The Uncomfortable Truths Surrounding a Potential Ceasefire in Gaza

Military cemeteries in every corner of the world are silent testimony to the failure of national leaders to sanctify human life.

 — Yitzhak Rabin, 1994 Nobel Peace Prize lecture, 10 December 1994

We are almost approaching the ceasefire period, after two years of bloodshed. After two years of watching an entire section of the world get bombed back into the stone age, we might finally see at the very least an end to a bloody, bloody atrocious chapter of the conflict between the military-heavy nation of Israel, and Palestine’s Detroit-sized Gaza Strip.

But there is a question that people have failed to answer, and even sometimes failed to bring up when discussing the ongoing conflict-turned-genocide involving the Israeli hostages, the murderous rampage of Netanyahu’s government, the repeated assassinations of journalists just trying to cover the events, and the horrifying final moments which involved literal starvation of Gazans caught up in the violence. And this question determines as to whether or not we as a society learned anything from what we had just witnessed.

When did this war start? October 7th?

Are you sure about that?

I think about this picture whenever I see Israel committing war crimes. It is Bill Clinton back in 1995 looking very distraught because his political ally and prime minister of Israel, who had just signed a peace deal with the Palestinian leader, had been assassinated. After so much intense and precise negotiating and a Nobel Peace Prize, Clinton’s friend gets murdered in his home country by his own people. Whenever people question why it’s so difficult to achieve peace in this corner of the world, remember that leaders and peacemakers in this region literally pay for the path towards said potential peace with their lives.

John Oliver beat me to the punch because he recently did a deep dive on Netanyahu, but that war criminal had essentially been the match that lit the fuse leading to the assassination of Israel’s then-prime minister. Yitzhak Rabin basically signed his death sentence pursuing a peaceful future alongside the Palestinians. The Oslo Accords wasn’t even that transformative a deal, as it didn’t even guarantee a Palestinian state at the time; a decision probably made because everyone wanted to take baby steps to not upset the delicate, tricky situation and the extremists from both sides. As a reminder, Hamas also publicly rejected the details of the Oslo Accords against the wishes of the Palestinian leadership, and they also committed violence throughout the 1990s, way before their most successful attack on Israeli soil (to also be fair, their wave of violence started emerging after the mass shooting at one of Islam’s holiest sites, which may have also been supported by the Israeli military).

But nonetheless, despite the baby steps, the hateful rhetoric towards the prime minister persisted for years (led by supervillain Netanyahu), culminating in the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, which triggered an awful period of violence that peaked with the assassination that shocked Bill Clinton and the rest of the planet. Looking at the picture again, you’d have to wonder if Bill Clinton also knew at that moment the Middle East and the future of Jews/Palestinians was going to forever change, it was a trigger point that would unleash another era of mayhem.

The reason I bring up the 1995 assassination and surrounding mass violence as I talk about the upcoming ceasefire is because the war definitely definitely definitely didn’t start on Oct. 7th, as we see Netanyahu as much as 30 years ago fighting (and…apparently also financially aiding) Hamas while also battling other Israelis about peace in the middle east. The war also didn’t begin in the 1990s, because 20 years before Bill Clinton we had also been seeing hijackings of planes in order to release Palestinian hostages, and of course we can’t forget the Munich Massacre. There were the Nakbas, the Infitadas, the wars between nations surrounding Israel and Palestine, the internal conflicts between all the factions involved, the kidnappings, the assassinations, the bombings, and so much more.

No chance the supposed war that’s approaching a ceasefire started just a couple years ago, it has been an ongoing conflict ever since the Nation of Israel was formed.

It is so important to discuss all the events prior to the Oct. 7th attacks because we cannot continue pretending that the horrendous attack was a one-time thing. We also cannot continue pretending like Israel’s response was just a response to Hamas directly, their rebuttal was a violent rebuke and a condemnation towards anyone and everyone that considers themselves to be Palestinians or supporters of their cause. Israeli government under far-right rule and a thirst for revenge was basically committing a Final Solution via bombings, secret and public mass shootings, kidnappings, widespread terror, intense propaganda, and even starvation while gaslighting every major political figure trying to call them out. The 2023-2025 period of bloodshed is arguably the peak of what has become decades of on-again-off-again warfare and violence.

At the very least, the narrative surrounding the Middle East has become significantly clearer throughout this century as technology and accessibility to information improved and there are now more ways to convey and release news and data and evidence of what is transpiring. More people around the world have learned about how Gaza remains the largest open-space prison in the planet, more people around the world have learned about how the Gazans don’t even have full access to the sea that borders them. More have learned about the strange relationship between Netanyahu and Hamas, and how they need each other in order to remain relevant.

This terrible conflict at the very least has allowed for people to do their proper research, have the uncomfortable conversations among independent and social media, and learn how one-sided the situation has truly become in the 21st century, and how the historical religious aspects has corrupted and poisoned the mindsets of many world leaders while navigating this ongoing battle and ongoing genocide being committed by the Israeli government.

It remains absolutely unacceptable for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to fail to bring about a peace deal, while the Trump Administration with the help of multiple foreign nations could (for now, but still definitely more progress than the Brandon Years). Joe Biden’s legacy deserves to be burned at the stake.

I will never ever pretend like I have all the information related to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, nor will I be one that will claim I have the answers to how to solve them. The Jewish culture historically has been targeted in all parts of the entire world, ever since the death of Jesus Christ himself. You think the Holocaust was the only time Jews were persecuted and displaced and even executed in mass numbers? I will never pretend like I can understand the mindset of a culture and a faith that has been pushed to the brink of extinction multiple times throughout history. However, to deny all the atrocities committed by the Nation of Israel and her supporters towards Palestinians for almost a century would also be an absolutely silly thing to do.

Palestine became a fractured country because foreign superpower nations trying to avoid another World War decided to park a new nation in the middle of Palestinian territory, as some sort of giant reparation for what has become centuries of Jewish flights and mass escapes from countries and regions that rejected and sometimes hunted them. Hurt people hurt people, and it’s easy to link the centuries of violence towards Jews to the obvious hate and anger that festers among the Zionists and Jewish Settlers in the West Bank. It’s also just as easy to link the violence towards the Gazans over the years to the rise of groups like Hamas which were born, bred, and raised on violence, devastating loss, retaliation, and violent rebellion.

Multiple things can be true simultaneously.

—First and foremost, the Palestinians deserve their actual country with all their regions officially connected in some shape or form, while also receiving their guaranteed peace from the religious extremists that have poisoned the Israeli government and military. In my personal vision of a Palestinian state, the Gaza Strip would be rebuilt with a physical connection to the West Bank (mostly devoid of settlers) via buffer zone that Palestine would share with Israel, along with the shared space of Jerusalem.

—Second, the Jewish culture and faith do ultimately deserve a permanent homeland, safe and free from abhorrent racism and religious persecution that they still suffer from in many parts of the world, even if their current government pretty much eradicated every ounce of goodwill that had been carefully obtained over the years.

—Third, Netanyahu is a war criminal, the 21st century version of a Hitler, and is very likely the worst leader of a nation since Cambodia’s Pol Pot. Him and his current army of thugs deserve to be investigated, tried, convicted, and sent to an abandoned prison in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for the rest of their lives. It is unacceptable to be okay with how they responded to the Oct. 7th attacks. If you want to punish the leaders of Hamas, that’s understandable, but Netanyahu should be on trial standing right next to them.

I truly hope that this is as awful as it will ever get, I truly hope that we can finally figure out a way to resolve this conflict without any further bloodshed. As hopeless as it may seem nowadays, we have historically seen very lengthy periods were Jews and Muslims lived alongside each other in peace, without territorial or religious battles. There is historical evidence seen throughout the Middle East and even in parts of Europe where it is proven that multiple major religions can peacefully co-exist. We can’t use the United States as an example because the Christian Nationalist movement continues to drown the country into third-world status, but you can look at Spain, Morocco, parts of Africa to see how this peace is still entirely feasible and within reach. It’s just a matter of having actual proper spiritual leadership to guide us away from the temptations of hatred, power, and vengeance (you know, shit that continues to drive MAGA).

But this path towards peace requires opening all the wounds and observing all the symptoms and causes that has led to so much unnecessary violence and bloodshed. And when I mean the wounds, I’m not just talking about the wounds from Oct. 7th, I’m not just talking about what we’ve seen since Trump shifted the American Embassy to Jerusalem, not the multiple intifadas, not talking about the assassinations and bombings before/after the Oslo Accords, we have to stretch further back. We have to head all the way back to the rise of Zionism, the ongoing consequences of colonialism, the actions related to the Cold War, the motivations behind Jewish flight from places that persecuted them AND places that generally embraced them. We need to observe these causes of religious extremism and all the levers of religious power that turbocharges these ugly corners of otherwise-beautiful sects of faith.

Ceasefire should only be the first of many steps. It is time for serious solutions; it is time for reparations for the Palestinians. It is time to truly bring the hammer of justice to every person, every politician, every terrorist group that has participated in the decades upon decades of violence that has prevented the Palestinian territory from becoming the peaceful land it used to be long ago, stretching back to even before the United States’ formation (oh yes, it is also time to consider the West Bank settlers as a terrorist group for their enduring violent land theft). If the two-state solution were to happen, it will not occur under the current leadership we’re seeing in Israel, in the U.S., and even in select countries in the Middle East and Europe.

The “War” didn’t start on October 7th; we have to bury this narrative. Instead, you need to go much further back to observe the origins, but also observe the possibilities for what can become of Palestine, of Israel, and of every innocent life living within these borders. Free Palestine, From the River to the Sea. But also, free Israel from Zionism, and may both nations rise as multi-cultural destinations for all religions and all those interested in their history.

P.S. Give the Nobel Peace Prize to Jose Andres and then Greta Thunberg, NOT Donald Trump.