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Gaza escalation
By Adam Keller
Crazy Country
Blogspot
March 26, 2011

http://adam-keller2.blogspot.com/

Gaza escalation-1: The outcry which was not heard

A week ago the veteran peace activist Benny Gefen wrote a Letter of Outcry which he sent to the country`s leaders as well as to the editorial offices of all newspapers in Israel, and so did he write:


The Prime Minister and Minister of Defense wore their suitable jackets, being photographed with great self-satisfaction beside the great quantity of smuggled arms which Israel`s navy seized on board the `Victoria`. It is a shame to spoil the fun, but as one who participated in smuggling arms to the Haganah under British rule I know that it is impossible to hermitically seal borders. Sooner or later, Gaza will be strongly armed, like Lebanon.


The country`s political and military leadership have not truly come to terms with the fundamental change in the preparations which must be made towards a new conflict in our region. In the next war, if we are not wise enough to prevent it, the Home Front will be heavily bombarded. By media reports, Hezbollah was already a year ago in possession of 40 000 rockets, including accurate Scuds; and the Gaza Strip, Iran and Syria all provide similar threats.


We must remember what havoc was wrecked by 39 obsolete missiles shot from Uraq in the 1991 Gulf War, and how primitive missiles made life in Northern Israel into hell during the Second Lebanon War. The government it trying to reassure us with singing the praises of the Arrow anti-missile-missile, forgetting how hugely expensive each one of these missiles is – in Shekels and Dollars alike.


We invest/bury billions in extremely expensive aircraft and submarines. Just the other day Barak gave voice to the wish that the U.S. will generously come up with an additional 20 billion Dollars to meet our needs due to the upheavals in the region.


The only real solution is to put an end to the hatred which the Arab- Muslim World bears us. A hatred founded upon the continuing occupation and the mutual religious incitements.


We still can act, but time is running out. We do not need any more self-righteous speeches by the Prime Minister, nor any more incisive but hollow words from the Minister of Defence. We need our leaders to take a brave decision and implement it.


The letter did get published in several newspapers, but it`s hard to say that it actually reached the ears of the decision makers. In this country, a man recently resigned who served as Head of the National Security Council, who had an explicit role defined by law to advise the decision makers, and who found that even his actual impact on the decisions taken was minimal, to say the least.


Who would listen, then, to a man who spent much of his life in Israel`s wars and then became a peace activist, who got safely through many battles but lost his son in Lebanon - a man who accumulated quite a bit of wisdom and experience but never received any appointment to advise the decision-makers?


Gaza escalation-2: Embarking on the Dance of Fire

How exactly did the escalation start? Even though it happened only last week, it is by no means clear exactly how it started. Commentators argue about who was the first to shoot and who responded, and why, and just who wanted it (if at all anyone really wanted it, on either side of the border).


Alex Fishman, military commentator for Yediot Ahronot, who disposes of very good sources within the army, wrote a week ago a detailed and rather critical description under the headline `You told us to shoot – we shoot`:


`It began accidentally, with a miscalculation, an excessive reaction to the shooting of a Qassam missile, which threatens to develop into a new comprehensive conflict. Now both sides already start pasting unto this chain of events their whole series of weighty political and security arguments. Both sides heat themselves up and lead Gaza towards an uncontrolled explosion. The army has in store a whole armory of retaliations to retaliations to retaliations and so on. (...)


The aggressive message sent down from the cabinet was well absorbed in the army – from now on, there should be a smashing response to each event. After a Qassam missile fired by an ephemeral group landed in an open field , the IDF struck at Netzarim, killing two Hamas militants, one of them apparently a senior member. Someone in the Southern Command went a step too far in translating the instructions of the political leadership - . - `You told us to shoot – we shoot`.(...)


The army was waiting for a response, and hoping that also this time it will be limited to the shooting of some anti-tank missile. On Friday, the IDF was on alert because of the fog that prevailed in the area. Then, Hamas and Jihad opened up with 120mm mortars, aimed at six locations within Israel - with an emphasis on military camps. The IDF responded by firing rockets, mortars and tank guns at predetermined targets. At noon, when the fog dispersed, assault helicopters also went into action. The Dance of Fire started.`

So wrote Alex Fishman on the pages of Yediot Ahronot last Sunday (March 20). On the following days, the Dance of Fire spun faster and faster, and the missiles fell at Be`er Sheva and Ashdod, and the pupils stayed home in fear for their lives in un-fortified shool buildings. Politicians competed with each other in crying out for war and war and war to the bitter end. In the Sajaya neighborhood of Gaza, four members of the Hilo Family were killed when an Israeli shell landed on their house by mistake. Sure, it was an unfortunate mistake by the army. As they explained, they had used an inaccurate mortar system because at that moment the more accurate system was not available. And the Government of Israel was quick to express its regret about the harm to innocents, but its expressions of sorrow were not really well received in Gaza where TV repeatedly broadcasted photos of the body of the 11-year-old Mohammed Jihad Al-Hilo who was killed by the shell. And the next day a bomb exploded on a crowded street in Jerusalem, killing a Christian British woman who came to Jerusalem to learn Hebrew so as to better translate the Bible to an African tongue, and some thirty-passers-by were wounded, some of whom would bear the scars long after we have all forgotten this incident. And banner headlines in Israel`s newspapers said that Terrorism had come baack after a long absence, and horrible scenes were depicted on huge photographs of the scene of the attack, and politicians outdid themselves in competing with each other to make cries of war and war and war to the bitter end. And the army went on to kill more Palestinians in Gaza, and since these were confirmed as having been terrorists the government expressed no regret for killing them and in fact took some pride in it.


And in Yediot Aharonot, Alex Fishman played a quite different tune from that in his own article earlier in the week: `The army is pushing for an escalation. In a policy briefing held yesterday morning with the Prime Minister, the army manifested a very combative attitude. As the army sees it, an all-out confrontation with the Hamas government at Gaza is almost preordained. If not now, it will happen in another year or two. Unless we act today, we will pay the price for going gradually into the escalation. Israel, says the army, should restore its deterrence, which has been eroded since the days of `Cast Lead`. We should have struck hard at Hamas already a month ago, when the Grad rocket came down on Beersheba for the first time. Now the blow must be even more painful. If not an overwhelming military strike, or a partial ground operation, the obvious next step on the scale of violence should be a return to the era of targeted killing of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaderships. In the IDF`s view, this would be the most effective move, speaking the language which the Palestinian leadership understands best. `


So spoke – as of Wednesday, March 23 - Alex Fishman, the man who already for many years serves as an unofficial army spokesman.


`In the IDF`s view, this would be the most effective move, speaking the language which the Palestinian leadership understands best.` The problem is that this language was spoken quite often before, and where did it lead us?


Gaza escalation-3: Discovering the real danger

`The Other Voice` is a movement which is active several years already at Sderot and other communities on the Gaza border. With boundless devotion, these activists are trying to make a voice of peace and coexistence heard in a region enveloped by a constant tension, and maintain e-mail contact and dialogue with residents across the border. (A few months they succeeded, with a tremendous effort, to obtain permits for a few Gazans to cross the border, attend a conference and bring a message of peace to their Israeli neighbors from the city of Gaza and the Strip surrounding it.)


Under the sound of sirens and falling missiles, `Other Voice` activists scheduled a demonstration for yesterday noon at the Yad Mordechai Junction. The announcement stated:


Again we are in the same nightmare: Our army reacts to their rockets` reaction to our army`s reaction to their rockets – and who pays the price? We, the civilians on both sides of the border.


On Friday, March 25, 2011, at 14:30, we will hold a protest vigil at the Yad Mordechai Junction, with the message:


Stop the shooting! Start Talking! Life for Them = Life for Us.


We, residents of the area, see a close connection between the suffering of our neighbors, due to the ongoing siege and military attacks, and our own suffering. We urge the Government of Israel to halt the deterioration towards another pointless cycle of violence, to end the mutual bloodshed and offer to inhabitants of the region another option: Dialogue, negotiations, and a striving for a long-term agreement, which would make possible a life of quiet and dignity to us and to our neighbors.


The aggressive option has brought us to a dead end! It`s time for a political initiative!


The Other Voice Group from Sderot and the Gaza border.
http://www.othervoice.org


The demonstration did not take place at the appointed time. The police informed the organizers that due to the security situation and the dire warnings, it was unable to secure the event. It is too dangerous here to demonstrate for peace at this time, we will not allow it - warned the police commanders.

But in the longer term, is it not even more dangerous to stifle that voice?


Gaza escalation-4: And still, perhaps?



Just now, the news websites carried the information that, after a weekend during which three missiles were shot at Israel, representatives of the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip convened and announced their willingness to embark on a ceasefire. The Hamas Spokesperson told Reuters: `The armed factions will be obliged to a ceasefire, as long as the occupation too maintains a de-facto cease-fire`.

We will know better tomorrow.

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