A month ago, on Saturday October 28, Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had opened a "new phase" in the war against Hamas by sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding its attacks from the ground, air and sea. It's "very clear objective" he said, was to destroy Hamas once and for all. A past master at depicting every Israeli act of oppression as defence, he linked Hamas' October 7 attack to the Holocaust and roared, "We always said, 'Never again'. Never again is now." Only those for whom Israel can do no wrong will fail to recognise what Netanyahu had actually declared. This was that the ethnic cleansing of Gaza had begun.
Four weeks later, this has been brutally confirmed. By then the Israeli army had killed 14,000 civilians in Gaza, including 9,000 women and children. Another estimated 2,000 or more persons had been entombed in the basements of multi-storeyed buildings brought down upon them by Israel's relentless bombing, and are now almost certainly dead. Israel has lost 398 soldiers so far, whom Netanyahu's government is calling "martyrs".
This is a high price to pay for a country whose people came there to escape the persecution they had suffered for close to two millennia in the Western world. But this war has cost Israel something else, something intangible but immeasurably more valuable. This is the last remnant of the vast reservoir of sympathy for Jews that had been generated in the West by the Holocaust.
Denne historien er fra December 11,2023-utgaven av Outlook.
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Denne historien er fra December 11,2023-utgaven av Outlook.
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The 'Invisible' Dalits
The debate over sub-categorisation of castes is likely to shape the political discourse in the upcoming state elections
Caste Census: To Conquer Or Conserve?
The caste census is generating heated debate, but even its most ardent proponents are not able to articulate a plan about how to use the resulting data
THE FATEFUL COMEDY
Actor-director Rajat Kapoor talks about adapting Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov into a Hindi play
Mad Hatter
When a leader takes off his topi and holds it in his hands while appealing for votes, it signals something extraordinary
Circle Within Circles
The caste question in Muslims.
Backward March
The Maratha reservation question may continue to mire the next government in the state
The 69% Exception
Quota within quota: lessons to be learned from Tamil Nadu
United Indifference
The perils of tweaking tribal identities
Two Nations, Two Destinies
The widely differing balance of power between the military and civilian leadership in India and Pakistan has significantly impacted democracy in the two countries
Crème de la Crème
The mainstream society thinks reservations are against right to equality. It’s high time they are seen in the context of right to justice.