Israel-Iran Conflict: Can it End Well?

The blank page I face contains a hidden minefield. Any misstep and I will lose a limb and possibly my life; that’s a hyperbolic metaphor. As a Jewish person intending to write about the Middle East, though, that’s how I feel. When I describe myself as Jewish, I acknowledge the trope I’ve heard since childhood (not dissimilar to “the talk” black parents have with their children about how to behave with police): “It doesn’t matter that you call yourself American, that you don’t go to synagogue, even if you’re an atheist. When they knock on your door, you’re Jewish.” They mean the Gestapo or the KKK, or an anti-Semite toting a gun.

Before even mentioning the atrocities committed by Hamas on Israelis on October 7, 2023, I must condemn Israel for their treatment of Palestinians both before October 7 and since. While Palestinians affiliated with Hamas and other terrorist groups committed war crimes that day, Israelis have committed war crimes on a far greater scale since then. 

I won’t discuss or assign where most of the blame may lie on either side in this conflict that has been going on since long before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. There are many books that do that, some biased toward one side, some the other, and some perhaps objective. You should seek out all three kinds to understand “where people are coming from” and why they have never been able to come to a permanent solution to how to live together in peace.

Today, I write to comment on Israel’s current battle with Iran. But first, caveats and disclosures.

For most, my last name already identifies me as Jewish. I was raised in a “Reform” (liberal) Jewish family, parents 2nd generation Americans whose parents, my grandparents, had all immigrated from Eastern Europe in the late 1800’s. I’m the only one of 4 siblings who does not practice the Jewish religion and am married to someone raised Christian. I have an older brother who lives in Jerusalem and has children and grandchildren all over Israel (where he works on joint Jewish/Arab community projects). Another brother’s wife has relatives in Israel. I have visited Israel a few times.

I am disgusted with the Israeli government because of the corruption of its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, who in order to hold on to power as Prime Minister, has allied himself to the most odious right-wing warmongers who promote the view that Israel has the right to occupy, if not annex, all the disputed lands “between the river and the sea,” a phrase that refers to all the land that Palestinians nominally control in the West Bank, plus Gaza and the territorial boundaries of Israel. I am disgusted with the behavior of the Israeli army. I thought they went out of their way to act humanely in battle in the past. Now they seem to kill indiscriminately, only give lip service to investigations, withhold food or make it too dangerous to get the aid. In the West Bank, soldiers act as a protection force for Israeli squatters (settlers) and watch passively when settlers bully, harass and try to drive out local Arabs. 

But one must also acknowledge the role of Iran in bringing us to this point today. There would probably not have been an October 7 without Iran’s support for Hamas (with complicity from Qatar and Netanyahu, who let Qatar funnel millions to Gaza, to prevent the Palestinian Authority, which recognizes Israel, from getting stronger it has been reported). Much as I despise Netanyahu, I understand his goal to neutralize Iran’s nuclear threat and weaken or destroy its other proxy militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. 

Don’t get me started on Trump. He is such a wild card and loose cannon who acts impulsively and chaotically, that I find it nearly impossible to imagine there can be a positive outcome to any global undertaking he is involved in. There was a perhaps imperfect program to monitor and stifle any Iranian nuclear ambitions when Trump took office in 2017 that he pulled out of. Since then, Iran enriched enough uranium to levels approaching what’s needed for up to eight bombs according to experts, despite continuing to claim they have no ambition to build one. 

Trump started negotiations to reinstitute an agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue recently, but he demands that Iran depend on other countries to provide enriched uranium for power plant and medical uses. Iran says the ability to enrich for peaceful means is a country’s right. As it became clear to Trump at the end of a 60 day time limit he’d previously set for Iran to agree to his terms, in my opinion, he green lighted this attack on Iran by Netanyahu in the indirect way he does, to paraphrase, “seems like they don’t want to give up their enrichment program. It would be a shame if someone attacked and destroyed most of it.” Plausible deniability. Just a coincidence that he pulled diplomats out of Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries just before the attack. It’s been reported he nixed the targeting of Supreme Leader Khamenei. If that’s true, he obviously knew about the attack and had some control beforehand. The latest news as I write, is that he’s saying “We have complete control of the skies over Tehran,” the words of a man who is “in the fight.”

Israel’s attacks will not end Iran’s nuclear program without American “bunker buster” bombs or a ground operation to destroy an underground enrichment facility. Even if Trump would provide the 30,000 lb. bombs, what is to stop Iran from starting from scratch and be close to having a bomb in a few years? After being humbled in these attacks, lacking the backing of Hamas and Hezbollah, who have been seriously weakened by recent Israeli military actions, and having had their air defenses destroyed, will Iran sit down to negotiate a permanent solution to get out from under international sanctions? Essentially, will they stop calling for and working toward the total destruction of Israel?

If the answer is yes, much as I hate to admit it, I would have to credit Netanyahu and Trump. If the answer is no, will this become another grinding war? Will Russia, China, and/or North Korea come to Iran’s aid and bring us to the brink of another World War? Contemplate that.

Paul Epstein is a retired teacher and musician living in Charleston. 

No, Lindsey, Israel Shouldn't Drop "the Bomb"

 

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R, SC), speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press May 12th, forcefully defended Israel’s right to defend itself, even to the point of annihilating virtually the entire of population of Gaza. “When we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by the bombing [of] Hiroshima [and] Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. That was the right decision.” Graham added, “Give Israel the bombs they need to end the war. They can’t afford to lose.” If this is the accepted Republican position, it is not one that will make America great in the eyes of the world now or in the future.

The only thing I can agree with Graham on in that statement is that Israel can’t afford to lose, but they are in no danger of “losing” to Hamas at this point, or even on October 7th, when Hamas was at its strongest and perpetrating atrocities on Jews and anyone else they encountered during their rampage in the south of Israel. 

I was raised in a Jewish family, have a brother with four children and four grandchildren living in Israel, and was in Israel the week before October 7 attending his youngest child’s wedding. I don’t expect anyone to believe I can have an objective viewpoint, so will just say what I think and hope that anyone reading this will hear other viewpoints and make up their own minds about what is true and morally defensible in this fraught situation.

My wife and I have visited the Harry Truman Presidential Library and Museum and while there learned that many scholars who’ve studied the documents and historical records about the decision to use the atomic bomb to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki argue it was not necessary to achieve victory. Germany had already surrendered and Japan knew they had lost the war and were fighting on as a matter of pride or willingness to sacrifice their soldiers. It was certainly not the case, as Graham argues above, of risking the destruction of our nation if we didn’t destroy those two cities, indiscriminately killing at least 200,000 men, women, and children. 

Today, there is absolutely no doubt that such an act would be considered a war crime or crime against humanity, if not genocide. We should not be encouraging Israel to follow our example in their war against Hamas.

I support the existence of the country of Israel as a majority Jewish nation, which was first established by UN Resolution 181 in 1947. I also support the right of the Palestinians (who fled or were displaced by the war declared on the new country by all the surrounding Arab nations) to establish an independent state in what is usually referred to as a two state solution on terms and territories to be designated by negotiation.

Yet I, like many American and Israeli Jews, am upset by the policies of the government of Israel in recent years that are clearly not moving Israel any closer to that two state solution and in the meantime are treating the Arab inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza in ways that are often discriminatory, violent, and at times, inhumane.

That does not justify Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7, and Israel has the right, in my opinion, to attempt to destroy their military capabilities and try to rescue the hostages, which include some Americans. They also have the responsibility of minimizing the injury and death of civilians despite Hamas’s tactics of hiding in tunnels under civilian infrastructure including schools and hospitals. 

Israel is also responsible for ensuring that food, medicine, and shelter are supplied to Gazans. They have obviously not done this adequately, and those responsible for any war crimes that may have been committed (on both sides) must be brought to justice.

I fully support President Biden’s efforts to both assist the Israelis in their defense and to try to influence Netanyahu’s often intransigent government to act within the currently recognized “rules of war.” That includes efforts to supply direct humanitarian aid to the Gazans through the construction of the floating dock to bring in supplies by sea and Biden’s withholding of bombs too big for use in urban environments or other offensive weapons he designates to pressure Netanyahu to keep humanitarian aid flowing and protect civilians. I can’t agree with Senator Bernie Sanders call to completely cut off military aid to Israel just as I can’t agree with Senator Graham.

I hope that most Americans can tell the difference between a country that is defending itself from terrorists and a country that is intentionally killing civilians, and I hope that Israel is focused on the former and punishes anyone in its ranks engaged in the latter. My brother, who has served in the Israeli reserves and works to bring together Jerusalem’s Arabs and Jews to build healthy communities says, “Most Israelis now recognize that Netanyahu’s coalition mush be voted out of office as soon as possible. The question is, will it be in time?” 

Paul Epstein is a retired teacher and musician living in Charleston

Who is Responsible for American Carnage?

My brother and his family, four children and two grandchildren, live in Israel. Sometimes people ask me if I worry about their safety because of the possibility of terrorism or a missile sent from Gaza or one of the surrounding Arab nations. No, I really don’t. Not because it’s not a possibility, but because the odds are less any of them will be killed or injured that way than that they or I or any of us in the United States will be injured or killed in a car accident…or here, in a deadly shooting. 

This week’s deadly mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh hits home for me in several ways. Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill community is an area I have visited several times over the years when my band visited the area to play for dances. I’ve walked the two block long business district of small shops and eaten in its restaurants. I’ve spent the night in homes in the area. And I know there are people among my circle of friends there who attend the Tree of Life Synagogue. I am seeing their posts on Facebook telling friends and family they are safe or noting the loss of someone they knew. 

Churches, synagogues, mosques, any place of worship are supposed to places of safety, of spirituality, of peace. Attacks on them, on the people who attend them, must require an extra measure of hate if such a thing is possible. Your “average” mass murderer has become enraged with people at his workplace or in the country in general when their sad, lonely, depressed and angry emotional lives cause them to lash out at their imagined enemies.

Then they procure or gather their arsenal for attack. And here’s where the difference between gun laws in Israel and the United States make Israeli’s so much safer. If you live or travel in Israel, you will see guns, even semi-automatic weapons, everywhere. Soldiers and police on or off duty carry them. Israel might as well have our 2nd Amendment citing the necessity for a well regulated militia as a justification for citizens to bear arms. Nearly every citizen in Israel, male and female, is required to serve in the military after they graduate high school, and many continue their service in the reserve, sometimes keeping service weapons in their homes. Yet Israel has strict gun control laws and a firearm homicide rate 1/4 of that in the U.S. “Israelis must meet a detailed list of criteria to be allowed to own a firearm. They must ask the state for a license, are permitted only one gun at a time, and must even ask for permission to sell their gun. And the Firearms Licensing Department is no rubber stamp: Roughly 40 percent of requests are rejected” (https://www.timesofisrael.com/comparing-america-to-israel-on-gun-laws-is-dishonest-and-revealing/). 

We’ve experienced two attempts at mass murder as we approach the 2018 midterm elections, elections many view as “the most important in our lifetimes,” a description usually reserved for presidential elections. One, thankfully, has been unsuccessful—the attempts at pipe bomb assassinations mailed to critics of the president by a man whose love of Trump is apparently only exceeded by his hatred of the targets of Trump’s verbal attacks. The other it appears, involves a man with a hatred for Jews who believed his murderous attack would prevent Latin American immigrants in a caravan approaching the United States seeking asylum from “invading” the United States and killing Americans. His animus was directed at a Jewish aid organization that is focused on providing services to refugees. 

It would be easy to say that this is just a crazy idea concocted by a deranged mind if we didn’t have a president, backed up by a right wing media machine, who calls the stream of refugees an “invasion” that contains terrorists from the Middle East and he must send the army to deal with them.

Trump has said the absolute minimum of the required words about these crimes and called for unity, and in his next breaths has continued his attacks on his critics in the media and across the spectrum of political ideas. He has correctly called anti-Semitism a scourge, while not reducing his anti-immigrant rhetoric. Trump may not be legally responsible for these criminal acts, but he is guilty of inspiring them.

Israel and Palestine: It's Complicated

It was about an hour bus ride from Jerusalem to Hebron

Seriously, it is complicated, and I know if I try to explain it, some people will want to tell me how wrong I am or ill informed or biased, and they’ll probably be right. My reasons for writing about it are as much to explore my understandings and what I’ve learned over the last week, or more specifically during a “joint narrative” tour in the city of Hebron in the West Bank, a part of, depending on your point of view, the “occupied territories” or “liberated Judea” or simply Palestine, all terms used by people during our tour. 

The full day tour was arranged by Abraham Tours, which runs hostels in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Nazareth, and arranges tours in Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. “Our unique Hebron Dual Narrative Tour is renowned for exploring both perspectives and narratives of the complex Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in one of the most volatile and divided cities in the Middle East.” Hebron, a city of historical significance to Jews 2nd only to Jerusalem according to our Jewish tour guide, was the first area in the West Bank to be targeted by settlers after the 6 Day War, and has been a flash point ever since.

The overall tour was led by an Orthodox Jewish American-Israeli from “the free state of Berkeley, CA” as he liked to say, who is now an Israeli citizen with an Israeli wife and three children. He lives in Israel an hour or so from Jerusalem. My brother and sister-in-law, both Israeli citizens who know of him, described him as left wing, by which I think they mean he opposes the settler movement and believes in “land for peace” and the possibility of a two state solution. But I got the impression during the tour that he was “settler friendly.” It may be because he was tasked with presenting the settlers’ viewpoint that he put aside his own viewpoint during his part of the tour. A Muslim Palestinian woman named Lena presented the viewpoint of the Arab population.

But perhaps I’ve already left some of you behind, so a brief explanation of what I think I know about the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I welcome you to search and read on your own to gain a deeper understanding, and caution you that as I say above, I’m no expert. 

The Nation of Israel was established in 1949 after a UN partition plan was rejected by Arab Palestinians and the Arab countries. A Zionist movement, that is an effort to encourage Jews to immigrate and settle, had been going on since the early 1900’s, and increased with a wave of refugees after WWII. The Jews declared an Independent state of Israel, the Arabs declared war, and the new nation managed to fight the surrounding countries of  Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq (and contingents from other Arab nations) to a standstill. The UN helped broker a cease fire. Temporary borders were established through the middle of Jerusalem. Jordan annexed the West Bank of the Jordan river, and Egypt claimed Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. The Arabs who lived in or fled to those areas during the conflict were considered refugees and not offered citizenship in the other Arab nations. They or their offspring remain in that stateless status today. The Arabs who remained in Israel became citizens of Israel.

Before it was Israel, the British controlled the area, and before them, the Ottomans, and before them, other Muslim groups interrupted by a century or two of Crusader control. Before that the Romans, and before them the Jews, and before them, the Canaanites, and other groups mentioned in the Bible including the Philistines, from which the name Palestine was derived (according to our Israeli guide) and used at times by the Romans, the Ottomans and later the British. 

In 1967, during the “6 Day War” Israel gained territory in Gaza and the Sinai on their border with Egypt, the West Bank on the border with Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Egypt later negotiated peace and Israel returned their territory in Sinai, though Gaza remains an area of Palestinian control and Jordan gave up their claim to the West Bank, which is now governed by the Palestinian Authority, though Israel maintains a military presence and controls the borders. 

I find that I can’t adequately summarize the history of the conflict—suffice to say that there has always been violence: attacks, repression, counterattacks, and in addition to the armed conflicts that have broken out between Arab nations that have not recognized Israel and remain in an official state of war, there has been terrorism around the world and in Israel by Palestinians frustrated by the power imbalance and the loss of land they consider rightfully theirs. The Israeli army is tasked with maintaining control in the West Bank and armies aren’t good at being police. During uprisings referred to as “Intifadas,” young Palestinians attacked soldiers and civilians with stones, molotov cocktails, knives, and even suicide bombs on a regular basis, and soldiers responded with beatings, rubber bullets, and live fire at times. People on both sides died, more Palestinians than Israelis.

Many Israelis view the West Bank as an area that should be part of Israel proper because it is part of the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria that Jews once controlled. Hebron is believed to contain the burial plots of the patriarchs of Judaism; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives (except Rachel, thought to be buried in Bethlehem), and in fact part of our tour was of the mosque/synagogue (called Ibrahim Mosque by Muslims and Cave of the Patriarchs by Jews) now partitioned and guarded by Israeli soldiers after it was a scene of mass shooting by a radical Jew, Baruch Goldstein, in 1994, which killed 29 Muslim worshippers and wounded well over 100.

To our Palestinian guide, Lena, this murderous rampage and its aftermath, which was followed by months of martial law and the eventual partition of the historic mosque/synagogue and the city itself, is a grievous example of Israel’s disrespect and dictatorial treatment of Palestinians.

Between 1929 and the 1967 6 Day War, Jews had been banned from entering the building. The historic building, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, was initially built by the Jewish King Herod, and served over the centuries as synagogue, church, and mosque. In a Solomonesque arrangement agreed to in negotiations at Wye River (an agreement never fully implemented) Palestinians now have access to 80% of the building for a Mosque and Jews 20% for a synagogue on all except 24 days of the year during 12 of which Jews can use the whole building for their High Holidays and Muslims are excluded, while during the other 12 only Muslims have access, during Ramadan. 

Lena pointed out cameras that monitor activity inside the mosque and complained that one can’t pray as one wishes while being watched. 

Mosque of Ibrihim or Cave of the Patriarchs

On the other hand, Eliahu, our Israeli guide, told us about a massacre that occurred in 1929, when members of the Arab community in Hebron killed almost 70 Jewish residents and destroyed homes and synagogues during the British Mandate, after which the British removed all the Jews of Hebron to Jerusalem. There have also been several attacks on Jews in and around the Mosque since they gained access in 1967.

sometimes soldiers checked ID's,
but some checkpoints were unmanned
and "one way."

This was either the tomb of Isaac or Jacob

Here’s how Wikipedia describes the situation now: “Hebron has a Palestinian majority, consisting of an estimated 208,750 citizens (2015)^[1] and a small Jewish minority, variously numbered between 500 and 800.^[2] The H1 sector of Hebron, home to around 170,000 Palestinians, is governed by the Palestinian Authority.^[3] H2, which was inhabited by around 30,000 Palestinians is under Israeli military control with an entire brigade in place to protect some 800 Jewish residents living in the old Jewish quarter.^[4][5] As of 2015, Israel has declared that special areas of Hebron's old Quarter constitute a closed military zone. Palestinians shops have been forced to close; despite protests Palestinian women are reportedly frisked by men, and residents, who are subjected every day to repeated body searches, must register to obtain special permits to navigate through the 18 military checkpoints Israel has set up in the city center.”

Our tour was in the H2 section only—including through several Palestinian shops that remain open in an ancient market area. After guiding us through the mosque and viewing the tombs of Abraham and Sarah (the women had to don a light blue hooded cloak that reminded us of the cloaks in A Handmaid’s Tale), Lena took us to see a maker of a traditional flat bread, a cheese maker, to a soup kitchen that serves hundreds and sometimes thousands of meals each day. We saw an ancient tahini mill consisting of two wagon wheel size rocks that used to be turned by hitching a camel to the one on top and having it walk in circles in the cavelike room. We were exhorted by a man who serves on a citizen council to post our pictures to Facebook and tell the world about the indignities that Palestinians face when they have to pass through checkpoints. We also saw a demonstration of creating sand art in bottles with different colors of sand and visited a shop selling crafts made by the “Women of Hebron,” an organization dedicated to improving the status of women there. And we were served a delicious lunch by a Palestinian woman and her children in their modest home. 

Eliahu kept up a constant monologue of historical timelines colored by his sympathies for the Jewish love of their historic homeland, the archaeological record of the area and reference to the Biblical passages they proved, the record of Jewish populations who had resided in Hebron over the centuries and their impact, all peppered with anecdotes of knife attacks on soldiers or innocent Jews that occurred where we were standing at the moment or in a house we were passing. We visited a synagogue rebuilt in the same place an ancient one stood using the same plans as the one destroyed in the 1929 massacre and restored with two hundred year old Torah’s that had been saved by a 12 year old boy and kept safe in Jerusalem until returned a few years ago to the ark.

Historic Torahs in the ark of a rebuilt synagogue

He told us the story as we gathered around that ark and added that a man in his 80’s identified himself as that boy when the synagogue was being opened for the first time. He also brought in the former spokesperson for the Hebron settlers, David Wilder, to give his viewpoint. He dismissed any talk of peace as a fantasy. He seemed to be saying the settlers basically hope Israel will annex the West Bank, and when asked if he thought the Arabs living in Hebron should have a vote in Israeli elections in that event, he sidestepped the issue. 

The H2 area was quiet with few cars and soldiers stationed not only at checkpoints, but on top of walls, behind bullet proof glass patrol stations, or lounging next to armored vehicles. Behind walls topped with razor wire was what appeared to be a fairly thriving city—the Muslim dominated Palestinian city of Hebron from which a cacophony of Muslim prayers broadcast from many Mosques and echoed through the valley and across the hills a few times during the day. I went in thinking I had a basic understanding of the settler issue and what was needed for peace—security guarantees on both sides, land swaps, those kinds of things. But seeing it up close showed me that I don’t really know much and that it’s complicated. Very complicated. 

the historic marketplace

The Friendship Garden was a lovely green space built by the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee. On their website, they say HRC was established "to preserve Hebron’s cultural heritage and save the Old City from the greed of Jewish settlers."