Would Hamas even exist if some of their land had been taken by Israel?
No land theft. No Hamas.
No Hamas. No terrorism.
Maybe I am incorrect.
I try to understand what goes on in the MidEast, but there is so much history there, sometimes, I just want to give up.
5
It is interesting to note that Mahmoud al Zahar, one of Hamas's elders, has openly admitted their role in the lack of development in Gaza. As he starred, they could have turned Gaza into another Singapore but have chosen not to do so.
Several years ago this paper published an op-ed titled "Gaza need not be a sewer", outlining the choices consistently made by Hamas which were so instrumental in depriving the people of Gaza from a viable life, such as refusing to buy fuel from the P.A. in order to avoid giving them tax revenue.
Nonetheless, time and again it is Israel which is condemned for the situation in Gaza.
Perhaps it is time to truly recognize that there is another side to the story, and that in many ways Hamas is the author of the deprivation of Gaza.
11
Please no excuses for the horrific conditions and abuses of Israel. After so many years of control and inhumane treatment of innocent lives, Israel’s right wing has the audacity to blame the Palestinians as though they have an option and chose deprivation and suffering.
Poverty and prisons do not bring the best in people. No freedom, no hope, no future for their kids. Survival is their only focus.
Protests and revolutions don’t get started by those who tend to their basic needs. The middle class started the French Revolution and didn’t demand basic needs, they fought against injustice and taxation imposed by the aristocrats.
Don’t push desperate people in the arms of Hamas and blame them for Hamas’ actions. Israel is not a democratic country. It behaves like a cult that attracts members from all over the world.
Religion should be a personal choice and no country should use it to discriminate against its citizens. Theocracies are not democratic. Sadly, the persecuted have become the prosecutor. No museum, no holocaust remembrance can stop a repeat of hatred. Best way is to start respecting human rights, respect other’s personal choice of religion, earn their respect and live in peace for the sake of the new generation.
A look at Trump’s cabinet and his lawyers and I see people who care less about the welfare of the US and more about fulfilling Israel’s wishes. All too busy selling us to the highest bidder.
49
@Pam
Israel's not a theocracy. It's a secular country with no state religion, though 75 percent of its citizens are Jewish. Governments in the region with official state religions (Shi'a or Sunni Islam in all cases) are Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, plus the following 30 countries https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion#Islamic_countries
25
@Jake Roberts It's recent adoption of being strictly "Jewish State", it has become a Theocracy just in the last year, officially.
5
@Pam
Gaza is in state of dictatorship, I don't think you realize that but this is none of Israel's doing, but it seems that Israeli Arabs preffered Benny Gantz over the tyranny of Hamas.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-arab-vote-seen-rising-sharply-in-israels-election-1001279208
What do we know?
17
Gaza was a hellhole when Egypt ruled it which is why it wouldn't keep it even though Begin begged them to keep it. If it's a hellhole now it's because of the people in Gaza and Hamas. it has nothing to do with Israel. Israel is protecting itself from rockets and tunnels just as America would. the people who criticize Israel will always criticize Israel and since Israel is run by Jews then they are anti-semites whatever denial they may claim. America has done far worse to American Indians and others than anything Israel has done to Gaza.
21
Precisely. Thanks for this op-ed.
10
From the UN Palmer report on the Gaza Flotilla of 2010:
"The fundamental principle of the freedom of navigation on the high seas is subject to only certain limited exceptions under international law. Israel faces a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza. The naval blockade was imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law."
https://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/middle_east/Gaza_Flotilla_Panel_Report.pdf
TL;DR? Gazans present a real threat to Israel's security, the Israeli blockade is legal, and satisfies the requirements of international law.
14
@drejconsulting
But it is a blockade. Some people here seem to think there is no blockade.
@m1945
3
If the Jews were in Gaza and the Palestinians in Tel Aviv, would the Jews just sit back and accept the blockade?
8
I don't believe a word that the Trump administration or its minions (like this person) say about Palestinians or Hamas. And nobody should. They are lying about Gaza just like they are lying about Iran. The goal of Israel and Trump is to destroy the Palestinian state, deny them all their rights and force them to move to neighboring Arab countries.
13
In the #1 rated comment, on this article, @Merlot claims:
"Hamas doesn't need to divert aid because cement is cheap and it can smuggle it through tunnels or make it out of repurposed rubble. Pipes for rockets can be smuggled as weapons have always been smuggled. "
So why would Israel limiting cement or pipes be an imposition on Gaza?
But in reality, during the 6 month period from October 2015 to April 2016 alone, Israel allowed almost 5,000,000 TONS of building materials into Gaza. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of the situation knows building materials are being diverted.
https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Israel-Hamas-stealing-95-percent-of-civilian-cement-transferred-into-Gaza-454999
Israel allows helium into Gaza for medical purposes, and it gets used instead for incendiary and explosive balloons, which have destroyed thousands of acres of Israeli farmland, and homes and other structures.
@Merlot's claims are patently false, as a moments research clearly shows. Odds are @Merlot wrote a piece of fiction, and likely has never set foot in Gaza. Egypt has largely destroyed the tunnel economy by flooding the tunnels with sewage, and building a massive moat and no mans land on the border with Gaza. The fact that 1000 people have "recommended" these unlikely claims just shows how many people are willing to believe the worst about Israel, whatever the facts may actually be.
20
The truth is that Israel pulled out of Gaza more than decade ago. The Palestinians had elections in 2006 where they chose Hamas, a terrorist organization according to the Israel, the US, and the EU to lead them over Fatah.
A civil war with Fatah ensued with many deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Palestinians.
Hamas initiated 3 conflicts with Israel by shooting missiles in to Israel and digging tunnels into Israel and the population in Gaza suffered as a result.
While somehow blaming Israel for the Palestinians choosing a terrorist organization to lead them might be emotionally comforting, it doesn't solve the problem of Hamas leadership in Gaza, *which the Palestinians voted to lead them.*
The solution is new elections. The Arab League, Israeli Arabs, and the US should work together to ensure that new elections occur almost a decade after they were to occur in 2010.
14
The only reason this guy wrote this article with this headline is to take advantage of the NYT policy of providing access to diverse opinions so that team trump can say "even the failing NYT says that Hamas is to blame".
3
A rose by any other name is still a rose. I would think it time for former Palestinians to recognize they will never be anything but part of Israel and begin calling themselves Israelis. They should consider demanding all rights of citizenship from a Jewish people, many descended from Palestinian ancestors, i.e., former countrymen and women, requesting they be treated as well as Jews were in their old country before attempts at conquest began, largely from without, before within.
1
@Jack C
78% of British Mandatory Palestine was carved out in 1922 to become Transjordan, the modern country of Jordan. Jews were forbidden to live there.
Most Jordanians self-identify as Palestinian. The monarchy of Jordan hails from Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom of Jordan was a gift from Britain to the son of their ally against the Turks in WWI.
More importantly, when Jordan illegally annexed Judea and Samaria in 1950, renaming it "the West Bank" for the first time in history, the gave all the Arabs of the West Bank Jordanian citizenship. Thus they're all Jordanians.
Jordan's "error" in giving West Bank Arabs Jordanian citizenship (and thus potentially threatening their eternal "refugee" status) led to the Arab League passing Resolution 1547, which forbidds any Arab country from giving Palestinians citizenship. This is one reason that unlike all other refugee populations in hostory, the Palestinians have not moved on.
37
@drejconsulting
Jews were not forbidden to live in Transjordan. Transjordan was excluded from the land the UK offered as a Jewish National Home. Which basically mean that the UK were only going to allow European Jews unfettered immigration to Palestine, and not Transjordan.
I guess before Hamas came to power Gaza was a fine, prosperous place to live and work and the fact that it is mostly populated by folks who were expelled from their homes when Israel founded (and their descendants) is Hamas's fault too.
6
@John Taylor
You raise a good point. There never was such a thing as an independent Arab nation of Palestine in the history of the world. Prior to 1948 and 1967, the Arabs would be the first to tell you that, since their plan was to incorporate all of what had been the British Mandate of PAlestine into the existing Arab countries.
Proof? Who controlled Gaza, The West Bank, and East Jerusalem in the two decades prior to 1967?
Why didn't the Arabs create "Palestine" when they had absolute control for those two decades?
8
Do Americans actually believe that Tump, Kushner, and Greenblatt represent the interests of the American people? Do Americans really want to deceive and disenfranchise the Palestinian people?
9
@Greg
70% of Americans approve of Israel
59% are more sympathetic to the Israelis, 20% more sympathetic to the Palestinians.
Maybe they know something you don't, or maybe you think you know something that's not factual
https://news.gallup.com/poll/247376/americans-not-liberal-democrats-mostly-pro-israel.aspx
5
To all the critics of Greenblatt: if this op-ed was written by a non-partisan, non-government official would you have had any different reaction? I don't think so. So stop hiding behind who the author is as to why you don't agree with him and own up to what your real position is. You can't acknowledge that Hamas or the Palestinians share any of the blame for the situation in Gaza. Perhaps the piece is too one-sided but the amount of letters stating that every problem in Gaza is the fault of the Israelis is mind boggling. And the naivete about the true desire for peace by Hamas or Palestinians is incomprehensible. If Israel knocked down every settlement and gave the West Bank to the Palestinians do you think they would be met with peace? Since the day Israel was created the Palestinians have wanted to eradicate them from the earth. They have been offered land and peace proposals many times and have turned them down every single time. When Israel ceded Gaza to the Palestinians they were met with rocket attacks. Not a very peaceful statement. And for all you humanitarians out there you talk about the treatment of Arabs in Israel but you never mention how Jews are treated in other Middle Eastern countries. Or that Jews were thrown out of Middle Eastern countries when Israel was created. But I guess that is not a humanitarian issue that you care about.
37
@michael Wilson, Clemenceau, and Lloyd George met in Paris, carving the Ottoman Empire into nations with borders of their design, only 29 years before the establishment of Israel. So people in Middle Eastern nations, living within Western designed borders, took it personally when Palestine was carved in half, as we would, too, if a state of ours was ceased and divided by an outside power that wouldn’t leave us alone.
And of course, from a Palestinian perspective, it was like it would be for us if our nation was cut in half at the Mississippi River, as a result of Russia or China siding with either republicans or democrats, to cease half our land for the other side’s party members to preside over conquered Americans. That wouldn’t go over well. And if democrats or republicans wouldn’t join with defending their new, half-nation, not yet under thumb, they likely wouldn’t remain welcome, there, either.
So, how many Jewish soldiers were part of the Arab armies that attacked Israel in 1948? There were millions of Jewish citizens. I’ve tried finding evidence they remained loyal to their nations of birth by fighting with their armies, then, against Israel, without success. It would be incredible reading their stories and feelings about that if there were any. But were there? Or were they like former Palestinian Jews who turned against their own so quickly, too, putting Zionism ahead of country?
1
"Only buildings with generators actually maintain steady power. The lack of power affects everything from preserving fresh food to treating sewage."
I seem to remember that, more than once, the Israeli IDF shelled or bombarded the main power plant in Gaza. Attacking civilian infrastructure is known as a war crime.
7
@Greg By your definition every member of US or British bomber crews during WW II should have been on the docket at Nuremberg. Attacking civilian infrastructure that is supporting the war effort is no crime, it is a necessity.
10
@mikecody
I understand that after WW II it became a war crime. The power plant in Gaza was not making arms for the militant groups, it was making light and heat for the civilians of Gaza. It amounts to collective punishment which is prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
6
@Greg Greg, thank you for this reply that penetrates to the facts of the matter, despite the layers and layers of subterfuge around the subect. Power plants that have been purposely bombed to put people in this position cannot be expected to be functional.
2
For all those repeating talking points about the dire conditions throughout Gaza, comparing it to a ghetto (Warsaw or otherwise) or a concentration camp, it seems that Gazans are far more resilient than you give them credit for, mostly because the reality in Gaza is far from the caricature that is painted by the anti-Israel comments. But don’t take my word for it, hear what they have to say.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JBo7i-TXy6s
9
@Charlie in NY
And this Hamas produced travelogue of beautiful Gaza:
https://youtu.be/zeRlfcLAUII
Or this beautiful 5 star hotel in Gaza:
https://vimeo.com/26288397
My father was in concentration camp Auschwitz. Unlike "concentration camp Gaza (where 80% of the inhabitants are obese)" there were no overweight inmates at Auschwitz.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150426071135/http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/03/gaza-palestinan-obesity-diseases-diet-fitness.html#
My father was liberated at aged 19. He weighed 78lbs
7
“Israel and Hamas continue to tiptoe toward a long-term cease-fire in Gaza.“ This opens a recent report in Haaretz. Apparently, the mutual pressures exerted by both sides are having a salutary effect. Hopefully, our “experts” in the Comments column will duly take note.
2
"Israel and Hamas continue to tiptoe toward a long-term cease-fire in Gaza."
This sentence opens a recent report in Haaretz. Both sides are finding the mutual hostilities burdensome, and want rapprochement. Egypt and Jordan are assisting the negotiations. http://tinyurl.com/yy2qslle
I trust commenters of fixed opinion will take note. Things are never quite what they seem in the Middle East, or so we are told.
2
Gaza is useful to the world as a reminder of how a brutal totalitarian state looks like.
It also reminds Arabs daily the choices that they have to do.
Arabs in Israel are quite happy they are NOT in Gaza!
11
Blaming the Jews for misfortune has gone on for centuries. Usually, Jews, upon receiving profound tragedy, have migrated to another location. However, upon obtaining statehood, there is finally a place called home for Jews.
Instead of looking at the rear view of history, it’s time, once again, to look forward to the obvious truth that bombing and attacking Israel is not the answer to the Gaza’s plight.
After years of a failed two state solution, a different approach is needed. Here, we have a new, different diplomatic direction taking place that may be more successful than past attempts. It’s a chance worth taking.
11
How can a 2-state solution have failed when it has never been enacted? Neither Gaza nor the West Bank get to make decisions that sovereign states make every day. Israel has all the power in both cases.
1
An assistant to Trump? Says it all. I look forward to a balancing piece from a Hamas spokesperson.
2
Hear hear. At this point, I have no sympathy for those in Gaza. Until they recognize Hamas as their oppressors, they choose their own fate.
16
It is scary to read in the New York Times an article by a man who basically relegates Palestinians to second class citizenship. It is very dangerous to begin with the premise that the Palestinians are not to be considered as equal to their Israeli counterparts.
In point of fact, this why there is war. What Mr. Goldblatt fails to comprehend is that anywhere there are first and second class citizens there is war.
Unless and until this very simple reality is brought into the equation there will continue to be war.
In any case, when a journalist of the NYT writes: "Arabs in Israel generally live normal lives..." as if it is some sort of oddity or privilege granted by Israel it makes me sick to my stomach.
As long as folks remain as blind to reality of first and second class citizenship there will be war in Gaza...War in the east. War in the west. War up north and war down south....
11
Perhaps the most dishonest claim Greenblatt makes in this op-ed is the claim that “the situation was not caused by the United States; it was caused by Hamas.”
Hamas came to power in 2006 when it won an election (the last Palestinian election to be held). Abbas and the Palestinian leadership were reluctant to hold that election, but the United States compelled them to do so. Although the United States then tried to prevent Hamas from assuming the power that it had won fair and square, the United States could not overturn the results of a foreign democratic election it had itself lobbied forcefully for. Both the civil war that followed and Hamas’s continued rule over Gaza are the result of United States policy.
The United States is not to blame for Hamas’s evil policies. But the United States is responsible for Hamas’s rise to power and its ability to put these policies into effect.
7
@Adam
It was an ELECTION.
The GAZANS chose Hamas, not the US, not Israel.
Apparently, your problem is with democracy. Who was it you were depending on to force Abbas onto the Gazans?
8
"Why are others moving forward while Gaza sinks further into despair and disrepair? Because Hamas, the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, has made choices."
This is the poorest opinion piece I have ever read in the New York Times. The "shambles" Greenblatt cites were caused by Israeli bombs and the Israeli sanctions. People who have had their living environment bombed to smithereens repeatedly, and their resources and job opportunities cut off, are going to be living in some degree of dysfunctionality. Israelis should take responsibility for the mass destruction they have left that festers to this day like a raw wound, infected by an ongoing apartheid situation.
6
@Anne Sherrod
Gaza is not "in shambles"
Their living environment was not "bombed to smithereens" repeatedly.
You can find multiple videos that show conditions in Gaza are nothing like those in your overactive imagination
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JBo7i-TXy6s
https://youtu.be/zeRlfcLAUII
4
From Hamas' Charter:
"...raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned" (Article 6)
Also 'When our enemies usurp Islamic lands, jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims"
Now before you call be me a Trump lackey..didn't vote for him...don't plan to vote for him... worst President in my life...
When Hamas gives up violence and hatred then come talk to me...
13
@Sean Peterson
When Hamas won the elections in 2006 they excluded the old 1988 Charter from their political program. In 2010 Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal stated that the Charter is "a piece of history and no longer relevant, ….”
In 2014, by joining the Palestinian unity government, Hamas adopted all previous agreements and all of the principles set out by the US and the Quartet for peace negotiations with the State of Israel.
Likud Charter:
"“Safeguarding the right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel as an eternal, inalienable right, working diligently to settle and develop all parts of the land of Israel, and extending national sovereignty to them.”
3
@Greg
Hamas's new charter demands the return of the Palestinian refugees. The return of the refugees would soon mean the end of the Jewish state.
It would also mean the end of democracy, the end of women's rights & the end of LGBTQ rights.
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index.
That's better than Belgium, Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
The highest Arab state is Tunisia which is ranked 69. Palestine is 109, Libya 154, Sudan 155, Yemen 158, Saudi Arabia 159, Algeria 126, Egypt 127, Qatar 133, Oman 140, United Arab Emirates 147, Bahrain 148, Morocco 100, Lebanon 106, Iraq 114, Jordan 115, Kuwait 116, Comoros 121, Mauritania 119, Djibouti 146, Syria 166. Iran 150.
16
What would Israel do if the Palestinians stayed on Israel? How would it address the problem of Jewishness? Would it killed Palestinians? Would it sterilized them? Or what was their plan? Or their plan was actually to expel as many Palestinians as possible?
4
Firstly before you read this article, I would hope everyone would separate themselves as seeing Mr. Greenblatt as only an agent of Mr. Trump. The more important issue is clearly and accurately laid out by Mr. Greenblatt. Hamas is a terrorist organization and has been seen as such by the United States prior to Trump. They have tortured and hurt the people in Gaza to try to get their goal of destruction of Israel, the only Jewish state in the world.The BDS movement has only been established as a way to help Hamas meet their goal. Too many of our elected officials do not want to understand that idea. For those unwilling to hear history unless it is in a 10 word tweet, the grand mufti colluded with Hitler to eliminate the Jews. It continues to this day.
So Hamas has created a situation where Egypt and PLO have boycotted and cut supplies to Gaza and forced Israel to boycott as well. Jordan and all the other Arab states do not want Hamas and their people and refuse to help them.
Why?
So the next time, someone threatens to kill you and your family, Let me know if you invite them in your home and give them weapons ?????
11
I go into your house. I like your house and tell you to leave. You won’t ,so i throw you out . We argue. I give you a peace settlement. You say no because you want your house back. The Palestinians want their house back. Can you blame them,I had no right to take your house in the first place.
6
@Vincent
ARe you talking about the 900,000 Jews who were expelled from Arab countries after 1948?
1948 - 165,000 Jews in Iraq, now ZERO
1948 - 125,000 Jews in Algeria, now ZERO
1948 - 265,000 Jews in Morocco, now 2,000
Their land claims alone are 5x the current landmass of ISrael
Are you asking for justice for them too? If not, you're a hypocrite.
10
After reading all of the comments (thus far) it is clear the NYT comment sections have become safe-spaces for so many to forcefully comment on matters they have so little knowledge on.
10
@Candlewick
Well said!
1
Well said
3
Israel is an apartheid nation, and the US supports its imprisonment of many Palestinian people. That is the truth.
This article is like many that were published when Reagan and the US supported South African apartheid, and blamed those locked in poverty for their own plight.
If only they accepted their fate, like today's citizens of the Palestinian State, that they are an occupied people beaten by ethnic cleansing and walls, many wall...
Look at a map made prior to WW II. It only would show a state called Palestine. Now, there is only Israel, and Netanyahu and Trump are determined to make all Arabs second class citizens in their own country.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
7
@Hugh MassengillI
South African MP Rev. Dr. Kenneth Meshoe wrote in the San Francisco Examiner, “As a black South African who lived under apartheid, this system was implemented in South Africa to subjugate people of color and deny them a variety of their rights. In my view, Israel cannot be compared to apartheid in South Africa. Those who make the accusation expose their ignorance of what apartheid really is.” Meshoe made this statement upon visiting San Francisco, where he was shocked to learn of posters posted within the city comparing Israel to the apartheid regime in South Africa. He asserted, “As a black South African under apartheid, I, among other things, could not vote, nor could I freely travel the landscape of South Africa. No person of color could hold high government office. The races were strictly segregated at sports arenas, public restrooms, schools and on public transportation. People of color had inferior hospitals, medical care and education. If a white doctor was willing to take a black patient, he had to examine him or her in a back room or some other hidden place. In my numerous visits to Israel, I did not see any of the above.
15
It’s amazing when we see that quote that peopl still keep calling it that.
1
This article is a great example of what Edward Said referred to as the "wall of lies." It is the only way for Zionists to present their aggression as victimhood.
7
@Vive la resistance
Arabs have been attacking Israel since day one. That means that it's the Arabs who are the aggressors.
12
Wouldn't you expect the same reaction from any nation if its land would be used to built a new state against its wishes?
2
@yulia
It wasn't all Palestinian land. Some of the land had been bought by Jews. Jews, like other peoples, have the right of self-determination. There have been times that countries did relinquish control without going to war. That would have been extra hard for the Arabs, though, because religion was involved. On Dec. 2, 1947, just days after the UN General Assembly passed a resolution to partition historic Palestine into Jewish and Arab-ruled sections, the Ulama or chief scholars of Sunni Islam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo– the leading university of the Arab World– issued a fatwa calling on the world’s Muslims to launch a Jihad to destroy the incipient Jewish state. It was reiterated by the Ulama, in April 1948, days before the Egyptian Army and three other Arab armies attacked Palestine, giving the campaign a “religious imprimatur.” The fatwa was reissued later that year.
“It was clear the Arabs had lost the war,” Morris said, but reissuing the Fatwa signaled it was meant “to stand for future years, for future generations, for whatever bout there will be against the Jews.”
2
Oh please stop with this propaganda ... Starting with the first sentence " Hamas has left Gaza in shambles " .. no it's not the Israelis bombing Gaza into the stone age every couple weeks cause someone fired a mortar or homemade rocket. Israel runs the show and every one knows it, whether they admit it or not.
7
@Doctor Woo
Those mortars & homemade rockets have killed or wounded 2,000 Israelis. Israel has every right to defend its citizens.
Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, has repeatedly commented that, "during its operation in Gaza, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare." Furthermore, he points out that the steps taken in that conflict by the Israeli Defence Forces to avoid civilian deaths are shown by a study published by the United Nations to have resulted in, by far, the lowest 18of civilian to combatant deaths in any asymmetric conflict in the history of warfare. Kemp explains that by UN estimates, the average ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in such conflicts worldwide is 3:1 -- three civilians for every combatant killed. That is the estimated ratio in Afghanistan. But in Iraq, and in Kosovo, it was worse: the ratio is believed to have been 4:1. Anecdotal evidence suggests the ratios were very much higher in Chechnya and Serbia. In Gaza, it was less than one-to-one.
12
Here's the problem with having an internationally discredited US President. I can't trust anything his assistant in international negotiations says on behalf of the discredited US government.
Jason Greenblatt's credibility is assumed compromised until proven otherwise. He works for an administration openly hostile to Islam to a degree bordering on illegal racism. Meanwhile, his son-in-law and at least one wealthy donor have a fetish with pro-Israel Zionism that is almost fanatical. All with a White House that can't go a single day without presenting some sort of lie or misrepresentation.
And I'm supposed to take Greenblatt's hostility to Hamas at his word? Sorry. This entire opinion is garbage until everything is fact checked by an independent source. Even then, I doubt the opinion will carry any validity. Greenblatt is clearly spinning.
5
@Andy
"And I'm supposed to take Greenblatt's hostility to Hamas at his word?"
If you know that little about Hamas, you really shouldn't be posting.
Are you upset about the 35 dead children Hamas brought to the war zone?
How do you feel about the 160+ children who died digging terror tunnels for Hamas (Hamas estimate- who knows what the real number is)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/07/31/if-liberal-elites-really-cared-about-gazan-children/?utm_term=.a8de73df14e9
4
"Peace" has not worked any better than war. I wish that Hamas would just self-destruct...but I don't think that the lives of people in Gaza or the West Bank will ever improve no matter what they do. Arabs lucky enough to have resisted being forced out of Israel do have better lives...but if Netanyahu continues his expansion and annexation into the West Bank, the two state solution will finally meet it's demise and if they absorb the large Palestinian population into Israel without instituting apartheid-like policies Israel will no longer be able claim itself a Jewish state. Had Rabin not been assassinated perhaps the two state solution would already be in place with a shared capital of Jerusalem. But Israel offers little that will work to end the conflicts, they continue to take, ignore the real issues and give little in return.
4
@Mary
Both Israeli Prime Ministers Ehud Barak & Ehud Olmert made more concessions that Rabin.
In 1947, the scholars at Al-Azhar University (The highest authority in Sunni Islam.) declared holy war to return Palestine to Islamic rule. Therefore, as long as most Palestinians are devout Muslims (85% of Palestinian Muslims want sharia law.) and as long as the Jewish State controls even one square inch of land, peace is impossible.
8
It's always nice to hear a Trump assistant reject this administration's fondness of "alternative facts" and now ask us to "be realistic" instead.
Problem: each time this administration finally decides to be realistic, Trump has to flip-flop 100% on his campaign promises, to now tell his supporters and the American people to accept that they "cannot fix it" rather than believing that Trump "alone can fix it", so to just "wait".
Repeal and replace Obamacare, comprehensive immigration reform, building a wall, deporting 11 million illegals ... after two years in office, we are asked to understand that our Master in the "Art of the Deal" apparently does have limits, and that all the major issues of our time are actually too complicated for him.
Now his own assistant, hired by Trump as expert in "international negotiations", asks us to adopt a unilaterally right-wing Israeli perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to then conclude that we're the Good Guys and they are the Bad Guys so peace negotiations from now on mean that the Bad Guys simply "choose peace".
As we are asked to "be realistic", this Trump international negotiations expert even adds that obviously, this kind of approach won't "fix it".
In other words, the Trump administration asks us to accept, contrary to what they promised, that there will be no deal, because they won't engage in real negotiations. We'll just wait until Hamas spontaneously agrees with us.
Have we EVER had a more incompetent WH?
1
This is a view predicated on the conservative Zionist idea that only by defeating all opposition to Israel's existence, effectively bringing to an end any of the rights of those dispossessed, can peace be achieved. It is essentially the might makes right argument. Your opposition is pointless, so give up.
But of course things are never so easy. Psalm 137 seems to be relevant here. It starts out sympathetically "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept as we remembered Zion" and ends with taking pleasure in the dashing of the enemy's children against the rocks. Yahweh and his successors lead us into the eternal cycle of violence and war, of cause and effect, and only temporary lulls in violence, because these versions of peace are never built on justice.
3
Seriously? How can anyone not expect radical resistance from a people ruthlessly occupied for over a half-century, a people with nothing; no wealth, no military defense, no influence where it counts, with no rights to travel, assemble, vote, fly or even fish. Restrictions that apply not just to militants or criminals but to every man, women and child? Nearly three million people most who’ve never known anywhere else as home who are told “we want you’re land but not you”. Worst of all, events like dropping bombs on a darkened and waterless city, killing over 500 children, destroying over 40,000 homes all because of a few tunnels is beyond rational belief... and we pay for it all to boot!
4
I didn't know Hamas was bulldozing homes and kicking people off their land. I think that's a pretty big concern ion Gaza, especially if you live there. But nice try Mr. Greenblatt. Trump lies don't play here.
4
It’s important to separate the tragic humanitarian situation in Gaza from Hamas conflict with Israel. The miserable situation of the people in Gaza is primarily due to Hamas
policies towards its people....and these policies have nothing to do with Israel.
Here are just a few of Hamas repressive policies. Homosexuality is illegal and punishable by the death. Women are subject to honor killings. People who protest against the government are beaten and imprisoned. Corrupt officials enrich themselves to the detriment of the people.
Where are the outcries from Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and the progressive left about these human rights outrages?
12
I suspect Omar Barghouti or some other Palestinian could offer quite a few specific and concrete rebuttals to this one-sided piece of propaganda. Trump reaching out to Palestinians, giving them aid? A nifty omission of the drastic cuts he made in the budget for Palestinian aid. etc. etc. Is it possible that Hamas is using its rockets as the only means it has to protest the conditions imposed by Israel in this occupied territory?
5
@C.S.
Gaza is not occupied.
The rocket attacks started in 2001.
The blockade didn't start until 2007.
10
@C.S.
"A nifty omission of the drastic cuts he made in the budget for Palestinian aid. etc. et"
Because Abbas refuses to stop paying monthly cash stipends to terrorists who kill Israelis.
I suggest you get an education. Start with the Taylor Force Act, named for an American veteran and Vanderbilt University graduate student who was stabbed to death by a Palestinians terrorist - whose family is collecting a monthly reward in perpetuity for committing the murder of Taylor Force.
Half of all direct foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority goes to pay these stipends to terrorists or their surviving family members
https://nypost.com/2017/07/28/palestinian-authority-now-uses-half-of-all-foreign-aid-to-reward-terror/
6
Blame the victims. Every time. It is what conservatives do.
7
I have no love or respect for Trump-but that does not mean that this column is that far off base. I think the author paints a little too rosy picture of life in the West Bank, but as one who reads this paper and Haaretz on this issue, I agree with him regarding Hamas. Even last year, when a Palestinian in Gaza got the idea of a peaceful demonstration at the Israeli border, Hamas took over and started encouraging Palestinian civilians, many of them kids, to burn tires and rush the border so that they could shoot pictures of their own people getting shot at in order to affect World opinion. Which it did. But not meaningfully-nobody was actually so shocked as to do anything. But the wounded and dead got meaningfully hurt. It seems that the only thing Hamas is capable of is making the lives and deaths of Gaza residents so miserable that the World pity’s them. Not even Trump is quite that bad.
13
With all due respect for the sarcastic comments of well intentioned readers. Israel pulled out of Lebanon and Hezbollah started attacking. It then pulled out of Gaza and Hamas started attacking them. I will not even mention Yasser Arafat reneging on the Clinton proposal. It seems to me that the reason the Israelis have moved toward this unpleasant (at best) political Right is that there’s no one they can negotiate with. Tragic all the way around.
14
@Claude Vidal
That is pure nonsense.
The U.S. has a heavy responsibility for the situation. Truman should have listened to the greatest American statesman of the past century, George Marshall, when he and the entire State Department counseled against recognizing Israel. But, there was an election to be fought and the Jewish vote could tip the balance….
5
@indisbelief
“The Jews will be able to hold out no longer than two years,” the CIA predicted.
The State Department was afraid that when the Jews were about to be defeated, the US would feel obligated to send in American troops.
Jews had been persecuted for centuries in majority-gentile countries. Even when not actively persecuting the Jews, the majority-gentile countries refused to give refuge to the Jews when they needed it. There would have been no Holocaust if majority-gentile countries would have allowed in Jewish refugees who were escaping from the Nazis. The idea of Zionism was that Jews would return to their homeland & have a majority-Jewish country because majority-gentile countries had failed to provide safety for the Jews.
10
It is important to recall, as many people aren't even aware of in the first place, that Hamas came into existence in the first place because of assistance from Likud. Tom Friedman wrote about it in his book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, a book I read when I was taking classes on Middle Eastern politics at UT-Austin.
Likud funded Hamas in their efforts to create clinics and food banks. The thinking then was that Hamas would splinter the PLO's power over the Palestinian people. It worked, just not in the way Likud intended. Palestinians across the board are blamed for Hamas, but the Israeli government bears some responsibility as well.
1
@Rafael
Israel only helped when Hamas was a charity.
Israel stopped helping when Hamas changed.
5
Hmm. Seems like we're about to be presented with a "peace plan" and from the sounds of it, Hamas will not get much out of it.
1
I don't think most Palestinians in Judea or Samaria accept the "Zionist entity" as permanent, nor do many Palestinians who are Israeli citizens,but for sure most prefer living where and as they are to under Hamas rule in Gaza. I'm taking a wait and see attitude to the deal of the century. It's a long shot but maybe the Trump administration will make both sides an offer they can't refuse.
4
Trump defeated by a handful of Middle East Muslim extremists ... ?
Who would have thought.
Fact is, Hamas doesn't act on its own, it's funded by Iran and Syria. And they fund Hamas because they've never accepted the creation of the state of Israel in the first place, and see the artificial implantation of a population armed by their main regional enemy, America, as a direct threat to their own survival.
What that means, obviously, is that the ONLY peace agreement possible here, is a multilateral agreement, which includes Iran and Syria.
Just "waiting" for Hamas to change, all while allowing Putin and Iran to increase their regional influence, as Trump is doing, is the weakest form of "the art of the deal", as it basically means surrendering to the enemy.
Compare to that the exact opposite approach: hiring highly experimented, real negotiators, who by definition are highly trained in the ability to switch from one perspective to a diametrically opposed one all while understanding the internal logic and coherence (and rational fears) of each perspective. And then asking those negotiation experts to engage in deep, prolonged, serious, MULTILATERAL negotiations.
Obama did this in order to denuclearize Iran. Result: a decade of no nuclear arms development.
By refusing to actively engage Iran and Syria, and even Hamas itself, Trump indeed puts himself in a place where "we cannot fix it". He should at least take responsibility for actively doing nothing (= a 100% flip-flop).
2
I'm not stating facts as an approval of Hamas' terrorism but one need to know the origins of Hamas. Hamas didn't exist until '87, two decades after the Israeli invasion of the West Bank. Hamas is actually an Israeli creation. Israel nurtured and protected Hamas at its inception in order to undermine the secular PLO and divide the Palestinian people. Their creation of Hamas can only be described as a major success. Anytime Israel wants to take something they always kick the Hamas can to create a diversion.
3
If only 3 out of 12 Israeli political parties accept the "two-state" solution, maybe it is time to stop the ruse? First, they adopt the plight of the "Palestinian", a people who never existed in the first place. Then, they want to give them a home. They have a home. It is called Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. That is where "Palestinians" are from, why not ask those countries why they are no longer welcome?
Why is a "two-state" solution the only solution? Seems to me Netanyahu has done an excellent job and should be prime minister again. He has presided over the longest period of peace, Judea and Samaria has not been given away, and he is the right leader, at the right time. There never was anything ever called a Palestinian, so maybe, it is time to end this ruse? Giving a fake people fake hope isn't helpful.
6
The orchestra is warming up. We can expect several preludes like this leading up to the public debut of Trump's "Deal of the Century".
In the orchestra we have;
Donald Trump, quasi-legal land developer
Jared Kushner, another quasi-legal land developer
Benjamin Netanyahu, illegal land developer in the West Bank
Jason Greenblatt, lawyer-negotiator of quasi-legal land developments,
Saudi MBS, financier of the Trump-Kushner conglomerate {and suspected murderer).
You can expect the piece entitled "The Deal of the Century" to be well-co-ordinated, but don't expect any morality or legality.
4
Could you imagine that Obama would have taken such an utterly passive perspective on Hamas' main donor and America's main enemy in the region, Iran?
If instead of hiring REAL negotiation experts Obama would have hired people like Greenblatt, who limit their understanding of decades-long international political conflicts to basically saying that we're the Good Guys and they're the Bad Guys and that's how it's always been so now the only thing we can do is just wait until the Bad Guys become Good Guys too, because "we cannot fix it" ... then there would have been no multilateral Iran nuclear agreement at all, and Iran would probably have had nuclear weapons by now.
As the Mueller report has shown, one of Trump's weakest points is that he's so bad at hiring real experts.
And as he didn't have any knowledge of international politics at all, before becoming president, his promise that "he alone can fix it" entirely depends on the quality of the experts he hires.
Unfortunately, he only seem to hire "we cannot fix it" experts.
Result?
No healthcare deal, no comprehensive immigration reform deal, no wall deal, no deal with Mexico, no deal with North Korea, no deal with Iran (let alone a better one than Obama's), and now, his "negotiation experts" tell us, no deal with the Palestinians either.
Time and again, small minorities (Hamas, McCain, some Democrats in Congress ...) turn out to be SO powerful, in Trump's perspective, that he won't even START negotiating.
Unbelievable..
I had a friend who blamed the Israelis for the impasse with the Palestinians. When the Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005 I made a deal with him. If Gaza became a peaceful Palestinian-ruled place and not a threat to the Israelis, then it would appear that the Israelis exaggerated the threat; if, on the other hand, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza transformed Gaza into a missile-platform from which Israel was continually attacked, then it would be clear that the main obstacle to peace lay on the other side, the Palestinian side.
Needless to say, my friend—having seen Gaza under Hamas since 2007–now changed his position on who is mainly responsible for the impasse.
13
Kudos to Mr. Greenblatt for a thoughtful HONEST assessment of the situation.
11
We can't blame Hamas for the blockade of Gaza; that's on Israel, the US and Egypt. That predates Hamas. The US essentially bribes Egypt for maintaining the blockade on it's border with Gaza.
Before assigning blame Greemblatt should acknowledge an obligation to state what his goal for Gaza is. What would he propose if Hamas did not exist? I suspect the answer is a continuation of things as they are now.
1
@PNBlanco
The Hamas party won the Palestinian legislative elections on 25 January 2006
The blockade of the Gaza Strip is the ongoing land, air, and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel and Egypt in 2007,
4
Interesting how things change. I remember a few short years after Hamas won the vote that polls from Palestinan's living in Gaza gave Hamas high marks for bringing normalcy to the area. This included education and healthcare.
My how things have changed.
Kudos for Jason Greenblatt for having the courage and integrity go against the "anti-Zionist" drumbeat that blames Israel for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that is due to the self-destructive leadership of Hamas. How can anyone be blind to the devastatingly detrimental impact of the Hamas leadership on the Gaza residents? Unfortunately, the Palestinians in Gaza are suffering the consequences of being led by Khaled Mashal instead of a Nelson Mandela.
Please do a thought experiment. If Hamas would renounce violence and sincerely seek peaceful coexistence with Israel, what do you think Israel's response would be? Invade Gaza again? Bomb Gaza? Seal the borders to prevent peaceful trade? Any rational person would predict that the Israeli response would be to nurture, encourage and support the development of a thriving peaceful neighbor. Peace will only come as Mr. Greenblatt proposes, by leadership change- either changing the leaders or changing how they lead.
8
It is simply preposterous to blame Hamas or anybody else for what's wrong in Gaza--unless the world is prepared to hold Israel responsible for its own share of the persecution and violence they impose on the whole Palestinian people. Responsibility for the catastrophic situation in Gaza may not belong absolutely and totally to Israel, but it is just totally false to acquit that violent nation for the largest share of the blame, here. Frederick II used to say that the ultimate responsibility for use of the sword begins with him who drives anybody else to use it, and Israel has that original blame in this respect. Anything else is just so much wool over everybody's eyes.
4
@David A. Lee
Israel was attacked by the Arabs on day one.
The Arabs have that original blame.
6
Hamas came to power in an election that was fully supported by the US, until their guy lost. Then Gaza became a prison of collective punishment. Even then, it's a mere sideshow to Likud's annexation of the West Bank and the Golan. So shall it be that Israel will have it's (one-state) solution, finally putting to rest it's claim to being a true Democracy, with full equality for all of it's citizens.
1
Greenblatt is part of the Trump-Kushner-Netanyahu team putting together Trump's so-called "Deal of the Century".
As the "deal" is being composed by people who have contempt for the law and who could care less for human rights, we can expect the "deal" to be devoid of legality and morality.
Any proposal for solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that is not based on established international law and UN resolutions, will be rejected out-of-hand.
1
@Greg
What international law & UN resolutions are relevant to this deal? Please be specific.
3
The justification for restrictions on imports, including humanitarian aid, given in this piece is that they are misused for military purposes. That is simply a false claim.
I have managed development and reconstruction work in Gaza and from that position I can attest that the anti-terrorism restrictions in Gaza are tighter than nearly anywhere else in the world. Even talking to Hamas officials can leave one in violation of anti-terrorism laws. All aid is carefully tracked and end recipients must be vetted. No foreign aid can get into the hands of Hamas. No other aid enters Gaza.
Even the article linked in this op-ed to show misuse of reconstruction cement for tunnels cites an anonymous source to make its point, but military officials quoted in the same article call this same claim false.
Simply put, reconstruction aid is not misused.
That then puts the lie to the idea that Israel must adopt more restrictions on imports to stop illicit transfers to Hamas. The restrictions don't stop Hamas, they limit daily life. The restriction on imports to Gaza are not simply on dual use items but stop everyday items and even Israel claims their intent is to pressure and punish the population.
Hamas doesn't need to divert aid because cement is cheap and it can smuggle it through tunnels or make it out of repurposed rubble. Pipes for rockets can be smuggled as weapons have always been smuggled.
This piece is based on significant falsehoods, and fact checks are needed.
26
@Merlot when Israel bombs everything above ground why wouldn't Palestinians allocate scarce resources to underground development?
Only idiots would build building above ground for their oppressor to bomb. What you see is Palestinian people acting rationally in light of their situation. So of course those construction materials do not end up in the form of 5 or six story buildings.
The occupation has literally forced Palestinians to figure out a way to live underground. Those six or seven feet of earth between Israel's bombs is cheap insurance...
What your author is complaining about is the fact that Palestinians apply logic in their attempts to avoid extermination...
4
@Merlot
The rockets that have landed here were traced to Gaza imports and the materials to manufacture such rockets were also a decaying supply which was renewed prior to the blockade in the first place.
Those materials got to blockaded Hamas afterwards which also happens to be the one required to seize such materials in case they're used for rockets because they're also the policing authority?
Otherwise you'd suggest Hamas smuggled them through Egypt or had them prior to that, I don't think anyone think they would've kept such arsenal through the many years and the rockets were evolved as well which indicates they fire up anything they managed to get their hands on, including Gaza.
13
@Merlot
And yet, if you ask an Israeli Arab what they prefer, a Palestinian state or stay and live in Israel, the answer is : Israel. Why? His argument: show me one country where I can live a civilized life, with my children getting education and finding jobs.....
23
Trump and Netanyahu policies encourage radical solutions and Hamas.
Radicals like Hamas are complicit. Together, they eliminate the middle that could work toward a sustainable solution.
We need to distinguish ourselves by standing for justice. We need to be seen as honestly working toward the long term good for all.
7
@jamespep: Actually, the so-called middle has turned down offer after offer for peace, and has a "pay to slay" policy.
8
@jamespep Hamas was there foisting anti-Israel hate before Netanyahu and before Trump. Netanyahu was elected (and re-elected) because Hamas terrorism pushed the Israeli electorate more to the right.
9
I am often quite vociferous in my criticism of Israel's political machinations towards the Palestinians, but I concede that Mr. Greenblatt has an excellent point.
Hamas certainly does not have the interests of the people is purportedly "represents" at heart, but only its own self-aggrandizing, conflict perpetuating interests. It doesn't even realize in its religiously influenced, tribal predominant thinking that it could embarrass its adversaries much more through non-violent protest than through building tunnels and firing rockets.
But, it will likely take time before the people who chafe under its rule come around to the conclusion that it is not doing them any favors. The recent protests, though, may herald the beginning of a campaign to supplant Hamas, or at least rein it in.
77
@Glenn Ribotsky
‘son's death was "best day of my life," says Palestinian mother’
How can a mother who loves her son say that his death was the "best day of my life?" The explanation is that she believes that her son's becoming a martyr by dying while attacking Jews gives him instant access to Paradise & eternal happiness. People who believe as she does don't want peace. They want conflict because conflict provides an opportunity for martyrdom.
12
@m1945
People who believe in Martyrdom dont want peace?
You do understand Masada is an Israeli national monument, right? Israelis commemorate the mass suicide of 960 persons who chose to kill themselves than surrender. Eye, mote, beam.
4
@Joe
Jews don't believe that if they kill someone in battle they will go straight to heaven.
9
Although it pains me greatly to say that I agree with an opinion written by a Trump aide, I wholeheartedly agree with Greenblatt on this.
Hamas must go before Palestinians in Gaza can move forward towards peace, and the prosperity they are entitled to as a free people.
63
@Betsy
Who finances Hamas?
Iran and Syria.
Who's the main supporter of Iran and Syria in the region?
Putin.
Who systematically refuses to impose sanctions on Putin, EVEN after our own FBI and Congress prove that he has severely damaged US democratic elections?
Trump.
THAT is what "the world is waiting to help" concretely means, in this case.
And obviously, all decade-long international political conflicts have only been solved by involving BOTH sides, not by just "waiting" until the Bad Guys miraculously start to agree with us (or as Greenblatt calls it, "choose peace").
Peace will only happen through sustained multilateral negotiations, that include Iran, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Putin and the West.
Are agreements on specific and difficult issues among so many different leaders possible? Yes, as the Iran nuclear agreement has proven.
Is Trump able to do something similar? No, of course. First of all because withdrawing from the nuclear agreement just to please his base strongly reduced America's negotiating power in the region, and secondly and even more importantly, because he only hires "the worst", as this op-ed shows: his expert in "international negotiations" in real life is totally unable to adopt a realistic perspective, which STARTS by presenting the arguments of BOTH sides, rather than merely sticking to our side and then deciding that the other side is just "wrong", and that we'll have to wait until they spontaneously "choose peace" ...
2
As it turns out, Hamas is made up of Palestinians and is a duly elected representative of the government in Gaza. While Palestinians disagree on how to handle the occupation of Palestine, they do agree that recognizing the current borders would be equivalent to a hostile takeover of land their ancestors have existed in for millennia. Not to mention, the current borders are in violation of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine of 1947, which Israel promptly broke in May 1948, committed acts of genocide against Palestinians and evicted 500,000 from their homes.
Jason Greenblatt calls on Gaza to surrender and acquiesce to a hostile occupying power and to strip all context from their struggle.
82
Greenblatt has little credibility. That being said, neither do you. Rewriting history with a series of unsupported claims helps no one.
There is a difference between centuries and millennia. There is a record of who accepted the UN plan in 1947 and who didn't. There are also consequences of wars. There is nary a nation in earth not formed in the aftermath of war. Last I checked, Ohio was a Native American possession. How did it come to be a part of the United States?
The sooner the Palestinians reconcile themselves to the plain reality that violence has never serves them well and that there is a gulf between what they desire and what they can have, the sooner peace will be achieved. The ongoing conflict has empowered the worst elements amongst the Israelis and the Palestinians, each promising the impossible. There will never be an Israel at peace without some form of a Palestinian state, and there will never be a return of Palestinians into Israel.
As long as it is a case of who can fight a more effective war, there is no doubt about the outcome.
82
@Victor Your innaccuracy is a function of your vehemence: Israel did not violate the partition plan in 1947; the Arabs rejected it and invaded the newly declared state of Israel in 1948. And the Arabs have consistently rejected anpy peace plan that allows for the continued erxistence of Israel. I despise the Trump presidency, but Jason Greeblatt is right on many points here, notably that the Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank enjoy more civil rights (equal ones in Israel) and economic well being than just about anywhere else in the region. (This is not to say that Israel's settlement activity is not a great obstacle to progress -- which it certainly is.)
57
@Victor
1) Hamas is a duly elected representative of the government in Gaza?
The last elections were held in 2006 - over 13 years ago.
2)Israel promptly broke the UN Partition Plan for Palestine in May 1948?
Israel was attacked by surrounding Arab countries, and in some instances, local Palestinians
3) Israel committed acts of genocide against Palestinians? No credible historian would ever suggest this, even though there were examples of war time crimes on both sides. During the conflict surrounding Israel’s independence, Israel lost over 6000 of its people, about 1% of its population, including about 2,000 Holocaust survivors. The total number of Arab casualties has never been confirmed, and range from 7000 to 13,000, including thousands of Egyptians, Jordanians, and Syrians who joined the battle.
4) Israel evicted 500,000 Palestinians from their homes?
The figure is closer to 700,000 but while some were evicted, most fled to escape the war — which all sides are at least partially to blame for.
19
In the Middle East victims are to be found in abundance. If it were not for pogroms in the Pale of Russia and the Ukraine and the holocaust in Europe Jews would not have emigrated in such numbers to Israel.
They were victims of persecution in Europe.
But where they fled there were already people living there, the Palestinians. Jews pushed them out and took their land. Israel also had its own terrorist groups that operated with impunity. Hagganah, Irgun, Stern Gang, and others.
Palestinians are victims. It is called ethnic cleansing.
We, in America have backed Zionism without thinking about the needs of all of the people living there.
By working for Trump, Mr Greenblatt, and writing such salacious articles you are only continuing the misery in the middle east.
And, lest we forget, both Arabs and Jews are Semitic. So, it is not anti-Semitic to say that the problem might lie with policies fomented by Jews as well as Arab Palestinians.
America's continuing backing of Israel without taking in the plight of the Palestinians is simply to increase and exacerbate a humanitarian disaster and take part in wrongly weighing the scales of justice in one way.
Maybe we should view the Palestinians as human beings with a righteous cause. To say, that to do so, is to ignore the plight of Jews in the region is not simply wrong but a lie.
Your article is just providing cover for Netanyahu's taking of more Palestinian land and removing East Jerusalem as a possible capital for Palestine.
1
It is all the fault of Hamas. That is all we need to know.
If the Palestinians would only give up on this "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights to include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" nonsense and just agree to eternal servitude to the Jewish state everything would be just fine. And then we could turn our attention to punishing the Iranians until they govern themselves in a way we and the Israelis find acceptable.
1
" Care About Gaza? Blame Hamas."
Why would the NYT insult the intelligence of its readers by presenting ANY writer who blames one side for the totality of a problem? This isn't a matter of that old trope of "fair & balanced"- it's about accuracy.
We deserve better than this.
3
The Palestinians plight starts and ends with them. Until they make a peace within themselves to make a real peace with Israel, they will not progress in any effective way.
There is nothing the outside world can do to change the inside lives of Palestinians.
108
@B Brain
Israel has never offered the Palestinians the sine qua non of polities, sovereignty. Without that, Palestinians will always remain under the thumb of Israel's fascist theocrats. The US needs a liberal Democratic president who is not afraid to deny Israel's infinite requests.
3
While Hamas is not making things better, Israel is still to blame for the situation in Gaza. Gaza is extremely overpopulated, with no resources and a population density similar to Hong Kong, because Israel defeated the Palestinians in war and drove most of the Palestinians originally living in Israel there. As this article alludes to, this means Gaza is totally dependent on foreign aid and has no chance of creating an independent economy. If Hamas is out of the picture, Gaza might get some more foreign aid but no country in history has prospered from foreign aid. Micro-countries with no natural resources only do well when they can develop some sort of niche industry (like Hong Kong being an entrepôt for mainland China), and it is hard to see what Gaza could do. I doubt many would vacation there even without Hamas. It’s hard to see how Gaza gets better unless there is a totally unrealistic peace settlement where Israel gives back conquered territory, ends trade restrictions, and allows return of refugees to alleviate Gazan overpopulation.
And no, terrorism does not “force” Israel to do anything to Gaza. America did not respond to 9-11 by settling our citizens in Afghanistan and putting the locals in a few enclaves. China did not respond to Uighur terrorism by forcing all Uighurs into a Gaza-sized territory and building a wall around it. Both Afghanistan and Xinjiang are more developed than in 2000 despite being terrorism sources. Israel deliberately chose to de-develop Gaza.
131
@Aoy
The population density of Gaza is about 13,064 per square mile. This is a little less than Boston (13,321) and half of NYC (27,778). Hong Kong has a population density of around 16, 317, 25% higher than Gaza. HK is not as dense as people think from the photos, because there is considerable open space on the island.
Nearly twice as many Palestinians live in the West Bank (2.8 million) compared to Gaza (1.7 million). There are about 1.6 million Arabs/Palestinians living within Israel as citizens of Israel. So in fact Israel did not "drive most of the Palestinians there", since about 50% live in the West Bank, 25% in Gaza and 25% in Israel. Bear in mind that there were already Palestinians living in Gaza and West Bank, before Israel became a state. So some of those living there today are descendants of people who had lived there permanently, NOT descendants of people who had been driven there by Israel, or who chose to leave of their own accord since they thought their Arab neighbors were going to overthrow Israel in '49.
I'm not saying Israel did not drive some Palestinians to leave, just as Jews were driven out of countries all across North Africa and the Middle East in the decades before and after '49. But when you use words like "most" you tread on slippery ground. No matter how you use it, "most" does not mean less than 25%.
63
@Aoy The Arab Palestinians departed Israel in 1948 at the behest of their own leaders. They were told and expected that Israel would soon be destroyed by the vast Arab continent around it, and that they would move back at their leisure. Due to the monumental heroism, conviction and diligence of the Israelis, the destruction of Israel has not happened. But it is still the goal, oft stated, of Hamas and other Arab leaders. Since 1948, every single war between Israel and its neighbors has been initiated by the Arabs. This fact cannot be omitted (but usually is) in any discussion of the winning of land by Israel. Surrounding nations have learned to attack Israel at their own risk. This is just and right. Yet Hamas continues to attack.
63
@Aoy Gaza is extremely overpopulated because families have 10 or more children, not because of Israel. And we should stop using "camps" to describe housing in Gaza. It's been autonomous for decades now; as the article points out they're been GIVEN materials to build more housing, but have built tunnels and rocket launchers instead.
56
Mr. Greenblatt, the description is accurate.
Something to consider with regard to the self-defeating behavior of Hamas.
In 2005 Israel withdrew completely, 100% from Gaza. At the same time, it was expanding settlements and building its border fence in the West Bank. What was the result of those 2 activities?
Terrorist infiltration into Israel from the West Bank dropped precipitously and poses almost no problem today, with movement of both Palestinians and Israelis across the West Bank border being relatively easy.
On the other hand, Israel has received incessant mortar and missile attacks, as well as tunnel invasions from Gaza, in return for withdrawing its settlers and military.
What kind of incentive does that give to the Israeli government? What kind of message does it send to the citizenry of Israel?
I'll add this. Until recently, when Egypt tightened security along its border with Gaza, Hamas also had the population of Gaza under its thumb because it operated a black market of goods smuggled in from Sinai, things like cigarettes. This was a major source of revenue for Hamas, who controlled the smuggling tunnels and used them for the enrichment of themselves and their organization, rather than for the good of the people of Gaza.
121
@J Jencks Hammas had agreed on 1967 borders and many times said that but the terrorist in your government are not willing to solve it just give them the statehood on 1967 borders
3
Hamas has said it will accept a momentary truce (Hudna) among the 1967 truce lines, yes—if Israel also agrees to an unlimited right of Palestinian return. That is, if Israel agrees to commit suicide.
4
"Imagine if Hamas chose peace."
The only "peace" that Hamas can chose re the State of Israel is no Israel at all, not 1948, 1967 or 2019. Its ideology will not allow for anything but the destruction of the State of Israel. The closest to "peace" Hamas can come with Israel is a cease-fire or truce, nothing more. Thus peace with Hamas and Israel is an illusion. The only chance for peace in Gaza is if the PA returns to political control.
Mr. Greenblatt is absolutely correct regarding everything else. No need to repeat it.
However, as Mr. Greenblatt is a representative of the Trump Administration, I am sure that his view will be skewered by those whose reaction is knee-jerk anti-Trump.
As for my opinion, how can I as an Israeli be objective, when it is all my fault. It is also my fault when Hamas missed when they shot rockets in my direction. "Sorry" they missed. Just kidding.
67
@Joshua Schwartz
You really believe that violent international political conflicts can be solved simply by telling the other side to "choose peace" ... ?
In real life, such a passive attitude never solved any conflict, obviously.
And remember that solving this conflict was exactly what candidate Trump promised to do. Two years later already, the "experts" he hired for his "international negotiations" merely write op-eds stating that "we cannot fix it" and we just have to "wait".
America is the wealthiest country on earth, Israel the best armed country in the Middle East (thanks to us), and somehow the only thing we'd be able to do to end the constant bombing of Israel by Hamas would be ... to hope that one day Hamas will spontaneously "choose peace"?
Don't you see how ridiculous this all sounds?
5
@Joshua Schwartz Please remind me of what the current ruling party of Israel has to offer in terms of peace and sovereignty for the people of Palestine. Not with regards to Gaza, but the West Bank. Or, for that matter, for Palestinians living in Israel presently.
5
@Alex Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert offered 96% of the West bank and land swaps for the rest and it was turned down.
Why do you think anybody will offer and should offer more?
How often do you think there should be do-overs?
12
What a one sided account of a conflict perpetuated by the Israel right! In many Israel towns, such as the historic sea port of Java, there are large neighbourhoods neighbourhoods populated by Arabs that were cleared and then repopulated by Israelites under the guise of security requirements. Greenblatt would have us believe that all this ethnic cleansing was the fault of the former Arab residents! Get real.
23
@David Brown: Jaffa is Arab. Haifa is mixed. Ramle is mixed. Your facts are wrong and your bias against Israel shows clearly. HAMAS can choose peace and prosperity,. but it doesn't and won't because its goal has been and is to destroy Israel.
9
If you look at the last 70 years the Palestinian status quo has been nothing but terrorism, instability & war. Israel moved out of Gaza more than a decade ago. It has been rewarded with constant attacks emanating from a territory where the infrastructure of mayhem & destruction — rockets, tunnels & the like — is the only growth industry. Hamas doesn't want peace. They've always chosen violence. Always. Imagine a scenario where the Arabs won the 1948 war they initiated against Israel. What would have happened? Here's what Arab League's Secretary-General Azzam Pasha promised would happen: "This will be a war of extermination & a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres & the Crusades." How can Israel negotiate with that kind of mentality? They can't. Palestinians have had a chance for peace many times. They're where they are today because they're leadership is committed to terror. The so called "Peace Process" is a fraud & the people who have pushed it are self-deluded charlatans. In the past 70 years trillions have been spent trying to solve this problem. We've engaged in horrifying wars with no end in sight because of our involvement in the "Peace Process". What do we have to show for it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The Israeli left only promises more of the same. Netanyahu won the recent election because he's a realist. He sees the conflict in black & white terms. In a country that is surrounded by enemies this only attitude that's rational.
48
The scary part is that this guy is supposed to 'negotiate' with Palestinians on behalf of US as a fair broker. Yeah, right.
11
"The Palestinians in the West Bank are largely progressing in stable cities and communities."
In the "Deal of the Century" these will become bantoustans completely under Israeli control.
"Educated workers are finding jobs (though there is much room for improvement .....".
In the "Deal of the Century" these will workers will find more jobs, IF they conform to Israel's strict conditions of behaviour.
This is the essence of the "deal". Vast sums of money from the Saudi MBS (alias the "butcher") will provide for the conditional improvement of Palestinian lives ....... while the Palestinians will have given up their legal rights to the land and their natural resources. Life will be "better" under total Israeli control??
8
Israel's Peace Offers/Palestinian's Response
1937/Peele Commission: No
1947/UN Partition: No
2000/Camp David: No
2001/Taba: No
2008/Olmert Offer: No
2012/Indyk-Kerry: No
Message received.
15
@None: Israel violated the Camp David accord.
4
@Jeff
Israel's Peace Offers/Palestinian's Response
1937/Peele Commission: No
1947/UN Partition: No
2001/Taba: No
2008/Olmert Offer: No
2012/Indyk-Kerry: No
Message still received.
2
The Germans characterized the French Resistance as "terrorists". The French characterized the Resistance as nationalist freedom fighters.
9
With all due respect. Some were called collaborators. Misleading equivalency.
As the old saying goes, One man's freedom fighter is another mans terrorist.
This was said of Menachem Begin.
3
As usual, a Trump administration official is attempting to explain a complex situation in a simplistic way, ignoring the larger historical context. Jason, as a member of the current US administration, you have zero credibility. If you presented this as a speech at the UN, you would receive the same reception Trump has there.
92
@enzibzianna. By "complex situation," I assume you mean the Arab refusal to acknowledge the rights and history of the Jewish people who are the indigenous inhabitants of this small corner of the globe. Or perhaps you refer to the post-WWI territorial adjustments that have resulted in the Arabs ruling over 99.75% of the former Ottoman Empire's Middle East possessions, the Jews governing on the remaining 0.25% and all other indigenous groups getting 0.
85
@Charlie in NY
As the Bible itself writes, it's "Canaans" who are the "indigenous inhabitants of this small corner of the globe".
It's only the Jewish God who told the Israelis (who today are not an "indigenous" population of ANY region in the world, as the fact that they come in all sorts of races, from Caucasian to black, but who about 3,000 years ago were a tribe living in Egypt) that He wanted them to go live in Canaan, AND, as the Old Testament writes, to kill every local inhabitant if he opposes the takeover of their lands by the Israelis.
So EVEN when you adopt the Jewish Bible's history, you have to acknowledge that no, even the "original" Israelis, who came in from Egypt, were NOT "indigenous".
And Arabs are making up most of the people living in the Middle East for thousands of years already, so what's your problem with this fact?
Conclusion: only scientifically valid information can be the basis of a peace agreement here, not the many myths that people decide/prefer/have been taught to believe.
18
@Ana Luisa. Except that there are mountains of evidence showing a continuous Jewish presence in the land. The League of Nations demarcation of the territory of the Mandate of Palestine was not based on religious hallucinations.
The Arabs invaded the land in the 7th century and their rule lasted for about four centuries before they were ousted as rulers by Turks and others, including the British.
Rather than indulging in “questions” you would never dream of addressing to any other minority group, you should ask yourself why Arabs should be restored to the totality of their imperial conquests outside Arabia to the complete exclusion of all the area’s indigenous groups of which the Jewish people are but one.
As a final point to your biblical exegesis, the point you need to take to heart is to remember that the Jewish people did not blindly follow any command to exterminate but chose to disobey it - and suffered for it. But that’s a matter of Jewish ethics to choose life, which is also why the ”genocide” and “ethnic cleansing “ of the Palestinian Arabs exists not in the real world but in the fevered imaginations of the anti-Israel crowd.
16
Sorry, Mr. Greenblatt but this is a complex situation and there are no simple answers and no heroes. There's plenty of blame to go around.
52
Yes, there is plenty of blame to go around, but, for whatever reason, it’s always Israel that seems to get the blame. Seeing an article like this in the NYT should not surprise me, as it has. And judging by some of the comments here, including your own, the resistance to an article like this becomes apparent.
15
and so strange Iran, the sponsor of Hamas, is left off the list. the people in Gaza are pawns, they are being used, they have very little recourse but do seemingly nothing because... religion. and religion is, of course, another tool of power.
5
@Seldoc
No heroes, for sure. But saying that Hamas is a disaster for people living in Gaza isn't really a simple answer. It's a big part of the complex answer that usually is ignored or repressed.
2
Gaza is 141 square miles, utterly closed off from the outside world, with nearly 2 million people living there.
That is not a Riviera.
That is a landscape from hell.
I do not not doubt there are a number of causes for this unspeakable inhumane disaster.
But to blame only one party in the situation—leaving out the larger picture—is the way of the blind ideologue, not the diplomat.
This is an outrageous oversimplification, unworthy of our government.
Shameful reasoning.
61
Gaza certainly isn't the Riveira,
But Tel Aviv, and Netanya which aren't that far away, are.
The difference is in what the people living there have done with their opportunities.
@Paul McGlasson
12
This comments section displays well the racism and hatred of Palestinians nurtured by over half a century of Israeli propaganda.
28
@Joe
There is no such thing as a "Palestinian".
It is a made up people designed solely for the purpose of attacking zionism and Israel's right to exist peacefully.
3
The implicit logic of this piece illustrates so much of what is wrong with the current administration and its inability to handle foreign affairs (or anything else): Hamas is run by of thugs, and therefore Israel is blameless. What utter nonsense. That Hamas is corrupt and incompetent is demonstrably true. But to use that to exculpate Israel makes progress impossible.
17
@pterrie
The leadership of Hamas and what preceded Hamas, as well as much of the leadership in the Arab world and to a growing extent the rest of the world as well is deaf to the needs and will of the majority of the people over whom they hold dominion. Worse for the Palestinians than many others, but still tragic. Power to the People.
2
Imagine if Israel were a true democracy, granting equal rights to all its citizens, rather than a autocratic government ruled by a corrupt leader with the support of an ultra-right minority. Secular Jews cannot marry inside the state of Israel, and do not enjoy the same benefits and rewards as the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox, many of whom are beneficiaries of the state and believe in an intolerant religion that refuses to give equal status to women. Arabs are subject to an Occupation as brutal in many respects as apartheid was to black South Africans. And all of it is propped up by American foreign aid, American dollars and American support.
19
@Thomas Pain. All Israeli citizens are equal before the law, as you well know. Non-citizens don’t get to vote, as is true in every democracy but since Oslo, some 95% of Palestinian Arabs are ruled by the PA and Hamas, not Israel.
And if Israel were anywhere close to what you describe, how to you explain the Israeli Arab refusal to consider any peace plan that would set a border placing them in the new State of Palestine?
3
@Thomas Pain The US doesn't mind extremist religious states (Saudi, Israel) so long as they align with its geopolitical interests.
1
@Thomas Pain
Everything you wrote is refuted by the facts. Arabs have full equality and live prosperously in Israel. There is no apartheid in Israel. You are entitled to your feelings but not your own facts.
3
Hamas has served a number of purposes for Israel. When Hamas first began operating in the 1980s, it was a social service organization. The Israelis were very well aware that it was developing a military arm, but allowed this to continue because they were intent on splitting the Palestinian leadership and creating discord within the Palestinian ranks -that is Colonialism 101 and the Israelis did it very well. The emergence of Hamas was not surprising; after decades of brutal Israeli occupation and increasing PLO inefficacy and corruption, it was highly probable that a more radical form of Palestinian nationalism would emerge. These latter reasons were why Hamas won national elections in 2006. That leads to the next point: the existence of Hamas has served as a very useful excuse for Israel to avoid making peace for decades. Any time there is a danger of peace, Israel can attack Hamas and provoke a response. Hamas' refusal to agree to Israel's terms for a surrender before Israel makes any concessions means that Israel can haul out the excuse that Hamas wants to destroy it. Thus, making peace with more amenable Palestinian factions is something Israel can readily avoid by waving the Hamas card. Enough people are ignorant of the situation to be constantly fooled by the same Israeli excuses. The fact Gaza is always at the mercy of Israel is constantly obfuscated by articles like this one. Finally, if the NYT is going to publish this drivel, find a Palestinian counterpoint.
12
@Shaun Narine
It is always surprising to read some people's comment in the NYT, without having the slightest ideas of what is true. Claiming that Hamas came "after decades of brutal Israeli occupation". Had Shaun done his research he would have found out how wrong he is. I was in charge of the education in Gaza and the Sinai between 1972-1974. Here are some examples. Daily some 50,000-70,000
workers from Gaza and also from the West Bank went
to work in Israel. Specialty teachers went
to Israel daily for training. People from Gaza who had business or other needs had no trouble going to Israel or to Egypt. After the completion of secondary school education, students could travel for further studies and leave the strip.
Taxi and truck traffic flowed uninhibited from Gaza to Tel-Aviv. Maybe he should ask himself why this did not continue after Hamas took over Gaza.
13
@Shaun Narine I, too, was dismayed by the Times' publication of this piece.
1
@Shaun Narine
"The Israelis were very well aware that it was developing a military arm, but allowed this to continue"
Because nations have always been so succesful at suppressing armed resistance.
Some top tier delusions right there. History has shown us that where there's a will there's a way. Not even the most repressive and barbaric regimes in history have been able to completely repress resistance.
Not that Mr. Greenblatt's view isn't a bit one sided but yours isn't any better. Just jumping in on the one sided blame game there.
Lost me at “Mr. Greenblatt is an assistant to President Trump...”
10
@Ben Martinez
Me, too.
1
The Future of Gaza
Bagpipes and horns like our Joshua blew -
Seems like our Bibi the Left overthrew,
Dance the hora, big hoorays for the right
That vanquished the left, the race wasn’t tight;
Now Bibi and Trump in the fullness of time
Will do to Hamas what they’ve had in mind,
Evict – 90 days - take kit and caboodle -
Gaza is ours; they’ll have to tootle
Wherever they’ll take you; it’s all ale and cakes,
Compare and contrast – you’re lucky the fates
Are planting you elsewhere, where grasses grow green
Instead of your hovels with outdoor latrines.
1
Another anodyne "what-aboutism" piece of fluff. What a surprise...NOT.
There's no question that the Palestinian "leadership" has "never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity". That doesn't excuse the despicable behavior of Bibi's government of religious zealots from steam-rolling treaties and agreements painstakingly built over decades by the international community whose purpose is to craft a durable two-state arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians. Apologias from Trump ciphers doesn't paper over the despicable conduct of the Bibi's government of religious zealots.
13
"Jason D. Greenblatt is an assistant to President Trump and the special representative for international negotiations."
Is this another example of the NYT "series" of Diverse Voices?
11
Perhaps the thousands of Palestinean houses and settlements demolished by the Isrealis has something to do with the "shambles"?
Think again Mr. Greenblatt ..
16
More of the Zionist narrative.
Israel could easily rectify the issue in Gaza. They could just take control over it the same way they do the West Bank. Theres just no land worth stealing in Gaza. Too many Arabs, not enough settlers willing to move there, ergo turn it into a ghetto.
Its always telling that the only countries Israel can make complicit in their occupation are the dictatorships of Egypt and Jordan.
6
@Joe The USA is an accomplice and to a lesser degree so are European nations. Many people support the rights of the Palestinian people just not their governments. Any support for Palestinians and critic of Israel is demonized and called anti-semitism.
4
@Joe. You forgot that Jews lived in Gaza before being ethnically cleansed by the Egyptian army in 1948. You also forgot that Prime Minister Sharon removed every Israeli, living and buried, to allow the Palestinian Arabs to show the world that they were capable of building a peaceful civil polity. That they failed miserably and chose to be led by a dead-end group of genocidal fanatics (who of course also enrich themselves at the average Palestinian Arabs expense) is hardly Israel or the West’s fault. The people who should be faulted are those who consistently turn a blind eye to reality and insist that the blame lies with anyone and everyone other than the Palestinian Arabs themselves who, apparently, lack any agency whatsoever. This return of the “White Man’s Burden” approach to non-Westerners should be called out, yet to do so is airily dismissed as “whataboutery.”
9
@Charlie in NY
Sharon pulled out for the sole reason that defending and occupying Gaza was more trouble than it was worth. It had nothing to do with giving Palestinian Arabs freedom. They gave up on Gaza and then doubled down on the WB, expanding settlements and grabbing all the hilltops they could.
The Palestinians did not "chose" to be lead by Hamas. Hamas won a plurality in the legislature, meaning it was the largest party, not the leader. Our (Israel and USA) insistence that any government with Hamas participation would be treated as a terrorist group ensured open conflict between Palestinian factions with Hamas in control of Gaza.
3
" The Arabs in Israel generally live normal lives and, in many cases, thrive."
Really?
They live as second-class citizens in a country rapidly becoming an apartheid state. Read the various pieces of legislation the Knesset passed in the last 12 months re Arab 'citizenship', language, etc.
11
@jbc
You are entitled to your own opinions. You are not entitled to your own facts.
There is not a single law restricting PERSONAL freedom of Israel's Arab citizens. Defining the national character of the country is not restricting personal freedom. You are not entitled to your own facts that it is.
Go join Trump for your alternate reality.
4
Finally, an article stating facts about the root cause of the Palestinian disaster in Gaza: Hamas. Hamas is and has always been a terrorist group, bent on the complete annihilation of Israel. It has managed, through disinformation and teaching hatred of Israel in its children's classrooms, to convince most of its people that every single one of Gaza's problems is Israel's fault.
Israel formerly controlled Gaza, as well as the Sinai and the Golan Heights, after it fought a war to defend itself against its surrounding Arab neighbors. Israel unilaterally gave the Sinai back to Egypt and has been at peace with Egypt ever since. It kept the Golan Heights for military/strategic reasons to keep Hezbolla away. It unilaterally gave Gaza back to the Gazans. When Israel did so, Gaza was clean, organized, and had good infrastructure. Hamas took power and began the systematic destruction of what the Israelis had built there. They received billions of dollars of international aid, but instead of using that money for schools, roads, etc., they lined their own pockets and used the rest to built tunnels into Israel to attack it. They continue to blame Israel for all of their ills. If Canada behaved like Gaza does to Israel, we would have bombed them back to the Stone Age. Israel responds to Hamas's aggression only to the extent necessary to defend itself.
Peace will never be realized unless and until Hamas is eliminated. They are a metastatic cancer in Gaza.
86
@ALB
Let's suppose that that's true for a moment.
Now who's funding Hamas?
Iran and Syria.
Who's the main ally of those countries in the Middle East?
Putin.
Who meddled in the US elections, moreover?
Putin.
And WHO is opposing doing anything against Putin?
Trump.
That is not "waiting" until somehow Hamas miraculously "chooses peace". It means actively making things worse.
2
@ALB
"Peace will never be realized unless and until Hamas is eliminated."
You cannot "eliminate" an ideology. There are billions of Muslims world-wide who believe in the fight against injustice. Peace will never be realized until there is full recognition of the injustice and there is an agreed means to correct the injustice. Muslims are joined by billions of non-Muslims in the struggle to this end.
5
@ALB Did you know that Hamas Charter is the exact mirror image of Likud's Charter. Check it out some time.
There is a reason. Likud created Hamas as a foil to Fatah and the PLO.
They specifically created the enemy they wanted, and have set themselves up with a permanent war and a permanent crisis for which they permanently need Ol Bibi the war criminal/hero to keep their world view safe.
As usual the extremes get the squeak wheel oil. You, a lackey for Trump and the extreme right in Israel who want to annex arab land, settle in their territory, establish concentration camps, have favorable kill ratios, unconditional surrender, become a puppet state of Israel etc. and Hamas who wants it on the other end, the destruction of Israel.
That combined with mixing state and religion is the reason all sides have been killing each other for thousands of yrs.
We can thank the founding fathers for creating it and Lincoln for saving it, separation of state and religion, the reason we don't have this horror story here in America.
4
Since its inception Israel has been waiting for the Palestinians to accept a civilized coexistence.
On this past April 6th, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar said: “We Will Tear Out Their (Israeli) Hearts.” Taking a quick look around the Middle East a peace agreement is not likely happen in our lifetime. Meanwhile, those who refuse to give the Arabs any “agency” expect Israel to continue to live beside thousands of terrorists, without building settlements, because some day in the very distant future Hamas and the Palestinian Authority might change its #1 priority of riddling Israel of Jews. If that is not the height of hypocrisy what is?
18
It's amazing to me that in 2019, we are still susceptible to accepting the narrative that a strong, nuclear, US-backed occupying power uses a scapegoat like Hamas to continue its oppression. This is not at all an endorsement of Hamas, a primitive militant group born out of frustration with the occupation. Rather, it's a sad reminder of how the narrative is controlled now to make it seem like Israel is the one who is a difficult and helpless situation.
History will look back at this time and will be baffled by how long people blamed a helpless Palestine for their own oppression and occupation.
It seems like Israel has learned everything that the South African apartheid regime, along with other oppressive regimes, did to beset their unraveling, and it is trying to stay ahead of the curve.
A stain on our time.
8
@M-K
Can't call it scapegoating when the reasons ring true.
If you really want to look at things objectivley you'd realize that neither leadership group wants peace, simply for the purpose of holding onto political power. Neither Bibi nor Hammas can stay in power without confrontation and ever present spectre of war. They need eachother to survive, at the expense of their respective constituent bodies.
@Josh
At the end of the day, one party has the power to end the conflict - and that is Israel. As much as Israel will cry foul that the Palestinians are the aggressors, only the Israelis can command the direction of the conflict. All the Palestinians can do is resist.
How they resist is another subject - resistance can oftentimes be counterproductive depending on how it's carried out, but the important thing to recognize is that REsistance is a REaction.
1
Mr. Greenblatt is living in another universe if he can write that the Palestinians in the West Bark are "largely progressing in stable cities and communities."
I was in the West Bank and Gaza about 10 years ago. Then, as now, every night there were Israeli undercover raids in one or more Palestinian towns in the West Bank. I remember being awaken one night in a city in the West Bank by the loud sound of an aircraft. Next day at breakfast I was told this is a daily occurrence, as the Israelis are forever flying low over the city in surveillance flights. I remember talking to farmers who had to rush home to utilize the hour of running water they were allowed because the Israeli settlement set up next to their town had confiscated all the available water. The restrictions and intrusions they had to live under were unending. I am sure things have only gotten worse with the exponential growth of the settlements.
So, please, Mr. Greenblatt, go back to Queens and your two-bit bankruptcy or real estate practice and stop pretending you know anything at all about the West Bank and Gaza.
I regret that Time Times finds room for you and so little for the views that people like me have.
8
@Arthur Paone "I remember talking to farmers who had to rush home to utilize the hour of running water they were allowed _because the Israeli settlement set up next to their town had confiscated all the available water_."
Have you spoken to anyone who actually knows how water is divided in the disputed territory? Or did you just speak to those who see that they lack water while the nearby settlements have and conclude that it "must be" because the settlements are stealing the water?
Have you considered the possibility that the Palestinians lack water because their leaders decline to develop all the water resources allocated to them? That unlike the Israelis they don't recycle water build their water networks to prevent leakage?
Israel and the PA have treaties defining what water resources are available to the PA. Do you know what those sources are? Do you have any information that Israel is denying the PA what the treaties say must be provided? Do you have any information suggesting that even with those sources, the PA still would not have enough? Don't expect the propaganda tours you take to reveal such material to you.
3
The Trump-Kushner-Netanyahu-Greenblatt team again paves another km on the route for the "Deal of the Century" in which they plan to buy Palestinian legal rights with money from MBS.
I do not like Hamas, but I will NOT "blame" them for resisting Israel's illegal activities.
10
Hamas is not resisting Israel’s illegal activities. They are busy with their own. You should blame people who use their children as shields. Tell us how one can build trust with them.
4
@Wayne
Hamas has no choice but to hide it’s people and arms in urban areas. Military barracks alongside a fixed rocket launch pad, style Cape Canaveral, would not be too smart. On the other side, there are well-documented instances of Israeli soldiers using Palestinian women and children has true human shields in past military campaigns
1
Thank you for this clear and accurate view of the situation in Gaza.
16
Thank you, Mr. Greenblatt!! Unfortunately, I believe that for some people, anything that Presidnet Trump has supported is tainted. So, I fear that anything anybody says in support of Israel, no matter how sane it sounds, is going to be seen negatively. It's like the present knee jerk reaction to AIPAC. I was at the convention recently, which by the way was attended by people on the left, right, Christians, Jews, and even some Moslems. There were people there talking about how to make life better for Palestinians. But people are against AIPAC, just like they reflexively disagree with Mr. Greenblatt, because he works for the Trump administration.
12
Hamas was created by the Israeli government in order to destabilize Fateh/the PLO. There is no blaming Hamas when people protest the status quo, go protest at the border, and are shot & killed (not talking about people throwing rocks, I'm talking peaceful protesters, medics, journalists)
Hamas, if even an issue, is hardly the main problem. A blockade on humanitarian aid, on fishing, and an apartheid government are the issue.
For you to claim that Palestinians in the West Bank and inside 48 live normal is shameful. Palestinians in the West Bank continue to have land stolen from them, and face daily injustices due to apartheid policies, that is not normal.
Arab Israelis live in segregated communities, attend segregated schools, and are forced to take different buses. On top of that, Likud recently had cameras in polling booths as a means of voter suppression.
Hamas is hardly the issue. The superior ideology that we are inferior and that you are 'gods chosen people' is the issue.
9
When Hamas honestly revokes its declared policy of wiping out Jews and Israel, maybe then some progress can be made. However since its leaders live well and graft erodes any economic justice for Gazans, the chances for such change are slim to none. And, Slim is out to lunch..
18
@Laith Shehadeh
Hamas and Bibi need eachother to survivce. Neither of them wants peace because neither of them can retain power in that situation.
The both purpetuate the situation because it surves their needs, at the expense of their populations.
Blaming Hamas alone for the escalation will not get the US anywhere in the peace process. The current administration holds the same extreme views as the Israeli government. The US has lost all credibility as an arbitrator.
Mr. Greenblatt basically demands Hamas to surrender as the first step.
An arbitrator needs first to built trust.
Asking Hamas to recognize Israel as a condition for negotiations stands in stark contrast to the give-away of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
Trump does what Netanyahu wants, he is nothing but a lap dog.
Weak, this president is very weak because rogue leaders can play to his damaged ego.
As such the president is a security risk to the interests of the US.
He is a fool on a fool’s errand.
7
This is absurd. The starting point of the absurdity is that Greenblatt is a Trump person, so one knows from the start that whatever he says it is certainly most likely the opposite of what the truth is. Secondly, to suggest that life is hard in Gaza because of any thing other than the oppression by Israel is lying propaganda. Israel is in control and runs the open air prison known as Gaza.
8
As an American, what has Israel and the ME have to do with me? I want no part of it. Divest and bring the troops home. We don't need their oil, or Zionism. Pompeo is trying to speed up Armagedon with his hate campaign against Iran. America does not need this. It really doesn't.
5
Mr. Greenblatt presents a very powerful argument. And when observing from the other side of the world I am sold. What confounds me is murkiness of other revelations that lead me to consider and number of headscratchers. I am aware that Hamas support comes from primarily Iran. I understand Iran is at loggerheads with Saudi Arabia. I believe Saudi Arabia was happy to fund homicide bombers at the turn of the century and happened to be cleverly funding Al Qaeda. 18 years later, it appears pretty clear that the IDF has the upper hand, and gratefully so. However, what happened during the Arab Spring. Were their democratic elements from Egypt that infiltrated Gaza? Where those elements snuffed out by Hamas? Did the IDF or any other organization do all that they could to help turn the tide? I'm unaware if they did. Even if there was an attempt that ended in failure, it would add so much weight to your Mr. Greenblatt's position. However, I'm left scratching my head whether or not there was every any real resolve towards a more positive outcome. It almost feels like Hamas is a useful idiot that terrorizes it's own people while giving Israel the upper hand to reason perpetual war in self defense. Who might benefit from such reality on the ground? Maybe I'm completely off base here, but the optics have befuddled me for some time and continue to do so.
4
Hamas came to power in a democratic election. This result was not acceptable to Israel, and by consequence also unacceptable to the U.S. . Those two nations have done what they can to make Hamas fail.
7
And, once in firm power, Hamas does all it can to squelch any dissent among its populace and uses terror tactics to control them. So, please, stop with the canard that Hamas is a democracy!
5
@indisbelief Yes, Hamas won a democratic election in 2006. And Hamas-controlled Gaza has held exactly zero elections in the 13 years since then. No elections in 13 years doesn't sound very democratic to me.
2
@indisbelief What about the rockets into Israel and the terror tunnels beneath it? If Hamas had spent the money on its citizen's immediate needs rather than the infrastructure for war, I might agree with you.
1
Great article because it is 100% accurate and truthful.
17
The Palestinian response to Israeli withdrawal from Gaza; rockets shot at Israelis schools from Palestinian schools, has shown the Israelis what will happen if the Palestinians gain control of the West bank. The Palestinians have effectively killed the two state solution. It's time to reconnect Gaza to Egypt and reattached the majority of the west bank to Jordan and give up on the whole Palestinian statehood scam.
19
I agree and if they think it’s so easy let them give a state to the Palestinians that THEY stole and occupied in 1948. They can help to stabilize that. I don’t know why they didn’t think about that before.
So what you're saying is that there's only one side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, namely the Palestinians.
And then your conclusion is that "we cannot fix" this conflict. So you describe the Trump administration's position as "waiting to help but has been prevented from doing so by (...) Hamas".
In other words, you're announcing that on this issue too, Trump has now flip-flopped 100%, compared to his campaign promises.
Here too, Trump only discovered AFTER he entered the White House that just like healthcare reform, the situation in Gaza is "complicated".
So that's your only excuse?
In real life, it's precisely Trump's ignorance and failure to inform himself about the - always multiple - causes of deep, violent political conflicts that made him imagine that his anti-Muslim rhetoric, his pro Israeli government symbolic action (such as moving the US embassy), and his continuation of America's decade-long policy of massively arming the Israeli government, somehow would not be putting oil on flames and should be merely seen as "waiting".
Conclusion: my advice to you, dear Jason Greenblatt, would be to start reading about history and "international negotiations" a little bit. If not your self-declared master in "The Art of the Deal" will fail in the Middle East as much as he's failing to obtain deals from Capitol Hill.
3
The food and fuel of extremist groups is extreme poverty and repression. Gaza is an open air prison where Israel continues to impose a block aid that ensures that misery abounds. This is the petri dish in which an organization like Hamas can grow and thrive. This in turn allows Israel to justify its repression. It's a vicious cycle where A causes B causes A causes B. The New York Times can continue publish op. ed. pieces that take a finger pointing as its point of view but it will not alleviate the problem. In history, many so-called terrorists groups have come to be political partners over time. Just look at Sinn Fein. However, to create such a transformation takes statesmanship, negotiations, and statecraft all of which are missing in both the present US and Israeli administration. Meanwhile, poor people in Gaza will continue to look to the only Party that seems to show some interest in their plight, Hamas. Meanwhile the blaming will continue until wiser men come to power in both the US and Israel. Don't hold your breath. I expect nothing from either Israel or the US. They have only their finger wagging to offer.
5
Thanks for telling it like is.
Increasingly, the Palestinian people agree with it.
They are finally seeing through Hamas and the culture of violence and rejection.
11
Jason (and Jared),
May I offer a helpful suggestion?
Implore Netanyahu to offer to draw a border line 5 or so miles into the West Bank to encompass the settlement blocks and provide a necessary buffer against terror and rocket attacks. Offer to relinquish any claims to the West Bank east of that border, maintaining settlements only by agreement with the Palestinians. And divide East Jerusalem based on population centers, but keeping the Old City as an international city, but with Israel responsible for its protection and security. Israel would agree to maintain that status quo on the Temple Mount if the Palestinians agree to do the same at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
Sounds reasonable, no?
It should to most everyone.
But the Palestinians will never agree to any offer that does not lead to the eventual destruction of Israel (the Green Line and guaranteed admission to 5 million refugees at a minimum).
So what has Israel got to lose by making the offer?
That by some miracle they accept?
Imagine that.
4
Good idea. Israel needs monitoring station however. That may be the refusal. Would be interesting to see if Israel could do that.
The irony here is once again there are no freedoms under Hamas,the PA (or most of the Arab and Persian world) where a writer can even suggest that Hamas' violence is at fault for these horrid conditions and that the PA should have accepted the at least 3 peace deals offered that would have resulted in a Palestinian state. Write or say that as a Palestinian, Arab or Iranian and try to survive jail and death threats. Israelis debate amongst themselves and Americans debate about Israel and the Middle East, but peace cannot occur when, as pointed out here, repression and violence snuff discussion and compromise.
8
There is currently no reason to believe that Palestine will ever be anything more than a safe haven for Iran and Saudi funded terrorists. If Palestine becomes its own nation then it will be the next ISIS as control will quickly go to those terrorist organizations that essentially control it now. Palestinians aren’t Israel’s great enemy. The terrorist organizations that have infiltrated Palestine are.
12
While Hamas is not an effective government in Gaza, it must be clear that it has shown more flexibility and openness to discussion than is portrayed by Greenblatt. It revised its Charter, which is not a constitution, and has on multiple ocassions stated that it is willing to discuss a long term peace. While the terms of that peace as expressed before negotiations are not terms Israel would accept, it must also be pointed out that the terms Israel has laid out before negotiations are not terms Palestinians would accept. Negotiations are in fact about moving from stated positions.
If we look at violence we also must accept that since at least 2009 rocket fire has largely ceased outside of defined periods of conflict largely precipitated by attacks on Gaza by Israel. In all of 2018 rockets were only fired out of Gaza on 14 occasions. During the same period there was Israeli fire into Gaza nearly every day (according to UN OCHA numbers) and hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza were killed by Israel. Until rockets were fired into Israel on two occasions in March, only 6 rockets had been fired this year towards Israel without harm. During the same period, Israel had fired into or attacked Gaza over 170 times, again according to OCHA. Palestinian violence is unacceptable, but it doesn't occur in a vacuum.
Finally, as someone who has managed aid programs in Gaza I must point out that it is false to say that Hamas misuses aid. It has not access to aid and does not need it.
5
@Merlot "I must point out that it is false to say that Hamas misuses aid." False. Terror Tunnels.
1
Despite the fact that anyone who works in the Trump administration deserves no benefit of doubt, despite the fact that Trump's racist and anti Islamic world views have helped to advance Israel down the road to becoming an apartheid state, Mr. Geenblatt's points in this editorial ring true. Hamas is doing far more to make Palestinians in Gaza miserable than Israel is.
But Mr. Greenblatt is also cute when he describes how well Palestinians living in Israel proper and the West Bank are doing by comparison. Why aren't Palestinians living in Israel living lives equal to those of Jewish born Israeli citizens? Do West Bank Palestinians have rights equal to those of the settlers who stole their land?
Show Palestinians and the world that Israel believes and treats all lives as equal and a counter narrative against Hamas becomes possible. A brighter future requires draining the hopelessness that empowers extremists. Palestinians must be given reality-based hope for equality and a better tomorrow.
Unfortunately, Israel just re-elected Netanyahu and took a step in the wrong direction. Again.
Hopelessness continues. More rockets will rain and Gazans will remain miserable.
2
The United States, and especially the Kushner-'led' peace proposal, whenever that is likely to appear, is doing nothing but providing diplomatic cover for the construction of an apartheid state.
To pretend that Hamas is the only stumbling block to a two-state solution is a farce.
Firstly, Israel is the only party with the ability to change the facts on the ground: peace will not come unless Israel decides it, and not before.
Secondly, Hamas 'represents' less than of Palestinians - those currently imprisoned by Israeli blockade in Gaza - but Palestinians in the West Bank suffer systematic oppression and violence, despite with the Trump Administration asserts, and are denied statehood by Israeli occupation.
Moreover, as eager as commentators are to elide civilians with Hamas when snipers kill them, Palestinians have minimal control over the group's actions, and this article amounts to insisting that civilians should be held hostage to US/Israeli-imposed misery until forces out of their control decide to 'recognise' the Jewishness of Israel, thereby surrendering their own right of return - one of the few instances of leverage they have in negotiation.
Finally, the US organised the Good Friday Agreement with the IRA/SF. Clearly, therefore, it will treat terrorists as legitimate negotiators in peace talks without preconditions. It is not doing so now because the US is a bad faith partner which is supporting Likud's annexation plans, not championing a fair or just peace.
1
Two things can be true at once. Hamas can be responsible for hardship in Gaza. And Israel can be responsible for despair and the loss of hope in all of Palestine.
1
I've never heard a defender of Gaza also defend Hamas. And Mr. Greenblatt, apparently, has never heard of the Israeli blockade of Gaza!
Another thing that's never heard is the question, 'who is trading with Gaza?' The tunnel network is always discussed in terms of security, but everyone admits it is Gaza's economic lifeline. All those tunnels into Israel, who is profiting on the Israeli end?
1
@David Bird
The tunnels are an “economic lifeline,” not an inroad for terrorism? They’ve been built to transport Girl Scout cookies, not bombs? News to me!
3
This piece highlights both the malign incompetence of this Administration's foreign policy, and the fact that the US Govt is providing diplomatic cover for the building of an apartheid apparatus in Palestine.
It is a farce to suggest that the only thing which stands in the way of 'peace' is Hamas's intransigence.
Firstly, Israel is the only actor with the power to change the situation; however violent Hamas is, Israel's blockade is the operating cause of misery in Gaza, and it can be changed without Hamas. To say otherwise is a lie.
Secondly, Hamas represents less than half of Palestinians. The Administration's position is essentially to hold millions of civilians hostage to wilfully-imposed misery because a single org. which represents a minority won't 'recognise' Israel. It is petulant and cruel.
Moreover, despite Mr. Greenblatt's assertions, non-violence and recognition of Israel by the PA in the WB has only perpetuated settlements, a repressive IDF presence, and denial of statehood. Moreover, Arab Israelis are routinely subject to systematic racism. None of this incentivises Hamas to renounce violence when doing so simply represents capitulation to Israeli domination.
Finally, the US negotiated the Good Friday Agreement between the UK and the IRA/SF. Ergo, it will deal with terrorists groups without preconditions to make peace. The US is not doing so now because it is acting in bad faith and supporting Likud's colonialist policy over a fair and just peace.
You state that Hamas is the "de facto" ruler of Gaza (your quotation marks). The determining decisions about life in Gaza, e.g., the blockades and fences, have been made and enforced by Egypt and Israel.
In the words of the renowned statesman, John Lennon,
"Give Peace a Chance".
They did. The result was thousands of rockets from Gaza aimed specifically at civilians.
3
So the policy of our "special representative for international negotiations" is to blame Hamas ("the terrorists"), and conclude by asking ask us to imagine a better outcome. How emblematic of the appalling administration he represents! Blame, disparage, insult, and then resort to imagination and naïve pie-in-the-sky simplistic solutions. Will this national nightmare ever end?
Possibly|likely true. But somebody besides a DJT flunky should be writing this, because A) anything emanating from the DJT circle is suspect B) in the long run anything that DJT might do to 'help' Israel will backfire due to the inevitable backlash
Reading this reminds me of the movie Cool Hand Luke where the Warden rolls a depleted Luke down a hill, after days of his being in a cramped hot box, and says with exasperation "What we have here is failure to communicate." The author seems to draw no relationship between the small crumbs of electricity and food and the proximity to "settlers" occupying Palestinian land in controversy of international law. A prison is a prison whether it's cushy minimum security or harsh hot box.
1
Wow, Hamas is a terrorist group, devoted to maintaining the climate that keeps it in power! What a shocking revelation! What exactly does Greenblatt expect the miserable citizens of the Gaza strip to do? Rise up and cast off the Hamas yoke, despite having fewer resources then almost any other people on the planet? He admits that every dollar coming in as aid is diverted to help Hamas arm itself, and they seem to have no trouble getting ammunition past the Israeli blockade that works so well on more benign items like medicine.
The real question is, why hasn't Jared fixed the situation yet? Isn't the head know-nothing of the Trump Dynasty on the case?
When I was growing up , Palestine was the entire, fertile and and beautiful Mediterranean coastal country between Egypt and Lebanon.
The majority population was Muslim, followed by Christian, then Jewish minorities.
So how did Hamas cause that to change so much?
1
I believe almost nothing the Trump Admin says, and Netanyahu is a corrupt disaster, but this column is also true. Hamas, as now constituted, is a real problem for the Palestinians, esp. in Gaza.
7
I do not agree. I am a Jew who empathizes with all the oppressed, especially since ancient times we have been oppressed.
1
If there is a serious look at who responsible for the suffering in Gaza and the entire region it will be Washington elites. The elites in general love perpetual instability and the current elites led by Jerald Kushner are primarily selected because they worship Israel. They lack objectivity and commitment to U.S. national interests.
The region has suffered more than enough since Washington has started to dictate the fate of the region ; people are dehumanized, discredited, occupied, killed, and their economy and health system are reduced to the era before 1700. If any one has any moral responsibility , that person will see the widespread suffering in Iraq , Yemen, Syria, Sudan, etc. This suffering and destruction amounts to crime against humanity.
1
Peace is to no one's advantage except the Israelis' and the Palestinians'.
As long as the Arab states can deflect blame to Israel, they maintain hegemony in the region.
As long as the Palestinian leadership can keep their people enraged and impoverished, they can continue to make $2.6B in international aid disappear every year into Swiss bank accounts and payments to terrorists--with no infrastructure for a possible future state to show for it. And for all the hand-wringing in the West, we're the ones getting rich selling the bullets.
Hold the PA and Hamas accountable, force them to abjure violence and corruption and stop selling a dream of genocide, and there will be a chance for peace.
9
Gaza is a difficult problem. One problem is that it is so small in area yet keeps attacking its neighbor Israel. Just looking at a map you might wonder if it would be better to just annex Gaza to Egypt. However the behavior of Gazans has been such that Egypt, regardless of which administration rules it, does not want Gaza. And the Gazans have reason not to want to be part of Egypt. In my training as an officer of Marines in the early 1970's we received classes on the largest use in warfare of modern nerve gas, because our potential adversaries might use such weapons on us. That was an attack by the Egyptian Army on Gaza in 1967, before the Six Day War. More Gazans died than Syrians have died in all the uses of poison gas there.
4
Hamas isn’t interested in peace nor are the other terrorist organizations in the area. It’s a shame that so many have been brainwashed to believe that violence and death is a way forward to the future.
8
A ridiculous article, just what you'd expect from a member of the Trump Administration. Hamas did not stage a coup, it was legitimately elected (a concept people in the Trump Administration clearly have a problem with) in the last free Palestinian elections. In response Israel imposed a blockade, which according to international law is an act of war. As a legitimate government targeted by an act of war Hamas has every right to resist militarily. The point is, it is Israel that has initiated the conflict. If Greenblatt is so opposed to violence maybe he should advise Israel, the world's fifth military power, to convert its swords to ploughshares.
Greenblatt's vision of Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank enjoying the good life would be laughable if it weren't so insulting. Maybe he should actually talk to some Palestianians there, but of course members of the Trump Administration never do that.
The simple fact is that ever since this administration took over US credibility to speak on any aspect of Israeli Palestinian conflict has completely eroded. So that automatically disqualifies you from making any objective comments, observations or appeals. The Israeli Palestinian issue needs to be taken up by more just and fair organizations and countries like UN, Russia or EU to prevent it from staining by racial bias.
As regards Gaza.. suffice it to say that it is a prison with strict controls on four sides and on the top by Israel. So accusing the Prisoners of not running a jail smoothly smacks of hypocrisy and insincerity.
The reality is that Hamas is part of a dysfunctional triangle of its own terrorist fueled incompetence, the corrupt rigor mortis of Abbas and the P.A., and the malevolent religious nationalism and bad faith of Netanyahu and Likud/Shas/UTJ. It is this iron triangle that is crushing not just Gaze, but the whole of greater Israel and the people of the region. I have no idea how to break it, and certainly Trump and Kushner are bigoted, less read, less reflective and more ignorant than I, so I would not expect a breakthrough from the US side anytime soon.
1
I love all the qualifiers this guy uses: arabs generally live normal lives in Israel, Largely progressing in stable cities and communities. And not one word about Israel atrocities in Gaza, not one word about his support for the settlements, not one word about his support of declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Yet another right wing Ideologue trying to tell Palestinians their suffering at the hands of the Israelis is all their fault.
4
How does this make it to print? Israel has the Gaza Strip surrounded, blocked off and under encroachment by illegal settlements. It's essentially an open air prison...
Sure Hamas runs the Gaza Strip, much in the way inmate "Tiny" runs Cell Block C. Israel is still the warden in all of this...
I'm getting sick of Israel being shoved down our throats... the Today Show sent Savanah over there for a weeks long series, and every other day we get a piece like this in the Times... meanwhile they are sniping rock throwing kids and health care workers, claiming a piece a land that many others have claim to, displacing thousands, and electing a leader that is openly anti-democratic.
Frankly, I'm sick of the larger issue in all of this, which is the incredibly strong ruling from a place of strength. Israel has the entire western world's support. They have the military might to eradicate this entire issue. With that power comes the ability to relax a little and know that you can take a punch. Stop being so afraid of what might happen and just know that you're strong enough to handle it if it does. That will breed restraint and with restraint will come benevolence... something sorely lost by Israel in the last few decades, and largely lost by my own country, the United States...
Hamas might just be awful... but that doesn't make Israel the good guys... how they respond to awful does.
That goes for us too.
5
@J There are no settlements in Gaza.
5
"The Palestinians in the West Bank are largely progressing in stable cities and communities."
I guess the argument is that if the Palestinians in Gaza gave up on Hamas they could share the wonderful prospects of the Palestinians in the West Bank.
19
So the West Bank is a model of economic development, along with sweetness and light?
Did the author of this piece bother to ask any Palestinians how they feel about it? Has he ever been there? Does he know about the military occupation? The routine theft of land and destruction of agriculture? The perpetual checkpoints? The "Israeli only" highways and infrastructure? The imposed indigence? The "withholding" of Palestinian tax revenues?
Maybe Trump ought to turn Gaza into a golf course -- the one territory he and this administration official may actually be capable of running.
35
@jrd: in Israel Palestinians have beöle second class citizens, in the Westbank they are occupied and in Gaza they live in a war zone. A peace deal is a non starter when it doesn’t recognize basic facts
The reality is that the Palestinians have had the opportunity for peace, but have rejected it repeatedly. They are responsible for their own situation. And when Israel takes measures to protect their population, the Palestinians have blamed those measures for their consternation. The Palestinian leadership perpetuate a cycle of failure. If they recognized Israel and gave up on their dream of genocide, they would have had a state already. They have closed the window of opportunity on themselves.
9
@Oliver Herfort
How is life for Israel’s Arab minority? Khaled Abu Toameh, the Arab journalist who reports for the Jerusalem Post, U.S. News & World Report and NBC News, talking about life for Arab Israelis: "Israel is a wonderful place to live ... a free and open country.”
Arab women in Israel live longer than Arab women in any Arab country.
Arab babies in Israel have lower infant mortality than Arab babies in any Arab country.
Hadassah University Medical Center in Israel established a registry for Arab donors of bone marrow and stem cells to facilitate life-saving transplants. The registry at Hadassah Hospital is the only one in the world for Arabs and will no doubt save the lives not only of Arab Israelis but also of some citizens of Arab countries, not a single one of which has a registry of its own.
6
All this is fine. Ineffective governments are rife the world over. So what do we do? A B-52 strike and rid Israel of worry? Of course not. Enmity is a feature of the life of humans. But with Israel having no interest in solving the problem and Hamas having the objective of overturning Israel, we have a perpetual mess.
The blame game may be fun, but a solution would be better.
5
@Terry McKenna Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It was up to the Palestinians to improve their lot. Instead, they destroyed the factories and homes the Israeli settlers had built and abandoned upon withdrawal. Hamas 2 years later was put in power with the goal of destroying Israel, as noted in their charter. The Hamas leaders have become wealthy (just like Arafat before) as the residents have become impoverished.
1
@Terry McKenna. If Israel has no interest in “solving” the Gazans’ problem for them, it would seal off Gaza completely as any other country would have done long ago.
Were they to do so, it would at least align reality with the propaganda of the anti-Israel groups who falsely pretend that Gaza is an open air prison or ghetto.
The truth is that Israel lost its gamble on Gaza: when given a territory from which every Jew (living and buried) was removed, the Arabs would show the world that they could govern peaceably and for the benefit of its people. Instead, the world got Hamas, its antisemitic genocidal hatred and its commitment to violence. Yet, Hamas still has its cheerleaders throughout these comments who pretend everything is Israel’s fault and responsibility and pretend to wonder what it would take to end the status quo.
2
@carolina sure. so what does Israel do with this time bomb?
Most everything Mr. Greenblatt writes is true that Hamas needs the war to continue to stay in power but Hamas has its doppelganger in Isreal where the continuing conflict is a necessary component for continued political power. There are cynical politicians in Israel that need Hamas and Iran.
The parallels between the establishment of Israel and the westward expansion of the United States and our war with Mexico are obvious and there might be much to be learned from reexamining that bloody history.
11
@Bunbury. I don’t recall Mexico invading the US with a view toward annihilating it - but perhaps you have alternate facts in your side.
I do recall that when Congressman Abraham Lincoln repeatedly challenged President Polk to identify the “spot” where Mexican aggression supposedly took place, he never received an answer.
Also, unlike Americans or Mexicans, the Jewish people are the indigenous people of this particular land, so your analogy to “manifest destiny” works only in the sense that the Jews didn’t want to end up like the Indians and have instead successfully opposed Arab imperial designs on the remaining portion of the historical homeland of the Jewish people that Israel governs.
5
@Bunbury I do not disagree with your premise, but which could exist without violent conflict?
It appears to be the only path for Hamas as they do not appear to have the diversity in thinking in leadership that would consider a peaceful or alternate existence.
2
@Charlie in NY
While the European settlers in the new world never claimed America as their homeland they did claim title to this land from God. Boy, how can you argue with that? Imperial designs are everywhere.
1
Nothing new under the sun with this administration. More ill-informed and biaised comments that want to pass for a deep analysis of complex issues. And of course, the usual denial concerning the US responsibility in the mess in occupied Palestine, and concerning the unconditional and self-defeating support to Israel. "Blame the victim" is no diplomatic approach.
17
@Dauphin Gaza is not occupied.
7
@carolina
Gaza is not occupied, it's only the biggest prison on the world.
1
The complete lock-up of Gaza as an outdoor prison may be the main reason for lack of progress. The collective punishment of missiles and bombings by Israel (financed by USA) may also be a prime cause. The blockade of medical supplies and trade by Israel may contribute.
This article is similar to those published by British apologists concerning the North of Ireland. The IRA was always the problem not British oppression. Interestingly, the IRA took the first substantial steps toward peace.
Why is it that the far more powerful oppressor demands concessions from its victims before they will agree to start to treat the oppressed as human.
24
@John Conway
Gosh, John, you don't mention Egypt--who blockades Gaza for the same reasons Israel does: tunnels and terrorism. Guess Israel is supposed to make peace unilaterally.
14
@John Conway
Did you not read this "NYT Pick" comment?
"Hamas has managed, through disinformation and teaching hatred of Israel in its children's classrooms, to convince most of its people that all Gaza's problems are Israel's fault.
"Israel formerly controlled Gaza, as well as the Sinai and the Golan Heights, after it fought a war to defend itself against its surrounding Arab neighbors. Israel unilaterally gave the Sinai back to Egypt and has been at peace with Egypt ever since.
"For a while, it kept the Golan Heights for military and strategic reasons to keep Hezbollah away. It then gave Gaza back to the Gazans. When Israel did so, Gaza was clean, organized, and had good infrastructure. Hamas took power and began the systematic destruction of what the Israelis had built there. They received billions of dollars of international aid, but instead of using that money for schools, roads, etc., they lined their own pockets, and used the rest to built tunnels into Israel to attack it. They continue to blame Israel for all of their ills.
"Peace will never be realized until Hamas is eliminated."
[edited for brevity]
His comment, to me, wins the day. Am just wondering how you respond to it. Your comment seems to deny or overlook its facts entirely.
P.S. I don't have skin in this game, but as a fellow Earthling, I'd like to see peace and prosperity in Gaza, as well as everywhere else. I imagine that you would, also.
1
Ironically, the people of Gaza voted the Hamas party into power in 2006 in the first ever free democratic elections in Gaza. Predictably, there has not been a free democratic election there since.
66
A very well written and factual article.
President Abbas is in his 14th year of a 4 year presidential term. The corruption in Gaza is big part of the problem.
Israel already has Syria for a neighbor, and Libya not far away. Israel doesn't need another failed state as a neighbor.
44
@mrmeat
Syria - a failed state, hundreds of thousands were killed or murdered.
Libya - a failed state, the civil war is ongoing.
Lebanon - not exactly a functioning democracy, Lebanon is militarily controlled by Hezbollah.
Egypt - Almost collapsed several years ago, and only a military coup "saved it".
Iraq...
2
Not exactly. The US does bear some responsibility for Hamas because it subsidized and pushed for the organization of Palestinian Legislative Council elections, expecting that they would boost the authority of Abbas and the P.A. Instead, in 2006, Hamas won. When Hamas subsequently "seized control" of Gaza, it was merely implementing the political will of the Palestinian voters as shown in the election results. To know whether the majority have changed their mind would require new elections - unlikely any time soon. The choice, between the futile violence of Hamas or the systemic corruption of Abbas and his cronies, leaves little to hope for. Still, the people cannot entirely escape the consequences of their collective choice of a terrorist Hamas government, nor can America shrug off responsibility for having coerced a premature election.
14
@raphael colb
And why is it exactly that new elections are “unlikely any time soon”? Take a guess. Israeli occupation? There isn’t any. Israeli settlements? There aren’t any. The blockade against potential military hardware? How is that responsible for new elections being “unlikely”? Who’s in charge there, anyhow?
1
The writer is correct when he says "Hamas professes violence and the destruction of Israel."
But what Mr. Greenblatt left out is that in the last negotiation between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority Hamas agreed to ceed full authority for peace negotiations to the PA.
What this means in simple terms is Hamas agreed to grant the PA full authority to negotiate based on PA terms, which includes full recognition of Israel.
This is well known to anyone who follows these issues and it has been reported in the Times. The fact that it is not known by Trump's special advisor, or is known but purposefully omitted is troubling to say the least.
While Mr. Greenblatt argues that "renouncing violence and recognizing Israel" is the magic formula for peace and prosperity for the Palestinians, again he omits that the PA did just that in the Oslo Accords almost 25 years ago.
The repose was more settlement building and annexation plans before Hamas was even created. Mr. Greenblatt's argument is based either on willful ignorance or a carefully perpetrated fiction.
Netanyahu has made it clear that under his administration there will never be a Palestinian state, under any conditions.
The United States needs to stop playing this silly and destructive game. The window for Palestinian statehood is rapidly closing and there will either be a demilitarized Palestinian state or an apartheid greater Israel.
Netanyahu has already made his decision, we need to make ours.
42
Regardless of how violent and non-democratic Hamas is, the situation is still the fault of Israel???
5
@Drspock
I should just like to say that I found this the most cogent comment on Mr. Greenblatt's article. The future for the situation is bleak, and options are limited:
(i) The status quo is widely seen as deeply unjust and unsustainable. If Netanyahu removes the two-state option, it seems unlikely it will remain peaceful.
(ii) The window for a two-state solution is dwindling but it is the only outcome in which Israel retinas both its Jewishness and its democratic nature.
(iii) The far-right in Israel (with support from the far-right in the US) advocates for either:
(a) Annexation of desirable territory W of the R. Jordan, and the denial of citizenship to the Palestinians there, leaving Palestinians with an archipelago of impoverished populations wholly dependant on Israel but totally unrepresented. This is apartheid prima facie; or,
(b) The ethnic cleansing of Arab areas and forcing of Palestinians into refugee camps in Jordan and other neighbouring states. Lest anyone think this ridiculous, it was explicitly advocated in a WSJ Op Ed several months ago.
Either of these options would spell the end of Zionist aspirations for a democratic state in the wake of the Holocaust, make the Govt of Israel responsible for crimes against humanity, and likely turn Western public opinion firmly against the country. Time is running out to make a choice.
1
@Drspock
Arafat told South African Muslim leaders that the Oslo accords “fell into the same category as the Treaty of Hudaibiya that was signed by the Prophet Muhammed with the people of Mecca in 628, only to be reneged on a couple of years later when the situation titled in Muhammad’s favor.” Arafat’s words were recorded by a member of the Jewish community who had infiltrated the meeting posing as a Muslim — provoking demands from Israeli officials that he repudiate them. Arafat never did.
Nor did the Palestinian leadership cease its support for terrorism. Arafat and other top PA apparatchiks both approved and funded the creation of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. Arafat’s own personal bodyguard unit, Force 17—trained and equipped by the U.S. and EU as part of Oslo—carried out terror attacks throughout the 1990s and during the Second Intifada, from 2000-2005.
Oslo did not forbid settlements.
5
Gaza was territory taken in war that was given back. This did not turn out well for either the Palestinians or the Israelis. There is no country that would tolerate missiles being shot across their border. Hamas cannot win but they keep on keeping on and the misery of their people gets worse each time. World pressure on Hamas would be more successful than boycotts of Israeli goods. Meanwhile the two state solution sinks into the polluted sand. Yes it is not helpful that the warmonger Netanyahu was elected yet again, but safety was a major concern, not the illegal settlements on the West Bank. Also the Palestinian Authority must put their house in order. It's all very complicated as is everything in the Middle East. Memo to President Trump--Israel is in the Middle East. Oh were is their savior Derek Kushner?
31
@amp - Gaza is a prison and deliberately so. Hamas then becomes a convenient excuse to deflect from Israeli land seizures in the West Bank.
Gaza as it exists works well to generate political support for both Hamas and the Likud coalition. Scripted collusion? Probably not. Broad understandings and cooperation are enough. Kind of like the old pro wrestling matches.
5
Enough lying and insulting the intelligence of the public. Globally. Like Trump’s Tweets and actions , Netanyahu and Israeli “actions” speak for itself: land grab of Jerusalem & Golan Heights and promise to integrate the occupied territories. In addition, the symmetrical demonizing, caging and diminishing of peoples are the result of similar thinking and plan in the Southern US border & occupied territories. After all, Stephen Miller is the architect of crimes against humanity who cynically also claims to be defending the country. If there are issues in France and Western Europe, writ large, thank cynical articles like this one by Jason Greenblatt - assistant to Trump to diminish and destroy. Actions, always, have consequences. As they say: Be careful what you wish for.
48
Palestinian leadership has always refused offers for a two state solution because it would mean giving up their dream of taking over all of Israel. When they were given Gaza we see what happened, as the article accurately describes. I don't agree with the West Bank settlement policy but until the Palestinians agree to live in peace with Israel they are stuck in a situation that only gets worse.
123
@Horace Until Israel accepts responsibility for the fact it is built on stolen land, I suspect that the conflict is at an impasse. But Israel can't do this, since so much of its nationalist myths depend on it being a victim; coming to terms with the fact that it victimized (and continues to victimize) others is not something that it can do. Moreover, it would be a concession to history and morality that would undermine the Israeli argument re: the legitimacy of its displacing of other people.
29
@Horace Really now? A Two-State solution by necessity would require one of those "states" to stop encroaching on land illegally- building settlements. But I digress....
4
@Shaun Narine
Remember that the Jews were the first occupants of the historical Israel. They had a kingdom and an organized religion.
The Jews revolted against Roman rule and were crushed. They were expelled and slaughtered in Roman genocidal rage.
Borders are lines in the sand and peoples have been the victims of mass exoduses for thousands of years.
Until the Palestinians turn Gaza into the Singapore of the eastern Mediterranean instead of a rocket factory, nothing will change.
Any people that use their women and children as suicide bombers as Hamas did in the Intifada loses can claim as a civilized people with a claim to historical legitimacy.
And as long as we are on the subject, what about the 3,000,000 South Vietnamese people who escaped communist tyranny when Saigon was lost in 1975.
Vietnam Vet
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I'd rather see more people try to reach a peace agreement—even if it is only interim or partial—than argue over who is to blame.
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This is correct insofar as it goes. But it does not fundamentally change the colors of the spots on Trump's otherwise horrendous record as a President.
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@A. Stanton and if this represents Trumps policy, we can we no end in sight.
@A. Stanton Trump is not the focus of this article. He is not responsible for the suffering of Gazans, as this article clearly spells out. But the Left will always find a reason to blame not just Israel but Trump as well.
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@A. Stanton
This is an opinion piece about the situation in Gaza. Why is your comment about Trump's record as President? Take a step back and evaluate whether you are obsessing.
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Endless conflict is the lever Hamas' rulers wield to feed their addiction to power. No conflict, no Hamas. It's that simple and that universal. Gaza could be Riviera. The world could be a paradise.
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Remember that when Israel left Gaza in 2005, Israel took out every Israeli from Gazan territory. It left hundreds of greenhouses which were an effective source of income - which the Gazans destroyed immediately. Gaza has ruled itself and exactly as the article honestly says, the rulers put hatred of Israel first, above its citizens’ needs. I have seen the effect of bombs sent to the Israeli town of Sderot. The citizens there live in the basement of their homes. Every place has a safe room and young children know they have 15 seconds to get to the safe room. You cannot build a state on hate - or on false narrative. Thank you for a truthful article which will serve Gazans better than the hatred its current leaders provide.
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@Jay Stephen - With the situation in Gaza Hamas has a captive population to use for its black market in all kinds of goods, including cigarettes. The smuggling of arms into Gaza has been growing again as well.
Since links in comments seems to slow down the moderators I won't post the link here. But Google "hamas black market" and near the top of the results will be an article at the website InvestigativeProject org.
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A Riviera destroyed by an illegal war that decimated all the infrastructure including hospitals and schools. A riviera wherein Netanyahu government successfully had trump take away financial aid and in addition is withholding the tax revenue that legally belongs to the people
What planet do you reside? Get real!
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