Someday, one of the sides on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will wake up and realize that the eternal cycle of retaliatory violence isn’t working for either side.
Waves of Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas security facilities in Gaza on Saturday in a crushing response to the group’s rocket fire, killing more than 200 — the highest one-day toll in an Israeli military operation against Palestinians in decades.
Israeli military officials said the airstrikes, which went on into the night, were the start of what could be days or even months of an effort to force Hamas to end its rocket barrages into southern Israel. The operation could ultimately include ground forces, a senior Israeli security official said.
After the initial airstrikes, which Palestinian officials said also wounded at least 600, dozens of rockets struck southern Israel, where an emergency was declared. Thousands of Israelis hurried into bomb shelters amid the hail of rockets, including some longer-range models that reached farther north than ever before. One man was killed in the town of Netivot and four were wounded, one seriously.
The sad thing is that both sides can use this to make their argument. Israel’s “friends” can say that they were provoked into the attack, never mind that the attack was so disproportionate as to be ludicrous. The Palestinians’ “friends” can say that this proves that Palestinians need to continue their rocket attacks, never mind that common sense tells you that if you keep poking an angry bear with a pointy stick, it’s going to attack in a disproportionate way. And meanwhile, Israel is no closer to peaceful coexistence, and Palestine is no closer to having its own functional state, and innocent Israelis and Palestinians are caught in the crossfire.
I’ve long believed that America needs to be a friend to Israel, and being a friend to Israel means, you know, being a friend — and telling them that sometimes, their actions are counterproductive. This attack has already spawned retaliation from Hamas, which will spawn further retaliation from Israel, which will cause further retaliation from Hamas, and so on and so forth, ad infinitum. Until one of the sides (or heck, both) wakes up and realizes this is madness, the madness will continue unabated.
Part of the problem, incidentally, is the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is not as hapless as it allows itself to appear in this. To wit: it is actually intervening in a civil war between Fatah/Tanzim and Hamas/Qassam. Media treatment in the West generally permits people to overlook the fact that Hamas won parliamentary elections 25 January 2006 and attempted to govern responsibly in the Gaza Strip, while al-Fatah’s military wing Tanzim (among many other rogue parties) launched rockets from the GS, and the Quartet (the US, Russia, EU, and UN) withheld the GS’s own tax revenues from the legitimately elected government.
Qassam actually scuppered its unilateral ceasefire in May ’06 (IIRC), long after the IDF “retaliated” against Hamas for failing to prevent rocket launches from GS territory by shelling the enclave nonstop.
You know the old saying – it taks two to make peace, and one to make war.
The problem I see here is that no matter what Israel does, there are a large number of people who want them either completely out of the Middle East, or dead, or both. And there are another even larger number of people who will stand idly by and watch. They’ll make noises of sympathy and write sad histories filled with regret but raise not a hand to stop it. Just like they did in the ’30’s and ’40’s. The Israelis have already seen the movie, thank you. They’re not interested in a starring role in the remake.
Which is not to say that what Israel is doing is the proper response. But none of the alternatives look particularly realistic – at least not to the people whose lives will depend on them.
It’s very sad -for all humanity.
Re: calling this “disproportionate” , would it be better if Israel responded proportionally? Of course not.
I just got through reading an article that said it’s been seven years now that Hamas has been firing rockets and missiles on Sderot and Ashkelon. I read that in the past week about 200 missiles and rockets were fired on Israel. So if Israel responded proportionally and lobbed about 200 Kassams and Katyusha’s on Gaza would that be cool? If hardly any Palestinians died but rather were just terrorized with rocket and missiles on an almost daily basis for seven years would that would be okay?
I am saddened by what’s going on now whether it’s disproprtionate or not.
I believe this could have been prevented. And I give this suggestion with hope that maybe people will do it in the future. It’s a recipe for peace.
If groups like Move On, Peace Now, Not in our Name, Women in Black, Code Pink etc, could have gathered in Gaza in large numbers and non-violently protested Hamas’ missile/rocket bombardment maybe it would have made a difference. These “peace” groups could even have gotten together with pro-Israel and other groups they don’t agree with and worked together for mutual peace. If large masses of non-violent protesters of all political stripes just could have gotten together…. if the international press and the UN could have condemned Hamas’ actions… if the international press had condemned seven years of rockets and missiles terrorizing Jewish children… if there was a mass non-violent resistance that actually protested against ALL violence and not just Israel’s, then maybe actual peace could have been achieved.
Whatever I’m a dreamer .
… if there was a mass non-violent resistance that actually protested against ALL violence and not just Israel’s, then maybe actual peace could have been achieved.
There are many such organizations. Off the top of my head, there’s Amnesty International, the AFSC, et alii. You will probably find, however, that they are not “even-handed” enough for your taste because IDF policy against the camps includes deprivation of livelihood, potable water, sometimes access to food, sewage, etc. This is not remotely comparable to makeshift rockets.
It is not true that Hamas/Qassam has been firing rockets anywhere for seven years. Since its election to office in the GS (January 2006), the Qassam militia honored a unilateral ceasefire against the IDF while the Fatah-affiliated Tanzim militia used GS territory to launch missile attacks. Fatah is currently an ally of the IDF in the Fatah-Hamas civil war. The IDF was well aware of the fact that it was under attack from the Tanzim, not the Qassam, when it retaliated against the latter.
It’s actually erroneous to think this is just tit-for-tat mutual retaliation. Of course that’s how it’s presented to the outside world, but that’s not what is going on. Rather, this is part of a comprehensive counterinsurgency (COIN) war conducted by the IDF against a civilian population. Most of that population endures this treatment with patience, but a small proportion periodically try to fight back. COIN warfare doesn’t involve movement over large territories; it involves establishing “ownership” of basic resources vital to life, such as water and communications. In this respect, the IDF has been very successful. However, they find it necessary to salvage the fiction of the Palestinians as a sort of aggressor state–thereby validating collective punishment against a stateless, dispossessed population.
While the history of oppression of Jews is certainly relevant to the context of current Middle East politics, Israel, and Jews, cannot overlook the fact that in THIS time, in THIS place, they are functioning from a position of power.
My mother (a child psychiatrist) had an interesting comment about parent-child dynamics. She said – the parent has all the power, but the parent wants the child to change before he/she will agree to change the way he/she treats the child. It doesn’t work that way. Only the person with the power can change a dynamic – by changing first.
I see this as relevant to political relationships as well. Perhaps I am too much of an optimist, but I think that only the party in a position of power can really change the dynamic of a dysfunctional relationship; by taking the risk of treating the other party differently without demanding perfection or outlandish “preconditions” first.
I don’t think that’s true. part of the reason that countries seek (and seek to retain) power is because it DOES sometimes allow you to change a dynamic, by forcing the other party into compliance. Israel is trying (unsuccessfully) to force the palestinians into a particular action.
Force works sometimes in some scenarios but it isn’t working here. Even worse, it probably can’t.
I cannot see a way out.
On the anti-Israel side (which includes both Palestinians and many members of the surrounding nations) there are too many people who are willing to make attacks against Israel. You really don’t need a large percentage at all in this scenario; even a percent or two of people would be a huge number.
And there are also not enough people willing to turn them in–either because of the real fear of retaliatory violence, or the political bent. There are probably plenty of people who would not actively participate in attacks, but who would covertly support them; there are others who would not support them at all, but who would not actively oppose them. You need a large, powerful, majority component of people who are willing and able to actively oppose the attacks. that doesn’t seem like it will happen, ever.
And it’s no better on the Israeli side, future-wise: there are too many people who are willing to make attacks on Palestine, and too many other people who may not be calling for attacks but who secretly support them. And there are not enough people in power who are openly opposing the attacks. You need a large, powerful, majority component of people who are willing and able to actively oppose the attacks. That doesn’t seem like it will happen, ever. It’s a bit different in Israel because it’s a more open process politically speaking, but the gist of it is the same. And it’s made even more complex by the fact that some proportion of anti-israeli activity is funneled through palestine but starts in other countries which israel can’t control.
And neither side learns from anything. You would think that the Palestinians might realize that rockets are not going to help. You would think that the Israelis might realize that missiles aren’t going to help. but neither of them apparently do.