THREE years ago today, on Oct. 7, 2023, the State of Israel fell victim to a massive, coordinated terrorist attack launched from the Gaza portion of Palestine and led by the Palestinian group Hamas. More than 800 Israeli civilians were killed in the onslaught, along with more than 360 Israeli military and police personnel, and approximately 250 Israelis, civilians and servicemen alike, were carried off to Gaza as hostages. Many of them did not survive.
We in the Philippines, along with the rest of the world, were properly horrified by the event. There are never circumstances in which terrorism against civilians is acceptable or can be justified, and any terrorist act demands a strong response to prevent it from happening again. The initial Israeli response to the Oct. 7 attacks was, in that sense, quite reasonable. Israel, of course, has one of the world’s most capable and well-equipped military forces despite the country’s small size, and so that response, directed at Hamas’ Gaza stronghold, was overwhelming. The objectives, we were told, were to destroy Hamas’ organization and ability to carry out any more terrorist activities, and free the hostages the group had taken in their attack.
It quickly became clear, however, that what Israel intended was not a targeted but overwhelming response to a clear threat to its security, but a campaign to eliminate the Palestinian state and its people. As time went on, the intent became more obvious as entire neighborhoods in Gaza were leveled, and Israeli forces deliberately targeted hospitals, shelters for displaced civilians, humanitarian aid infrastructure, and — of understandably particular concern to us — media reporting on developments in Gaza. Soon, Israeli rhetoric from its ruling regime began to match the atrocities seen on the ground, with government officials characterizing all Palestinians as “terrorists” and “subhuman,” and even suggesting that the deliberate targeting of children was justified for the sake of eliminating them as potential future threats to the Israeli state. In the larger West Bank part of Palestine, the Israeli government encouraged, or at least turned a blind eye to violence against Palestinians carried out by Israeli settlers, something that, by any other definition, would be the same sort of terrorism as that inflicted by Hamas on Israel in the first place.
And in recent days, we have learned, from credible sources such as the Wall Street Journal and the Times of Israel, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received warnings from the intelligence services of both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates that Hamas “was planning something big” prior to Oct. 7, 2023, yet ordered no defensive preparations. That “Netanyahu let it happen to justify a campaign against Palestine” has been long suspected, but has now been reliably confirmed, which tends to support the accusations of “genocide” now being directed at the Israeli state.
All of this puts the Philippines in a difficult position. We have had a long and productive friendly relationship with Israel, dating back to the very founding of the country in 1948. The Philippines is considered a special friend by Israel, due to our country’s having bravely intervened to save Jewish civilians from the depredations of fascism during the dark days leading up to World War II. We would very much like that close relationship to continue.
By the same token, we cannot accept policy and actions that are immoral, inhumane and contrary to international law. While it is important not to condemn the Israeli state and its people for what has been happening, we must condemn the violent and genocidal actions of its current government. It is encouraging that our government has formally done so by expressing its rejection of Israel’s “E1” settlement plan that amounts to a seizure of additional sovereign Palestinian territory in the West Bank, and by joining the dozens of other nations’ representatives at the recent United Nations General Assembly in walking out on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s self-serving and incendiary speech to the world body.
The Netanyahu regime’s pogrom against the Palestinian people has caused grievous harm to the latter, but has also hurt the Israeli state and people by making them pariahs among the world community, damaging their economy, and rendering them even less safe than they were before the tragic events of Oct. 7, 2023. We do not reject Israel’s friendship, but we do not accept its current criminal course of action with respect to Palestine. It must cease its campaign of destruction, and accept the internationally recognized two-state solution for peace between Israel and Palestine, lest it drag the entire world even deeper into a broader conflict across the Middle East.
