ED Lessons from Middle East

Half a world away, brutal killing sprees continue as blood cries out for more blood.

There have already been thousands of casualties in less than a week, with many more to come. Few can know how long, and horribly, this military conflict, caused by Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel, will go on for.

The international community, especially the West led by the U.S., should strive to stop this tragedy as soon as possible instead of taking sides. For humane and economic reasons, the world cannot afford two simultaneous wars as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict approaches the two-year mark.

Hamas’ killing of civilians, including children, women and older people, is unacceptable. The Palestinian militant group has even taken about 150 people hostage, using them as human shields of sorts. That is terrorism, not a military operation. Foremost efforts should be made to set them free. Hamas also must know such acts will not help but harm it.

One should then ponder why this group has grown so ruthless and vicious.

Hamas leaders must have known Israel would retaliate tens and hundreds of times. However, they think the hardliners, or the entirety of Palestine, will stand at the crossroads of life and death if the status quo continues. The ultra-right coalition in Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ignores Hamas and the Gaza Strip. The Two-State Solution, outlined in Oslo in 1993 to ensure peaceful coexistence, exists in name only.

The U.S. has not exactly been an impartial mediator, as Palestinians see it. In January 2020, then-U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a “peace plan” that was lopsided in favor of Israel, seriously eroding the two-state principle. The international community, led by the United Nations, was negative about it except for some pro-U.S. countries. South Korea, under former President Moon Jae-in, belonged to the latter group. This might be more the case now, given the tighter alliance between Seoul and Washington.

President Yoon Suk Yeol may find the ongoing developments in the Middle East somewhat perplexing. Yoon has sought a breakthrough via Saudi Arabia and the UAE so as to escape an economic impasse caused by the U.S. and China. If the conflict prolongs and expands, and Korea is forced to take sides, many agreements with these Arab partners will end up on the scrap heap.

However, the economy should not be the only reason for Seoul to stay neutral. On Wednesday, President Yoon and his aides condemned Hamas for committing inhumane acts. They should stop there and call for peace.

Hamas’ tactics also caused a rude awakening for Yoon’s national security team. These officials appear to have realized “anew” that North Korea’s nuclear weapons are not the only threat. We have long pointed out on this page that Pyongyang does not need atomic bombs to pulverize Seoul. The North’s long-range artillery and 200,000-strong special commandos are enough to take an early edge in a hypothetical scenario. Still, the South will win any prolonged conflict with the help of the U.S.' nuclear umbrella.

However, win or lose, another Korean War, if it were to occur, would destroy this peninsula in a short amount of time.

The hawks, including Yoon’s new defense minister, appear to have learned the wrong lessons from the Israeli-Hamas conflict. They call for neutralizing, if not abrogating, the inter-Korean military accord of Sept. 19, 2018, saying that it only hampers the South’s ability to gather intelligence. However, any unilateral incapacitation of the agreement, the only remaining device to avoid incidental clashes, will give Pyongyang further excuses to break, not keep, it.

The hardliners must know that the latest failure of Mossad, Israel’s world-famous spy agency, was due to its mistakes in interpreting, not collecting, the intelligence. That and the unsuccessful performance of the Iron Dome are because of Israel's lack of internal unity, caused by divisive politics.

Peaceful coexistence, not a cycle of retaliation, is the answer. The animosity between Israelis and Arabs traces back thousands of years, culturally and religiously. The animosity between the two Koreas is less than 80 years old and rooted in an ideological rivalry no longer relevant worldwide.

Koreans, south and north, must shed the trauma of their fratricidal war.