Feb 14 2009
Hamas’ Carnival of Murder and Mayhem in Gaza
Although the Israeli Defense Forces have come under a torrent criticism from the world community over its highly destructive military campaign in Gaza, many forget that (to the best of my knowledge) it is not the official policy of the IDF to deliberately target Palestinian civilians. In fact, one of the central tenets of the Israeli military’s Code of Conduct states that “The soldier shall not employ his weaponry and power in order to harm non-combatants or prisoners of war, and shall do all he can to avoid harming their lives, body, honor and property.”
Of course, the IDF does not always follow this rule, but then again, most militaries tend to discard human life and dignity during wartime. Does that make it alright? No, but that’s just what usually happens.
In this blogger’s opinion, much of the criticism leveled against the Israelis is justified, but we have to remember that their enemies in the Palestinian camp are often no better – and in some cases are much worse.
Rory McCarthy of The Guardian reports that, “New evidence has emerged revealing the extent of the crackdown by Hamas during and after Israel’s war in Gaza ast month.”
According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, “Hamas forces and militias were involved in a ‘campaign of abductions, deliberate and unlawful killings, torture and death threats against those they accuse of ‘collaborating’ with Israel, as well as opponents and critics.”
The group goes on to say that “At least two dozen men had been shot by Hamas since the end of December and ‘scores of others’ shot in the legs, kneecapped or beaten. Amnesty gave detailed accounts of some of the cases and said there was ‘incontrovertible evidence’ that Hamas security forces and militia were ‘responsible for grave human rights abuses.’ Hamas officials have admitted hunting for suspected collaborators, but they have denied this campaign of attacks.’
Not cool.
And just what is Hamas’ justification for this Pinochet-esque horror show? McCarthy says that the nutjobs from the freakshow Islamic group “fears it lost some of its control in Gaza during Israel’s devastating three-week war and launched a new and violent crackdown to enforce its rule, targeting not only those suspected of giving information to the Israeli military but also escaped prisoners and all perceived internal opponents.”
Mowaffaq Alami is just one of countless numbers of Palestinians who has experienced the undemocratic tactics of Hamas. Alami, a 36-year-old activist for peace between Israelis and Arabs, was forced to leave his home in Gaza “because of the growing intimidation and threats.”
“People are afraid to live normal lives, to express their opinions freely,” Alami said. “There is no freedom of speech, of movement, of travelling or having real healthcare. Hamas is raising George Bush’s policy: those not with us are against us.”
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, “Hamas had tightened its restrictions on civil society groups, ordering them to inform the Hamas authorities before receiving or distributing aid and obtain Hamas approval before starting new construction or development work.”
We have a name here in America for people who use violence and intimidation to control others. They’re called Teamsters.
One of the problems with the debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here in America is that the issue has become polarized along ideological lines. In their blind (i.e. religious) support for Israel, many on the Right have a tendency to blame it all on the Palestinians and are often indifferent to the wrongs done to these people. On the other hand, many on the Left have a tendency to demonize Israel and refuse to acknowledge the fact that radical Palestinian groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad engage in unlawful and highly immoral tactics.
If there’s ever going to be peace in that area, then we need to condemn the extremists on both sides who do shitty things. If we can’t see wrong actions for what they are – whether committed by Israelis or Arabs – then we’ll be doomed to ride the Middle East Merry-Go-Round-of-Violence for decades to come. Peace may exact a high price, but few can afford the price exacted by war.
Oldfart - depending on how far back you take it southern democrats used to use violence and intimidation to drive racism and inequality.
Now as for the article…
Obviously the ball is not in the U.S.’s court on this one, but I fear that Obama is going to have to come to a choice on this - either stand up to Israel or risk stability and possibly even a war in the middle east.
No doubt the religious right would go nuts if Obama stood up to Israel… I can already hear Bill-O’s criticisms.
Let’s just… examine a couple scenarios.
No matter the Israeli leader - let’s say that no ceasefire is reached and Israel starts another Gaza offensive. The world will surely step up criticism, as they did last time to Israel’s offensive, but what role will the U.S. play at that point? Will Obama stand by, call for peace in press conferences and the like, or tell Israel straight up to stop.
Now let’s take it a step further - say that Iran, fed up from Gaza being attacked, launches missiles into Israel from one of those shiny new warhead-capable satellites that they have. Without a doubt Israel would strike back… what role does the U.S. step into then?
I have solution: Make one of the populations (Jews or Arabs) leave the area entirely and settle somewhere else. I don’t care which one it is. Even if they both had a state, those states, living so close (and each being so crowded) and with so much historical animosity between the two peoples, would be constantly be at each other’s throats, kind of like the India-Pakistan situation.
Just my 3 cents.
“Particularly since we are probably the ones that gave or helped give the Israelis a nuclear capability.”
Actually we weren’t the ones who did this. In fact, we didn’t want them to have nukes because we were afraid it would spark a nuclear arms race in that region. But Israel went ahead and secretly developed nuclear capability in the ’60’s at their reactor in Dimona and lied about it to us until it was too late. Kennedy and Johnson tried to stop them and even conducted inspections, but to no avail. They were pissed about it but of course they didn’t really do anything. Still, this was a time when American presidents still could get outraged when the Israelis screwed with us. Funny how Israel did to us what everyone is accusing Iran of doing now. But we don’t care, because it’s Israel!
There’s a really good book on this subject called SUPPORT ANY FRIEND: KENNEDY’S MIDDLE EAST AND THE MAKING OF THE U.S.-ISRAELI ALLIANCE by Warren Bass.
Let’s see, first Israel, then Iraq tries, then Pakistan does it, then India does too, and now Iran is trying, Geez, ya think that the watchdog system we’ve got set up to watch out for such illegal programs JUST MIGHT NOT WORK??
Unless, of course, Oldfart thinks that we let ALL those guys but Iraq and Iran get away with it on purpose?
Come on, Oldfart, get a grip…
Oldfart, if you’re going to say that we probably gave Israel nuclear capability, then you should show evidence for that. To the best of my knowledge, we never did that. And your previous post seemed to suggest that we did this willingly (maybe I’m wrong on that), and I pointed out that we most certainly did not. Maybe they stole nuclear technology and secrets from us, but i haven’t seen anything saying they have. Have you? We didn’t even help Israel build it’s nuclear reactor. that was France.
Here is the article on Israel’s nuclear program from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel
With regard to spying, while I hate to defend Israel on this, it’s a fact that allies spy on each other all the time. We do it to our allies and they do it to us. Of course, that doesn’t make it ok, but it happens. I personally have no problem throwing spies in jail for long periods of time, no matter country they come from. And of course, our allies have the right to do it to American spies if they catch them spying on them.
Here’s a good and informative article on the subject from Slate.
http://www.slate.com/id/2106079/