Kenan Malik’s piece is beautifully observed (“In the Middle East, as in Greek tragedy, justice must prevail over moral absolutism”, Comment, ). The universality of what is happening now in the Middle East is well represented by Greek tragedy, removing the laziness of the trope that “they’ve always been like that over there”.
I have to take issue, though, with the idea that Israelis and Palestinians are faced with a choice between vengeance and reason. Unfortunately, the situation is even bleaker than that. What the Israelis are doing is not just vengeance. It carries its own rationale – that of a belief that a solution is impossible. Israeli leaders know they cannot fulfil their public aim and eradicate Hamas forever, that Hamas is an idea and will be back no matter what. But if you believe that Hamas represents simply the latest wave of antisemitism, which has always been with us and always will be, then scorched earth makes sense from a tactical point of view.
