Sunday, August 3, 2014

Former Marine Corps commandant: "moral chasm" between Hamas and Israel

Former Marine Corps Commandant James Conway had a few things to say about the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Wall Street Journal last week:

Americans are understandably concerned when they hear that the majority of Palestinian casualties in the fighting between Israel and Hamas have been civilians and when they see images of houses in Gaza reduced to rubble and women wailing. Given the lack of corresponding Israeli civilian casualties to date, this creates the impression of an unequal—and hence immoral—fight between Israel and Hamas......

I recently had the opportunity to see for myself the moral chasm between how the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas treat civilians during military operations. In May I joined a dozen other retired U.S. generals and admirals on a trip to Israel with the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

Just outside Hamas-ruled Gaza, we toured a tunnel discovered less than one kilometer from an Israeli kindergarten. Unlike tunnels that I had seen during the Iraq war that were designed for smuggling, this Hamas tunnel was designed for launching murder and kidnapping raids. The 3-mile-long tunnel was reinforced with concrete, lined with telephone wires, and included cabins unnecessary for infiltration operations but useful for holding hostages....

Israel, fearing just such tunnel-building, has long tried to limit imports of concrete to Gaza for anything but humanitarian projects, yet somehow thousands of tons of the material have been diverted for terror use rather than building hospitals or housing for Palestinians. Since the beginning of ground operations into Gaza, the IDF has uncovered approximately 30 similar tunnels leading into Israel, in addition to the more than two dozen discovered prior to Operation Protective Edge. Hamas operatives have been intercepted emerging from such tunnels in Israel carrying tranquilizers and handcuffs, apparently hoping to replicate the successful 2006 kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, for whom Israel exchanged 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011....

Earlier this month Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri appeared on Al-Aqsa TV and encouraged Gaza residents to act as human shields. They appear to have heeded the call: Israeli Defense Forces combat video has shown Palestinians rushing to rooftops after receiving warnings from Israel—via phone calls, text messages, and unarmed "knock-knock" small projectiles striking a targeted building—that a missile attack is imminent.....

This cynical inducement of civilian suffering for propaganda is in marked contrast to the IDF's treatment of noncombatants. While Hamas is encouraging the sacrifice of its civilian population—and its cowardly leadership is ensconced in underground bomb shelters—the IDF reports that in the conflict's first week it provided more than 4,400 tons of food to Palestinians in Gaza, about 900 tons of natural gas and about 3.2 million liters of diesel fuel. All this despite 1,700 Hamas rockets fired at Israel.

Meanwhile, the Rutenberg power plant outside Ashdod in Israel supplies Gaza with electricity, though the Palestinian Authority's payments are badly in arrears. This supply only stopped when a Hamas rocket destroyed the power lines to Gaza on July 13, plunging 70,000 Palestinian households into darkness. Despite the rocket fire, Israel repaired the transmission lines, restoring electricity to Gaza.

I do not relate these experiences to argue for an Israeli moral perfection that does not exist, or to suggest that the IDF should be immune from criticism even if it commits genuine abuses. The tragic reality is that no matter how much the IDF tries to avoid collateral damage, its operations will kill some number of civilians. That won't be close to the carnage of noncombatants in the Syrian civil war, but it won't matter. As one Israeli commander told me, "The world judges Israel differently," regardless of its efforts to minimize civilian casualties. Rest of column

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Israel!!!! Hamas are cowards! Fire rockets and then hide behind civs! The blood of the dead are on the hands of Hamas! Stop shooting at Israel morons and they will stop shooting at you, DUH!!!!

Anonymous said...

" He hit me." " Well he hit me first". " No, he started it."
" I didn't do anything wrong because everybody else was doing the same thing only worse." " Yes, I beat the hell up out of my wife but she knew she was pushing my buttons."

How far do we go back in time must we go to resolve a conflict?

How comfortable would we be if , let's say native Indians of all countries decided they wanted to make MS their homeland and had sufficient numbers to move to MS in mass and declare MS theirs ? Even if they had ancient right established in their religious documents would we like that?

Some of the arguments made by both sides reach back centuries to try to justify their position.

To try to reach a settlement on moral grounds between two sides that have been in conflict so long and who have plenty of blood on the ground and non-violent as well as violent offenses to show for it, is a losing proposition.

If Hamas leaves the West Bank tomorrow, does any one doubt at this point that they will regroup or others will take their place some time in the future?

The mindset of the Middle East is now revenge. There is no trust upon which to build a peace...no people or countries who are trusted or have the authority to broker a peace.

The moral ground is saturated in decades if not centuries of blood and is no longer solid. And, anyone hoping to find settlement shouldn't try to stand on it.

Instead, a real broker should try to find reasons both sides should find it in their long term interest to stop this carnage.

I don't think we are helping when we choose sides and by extension, we become the enemy as well. It is , at this point, like siding with either the Hatfields or the McCoys.

The Middle East is a blood feud and worse, has religion added in to attempt to give carnage moral justification.

If this were only about missiles and tunnels and what happened last month or last year, General Conway's arguments are sound.

Unfortunately, that is not the mind set of either side.

While we wouldn't tolerate missiles, we would also not tolerate a blockade or encroachment on land that was supposed to be a neutral zone either.

Do remember that Sadat reached out unarmed and both he and Begin admitted their terrorist past. That's how peace happens...with honest outreach of friendship and acceptance.

We also see the blood feud is so deep, there are those who will not be satisfied until the last enemy is dead and so, Sadat is assassination and Begin is assigned to a page in history.

There is no end to this in sight and we should think long and hard about our role beyond just this week or this year or this decade.

In the short term, it doesn't serve us well to add fuel to the flames.

















Anonymous said...

Good post, Kingfish. Only one glaring problem. There is no such thing as a " Palestinian" as there is no such thing as the nation of "Palestine". Can't find it on Bing or Google maps. `

The root problem is not Hamas. It's the spineless males in Gaza that allow Hamas to use their children and family as human shields. When the people of Gaza rise up and drive Hamas out then peace will start.
Israel shields it's citizens with weaponry. Hamas uses citizens to shield their crude weapons of terror.

Anonymous said...

I continue to be fascinated by those who argue there are no Palestinians.

The argument is apparently that those Arabs who lived within The Palestine Mandate were nomads and had nothing resembling permanent residence.

That being the case, they have no rights of ownership , regardless of what the Brits did, regarding any property inside the Mandate.

I've wondered if they called them West Bankians and their area West Bankia, if that would be acceptable.



Both sides of this conflict have exaggerated and exacerbated the problems to the point of absurdity.


What the hell matter does it make what displaced people decide to call themselves?

Unless, of course, you want to eliminate consideration of a 2 state solution and don't want the people who had homes and buildings in the Mandate and before to return to a Nomadic existence.

Crazy talk...just like the crazy talk on the other side


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