Haaretz Columnist Gideon Levy on Israel's Conduct in Gaza - Amanpour and Company

[Donkees]

Jan 9, 2024
Palestinian authorities say one in every 100 residents of Gaza have been killed over the past three months. That’s more than 23,000 dead, nearly two-thirds of them women and children. This human toll is front and center as Western officials visit the region expressing increasing concern about the situation. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken today has been meeting with top officials in Israel to persuade them to protect civilians, allow more aid into Gaza, and try to prevent a wider war. The German Foreign Minister is in the occupied West Bank, where she condemned Israeli settler violence towards Palestinians. But is the Israeli government listening to its strongest allies? And what are the long-term consequences of such destruction? Haaretz Columnist Gideon Levy says there’s no way to explain Israel’s conduct in Gaza. He joined the program from Tel Aviv.

[patphil]

1. I agree with Gideon Levy.

Violence will not result in a permanent end to the conflict.
It will not destroy Hamas.
What it will do is destroy the future of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and insure a next generational continuation of this conflict.
What it will do is provide Hamas with the best recruitment videos they could have ever wanted.
What it will do is paint a picture of Israeli brutality that many people across the world will see; one that they will hold for long after this particular chapter of this conflict is done.
The horrific attack perpetuated by Hamas gave Israel an opportunity to take the high moral ground and seek actual solutions. But, instead, they chose to dive into the bloody swamp where Hamas lives, and do exactly what Hamas wanted them to do by waging a no holds barred campaign of pain, suffering, death, and destruction against the Palestinian people.
Some of you will read this and be angry with my words, but your anger does nothing to change what is really happening in Gaza.
This will never end as long as violence is considered the best solution.

[Goddessartist]

2. 100%!!!

I agree wholeheartedly!

[Arthur_Frain]

4. Respectfully

I don’t think either side has been concerned with a “solution” for some time now. I believe the moral high ground you referred to sank into the swamp of perpetual conflict. Barring that I agree with you.

[Redleg]

5. I fear that your point is correct

I suppose that the regular folks in Israel and Gaza might still hope for an amicable solution but the leadership of both sides has given up on it, if they ever had this goal in the first place.

[patphil]

12. Yes, I fully agree. Each side has seen violence as their preferred solution.

[Lonestarblue]

7. What makes me sad s the denial that Israel has ever done anything wrong and is justified in committing its own

atrocities and killing all Palestinians because Hamas attacked on October 7. The idea that Israel can use this war to eradicate Hamas was ludicrous to begin with because their senior leaders and their money are not even in Gaza. It is a pretense to destroy Gaza and make it unlivable to force all Palestinians out. The right-wing ministers have essentially said so. Israel seems to think that if they keep killing civilians and turn Gaza into nothing but bombed out rubble, other countries will open their arms to impoverished Palestinians, thus denying them forever access to their homeland.

Netanyahu knew that Hamas planned an attack. He let it happen, and he did not reinforce the border or move troops there. Why?

[Goddessartist]

10. Agree

With you 100%!

I suppose the why is to justify this over the top reponse.

[electric_blue68]

8. I tend to agree with him, and you ...

I think you can be apalled by the Absolutely Heneious murders, and kidnapping of those Israeli Jews that day (and still holding many), and what seems to me to be way too broad a military action/war injuring, and killing so many esp work, and children.
.
From the time I was nearly 8 yes it let into my later 40s I grew up in a then 2/3rds Jewish neighborhood, and then a 3/5th - 2/3rd Jewish nabe.
My early-mid 1960's Jewish friends had missing family. I once saw a friend's grandmother's Holocaust "tattooed"* numbers.

I seriously prefer diplomacy to violence, but I'm Not a total pacifist. I think Israel had/s to go after Hamas (and Hezbollah), but in reaction to this atrocity; I'd have preferred a mix of a more targeted war, and special ops.

*" " It was tatooed but you usually think of those as a positive event

[al bupp]

3. This is an extremely important interview, that should be seen by anyone who supports the current status quo

This is an Israeli, and former advisor to Shimon Perez speaking about stopping the war, and claiming that it has no chance of reaching its stated goals, only killing more civilians.

[Goddessartist]

6. K&R

[malaise]

9. Thanksfo4 this

Nothing justifies this response

[Nanjeanne]

11. Gideon Levy is a very important voice to listen to. He is a child of refugees - his father fled the Nazis and

was on a boat seeking a home for more than 6 months.

Levy, after being in the army, became a reporter and traveled to the occupied terroritories where his views began to change.

He has won many awards including Israel’s top prize of journalism, the Sokolow Prize in 2021, and the Olof Palme Prize of International Human Rights in 2016; the Peace Through Media Award in 2012; the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for Cultural Dialogue in 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997; and the Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996.

The first book I read of his was back in 2010 - The Punishment of Gaza. If you can get it - read it.

You can follow him on X - it's worth doing if you are a fan of the man some call the thorn in Israel's side! *I Am.*