A Wish For Peace in The New Year

By
Branko Terzic

Earlier I wrote that the only logical objective of the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel’s military outposts and civilian settlements was to stimulate the greatest possible retaliation by Israel. No other objective was possible, Hamas was not going to defeat Israel’s defense forces nor was it, with this attack, bringing down the Israeli government.  Unfortunately, the government of Israel decided to launch a full scale military invasion of Gaza with the intent of “wiping out” Hamas. Of course, Hamas leadership sits well away from Gaza in host countries which finance its deadly missions. In the process of evacuation of Gaza, ahead of its advancing troops, Israel has created another major refugee crisis.

The refugee crisis of 2023 will create another generation of Palestinians with personal experience, grievances, and family losses attributable to Israeli military actions. Regardless of Hamas complicity and perhaps even planning for this crisis, the new Palestinian refugees and much of the world’s citizens will attribute the tragedy to Israel and not Hamas. This the unfortunate reality for Israel and world Jewry.

I have no family nor relatives at risk in the current crisis in Gaza. Yet, I am saddened daily as I see the news stories of refugees, some having lost family members to bombing, driven from their homes, and desperately seeking safe shelter. Then I read of the conditions in the refugee camps, and it becomes personal.

You see, I was born in a post-World War II refugee camp (then called a Displaced Persons camp) and lived there until I was three. My mother once asked me, years later, whether I remembered anything from the years in the camp. I told her I did not. Her reply “Thank God for that!” was all I needed to know about life in a refugee camp.

In the April 1973 issue of Foreign Affairs, my follow Milwaukeean, then Israel’s Prime Minister, Golda Meir wrote “We believe the differences between us and the Arabs are soluble and that because of the genuine needs of the peoples of the Middle East reason will prevail…Between the Mediterranean and Iraq – the original area of Mandatory Palestine- there is room for both a Jewish and an Arab state.” Sadly, Israel’s neighbors launched the Yom Kipper War in October 1973. Reason did not prevail.

The world’s democracies, led by the USA, must provide humanitarian support for all affected by the refugee tragedy in Gaza. They must also provide support for the removal of Hamas and the establishment of an effective Palestinian authority to attend to the “genuine needs” and enable negotiation of a two-state solution. Israel has been and will be assured its existence by US and other great powers. But peace for Israel will only be possible when the Palestinians have a democratic state ready to coexist peacefully with its neighbor.