Monday 12 January 2009

And in Gaza, the objective is?



So, the invasion of the Gaza Strip enters its third stage, and it we a ‘military operation’ whose ‘military objectives’ are ‘close to attainment’. But what does the attainment of a military objective mean if there is no political one?


It seems that as far as the Israelis are concerned, there is no political objective except to disable any civil, political or social structure in Gaza for five, perhaps ten years. To cow a population and instil into it a fear of death, or worse, mutilation that will last for the same period.

To impress on the countries of the EU or the Arab world that spending further millions on building hospitals, clinics, schools, universities, libraries, government offices, will be entirely wasted since Israel will (as today’s statement by the Foreign Minister makes perfectly clear) hold it within its rights to destroy them again at any time it chooses.

Much has been written on the resentment and loathing that Israel’s actions will engender among not only the Palestinians but many Arabs. But there are other agendas, an d one is an Israeli political one which no-one seems to recognise, and again, it is one that the Israelis have learnt from practices against them by another regime.

The deployment of Israeli army reservists is significant. It is a commonplace of political speech now to talk of ‘ownership’. This is not ‘involvement’ in a process so much as organising complicity and joint responsibility. Other regimes have known well that to involve as much of the ordinary population in an armed conflict is to make all its members participate in responsibility for the actions of a few.

And this is what the Israelis are doing politically to their own population by involving the reservist in the destruction of Gaza and the injuries inflicted on women and children there. The thousands of ordinary workers, the teachers, the taxi drivers, the metal fabricators, the software designers, the students, have now, by their deployment in Gaza, been given the same ‘ownership’ of the destruction and death being wrought there previously by the ‘professionals’.

And they will go home and have to defend all the military actions, all the breaches of international law, all the breaches of the Geneva Conventions, even the War Crimes, that have occurred there, which as civilians they might otherwise have been able to deny, deplore or pretend for their own peace of mind never happened. Now, they are all involved. And, every Israeli citizen, having ‘ownership’ then owns the consequences. Every citizen (since all serve in the reserve) is a military target for the future.

Cynically, this Israeli government has actually thus brought about a situation in which it has put its entire population in even more danger for the future; and planted the seeds for a bush burning with anxiety,fear, and hate on its own side for generations.

Was that Israel’s intended political objective? Since it is clear it had none for Gaza, I am inclined to think it was. Or at least, now the Israelis have understood the breadth and depth of distaste around the world, even among those allies who have previously done their best to if not support them, not to oppose them directly, they have deliberately made it one.

2 comments:

ed iglehart said...

from your proofreader:

Cowe, not cow an d while you're at it, try and for an d...

Good stuff! And also on the changeover. I still remain hopeful, at the very least for abstinence...That alone would be a huge change.

Salaam, etc.,
ed

ed iglehart said...

Sorry! It seems cow is correct!

;-(((