Double disturbia

October 7th is the new 9-11. On that day, Hamas fighters launched a daring attack that caught the vaunted Israeli military and security establishment off-guard. About 1,500 Israelis, including about 300 IDF personnel were killed in what is the single most devastating blow the Jewish state has suffered since the Yom Kippur war when it defeated a coalition of five Arab armies 50 years ago. 

Early that Saturday morning, Hamas’ fighters successfully infiltrated Israel’s impregnable borders by land, sea and air to launch their attack and also successfully shipped back hundreds of captives, allegedly including an IDF general. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promptly promised fire and brimstone as well as the complete eradication of Hamas and so far, he seems to be making good on that promise.

In the lead-up to its ground invasion of Gaza, Israel ordered more than a million Palestinians out of their homes to the north of the enclave and everyone knew that is going to be very costly. 

There are many theories about what exactly Hamas’ endgame is for the attack, and given the knowledge of how brutal Israel’s reprisals are, I personally believe it was not only about humiliating and inflicting pain on their oppressors. The way I see it, the objective was primarily to ruin the prospects of Israel’s rapprochement with its Arab neighbours even if at the cost of its own existence. From some indications, that might just succeed as not just Arab countries but a handful of Latin American countries have gone as far as recalling their ambassadors from Israel in protests. 

Just as 9-11 changed the world, there is no doubt that these are moments that will change everything in the region. The western world, like always, is standing fast by Israel and its punitive assault on Gaza, even though this assault clearly breaks so many international laws and conventions on human rights. 

I’ve always had my doubts about humanity of course, but what is unfolding seems to provoke a whole different take on reality not just for me but to so many people one never expected any pro-Palestinian sentiments from. As a Muslim, I was taught that attacking women, children, the aged and infirmed as well as even non-combatants is unacceptable during war. Hamas also did cross a number of lines and has done itself no favours with regards to those who sympathize with its just cause but consider Israel close ethno-political kin. 

More than 8,000 Palestinian civilians have so far paid the supreme price, some of them while in their homes, others in hospital beds and some while on transit to areas the IDF declared safe zones for refugees. Many were killed while already in refugee camps. One American I came across online told me that Hamas fighters went into one Israeli home and killed a man in front of his nursing wife before raping her, after which they threw the baby into an oven and forced its mother to watch and listen as it scream in agony till death. He said they also went from house to house liquidating everything in sight: men, women and children with no mercy. That is the kind of thing that will make your blood boil in rage if it indeed happened. And for that, one is supposed to take it for granted that as a “hard pass” to bring death and terror raining down on Gaza on an epic scale. Another told me that I am either onboard with Israel on that or I “really, really hate Jews”.

The outrage is that women and children were targeted. Israeli women and children. That notion seemed to lose traction once the victims became Palestinians. Some insist Hamas started it, or that Gazans danced and celebrated on the streets as the Israeli captives were being paraded in the streets and that was a culpability severe enough to earn the same punishment Hamas should get. The fact that they also voted for Hamas means that they must sleep in that bed too. Those willing to be a little moderate agree that it was regrettable that innocent civilians are being caught in the crossfire but the IDF simply has no choice. Eradicating Hamas is a task that must be effected by any means necessary. Including genocide.

They choose to discount the entire prehistory of the conflict pre-October 7, 2023. When you point out that Hamas is only 35 years old and could not have started a crisis that is 75 years old, they tell you that Israel evacuated its occupation forces and settlers 20 years ago even though many describe Gaza as the world’s largest prison camp. 

The perverse duplicity is such that one is tempted to lose hope with reason. How could there be so much hate and hypocrisy in the world? If losing 1,500 innocent civilians hurts, imagine what losing 8,000 innocent civilians would feel like. In what world does it not then amount to hatred of Arabs? 

Something so disturbing is the fact that this flare-up seems to accelerate the macabre polarization of the world into mutually antagonistic geopolitical factions with enough firepower to herald a nuclear holocaust. No one will win World War III should it ever be fought. The United States is said to have reached out to Iran with a warning not to interfere, even though it has not only sent funding and weaponry to Israel overtly but also moved two carrier strike groups to the vicinity to back Israel up. While Biden has traveled to Tel Aviv, Moscow received a Hamas delegation. For its own part, China is consolidating its naval presence with the deployment of powerful warships to the same waters. 

Not even during most of the Cold War did the world experience this fever pitch of military tension and that is something that could easily spiral into a cataclysmic showdown with the slightest mistake/misstep from either side. All it takes is another Gavrillo Princip. That is indeed scary. And that is not only because we are literally staring down the barrel of the gun as a species but because no one seems to be listening anymore.

Palestinians did indeed celebrate in the streets, but then there are also people in Israel, in overabundant western suburbs, and around the world celebrating what is happening to Gaza. If Gazans could be punished for voting Hamas, wouldn’t that imply that Israelis can also be punished for voting Likud? If Gaza can be punished for voting Hamas, why is the West Bank also being punished?

Is there really any depth modern human depravity won’t sink to? And this was all the more horrifying realizing that, I too am a human being. Is this what I also am? Am I also being blind, deaf and dumb with respect to something else that is only too obvious to someone else besides myself?

A double disturbia.