Gaza: the storm continues
As can usually be expected whenever this subject crops up, we have a wide spectrum of views on the ongoing crisis in Gaza to offer you this week. For the prolific (and provocative) Edward Luttwak, talk of “collective punishment” and unacceptable civilian casualties in Gaza is hyperbole, evidence that the mainstream media’s worldview is no different from most Muslim critics of Israel. Trevor Mostyn, on the other hand, lays the blame squarely at the feet of Israel which, he says, never gave Gaza a chance to develop after the army pulled out in 1994, and we can largely blame Israel for the combative policies of the Hamas leadership today.
Paul Raymond, meanwhile, shifts our focus elsewhere: to the temporarily quiet front line dividing Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank. It is here, not Gaza, that the real fight for the future of Israel and Palestine will be fought, Raymond argues—and it is here that things will really get messy.
Plus, later this week, Prince Hassan of Jordan weighs into the argument. As always, we’d love to hear your views on any of these articles.
Share
Comments
Print
Add Comment
“Israel’s attacks are surprisingly humane and effective”.
I am heartily sick of this cant. What a morally debased society we have become when this drivel can be published by a respectable publication.
It is a measure of the decadence of Western Civilization, if it is still deserving of that term, that a military invasion is debated on “humane” terms. What absurdity! War is war, not a schoolyard exercise. Wars hurt people Wars are designed to hurt people. Weapons, all weapons, destroy property and injure humans. We used to understand that. (Collateral damage or “proportionality” was not debated when we bombed German cities; Germany and Japan actively invited retribution and it was celebrated.) Hamas understands that rockets are designed to hurt the people they target. Now they are paying the price. The only problem is that Israel is not pursuing the war diligently by destroying Hamas, which has vowed to obliterate Israel, and its ability to endlessly launch its instruments of death. Either Hamas’ defenders are irretrievably stupid or they are supporting Hamas’ “martyr” strategy in which the sacrifice of their own people is justified by their stated goal: the destruction of Israel.
The Muslim world howls at the injustice of Gaza. But their reaction is inconsistent, while Israel’s attacks are surprisingly humane and effective.
I doubt that is how 1 billion muslims see it,guaranting future enemies for Israel,Britain and the USA.Our media and polititions owe as an apology for supporting Israel – all the time she is making enemies for us.
The spin continues. Let’s keep this in perspective. Hamas launches thousands of missiles and then cries out at the response? The leader of Hamas vows to fight on until the last civilian woman and child that is the shield for their terrorist fighters. When will the world wake up to the sick perspective when there is no respect for human life by Hamas?
yes its humane –
if the measure of humanity is hearding indigineous people into “refugee campS”…
yes its humane –
if measure of humanity is to fence in the refugee camp cutting it off from anyone …
yes its humane –
if its humane to cut off all supplies to the fenced in refugees..
yes its humane if you just fly over and drop a few bombs onto them like a video game…
yes its humane if you demean a people so much so that they find solice in blowing themselves up in your 5star towns and cafes while they live in open sewer streets…
YES – THE ONLY ACTUAL HUMANE THING LEFT FOR ISRAEL IS TO PUT THESE PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR MISERY AND KILL THEM ALL…
NINE Israeli human rights groups wrote to their government warning of their “heavy suspicion … of grave violations of international humanitarian law by military forces”.
Among the sites hit yesterday was Sheikh Radwan cemetery. Thirty graves were destroyed, spreading rotting flesh over a wide area. The army said it was targeting a nearby weapons cache.
So far 1,010 Palestinians have died, including 315 children and 95 women, Dr Moawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza’s medical emergency services, told the Guardian. The number of injured after 19 days of fighting stood at 4,700, he said. On the Israeli side, 13 people have died, among them three civilians, and four soldiers accidentally killed by their own troops.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which is based in Gaza and has field staff across the territory, believed at least 673 civilians had been killed – about two-thirds of the total. A more accurate count of civilian deaths is difficult, with journalists and international human rights observers banned from entering Gaza.
(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/15/human-rights-gaza-israel)
Israelis would like a tableau of surrender: grimy Hamas commanders crawling from underground bunkers with their hands up. Instead, the deaths of at least 40 civilians taking shelter at a United Nations–run school north of Gaza City are more likely to become the dominant image of the war.
(www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870314,00.html)
Israeli mortar shells killed as many as 40 Palestinians, among them women and children, outside a United Nations school in Gaza on Tuesday where they were taking refuge in the 11th day of the conflict. The Israeli military contended that Hamas fighters had fired mortars from the school compound, and United Nations officials called for an independent inquiry into the episode.
(www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/world/middleeast/07mideast.html)
But after a preliminary investigation of the Jan. 6 attack at the Fakhura girl’s elementary school, “we’re 99.9% sure that no militants were at the school,” says Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The agency questioned survivors, including UNRWA staff that run the school under U.N. auspices.
(http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870087,00.html)
Israeli bombs also hit a second school on Tuesday, say Gaza residents, killing three civilians.
But Israeli military officials insist that the mortars were fired from within the crowded schoolyard and that Hamas is using civilians as human shields. The IDF gave the names of two Hamas combatants it says were killed inside the school — Imad and Hassan Abu Askar — who allegedly fired the mortars. But the IDF did not explain how it was able to identify them among the many casualties. Troops did not visit the school after the attack, nor did the IDF have access to a casualty list from Gaza’s hospitals.
(www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870087,00.html)
To some of us, Israel’s recent actions in Gaza have actually served as a poignant reminder of the ways things could have been…
After the first Israeli withdrawal from Gaza City in 1994, both the West Bank and Gaza indulged in a brief honeymoon. The Oslo accords had been signed a year earlier and Arafat had returned to Gaza. Gazans had not been allowed on the beaches for years and suddenly the atmosphere was one of carnival. Israeli settlements were still in place but the Israeli army was rarely seen.
The port and airport would open and they would export their fruit, vegetables and flowers once more.
The Japanese would set up car factories, bringing jobs. Some people even believed Gaza could become a little Hong Kong (and this, they argued,
was what Israel truly feared, more than terrorism).
Gazan ire was directed at the recently arrived, arrogant Fatah men from Tunis who moved into the big villas along the coast. Hamas was rarely mentioned, its popularity minimal. Nobody appeared interested in suicide bombers.
Sadly, it soon became clear that the new Palestine, made up of only 22 per cent of Mandate Palestine, was a mirage.
Settlements, settler-only roads and checkpoints went up all over the West Bank and the settlements inside Gaza were protected by the might of the Israeli military. Israeli gunboats patrolled the shoreline and the port was closed.
HAMAS, NURTURED BY ISRAEL in its infancy in 1987 as a foil against Fatah, began to win popular support as the misery intensified.
Consequently, Hamas’s popularity increased, just as it is continuing to do today.
When Hamas won the elections in January 2006, it was a victory for their moderates
Although the newly elected Hamas government was unwilling to recognise of Israel as a Jewish state, it did agree to the principle of a ten-year ceasefire—and agreed to abide by resolutions reached by the Palestinian Authority. These included UN security council resolution 242, which recognised Israel. In practice, therefore,
Hamas recognised Israel.
But the west turned its back on Hamas, which had won what were arguably the freest and fairest election ever held in the Arab world, on the grounds that a terrorist organisation could not form a legitimate government.
Had the outside world agreed to talk to the new government instead of launching a crippling blockade against it, the usual responsibilities of governance would have prevented Hamas from launching even primitive rockets into Israel.
This is a “what might have been†story. If Israel had offered the Palestinians genuine and viable independence in the West Bank and Gaza after 1993, the Palestinians would arguably in time have become its friends. Israel would have become a secure economic superpower in the region, no longer financially dependent on the US. If Palestinians had themselves renounced their struggle, countries like Iran would have had trouble constructing an argument against Israel. Once the occupation had ended, outstanding issues such as the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinian “right of return†would have followed, with Hamas rockets and suicide bombers things of the past. Is this is a dream? Perhaps so—but it is a dream that is now unlikely ever to be dreamed again.
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?search_term=Trevor+Mostyn&id=10573
Messieurs,
J’espère que dans le prochain numéro de Prospect, des excuses de la rédaction seront adressées aux lecteurs pour avoir laissé M.Edward Littwak signer son article dans une revue que je continue à considérer des plus intéressante.
Bien entendu, c’est lui donner de l’importance que de répondre à M. Littwak.
Emile Nasr
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) have just had confirmation from our hospital emergency aid coordinators that both Al Wafa Hospital, in the eastern part of Gaza City, and Al Fata (also known as Al Wia’m) Hospital, in Tal El Hawa, west of Gaza City, have both been bombed by the Israeli military.
Al Wafa hospital is the only rehabilitation hospital in all of Gaza.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that Al Quds Hospital has suffered a direct hit. Both Al Quds hospital and the European Hospital have been surrounded by Israeli troops and are reportedly being hit with white phosphorus.
The UN has warned that security for medical personnel and access to medical facilities continues to be of major concern. Attacks on medical personnel and ambulances have hampered the ability to assist the injured. According to the Ministry of Health (MoH), since 27 December 2008, 13 medical personnel have been killed and 22 medical personnel have been injured while on duty; 15 ambulances have been damaged and seven ambulances have been destroyed; and twelve health facilities have been damaged through direct or indirect shelling.
So much for humanity!
An example of when viewpoints move beyond naivete and idealism to a deliberate self-deceit that is actively immoral:
“Had the outside world agreed to talk to the new government instead of launching a crippling blockade against it, the usual responsibilities of governance would have prevented Hamas from launching even primitive rockets into Israel.” (from matt above)
It is also quite rude to Hamas, implying they can’t chew gum and walk at the same time.
“Israel’s attacks are surprisingly humane and effectiveâ€.
What an absurd notion. Israel’s problem is that it doesn’t practise what it preaches. So murdering hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent Palestinians is humane, whereas as a few Israeli deaths is absolutely inexcusable. Israel and it’s ‘few’ western supporters, still have an arrogance that is based on racial injustice and Islamaphobia. Edward Luttwak is of the ilk that would scream against a statement that claimed that “Hamas’s attacks are surprisingly humane and effective”.
What absolute nonsense. If Prospect considers itself an intelligent publication then it shouldn’t publish such tripe.
If only Israel was capable of understanding that the rockets fired by Hamas, wouldn’t exist, if it weren’t for the incredible and totally unjust Israeli occupation. Somehow, we glorified the French resistance under Nazi occupation, and every Nazi murdered by the resistance was applauded. The west is full of hypocracy.
The bulk of the media coverage consists of agonising and apportioning blame to the Israeli and Palastinian sides as if we are purely neutral observers in this situation. On the contrary however we are complicit in Israel’s ongoing crimes by the fact that our goverment refuses to condemn Israel in credible terms and continues to supply arms and military technology to Israel. Until we apply real diplomatic pressure an appropriate sanctions we will continue to have some responsiblity for the terrible events that undoubtedly will continue to unfold.
I notice that none of the respondents have taken up the subject of Darfur
Juanele
January 16, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I notice that none of the respondents have taken up the subject of Darfur
because it’s a blog about Gaza.
“Israel’s attacks are surprisingly humane and effective”
- this is, of course, the words of Edward Luttwak, the same person who said Obama was a muslim.
If we travel too fast in our car we generally get a speeding ticket cortesy of an obscure speed camera.
If one shoots rockets or mortars at Israel then an unmammed flying drone is likely to respond automatically .
We learn not to speed or maybe we learn not to fire rockets.
Or do we arrange to fire from sensitive sites such as schools or hospitals hoping that the media response is worth the physical damage of returned firepower.
HI DAVID
SO NICE OF YOU TO EXPLAIN IT TO US SLOWLY…
LET ME TRY FOR YOU AND ANY ZIONIST JEWS OUT THERE WHO ARE READING THIS…
IT’S NOT TRUE MATE…
DOSENT MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU REPEAT IT THROUGH YOUR MASS MEDIA OUTLETS / NEWS AGENCIES/ PAPERS ETC – IT DOSENT’T MAKE IT TRUE…
I WROTE ABOVE AND I WILL REPEAT IT FOR YOU BELOW….
EVEN IF IT WAS….
YOU STILL CAN’T BOMB A SCHOOL FULL OF CHILDREN AND CIVILIANS BECAUSE OF A 1 OR 50 BAD MEN INSIDE…
UNLESS YOU CONSIDER THEM AS THE SAME TERRORISTS IN WAITING…
THATS WHAT YOU GUYS REALLY THINK ISN’T IT?
HOW ELSE DO YOU EXPLAIN YOUR INDISCRIMINATE BOMBING…?
The World Health Organization …says dozens of hospitals and ambulances have been hit by Israeli fire during the three-week conflict despite receiving assurances from Israeli authorities that they would be safe.
Just a couple of days ago, three hospitals were attacked. (www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-17-voa24.cfm)
ALL PEOPLE ARE LESS THAN A JEW…! ISN’T THAT RIGHT..?
THATS WHAT ALL ZIONIST JEWISH PEOPLE BELIEVE…
THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT WORLD FINDING OUT SO YOU TRY AND CLOUD THE ISSUE, EVEN YOUR OWN PEOPLE ARE REALISING THE ABSURDITY OF YOUR ARGUMENT….
THE HOUR IS COMING WHEN YOU WILL BE FOUND OUT…
ISN’T THAT WHY YOU ARE TRYING SO HARD THESE DAYS,
MORE HARDER THAN YOU GUYS EVER WORKED BEFORE…
THE AMERICANS ARE REALISING SLOWLY THAT THEY ARE BEING USED…
ARENT’T THEY DAVID….
OK MATE YOU HAVE A NICE DAY, BUT MORE AND MORE PEOPLE WANT ALL PEOPLE TO HAVE A NICE DAY, EVEN IF THEY ARE PALESTINIANS…
But after a preliminary investigation of the Jan. 6 attack at the Fakhura girl’s elementary school, “we’re 99.9% sure that no militants were at the school,†says Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The agency questioned survivors, including UNRWA staff that run the school under U.N. auspices.
(http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870087,00.html)
Israeli bombs also hit a second school on Tuesday, say Gaza residents, killing three civilians.
But Israeli military officials insist that the mortars were fired from within the crowded schoolyard and that Hamas is using civilians as human shields. The IDF gave the names of two Hamas combatants it says were killed inside the school — Imad and Hassan Abu Askar — who allegedly fired the mortars. But the IDF did not explain how it was able to identify them among the many casualties. Troops did not visit the school after the attack, nor did the IDF have access to a casualty list from Gaza’s hospitals.
(www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870087,00.html)
“How did the Israelis achieve such accuracy? How did the Israelis achieve such accuracy? ” wwwhhhhaaaattt ??? Is it a joke ? 20 or 25 % of the dead are civilians. Children. Women. Old people. And you speak about accuracy ? I would love to see the author and its familly in gaza. The 20% “accuracy” would probably seem different.
And the worst come from the next sentence, about “ineffectual rockets”. I was thinking that Isreal decide to kill hundreds of people because they were in danger from the hamas’ rockets. So if they are ineffectual what the point is wrecking the life of thousand of people, and breeding futur terrorists ????
http://zekraa.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/war-upon-humanity-occurred-in-gaza/
This is monstrous propaganda. Long before Hamas turned to hand-held rockets, Israeli leaders blockaded Gaza, caused immense suffering, and the West Bank became (General Sharon’s approved term) “apartheid”. And then the massacres caused by the 4th largest military force in the world devastaed inncents en masse in Gaza.The country which incarcerated for 28 years the man who dared say Israel had atomic weapons went on it devastating way. If the world becomes polarized, Israel’s alliances and propaganda will be a prime cause, and the worst fears of David J. Goldberg,”The Divided Self”, and Jacqueline Rose, “Understanding Zion”, will be realized. If peace, justice and honor together with secrurity are to be realized, the lkeaders of these crimes against humanity must be tried before the Court of World Justice.
This friend of Israel devoutly hopes it will find leaders who own up to her crimes and chart a way to peace and security. Otherwise…
[...] rates began to materialize. Foreign exchange, frequently known as FX is the largest and the most fluent financial market in the world’s. If you want to learn forex or you want to find the [...]
American arms prevent Israel from negotiating peace with its neighbors. Eventually the US will be unable to subsidize Israel’s killing machine and then Israel will be subjected to the same barbarity it has exhibited for the past thirty years. Few will shed tears for them after what has occurred in Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza at the end of 2008, unless Israel commits nuclear murder suicide, which is the most likely outcome of its eventual defeat, and then we will all cry for ourselves for not doing more to stop the current genocide.
I was about to give Prospect another chance when I saw Mr Luttwak’s eminently reasonable article. But then I read the comments, and I remembered why I gave up. Self-important poseurs with no interest beyond sustaining their sense of moral superiority, safe in the knowledge their supposed principles will never be tested as those of the citizens of Israel are. People who believe that a democratic country’s interests should be held hostage by what “1bn Muslims see” – as though their judgements were based on reading a free press, when most in the Arab world receive a cradle-to-grave diet of the most insidious anti-Jewish libel.
Most rebarbative are the kinds of shouted comments by ‘matt’, who presumes to know exactly what happened, because he read it on a website. Yet, as pedictable to anyone with a passing interest in the Middle East, details are emerging about the alleged attack on the UNWRA school that cast serious doubts about the basis of the allegations – as in the al Dura case, the targeting of ambulances in the Lebanon 2006 etc ad nauseam. They make his regurgitations at best dubious, if not wholly erroneous. The non-combatant deaths occured *outside* the school, as even matt can agree – so in what way were these people ’sheltering’? Who takes refuge *outside* a building? Could it possibly be that they were *put* there by Hamas operatives *in order to be killed*?
Or maybe it was Mossad.
Ted mate, YOU ARE MISSING THE WHOLE PICTURE WHILE POINTING OUT THE DIFFERENCE IN THE SHADES OF A FEW STROKES…
what dave – the red cross is lying dave…
“The International Committee of the Red Cross announced that four ambulance cars that belong to it and to the Palestinian Red Crescent could on 18/ 1/ 2009 reach a number of houses in Al-Zaitoun Neighborhood in Gaza. That area was hit badly by the Israeli army. Also the Committee found a big number of dead bodies of men and some children who were waiting and crying near the bodies of their dead mothers! ”
[http://www.australia.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4624:gaza-attestations-about-death-and-destruction&catid=71:world-news&Itemid=30]
AMBULANCES NOT BEING ALLOWED TO ASSIST INJURED PEOPLE MATE…
Red Cross officials said rescue crews had received reports of casualties in the houses and had been trying since Saturday to send ambulances to the area but the Israeli military did not grant permission until Wednesday.
[http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/news/world/world/general/ambulances-finally-allowed-in-to-fetch-injured-and-dead/1403039.aspx]
So every one is LYING!
THE RED CROSS-RED CRESCENT-THE UN ETC -But…
Israel is telling THE TRUTH…
13 people to 1300 people
THIS IS the death toll MATE…
thats all mate
there is nothing else to be said …
but indulge me and correct me if i am wrong…
didnt some of the soldiers die of friendly fire?
so the palestinians managed to inflict WHAT 5 OR SO deaths WITH HUNDREDS OF “ROCKETS”…
COME ON DAVE…
AND LOOK AT THE MILEGE ISRAEL GETS OUT OF THESE SO CALLED ROCKETS
DON’T GET ME WRONG, I LIKE THE JEWISH AND AM SADDENED BY THE DEATH OF A SINGE PERSON…
ITS NOT THE ISRAELIE PEOPLE BUT THE GOVERNMENT IS WRONG – SIMPLE DIMPLE DAVE…
The only reason for this PATHETIC DISPROPORTIONATE TOLL is that the REALITY DAVE…
Palestinians do not even have A SINGLE 1 of the thousands of bombs that rained down upon them…
THEY ARE IN AN OPEN AIR PRISON DAVE…
ISRAEL CUTS OFF THE POWER- GAS- SUPPLIES & EVEN THE WATER DAVE…
WHAT WOULD YOU DO AS A FATHER DAVE…?
YOU ARE RIGHT, I AM NOT THERE BUT NEITHER ARE YOU MATE…
They only have so called “rockets” improvised car exhaust pipes etc… have you seen any pictures of these so called rockets – they are nothing like the phosphorous / cluster / tank shells israel army bombards the open air prison of gaza with everyday…
just a quick question ted..
how many palestinians are in israel prisons without trial mate?
including ministers of its DEMOCRATICALLY elected gaza government. ISRAEL TALKS ABOUT DEMOCRACY!!!
yes the mossad did it & more and more people are finding out…
thats why there is no media allowed dave…
why else mate…
thank god for the interenet mate ….
otherwise we would be fed from the teat of the 4-5 news agencies controlled or influenced by zionist interests – as is the case with most transnational corporations dave…
LOOK IT UP – ITS ON THE NET – AND YES IT IS TRUE DAVE…
ANCIENT WISDOM MATE – IF THERE IS SMOKE – THERE IS FIRE…
ALL I CAN SAY IS THAK GOD FOR THE INTERNET…
matt: Your faith in Hamas progapaganda is almost as quaint as your use of capitals. You must have a highly engineered car if you think Wei-She or Grad rockets are made out of exhaust pipes, rather than by the military industries of China and Russia respectively.
As a father, I’d probably not let my children out on the streets while there were Hamas gunmen running around. And if they couldn’t stay indoors, I’d teach them to get behind hard cover rather than take shelter in the open, in a conflict zone, by a school which was an established Hamas firing point. I’d also try to bring them up with aspirations more positive than killing Israelis.
Most importantly, I’d try to encourage my children to question exactly why they live in a shit-hole with no infrastructure when billions of dollars in aid has been sent to the territory. I’d ask them where they thought that had money gone, and how wisely it had been spent. I’d ask them why they thought that, in spite of our people having been there in ‘temporary’ camps for sixty years, they were still dependent on the UN and other transnational bodies to do anything for them. I’d ask them to ponder how sincere our supposed sympathisers in the West were, and whether they were just vacationing in our misery to indulge their own self-esteem.
I’d hope they might deduce it had something to do with the kinds of people who have claimed to lead the Palestinians for the past decades, and with the kinds of allies the Palestinians have put their faith in – the kind that launch three abortive wars, get soundly beaten, and *still* complain about Israeli aggression. That way, my children might think more carefully before putting their faith in ‘political’ parties which prioritise killing Palestinian opponents and Israelis over providing for its citizens.
Of course, I wouldn’t make the mistake of encouraging my children to ask those questions within in the ear-shot of anyone from Hamas, because we’d probably be beaten up if not murdered by them – unlike a father in Israel (or the US), who would be free not only to question his government, but to stage protests against it in public without fear.
I have commented on this blog before and so felt I had to clarify my stance vis-a-vis certain other remarks on it. First, I could not see how Israel could have done anything other than a ground invasion to prevent the rockets, which they had to do, negating all complaints about proportionality. I also find the comments of matt above not only laughably erroneous and childishly simplistic, but the overtones of “Zionist conspiracies” are deeply offensive.
However, that in no way excuses the self-righteousness of Ted Tedford’s remarks about what he would try to teach his children were he living Gaza – a nauseating hypothetical. The absolute horror of the reality is that, in many cases, these people have no chance to teach their children anything, merely to bury them.