Why neither side wants to end the war – yet

It is very clear that for very different reasons, neither the democratically elected extreme right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, nor their opponents, the Islamo-fascist Hamas, want to end the war in Gaza.

Both have much to gain from killing civilians. and nine months after Hamas initiated the butchery on October 7 that we have seen played on our televisions every night since, there is no prospect of an end.

Netanyahu seems impervious to calls to settle a deal, from the families and supporters of the hostages in Gaza, from the US and other Israel allies, or from his own former and serving ministers and staff.

Why so?

Occam’s Razor says choose the most direct and obvious answer. In Netanyahu’s case, the longer the war continues, the longer he retains the support of his right-wing coalition and, hence, the longer he remains prime minister, avoiding the Israeli courts on multiple corruption charges.

War doesn’t always bring out the best in leadership. Look at these shining examples: Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher was deposed during the war on Iraq and Australia’s John Howard took Australia to a second war against Iraq based entirely on a known lie at the time – along with that great war-time US President George W Bush and the UK’s war-time Prime Minister Tony Blair.

And on the other side, Hamas is similarly not for turning.

All those years of peaceful protest and calling for a boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, were a dismal failure. The only people claiming the BDS was a success were the BDS activists. The actual gross domestic product (GDP) figures show very clearly that from the start of the BDS in 2005, Israel’s GDP outperformed all of its competitor nations.

Of course, one could claim that if it wasn’t for the BDS, Israel would be a superpower today, but the facts point to the opposite. Boycotting a chocolate shop, or cosmetics or food products one might never buy, anyway, pales into insignificance compared to  Saudi Arabia rumoured signing of a $US1 billion arms deal with Israel.

In any case, none of the BDS activists are prepared to give up their computers and mobile phones (with Israeli technology), no one checks their chemotherapy bag to see if it was invented in Israel and certainly none of the BDS activists in the Western World are eschewing the Israel-initiated medical marijuana industry. ((THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana, was first isolated by Prof Raphael Mechoulam and Yechiel Gaoni in Israel in 1964.)

But since that devastating day on October 7, tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of Palestine activists, university students and others, have rallied to the Palestine cause.

One can wrap oneself in a red, green, black and white Palestine flag (similar to the flag of Jordan and half a dozen other Middle East countries – like the British Ensign Australia uses), and on Facebook there are constant advertisements to buy keffiyehs and t-shirts.

Palestine has never had so much publicity. It leads the television news nearly every night, it has had a minor impact in the recent British election, students are camping out in tents at universities in the US and UK - a little too cold in Australia, but they did try – and everywhere the Palestinian keffiyeh has become a symbol of resistance. One climate change activist proudly wore her keffiyeh, possibly not realising the irony of the impact of the Hamas-induced war on the planet.

So why would Hamas want to give up now? It has everything to play for and nothing to lose, other than the tens of thousands of civilians killed in its war with Israel; and the masters of Hamas don’t care about the lives. Indeed, they are all “martyrs for the cause”.

Most sane observers deplore the ongoing slaughter. Hamas could end the war at any time by simply not firing any more rockets or grenades or anti-tank missiles at Israel. (There are calls for countries to stop arming Israel. Who is supplying Hamas?)

Hamas could always simply surrender. It might have had the wit not to attack Israel last October, given that it knew the response from the embattled Netanyahu would be devastating. Hamas might have considered that Gaza was totally dependent on Israel for everything from food and aid to water and power. Just not weapons of war.

We have heard the first voices of dissent from Gaza. A woman on television complained that she wanted the war to stop. Hamas hospitalised a man who complained that the war was not helping, calling him a traitor.

The sad truth is that Hamas, and the Palestine supporters, think they are on the cusp of victory, while Netanyahu thinks he is keeping himself from the courts and a potential gaol sentence.

The reality is that Israel and Palestine have never been further from a settlement, let alone a lasting peace.

It is time to stop barracking for either side and force them to the negotiating table. Sadly, the players who can do that include the US, Russia and Iran and this writer doesn’t see that happening for a very long time.