Metro Detroit reaction split on Mideast strife but all agree: civilians are off-limits
Detroit — Michigan officials and supporters of Israel, and backers of the Palestinian cause are split over whether Israel has a right to retaliate and Palestinians the right of self-determination after hundreds have died in the surprise, unprecedented attacks by Hamas on Saturday.
But in an intractable problem — one expert called it "perpetual stagnation" — in a volatile region of the Middle East for decades, all said targeting innocent civilians was unacceptable. Casualties were mounting a day after the cross-border attack by Hamas militants. More than 100 captives were being held in Gaza by Hamas militants and at least four U.S. citizens were killed in the attacks, and seven more were missing, a U.S. official said.
"We're devastated by the loss of life and trauma that is taking place against our Jewish and Palestinian siblings and cousins," said Rabbi Alana Alpert, who leads Congregation T’chiyah in Oak Park, in a statement.
"As we condemn this violence, we refuse the urge to dehumanize, to rally around any false notion of 'sides' or to obscure the roots of this violence. We demand freedom and safety for all inhabitants of the land, and accountability from the U.S. and Israeli governments whose policies have fostered impossible conditions in Gaza and beyond."
The Israeli government formally declared war Sunday and approved “significant military steps” to retaliate against Hamas.
The ambush, some said, was similar to the Second Intifada, an uprising that began in 2000 in Palestinian territories.
Saeed Khan, associate professor of Near Eastern Studies at Wayne State University, argued the danger in looking back and comparing the attacks.
"Each situation is really unique, and I would contend that this is very different from past situations," Khan told The Detroit News. "The geopolitics of the world have changed dramatically in the last 23 years. The U.S., for example, as an external power in the conflict, is no longer alone in the region. Now, there is Russia, there is China, there are other actors who have various roles in the equation that cannot be overlooked."
Khan said the resolutions for a peaceful existence and the grievance based on occupation has been elusive, describing the conflict as "perpetual stagnation."
"Its unfortunately a situation where a notion of a solution that is longstanding doesn't appear to be very likely at all, which then means, of course, people will at least try to move towards a more immediate solution of just ending the hostility, violence and bloodshed."
At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel, a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades, and more than 400 have been killed in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes pound the territory, the Associated Press reported.
On Sunday, the Pentagon also ordered the Ford carrier strike group to sail to the eastern Mediterranean to be ready to assist Israel.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, the only Palestinian American member of the U.S. Congress, issued a statement saying she grieved the loss of Israelis and Palestinians, but criticized the Israeli government, which she characterized as creating an "apartheid" system for Palestinians.
"I am determined as ever to fight for a just future where everyone can live in peace, without fear and with true freedom, equal rights, and human dignity. The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance," Tlaib said in a statement.
"The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer," she said. "No person, no child anywhere should have to suffer or live in fear of violence. We cannot ignore the humanity in each other. As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue."
Oakland County resident Jeannie Weiner, past president of the Michigan Jewish Conference, Jewish Community Relations Council and member of the Muslim Jewish Advocacy Council, worried for the safety of family members who live near Gaza.
"I'm deeply concerned about what's happening there, and of course, there are going to be innocent people that are killed — Palestinians, Arabs, Jews, tourists and innocents of all sorts," Weiner said. "I do support the state of Israel. They were attacked by terrorists."
Khalid Turaani, a prominent Palestinian American activist from West Bloomfield Township, said the conflict taking place now has to be viewed through the lens of history and longstanding Israeli-Palestinian issues.
"I think it would be wrong to think of the conflict as some Palestinians woke up yesterday morning and they decided to attack Israeli positions," Turaani said. "We have to see this conflict as part and parcel of a very oppressive occupation regime."
Turaani said the targeting of civilians "from any side ... is an abhorrent act regardless of who's doing it."
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tweeted that she has been in touch with "communities impacted by what’s happening in the region."
"It is abhorrent," she said. "My heart is with all those impacted. We need peace in this region."
In another statement several hours later, she said the "loss of lives in Israel — children and families — is absolutely heartbreaking and appalling. There is no justification for violence against Israel. My support is steadfast."
Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed, a former candidate for Michigan governor, tweeted Sunday that he condemned attacks on civilians.
"But ALL civilians, right? The Israeli military is about to unleash on innocent civilians in Gaza — as it has over & again. If you really condemn attacks on civilians, don't go silent when they are Palestinian civilians."
Mark Tessler, a University of Michigan political science professor who specializes in the Middle East, said in the short term, the Hamas’ actions are going to bring a “strong, more or less brutal Israeli response” that likely will not make things better in the long run.
“Eventually, order will be restored and I think the best guess is that we’ll go back to something like we had before, with Israeli control and Palestinians being unhappy,” Tessler said. “The feelings on both sides will be more intense and angrier.”
Tessler said while many Palestinians are unhappy with how they are treated by Israel, nothing Israel has done justifies Hamas’ actions.
“There are legitimate Palestinian complaints and they deserve to be taken seriously,” Tessler said. “(But) I don’t think there can be any justification for what’s going on, what Hamas is doing. Rounding up civilians and executing them, going through towns with their automatic weapons and killing as many people as they can.”
Hamas has tried to torpedo movements toward peace in the past and has committed acts of terrorism, Tessler said, but nothing to this scale.
Reports from the region say a thousand Hamas militants took part in the initial attack on Saturday. During their rampage through southern Israel, militants dragged back into Gaza dozens of captives, among them women, children and the elderly. The gunmen rampaged for hours, gunning down civilians in towns, along highways and at a techno music festival near Gaza. The rescue service Zaka said it removed about 260 bodies from the festival.
The attacks were something former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called "outside the circle of civilized human behavior."
“This assault on these children, on these grandmas, on these families, is something that takes us to a different threshold of how we deal with this subject,” she said.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud tweeted a lengthy statement Saturday about the hypocrisy of elected leaders supporting Israel's occupation of Gaza while also calling for peace.
"Israel’s decades of illegal military occupation and imprisonment of Gaza make peace impossible and tragic violence inevitable," he said. "Israel has trapped millions of Palestinians in Gaza in what is recognized by the international community as the world’s largest open-air prison.
"Failure to recognize this context is the inability to comprehend what is unfolding overseas. What they are really calling for is not peace, but a return to the status quo of daily violence and humiliation against Palestinians, which many in the U.S. accept as normal. True peace requires justice. It requires the end of a racist apartheid system that criminalizes Palestinian existence."
But Sam Dubin, assistant director and director of media relations for the Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Committee, sees the matter through a different lens.
The historic conflict, he said, is one of "Jew hatred," where "militants and terrorists hate Jews."
"At the end of the day, Jews around the world are standing up against that, and standing up against antisemitism that we see even domestically here on the far left and the far right. At the end of the day, those two extremes meet right in the middle.
"I'm hoping that through this adversity, our relationships with our interfaith partners grows stronger. I'm optimistic about that."
jaimery@detroitnews.com
Detroit News Staff Writer Kara Berg and the Associated Press contributed.