A single incident over the weekend – the reported capture by Hamas on Friday of an Israeli soldier through a tunnel – illustrated in stark fashion the layers of deception Israel has successfully cast over its attack on Gaza.
On Sunday, as the army indicated it would start limited withdrawals, Israel claimed Hadar Goldin was dead, possibly buried in a collapsed tunnel as Israel bombarded the area in which he was seized. His family said he was being left behind.
Israeli officials or media did not view Hamas’ operation dispassionately. Goldin was not “captured” but “kidnapped” – as though he was an innocent seized by opportunistic criminals.
As occurs so often, many western journalists followed Israel’s lead. The London Times’ front page blared: “Kidnapped in Gaza”, while the Boston Globe called him the “abducted Israeli soldier”.
From western reactions, it was also clear the soldier’s capture was considered more significant news than any of the massacres of Palestinian civilians over the past weeks.
Israel’s cynical calculus – that one soldier is more valuable than large numbers of dead Palestinian civilians – was echoed in the diplomatic and editorial corridors of Washington, London and Paris.
Misleading too was the general agreement that, in attacking a group of soldiers in Rafah and seizing Goldin, Hamas had violated the first moments of a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire.
The Washington Post reported on the circumstances as a Hamas suicide bomber emerged from a tunnel to explode his vest, killing two soldiers, and Goldin was pulled into the shaft. “On Friday morning, Israeli troops were in the southern Gaza Strip preparing to destroy a Hamas tunnel, said Israeli military officials. Suddenly, Palestinian militants emerged from a shaft.”
CBS reporter Charlie D’Agata parroted the same Israeli briefings, also inadvertently exposing the central deceit. The soldier was “suspected of being kidnapped during an operation to clear tunnels – crucially, [officials] say, this happened after the ceasefire was supposed to take place.”
So if a ceasefire was in place, what were Goldin and his comrades doing detonating tunnels, tunnels in which Israel says Hamas is hiding? Were Hamas fighters supposed to simply wait to be entombed in their bunkers during the pause in hostilities? Or was Israel the one violating the ceasefire?
And then there was the explosion of military fury as Israel realised its soldier was missing. Israeli correspondents have admitted that the notorious “Hannibal procedure” was invoked: the use of all means to stop a soldier being taken alive, including killing him. The rationale is to prevent the enemy gaining a psychological advantage in negotiations.
The unleashing of massive firepower appeared designed to ensure Goldin and his captors never made it out of their tunnel, but in the process Israel killed dozens of Palestinians.
It was another illustration of Israel’s absolute disregard for the safety of civilians. At least three-quarters of the more than 1,700 Palestinians killed so far are non-combatants, while almost all Israeli casualties have been soldiers. This has been a pattern in all Israel’s recent confrontations.
Israel’s official justifications for taking the fight into Gaza have been layered with deceit too.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued that Israel was dragged into a war of necessity. Barack Obama echoed him: Israel had a right to defend itself from a barrage of rockets fired out of Gaza. Later the pretext became Israel’s need to destroy the “terror tunnels”.
The logic is deeply flawed. Israel is occupying and besieging Gaza, conferring on its inhabitants a right under international law to fight for their freedom. How does the oppressor, the lawbreaker have a right to self-defence? If Israel objects to being scratched and bruised, it should stop choking its victim.
The degree to which Israel’s narrative of “self-defence” has come to dominate news coverage and diplomatic statements was revealed in a CNN interview. Anchor Carol Costello asked a baffled interviewee in all seriousness: “Why doesn’t Hamas just show Israel where these tunnels are?”
Equally significantly, Israel has obscured the truth that it picked this particular round of its ongoing confrontation with Hamas – and did so entirely cynically.
A BBC reporter recently confirmed with an Israeli police spokesman a rumour that had been circulating among military correspondents for weeks. The group behind the abduction in June of three Israeli teens in the West Bank – the trigger for Israel’s campaign against Hamas – was a lone cell, acting on its own.
Claiming precisely the opposite – that he had cast-iron proof Hamas was responsible – Netanyahu gave the army free rein to arrest hundreds of Hamas members and smash the organisation’s institutions in the West Bank.
The crackdown created the necessary provocation: Hamas allowed Gaza’s factions to start firing limited numbers of rockets. Analyst Nathan Thrall noted recently that Hamas had impressed the Israeli army until that point by enforcing the ceasefire agreed with Israel 18 months earlier, even though Israel violated the terms by maintaining Gaza’s siege.
Now the rockets gave Netanyahu an excuse to strike.
So what was his real reason for going into Gaza? What were these many deceptions designed to hide?
It seems Netanyahu wanted to end a strategic threat: not Hamas rockets or tunnels, but the establishment of a unity government between Hamas and its long-time rivals Fatah. Palestinian unity risked reviving pressure on him to negotiate, or face a renewed and more credible Palestinian campaign for statehood at the United Nations.
But Hamas’ unexpectedly impressive martial display against Israel – killing dozens of soldiers, firing long-range rockets into Israel throughout, closing briefly the sole international airport, launching attacks into Israeli territory, and causing a loss to the economy estimated so far at more than $4bn – may have changed the calculus again.
For the moment, Netanyahu seems to prefer to pull back Israeli soldiers rather than be forced under international pressure to negotiate with Hamas. He knows that its key demand will be that Israel end the siege.
But in the longer term, Netanyahu may need Palestinian unity, at least on his terms, to undermine Hamas’ gains.
As Israel began its attack on Gaza, Netanyahu turned his attention to the West Bank. He warned that there could never be “any agreement in which we relinquish security control” over it for fear that, given the West Bank’s larger size, Israel might “create another 20 Gazas”.
He was ruling out any hope of Palestinian statehood. A “demilitarised” entity, heavily circumscribed and absolutely dependent on Israel and the US, seems to be all that Israel will ever put on the table.
Allowing Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah into Gaza could justify loosening the siege. But only as long as Abbas agrees to remove Hamas’ military infrastructure and export to the coastal enclave the model he has established in the West Bank – of endless accommodation to Israeli and US dictates.
A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.
“So if a ceasefire was in place, what were Goldin and his comrades doing detonating tunnels, tunnels in which Israel says Hamas is hiding? Were Hamas fighters supposed to simply wait to be entombed in their bunkers during the pause in hostilities? ”
That’s the crucial point. How do you destroy the position of the enemy during a ceasefire? The literal position, the place where his soldiers are actually located. I suppose some polite words along the lines of “Would you mind stepping over there while blow up this tunnel you’re positioned in? Thank you. Are there any crucial pieces of military apparatus belonging to us that you’d like to destroy while you wait? There are some lovely artillery pieces in that direction and if you are really willing to take a long trek, some American-supplied F-16’s on Israeli airbases. Or perhaps you’d like to kill some of our soldiers and attempt to take one prisoner. Your choice.”
The whole idea has great potential for a Monty Python sketch on what an Israeli ceasefire looks like. Would even be funny if the Israelis weren’t posturing as the hurt innocent truth tellers while they kill civilians.
I wonder what the psychological effect of the “Hannibal procedure” must be on Israeli soldiers. It seems to promote the idea that being captured is a fate worse than death. It would go a long way to explaining the indiscriminate use of overwhelming firepower, and the relative rarity of firefights (in which the Israeli troops often seem to get badly mauled).
Israel is led by one of the biggest prevaricators on the world’s stage. He was called a liar by Sarkozy (and sort of agreed to by Obama), and we have seen time and time again this dangerous man hold up cartoon bombs, pound his chest in vain, and make mountains of molehills. Most of the world by now know this fact. I have come to a point that I NEVER believe a word coming out of this terror state. Their standards of being credible is in the pits, and their paid for hasbara lies like low life criminals. Perhaps we should take the opposite stance of any situation narrated by these liars, as the most possible scenario.
They lied about the 3 kids being killed to start this massacre, and they keep lying to keep the slaughter going.
As for the US, it suits them fine to pretend they believe Israeli hasbara, to justify the fact that we keep arming them
Obama was disgraceful when he condemned the other side as barbaric and ran with the Israeli lies without any proof.
There are few options left to destroy Zionism .Clearly a military option is out.
So BDS must be strengthened and spread globally.Israel,s actions have given much impetus to that campaign. Israel has no weapons in it,s arsenal to combat BDS , but will have to sit and take it in the pocket as illegal goods exports diminish and those who produce this contraband close shop and leave for greener fields.
Abbas needs to go to the ICC and put Israe,ls criminals on notice that their crimes will have consequences.Their travel plans will also be curtailed .
Lastly, the Palestinians should hand the keys back to Israel and let them pay for “Their” occupation.The next step would see the Palestinians calling for ,1S,1P,1V.
The days for talking are long since over and it is time to challenge the international community to support the Palestinian demand for Equal Rights and Justice.
CNN: IDF confirm bombing refugee camp. Many children are casualties.
Now they are not even remorseful, but show their indifference. They keep slaughtering civilians with impunity.
Hey America, want to give them more ammo? Might as well let them bomb Gaza to the stone age and let’s gift these terrorists with more ammo to do it.
Perhaps the slaves from congress now visiting their motherland on their annual pilgrimage, will come back with more koolaid for their fellow slaves.