What Was Israel Supposed to Do?

The government of Israel keeps saying their actions in Gaza are justifiable because they are doing it in retaliation for what Hamas has done. Hamas says the same exact thing - that they are firing the rockets in retaliation for what Israel did in imposing a blockade and bombing their tunnels and leaders. I find both points completely unpersuasive - yes, including Israel's.

Every day now, I hear someone saying, "What was Israel supposed to do? Hamas keeps firing rockets into their country." So, here is a quick list of the things they were supposed to do:

1.    Not break the cease fire in the first place.

Yes, I understand their frustration with the tunnels, which are used not only to smuggle in food, medicine and goods, but also to smuggle in weapons. But those weapons were not being used until Israel started bombing the tunnels.

What were they supposed to do? Wait until the weapons were used? Yes! That's the point of a cease-fire. I know Israel would not like any of their enemies to have any weapons. From their perspective that makes sense. But Israel doesn't need tunnels for weapons, the US just gives it to them and their weapons are a thousand times bigger.

So, yes, you do not bomb just because the other side might acquire one percent of the weapons you have. Otherwise, you will always be bombing, because it is logical for the other side to try to acquire those weapons for what they perceive to be self-defense.

If you're threshold for starting violence is that the other side is thinking about it (close to the rationale we used in Iraq), then you will always be starting wars. Self-defense, my ass. Those are called first strikes. If you think it's necessary, fine, but don't pretend that you didn't start the hostilities.

2.    You are stronger. Don't strike back.

I know people will say that's crazy. You have to retaliate! Otherwise you will show weakness! Again, that is exactly what Hamas says to their fellow Palestinians. "We have to strike back! We can't let the Israelis push us around anymore!"

And what do we tell them? Choose non-violence instead. I must have said that a million times in reference to Hamas and the Palestinians. So, why can't I say the same thing to Israel? Why are the Palestinians the only ones that must choose non-violence? Shouldn't Israel also choose non-violence?

In fact, the strong have a responsibility to be better than that. They can lead the way toward peace because they know if it comes down to all out war, they can destroy the other side.

Sometimes an older brother doesn't hit back his younger brother because he knows he can cause more damage than the little guy. That is being smart, responsible and decent. Hitting a UN school and killing 30 civilians, mostly children, is not being any of those things.

3.    Make a peace deal already.

Here is the standard response to this: "We are ready to make a peace deal but the Palestinians won't agree. Arafat walked away from a deal in 2000. They don't want peace." That's horse crap. In negotiations, people accept certain deals and won't accept others. That's completely normal. Ehud Barak also walked away from that deal because he had an election coming up in the beginning of 2001. That's also normal. If people don't like deals enough, they walk away from them.

The biggest dispute was over what percentage of the West Bank Israel would keep. That is a perfectly fair dispute. Either side could have given in and taken a lower percentage. Neither side did.

Could Israel have had a deal if they gave up all of the West Bank, split Jerusalem and gave the right of return for Palestinian refugees? Absolutely. Every single negotiator involved in the process will tell you the Palestinians would have taken that deal in a second.

Now, if I was Israel would I take that deal? No. But that's my point; both sides could have a deal instantly if they gave up a little bit more than they are willing. So, to pretend only the Palestinians are unwilling to negotiate is silly. And right now, Israel says they can't negotiate with Hamas because Hamas won't recognize Israel's right to exist. And Hamas says Israel will not recognize their right to exist (which is true; in fact, Israel just started an invasion to eradicate Hamas). Both sides are ridiculously obstinate.

Again, it is incumbent upon the strong to bend a little, especially if they claim they really, really want peace. But even if you don't want to bend during the negotiations and you want to keep a slightly higher percentage of the West Bank, please don't pretend you didn't have a choice.

Finally, let me ask you this personal question to give you a sense of what people mean when they say Israel is acting disproportionately. Let's say you're walking down the street in your local town and you hear gun fire. You have a vague suspicion that someone is firing at you from a nearby school, would you firebomb the school just in case?

You know what the answer to that question is, if you're a decent human being. No way. You might be scared out of your mind. You might be afraid for your life. But you are not going to throw a bomb into a school full of children just in case (especially when you're not even sure that's where the shots are coming from). You would be called a psychopath if you did. But today, we hear excuses like, "Hey, that's what happens in wars." Maybe, that's why it is incumbent upon us to try a little harder to avoid them. So that we don't all act like psychopaths when they start.

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Israel should not be running the world's largest outdoor prison, and then cutting off access to food, fuel, medical supplies, and other minimal requirements for the survival of the Palestinians. Here's a crazy thought: people who are being starved, and who are watching their children being starved, might not be especially interested in peace with the people starving them. 

Israel should also consider that an average of two deaths by rocket fire per year are not justification for the destruction of Palestinian schools, hospitals, and general infrastructure in violation of international law. In the civilized world (which Israel cannot be counted as part of) when there's a shooting we don't respond by blowing up the neighborhood where the shooter lives. When there's a murder we don't blow up the hospital near the murderer's home. 

 

by Improbable Joe on 01/06/2009 05:03:31 PM EST

what Israel has had to put up with since Christmas Day (see below).  The difference between a rocket and a missile is a guidance system.  A rocket is the motor (propellent) and a warhead.  A missile is the above plus a guidance system that controls the rocket's movement in flight making it much more accurate.  Hamas has not used missiles, or they would have scored a much higher kill ratio.  While rockets are definitely deadly, they are more of a harassment tool than a weapon to bring a foe under submission.  Should Hamas be using any type of weapon against Israel?  My answer is NO.  Are the Palestinians in Gaza as well off as Morton Klein (Zionist) would like us to believe?  F*** No, unless merely existing is life.  Hamas may think they are winning a public relations victory, but the world is going to eventually become so tired of the situation that the best solution will end up moving the Mediterranean coast about 200 miles east.

Palestianians Use Extended Range Rockets
The Chinese rockets referred to by General Ben-David, are most likely rockets of the 122mm version of the WeiShi family of rocket, ( WS-1E) developed and produced by the Sichuan Aerospace Industry Corporation (SCAIC) also known as Base 062. According to Sinodefence website, these rockets didn't enter production, yet apparently, some reached Hammas and exploded in Beer Sheba. WS-1E was developed for the Type 90 truck mounted multiple rocket launchers. Several versions of different calibers of the WeiShi artillery rocket systems are employed by the People's Republic of China Army and were widely exported to third world countries.

The WS-1E rocket measures about 2.9 meters (depending on type and range) and weighs 61-74 kg. Uunlike the ubiquitous Grad, these Chinese rockets are using both fin and spin stabilization to achieve high accuracy and low dispersion of multiple rockets groups. Unlike the Grad which uses a fixed amount of propellant and warhead, designed for maximum range of 20 km, the Chinese rocket uses a modular design, where some of the payload can be exchanged for propellant.

The two versions of this rocket are the 20km and 40km. Both types use a single chamber FG-42/43 solid rocket propellant uses an advanced hydroxy-terminated polybutadine (HTPB) composition. The rocket's payload consists of a modular warhead weighing 18-22kg in the standard version (20-40km version) or 26-28kg in the short range version (10-12kg). The standard high explosive (RDX-based) warhead can be enhanced with the ZDB-2 blast fragmentation warhead, comprising high explosive charge, containing reduced RDX-based explosive charge, over 4,000 steel ball matrix liner and prefabricated fragmentation sheath, extending lethal effect over a radius of about 100 meters. A thermobaric warhead is also available, comprising of a 17kg warhead containing 6.2 kg of energetic composition and 1,500 steel balls for dual-purpose effect optimized for urban warfare, and the SZB-1 anti-personnel and anti-armor mines containing submunitions for area denial attack.



by gatekeeper50 on 01/06/2009 05:57:48 PM EST

is your best article to date.

by Tom Hanc on 01/06/2009 06:37:31 PM EST

Your sibling analogy doesn't work. You cannot compare Hamas killing Israeli civilians with rockets to getting beaten up by a younger brother. In the former, people actually die. They don't come back to life. At the very least, they suffer permanent injuries. In the latter, the brother may get heavily bruised, but the bruises aren't permanent. He will eventually heal and continue with his life as though it never happend. Nobody dies. Also, the older brother has the choice to defend himself or retaliate. The Israeli civilians do not. Their government makes that choice for them. Any time you have one person making decisions for another person that affect their health or wellbeing, things get alot more complicated.

Although some changes could be made to make the analogy better, such as having the younger brother attack the older one with a weapon so that the damage caused is permanent, fundamentally, your analogy will still fall apart because it anthropomorphizes a country. It treats the entirety of Israel as an indivisible entity when the key issue you're trying to address (the bombing of Israeli civilians) is something that affects its parts.

by mechanicalMonkey on 01/07/2009 01:12:50 AM EST

to destroy Hamas is primarily a political decision by the party currently in power, the Israeli people do have a choice due to the fact that they live in a democracy and can vote out the people that made the decision to attack Hamas and invade Gaza.

by gatekeeper50 on 01/07/2009 09:52:20 AM EST

[ Parent ]

the relevance of your point to mine depends on whether the older brother in the analogy represents the indirectly applicable collective will of the Israeli people or the directly applicable will of the Israeli government. If the latter is the case, then although the Israeli people do get to choose who makes the choice for them, the government still ultimately makes that choice. If the former is the case (which, I concede, seems more likely on rereading), then the people getting injured or killed still may not agree with the collective decision of their fellow Israelis. Either way, we have a situation where some people are making a decision for others that affect their health or wellbeing. This is very different than the situation with the brothers in which the person who makes the decision is the only one affected by its consequences.

by mechanicalMonkey on 01/07/2009 12:37:18 PM EST

[ Parent ]
it would be the directly applicable will of the Israeli government, whereas the brother seems to represent the indirectly applicable will of the Israeli people.  When communities grow to the size of nation/states and require governments with bureaucracies then the collective will is often subordinated to the decisions of the bureaucrates unless those government bureaucracies are turned over to private businesses whose primary goal is to make a profit.  That is where this nation stands with the republicans selling out to the greed of private contractors working for the DoD and our health industry.  Obama, IMHO, will want to reign in those impulses and take the profit incentive out of both defense and health care.
     The current Israeli governement, it appears, has politics rather than private greed driving it to the extremes we now see in Gaza.  I don't think the older brother would break both his younger brother's legs, arms, and neck while holding his head over a candle just to make a point.  The father (Israeli govt.), though, should be held accountable by the collective will of the larger community (ie. UN, NATO, Arab League, or other world body) and it is that entity (perhaps only public opinion) that will have to eventually prevail.  I hope and believe Barack Obama will lead in that effort on January 20th.

by gatekeeper50 on 01/07/2009 02:45:39 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Lets try a different one.  The Middle East is a biker bar.  Israel is the biggest, meanest, baddest biker in the bar.  The Palestinians are a 98 pound weakling wannabe.  They come in and sit at the end of the bar talking trash, that the big biker doesn't have the right to be in the bar, and the next time they come in, the floor will be paved with the big bikers blood.  Eventually they screw their courage up and go start punching the biker in the arm.  Initially, the big biker pushes them away gruffly.  When they immediately come back, the big biker pounds the 98 pound weakling into a pulp.  If you objectively witnessed this scene, who would you blame?  Fact is, sometimes you get what you ask for.  It is tragic that all of Gaza suffers because of Hamas' actions, but the Palestinians did elect these terrorists. 

by raynjuls on 01/09/2009 12:49:05 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Isreal and the international community's behavior here has only ever served to radicalize the Palestinians.  This was an accepted outcome from the time Israel was "created."  We now have a population of poor, starving, uneducated, unemployed people - and the international community will do nothing to help.  I think the real question is, what are the PALESTINIANS supposed to do?  And what should Israel and the rest of the world EXPECT them or any other population under similar circumstances to do?  Does anyone expect a desperate population to lie peacefully waiting until some fairy godmother decides they're worthy of basic human rights? 

by KerriEllis77 on 01/07/2009 11:56:22 AM EST

Another human scale analogy: Imagine that your neighbor has a dog who craps on your lawn. Instead of calling the dog catcher you get a Hummer and drive it into his living room, then back out and driveit into his kitchen, then you shoot his dog but don't stop there and you shoot his daughter and blow off his son's leg and rape his wife.  Yeah, that evens things up, just the way the Israelis even things up.

Put along side the list of people killed by Palestinian rockets in the last two years to the over 200 times the number of Palestinians killed by Israel. Then put along side a photograph of the rubble and ruin of a Palestine street a comparable phote of an Israel street. There aren't any such photos!

Israel is a pariah nation, and all the time they have been justifying their actions as defending their right to exist they have instead been convincing the world that they don't deserve to exist even if they have the right.

by Gregory Wonderwheel on 01/08/2009 07:29:36 PM EST

2006 = "660 Palestinians had been killed during 2006, including 141 minors. The report claimed that at least 322 of those killed were not fighters."  "Palestinians killed 17 civilians, including one minor, and six members of the security forces."

Let's see 660 to 17 = 38.8 times more palestinians or
http://www.commondreams.org /headlines06/1230-01.htm

2007= "the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in 2007 stood at 373, of whom 53 were under 18. B'Tselem said its research showed about 35% of the dead were civilians who were not involved in fighting when they were killed." "There were 13 Israelis killed, of whom seven were civilians."
http://www.buzzle.com/artic les/169868.html  

373 to 13 is 28.7 times more Palestinians killed than Israelis.

The current conflict 2008-2009:&nb sp;  "At least 524 Palestinians have been killed, at least a quarter of them civilians, a U.N. agency said.  Forty-two, mostly civilians, were killed on Sunday, a medical source said.
"Four Israelis have been killed by rockets and mortars fired into Israel since the offensive began and an Israeli soldier was killed in fighting on Sunday, and 48 were wounded after Israel expanded its operation into a ground invasion."
 Monday, January 05, 2009
http://www.geo.tv/1-5-2009/ 32028.htm

524 to 5 is 104.8 times more Palestinians killed compared to Israelis.

by Gregory Wonderwheel on 01/08/2009 07:52:33 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Armed men getting in the back of a van with lights flashing.  Who was driving the van?  What were the markings on the van?  How did the men getting in the van gain control of the van?  Who are the men getting in the van?  When was the video made?  Where was the video made?  Why are the men labeled terrorists?  

How is this less than two minute video clip undeniable proof of anything?

by gatekeeper50 on 01/09/2009 03:04:34 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Persoanlly I think Israel should give more rights and more power to the people of the west bank who elected a more moderate leadership. This would be a pretty nonviolent way to discourage people from electing hamas.

by nmaks on 01/09/2009 04:07:08 PM EST

it is a fact that:

"the Gaza strip was under military occupation that lasted for 27 years, 1967-1994. and even after that Israel retained control of air space, territorial waters, offshore maritime access, the population registry, entry of foreigners, imports, and exports, as well as the tax system."

which basicly means it was under economic occupation untill 2005. after that "Israel maintained its control over the crossings in and out of Gaza. offical documents such as passports, I.D. cards, export and import papers, and many others must be approved by the Israeli army."

 

even when israel went on with the  "unilateral disengagement plan" claiming to have "given the palestinians a chance to build thier own country, but they choose to fight". Israel kept control over all of the above.

hamas was founded in 1987. the way i see it, its a natural reaction. and i don't think hamas is perfect but israel keeps oppressing the palestinians.

and this war is only an attempt to further oppress the  palestinians, because their democratic choice doesnt match with israel's idea. the whole "self defence" thing is only a part if israels propaganda, who doesnt want peace. proof is that Mahmoud abbas did everything israel asked and the west bank still looks like swiss cheese, and the number of check points only increased.

 

I know hamas isnt using the best methods but after so long this is what they can try now. and im proud of such strong resistance.

by Alonso21 on 01/13/2009 11:34:06 AM EST

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