On October 7, 2023 Hamas, the de facto political leadership in Gaza and recognised terrorist organisation, launched an attack on the southern part of Israel. This resulted in the brutal murder of close to 1,200 civilians and over 200 hostages being carted off to the Gaza strip.

Many children, women, and the elderly were brutally murdered. It was clear from this assault that Israel would respond with unrelenting force. This Israel did with the stated intention of destroying Hamas once and for all.

Most well-thinking people who sympathised with Israel believed that Israel was within its rights to do so. It was inconceivable that a sovereign territory could be attacked with such attending brutality and the victim simply curl up as if nothing happened. And knowing the inveterate hatred between Israel and the Palestinians, one could have expected that Israel would have responded with unparalleled fury.

Today, the world has long woken up to the reality that Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, which has lasted now for almost 20 months, has far exceeded the proportionality of the response that could be considered justly necessary. The brutal and often indiscriminate shelling of Gazan infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, has been worrisome. But even more so has been the colossal loss of lives in the civilian population — over 50,000, of mostly children, women, and the elderly.

Recently, the world was stunned by Israel’s apparent intention to starve the population into submission. Israel has cut off aid supplies to the territory while at the same time bombing selected targets that have resulted in many children being killed. The few images of the emaciated bodies of children that have trickled out to the world are hard to watch. This has stirred European countries and the impotent Security Council of the United Nations to begin screaming enough!

Also, and perhaps more importantly, there are stirrings in Israel itself that the Government has exceeded its original intentions. Writing in the leading newspaper, Haaretz, Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister of Israel, lamented that the Israeli Government is waging a war without purpose, without clear goals or planning, and without any real chances of success. He said what many of us have been saying, that it is a war of extermination, in its cruel and criminal killing of civilians.

Others in Israel and around the world are belatedly waking up to the reality that Israel’s original focus has shifted and that what seems apparent now is an agenda of the erasure of Palestinian life and culture in Gaza. In other words, genocide. This is being done under the elusive dream of the full and total decimation of Hamas. It is clear that Hamas is still standing even with its ranks diminished and demoralised.

Organisations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and other resistant Palestinian groups are like the Hydra of Greek legend. The more heads you cut off is the more they grow, if not immediately, then into the future as other generations become impregnated with generational hatred against the Jews. Hence the futility of Israel’s exercise. If Israel is not on a genocidal mission in Gaza, then the question to that country ought to be: How many more children will have to be slaughtered to finally destroy Hamas?

What has been especially worrying is that the world has remained relatively silent in face of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza. The United Nations Security Council has proven itself impotent to even press Israel to let food in to starving Gazans. With the coming of Donald Trump, America’s policy on Gaza is a mixed bag of unpredictability and confusion. Should the territory be transformed into a French Riviera, with the Palestinians herded like cattle into little enclaves, or is it better to court the rich Arab nations for lucrative deals? Is it enough for America to placate Israel by its futile, stupid, and unwelcoming attack on foreign students under the dubious cloak of anti-Semitism?

Where do the Caribbean nations stand in all this. If they are afraid of either Trump or Netanyahu to speak individually, then they should summon up enough courage to speak collectively through Caricom. Yet, if a nation should be worthy of its status as a sovereign nation it should at least find its voice against the atrocities and manifest injustice of Israel in Gaza and of Russia in the Ukraine. Decency demands this.

In the meantime, there are voices in Israel that are clear that the Netanyahu Government is doing a lot of reputational damage to the country around the world. By its actions in Gaza, it is doing Hamas and other such groups a great service in fuelling the very anti-Semitism that they decry. Most importantly, it is violating the strong traditions of social justice espoused by its biblical prophets of old. But who in the Israeli Government is listening.

Dennis Chung’s appointment

Some may consider it a deficit, but I consider it a definite plus that in all my years of writing political and social commentary in the public space I have not personally met many of the public officials that I have either praised or denounced for their actions and public behaviour. The same is true of many of the institutions that I have commented on. Like many Jamaicans, I have had to rely on what I hear or observe in the public space. As public officials, you judge them on the basis of their performance in office. You do not have to know them personally to do so. My mantra has always been that anyone who has authority or wields power over people’s lives must be subject to scrutiny and held accountable for their actions and utterances.

The matter of Dennis Chung’s appointment as the chief technical director of the Financial Investigations Division (FID) brought all of this thinking back to me. From what I have observed over the years, Chung has always presented himself as someone who has a very steady grasp of the subject of accounting and financing. Because of his professionalism is this area he has been asked to oversee or sit on the boards of both private and public organisations. One has never heard of any impropriety, whether financial of political, on his part. In fact, he has been a consummate public servant widely praised for his skills in the areas that he has been asked to serve.

From what I have observed of him publicly, I have never been able to ascertain what his political loyalties are. Those who know him in the flesh and interact with him on a more regular basis may. But, to the best of my knowledge, he has never espoused political loyalties. I was therefore flabbergasted by what seemed to be the vicious attack on him by chief spokespersons of the People’s National Party (PNP) and especially its leader Mark Golding. To pour aspersions on his character and to attempt to besmirch his excellent public service record by suggesting that he is not suitable for the job is beyond the pale.

I know we are in the silly season and politicians, like a drowning person, are known to hold on to any straw that can help them to political victory. But this latest attack on Chung is stunning. I see no reason, at the apex of his career, why Chung would want to sully his well-earned reputation as a public servant. I do not have to know him in the flesh to strongly believe he will not.

This column wishes him well as he takes up this new appointment. I have no doubt that he will bring the same level of probity, sound moral judgement, and integrity for which he is known to this task.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator and author of the books: Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; The Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. Check out his podcast Mango Tree Dialogues on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Raulston Nembhard