed in response to the unprecedented violence of Palestinian attack, is crushing what remains of the foundations for a political solution.
However, I believe that the war, with its horrific horrors on both sides, has rekindled the urgency of a two-state solution, which had appeared like a dead end and a forgotten project in recent years. Thus, a political solution can be extracted from the rubble of the ongoing conflict today if the stakeholders - the Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs, and Americans - can unite behind an initiative and move quickly to put us back on the track of peace.
This solution requires the defeat of Benjamin Netanyahu and his alliance, the most extreme in the history of Israel, and the defeat of Hamas, whose rule since 2006 has led the Palestinians to the hell they now find themselves in.
It is no secret that Netanyahu is finished. That is evident in every Israeli opinion poll. They all show that the people of Israel hold him responsible for the current state of affairs. He cannot escape the fates that had befallen more prominent Israeli precedes. Golda Meir left government and politics after the 1973 war, Yitzhak Shamir was gone after the First Intifada, and, before him, Menachem Begin was out after the 1982 Lebanon war.
As for Hamas, according to a poll conducted in Gaza and the West Bank by the Arab Barometer days before its war with Israel began, the residents of Gaza did not have much confidence in their Hamas-led government. When asked about their degree of trust in the Hamas authorities, 44 percent of respondents said that they do not have any confidence in these authorities at all, while 23 percent of them said that they “do not have much confidence.” It would not make sense for these results to have improved after the suffering inflicted on the Palestinians as a result of Hamas’ recent choices.
In this regard, we should note a large segment of Israeli public opinion leaders had the courage to hold Netanyahu and his policies responsible for the ongoing war, while no Palestinian voices have held Hamas accountable for its share of responsibility, not only for this war but also for its bad governance and linking the Palestinian question to Iranian geopolitical interests.
I understand the cruelty of what the Palestinians are experiencing today. However, adopting the Hamas narrative about resistance and the nature of the conflict, under the weight of fear or suffering, would not be wise. In times of crisis, societies need different kinds of leaders. Leaders with the capacity to chart a new course and revive hope among the people are needed. The Palestinians must be more vocal in distancing themselves from the choices that Hamas has imposed on them against their will. Now is the time for a new Palestinian voice that speaks to the aspirations of its people and takes a more realistic approach.
The war over minds is more consequential than the military battlefield. The narrative that will prevail has the potential either to leave us all trapped in a vicious cycle of perpetual hatred and violence or to put us on the path to peace and reconciliation.
