If you listen to Israelis and their defenders, everything is the fault of the Palestinians. According to this narrative, they rejected a “generous” offer of 44% of their land in 1948 and have since rejected all overtures from an Israel eager for peace and coexistence. They allegedly resist unreasonably, irrationally, and violently against Israel’s settlement of the land that was offered to them, which they could have had for a state if they had not continued to reject peace proposals.
This narrative insists that the death and destruction we see is all due to the Palestinians. Israel, with what it claims to be the world’s most moral army, would never harm anyone unless it was absolutely necessary. Recent events, such as the October 7 attacks and the ongoing military actions in Gaza, are framed as reluctant but necessary measures against the intransigent Palestinians.
Yet, the reality is starkly different. Israel is armed to the teeth and enjoys the support of the most powerful nations on Earth in terms of financial aid, weapons, political backing, and UN vetoes. Meanwhile, the Palestinians have no military to speak of, only small arms and improvised rockets. They live under occupation, with their movements restricted, their lands steadily encroached upon by illegal settlements, and their people subject to harassment, arrest, and torture.
The Mouse and the Hippopotamus
Once upon a time, there was a village where the inhabitants lived happily and peacefully. One morning, the villagers woke to find one of their valuable food stores broken into and trampled. As they stood pondering what happened, they noticed footprints on either side of the ruins: on one side, the tiny prints of a mouse; on the other, the massive imprints of a hippopotamus.
This story serves as a metaphor for the current situation in Gaza and more broadly for the entire 76 years of conflict since Israel was created. Any rational and honest observer would conclude the hippopotamus is the culprit. Yet astoundingly, we are expected to believe it was the mouse.
In a recent press conference with the German Chancellor, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Hamas as the “new Nazis”. But consider this: a people confined in what many have called the world’s largest open-air prison, denied basic necessities like food, water, fuel, and medicine, and lacking any significant military capability, are compared to one of history’s most infamous regimes. And all this while they are subjected to bombardment by one of the most advanced militaries in the world. But as renowned journalist Chris Hedges aptly observes, “Think about that. A people, imprisoned in the world’s largest concentration camp for 16 years, denied food, water, fuel, and medicine, lacking an army, air force, navy, mechanized units, artillery, command and control and missile batteries is being butchered and starved by one of the most advanced militaries on the planet, and they are the Nazis?” (Chris Hedges: The Genocide in Gaza).
To further highlight Netanyahu’s moral and rational dislocation, we must call upon the great Chico Marx when he humorously quipped: who are you going to believe? Me or your own eyes? Obviously, says Netanyahu, it was the Nazi mouse!