Page 19 - Pakistan Link - October 20, 2023

COMMENTARY PAKISTAN LINK - OCTOBER 20, 2023 - P19
n By Laura King, Nabih Bulos, at the scene to help were allowed to do.
Melanie Lidman 'No Words for This Horror.' Israelis and "The moment something like this
ven in a place so timeless that Palestinians Confront a Terrifying New Reality happens,” he said, “they start looking at
us with suspicion.”
it sometimes seems the stones In Jerusalem’s Old City, the chimes
Ethemselves are telling old, old of church bells mingled with the call to
stories, a single week can change every- Muslim prayer. At the Western Wall, Ju-
thing. daism’s second-holiest site, only a smat-
On Friday, as the Jewish Sabbath was tering of worshipers could be seen in the
about to fall, and as Muslims marked sun-scorched plaza at midday on Friday,
their principal prayer day, Israelis and hours before the start of the Jewish Sab-
Palestinians alike struggled to come to bath.
terms with the terrifying new reality The walled Old City is only a third
created by Saturday’s devastating cross- of a square mile in size, and few places
border strike by the Palestinian militant evoke to a greater extent the literal jos-
group Hamas. tling of one Abrahamic faith against an-
“There are no words, no words at all, other. And few places are more emblem-
no words for this horror,” said Eliram atic of the fervor with which the faithful
Kalif, a 36-year-old father of three from guard their traditions.
Nir Am, a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip. For some, the day’s religious rituals
His was one of a string of small were a reminder of a painful temporal
southern Israeli communities targeted cleaving: the before-times, and the after.
by Hamas, along with a sprawling all- At this same hour last week, the current
night dance party that, fatefully, had Tensions were high before Friday prayers in Jerusalem's Old City - Yuri Cortez / AFP via Getty Images confrontation, already the bloodiest yet
drawn thousands of young Israelis to the between Israel and Hamas, had not yet
desert near Gaza. have reduced entire neighborhoods to many observers say. a time of war.” begun.
In the aftermath of the militants’ piles of rubble, filling the air with gritty “We never imagined this could hap- Many Israelis, however, cast the Nehora Cohen, a rabbi’s wife who
onslaught, hundreds of Israeli civilians gray plumes of dust and the ever-stron- pen to us — we thought our army al- blame less on military brass than on the came to worship at midday, said she had
— babies and children, the young and ger smell of death. ways protects us,” said Odeya Harish, most senior political echelons, including had a premonition weeks ago that things
the elderly, entire families — lay dead in In a part of the world where biblical a 33-year-old criminologist from Jeru- Netanyahu, saying his efforts to cling to might be about to go horribly wrong.
homes and fields and in bullet-pocked language often finds its way into com- salem. She was part of a friend group power had proved a fatal distraction. She was at the Wall on Saturday, she
cars on highways; scores more were mon speech, some people speak of the attending one funeral after another For Palestinians, this war’s political said, when air-raid sirens heralded the
dragged into Gaza as captives, creat- week’s events in passionate floods of ver- — some for young soldiers, some for backdrop is also complicated. Hamas, start of this war, and prayed, as always,
ing an unprecedented hostage crisis in biage. Others stutter out a few words and the young revelers gunned down at the which has denounced Israel’s exis- for Israel’s safety.
a country that has traditionally gone to fall suddenly silent. doomed desert rave near Gaza. tence, has held control over Gaza for “People are simply scared,” she said,
enormous lengths to free even a single Israel Attar, a 50-year-old Jerusale- Many have likened the shock to that more than 15 years, and while few Pal- gesturing around the near-empty plaza,
Israeli in enemy hands. mite, rubbed his reddened eyes after of the war in 1973, but with crucial dif- estinians would dare to speak openly guarded on all sides by heavily armed
In the three-quarters of a century burying his 23-year-old nephew, an ferences. Half a century ago, Israel was against the group, private conversa- Israeli forces.
that Israel has existed, the state has never army lieutenant who was killed in the caught off-guard by an attack by a coali- tions tend to reflect deep disillusion- Nearby, Muslim worshipers braved
suffered such a staggering loss of civilian first hours of the Hamas assault. Loss “is tion of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria ment with its rule. a ferociously hot sun to reach the Lion’s
life in so short a time, dwarfing already something that happens here,” he said, that also unfolded on a Jewish holiday — Israel is universally blamed by Pal- Gate, leading to the Old City’s Muslim
grave military losses in the assault. but somehow, this past week felt very Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the estinians for desperate humanitarian Quarter. Israeli police enforced tight
By day’s end Friday, the Israeli toll different. Jewish calendar. conditions and punishing mass con- restrictions on those allowed to enter
stood at more than 1,300, the great ma- “Everything now,” he said, “is black, “In the Yom Kippur War, we fought finement inside Gaza. But as much as Al Aqsa mosque, on the raised plateau
jority of them civilians. black.” against state armies. The war was along Hamas is disliked, opinion polls last year above the Western Wall.
For Palestinian civilians living in the Among Israelis, the intelligence battle lines, and soldiers fought to de- suggested it was gaining ground on the To the surprise of many, including
crowded confines of sealed-off Gaza, the and operational failures that led to the fend civilians at home,” said analyst Kobi Palestinian Authority, which is scorned some worshipers, prayers passed peace-
long-standing grind of daily hardship wholesale slaughter of so many fellow Michael of the Institute for National Se- as old and corrupt in its governance of fully despite calls from Hamas for a “day
has been overshadowed by an Israeli aer- citizens produced an outpouring not curity Studies. “This wasn’t the situation the West Bank, although other political of rage” over the conflict.
ial assault that military observers termed only of sorrow, but of rage — directed here — here, the civilians were the front figures are more popular than either. Some worshipers deplored Hamas’
remarkable in scope and scale — bom- at Hamas, of course, but also toward the line.” Within Israel proper, Palestinians targeting of civilians, but said the world
bardment that is seen as a likely prelude already embattled government of Prime With few Israeli families left un- and other Arabs make up a full one-fifth had ignored Gaza’s sufferings.
to a full-scale Israeli ground invasion of Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. touched by the carnage — either by hav- of the country’s 10 million citizens, and “See this cat?” said mosque-goer
the narrow coastal enclave. The prime minister and his far-right ing friends or relatives dead or missing, as the crisis has spiraled, many fear be- Khaled Basem, 55. “It has more rights
"When I look outside now, I can't tell government have weathered months of or via their young and middle-aged men ing scapegoated and attacked, just as than a Palestinian right now.”
if what I'm looking at was a street, or a enormous protests against a plan that joining the 360,000-strong callup of re- they have been during past conflicts be- Inside, the imam called for God’s
building,” said Gaza poet Mosab Abu critics say would hamstring Israel’s in- serves — a wide-ranging reckoning over tween Israel and Arab foes. help in defending what he called Gaza’s
Toha, speaking by phone as heavy blasts dependent judiciary, among an array of how Hamas was able to plan and execute After Saturday’s attack in the south dignity. As congregants shuffled out,
echoed in the background. "The entire other anti-democratic measures. such a complex assault is undoubtedly of Israel, a Bedouin tow-truck operator there was a momentary fracas near Li-
topography has changed.” The strength of the Israeli security es- coming. who was hired to deal with bullet-rid- on's Gate. Then quiet.
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas. tablishment has long been a foundational But not now, the country’s army chief dled vehicles abandoned by fleeing civil- A 40-year-old named Yaqoub said he
But the militants are embedded in article of social faith, and catastrophic suggested at a briefing this week. ians reported an unpleasant encounter had hoped for calm.
neighborhoods where ordinary people vulnerabilities exposed by Hamas attack- The Israeli military “is responsible with Israeli troops securing the area. “We’re just here to pray,” he said. “You
live, and civilians are paying the heavi- ers — who blinded electronic surveillance for the security of the state and its civil- Although Hamas infiltrators were want to go fight, you know where the
est price. with drones, breached a high-tech border ians, and this past Saturday we did not suspected to still be active in the area, fight is.”
Palestinian officials said at least 1,900 fence with construction equipment and achieve this,” said the army chief of staff, the driver, an Israeli citizen named Times special correspondent Lid-
people had been killed in Gaza by late soared over the barrier on paragliders Lt Gen Herzi Halevi. “We will learn and Zayid, said he was not allowed to carry man reported from Tel Aviv. - Los An-
Friday, most by relentless airstrikes that — are likely to leave a generational scar, analyze what happened, but now — it is a weapon, as Jewish Israelis who arrived geles Times

Dr Faisal Bari on Leadership, Education most political parties in their mani- plained. “It is the industriousness, their hands and this attitude has to in all subjects so it becomes a per-
in Pakistan festos,” Baris argued. “For a long the work, the inventiveness and be somehow broken. “The worth of sonality trait and a way of your be-
(Continued from page 15) time, everyone says they’ll increase the ability of people to create new a human should not be tied to a job ing.”
added. “Both the low-fee private the expenditure in education, but things that is going to change the that they have,” Bari argued. “With- To enhance his viewpoint, Bari
sector and the public sector are fail- none of them do. The solution can destiny of this country. If it going to out a change of attitude, no parent quoted Immanuel Kant’s essay in
ing our children. Only two or three only be a much higher commitment go under, it is going to be because would want [a child] to become a which the 18th century German
percent of Pakistani students at- in terms of resources as well as pri- our people are not educated or plumber…or an electrician even philosopher defined “enlighten-
tend the expensive for-profit private ority by the public sector.” trained enough to even benefit from though the returns might be very ment” as “the courage to use your
schools which provide a good edu- Many other countries, he pointed any windfall that might come from a good.” own reason.” The 21st century skill
cation at the elite level.” out, have prioritized education at a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Bari said that Pakistan’s schools that needs to be taught is the “abil-
Presently, Pakistan spends two time when they were as poor as Pak- (CPEC) or mineral windfall or any- need to start much earlier to teach ity to think through critically and
percent of its GDP on education, istan, or even poorer, citing Japan in thing like that.” students critical thinking. “A lot of objectively and be the autonomous
while the United Nations recom- the 1860s when it was a relatively Since not every student can or students that I have faced for the person that we want everyone to
mends a minimum of four percent. poor country and South Korea when wants to attend university, there last 25 or 30 years in university be,” he stated.
“So let the government give a one they were poor years ago. should be viable alternatives for don’t have the ability to do indepen- (Elaine Pasquini is a freelance
hundred percent increase to edu- “The people of Pakistan are both vocational education, he said. But dent thinking,” he noted. “Teaching journalist. Her reports appear in
cational expenses which has been the assets that we have and the goal there is a long social history of prej- critical thinking needs to start at a the Washington Report on Middle
promised by most governments in for whom we are working,” Bari ex- udice against people who work with younger age...and should be taught East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)

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