Since the beginning of its assault, Israel has attempted to justify the destruction of Gaza by comparing the operation to the US decimation of Iraq. The opening aerial bombardment of Gaza brought comparisons to the US "shock & awe" campaign. In a Ha'aretz article titled "IAF strike on Gaza is Israel's version of 'shock and awe'," Amos Harel wrote, "Like the U.S. assault on Iraq . . . little to no weight was
apparently devoted to the question of harming innocent civilians."
Sadly this rhetoric has also been adopted by the Israeli "peace camp." Yossi Alpher, an independent security analyst and co-founder of bitterlemons.org, was asked about civilian deaths and the humanitarian crisis in a Q & A on the Americans for Peace Now website. His response:
All this happened 7,000 miles away from the US, and needless to say no rockets were fired from Fallujah at American civilians for the previous eight years. Fallujah was quickly rebuilt and became a model for successful counter-terrorism operations in Iraq. You don't have to support the US occupation of Iraq to appreciate the challenges involved and the relatively successful way the IDF is dealing with them.
Has Fallujah really become that standard bearer of legality, let alone morality, in warfare? For the left, no less? Does Alpher forget that there were well documented war crimes committed by the US in Fallujah? These crimes include the US illegally used white phosphorus during the attacks - a practice Israel is replicating now.
I have to admit I would take the same tack if I wanted to defend Israel's attack on Gaza. The violence and death the US has visited on Iraq far exceeds anything Israel is doing in Gaza. The fact that this level of destruction and death has barely raised a cry in the US is a shame we all share. One of the implicit messages communicated in this silence is that these actions are acceptable. This also is one of the horrible legacies of the Iraq war. And our earlier silence regarding atrocities carried out by the US has paved the way for those wanting to justify war crimes today and in the future.
No wonder Netanyahu's first unguarded public reaction to 9/11 was elation.
Don't be put off by the title–
Who Will Save Israel from Itself?
A useful Al Jazeera gathering of some of the principal Israeli talking points of the war. Would be good for Richard Witty.
A revealing statistic from a joint Tel Aviv University-European University study: “Israeli violence has been responsible for ending 79 per cent of all lulls in violence since the outbreak of the second intifada, compared with only 8 per cent for Hamas and other Palestinian factions.“
It looks like the usual American Indian talk has lost its tread, so Iraq is the new justification for whatever Israel does. Let's see what convenient new heights of evil the neocons (or whatever they will call themselves) will spur the U.S. beast on to. If we use tactical nukes in Pakistan (as Obama suggested in debate), what will Israel do with that fact? The indispensible nation, huh!
Unless you are a hypocrite, you simply cannot have it both ways. Either Israel is doing a much better job than we did (or could do) and they are therefore being unfairly stigmatized, or Israel is a=somehow killing more people than they seem to be. Eventually there are facts, numbers, comparisons. To ignore this is to be a petty provincialist nursing your speacial pleading. Sorry, you "hobby horse." The problem is a lot of people on this blog and in the world in general pretend to care about dead Arabs when the Jews are doing the killing. But, really, is there anything LESS interesting than a dead Arab? Happens every day in every Arab country there is.
Yossi Alpher's point is valid. The US in Iraq has killed many more Arabs than the Israelis have killed in the last 50 years. Why are we upset? We didn't oppose the killing of 500000 babies in Iraq from our actions with the sanctions. Not to mention the other million deaths resulting from our invasion. The US kills clearly more Arabs than the US. Why do we get all bent of shape when the Israelis kill 1 per cent of this number? This is US policy.
You are right, Syvanen. I just hate being forced to support it in either case. Also, it might be easier to influence my own government if Israel's interests weren't a concern. Who am I kidding? Israel and the United States are lost causes at this point. I'd emigrate to pretty much any place that would take me at this point.
For "thought experiment" fans, here's Michael Neumann's (at CounterPunch):
"But suppose a bunch of thugs install themselves, with their families, all around your farm. They have taken most of your land and resources; they're out for more. If this keeps up, you will starve, perhaps die. They are armed to the teeth and abundantly willing to use those arms. The only way you can defend yourself is to make them pay as heavy a price as possible for their siege and their constant encroachment on your living space. You're critically low on food and medical supplies, and the thugs cut off those supplies whenever they please. What's more, the only weapons available to you are indiscriminate, and will harm their families as well as the thugs themselves. You can use those weapons, even knowing they will kill innocents. You don't have to let the thugs destroy you, thereby sacrificing your innocents (including yourself) to spare theirs. Since innocents are under mortal threat in either case, you needn't prefer the attackers' to your own."
Neumann has a point: It's the occupation, stupid.
The war on Iraq was carried out for the benefit of Israel, pushed for by the neo-con's in our government who have more loyalty to Israel than to the U.S.A.
All the atrocities committed there by our own forces are the result of the "Israelization" of our foreign policy. Therefore, Israel shares the blame for what we have done to Iraq. After all the killing that has gone on for so long, I wonder what the final price will be for having created a Jewish state in the Middle East.
Tom Friedman explains to NYT readers why collective punishment should be considered as an attempt on the part of Israel to educate its Arab neighbors about the horrors of war:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/opinion/14friedman.html
Bitter Lemons is just another spook trawler site, full of hasbara and phony moderation.
Ana Sanchez above said:
. . . . . . . . It is a religious fued . . . . . . . . . It is never questioned, it is a forbidden topic . . . . . . . . . Everyone else is fodder, the killers and the killed. A lot more than 6,000 died in Fallujah . . . . . .. . The Gov'nors of the Jewish faith are behind the entire mindset of atrocities. They use the banal nationalist instinct and the mercenay Military Ind. Complex. . . . . . . . When you discover how important it is to them to advertise your jewishness then you unserstand. And it is all, of course, heading for disaster. It is all a Witty mentality…..
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055427.html
Three rockets fired from Lebanon hit north Israel; IDF returns fire
By Eli Ashkenazi and Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz
At least three Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel on Wednesday morning, reigniting fears of a second front opening during Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055462.html
ANALYSIS / Hezbollah seeking to change the rules of the game
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel News, Lebanon
The firing of Katyusha rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel on Wednesday, for the second time in a week, was the result of Hezbollah's desire to alter the balance of power that has existed between the militant organization and Israel since the Second Lebanon War.
"the Obama team’s focus, should be on creating a clear choice for Hamas for the world to see: Are you about destroying Israel or building Gaza? "
From Thom Friedman's NY Times column this morning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/opinion/14friedman.html?_r=1
What a load of garbage.
Israel, with US support, destroys Gaza and it's Hamas's fault?
Why were they firing the rockets in the first place?
THE BLOCKADE
THE OCCUPATION
Hamas certainly was a willing participant in the escalation.
The Palestinian people are the innocents, NOT Hamas.
Leviticus 25:44-46
Law: LORD God authorizes Hebrews to make hereditary slaves of Gentiles.
Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055476.html
Top defense officials back immediate Gaza truce
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Hamas, Israel, Gaza
Senior defense establishment officials believe that Israel should strive to reach an immediate cease-fire with Hamas, and not expand its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist group in Gaza.
All this racist shit about "islamists" is completely missing the point. We might as well call ehud barak and tzipi livni "talmudists". Stupid word games, the be-all and end-all of the "intellectual jewish life".
JTT, quoting ancient text, even if it is an accurate translation, reveals nothing but the mindset of people when it was written. One can pull all sorts of crazy things out the Old Testament, and one would be mad to think they are values of or behaviors engaged in by modern Christians. The same common sense applies to wacky things in texts to which Jews adhere. EVERYBODY held slaves back then. All this passage is saying is that "you shall not enslave your own". This is probably a progressive sentiment for the time. (seriously) There is not even smoke here, much less fire.
Civil authority as we know it today, with codified laws enforced by full-time sworn officers empowered by the state with restricted authority, was weak or non-existent for most people in the ancient world. Delineation of permitted and restricted behaviors were often (and definitely in the Jewish and early Christian traditions) done by religious authority, because that reached everybody.
As much as the Hasbara likes to compare the IDF to the American military, their comparisons are never really analogous. In the instance of Fallujah, the American military dropped leaflets and encouraged the civilian population to leave the city in other ways as well. In Gaza, the civilian population has been denied any opportunity whatsoever to leave. Also, a substantial portion of the civilian deaths in Iraq have been due to sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.
But I still want to thank Zionists hiding amongst Americans for slamming the US military with their comparison. It serves to show our uniformed military just how UnAmerican the proIsrael crowd really is. Once our soldiers start to figure out how alien the Zionists are to America they will be better able to discern our(America's) true enemies.
"Top defense officials back immediate Gaza truce"
What do they mean by truce? The truce of master and obedient helot? Do you seriously think Hamas is going to agree to the old terms, and mean to keep to them, after it has become abundantly clear that Israel expects them to do exactly that, AND expects them to ignore Israel failure to fulfill its obligations? This bleating is nothing more than an expression of desire by a portion of the Israeli security establishment for an end to their invasion because they are starting to realize that they have not just shot themselves in the foot, but have blown it off. What objectives have they achieved?
"Israel has proven, the officials said, that it is no longer deterred from either launching such an operation, from a confrontation with Hamas, from deploying ground forces or from using its reservists."
Ah, so Hamas can be reassured that Israel won't launch launch more attacks that deal severe damage to what little international support they have left, especially in the critical American 'market', undermine the Arab dictatorships upon whose acquiescence they rely in order to free up state resources for ethnic cleansing, rather than an exclusive devotion to preparation of conventional defense against all of its neighbors, and damage the Israeli economy by removing reservists from the workforce.
They see the chickens coming home to roost. Shades of Pyrrhus anyone?
Interesting, Witty, that you'd cite Friedman's column today in a favorable manner. Did you miss the paragraph where he defends the idea of "punishing" civilians, where he claims Israel didn't target civilians in Lebanon and then says they did, and that this was a good thing to do.
Friedman is a terrorist just like the Hamas leaders or the Israeli government.
Colin, yes, but way too many influential people in both the USA and
Israel believe, and count on biblical text in what they do, support now. Problem is, we moderns are forced by lack of power to pay for it. Tell me the difference between the biblical justification for the destruction of Jericho and the current destruction of Gaza. We await your civilized, modern, even post-modern response.
Colin,
Cease-fire means importation of long-range rockets and–if Hamas is sincere about its ideology–renewal of war for the destruction of Israel at a later date.
You are betting the survival of the Arab world and Palestine on the idea that Hamas is not sincere about its ideology, and that it is subject to deterrence like a state. Syria has tens of thousands of chemical-tipped rockets aimed at Israeli cities that could unquestionably end the existence of Israeli society in a matter of a few hours, but Syria is effectively deterred. You are betting that a "death of a thousand cuts" resistance group is going to moderate its demands.
Israel's ideology is based on destroying the nation of Palestine. Hamas' ideology is a reaction to the destruction of their nation. When Israel renounces all territories outside the 1947 UN Mandate and removes its forces to them, Hamas' charter will be changed. As long as settlers kill Palestinians, Israel continues its institutional genocide and meddles in Palestinian affairs, Hamas has no choice but to adopt the tactics of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance.
Because that 1947 Partition Plan was like, so totally accepted by the Arab Higher Committee, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Kingdom of Egypt, and the Lebanon. The Syrians actually took land AWAY from Israel in the 1948 War, seizing land around Mishmar HaYarden, that had been allocated to Israel by the 1947 plan. So, you know, whatever.
The 1947 Partition Plan would probably be accepted today if Israel will remove its military to within those borders. If not, Israel can still count on US military aid to defend itself. Palestinians should be able to count on US military aid to protect themselves from Israel on the opposite side of those borders.
I just discussed the 1947 partition plan at Stephen Walt's blog.
In response to your racist idiocy Joachim, Steve Walt will be forced to respond more like a Zionist than a critic.