This is an aspect of the situation in Gaza that I had not previously considered—the roles of tribes and clans. Jacob Magid reports at Times of Israel:
The Doghmosh Family — a major clan in Gaza — has issued a statement declaring that all Hamas members are legitimate targets after its leader was assassinated by members of the terror group along with ten other relatives allegedly for stealing humanitarian aid and being in contact with Israel.
The statement pledges retribution against all responsible and warns Hamas fighters not to test the clan’s patience.
Here’s an excerpt from a short paper at Middle East Brief by Dror Ze’evi on the tribes and clans in Palestine:
From March to July 2007, the British journalist Alan Johnston was held in the Gaza Strip by Jaysh al-Islam (the Army of Islam). It was later revealed that the epithet was an alias for a local group of families headed by the Dughmush clan, which is said to have been recruited by al-Qaeda.
According to some sources, it took a combination of Hamas’s military might and a hefty transfer of cash to convince the clan to give up its British Hostage. Then, in late October 2007, serious fighting broke out near the city of Gaza between Hamas and another clan, the Gaza-based Hillis family, said to be Fatah supporters, in which four people were killed and scores injured. An entire neighborhood was leveled in the fighting, which ended in a cease-fire agreement. Intermittent fighting between Hamas and these clans continues to this day. These incidents draw our attention to a seldom observed reality of Palestinian political life: Clans, which share many attributes with tribal structures but have developed along a different path, are a major factor in local politics and in many ways define the boundaries of what is politically possible.
In the Palestinian territories, clans (locally called hamulas, sing. pronounced hamoola) have become a focus of political activity and major hubs of local power. Since members of Hamas or Fatah invariably belong to their clans as well, when a member of one organization is killed by a member of another, and the killer’s identity is known, it is no longer just an issue of organizational enmity. The perpetrator is likely to be sued by the victim’s clan in accordance with local tribal law. Thus, Hamas in Gaza will take action in certain neighborhoods of Rafah or Khan Yunis only after informing the major local clans and asking their permission. In the West Bank, Abu Mazen’s Palestinian Authority will seldom appoint a senior official not approved by the local clans. Any attempt by the government to disarm militias is automatically perceived as an attempt to chip away at the power of the clans and encounters serious opposition.
I found the paper interesting but not particularly elucidating. I suspect these are social relationships into which you really must be born to understand. To my eye it highlights the many aspects of this conflict. It’s not just Israelis vs. Palestinians. It’s also tribe against tribe and clan against clan. All the more reason that we should be cautious in involving ourselves in these conflicts.
Isn’t tribalism the norm just about everywhere? Aren’t we the anomaly? In every war we have fought since WWII (and maybe all), tribalism has been a confounding factor for our military. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge were one tribe, and their victims were another. Racism and tribalism had a great deal to do with that horror show.
And are we actually an anomaly? Note the growth of identitarian politics. There are powerful interests, especially in the Democratic Party, who see identitarian politics, i. e., tribalism, as the route to personal power.
Historically, every multicultural, multiethnic state was held together by brute force. Up until the 60’s, the US was a predominately White (85%), Protestant country. The Catholics, who were not Anglo-Saxon, were a problem, but they wanted to assimilate (well maybe not the Godfather or Tony Soprano). The blacks were a problem, but they were controlled by various de facto and de jure devices. Jews had not yet been fully integrated into WASP culture, and had only minimal power. And, of course, the Hispanic problem was basically Mexican farm workers in California.
Whites are now only about 60% of the US population, and they are a minority in the under 15 year-old cohort. The flood of immigrants (10 million under the Biden regime alone) is coming from highly tribal societies, and they are bringing their cultures and hatreds with them. The future US is likely yet another multicultural, multiethnic dictatorship, or a collection of warring tribes.
So Hamas can’t enforce a treaty with Israel, what’s the use of it?
He makes a good case for ethnic cleansing.