Two weeks after the Hamas attack, Anne Will was talking about the war in Gaza – how heated the situation is was also clear in the TV studio.
Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to GermanyNorbert Röttgen (CDU), member of the Foreign Affairs CommitteeFlorence Gaub, political scientistYassin Musharbash, journalist (“Die Zeit”)Hoda Salah, political scientistArye Sharuz Shalicar, spokesman for the Israeli military (connected from Tel Aviv)
But first, “Zeit” journalist Yassin Musharbash, who had just returned from a research trip to Jordan, described his impressions from there: The focus was on the horror of civilian victims in the Gaza Strip, said the reporter – the mood was “extremely heated”, and in everyone Hamas is being “cheered on” in Arab capitals. The mood could change, “also against those in power in the region.” At the moment he doesn’t see a realistic scenario as to how this can be “captured again”.
CDU politician Norbert Röttgen expressed a similar concern: He certainly believes that the Arab governments want peace – but they are under “insane pressure” from their populations, where there is “great support for the Palestinian cause”, and must ” perform a balancing act.
The political scientist Florence Gaub, in turn, pointed out the dangers of a possible Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip: Hamas is “in a civilian envelope” and could hide among the population. The Israeli army must expect mines, booby traps and tunnels. Going in there would be “a highly complicated, extremely lengthy and bloody undertaking.”
While Prosor had taken note of these statements in an outwardly unmoved manner, it was an interjection from Hoda Salah that caused him to temporarily lose his temper. According to the political scientist, “most Arab states” have “condemned” the Hamas attack, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II has expressed his solidarity with the civilian population in Gaza and Israel. Rather, it is the “Israeli collective punishment,” this “aggression,” that is now making people angry. The fact that the people in Gaza have no water and are starving is “also a war crime.”
“Did I miss something?” Anne asks Will from time to time
“Did I miss something?” Anne Will asked Yassin Musharbash because she had not heard any clear condemnations of Hamas terror from Arab states. The journalist tried to convey: “Between the lines” Arab heads of government “acknowledged that there were civilian Israeli victims.” He agrees with Salah “half or two-thirds.”
But Prosor didn’t want to accept that: “They clearly didn’t condemn it. They clearly didn’t condemn these barbaric massacres. Not the king, not al-Sisi.” (Egypt’s President, editor.) And there it is again, this trivialization: “Dear people, we all have ears and eyes! Here I hear trivialization again! trivialization!”
The ambassador received support from Israeli military spokesman Arye Sharuz Shalicar, who was speaking from Tel Aviv: “I find it sad and almost scandalous what I just had to listen to. That Israel is actually being blamed for this situation in the Gaza Strip.” He recalled that Hamas was elected by the Palestinians as their leadership in 2006.
Demand for a paradigm shift
Since then, it has done nothing for the civilians, rather it has used them as protective shields – whereas Israel has been calling on people to leave their homes for nine days to go to safe places in the south. “What else does a Jew, a Jewish state, have to do to show that we are not concerned with civilians and children and women, but with fighting terrorism?”
