Death in Gaza

Israel has launched an unprecedented attack on Gaza. Since last week, about 400 Gazans have been killed in intense bombing, and a few hours ago Israeli troops entered the territory. Four Israeli civilians were also killed by Palestinian rockets. Fragmented reports (there is a media blackout) suggest that nearly all mosques, police stations, government offices, and homes of government officials in Gaza have been destroyed as well as the only university. (In case you were worried, Israeli synagogues, police stations, government offices, and homes of government officials are all undamaged.) The stated aim is to destroy Hamas; presumably, the surviving Palestinians will then realize that Tel Aviv is their true friend and will be become loyal citizens again. Oh wait, they never were citizens--they have no parliamentary representation, no civil rights, minimal infrastructure and medical care... even food and water supplies are often interrupted by the military blockade. If I were in that situation, I wouldn't feel like co-operating either.

It goes without saying that Middle East politics are ancient and complex. But the issue of Israel/Palestine is deeply misrepresented in North American discourse. For one thing, it is rarely mentioned that far more Palestinian civilians die than Israelis or that Israel routinely violates international law on torture, military aggression, collective punishment, etc. Using tanks and white phosphorus and cluster bombs against lightly armed militia in a dense urban area isn't a "war," it's a massacre.

Deeper issues are also ignored. The Zionists who formed the state of Israel had basically no roots in the area. They have much more in common with the 19th-century American pioneers who conquered the Indian Territories--rich, heavily-armed Europeans who gradually displaced the technologically backwards and politically fragmented natives. As in America, Palestinian natives were excluded from citizenship, displaced to marginal lands, massacred from time to time, and kept in ever-shrinking reserves where they would not inconvenience white settlers. Am I the only one who sees the parallel here?

A common straw argument is that those who are opposed to Israel's actions hate Jews and/or want to see all Israelis killed by suicide bombers. That's like saying those who oppose the extermination of American Indians hate all 19th-century Americans and/or want to see them all killed by Navajo warriors. For one thing, it excuses the mass murderers by lumping them in with everyone else, and for another, it invents a militarily ludicrous scenario to justify the genocide. Israel is here to stay, just as America was. But the oppression, dispossession, and mass murder of Palestinians must stop now. If they can't co-exist in a single state, then there must be two states. Israel is very capable of protecting its borders from a neighbouring Palestinian state à la South and North Korea, so "security risk" is a flimsy excuse. That will not immediately stop suicide bombers, but it will staunch the bloodshed and it will allow Israel to become a full democracy (ie, in which all citizens are born equal).

I know that I'm ignorant about the Middle East. Who could understand it except those who grew up there? But I do know that a decades-long military occupation and heavy bombardment of civilian areas within an apartheid state is fundamentally wrong. It will never lead to a just and lasting peace. The peace of the grave might be good enough for the Israeli government, but I will never accept it.



Jan 9 update, from Reuters. In case anyone forgot who is really bombing Gaza.

U.S. seeks ship to move arms to Israel

By Stefano Ambrogi

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. is seeking to hire a merchant ship to deliver hundreds of tons of arms to Israel from Greece later this month, tender documents seen by Reuters show.

The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) said the ship was to carry 325 standard 20-foot containers of what is listed as "ammunition" on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.

A "hazardous material" designation on the manifest mentions explosive substances and detonators, but no other details were given.

"Shipping 3,000-odd tons of ammunition in one go is a lot," one broker said, on condition of anonymity.

"This (kind of request) is pretty rare and we haven't seen much of it quoted in the market over the years," he added.

The U.S. Defense Department, contacted by Reuters on Friday in Washington, had no immediate comment.

The MSC transports amour and military supplies for the U.S. armed forces aboard its own fleet, but regularly hires merchant ships if logistics so require.

The request for the ship was made on December 31, with the first leg of the charter to arrive no later than January 25 and the second at the end of the month.