Opinion | Why Israel Must Reconsider Its Gaza Evacuation Order
By: Antonio Guterres (nytimes)
Antonio Guterres, Secretary General(?) of the United Nations, employs intellectual hash to defend what? A world order that has not committed itself to order? A status quo that favors anarchy and chaos? A further weakening of national sovereignty as a means to achieving one-world government?
The IDF evacuation order serves as a humanitarian warning. The IDF is going to enter Gaza and conduct operations that will destroy things and kill people. That evacuation order requires moving 1.1 million people less than ten miles in 24 hours. That's the equivalent of a commute in many major cities. The Palestinians do not have electricity, fuel, water, or food anywhere in Gaza because they are almost completely dependent upon Israel to supply those necessities.
(Where's the United Nations airlift? Where's the United Nations peacekeepers? Does the United Nations only sling gaslighting guilt as intellectual hash?)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Thursday night's order by the Israel Defense Forces to Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate their homes within 24 hours was dangerous and deeply troubling. Any demand for a mass evacuation on extremely short notice could have devastating humanitarian consequences.
The evacuation order applies to approximately 1.1 million people. It applies to a territory that is already besieged, under aerial bombardment and without fuel, electricity, water and food. It applies to a territory that has suffered critical damage to roads and infrastructure in the past week, making the act of evacuating nearly impossible in the first place. It applies to United Nations staff members and more than 200,000 people sheltering in U.N. facilities, including schools, health centers and clinics. It applies to hundreds of thousands of children: Nearly half of Gaza is under the age of 18.
Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated places
| Gaza | New York City |
| 14,900 people per square mile | 29,300 people per square mile |
| Population estimate (2023): 2,098,389 | Population estimate (2020): 8,804,194 |
| Land area: 141 square miles | Land area: 300 square miles |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau | |
| By Taylor Maggiacomo |
As secretary general of the United Nations, I appeal to Israeli authorities to reconsider.
We have approached a moment of calamitous escalation, and find ourselves at a critical crossroads. It is imperative that all parties — and those with influence over them — do everything possible to avoid fresh violence or spillover of the conflict to the West Bank and the wider region.
We urgently need a way out of this disastrous dead end before more lives are lost.
There are several key priorities to focus on right now in order to pull the world back from this abyss. The United Nations and our partners need rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access now throughout Gaza. Humanitarian aid including fuel, food and water must be allowed to enter.
All hostages in Gaza must be released. Civilians must not be used as human shields.
International humanitarian law — including the Geneva Conventions — must be respected and upheld. Civilians on both sides must be protected at all times. Hospitals, schools, clinics and United Nations premises must never be targeted. I mourn my colleagues in Gaza who have already lost their lives in the last week. And still, United Nations personnel are working nonstop to support the people of Gaza. We will continue to do so.
I have been in constant contact with leaders in the region. It is clear that the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East is polarizing communities around the world, widening divides, and spreading and amplifying hate. If truth is the first casualty of war, reason is not far behind.
I am horrified to hear the language of genocide entering the public discourse. People are losing sight of each other's humanity. Brutality and violence cannot be allowed to obscure a fundamental truth: We are all the product of our lived realities and collective history.
The Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset put it this way: "Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia" — "I am myself and my circumstances." And sometimes, those circumstances are unbearable.
When I put myself in the shoes of an Israeli Jew, I experience the recent horrors in the context of two millenniums of discrimination, expulsion, exile and extermination, leading to the Holocaust. During the 15th century, my own country of Portugal expelled or forcibly converted its Jewish community and after a period of discrimination, they were forced to leave. As an Israeli Jew, I would be painfully aware that some in our neighborhood do not recognize Israel's right to exist.
And if today, as an Israeli Jew, I see young people massacred at a concert, grandmothers shot in their homes in cold blood, and scores of civilians, including children, brutally abducted and held at gunpoint, it is only natural for me to feel enormous pain, insecurity and, yes, blind fury.
Then I try to consider the circumstances across the divide: if I were a Palestinian living in Gaza. My community has been marginalized and forgotten for generations. My grandparents may have been forced to leave their villages and homes. If I'm lucky, my children have already survived several wars that flattened their neighborhoods and killed their friends.
As a Palestinian, I have nowhere to go and no political solution in sight. I see the peace process essentially ignored by the international community, with ever more settlements, ever more evictions, and endless occupation. It is only natural for me to feel an enormous sense of pain, insecurity and again, blind fury.
Clearly, the grievances felt by the Palestinian people do not justify the terror that was unleashed against civilians in Israel. I once again utterly condemn the abhorrent attacks by Hamas and others that terrorized Israel.
And clearly, the horrific acts by Hamas do not justify responding with collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
But any solution to this tragic, decades-long ordeal of death and destruction requires full recognition of the circumstances of both Israelis and Palestinians, of both their realities and both their perspectives.
We cannot ignore the power and the pull of collective memory; the circumstances that shape and define our identity and our very essence.
Israel must see its legitimate needs for security materialized, and Palestinians must see a clear perspective for the establishment of their own state realized, in line with United Nations resolutions, international law and previous agreements. If the international community truly believes in these two objectives, we need to find a way to work together to find real, lasting solutions — solutions that are based on our common humanity and that recognize the need for people to live together, despite histories and circumstances that tear them apart.
Ortega y Gasset's quotation concludes: "Y si no la salvo a ella, no me salvo yo." ("If I don't save my circumstances, I cannot save myself.")
This horrifying cycle of ever-escalating violence and bloodshed must end. It is clear that the two sides in this conflict cannot achieve a solution without concerted action and strong support from us, the international community. That is the only way to save any chance of security and opportunity for both Israelis and Palestinians.
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The IDF must do all it can to destroy Hamas. That will require finding the tunnels and munition stockpiles to destroy them. Without tunnels and weapons Hamas is nothing. It's a job that must be done. And it likely will be costly.
There cannot be a two state solution as long as Hamas continues to exist. No amount of intellectual hash to appease terrorists will change that.
They’ve made their intent clear for a lot longer than 24 hours…
"All hostages in Gaza must be released. Civilians must not be used as human shields."
Slim chance of that happening, since hiding behind and imbedding themselves with civilians and using them as human shields has been their most common tactic.
You'd think that Palestinians, and those that support them, would be angry with Hamas for intentionally causing the deaths of Palestinian civilians. Protecting one's citizens is literally the first duty of a government. Yet they are protesting Israel.
Morning Sean...the Palestinians are also very good at playing the victim as well...
9/11 they danced in the streets and celebrated with absolute glee..
The current conflict they did the same, knowing full well what the consequences would be...as I said before short term gain, for long term pain..
If Palestine wants peace eradicate Hamas and bite the hand the feeds it, Iran... otherwise build bigger and better bunkers, they are going to need it...
When the people of a nation suffer under those that govern them they have been known to revolt, examples being the French and Russian revolutions. The people of Gaza put Hamas in power and do nothing to prevent them from the terrorism they commit notwithstanding the danger they adopt therefrom. They hide the terrorists among themselves and agree with the Jihad against Israel and Jews. They allow weaponry to be hidden in their schools, mosques and even hospitals. Ambulances are used to ferry terrorists from place to place. They permit rockets to be fired from residential areas and schoolgrounds. IMO they are complicit, THEY ARE HAMAS and my sympathy for them is measured by that.
People setting in safe places and having no part of this war don't get to tell Israel how to deal with a terroristic enemy that's sworn goal is to kill all Israelis.
I think if I were living in Israel, this letter would offend me. The same can be said of so much of the criticism and warnings being aimed at Israel. It’s like context has just been thrown in the trash. Of course, the UN has been up to this garbage with Israel for years - constantly condemning their actions while turning a blind eye to Palestinian terrorists.
No. Do that for places living with famine or disease or poverty through no fault of their own. There is a war in Gaza. Ongoing. The UN does not need to be delivering fuel. It can evacuate civilians. It can try to broker negotiations. It does not need to be making it easier to live there just so people can die there.
Let’s just agree that for peace-keeping purposes, the UN sucks.
I think Israel is doing its best on this point. Hamas, on the other hand, is clearly not interested.
That’s their problem, isn’t it.
Blind fury? Israel isn’t fighting Gaza because they’ve lost their temper. They’re fighting for survival. This is self defense.
Who came up with this absurd talking point? I keep seeing it. Israel isn’t trying to punish the Palestinian people. They are trying to stop Hamas, which is actively trying to kill Israeli civilians.
Do people not understand that Hamas’ aggression didn’t stop last Saturday? Because it hasn’t. They continue to fire rockets into Israel. Their aggression is ongoing.
I’m sorry, but the Palestinians have largely done this to themselves. They have had every opportunity to live in peace with Israel, but instead, they have been dedicated to its destruction from Day Fucking One. They attack - Israel fights back and takes new land (that kind of thing will happen to the losing side in war) - Israel gives land back - and it is never enough. The Palestinians could form civilian government and look after their own, but instead they put their hopes in terrorism to somehow remove all Jews from the Middle East. No one has marginalized the Palestinians as much the Palestinians themselves have.
Morning tacos... Israel certainly won't lose any sleep over what the UN or any other country says...
It is nothing new and the Israelis have always done their own thing regardless what the odds are..
They will roll on and demolish what ever stands in their way now...and so be it..
That sentence paints Israel to be the aggressor. IMO they will stand in the way of anyone who tries to roll on and demolish Israel.
Arvo..No that is not what I meant..they have pushed Israel to beyond its limits and now the consequences of Hamas action commences...
And yes Israel will roll in as we can see what is massing at the border and yes they will flatten all that stands in its way...I have a feeling they are going to create a massive buffer zone along the border...
Why else would Israel tell everyone to get out and get out now...never again will Hamas have the opportunity of attacking Israel from across the border by foot, motor bike or vehicles...
I think a massive no man's land will be created the same as in other countries and in those places everything is cleared in sight, as will happen there...
Time will tell but that is my opinion..
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Wish I could vote that up more than just once.
Everyone seems oblivious to the fact that Gaza shares a border with Egypt. The United Nations has been positioning humanitarian supplies in the Egyptian Sinai. The UN cannot move aid into Gaza because Egypt is not allowing that to happen. Egypt has not opened the border with Gaza.
Why would Israel order the northern half of Gaza to evacuate to the southern half? That's where the humanitarian aid will enter Gaza. That's where refugees can flee Gaza. The responsibility for setting up refugee camps rests squarely on the UN's shoulders and the UN has to negotiate with Egypt. So, the humanitarian crisis is not solely Israel's fault or responsibility.
Egypt should not be expected to open it's border and let trouble in. Borders are for the safety and benefit of country maintaining the border. I hope they do not and maybe the USA will learn something.
That is a valid argument. Egypt has valid concerns over its national sovereignty and security risks associated with providing humanitarian assistance. But an important function of the United Nations is to address humanitarian needs while protecting national sovereignty; those are key components of the UN charter.
Note that the seeded article is a letter written by Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations. Guterres is casting about for scapegoats to excuse the UN. Guterres is utilizing a favorite liberal red herring; if Israel wasn't attacking Gaza there wouldn't be a humanitarian crisis. Yep, that's simplistically and irrationally true. But Israel didn't start this war. And Palestinians started the war with war crimes.
Yeah, I think people either don’t know or forget (conveniently) that it isn’t just Israel blockading Gaza. It’s also Egypt. And who can blame them? I wouldn’t want terrorists doing business in my country, either.
Egypt made peace with Israel long ago and it has largely served them well. The Palestinians could learn from that.
The whole goddammed Middle East has focused attention on Palestine. Are we expected to believe that the Six Day War in 1967 wasn't about Palestine? Iraq's Saddam Hussein didn't threaten Israel to annex territory. Iran is not assisting Hamas and Hezbollah to annex territory. Are we supposed to believe that all the camel jockeys on the Arabian peninsula want to destroy Israel so they can liver there?
With so much diplomatic attention and resources directed toward the Palestinians, a claim that Palestinians have been marginalized and forgotten boggles the mind. The entire Middle East has been ready to start a war over Palestine at one time or other. Palestine has been at the core of Middle Eastern diplomacy since Jimmy Carter was President.
Not to mention media attention. Because I live near LA, I read the LA Times. They have about 10 stories on the war today. Maybe three of them discuss it generally (e.g. how Jewish/Palestinian coupes are coping - sheesh!) but the other seven focused exclusively on how hard it is for Gaza and Palestinians.
So I had to look elsewhere to find out that a U.S. congressional delegation - including Chuck Schumer and Mitt Romney - were hustled into a shelter in Tel Aviv because of a rocket attack from Gaza. To look at much of our news media, you would think Hamas stopped attacking a week ago.