Alexander Dolitsky: Israel-Gaza war would be over if Hamas surrendered, returned hostages. So why don’t they?

January 15, 2024

By ALEXANDER DOLITSKY

It is imperative to clarify some facts in the Craig Wilson’s letter to the editor, “Israel violating international law with its response in Gaza,” published in Juneau Empire on Jan. 12, 2024.

The main arguments of Wilson’s narrative, resembling the far-left ideology and world-wide pro-Palestinian movement, are that Gaza is a tiny and crowded land and,” Israel is flattening Gaza with bombs supplied by the U.S., demolishing nearly a quarter of the infrastructure and killing over 20,000 civilians in the process in clear violation of international humanitarian law.”

There is another angle and perspective, however, a different way to look at this region and its recent occurrences.

The Gaza Strip is tucked among Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. The strip is 25 miles long by some 3.7 to 7.5 miles wide, and has a total area of 141 square miles. According to the CIA Factbook, it has 2.2 million people living in this area.

Over several decades, the Gaza government has been receiving billions of dollars in aid and essential resources from the West to develop its infrastructure. But instead, the Gaza government invested this capital in building 350 miles of tunnels, obtained thousands of rockets from Iran and others, elected a terrorist organization, Hamas, to govern the people, and is teaching their children from the kindergarten and on to hate, and eventually to exterminate, their nearest neighbor—Israel.

To make a proper comparison with Gaza, Singapore is a tropical island in Southeast Asia, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is about 275 square miles, smaller than the State of Rhode Island and nearly 12 times smaller than City Borough of Juneau (3,255 square miles). Singapore is inhabited by over 5.2 million people, of which the resident population comprises of four major communities: Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian.

In short, proportionately, the size and population of two regions are almost identical, with the Singapore population per square miles is slightly larger than in Gaza. Nevertheless, Singapore is one of the most advanced and developed countries in the world, including democratic system of governing, outstanding educational system, superb technology and sophisticated transportation system.

What is the most critical aspect for all peace-seeking nations to understand is that on Oct. 7, 2023, Gaza/Hamas attacked Israel, heinously killed and mutilated 1,500 civilians in Israel, and kidnaped 240 hostages.

Gaza terrorists wanted the war and initiated an aerial attack on Israel, launching randomly nearly 15,000 rockets to the populated areas of Israel. They did not ask Israelites to relocate to the south, north, west or east. They just indiscriminately dropped those rockets on the civilian population. And if Hamas had a nuclear weapon, they would use it without any hesitation.

The war would be over by now if Hamas surrendered, got out of the tunnels, and returned remaining hostages to their families. Why don’t they?

The answer to this question could be because Hamas is willing to absorb the loses of life and property to try to win their long game. They are funded and supported by the Gulf States and Iran. They enjoy great international support including the United Nations. They are actually dedicated to Islamic jihad and expansion; Israel is an impediment and cannot be tolerated. They do not want to coexist with a Jewish state.

Their strategy is not a peaceful two state solution; they want to expand the Caliphate throughout the Levant. After that, they want to continue to expand back into lands previously conquered by Islam—southern Europe. All of Western Civilization is their ultimate prize. The Koran demands it.

In short, there is no negotiation with this ancient and fanatical death cult.

Alexander B. Dolitsky was born and raised in Kiev in the former Soviet Union. He received an M.A. in history from Kiev Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine, in 1976; an M.A. in anthropology and archaeology from Brown University in 1983; and was enroled in the Ph.D. program in Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College from 1983 to 1985, where he was also a lecturer in the Russian Center. In the U.S.S.R., he was a social studies teacher for three years, and an archaeologist for five years for the Ukranian Academy of Sciences. In 1978, he settled in the United States. Dolitsky visited Alaska for the first time in 1981, while conducting field research for graduate school at Brown. He lived first in Sitka in 1985 and then settled in Juneau in 1986. From 1985 to 1987, he was a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist and social scientist. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Alaska Southeast from 1985 to 1999; Social Studies Instructor at the Alyeska Central School, Alaska Department of Education from 1988 to 2006; and has been the Director of the Alaska-Siberia Research Center (see www.aksrc.homestead.com) from 1990 to present. He has conducted about 30 field studies in various areas of the former Soviet Union (including Siberia), Central Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and the United States (including Alaska). Dolitsky has been a lecturer on the World Discoverer, Spirit of Oceanus, andClipper Odyssey vessels in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. He was the Project Manager for the WWII Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Memorial, which was erected in Fairbanks in 2006. He has published extensively in the fields of anthropology, history, archaeology, and ethnography. His more recent publications include Fairy Tales and Myths of the Bering Strait Chukchi, Ancient Tales of Kamchatka; Tales and Legends of the Yupik Eskimos of Siberia; Old Russia in Modern America: Russian Old Believers in Alaska; Allies in Wartime: The Alaska-Siberia Airway During WWII; Spirit of the Siberian Tiger: Folktales of the Russian Far East; Living Wisdom of the Far North: Tales and Legends from Chukotka and Alaska; Pipeline to Russia; The Alaska-Siberia Air Route in WWII; and Old Russia in Modern America: Living Traditions of the Russian Old Believers; Ancient Tales of Chukotka, and Ancient Tales of Kamchatka.