It shows how Israeli government universities are independent enough to defy governments.
Author
Khinvraj Jangid, Professor, Jindal School of International Affairs (JSIA) and Director, Jindal Centre for Israel Studies (JCIS), O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Summary
Israel is at war and too wounded to withdraw from brutally retaliating upon the sieged Gaza. Close to 9,000 lives have been lost in Gaza as a result of the strikes, whereas Hamas, the self-proclaimed militia leader of the Palestinians, is unapologetic about the massacre of more than 1,400 Israelis on 7 October. Over 240 Israelis are still held hostage in Gaza, including infants, children, teenagers, and senior citizens. Ordinary Palestinians under occupation don’t have choices. Yet, Hamas has a choice to release the hostages and put an end to the loss of lives in Gaza. Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas official, said the responsibility to protect Gazans is of the United Nations or Israel according to the Geneva Convention because 75 per cent of them are refugees. Such is the irony of armed struggles, better-called madness — Hamas believes it won when it carried the surprise attack, shattering the invincibility of Israel.
Neither Israel nor Hamas will ultimately win this war. In his 1959 book Man, the State and the War, Kenneth Waltz, a doyen of international relations, wrote that no one can win a war because winning a war is like winning against an earthquake. It is a matter of relative degree of defeat for all, and the side that loses less often wears the facade of victory.
Peace between Israelis and Palestinians appears faint. Those vociferously pushing for it remain sidelined or are pushed further into a corner. And amid all the chaos lie two victims of the violence — the Palestinian flag and peace activist Vivian Silver.
Published in: The Print
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