Glimmer of humanity

They say that the first casualty of war is the truth.

I’m not sure of that. It strikes me that both reason and humanity go first. The killing of the truth becomes necessary because the perpetrators want to hide their previous adoption of irrationality and inhumanity. 

For instance, take the reactions to the Hamas attacks on southern Israel. These have been rightly described as some of the most brutal in the history of terrorism, with kids tortured and murdered in front of their parents, or the parents in front of their kids. Such is the sense of horror this inspires that some seem to feel that any kind of retaliation is legitimate, however many victims it produces and whether they’re with Hamas themselves or not.

Meanwhile, on the other side, I’ve seen interviews with people who simply can’t bring themselves to condemn the level of brutality those attacks generated, but instead simply point to their own grievances concerning the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli state over 70 years. It’s hard to believe that they feel that history justifies that level of cruelty towards innocents. It seems, however, that there are those who reckon it does.

I’ve also heard people claiming that “the Jews” are wreaking terrible harm on the Palestinians. I want to scream “not all Jews are Israelis”, but even that wouldn’t be saying enough. I’d need to add, “not all Israelis favour state violence against the Palestinians”. We’ll see that at the end of this post

This kind of intransigent positioning leads to the killing of the truth, as you can see from the news coverage of the Gazan hospital hit by some kind of weapon, leading to the death of more than 400 people. Somebody fired the missiles that did the damage. But everyone who might have been responsible is denying it was them. Someone, therefore, is lying.

What’s most interesting about that lie is that it’s clear that the perpetrator realises that the action was shameful and that’s why they won’t take responsibility. They did it, but they knew it was wrong. And that knowledge didn’t stop them.

In this terrible fog of hatred and desire for revenge, deepened by the lies and evasions, it’s a comfort to find even a small glimmer of decency and humanity.

For me that was provided by a remarkable man, whose book Sapiens impressed me when I read it. He shows the deepest understanding of the tragedy unfolding in the Middle East. He also seems to have the most intelligent suggestion for a way out of the mess, if only enough people could be found to take it.

He's the Israeli historian and writer, Yuval Noah Harari.

Yuval Noah Harari

He gave an interview to an Indian news service, CNN-News18. The recording on YouTube is a little messy, with more than one instance of the interview, not starting at the same point, but his statements are clear enough.

Harari’s stance strikes me as enormously insightful. Hamas is actually fighting peace itself. A Gaza strip at peace, maybe even prosperous, doesn’t fit the Hamas world view. How would a peaceful Gaza still provide a role for Hamas?

That strikes me as the best answer I’ve heard to the question, “what on Earth was Hamas trying to achieve?” They knew that if they did actually go to war with Israel, as they claimed, they’d be crushed. But if they were at war with peace? That I can see them achieving.

Incidentally, that means that the best way of defeating them in the long term is to work once more towards peace. That would leave them no reason for being. No better ultimate solution to the problem of dealing with Hamas can exist.

That, though, is for the longer term. The immediate task for Israel has to be to put an end to Hamas's capacity to engage in terrorism. That means military action, however unpleasant that may be, since it’s clear that nothing else can possibly neutralise the constant threat from one of the ugliest terrorist organisations the world has seen.

How should Israel tackle that task?

Harari gets it absolutely right. He declares:

Israel now is in a struggle, not just to protect its territory and citizens but to protect its humanity... Israel must keep the possibility of peace alive.

What’s more, as Harari suggests, Israel needs to find a way of doing that which doesn’t reduce it to the same level as Hamas. I think Harari’s right to say that Israel doesn’t deliberately target civilians as Hamas does, but it can behave with such indifference towards civilian life that the numbers killed become horrific. Can it rise above that kind of behaviour?

Well, I don’t have a lot of hope. People who’ve been hurt badly often only want to hurt back. The present Israeli government hasn’t shown itself particularly inclined to moderation and decency. As for Hamas, it certainly wouldn’t recognise either moderation or decency if it tripped over them in the street.

But, as Harari says, maybe international pressure can begin to make itself felt. Maybe it can push two intransigent parties to see that both sides are made up of humans and humans have human rights. The starting point for any actual progress in that sad region is for both sides to recognise that truth.

Let’s just hope that it isn’t one of the truths that have become casualties of war.