Many of you know me for my short articles on Bronze Age Greece (ca 3000-1200 BCE Minoans and Mycenaeans). What many of you may not know is that I’m also Lebanese through my mother’s side, I did my first overseas excavations in Syria, and have excavated and researched extensively in Israel/Palestine for more than twenty years.

Israel is almost my second home. I have undertaken research there on Greek and Cypriot connections and interactions with the Philistines, largely in collaboration with Professor Aren Maeir of Bar Ilan University.

Often, I have spent Christmas Eve attending services In Bethlehem, the site of the Nativity. One summer, I continued digging while Hamas fired 2500 rockets over our heads, cavalierly watching the fireworks, confident in my knowledge that Israel’s Iron Dome would keep me safe.

I’ve been restrained on commenting on the current war in Israel, for a few reasons. First, it’s such a balagan (Yiddish for chaos, disarray, and confusion). Friends have often asked me how I came to know so much Yiddish and I must confess that I picked it up as a child, as an avid reader of the satirical Mad Magazine.

Politically, I prefer to keep my focus on Ukraine where the lines are clear, and where I’m inspired every day in what a difficult year it has been.

I find the binary opinions promoted by the various protests and talking heads regarding Palestine and Israel to be ill-informed: simplistically disturbing at best and racist at worst.

Ugly anti-Semitism increasing

Throughout my life, I’ve heard people ask (while shaking their heads) how a Hitler could come to power. Yet, we are seeing it again in real time and in slow motion.

It didn’t begin with the sudden wave of ugly antisemitism we increasingly see on our streets every day including enemies of the LGBTQI+ community cavort brazenly with Neo-Nazis in front of the Victorian Parliament.

Instead, it began with the culturally conservative co-option of evangelical Christians clinging to 18th century unscientific notions of blood and soil, the ethnic “other” as a bringer of plague, or other irrational, false and unsavoury ideas of racial identity.

Even more shocking has been seeing the party of Ronald Reagan, famous for being pro-immigrant and anti-authoritarian embrace the loathsome Victor Orban of Hungary and genocidal maniac Vladimir Putin of Russia.

For a thorough and recent history of this movement see The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory (2023)by Tim Alberta, an evangelical Christian driven out of the movement by conservatives who deviate further each day from the teachings of their professed saviour.

Without a doubt the current situation in the Middle East was started on October 7 by the shocking combined arms attack that obviously went through a long period of preparation by Hamas.

Hamas undermines Palestinian people

Hamas deserves to be obliterated from the face of the earth because it is a death cult. Hamas has held power in Gaza for over a decade – it is not a democracy, and it has not improved the lives of the Palestinian people.

Instead of building an enormous arsenal and developing a highly trained cadre, it could have used its money and power to make Gaza the Monaco, or Singapore of the Middle East.

Hamas has held power in Gaza for over a decade – it is not a democracy, and it has not improved the lives of the Palestinian people.

Here I digress: where was Netanyahu while this was going on? He doesn’t seem to have been distracted by working for a two-state solution – in fact, the only thing that kept him from seizing even more of the Palestinian Territories in the West Bank were the Abraham Accords – this has been well documented.

In addition, Israeli settler shepherds have recently been intimidating more Palestinian shepherds to leave their West Bank homes and some racist Israelis, see this tragic event is as an opportunity to seize more land.

Yet, if you know the region and carefully read the news, you will learn that Palestinians and Israelis can not only live together, but they can also thrive and learn from each other. But this doesn’t lend itself to sensational headlines.

Yet, pessimistically, I doubt a two-state solution is any longer viable because there is no continuity of land left to create a viable Palestinian state.

I am currently of the opinion (beware that expert opinions on the Middle East can change as frequently as alliances) Israel’s only choice will be a one-state solution, and we will wait to see whether Israel remains a Jewish State or a Democracy – it is unlikely it can be both.

Being anti-Netanyahu is not anti-Israeli

Being anti-Netanyahu, does not make me anti-Israel. If that were the case, a large percentage of Israelis would also be anti-Israel.

Hamas wants to destabilise Middle East peace and given that the Iranian President recently visited Saudi Arabia – a country on the verge of establishing peace with Israel – the Israeli Government and the west is unfortunately allowing Hamas ‘ Iranian backed plot to move towards fruition.

Iran is supplying weapons to Russia, while the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, calls his friend, Vladimir Putin, after refusing to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky: the world’s only other Jewish leader.

We can also reflect on how Greece, Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus now have strong relationship and cooperation in areas of energy, technology, science and culture, something once unimaginable. Which is another reason for Hamas to destabilise the region.

We can also reflect on how Greece, Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus now have strong relationship and cooperation in areas of energy, technology, science and culture, something once unimaginable. Which is another reason for Hamas to destabilise the region.

Another thought: IDF giving civilians in Gaza 24 hours to move to the south was not plausible – it would be nice if it was. It would also be nice if I could have a winged unicorn.

There are clearly false and crisis actor videos coming out of Gaza, however, CNN recently interviewed an IDF spokesman who said that they were keeping one exit from one of the hospitals in Gaza safe for civilians to leave.

If this is true, then where is the video that supports this claim. The absence of such a video, seemingly magnifies the lie. There is an abundance of blame to go around.

There is room for all

Just as Bedouins, other Muslims, and Palestinian Christians live in cooperation with Israel, I love my Israeli friends and colleagues just as I love my Palestinian friends.

Why does this matter? Being half Lebanese, I never met a Jew until I made it to university. In fact, my mother’s family said many terrible things to me about the Jewish people.

A Palestinian friend recently asked me why I support Ukraine and not Palestine? My response was easy: Palestinians need a Zelensky, a Gandhi , or a Mandela; not a Hamas or a Hezbollah.

A Palestinian friend recently asked me why I support Ukraine and not Palestine? My response was easy: Palestinians need a Zelensky, a Gandhi , or a Mandela; not a Hamas or a Hezbollah

As a child of an Enlightenment education the prejudices and bigotry of others has never made any sense to me.

I regard the entire world as made up of good people and bad people, regardless of their religion, government, cultural background, language, or colour. I went to Israel to learn for myself. And I am lucky to have had the chance to do so. Now let the screaming and ‘whataboutism’ continue.

Louise A. Hitchcock – Professor of Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology, Classics and Archaeology, University of Melbourne