Yesterday I saw a video of an execution on Facebook.
A row of kneeling men, shot in the head from behind.
The person who shared the video asserted that the shooters were Hamas soldiers, the victims were men accused of “collaboration” with Israeli forces. From what little I could tell, this was the case.
This event happened after the ceasefire went into effect and while the kidnapped Israeli captives were being returned to Israel.
Like the war itself at the beginning, I accept this ceasefire now for its necessity while harboring many questions and doubts.
It is necessary to stop bombing Gazans without a strategy or endgame or even evaluation of our tactics. It is necessary to rescue our kidnapped citizens. It is necessary to chart a new course forward, that neither abdicates responsibility for the populations of Gaza and the West Bank nor supports fascist enemies as “assets” for political expediency.
But there are many points in Trump’s updated Biden Plan that raise eyebrows, if not red flags. And the key security assurances depend on Hamas disarming, accepting an international transitional force, and withdrawing from Gaza.
None of which they have agreed to do.
While they apparently reorganize as a “police force” and execute Gazan dissidents.
Look, I’m glad the kidnapped captives are reunited with their families. I’m glad the airstrikes have stopped. I have deep gratitude to the Creator for these undeniably good things, and I recognize that neither our relationship with divine justice nor the tools it utilizes to achieve its implacable ends, are uncomplicated or pure.
But this deal – Biden’s deal – is a bad deal.
As much as I detest Benjamin Netanyahu for being a generally incompetent and criminal prime minister, and for unnecessarily prolonging this war in particular, this deal was and is a bad deal.
And if Donald Juniper Trump contributed to this deal, what he contributed was political pressure and/or guarantees (the ol’ carrot and stick) to Benjamin Netanyahu in order to persuade him to accept a bad deal.
It’s unsurprising that POTUS would be so proud of a bad deal for Israel (and Gazans, if we’re being honest). The mess he’s proudly made of his own country suggests that he’s not the man to bring about peace in the Middle East.
(So, no Noble Prize for him.)
But it seems that Israelis and Palestinians will be footing the bill for this deal in years (if not months) to come. (More exemplary leadership from the worst prime minister in Israeli history.)
But where does that leave us?
We still have a democracy. As the war (or this round of it) officially draws to a close, we can turn our focus to next year’s elections and the long-overdue investigations of the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for October 7. There is no longer any political excuse for delaying action on these crucial matters. For two years we’ve held off on holding our leaders accountable. The bill has come due.
We still have joy. Communities across Israel had a dual celebration last night and today – the regular celebration of the Torah on the eight day after the joyous festival of Sukkoth, which was stolen from us for two years and only resumed today – and the unprecedented celebration of the release and reunification of kidnapped captives with their families and friends and people, after they were stolen from us two years ago. Across Israel, we sang “the children have returned to their land” like never before. That joy was palpable and is a source of great power, if we nurture and bring it with us into the days ahead.
We still have each other. Despite every effort by the Russo-Sino-Iranian Axis to isolate and turn the world against Israel; to coerce Gazans into embracing Hamas; to radicalize Israelis and Palestinians, and their respective supporters, against each other – despite the horrors and devastation and trauma of war and occupation and loss, the bridges burned and the alliances torched in the livestreamed shock of rubble and bodies, the skyrocketing mistrust of the other’s intentions and good faith – despite this dirty diaper of a deal that neither ensures Israelis’ security nor grants Palestinians autonomy – Israelis and Palestinians here in this land are still talking to each other, quietly, two here and three there, as neighbors and fellows bound to the same land with the same fate. So much went so wrong in the wake of Oct 7, and we’re slowly picking up the pieces – together.
I don’t know what bends, twists, and dangers the road ahead will bring.
But I know where the road leads.
Peace. Justice. Security.
For all.
Zion.