From Israel With Love

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Israel is a apartheid state based on hatred and pseudo superiority complexes. If their soldiers had a protocoll to break palestinian children's bones, what can you expect from their younger generation? They need to do this, just as they need to oppress the palestinians.

www.ifamericansknew.org

 

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OPINION: Is Beirut burning? —Uri Avnery

If there had been hopes in the past that Lebanon would slowly become a normal country, where Hezbollah would be deprived of a pretext for maintaining a military force of its own, we have now provided the organisation with the perfect justification: Israel is destroying Lebanon, only Hezbollah is fighting to defend the country

“It seems that Nasrallah survived”, Israeli newspapers announced, after 23 tonnes of bombs were dropped on a Beirut site, where the Hezbollah leader was supposedly hiding.

A few hours after the bombing, Nasrallah had given an interview to Al Jazeera television. He looked not only alive but even composed and confident. He spoke about the bombardment — proof that the interview was not pre-recorded.

So what does “it seems that” mean? Very simple: Nasrallah pretends to be alive, but you can’t believe an Arab. Everyone knows they always lie. It’s their very nature, as Ehud Barak once pronounced.

The killing of the man is a national aim, almost the main aim of the war. This is, perhaps, the first war in history waged to kill one person. Even the British in World War II did not proclaim that their aim was to kill Hitler. They wanted to catch him alive, in order to put him on trial. Probably that’s what the Americans wanted, too, in their war against Saddam Hussein.

But our ministers have officially decided that that is the aim. There is not much novelty in that: successive Israeli governments have adopted a policy of killing the leaders of opposing groups. Our army has killed, among others, Hezbollah leader Abbas Mousavi, PLO’s No 2 Abu Jihad, as well as Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and other Hamas leaders. Almost all Palestinians, and not only they, are convinced that Yasser Arafat was also murdered.

And the results? Mousavi’s place was filled by Nasrallah, who is far more able. Sheikh Yassin was succeeded by far more radical leaders. Instead of Arafat we got Hamas.

This war has been planned for a long time. For several years, the army has been exercising for this war in all its details. Only a month ago, there was a large war-game to rehearse the entrance of land forces into South Lebanon — at a time when both the politicians and the generals were declaring that “we shall never again get into the Lebanon quagmire.

The other side, too, has been preparing for this war for years. Not only did they build caches of thousands of missiles, they have also prepared an elaborate system of Vietnam-style bunkers, tunnels and caves. Our soldiers are now encountering it and paying a high price for our army treating “the Arabs” with disdain.

That is one of the problems of the military mentality. Talleyrand was not wrong when he said that “war is much too serious a thing to be left to military men”. The mentality of the generals, resulting from their education and profession, is by nature force-oriented, simplistic, one-dimensional, not to say primitive. It is based on the belief that all problems can be solved by force, and if that does not work by more force.

The current war was based on the assumption that if we cause terrible suffering to the population, they will rise up and demand the removal of Hezbollah. A minimal understanding of mass psychology would suggest the opposite. The killing of hundreds of Lebanese civilians, the turning of the lives of the others into hell, and the destruction of the life-supporting infrastructure of Lebanese society will arouse a groundswell of fury and hatred — against Israel, and not against the heroes, as they see them, who sacrifice their lives in their defence.

The result will be a strengthening of Hezbollah. Perhaps that will be the main outcome of the war.

Faced with the horrors shown on television, world opinion is also changing. What was seen at the beginning as a justified response to the capture of the two soldiers now looks like the barbaric action of a brutal war machine.

Thousands of email distribution lists have circulated a horrible series of photos of mutilated babies and children. At the end, there is a macabre photo: jolly Israeli children writing “greetings” on the artillery shells about to be fired. Then there appears a message: “Thanks to the children of Israel for this nice gift. Thanks to the world that does nothing. Signed: the children of Lebanon and Palestine.”

The head of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has already defined these acts as war crimes.

In general, when army officers are determining the policy of a nation, serious moral problems arise.

In war, a commander is obliged to take hard decisions. He sends soldiers into battle, knowing that many will not return and others will be maimed for life. He hardens his heart. As General Amos Yaron told his officers after the Sabra and Shatila massacre: “Our senses have been blunted!”

Years of the occupation regime in the Palestinian territories have caused a terrible callousness as far as human lives are concerned. The killing of 10 to 20 Palestinians every day, including women and children, as happens now in Gaza, does not agitate anyone. Gradually, even expressions like “We regret... we had no intention... the most moral army in the world...” are not heard anymore.

Now this numbness is revealing itself in Lebanon. Air Force officers, calm and comfortable, sit in front of the cameras and speak about “bundles of targets”, as if they were talking about a technical problem and not human beings. They speak about driving hundreds of thousands from their homes as an achievement, and do not hide their satisfaction. The most popular word with the generals this time is “pulverise” — we pulverise, they are being pulverised, neighbourhoods are pulverised, buildings are pulverised, people are pulverised.

Even the launching of rockets at our towns and villages does not justify this ignoring of moral considerations in fighting the war. There were other ways of responding to the Hezbollah provocation, without turning Lebanon into rubble. The moral numbness will be transformed into grievous political damage, both immediate and long term.

It is almost banal to say that it is easier to start a war than to finish it. Wars take place in the realm of uncertainty. Even the greatest captains in history could not control the wars they started.

We started a war of days. It turned into a war of weeks. Now they are speaking of months. Our army started a “surgical” action of the Air Force, afterwards it sent small units into Lebanon, now whole brigades are fighting there, and reservists are being called up for a wholesale 1982-style invasion. Some people already foresee a confrontation with Syria.

All this time, the United States has been using all its might to prevent the cessation of hostilities. All signs indicate that it is pushing Israel towards a war with Syria — a country that has ballistic missiles with chemical and biological warheads.

Only one thing is already certain: nothing good will come of it. Whatever happens — Hezbollah will emerge strengthened. If there had been hopes in the past that Lebanon would slowly become a normal country, where Hezbollah would be deprived of a pretext for maintaining a military force of its own, we have now provided the organisation with the perfect justification: Israel is destroying Lebanon, only Hezbollah is fighting to defend the country.

As for deterrence: a war in which our huge military machine cannot overcome a small guerrilla organisation certainly has not rehabilitated its deterrent power. In this respect, it is not important how long this war will last and what will be its results — the fact that a few thousand fighters have withstood the Israeli army, has already been imprinted in the consciousness of hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims.

From this war nothing good will come — not for Israel, not for Lebanon and not for Palestine. The New Middle East that will be its result will be a worse place to live in.

Uri Avnery is an Israeli peace activist who has advocated the setting up of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. He served three terms in the Israeli parliament (Knesset), and is the founder of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc)

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\08\01\story_1-8-2006_pg3_2


Very well said. When this war is over, Hezbollah will emerge strengthened and more deeply involved in every day Lebanese life.

Israel has made a grave error in its calculations.