[News] Israeli Slaughter, International Culpability

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Israeli Slaughter, International Culpability
Gaza massacre points to urgent need for viable sanctions
December 29, 2008 By Dan Freeman-Maloy

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20075

There is every reason to be outraged. But despite the severity of 
Israeli atrocities in Gaza, we have little right to act surprised. 
Whatever else can be said, Israel has made it abundantly clear that 
until its actions are met with credible international sanctions, it 
will subject Palestinians (and very likely others in the region) to 
massive, recurring waves of violence.

This was clear when the Obama-Biden campaign helped to lay the 
political foundation for this assault. It was clear when, amidst 
threats of such an operation and ongoing colonization in the West 
Bank, the European Union voted to upgrade relations with Israel 
earlier this month. For those of us in Canada, it has been clear as 
the Harper government has sharpened its alignment with Israel in the 
absence of any sustained parliamentary opposition.

Still, although "Operation Cast Lead" (as the Israeli regime has 
dubbed its latest assault) extends more or less naturally from 
longstanding Israeli policies, it is many ways especially despicable. 
The most obvious issue is its scale. Beginning on the morning of 
Saturday the 27th, approximately 110 Israeli Air Force (IAF) fighter 
jets and helicopters bombarded the densely populated Gaza Strip with 
more than 100 tons of explosives, initiating what may well evolve 
into an even broader onslaught. By the end of the day, more than 230 
Palestinians had been killed, an additional 780+ wounded.
As the death toll from air strikes continues to climb, hundreds of 
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) infantry and armored corps troops have 
been deployed on the border with Gaza along with IDF artillery 
batteries, and several thousands reservists have been called up in 
preparation for a potential ground invasion.
The assault has been characterized by brazen contempt for civilian 
life and by crass, cynical diplomacy.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050426.html>reports that the 
IDF, long planning for such an operation, received final 
authorization the morning of Friday the 26th. That day, Major General 
Amiram Levin (res.) spoke on IDF Radio and conveyed the flavour of 
Israeli military doctrine regarding the then impending attack: "The 
whole issue of fighting against and bringing down the Hamas regime is 
a mistake and very difficult to achieve. What we have to do is act 
systematically with the aim of punishing all the organizations that 
are firing the rockets and mortars, as well as the civilians who are 
enabling them to fire and hide."[1] Yoav Galant, the head of Israeli 
Southern Command and a key commander in the attack, has since 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050434.html>stated that a key 
operational goal is pursuing "the maximum number of enemy casualties 
[while] keeping Israel Defense Force casualties at a minimum." Recall 
that Israel has designated the Gaza Strip as a whole an "enemy entity."

It can also not be emphasized enough that, bombardment or no 
bombardment, Israel is perpetrating a profound and ongoing crime 
against the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Gaza who 
have been stripped of political and residency rights within what is 
now Israel, pushed from their homes (mostly in 1948), and 
concentrated in a densely populated coastal territory under effective 
Israeli control from the borders and the sky. Military assaults such 
as these, like the more sustained policies of siege and economic 
suffocation, aggressively build upon this fundamental crime.

As for the diplomatic component of this assault, there is little 
question that the timing was cynically calculated in an effort to 
reduce international pressure. Some are happy with the results. 
Ha'aretz military correspondent Amir Oren, for instance, 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050436.html>writes that 
"Israel's timing of the offensive is actually pretty good: Both the 
paratroopers and the Golani brigade, which was going to replace them, 
maintained a high level of preparedness while most of the 
international inspectors in the region went home for Christmas -- 
only 15 remain in Gaza." A similar dynamic has compounded the effects 
of Israeli restrictions in limiting the presence of foreign media 
correspondents.
Still, there is no way that the international community can plead 
ignorance or stubborn gullibility, and responsibility for this 
ongoing slaughter extends far beyond Israel.
Egyptian officials, some of whom met with Israeli counterparts in the 
lead-up to the attack, 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1049776.html>reportedly provided 
explicit endorsement for Israeli military action against Gaza. Just 
before the assault, Egyptian forces were sent to 
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230111710874&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull>reinforce 
the crossing at Rafah, the one land crossing Gaza has that does not 
border Israel.
The United States, whose Israeli-piloted aircraft are raining death 
and destruction upon Gaza (following up on the 
<http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/19033>Obama campaign's 
dangerous rhetoric), has toed the familiar line. Bush administration 
officials have blamed the Israeli onslaught on the Palestinians, as 
the president-elect expresses "appreciation" for Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice's updates regarding the unfolding crime.[2] 
Meanwhile, European Union officials have used their upgraded contacts 
with Israel to issue a toothless call for a ceasefire, persistently 
packaging the ongoing massacre as a symmetrical conflict.[3]
So-called "Quartet" envoy Tony Blair, for his part, had a week before 
the invasion already all but openly 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048022.html>called for an 
Israeli assault on Gaza.
Regionally, the effective complicity of some governments and the 
inaction of others is at least precipitating an 
<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hEnNcEIZkLYEx0wEoVQcI0Dw9uLQD95BP6GG0>outpouring 
of organized outrage. Whether those culpable in Europe and North 
America face a sustained domestic backlash will reveal much about the 
political integrity of civil society sectors and the health of 
anything worth describing as progressive politics in our societies.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military assault has predictably been 
paralleled by a diplomatic or Hasbara (propaganda) offensive which 
has been publicly discussed for some time. "We won't win in the 
suffering stakes," Yarden Vatikay, head of the Information 
Directorate of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office, was 
quoted  as warning advocates on December 26, "but we have to try to 
move the focus to the Hamas terror attacks against our civilians."[4] 
Foreign minister Tzipi Livni is stepping up whitewashing efforts in 
precisely this spirit.

Defense minister Ehud Barak, perhaps betting that association with 
additional war crimes offers a boost to any candidate in the current 
Israeli electoral climate (parliamentary elections are slated for 
February), has also been chipping in on the Hasbara front. In an 
interview with Fox News, Barak continued to mesh the politics of 
Israeli aggression with the "war on terror" -- indeed, many Israeli 
columnists are proudly 
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230111721887&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull>describing 
"Cast Lead" as Israel's very own "Shock and Awe." "For us to be asked 
to have a ceasefire with Hamas is like asking you to have a ceasefire 
with Al-Qaida," Barak declared to his US audience, adding a direct 
threat of ground invasion: "If boots on the ground will be needed, 
they will be there."[5]
The idea that any of this is "needed," that any component of this 
operation is necessary, is nonsense. But it is nonsense with broad 
Israeli parliamentary backing. At the far "dovish" end of Jewish 
Israeli party politics, for example, Meretz joined in calling for an 
assault on Gaza and was kept informed as the plans were put into effect.[6]
Still, anyone with their eyes open must see the vast gap separating 
Israeli objectives from the Hasbara so dutifully parrotted throughout the West.
Consider the words of Israeli Brigadier General (res.) Shmuel Zakai, 
former commander of the IDF's Gaza Division, speaking on IDF Radio a 
few days before the invasion.
"In Zakai's view," Ha'aretz 
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048931.html>reported on 
December 22, "Israel's central error during the tahadiyeh, the 
six-month period of relative truce that formally ended on Friday, was 
failing to take advantage of the calm to improve, rather than 
markedly worsen, the economic plight of the Palestinians of the Strip."
Zakai, stressing that Israel has "made every effort to separate 
ourselves from the Palestinians," expressed some bewilderment at the 
apparent Israeli determination to go beyond concentrating 
Palestinians in a ghettoized Gaza (the right ethnic cleansing move, 
from his perspective) in order to actively suffocate their economy 
while using military assaults as the main instrument to force them to 
starve in peace.
"It's just like after the disengagement," Zakai was quoted as saying. 
"We left Gaza and we thought that troubles were over. Did we really 
think that a million and a half people living in that kind of poverty 
were going to mount the rooftops and sing the Betar hymn? That is 
illogical." But instead of negotiating a truce based on the limited 
concessions which Hamas would accept under the circumstances 
(including opening crossings so that those imprisoned in Gaza can at 
least subsist), Israel has again opted for escalating violence.
The operative mindset was supportively 
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230111721887&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull>presented 
on Saturday by Yaakov Katz, military correspondent and defense 
analyst for the Jerusalem Post: "The end-strategy is not completely 
formulated but officials said that if Hamas gets down on its knees 
and begs Israel to stop, the request will be considered."
This vile, depraved determination to collectively punish and 
humiliate defies all but effectively genocidal logic.
Such logic may play well in the Israeli electoral arena. Reports 
indicate that the far-right Israel Beiteinu is siphoning votes from 
Likud for its resolute calls for escalating violence.[7] Given his 
perceived role in the invasion, "Barak is back in the political 
ring," one Ha'aretz 
<http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050437.html>report suggests. 
Perhaps Kadima, enveloping itself in the legacy of Ariel Sharon and 
visibily orchestrating the invasion Hasbara, can get itself some of 
the credit. The Israeli military establishment will meanwhile 
effectively <http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048352.html>keep 
formulating and implementing policy.
But if these latest atrocities do not provoke the sort of rage that 
can be sustained, defended and directed against those European and 
North American officials who facilitate these crimes, those of us in 
the West will have less and less ground to credibly disassociate 
ourselves from massacres such as these.

Whether Israel escalates this massacre with ground troops or pulls 
back in order to merely confine and suffocate the population of Gaza 
for a period, it is frighteningly clear that without forceful 
external pressure, much worse is yet to come.


[1] "Israeli general says Hamas must not be the only target in Gaza; 
Text of report by IDF Radio on 26 December," December 26 2008, BBC 
Monitoring Middle East.
[2] "Obama, Rice discuss Israel's strikes against Hamas," December 28 
2008, Xinhua News Agency.
[3] "Solana calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza," December 27 2008, 
Agence France Presse.
[4] Anshel Pfeffer, "Israel prepares troops and PR offensive to 
counter Hamas," December 26 2008, the Jewish Chronicle.
[5] "Israel 'cannot accept' ceasefire with Hamas says Barak," 
December 27 2008, Reuters.
[6] Joshua Mitnick, "Israel threatens offensive in Gaza -- Government 
tells Hamas to stop rocket attacks, warning 'we are stronger,'" 
December 26 2008, The Wall Street Journal.
[7] Toni O'Loughlin, "Israeli far right gains ground as Gaza rockets 
fuel tension," December 27 2008, The Guardian.





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