Column: Netanyahu and Biden are both functioning as Israel's greatest enemies

I applaud Ralph Gaebler’s op-ed (Jan. 7, 2024) for its concern for and censure of the detestable seemingly ever-recurrent rise of anti-Semitism. However, I take issue with his criticism of “the world” and, in particular, Rev. Byron Bangert’s Dec. 30 op-ed.

According to Mr. Gaebler, Byron Bangert fails to see that Israel’s response to Hamas is necessary and just in every respect, given that “war is war” and mistakes are made. I think Byron Bangert would agree there is chaos in war, especially in urban settings. But that Israel’s behavior is above reproach and the basic and ancient conditions of a just war, especially that of proportionality, are observed would seem to be contradicted by the fact of the slaughter of over 22,000 Palestinians (the current estimate), mostly civilians and children, as a response to Hamas’s vicious slaughter of 1,200 innocent Israelis.

Bangert: Time for U.S. to change the trajectory of Israel's war with Hamas

More fundamental perhaps is the question: May one (of course one can!) respond to a criminal and hideously unethical deed with another criminal and unethical deed?

Mr. Gaebler similarly objects to Byron Bangert’s charge that Israel has been an “apartheid” state and names this charge “intellectual and moral recklessness.” However, Mr. Gaebler does not see that especially under Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership, the Israeli government, for the past 13 years or so, but also even prior to Netanyahu, has engaged in a systematic suppression and at least implicit implementation of an apartheid system. I, myself, and other IU faculty back in the 1980s, by way of invitation and travel support of the U.S. State Department, witnessed a milder form of the apartheid and suppression of any form of expression of national or ethnic identity among Palestinians.

Gaebler: Israel has every right to defend itself. What Hamas did is unforgivable

For example, at the invitation of our hosts, we attended in a soccer stadium in Bethlehem an utterly non-political Palestinian folk celebration in the form of traditional dance, song, and music. Suddenly a large number of the IDF troops came charging upon the stadium and crushed the celebration. Of course, and thank goodness, many Israelis have and still courageously and eloquently reject Mr. Netanyahu’s often vicious and anti-democratic policies.

Perhaps Mr. Gaebler might modify his judgment if he were to consult, e.g., the The Times of Israel and the article by Ms. Tal Schneider, Oct. 8, 2023: “For Years, Netanyahu Propped Up Hamas. Now It’s Blown Up In Our Faces.” Ms. Schneider shows how, for at least 13 years, Netanyahu has routed funds indirectly to Hamas and supported Hamas in various other ways in order to undermine the much more democratic and UN-recognized Palestinian Authority and its President Mahmoud Abbas, for whom the abiding goal has been an independent state apart from Israel.

Netanyahu rightly saw that the increased power and stature (and at least implicit threat of terrorist violence) of Hamas would undermine the standing and world-support of the Palestinian Authority and justify the need for the government of Israel to sustain the suppression of Palestinian rights and independence movements.

As things stand, both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Biden seem to be functioning as some of Israel’s greatest enemies. Mr. Biden’s support for Netanyahu’s policies is a necessary condition for their implementation, and they render the U.S. morally complicit in the murders of thousands of innocent people.

James G. Hart is a professor emeritus at Indiana University.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Columnist: Netanyahu has broken basic tenet of war: proportionality