PolyTicks

"It's a Hanukkah miracle" -Israeli settler

It may not be possible for most of us to understand the level of animosity and open hostility required to describe the death of innocents, including children, as a holiday gift from god. However, it may serve to illuminate the mind-set of Zionists willing to give their government a mandate to bomb UN schools being used as sanctuary for non-combatants.

Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to the UK, recently conducted himself with commendable restraint and dignity during a difficult interview on Hardtalk (BBC). But despite his impressive demeanor, or perhaps because of it, I found his argument chilling and maddening. He repeatedly stressed the concept of defense to explain the ongoing bombardment of Gaza. It took only 6 days in 1967 to gain control of the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, but the current strike is in its 11th day. I suppose his motto must be "the best defense is a good offence." Hey, it worked so well in Lebanon against Hezbollah right? According to The Guardian, "In the fighting 1,200 Lebanese and 158 Israelis were killed. Of the dead almost 1,000 Lebanese and 41 Israelis were civilians."[78]

The euphemistic language and justifications were exactly the same then, in 2006, when Lebanese refugees were killed in a UN base in Qana. Sorry, that was a mistake, they were firing rockets from that location, we don't target civilians, it's the militants' fault...etc. The result of Israel's military solution? Hezbollah is, arguably, stronger than before the invasion and certainly more galvanized and determined.

"some people" refuse to live peacefully in the region

I doubt anyone denies Israel's right of defense, but there is something to be said for the punishment suiting the crime, yet the scale of the offensive currently pummeling Gaza is seemingly grotesque. Tony Blair, the Quartet's (Russia, EU, UN, US) Special Envoy called the situation on the ground "hell".

So I bristle at the ambassador's 'diplomatic' language in describing the worsening humanitarian crisis . Of innocent casualties his explanation was "inevitable", continuing with the reasoning that the people who voted for Hamas have a "price tag to pay". Since when are populations who democratically elect a government subject to collective punishment for that government's actions? To follow that logic to its absurd reduction, we would include a convicted murderer's family, friends and neighbors in the punitive death sentence. Israel is, by definition (UN member state), held to higher account than so-called terrorist organizations like Hamas, yet they seek to justify terrorism many-times the ferocity and destructiveness of anything they have suffered.

"War is not nice...War creates bad pictures."

What appears to be happening is a familiar pattern: Israel is getting its licks in and expanding while it can, resisting international law, outrage and cries for an immediate ceasefire as long as possible, to achieve its stated aim. In this case, "weakening" Hamas. To strengthen Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah, presumably. I guess all this hellishness is somehow meant to discourage, or kill, the more radical voters and encourage, by not killing, the moderates. Tzipi Livni, Israeli Foreign Minister, recently blamed the violence on "some people" who just refuse to live peacefully in the region. So we'll bomb and shoot them until they do, she might have continued paradoxically.

That should work as well as it always has.

In the end, there will be no independent investigation and, for the most part, we will be left to guess about most details, as "unprofessional" foreign journalists (Danny Seaman, Israeli government Press Secretary) are not being allowed to cover the attacks. Maybe that's because, as ambassador Prosor said, "War is not nice...War creates bad pictures."

posted by Atomos @ 14:26