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I start this narrative on this succinct topic explaining the very unfortunate ongoing armed struggle between the state of Israel and non state actor Hamas. I was reluctant to write on the ongoing saga, because it seemed to me for good reasons that no fate decrees that the Palestinians and Israelis will be back into the past and play old themes when Aron Sharon withdrew the IDF from Gaza in 2005, an exercise which to my judgement conferred on Israel the long sought after international statesmanship.
People wondered whether Nigeria had a policy on the Middle East. I think some how they want to see Nigeria’s clear stand on this issue. I am not surprised with this expectation considering that Israel and Palestine enjoy high level diplomatic representation in Nigeria. BUT, the matter is not a war between Israel and Palestinian authority. It is not, therefore, it becomes necessary to draw that distinction. Hamas is a non State actor and can therefore not qualify for a state authority.
Political reality which has now reasserted itself with a vengeance to the point where reason not only was being undermined but seemed to have been tossed out the window, along with facts, informed debates, and deliberative policies needs to be put in perspective. Middle-East politics is seriously under attack, and so is expertise of every sort, be it expertise in foreign policy, national security, economics, or statesmanship. There is a clear failure by state actors.
The declining role of serious rational discourse and the diminished role of common sense and fact-based policies are among the causes of this decline. An addiction to infotainment through the social media, the continuing strength of religious fundamentalism, the popular equation of intellectualism with a liberalism supposedly at odds with traditional values, and political narratives that was poorly crafted that lacked the courage to confront challenges of good governance to mention just a few.
Boaz Ganor definition of the democratic dilemma facing Israel in her response to Hamas as the desire to reach maximum effectiveness in the fight against Hamas, while maintaining the nation’s liberal-democratic character and without compromising on fundamental democratic values, human rights and civil liberties, respect for the rights of minorities, [and] avoiding harm to innocents. On another level, the government’s concern for its status is intricately linked to the desire for maximum effectiveness in her armed response.
Why must Israel allow itself to fit the description of Historian Richard Hofstadter who famously described it as “the paranoid style”, an outlook animated by “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” and focused on perceived threats to “a nation, a culture, a way of life.”
On the Palestinians side, as painful as the conflict has been, it continues to be manipulated that it becomes too obvious that the belief that time was on their side was no longer persuasive. That means they would need to put together a viable interstate order to sustain a sufficiently legitimate consensus to withstand the predictable assault from those unable to accept a “historic” compromise between the Jewish State and them.
Palestinians must now begin to draw up a new contract. The dominant parties will have to come up with a realistic assessment of what must come to pass and what it is they seek in the years to come. The recovery of Gaza is no small matter. Palestine now faces an important historical imperative, that of finding a realistic and tolerable position without the extremism. The world is not unconscious of the inner weaknesses of Palestine.
Nigeria will not dabble into the Middle East unresolvable, unending, unsolvable wars. Nigeria needs Israel for her technology and support Palestinian independence. To that extent, Nigerian will continue to diplomatically support UN effort in the emerging middle east war.
Nigeria has through the UN been able to identify what does not work but remained optimistic that relations between Israel and Palestinians could be better. It recognised that as one person famously put it that it is a mindset of responsibility to change things that make things better. A mindset of self-pity is something we must turn our back on and take responsibility for the kind of world we wish for.
The most important responsibility of this age is to provide an atmosphere of Peace and Stability in which these diverse communities – diverse in terms of size, custom, culture and religion can interact and fuse to form one virile nation. This is not a task that can be achieved in just one generation. It will take many generations, indeed many decades to achieve.
Progress is not synonymous with the destruction of the past and old, in favor of the Untried Paths. As we grope forward in these difficult times let us preserve these thoughts which can make our path Safer and Surer to tread.
My concluding thoughts as always inform that for better or for worse, in the multitude of decisions made and deferred, of sympathies extended or denied, we would be making judgements about others and judgements about ourselves. Therefore, there may perhaps be a new ideological climate in which the world of caution and order can be given a chance.
What we must have to learn from this debacle is that if Hamas leadership is able to get Israel’s population, with large American Jewish public and the rest of international community to believe that the war is based on a just principle, this will essentially bring about the desired pressure to Israel withdrawal from Gaza as well as limit her intervention in the West Bank while such act is not to be seen as an existential threat. It will add to both winning and achieving a lasting stalemate significantly more encouraging towards TWO STATES SOLUTION.
24th October 2023
