Half year of war: World turns on Israel

In the six months since Hamas invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, shooting, raping, burning, mutilating and kidnapping Israelis, the almost universal horror that greeted this brutal attempt to destroy Israel has been eclipsed by widespread condemnation of Israel for its military response to the invasion.

The widespread opposition to Israel has been accompanied by:

• a marked increase in anti-Semitism around the world;

• the death of hundreds of Israeli soldiers and civilians in a war they did not start;

• the failure to rescue or otherwise secure the release of most of the Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, an undetermined number of whom have died in captivity, whose conditions have been described by freed hostages as horrendous;

• the surprising discovery of hundreds of miles of tunnels built and designed by Hamas for military purposes throughout Gaza, underneath virtually every structure;

• the widespread destruction in Gaza due to Hamas locating many of its fighters underground and to the positioning of other fighters in civilian locations, such as schools and hospitals, adjacent to or above tunnels;

• the radical shift in tone toward Israel by US President Joe Biden, who initially supported Israel and even visited it, and who now says he is “outraged” at Israel, who threatens to cut support for Israel and who abstained at the UN on an anti-Israel resolution, Mach 25;

• the accusation in the International Criminal Court that Israel is committing genocide;

• the suspension of any talk of a rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia;

• the shift from passionate unity in the body politic of Israel to the opening of a cleavage, due to Israel’s failure to secure the freedom of the hostages, due to the intelligence failures of the government that neither precluded nor detected the Hamas invasion, due to failure to destroy all of Hamas’ battalions thus far, and due to the priority of some for dislodging Benjamin Netanyahu from power;

• the mobilization in the Diaspora of countless tens of thousands of Jews who came to Israel to volunteer in fields ranging from medicine to agriculture, to sustain the Israeli economy, badly hit due to massive mobilization of its citizen army to fight Hamas;

• the mobilization in the US of some 300,000 Jews to demonstrate on Nov. 14 for Israel in Washington, DC, and to demonstrate for the release of the hostages — the largest demonstration ever held in Washington — whose unity fractured in part when Sen. Charles Schumer, a featured speaker at the rally, castigated Israel and Netanyahu on the US Senate floor, March 14;

• the realignment of the plans of Jewish students and parents concerning college due to the introduction of a new criterion: the extent of anti-Semitism on a given campus;

• the substantial increase in both the anti-Israel faction in the Democratic party and in anti-Biden, Democratic constituencies, particularly in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, due to Biden’s initial, wholehearted support of Israel;

• the virtual collapse of the peace camp within Israel, much of which was centered in the very kibbutzim and communities in southern Israel decimated by Hamas on Oct. 7.

• the initial failure of the UN and others to condemn Hamas’ rape of Israeli women and girls on Oct. 7, raising the specter of a double standard on female believability captured by the “me too” slogan;

• the spread of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate speech on many social media and of hostile coverage of Israel in other media, specifically the failure to acknowledge the military and humanitarian implications of Hamas’ use of tunnels near or under civilian structures, such as schools, homes and hospitals;

• the affirmation of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s observation that “war is hell” by such Israeli actions as the mistaken killing of three of the Israeli hostages trying to escape Hamas on Dec. 15, and the mistaken killing of seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen on April 1, as well as the death of many Palestinians used as human shields by Hamas;

• the opening of a new, pivotal priority in Israel, at once budgetary, gruesome, national and individual: rehabilitation, of hostages, of widows, of amputees, of other injured, of the displaced, of the whole mental set of the country.

Ron Kampeas of JTA reports from Washington on President Biden’s outrage:

President Joe Biden said on April 2 that he was “outraged and heartbroken” by an Israeli strike, April 1, that killed seven hunger relief workers last week and said Israel was not doing enough to protect aid workers and other civilians, in his sharpest official rebuke of Israel so far in the Gaza war.

Before Biden released his statement, Israel acknowledged responsibility for the strike, launched an investigation and made changes to how it coordinates with aid agencies.

On April 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for the strike, following a statement in which he accepted responsibility.

“Israel deeply regrets the tragic incident which claimed the lives of seven humanitarian aid workers,” Netanyahu said. “Our hearts go out to their families and to their home countries.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres and expressed his deep sorrow and sincere apologies over the tragic loss of life of WCK staff.

Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said that he would elevate consultation between Israel’s security establishment and aid organizations to “promptly open a joint situation room — a platform that enables coordination between the IDF’s Southern Command and international organizations vis-à-vis the distribution of aid.”

The delivery of assistance until now has been coordinated with a division of the Israeli military that is not part of the offensive command structure of the war. Bringing in the Southern Command would connect assistance organizations more directly with the military officials ordering strikes.

“This is not a stand-alone incident,” Biden’s statement said. 
 “This conflict has been one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed.

“This is a major reason why distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza has been so difficult — because Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians. Incidents like yesterday’s simply should not happen. Israel has also not done enough to protect civilians.”

Biden has openly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to launch a massive operation in Rafah to destroy Hamas’ remaining battalions.

Netanyahu says four Hamas battalions remain in Rafah and that the war will not be over until the terrorist group is dismantled.

Biden has in effect demanded veto power over Israel’s war plans, and wants Israel to explain how the more than one million civilians sheltering in Rafah, often at Israel’s behest, will be protected.

The Biden administration has pressed Israel to facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip.

Israel has blamed the obstruction of assistance on Hamas, which, says Israel, also steals the aid for its own fighters.

“We’re still going to make sure they can defend themselves and the seventh of October doesn’t happen again,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby at the daily reporters’ briefing at the White House on April 2. But “that doesn’t mean that it’s a free pass, that we look the other way when something like this happens.”