World-recognized cellist Amit Peled played the Israeli national anthem Hatikvah on board a Southwest Airlines flight.
A crewmember introduced the performance,
We’re going to show you a little love with some music. For this kind gentleman up front Amit, we are going to play for the people of Israel. His daughter is there. She is safe. We’ll dedicated it to her and all the people that are at war for Israel right now. So, enjoy you guys.
Thank you @SouthwestAir for allowing me to share Hatikva התקווה for my beloved Israel on today’s flight ❤️#wewillneverforget #israel❤️ pic.twitter.com/IgVJ7PGMOf
— Amit Peled (@PeledAmit) October 28, 2023
What’s happening now in Israel, both for all of the people there and for the rest of the world since conflict risks spilling over much more broadly. Unfortunately there appears to be no way out, because there’s ultimately no compatibility between Israeli security and demands for the destruction of Israel.
- The reason Hamas killed civilians, including children, was to ensure Palestinians would be killed in response. Hamas doesn’t wear military uniforms, they hide amongst civilians, in religious buildings, hospitals and schools; and told Palestinians not to evacuate Gaza in advance of Israel’s invasion (about one-third in Northern Gaza did not evacuate).
- Hamas doesn’t want a two-state solution. Israel was on the verge of normalized relations with Saudi Arabia. The goal was to ensure that Israel couldn’t have peace. Hamas wants Israel destroyed. Between 1995 and 2008 there was a real possibility of a two-state solution, but Hamas blew that up. They’d have killed Arafat for agreeing to nearly everything Palestinians said they wanted at Camp David in 2000, and Mahmoud Abbas couldn’t agree in 2008.
- Hamas has destroyed peace but there is no end game. Even if Palestinians would agree to a two-state solution, Hamas has ended any chance of that for a long time. If Israel could accept Palestinian sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza and even if they offered Palestinian sovereignty over Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem (as capital of a Palestinian state!) as they offered in 2008 the West Bank and Gaza need to be connected without Israel in the middle, and Israel can’t accept its own country bifurcated. Israel offered a corridor between the two in 2008, under Palestinian control but Israeli sovereignty. Hamas has ensured that Israel cannot accept this scenario because they’ve demonstrated it leaves them too vulnerable to.. Hamas.
Palestinian leaders cannot agree to a two-state solution because their own radical factions want Israel destroyed, not relations normalized.
Israeli leaders cannot agree to a two-state solution because radical Palestinian factions have shown they will kill Israelis.
There’s no good end to this. Israel can’t govern Gaza. Decapitating Hamas may just lead to a replacement rising in their place.
All of this leads to a humanitarian disaster for Palestinians. While public polling suggests Gaza residents support Hamas, it’s unclear how reliable that polling is (even if the methodology and samples are good, see ‘preference falsification’). A majority of residents weren’t even alive the last time Palestinian leaders permitted them democratic elections.
Perhaps there’s a solution in annexation of Gaza by Egypt (Egypt does not want this, they care about the Palestinian cause as an issue, not the plight of actual Palestinians) and of the West Bank by Jordan – or an independent Palestine consisting of the West Bank and Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, while Egypt is bribed and threatened into extending its sovereignty over Gaza.
Palestinians whose primary goal is something other than the destruction of Israel and Jews have been poorly served by their leaders. Most could have grown up in a world of self-determination, under a two state solution on the table a generation ago and subsequently presented several times since. These rejections, and continued incursions into Israel and killing of Israelis, have created a population that supports leaders unwilling to take that same risk to their security.
The last great Israeli leader of peace was Ehud Olmert who offered 94% of the West Bank, with pre-1967 buffer zones split in half and a land swap of the balance from pre-1967 borders (involving land Israel acquired for its security after it was invaded). While Israel would exit small settlements in these areas, their own politics would not allow them to exit Gush Etzion, Ma’ale Adumim and Ariel hence the need for land swap, giving up land near Afula-Tirat Tzvi, Lachish, Har Adar, Judean desert.
The offer included to cede sovereignty over the holy basin in Jerusalem which includes sites of importance to Muslims, Chritians and Jews – to be jointly administered by a group of nations including the Palestinian state. And they offered an international fund for Palestinians. But Palestine would not have its own military and would not enter into a military agreement with a government that does not recognize Israel (the Jordan border might be policed by NATO)
Condoleeza Rice, then U.S. Secretary of State, noted at the time that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin was assassinated for offering much less. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas rejected the deal, and Palestinians have continued to suffer, just as Arafat rejected a Palestinian State at Camp David in 2000.
What happened in Israel three weeks ago was horrible, and I feel for the people in Gaza who are suffering now (as I feel for those in Sudan in perhaps the world’s worst humanitarian crisis we hear little about). They continue to get the short end of the stick, not least of which from their own leaders. The question, though, is what is to be done? How does Israel protect itself from Hamas? Is there any way of doing this which also protects the people who are ruled by Hamas?
This is one perhaps the most clear and succinct statement of the issues that I have read this month. Thank you. And kudos to Southwest for allowing this passenger to share his love for his country in turmoil.
Yet another reason to not fly Southwest. I don’t want live music in-flight. I want to be as undistributed as possible.
I’d be complaining to FAs, the Captain after landing, and to customer relations. What a joke of an airline.
The fact that it is Israel is no matter. It’s still a disruption to the rest of the passengers.
Generally would not be keen on this sort of thing during a flight but under the present circumstances . . . excellent!
Bob, we would all love to see you undistributed.
Such a sad state of affairs – pushing agendas and political ideologies on people, who may not even have a clear view from the ground. Brainwashing at its finest.
Gary, I clicked because I was curious about the playing of Hatikvah on the flight (btw, wouldn’t it be great if people read the lyrics to the anthem and understood the context?).
What you presented in this post was a great summary of the issues and how peace at the moment is impossible, regardless of who is leading the government on either side. Thank you for your analysis.
Just fly and serve the peanuts. Don’t disturb me with stuff I cannot avoid. If I want to hear the violin guy, I will attend a concert. This is arrogant and presumptuous of this carrier and crew, where does it stop? Slippery slope here. It’s more than just jingoism and politics, , and you know it.
What a beautiful story and an excellent summary of a most troubling situation! Thanks!
We will not be fooled by Zionistb propaganda anymore. The Israel has to dehumanize Palestinians to justify the atrocities they have committed against Palestinians for 75 plus years. 3000 plus children dead in 2 weeks, 8000 people killed in Gaza. Armed Jewish settlers are terrorizing their unarmed Palestinian neighbors. A Palestinian was lynched and killed yesterday. This is unacceptable. It’s always said when the innocent get caught in the middle. But slaughtering women and children from the sky is not self defense. Israeli defense minister said they want to “level Gaza because Palestinians are human animals”. This is the same rhetoric the Nazi’s used. The Zionists are the new Nazis hiding behind the veil of antisemitism. Zionism is Violence.
Level headed Jews know that Zionism is violence and I commend them for taking a stand against this genocide.
@jerry right, you are one of the self hating jews (or just a plain anti Semite) who calls for Israel to put down it’s weapons, but not Hamas to. For Israel to “free” Gaza , but not for hamas to free the hostages. I think the world would be better off if you move to Gaza… Let’s see how much love and freedom they will show you..
Very well written piece, Gary. Thank you for posting.
I love this.
With all the backlash if I were Southwest or you I’d stay away from this issue. It’s a terrible humanitarian crisis on both sides but a complete mess to bring up.
How dare they let the cellist play. It should have been the pied piper, a magic flutist, or a violinist for good measure.
I would have deplaned.
It’s funny but I don’t see “historian”, “journalist”, “political analyst”, or “UN representative” or anything of that sort in Gary’s bio. Why is he giving an analysis of Hamas and Israel in this article about travel? Has he spoken to anyone from Hamas? Has he even spoken to anyone from..Palestine? Has he been following the news about what’s been happening in Palestine, or from Israel for that matter? Because if so it would be clear from his words where his sympathies lie. What authority does he have to speak with such authority? And spread lies and misinformation? It’s the blind leading the blind.
Thanks for letting us know, I’ve just emailed my complaint to South West Airlines for their bias and insensitivity and their tacit support of the genocide of Palestinian civilians. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and all of the major human rights organisations in the world have clearly detailed Israel is in breach of a multitude of international laws and is commiting genocide in the true definition of the term. More Palestinian children have been killed in the past 4 weeks in Gaza than in all of the war zones in the entire world combined (including Ukraine) over the past 4 years. And that doesn’t include the Palestinians in the West Bank (where Hamas does not exist) who are currently being murdered and forcibly expelled by the illegal Israeli settler-terrorists. May I suggest you stick to writing about travel deals rather than geopolitics, which you obviously don’t have a firm grasp of.