Israeli-Hamas War: “Impossible To Imprison Two Million People Without Expecting A Cruel Price”

By Gideon Levy

Behind all this is Israeli arrogance. We think we have permission to do anything and assume we will never pay, nor be punished. And we think that we will continue and nothing will interrupt us. We will arrest, we will kill, we will abuse, we will dispossess, we will protect the settlers and their pogroms, we will go to the tomb of Joseph, to the tomb of Ot’niel, to the altar of Joshua, all in the Palestinian territories, and of course to the Temple Mount — more than 5,000 Jews on Sukkot alone. We will shoot innocents, gouge out their eyes and smash their faces, expel them, expropriate them, rob them, kidnap them from their beds, ethnically cleanse them and, of course, continue the incredible siege of Gaza. And we will assume that everything will continue as if nothing had happened.

We thought that with the construction of a super barrier around the Gaza Strip, whose underground wall cost three billion shekels, with that we were already safe. We trusted that the geniuses of 8200 (military intelligence listening unit) and the members of the Shin Bet, who know everything, would warn us in time. We thought we would move half an army from near Gaza to Hawara just to protect the crazy antics of Zvi Sukkot and the settlers, and everything would be fine, both in Hawara and Erez. It turns out that when there is great motivation, the most sophisticated and expensive obstacle in the world can be crossed even by a simple excavator and with relative ease. You can cross that haughty wall with bicycles and scooters, despite all the billions invested in it and despite all the experts and with their contractors getting rich.

We thought we would continue to harass Gaza, throw it a few crumbs of kindness in the form of a few thousand work permits in Israel—a drop in the bucket, and they are always conditional on “correct behaviour”—and yet we assumed we would keep them like in a prison.

We thought that by making peace with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, the Palestinians would be forgotten, even erased, as many Israelis would like. We would continue to hold thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including prisoners without trial, most of them political prisoners, and yet we would not agree to discuss their release, even after decades in prison. We would tell them that only through force will their prisoners see freedom. We thought that we would continue to arrogantly reject any attempt at a political solution, simply because it is not convenient for us to do so, and we thought that surely everything would continue like this forever.

Once again it is proven that this is not the case. Several hundred Palestinian militants broke through the fence and invaded Israel in a way no Israeli imagined they could. A few hundred Palestinian militants demonstrated that it is impossible to imprison two million people forever without incurring a cruel price. Just as yesterday the smoking, antiquated Palestinian bulldozer tore down the fence, the most sophisticated of all fences, it also tore through Israel’s cloak of arrogance. And he also destroyed the idea that it is enough to attack and dismantle Gaza with suicide drones and sell them to half the world to maintain security.

Yesterday Israel saw images it had never seen before: Palestinian military vehicles patrolling the city, Gaza cyclists entering its gates. These images must tear the veil of arrogance. The Palestinians of Gaza have decided that they are willing to pay any price for a spark of freedom. But… Does this have any potential? No. Will Israel learn its lesson? No.

Yesterday, there was already talk of erasing entire neighborhoods of Gaza City, of occupying the Gaza Strip and of punishing Gaza “like it has never been punished before.” But Gaza has not stopped being punished by Israel since 1948, even for a moment. More than seven decades of abuse, and again, the worst is yet to come. Threats to “flatten Gaza” only prove one thing: we have learned nothing. Arrogance is here to stay, even after Israel, once again, pays a high price.

Benjamin Netanyahu bears great responsibility for what happened and must pay the costs, but the issue did not begin with him and will not end after he leaves. We must now mourn bitterly for the Israeli victims; but we also have to cry for Gaza. Gaza, most of its residents are refugees created by Israel. Gaza, which never knew a single day of freedom.

Levy, an Isreali Journalist, wrote this on Sunday, September 10, 2023, in an Israeli Newspaper, Haaretz