Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user Muhammad Mahdi Karim.

When it comes to Israel and Gaza, I find it very hard to judge. Maybe this is because my judgment isn’t very good, or maybe it’s because judging well really is hard, and not enough people realize this.

Ideologically, I know where I stand. To side with Hamas is not an option: read their charter, see what it says. Hamas is a ragtag gang of thugs and bigots, weaned on to crackpot anti-semitic conspiracy theories, in thrall to a fetishistic ideological obsession with religious violence and martyrdom. They seized power illegally, they deliberately target civilians, and they leave ordinary Palestinians homeless, wounded or dead when militants commandeer their houses. Sure, we can historicize their emergence, explain how the corruption of Fatah and the terrible economic hardship of the Palestinians were root causes — but none of this warrants any of what these militants do and believe. A Palestinian state under Hamas’s yoke would be no solution to anything.

Does that justify Israel’s demolition of the Gaza Strip in recent weeks? For comparison, do the Palestinians need ridding of Hamas like Afghanistan needs ridding of the Taleban? I don’t think the cases are similar. I don’t see how a humanitarian justification of Israel’s action can possibly work when, as far as we can tell, all that remains in the wake of Israel’s action is rubble, not a better future for anyone.

The only justification is strategic. Israel has moved to neutralize a terrorist threat to its people. But though that justifies an incursion into Gaza according to international law, does it make the killing of a civilian any less wrong, morally speaking? I don’t think so. As in all wars, there is wrongdoing on both sides. And, as in most wars, it may well be that no long-term good comes out of it. That depends, I think, on whether Hamas’s grip on power is genuinely weakened. If Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas regain authority in Gaza, and Israel draws a line under its anti-Hamas operations, a peace process (now led, promisingly, by Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton) may make progress. But perhaps this is all too much to hope for.

Filed under: barackobama, hillaryclinton, jonathanbirch, middle east, middleeast, taliban, terrorism on January 26th, 2009