By Choo Sing Chye
Regrettably, we have moved away from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s (1712-1778) idealistic philosophy of “men are born neighbours” towards realist Thomas Hobbes’ (1588–1679) more antagonistic worldview that “men are born adversaries” (Watson & Barber, The Struggle For Democracy, 1988).
The ever-widening war in the Middle East, in recent days, has proven that the dictum “we are born adversaries” has become a dominant aspect of the daily transactions between countries and politicians.
No longer is it tit-for-tat diplomatic words; it is tit-for-tat bombs and rockets.
We cannot honestly believe we can find peace in the Middle East without diplomacy at play.
- Sign up for Aliran's free daily email updates or weekly newsletters or both
- Make a one-off donation to Persatuan Aliran Kesedaran Negara, CIMB a/c 8004240948
- Make a pledge or schedule an auto donation to Aliran every month or every quarter
- Become an Aliran member
Hence, premising Israel’s overkill response as a targeted and legitimate retaliatory reaction to the Hamas’ 7 October 2023 raid into Israel confounds the issue even further. (The Hamas raid resulted in the deaths of over a thousand Israelis.)
Apparently, the idea that the unrestricted bombing of Gaza, where over 40,000 have perished, is the right and needed response to rid Hamas from Gaza, has found strong niche support from many political commentators and elite politicians in the West and the US.
It is bad politics to compare the three-day continuous fire-bombing of Dresden by the British and the Americans during World War Two, which killed over 20,000 people, with Israel’s bombing of Gaza – even though the actual price paid remains the same: innocent lives, including old men, women and children.
This is a foolish parallel, and it does not reflect well on the international community to sanitise Israel’s levelling of Gaza by comparing it to the Dresden bombings during World War Two.
We cannot have a runaway perception that Hamas is equal to the Nazis – it is not. The comparison is not valid.
Whatever the arguments or comparisons we may convey on this issue, one thing is certain: we should not blind ourselves to the fact that the current Gaza situation does not fit into prevailing overall narrative.
Yet perhaps, in the case of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto uprising during World War Two, it does – if we are not lazy or biased to dig a little deeper into this event and make a comparison.
To make Hitler’s Final Solution for the Jews more efficient, the Nazi corralled all the Polish Jews into ghettos so they could be easily separated to those who could work in the Nazi war factories and those deemed useless – old men, women and children. Inhumanly, the latter group of Jews were sent to extermination camps scattered around Poland.
The extermination camps were Bekzec (10,000 people/day capacity), Sobibor (6,000/day capacity), Majdanek (10,000), Chelmno (the oldest extermination centre since 1941), Auschwitz (over 40,000/day capacity) and Treblinka.
As a consequence of this, the Warsaw Ghetto Jews rebelled against the Germans. The uprising (19 April-16 May 1943) was instantly met with tons of incendiary bombs dropped on them by German bombers high above.
In addition to the incendiary bombs, tons of coal were rained down in the ghetto below to further stoke the intensity of the fire, which was already burning ferociously throughout the day and night, killing scores of Jews.
Looking at this 1943 uprising and comparing it to the present genocide in Gaza, we see that the overwhelming destructive force unleashed by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto conveys the same imagery we are now seeing in Gaza.
Ironically, the portrayal of the Jews as victims of the Holocaust during World War Two has been reversed now, when we look at what is happening in Gaza.
Whether a solution can be found for the Gaza war under US President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration is anyone’s guess.
Note: Thomas Hobbes’ philosophy does not advocate violence, though he lived through the most violent English Civil War.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
