Marjorie Cohn in her article, “Israel’s Collective Punishment of Gaza,” says the Gazan War is all about Israel’s coming elections.
Cohn writes: “Israel’s airstrikes and ground assault on the people of Gaza have little to do with the Gazan rockets, which hadn’t killed any Israelis for a year before Israel’s current military operation. Israel’s leaders are bombing and attacking Gaza in order to gain an advantage in the upcoming Israeli elections in February.
“Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni is locked in a tight race with Benyamin Netanyahu, who has criticized Livni for her ‘soft’ treatment of the Palestinians. The Israeli government seeks to do as much damage as possible to Gaza while Bush is still in office. The New York Times cited several Middle East experts who ‘believe that Israel timed its move against Hamas, which began on Dec. 26, 25 days before Mr. Bush leaves office, with the expectation of such backing in Washington.’ Obama, in spite of his unequivocal support for the policies of Israel during the campaign and his deafening silence about the recent casualties, is an unknown quantity.”
What Cohn says sounds to me like the truth. I wonder if Fox News is saying anything about this reasonable theory:
- Israel’s leaders are bombing and attacking Gaza in order to gain an advantage in the upcoming Israeli elections in February.
- The Israeli government seeks to do as much damage as possible to Gaza while Bush is still in office.
It rings true to me that because Bush is president, the Israelis feel empowered. I do not think that Israeli military communication officers would have quite the swagger, quite the pride in their destruction of Gaza and in their disregard for Palestinian life — if Barrack Obama was in charge, rather than George Bush.
According to Cohn, the Israeli politicians — those who are calling the shots on what level of violence should be unleashed in this Gazan War — feel that in the Israeli elections, the political party that appears the most fierce, most willing to use military force, will be the party that wins.
Israeli politicians, I’m sure, would disagree with this charge that Gazan War is all about politics. But if what Cohn reports is true — the Hamas rockets hadn’t killed any Israelis for a year before Israel’s current military operation — then how else can this Gazan War be explained?
Israel’s leaders, by making violent war, are choosing short term safety over long term peace. They are making a very bad choice. In the short run, fewer Hamas rockets may be sent into Israel, but in the long run it seems certain that this Gazan War will simply inspire more terror.
Shimon Peres said to George Stephanopoulos that the purpose of the war was to “stop terror.” But he must know that his Gazan War will suppress terror only in the short term.
Peres said, “Hamas needs a real and serious lesson. They are now getting it.” Peres’s theory is that if Israel rains down violence and terror on Gaza, Hamas will learn a lesson. When Israel bombs homes, schools, mosques and kills women and children, the lesson, evidently, that Israel wants to teach is that Israel is willing to take extreme measures to defend itself.
But violence brings more violence. It makes no sense to fight terrorism with terrorism. What are needed are long term solutions, and an endless cycle of terror and violence is not an acceptable solution. Peres is advocating a point of view that should be condemned by thoughtful Israeli and thoughtful US citizens. War is not the answer and unless humanity changes its warring ways, humanity will have no future worth having.
Peres and other Israeli politicians are selling the idea of safety. They are defending their unleashing of outrageous violence in Gaza as needed to assure safety.
But to trade peace for safety is a very bad deal. Ultimately, safety is only possible through peace. And peace is only possible through justice. Ultimately, peace is the only hope, the only answer. Unless humanity awakens to this truth and begins to pursue peace in earnest, today’s children face a miserable future.
I’m thinking of an old song that says, “Peace in the world, or the world in pieces.” Our time to figure it all out seems very short.
