Dick Hubert’s Worldview: Are you as worried about Israel, Hamas and Middle East developments as I am?

January 25, 2024 at 12:03 a.m.

A homeowner on North Ridge Street in Rye Brook expressing support for Israel and Ukraine on their front lawn on a cold late January day. (Dick Hubert/Westmore News)

Can we talk about Israel this week?

Are you as worried about Israel’s future as I am?

As I drive around our circulation area (especially in Rye Brook), I can’t help but notice the lawn signs proclaiming: “I Stand with Israel.” (There’s one on North Ridge Street that’s placed next to a “We Support Ukraine” sign. More on that later.)

Those signs went up shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

It’s been more than 100 days since then, and the situation has gotten, to put it mildly, very, very complicated.

The question far too many are asking is: whose vision of Israel’s future are you standing up for, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s, or his formidable MAJORITY opposition? IN ISRAEL.

I’m writing this column on Jan. 20, 2024 with the full understanding that the Mideast situation is so unstable and so unpredictable that it could read like ancient history by the time it’s published.

In the New York Times there’s this:

“In a Strategic Bind, Israel Weighs Freeing Hostages Against Destroying Hamas

Some Israeli commanders said the two goals were incompatible. Eradicating Hamas would mean a lengthy war that would most likely cost the hostages’ lives.”

There’s also a story on the fears in Northern Israel of a two-front war with Hezbollah.

In the Washington Post, this headline appears:

“American teen killed in West Bank, leaving his Louisiana mosque ‘devastated’

Tawfic Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, a 17-year-old who grew up in the New Orleans area, was killed Friday in the West Bank, according to his relative.”

That’s a reminder that in the United States it’s not just the Jews who have personal family connections to Israel, it’s our growing Islamic population.

Over at CNN:

“Tel Aviv CNN — The Israeli military has desecrated at least 16 cemeteries in its ground offensive in Gaza, a CNN investigation has found, leaving gravestones ruined, soil upturned, and, in some cases, bodies unearthed.”

NBC News adds: “More than 24,900 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, including more than 10,000 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 62,000 have been injured, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead.”

As the American military might say after its bitter experiences in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, that’s not exactly designed to win the “hearts and minds” of the Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank, or anywhere else.

Then there’s the back and forth as to whether Netanyahu is undermining or supporting President Biden’s insistence on the inevitability of a two-state solution. Is Netanyahu, like Russia’s Putin in Ukraine, convinced that Trump will be President in less than a year and the best policy is to wait it out so that a) Netanyahu can permanently give the finger to the two-state solution and b) Putin can roll over Ukraine and threaten NATO?

Again, this from NBC News:

“Pro-Israel hawks in both parties on Capitol Hill are sounding the alarm that they are losing confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his handling of the war against Hamas.

While progressive lawmakers have consistently been critical of Netanyahu and Israel’s counterassault in the Gaza Strip that has leveled buildings and killed thousands of Palestinian civilians, it’s significant that pro-Israel lawmakers who serve on key national security panels are now voicing frustration about Netanyahu’s leadership, albeit quietly.

Three of the lawmakers who spoke to NBC News said they are even questioning whether the 74-year-old prime minister has a strategy to end the bloody war in Gaza and have suggested that the unpopular Netanyahu may be deliberately trying to prolong it in order to remain in power.”

The darker fears…

Then there are the ever-growing fears that this conflict will ultimately involve further atrocities that make the blood curdle.

Bari Weiss, the former New York Times Opinion columnist who is founder of The Free Press and one of the most articulate women in American journalism, has taken American feminists of all stripes to task by asking in a powerful webcast: “Why are feminists silent on rape and murder?” (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFVXFXZ9xGA).

It’s a devastating commentary on those who bitterly denounced the capture and rape by terrorists in Nigeria of schoolgirls and then remained silent when the horrific details of the Hamas attack on Jewish women Oct. 7 became public, with videos for all to see.

That South Africa would accuse Israel of genocide before the World Court in the Hague had my head spinning. Nick Schifrin of the PBS NewsHour traced South Africa’s Black government hostility to Israel back decades to then Israeli leaders providing military support to the previous White apartheid government. (See: https://www.pbs.org/video/sot-dis-charging-genocide-1705010830/)

Add to that kind of racial/religious anger Iran’s proclamations of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” and their support of missile attacks on international shipping via Yemen’s Houthi terrorists—now on the receiving end of US air attacks to prevent those missiles from being launched, as well as Iran backed attacks on American bases in Iraq.

As Reuters reported Jan. 20: “Since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the U.S. military has come under attack at least 58 times in Iraq and another 83 times in Syria by Iran-backed militants, usually with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.”

If the United States is dragged into a Mideast war, what about our support for Ukraine and our defense of Taiwan? Are they in danger as well?

Similar to all of you, I have lots of questions and concerns and no answers.

Do you remember this headline from the New York Times on Jan. 3?

“A Times investigation found that troops were disorganized and out of position and relied on social media to choose targets. Behind the failure: Israel had no battle plan for a massive Hamas invasion.” (See: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/30/world/middleeast/israeli-military-hamas-failures.html

Or this one from CNN?

“Qatar sent millions to Gaza for years – with Israel’s backing. Here’s what we know about the controversial deal (See: https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/middleeast/qatar-hamas-funds-israel-backing-intl/index.html)

There’s so much we don’t know. And probably won’t know until it’s too late.

It’s fair to ask: can there be a two-state solution if either side is committed to eliminating the existence of the other?

The American public—that’s us—has every reason to be uneasy.

Dick Hubert, a retired television news producer-writer-reporter living in Rye Brook, has been honored with the Peabody Award, the DuPont Columbia Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism Award.

Editor’s Note: This column, written by Dick Hubert, represents his opinion and not that of this newspaper.