Dear Editor,
The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israeli and other citizens was horrific. Over 1,200 innocent people were beaten, raped, and killed. The Israeli response was to bomb and invade Gaza and Lebanon and to bomb Iran, resulting in killing over 40,000 civilians, including over 15,000 women and children, and driving millions from their homes, turning infrastructure and houses into rubble. Many more civilians have been injured, as well as UN peacekeepers. The announced Israeli goal is to “destroy the Hamas (and Hezbollah) threat to Israel.”
Among those killed were Hamas and Hezbollah fighters and leaders, including the man who planned the original terrorist attack. It can therefore be argued that Israel is achieving its goal. But only for the short term and at a tremendous cost in lives and resources, to say nothing of Israel’s loss of respect and stature in the world.
It is naive to think, in today’s world of asymmetrical guerrilla and terrorist warfare, that Israel’s strategy has really permanently eliminated threats from Hamas, Hezbollah or other organizations. For every innocent Arab civilian killed, a family becomes an angry source of future terrorists. For every community and its institutions reduced to rubble and chaos, a breeding ground is created for anti-Israeli movements. For every resource devoted to weapons of destruction and resulting reconstruction, resources are unavailable for creating a vibrant economy for both Israeli and Arab societies. For every day that Israeli leaders make clear they have no intention of allowing the creation of a separate Arab Palestinian state, more desperation is created to fuel the vicious cycle of terror and destruction. The Israelis must know that this massive military response to terror is not a long-term solution. They have tried it in the past and failed. They have watched the U.S. try it in Afghanistan for 20 years and fail.
There has to be a better way. Within a civilized nation of laws, when horrific acts of violence occur, the perpetrators are found, charged with crimes, tried, convicted, and punished. We must seek a similar system for international justice. There already are both national courts and an International Court. There are excellent intelligence techniques and technologies for tracking down villains. The Israelis themselves have shown how to do this — albeit unilaterally — with the extraction of Adolph Eichmann from Argentina for Nazi war crimes and his trial and execution.
We need world leadership to foster treaties of cooperation, which define international crimes and which facilitate capture of perpetrators. We need leaders who respect the rule of law and who will support the use of national and international courts to mete out appropriate justice. We need leaders to promote institutions for resolving issues of ethnic, tribal, and religious discrimination, boundaries, and autonomy.
Of course an international system of justice is not without issues. We must show that a limited international justice system dealing with terrorism and crimes against humanity is not the same as establishing a one-world order or eliminating national sovereignty. We must provide a justice system with timely and efficient processes at reasonable costs shared by all. We must contend with opposition from those in industry and politics who profit from arms and destructive responses.
But all of these issues pale in the face of the much costlier cycles of terror and massive retaliation. Vengeance may feel good at the moment and more popular with the angry public, but it is a narcotic that in the long run destroys everyone, when the victim becomes indistinguishable from the terrorist. SHALOM – SALAM – PEACE.
Stephen Martin is a resident of Solvang.
