The following article appears in today’s Australian newspaper:
Israel’s response to the abduction and killing of its soldiers is disproportionate and counter-productive, warns Antony Loewenstein
Israel is fighting on two fronts and against two forces it helped create. Hamas and Hezbollah gained their political capital by resisting Israeli occupation in Palestine and Lebanon. The past decades have proven that the harder Israel tries to destroy these movements, the greater their credibility and political power.
And what does Israel have to show for countless years of military opposition to terrorism? A region that supports growing Islamic resistance movements and Arab populations that when given the chance vote for them in overwhelming numbers.
Tragically for innocent civilians caught in the ideological crossfire, the escalation in the Middle East has taken a predictable path.
Terrorism is followed by righteous revenge. Israel views itself as the aggrieved party, the victim of unwarranted violence towards its soldiers and citizens. After the abduction of three Israeli officers by Hamas and Hezbollah, the Jewish state, backed by the Bush administration, has unleashed its military might against Palestine and Lebanon.
The ramifications of such disproportionate and illegal force are disturbing and potentially dangerous in this unstable region. In the short term, the moral case for Israel has taken an inevitable battering.
During the past week, civilians have been murdered by Israeli air strikes and artillery. Infrastructure, such as bridges, roads, power plants and airports, has been destroyed.
The Geneva Conventions specifically state that such behaviour is a war crime. Israel and its supporters ignore these legal niceties while demanding enemy forces abide by them. Many Western governments, including Australia, are ignoring this double standard but the Arab world has a long memory, and the stakes are higher than ever in the present geopolitical climate. The US and Israeli response towards the democratically elected Hamas Government in Palestine is clear: no negotiations, no financial support and relentless punishment of the Palestinian people for electing the wrong party.
The recent reoccupation of Gaza – although Israel never really left, controlling all sea, air and road entries into the territory – is aimed at destroying the newly elected Palestinian Government. The imprisonment of dozens of Hamas politicians inevitably will radicalise the Palestinian population. Is a siege mentality now endemic to the Israeli national psyche?
For the international community the Middle East is once again a hot spot: the local drama of conflicting national aspirations sits alongside the twin global interests of nuclear power and petro dollars. In this larger context Iran and Syria are volatile players. They are clear ideological soul mates of Hamas and Hezbollah and are using their proxies to battle Israel and the US. Although Arab governments have long used the Palestinians as a convenient political football, support for the Palestinians can only increase as the occupation continues.
After the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the Western world was bombarded with information about his background and family. He was humanised. But what of the countless Palestinians imprisoned without trial in Israel jails or the numerous Palestinian women and children regularly taken from their homes in the middle of the night? The Israeli army is a people’s army; the Israeli state is founded on the principle of a freed people. By contrast, the Palestinian struggle for freedom is constructed as an illegitimate terrorist plot.
In any other retelling of the imperial-colonial story across the 20th century, the Palestinians’ struggle would be an honourable fight for freedom and independence. The suffering of the Palestinians is clearly now not worthy of examination. During the present crisis, it seems as if Israelis are the only victims of terrorism, that Hezbollah rocket attacks are unjustifiable aggression.
The Bush administration’s “war on terror” requires us to believe that the West must fight terror in Lebanon, West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Africa, Asia and South America. According to Israeli spin, Lebanon is an “axis of terror” and the Jewish state is “fighting terror on all fronts”. The Palestinians are, as always, caught in the crossfire between Israel’s view of its place in the region and the Arab world’s indifference to their plight.
Israel and the international community are facing a moment of truth. Negotiations are the inevitable conclusion of the present violence, as is the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for the return of abducted Israeli soldiers. With the UN Security Council becoming a toothless vehicle for the US to stifle any action against Israel, uncomfortable questions need to be asked. The West’s blank cheque towards Israel since 1948, primarily due to Holocaust guilt, can no longer excuse, justify and fund a supposed democracy that occupies a neighbouring state and bombs its civilians.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh recently wrote in The Washington Post that the American people should open their eyes to Israeli behaviour in the occupied territories. “If Israel will not allow Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and national integrity”, he concluded, “Israelis themselves will not be able to enjoy those same rights.”
It is now more than ever in Israeli and US interests to ensure a democratic and economically viable Palestine is constructed. For those of us committed to finding a just and peaceful solution, one that honours the legitimate national aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians, this is a matter of urgency.
Antony Loewenstein is the author of My Israel Question, to be released in August by Melbourne University Publishing.
Hello Ant,
Congratulations on the article….well argued and well written. I cannot but feel sorry for the Lebanese and Israeli people, caught as they are between two forms of extremism, Hizbollah and the policies of the Israeli government.
To quote from The Nation
” the most likely casualty of the latest case of Israel’s massive retaliation will be the fragile social peace and the democratically elected government in Lebanon. Ironically, the much-trumpeted Cedar Revolution, the only example of the success of the Bush doctrine that neoconservatives can still point to, could be brought down by the Likudnik policies of Israel that the neo-cons so champion.”
God preserve the ordinary people of both sides of this ongoing conflict.
I think it’s fair to say that with this development, along with the failure of Iraq and the return of Taliban Policing Laws in Afghanistan, Bush’s democracy experiement has been an utterly miserable failure.
That’s not to mentino the Oang revolution being in chaos in the Ukraine. The Not a good look when Putin can throw Iraqi democracy in your face at a press conference and cause the press corps to laugh.
Great piece Antony. Well said.
It is good to see The Australian giving some balabce for a change and publishing an article from somebody with a more humane appreciation of the reality, rather than hackneyed cliches of Che Guevara. Grant Bertram’s artcile is a must read.
Addamo-01,
a different view on the state of things in afghanistan.
http://vasco-pyjama.livejournal.com/
Check the entry for July 11.
The comments rightly question the opinion expressed but the viewpoint is encouraging for the progrees of stability at least .
And Vasco Pyjama just has a great site.
A great article Antony. Amazed but encouraged that The Australian ran with it- a balance to the assumed free ride that the Zionist lobby gets all too often.
“it seems as if Israelis are the only victims of terrorism, that Hezbollah rocket attacks are unjustifiable aggression.”
I got exactly that impression from the 730 Report interview with the Israeli Foreign Minister. He said that the most important objective was to secure Israel by stopping these rocket attacks. Pardon? When was the first rocket attack? Quite a while after IDF had taken out the airport, various bridges and infrastructure and numerous civilians. Evidently there is a belief that the IDF should be allowed to do this with impugnity; after all they did have two soldiers they were keen to rescue.
Somebody fights back and shock, horror, the security of innocent Israeli civilians is threatened. Perhaps they thought it would be like Shock and Awe, where there was no effective air defence. It’s pretty easy to terrorise then. But as the Americans found out, it doesn’t necessarily win the affection of locals or even their respect. Didn’t work for the Luftwaffe all those years ago either.
The media has the power to show and make believe white is black and black is white. The media is practically fighting the war on behalf of the Israel against Lebanon and other Arab (Muslim) countries. It has simply come to a point where I can just read bias and prejudice reports against the government or democracy of Lebanon. Since World War I and II, the western powerful nations have invented the media as part and parcel of military and propaganda warfare and without a doubt its definitely does the job as it should.
The media is clearly responsible for the message they bring to us, that responsibility includes public trust, fairness and equality but in recent decade it become more the case that the media tells you this is what you should believe in, your choice is only this and if you resist then your on your own.
Coming back to my original point, which was that people should make assessments for them selves, use what ever tools and mediums are to assist but always remember “you can’t clap with only one hand” and neither can you allow someone make you believe “white is black and black is white”.
This is the key quote, ant.
Putting aside any questions of morality (which both sides seems to be able to do in this mess) the simple fact is that if using hardline, high tech military tactics against terrorism worked, Israel would’ve crushed Palestinian resistance by now.
How many more decades are they going to keep doing what clearly doesn’t work?
Liked the article all ’round.
Deb
Your comments don’t make sense, especially the following lines:
If the Palestinian people are resisting an illegal occupation of their own mother land then how do you define that as terrorism? Throughout history stories and evidence has existed that a nation which has been illegally invaded naturally would have grown a resistance group. Take the French history, or the British rule over India. A resistance group cannot be a terrorist group but rather a group to win back their freedom in their own land.
My point is that until you don’t make up your mind and recognize the definition of terrorist groups and freedom (resistance) fighters, you will still be indulged in a confused understanding of the current conflict in Middle East.
I am just amazed that the US did nothing to stop the slaughtering of the Lebanese people, they are so biased towards Lebanon and the whole Arab countries. They should try to bomb Iran to see what they would get in return. No wonder all the people in the Middle East hate them that much. Instead of spending all their Billion of Dollars of aid from the US on bombs and guns, they shoud instead give them to the Palestinian people to build schools and hospitals so the children can get some education and improve their lives then Israel might be able to live in peace. If Israel continues bullying those defendless states then Israel will suffer in the long term.