ISRAEL IS ACTING LIKE THE WORST OF TERRORISTS
The day before the Palestinian assault on the Israeli army post that
resulted in the capture of the Israeli soldier, the Israeli army
kidnapped two Palestinian civilians: a doctor and his brother, from
their home in Gaza.
A Black Flag
By Gideon Levy
Haaretz (Israeli newspaper) | July 2, 2006
A black flag hangs over the "rolling" Israeli operation in Gaza. The
more the operation "rolls," the darker the flag becomes. It is not
legitimate to cut off 750,000 people from electricity. It is not
legitimate to call on the 20,000 Palestinians of Beit Hanun and Beit
Lahia to run from their homes and turn their towns into ghost towns. It
is not legitimate to kidnap half a government and a quarter of a
parliament.
A state that takes such steps is no longer distinguishable from a terror
organization. The harsher the steps, the more monstrous and stupid they
become, the more the moral underpinnings for them are removed.
Everything must be done to win Gilad Shalit's release. What we are doing
now in Gaza has nothing to do with freeing him. It is a widescale act of
vengeance, the kind that the IDF (Israeli army) and Shin Bet (domestic
secret police) have wanted to conduct for some time, mostly motivated by
the deep frustration that the army commanders feel about their impotence
against the Qassams and the daring Palestinian guerilla raid. There's a
huge gap between the army unleashing its frustration and a clever and
legitimate operation to free the kidnapped soldier.
To prevent the army from running as amok as it would like, a strong and
judicious political echelon is required. Until the weekend lull, it
appeared that each step proposed by the army and Shin Bet had been
immediately approved for backing.
The only wise and restrained voice heard so far was that of the
soldier's father, Noam Shalit, of all people. That noble man called at
what is clearly his most difficult hour, not for stridency and not for
further damage done to the lives of soldiers and innocent Palestinians.
Against the background of the IDF's unrestrained actions and the
arrogant bragging of the latest macho spokesmen, Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant
of the Southern Command and Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, Shalit's
father's voice stood out like a voice crying in the wilderness.
Sending tens of thousands of miserable inhabitants running from their
homes, dozens of kilometers from where his son is supposedly hidden, and
cutting off the electricity to hundreds of thousands of others, is
certainly not what he meant in his understated emotional pleas. It's a
shame nobody is listening to the soldier's father, of all people.
The legitimate basis for the IDF's operation was stripped away the
moment it began. It's no accident that nobody mentions the day before
the attack on the Kerem Shalom fort, when the IDF kidnapped two
Palestinian civilians, a doctor and his brother, from their home in
Gaza. The difference between us and them? We kidnapped civilians and
they captured a soldier, "we are a state and they are a terror
organization." How ridiculously pathetic Amos Gilad sounds when he says
that the capture of Shalit was "illegitimate and illegal," unlike when
the IDF grabs civilians from their homes. How can a senior official in
the defense ministry claim that "the head of the snake" is in Damascus,
when the IDF uses the exact same methods?
True, when the IDF and Shin Bet grab civilians from their homes - and
they do so often - it is not to murder them later. But sometimes they
are killed on the doorsteps of their homes, although it is not
necessary, and sometimes they are grabbed to serve as "bargaining
chips," like in Lebanon and now, with the Palestinian legislators. What
an uproar there would be if the Palestinians had grabbed half the
members of the Israeli government. How would we label them?
Collective punishment is illegitimate and it does not have a smidgeon of
intelligence. Where will the inhabitants of Beit Hanun run? With typical
hardheartedness the Israeli military reporters say they were not
"expelled" but that it was "recommended" they leave, for the benefit, of
course, of those running for their lives. And what will this inhumane
step lead to? Support for the Israeli government? Their enlistment as
informants and collaborators for the Shin Bet? Can the miserable farmers
of Beit Hanun and Beit Lahia do anything about the Qassam
rocket-launching cells? Will bombing an already destroyed airport do
anything to free the soldier or was it just to decorate the headlines?
Did anyone think about what would have happened if Syrian planes had
managed to down one of the Israeli planes that brazenly buzzed their
president's palace? Would we have declared war on Syria? Another
"legitimate war"? Will the blackout of Gaza bring down the Hamas
government or cause the population to rally around it? And even if the
Hamas government falls, as Washington wants, what will happen on the day
after?
These are questions for which nobody has any real answers. As usual
here: Quiet, we're shooting. But this time we are not only shooting. We
are bombing and shelling, darkening and destroying, imposing a siege and
kidnapping like the worst of terrorists and nobody breaks the silence to
ask, what the hell for, and according to what right? |
