A tiny, tiny victory

During the entire Vietnam War (1965-75) about 55,000 American soldiers were killed. In just four months, about half that many Palestinian civilians have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza: 26,000 Palestinians dead, two-thirds of whom are women and children (Gaza Health Ministry). This ongoing military operation was triggered by a brutal Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, in which 1200 Israelis were killed. While President Netanyahu and the Israeli leadership certainly must defend their homeland, and respond to the vicious Oct. 7 Hamas attack, the slaughter of so many Palestinian civilians is not justified. The Israeli army has killed twenty times more civilians than Israelis who died on Oct. 7. Twenty times. And the war has displaced nearly two million other Palestinians, creating a humanitarian catastrophe. Which is why the United Nations General Assembly voted in December overwhelmingly in favor of an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Not surprisingly, the U.S. and Israel voted against it.

That vote, and the U.S. refusal to confront Israel, was on my mind a week later, when I participated in a Zoom call with U.S. Rep. Sean Casten and six other constituents — to discuss the situation in Gaza and the possibility of a permanent cease-fire (not a “strategic pause”). Given that our district has one of the highest concentrations of Palestinian Americans in the U.S., Casten recognizes the need to listen. Our 30-minute Zoom discussion was led by a couple of Palestinian doctors who knew the situation in Gaza firsthand and who made an eloquent and compelling case for a cease-fire.

Rep. Casten listened respectfully, but later told us that the situation was complicated, and reminded us that there is civilian death and “collateral damage” in any war. And then he claimed that the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza was less than was being reported, implying that the numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry were not reliable, and that he had access to information that we didn’t. He said that 8000 of those killed were likely Hamas soldiers. He didn’t provide any sources or proof, even though the United Nations, UNICEF and other relief organizations have accepted the Health Ministry’s numbers as reliable.

I’m not a policy specialist nor historian, but Casten’s use of such “alternative facts” is both disturbing and dangerous, as they offer cover for the Israeli military to continue their bombing campaign. However, Rep. Casten is not the first to question the number of civilian dead in Gaza. President Biden made related comments in October.” I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using,” he said. Later adding, “I'm sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war.” But the real question is when will President Biden, and Rep. Casten, and Sen. Duckworth, and other Democratic members of Congress, choose a cease-fire over their fear of angering the Israel lobby in an election year.

President Netanyahu has said he will not stop the war and the bombing until Hamas has been defeated, until Israel has “won.” What he doesn’t seem to recognize is that, aside from the 26,000 dead civilians, the Israeli military has physically destroyed Gaza, bombing it into oblivion. There is nothing left to win.

This slaughter of civilians and the ongoing Israeli offensive prompted South Africa to bring a case against Israel last month in the United Nations’ International Court of Justice, accusing them of genocide. In the Court’s ruling last week they called on Israel “to prevent the possibility of genocide in its war on Hamas, allow more aid into Gaza, and sanction its officials and soldiers for comments that amount to incitement.” But, unfortunately, they did not call for a cease-fire.

While a cease-fire is not the answer to all the complex political and cultural conflicts in this long-troubled region, it could be the first step in ending the humanitarian nightmare in Gaza. And perhaps it would feel like a tiny, tiny “victory” for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are not soldiers or insurgents, but just people who happen to live there, and are in a desperate struggle to survive each and every day.

• Tom Montgomery Fate is a professor emeritus at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. His most recent book is The Long Way Home (2022), a collection of essays.