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KAHNTENTIONS

KAHNTENTIONS is a blog post written by Gilbert N. Kahn, Professor of Political Science at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. Beginning in 2011 KAHNTENTIONS was hosted by the New Jersey Jewish News which recently ceased written publication. KAHNTENTIONS presents an open and intellectually honest analysis of issues facing the United States, Israel, as well as Jews world-wide.

BY GILBERT N. KAHN

"These are the times that try men's souls."

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After Almost Four Months of Fighting


The War in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7th barbaric attack against innocent Israelis murdering 1200 mostly civilians and taking approximately 250 hostages is rapidly approaching the four-month mark. The war has brought the Israeli people together in the midst of a most divisive nine-month period of protests and demonstrations.  The war has tragically produced according to the Hamas controlled Gazan Ministry of Health over 25,000 deaths among Palestinians.


In Northern Israel, the war has precipitated renewed tension between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Syria which appears to be ripe to explode into a major confrontation. The Gaza War has also triggered world-wide anti-Israel demonstrations and an escalation of global anti-Semitism which clearly had been simmering below the surface for years.  


Meanwhile in the Persian Gulf and its entrance to the Red Sea, ships headed for the Suez Canal are facing indiscriminate and intermittent drone and missile attacks from Houthi rebels operating under Iranian control in South Yemen. The lack of a ceasefire to date and return of hostages makes President Joe Biden and American interlocutors very anxious about the possibility of an extended confrontation and a wider conflict. (The news today of reportedly Iranian ordered drone attack against U.S. forces in Jordan is only the latest in alarming signs of regional escalation.)


On the other hand, there are a number of new developments which are beginning to provide a larger picture of conditions in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon/ Syria that are confirming many facts which Israel has maintained for years. In no way do any of these observations, however, eliminate Israel’s political and security failures which made possible much of the tragedy that occurred on October 7th and since then.


Israel has argued for years that UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) has cultivated anti-Israel attitudes in the region among Palestinians even in the biased textbooks they have provided for Palestinian children. Now Israel has presented evidence which clearly has disturbed the entire international community implicating UNRWA workers in facilitating and assisting Hamas in its October 7th attack on Israel. The proof of Israel’s allegations must be overwhelming. Never have Western powers, Arab Governments, as well as the United Nations, itself reacted so quickly and forcefully to any testimony presented by Israel of UNRWA workers’ complicity with the Palestinian narrative.  


The photographs and displays which Israel has presented of the over 300 miles of underground tunnels built in Gaza by Hamas has staggered the imagination of most military observers. The international community now has incontrovertible evidence concerning the location and use of tunnels and exit shafts amidst Palestinian schools, mosques, hospitals, and playgrounds. Furthermore, the presence of this huge tunnel network underscores how much of the resources given to the Palestinians in Gaza was subverted to the constructions of these deep, hugely fortified tunnels. Given the amount of underground infrastructure that reportedly has remained intact, this has confirmed how cautious Israel has been in its military campaign to avoid potentially harming the hostages.


It is becoming very clear to all but the most naïve observers that Israel’s articulated war aims cannot be achieved, certainly not in the short run. Irradicating Hamas--both politically and militarily—will not be accomplished now. As they did once before, it took Israel almost ten years following the PLO massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics to capture or eliminate the perpetrators of that massacre. So too, Israel, undoubtedly will persist in a similar effort to apprehend Hamas’ major political and military leadership.


If the multi-lateral meetings currently ongoing in Paris between all the critical players—Israel, Hamas, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar—succeed, there appears to be a likelihood for an extended ceasefire. This would be accompanied by the release of all the hostages or their bodies, return of jailed Palestinians, and preliminary discussions concerning the development of a physical, political, and economic future for Gaza.


As for Israel, it is approaching the moment when it will need to resolve its political future and decide the fate of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing government. It appears almost as if the tragic death of 21 military reservists on a singular mission last week that suddenly awakened Bibi to the reality that he needs to accept a personal reckoning for his leadership fiasco. It will take several months before new elections are held and even longer before a commission of inquiry—which will be quickly established—reaches definitive conclusions as to what went wrong that permitted October 7th to occur. One senses that this all could begin soon, assuming all the hostages are brought home.

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Ugliness in the Midst of Israeli Suffering


The photograph of Elon Musk visiting Auschwitz with his very young son riding on his shoulders made a mockery of what presumably was intended to be a serious effort by Musk to continue his effort at a mea cupla for his insensitive and ignorant attitudes towards Jews. It was appalling that the European rabbinic and lay leaders as well as conservative commentator Ben Shapiro who accompanied Musk, were unable to call him out for treating his visit with his young son like a trip to the zoo or an amusement park not to a Nazi death camp.   

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