The 56-hour Gaza onslaught appears to be history — if the ceasefire that came into effect last night holds. And what is that history: The seasonal, unprovoked onslaught that took 44 Palestinian lives including 15 children, injuring about 350 and destroying about 1,500 homes either partially or wholly. On the Israeli side there are 0 deaths.
And Israeli military pundits are already beginning to extol the success. Speaking to the daily Maariv’s FM radio station this morning, General Amos Yadlin, former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, felt exalted:
It was a successful round. It was really clean, we hit hard the Hamas military wing [sic], we hardly hit innocents and unaffiliated, there’s not one Israeli who was hit, I think it’s an exceptional achievement. (Hebrew).
Yadlin apparently means to say Islamic Jihad, not Hamas – Hamas was not directly involved in the fighting.
Yadlin is military veteran elite. His status is confirmed by his being a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Yadlin’s presence at Harvard drew protest a few months ago; he was leading a study group on Israeli national security, and protesters called him a “war criminal” who shouldn’t be teaching at Harvard.
And now? his “really clean” expression is unbelievable in light of the reports of destruction from Gaza.
Actually it reminds me of what John Kerry said on July 20, 2014, as Israel was in the midst of its “Protective Edge” onslaught and had just massacred 63 Palestinians in the neighborhood of Shuja’iyeh: “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation, it’s a hell of a pinpoint operation”. Kerry was being sarcastic; he was caught on a hot mic between interviews speaking to his aide (in the actual interviews he stuck to the talking points). Yadlin, on the other hand, is being completely serious.
And why the excited approval? It is widely recognized in Israeli society that this onslaught is a manhood test for interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, in anticipation of the upcoming November 1st elections (even if the New York Times hides that part of the story). Lapid has no military credentials or combat experience, unlike his immediate predecessor Naftali Bennett who has “killed many Arabs” and has “no problem with that.” Unlike his rival Benjamin Netanyahu who unleashed several attacks on Gaza. So Lapid had to show that he too can kill many Arabs and “mow the lawn”, with as few Israeli casualties as possible – and look at that, 0 deaths!
Yadlin congratulates Lapid and thinks “something very nice” happened here:
I think there was teamwork here and this is something very nice in my view. The military confrontation, the military action, is a continuation of the political action, and I think the government will be tested also according to how, after a military success, it continues the political part in a direction of arrangements which allow both sides to live, without them being willing to recognize each other or to sign any agreement.
Now, tell me, isn’t that just “very nice”? Isn’t that just pretty?
Yadlin is advocating for a continuation of the unbearable status quo: a draconian genocidal siege on Gaza that has already made it uninhabitable. The Gazans just have to live somehow, until they die. Another prominent general of Yadlin’s generation said it like this: “Most of these people were born to die, we just need to help them.”
And Yadlin’s point on Hamas’ supposed unwillingness to sign any agreement? He should be reminded of 2012, when Israel assassinated Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari, at a period of lull, when he was in fact expected to sign an agreement on permanent ceasefire that day. That was the beginning of the November 2012 Gaza onslaught named “Operation Pillar of Defense”. Then army chief of staff Benny Gantz later boasted of carrying out that assassination when he entered politics. He aired video of the attack and called Jabari an “arch-terrorist.” In the same series of ads, Gantz also boasted of bringing Gaza to the “stone age.” But Haaretz editor Aluf Benn called Jabari “Israel’s sub-contractor in Gaza” in his critique of the assassination. So much for Hamas unwillingness.
Lapid is a status-quo man. His idea of fighting apartheid is tarnishing those who even mention the term in relation to Israel as “antisemites”. But he had to prove that he can get rid of the Gaza problem by bombing it with no casualties on the Israeli side, and with polite teamwork among the liberal and enlightened Israeli leaders.
And what do you know, he gets a five-star rating from the top general who is a senior fellow at Harvard. Lapid did something “clean” and “very nice”.
It’s too bad general Amos Yadlin missed his calling. He would have fit nicely into Hitler’s gang of mass murderers and thieves.
“War is hell,” said a far better general than Yadlin. There is nothing clean about it. It’s the ultimate failure of civilisation.
I haven’t been reading Mondoweiss as much lately. My bad.
Good work on the this piece. We need you.
Re Amos Yadlin:
“Opinion: Increasingly, Supporting Israel No Longer Serves America’s Interests” By Professor Brent Sasley
Excerpt: “Obama’s UN abstention was only the most recent manifestation of ongoing strategic changes that Trump too won’t want or be able to reverse.” (Jan 07, 2017 – Haaretz)
“Israel’s global standing is continuing to deteriorate, a new report from some of the country’s top strategists concludes.”
“’Israel’s image in Western countries continues to decline, a trend that enhances the ability of hostile groups to engage in actions aimed at depriving Israel of moral and political legitimacy and launch boycotts,’ ” the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University states in its 2016-2017 Strategic Survey for Israel.
“The 275-page report, authored by a who’s who of figures from Israel’s political, intelligence and military establishment, was presented on Monday to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin by INSS director Amos Yadlin, a former air force general and head of Israeli military intelligence.”
In America, victims of torture, or their families, can sue the perpetrators. Many years ago one of them, from, I think, El Salvador, trained at the School of the Americas, was served with papers for such a suit while he was in line to get a degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Same place where this man is on the faculty.
I’m a Harvard graduate. I have other reasons for not donating to my alma mater, but if I didn’t, this would suffice.