[News] Extraordinary Precision: The Logic of Israel's War on Civilians

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.aljazeerah.info/10%20o/Extraordinary%20Precision%20The%20Logic%20of%20Israels%20War%20on%20Civilians%20By%20Ramzy%20Baroud.htm

Extraordinary Precision: The Logic of Israel's War on Civilians

By Ramzy Baroud

Al-Jazeerah, August 10, 2006



A Sky News newscaster, interviewing British 
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett on Sunday, 
July 30 demanded an answer to this paraphrased 
question: if indeed Israel had precise 
intelligence that a Hizbullah operative was 
present in the village of Qana, in South Lebanon, 
how could it possibly fail to realize that the 
area was also crowded with civilians?

The question was prompted by Beckett’s insistence 
that while Israeli attacks that victimize 
uncountable civilians ­ like that in Qana which 
killed scores, mostly children ­ were 
"appalling", they resulted from tactical errors, 
and were never deliberate. In fact, she referred 
to the "apparent deliberate targeting" --as 
described by UN secretary Kofi Annan ­ of the UN 
peacekeepers compound in South Lebanon and the 
killing of four unarmed observers, as a "mistake." e

In effect, Israel is hardly accused ­ at least in 
the Western narrative of the Middle East crisis, 
as exemplified in media coverage and political 
discourse ­ of deliberately targeting civilians, 
even among those who are daring enough to 
describe Israel’s response to Hizbullah’s 
"provocation" ­ the capturing of two Israeli 
soldiers on July 12 ­ as "disproportionate."

Israel often acknowledges ­ with "regret" ­ the 
high civilian tolls of its war; sometimes it goes 
as far as apologizing for such unintended 
"mistakes." The Israeli government however is 
adamant that it will continue to carry out such 
attacks; that it’s those who "hide among the 
civilian population" which deserve the blame, not 
Israel; that neither Hizbullah nor Palestinian 
resistance groups seem to care much for the life 
of Israeli civilians, while Israel does care for 
Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. In fact, and 
ironically, according to various Israeli 
politicians and media pundits, one of Israel’s 
objectives is to liberate its neighbors from the 
suffocating grip of terrorists. An objective 
journalist is expected to highlight both 
narratives, without pointing out the fallacies of one or the other.

Such "objectivity" has served Israel well, since 
facts on the ground are hardly consistent with its claims.

For example, out of nearly 4,000 Palestinians 
killed during the Second Palestinian Uprising ­ 
in the last 5 years ­ the overwhelming majority 
have been civilians, many of whom are children. 
Such figures are also mirrored in much of the 
damage inflicted by Israel’s military machine 
against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories: 
the great majority of the wounded, the destroyed 
infrastructure, the confiscated land, the razed 
orchards, the bulldozed homes, etc, have been 
overwhelmingly civilian. Wednesday, July 26, was 
hardly a diversion from that norm, as 29 
Palestinian civilians, many of whom were children 
as young as a few months old, were killed in 
northern Gaza, all in the span of 24 hours.

As of today, including the Qana onslaught, the 
number of Lebanese civilians confirmed dead has 
crossed the 750 mark; more than one third of them 
are children, according to UN counts. Likewise, 
the destroyed Lebanese infrastructure, not only 
in Hizbullah’s strongholds in the south, but 
across Lebanon were built primarily for the 
benefit of the civilian population.

The handy excuse that Hizbullah and Hamas 
fighters launch their rockets at Israel from 
civilian areas, no longer suffices. There is yet 
to be one shred of evidence, one video or bit of 
satellite footage ­ at least in the ongoing war 
in Lebanon ­ that confirms such an allegation. In 
fact, it seems imprudent for Hizbullah’s fighters 
to expose their operations to Israel’s informers, 
while they can safely fire from the numerous 
orchards dotting the south region and quickly redeploy elsewhere.

Concurrently, the "unintended mistakes" theory, 
promulgated by Israel’s apologists ­ read the 
Bush Administration, among others ­ is utterly 
inconsistent with claims promoted by Israel and 
its apologists that Israel is the "most moral 
army in the world", and that Israel uses the most 
advanced war technology to avoid harming civilians.

These allegations cannot all be accurate, all at 
once. If Israel is indeed very "moral", then why 
does its army continue to repeat the same 
"unintended mistakes", over and over again, for 
decades? Is it possible that the killing and 
wounding of tens of thousands of Palestinian and 
Lebanese civilians as a result of those 
"unintended mistakes" didn’t induce a very moral 
army to reexamine its tactics and adopt a decisive change in military policy?

Wouldn’t that be the "moral" thing to do? (Note 
that the small village of Qana was bombed by the 
Israeli air force in 1996, as civilians were 
seeking shelter in a UN compound, killing over 
100 people, including many children and UN peacekeepers.)

The second claim, that Israel strives to obtain 
high-tech (American) weapon technology to 
minimize civilian casualties, is also fraudulent. 
Once again, the numbers indicate the precise 
antithesis; denoting that either the "fifth 
strongest army in the world" is so horribly 
inept, that most of its military strikes result 
in blunders, or that the killing of civilians is 
in reality part and parcel of Israel’s military 
strategy. This latter assertion, in my opinion, 
is the true objective; but why?

Israeli officials may parrot to the media that 
Hizbullah (like Hamas) is an outsider force that 
holds no legal legitimacy, and that its true 
strength arises from its terrorist links to Iran 
and Syria. Conversely, Israeli conduct on the 
ground gives evidence to a different conviction: 
punishing the true party ­ ordinary Lebanese ­ 
that provide Hezbollah with the needed support to 
sustain such costly military confrontations with 
Israel, or ordinary Palestinians who elected Hamas to power.

Both Hizbullah and Hamas are homegrown; there 
should be little contention over this. But they 
cannot be scrutinized divorced from their 
immediate surroundings: Hizbullah emerged as a 
result of Israel’s frequent bloodbaths in Lebanon 
and its members are comprised primarily of 
victims of Israel’s past wars, while Hamas sprung 
from Palestinian refugee camps in the Occupied 
Territories and has been sustained with the 
support of the poorest segments of the population.

Whatever strategic alliance they hold outside ­ 
Iran, Syria or whomever else that is willing to 
acknowledge their right to fight Israel ­ is out 
of a desperate need for a safe haven, financial 
assistance and a political platform.

Israel knows well that "destroying" Hizbullah and 
Hamas is a losing battle ­ they’ve tried this 
time and again, and have failed with each 
attempt. What is needed now is a concerted effort 
to deprive the leadership of these movements with 
the popular support that placed Hamas at the helm 
of the Palestinian political equation and elected 
Hizbullah to the Lebanese parliament.

The Israeli tactics, however, are reaping a 
conflicting outcome, as both Hizbullah and Hamas 
are emerging more powerful than ever before, 
widely viewed as the only defenders of Lebanon 
and Palestine, as conventional Arab governments 
have finally declared, and without reservation, 
their military impotence and political bankruptcy.

Regardless of its media utterances, Israel has 
committed yet another colossal strategic error, 
comparable in magnitude and consequence to the 
American debacle in Iraq. Indeed, both 
governments are fighting two impossible wars, 
where civilians are killed with extraordinary "precision."

-Ramzy Baroud is a US author and journalist, 
currently based in London. His recent book, The 
Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a 
People’s Struggle, is available at Amazon.com. He 
can be reached at <mailto:ramzybaroud at hotmail.com>ramzybaroud at hotmail.com


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