Against all requests, requests, even warnings from the United States, the European Union and multiple nations in the Arab world, Israel decided last night to attack Rafah, south of Gaza, previously announcing an evacuation.
It’s like saying, “Go somewhere else, because we’re going to bomb.” It’s absurd.
There’s nowhere to go anymore. Rafah represents the southernmost region of Gaza, right in the area bordering the border with Egypt, which has systematically – with brief and intermittent exceptions – kept its border closed and received very small groups of Palestinian refugees.
In the early hours of last night, Hamas announced that it accepted a ceasefire proposal. The Netanyahu government declared that it “was far from meeting its demands and expectations.” And he launched an airstrike.
The Israeli government does not offer alternatives to possible avenues of negotiation and peace.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is rapidly losing sympathy and domestic support. Some internal media sources indicate an approval level of around 20%. Very poor for the supposed leader of the defense of Israel in which he intends to project himself.
The truth is that the severity of the conflict has surpassed borders. And we are not referring to the possible attacks on Syria by missiles and rockets fired from there against Israel; or the perhaps only or eventual incursion into the West Bank to search for “terrorists” or attackers against Israel.
The conflict has gone local in the United States as thousands of college students have staged widespread protests on campuses across the country.
Columbia, in New York, one of the first, was forced to allow the entry of guards and soldiers to maintain order inside the university.
He New York Times affirms that militarization is not the answer, but there are thousands of young people in California, New York, Wyoming, Carolina and many other states who have faced revolts, protests and rallies in favor of Palestine and against the Netanyahu government.
President Biden had to come out a few days ago to declare that “every citizen has the right to protest in the United States,” but asked to avoid anti-Semitic connotations.
And that’s exactly where the problem lies. Anti-Semitism is spreading once again through regions and countries, which, faced with incomprehension or frank ignorance that Israel and the Jews of the world are not the same thing, attack American, European, and Latin American Jews.
Netanyahu certainly does not help with his ferocious, destructive and bloody offensive, which turns a deaf ear to any request from Washington or Brussels.
But Jews in other corners of the world are not responsible for an extremist, radical and clearly warlike politician in Israel.
Protests have also appeared in Mexico. Isolated, but no less worrying. A march through the Historic Center at the beginning of the attacks included the mercenaries of the demonstrations: the unions and particularly electricians, who sell the mobilization to protest per person.
Political parties are well aware of this dynamic.
And last week, small groups of protesters appeared in Las Islas de la UNAM.
But the problem is not in the protests, I wish someone would listen to them and pay attention. The problem is a growing anti-Jewish sentiment – evidently anti-Semitic – that has harmful effects on social groups.
Jewish students in the United States feel harassed, threatened, and intimidated even if they are Americans, Mexicans, or Europeans.
And what can we say about the Jewish community in Mexico, Mexican citizens like any of us, who practice the religion and culture of their elders.
I have spoken with some, and they are deeply critical of Netanyahu’s brutal military measures that, far from solving a problem, fuel Palestinian hatred of his people with transgenerational fury.
It seems, it might sound crazy, that Netanyahu and his military leaders were not interested in ending the conflict, establishing a ceasefire, or demanding in return the Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas.
Just weeks before the Hamas invasion and Israel’s response, the government of Saudi Arabia was very close to granting formal recognition to the State of Israel. A historical milestone that represented a transcendent step in a hypothetical and gradual normalization of relations. The outbreak of violence, on both sides, not only put an end to that valuable diplomatic rapprochement, but completely boycotted possible progress towards a respectful, orderly and peaceful neighborhood between Palestine and Israel.
History will uncover the secrets of the conflict, the invasion and the Hamas boycott of Arab-Israeli relations. We will know in a few years, as well as Netanyahu’s own secrets in igniting the confrontation. But in reality it represents a regression of at least 50 years, to the most critical and irreconcilable points between both entities.
The Jews of the world are innocent of the follies and excesses of the Israeli prime minister.
Hopefully the damage does not deepen the cultural, religious and political differences with the Jewish communities of many countries.
