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WAR IS IN THE AIR - Part 1
"The stage, therefore, has been set for the outbreak of the
next wear: wall-to-wall political approval for a military
solution
to the current crisis, the appropriate international
preparations
during the period of restraint."
MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/09:
In general it's no sescret what the Israelis have in mind at this point. They
will put down the Palestinian Uprising with brute force, of which they have a great
deal thanks to the Americans. They will declare the attempt to do much the same thing
through diplomatic cunning, of which they also have a great deal, unsuccessful. They
will blame it all on Arafat; as convenient a target now for their loathing and
demonizing as he was a decade ago to bought and used.
But the devil of course is in the details. Just how are they going to do it, and
how quickly can they pull it off? Just what will be the cost in blood as well as in
international standing? Just who if anyone can really stand up to them at this point
in history? Just are the ramifications for the future in the Arab and Muslim region
of the world where they exist? And maybe most of all, just how far do they intend to
go -- mass expulsions, a Palestinian State west of the Jordan in today's Hashemite
Kingdom?
The following three articles published in Israel over the weekend help explain
the preparations under way and ask some of the right questions:
THERE ARE NO CHEAP WARS
By Uzi Benziman
[Ha'aretz. Sunday, July 8, 2001]
While the prime minister declares to his interviewers that war is not
in the offing, his ministerial colleagues are deep in expectations
for the coming war with the Palestinians. "Preparing for war," is the
standard answer now in the corridors of power to the regular
question, "What's going on?" Ministers, senior officials and, of
course, the top officials in the defense establishment and the IDF
all say it. Given the current mood of the nation's stewards, the
coming war is a matter of destiny, an inevitable development, whose
outbreak depends only on the timing of the next terror attack and the
number of resulting casualties.This forecast requires some analysis.
Is war the only logical conclusion of the current confrontation with
the Palestinians? Are the expectations about it what really will
happen? Is the price being taken into consideration? Can its scope
and development be controled, the way its planners assume?
The political lobby for bringing the violent conflict with the
Palestinians to a military decision is well known; it is led by the
settlers and their right-wing representatives in the government - not
only Avigdor Lieberman, Rehavam Ze'evi and Natan Sharanksy, but also
a large number of the Likud ministers. There's a clear majority among
the decision makers now in favor of going to war.
The logic behind the concept is that the state can not absorb more
and more victims of terrorism, that the current methods of fighting
Palestinian murders are not effective enough, that the IDF's
deterrent capabilities must be proven once again to the Palestinian
people and leadership and to the entire Arab world lest Israel end up
bleeding forever and becoming weaker and weaker. Behind the demand to
declare real war on the Palestinians is also the assumption that a
major military blow will return tranquillity to the state and end the
10-month nightmare of terror.
Most of the Labor ministers will also take up the cry after the next
major terror attack. A bloodletting as massive as what happened at
the Dolphinarium will create a psychological and emotional reaction
in the public that will sweep (almost) the entire government, which
will decide to flip the safety switch and order the IDF to go into
the planned battle. This is supposed to deliver the knockout blow to
the Palestinian Authority.
The stage, therefore, has been set for the outbreak of the next wear:
wall-to-wall political approval for a military solution to the
current crisis, the appropriate international preparations during the
period of restraint.
But this scenario has some flaws that should be considered before the
IDF opens its all-out assault on the PA.
Will it indeed be the kind of fatal blow that forces Yasser Arafat
(or his heirs) to accept Israel's dictates? In other words, is there
a reasonable chance that after the blow there will be quiet, though
not necessarily a political settlement, or will in fact the blow
result in an even deadlier reaction? Does the expectation that the
IDF will solve the psychological and political Gordian knot of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict with one blow take into account the cost
in lives (for both sides)? Can anyone guarantee that the war won't
spill out of the West Bank and Gaza into the neighboring countries?
The last question is Ariel Sharon's conundrum. If he moves the
government to authorize war on the Palestinian Authority, he'll
expose Israel to the dangers of regional and international
complications. A full-scale war will result in international
intervention that (in the best of circumstances) will require him to
present far-reaching political proposals to neutralize the impression
created by a military blow in Gaza and the West Bank. And if he tries
to avoid that by ordering only a limited military operation, it won't
do anything, or may exacerbate, the very circumstances that now
create the conditions for a major war.
Conclusion: As far as can already be seen, war - small, medium-sized
or large - is not a solution to the current crisis
ON THE WAY DOWN THE SLIPPERY SLOPE
By Gideon Levy
Ha'aretz Sunday, July 8, 2001
What would happen if the Palestinian cabinet were to meet and
afterward press reports spoke of the existence of a list of 26 to 30
senior officers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who were being
targeted for liquidation? What would happen if the Palestinian
cabinet were then to decide to "extend the strike operations" against
IDF officers who are the commanders of units that are engaged in
liquidating Palestinians or against the planners of those actions?
What would happen is that Israel would stir up a tremendous worldwide
fuss. We would brand that cabinet a "regime of terror" - and rightly
so.In the middle of last week, a momentous event occurred in Israel:
the kitchen cabinet, followed the next day by the security cabinet,
decided to "extend the strikes against Palestinian terror activists."
The decision was made public, as was the existence of a list of
between 26 and 30 names of people who are targeted for liquidation.
What was done until now by undercover means, usually without an
explicit Israeli admission, has now become official policy, quasi-
legitimate. What the international community terms execution without
trial, a method used by mafias and ruthless regimes - and even they
rarely admit to it, and certainly don't flaunt it - has become part
of the declared policy of a country that prides itself on adhering to
the rule of law.
Admitting to carrying out liquidations and their transformation into
official policy are another stage in Israel's moral deterioration. So
too with the expansion of the list of targets for liquidation: no
longer only "ticking bombs" (terrorists on their way to perpetrate an
attack), but also the planners of such attacks - "even if their
preparations have not reached an advanced stage" - according to the
reports from the kitchen cabinet.
The danger of the slide down the "slippery slope," a term that is
used in struggles for the preservation of human rights, always lurks
for a regime of law and morality from the moment it begins to depart
from that policy. Suffice it to see the evolution of the torture
policy: First the state denied its existence for years, then it was
forced to admit reluctantly to the use of torture, and finally its
use was institutionalized - in the form of decisions by the security
cabinet and ministerial committees, and with the backing of a Supreme
Court justice, approving the use of certain means but not others -
until the High Court of Justice finally put a stop to it, years too
late.
The targets of torture also changed: first only "ticking bombs," and
finally thousands of Palestinians, almost everyone interrogated by
the Shin Bet security service. The state told its interrogators:
Torture as much as you feel like; now it is telling its soldiers:
Step up the liquidations. The moral, legal and public relations
implications, as well as the practical consequences, are extremely
grave.
International law, which Israel - despite all its efforts - cannot
ignore, certainly not at present, does not forbid the liquidation of
individuals who are on their way to perpetrate a terrorist attack. No
one disputes that a terrorist who is about to kill innocent civilians
should be stopped by all means including his physical elimination. It
is the expansion of this circle, however little, that signals the
deterioration.
Since Israel launched its policy of liquidation, it has crossed that
red line flagrantly: Anwar Himran had just emerged from the
university, books in hand, his wife by his side, when 20 bullets
struck him; Dr. Tabath Tabath had just left his house on the way to
his clinic, as far as anyone knows, when he was cut down; nor,
apparently, was Samiah Malaba on his way to perpetrate a terrorist
attack when a mobile phone blew up in his face in Kalandia. Were
these people innocent civilians? Probably not. Did they deserve to
die? Absolutely not.
Now the killing of people like them has become officially declared
policy. And the further expansion of the circle is only a matter of
time. Will we liquidate yesterday's terrorists? And what about
tomorrow's terrorist who is just embarking on that road. And why not
their accomplices? And why not the terrorist's brother, whose killing
may have a deterrent effect?
Israel, which is trying to decide on the right way to combat
terrorism, must abstain from illegal and immoral methods such as
these executions. There are some things a state does not do. Period.
Some of those who were liquidated could have been arrested and
brought to trial. In a situation where their is no true supervision
over the identity of those who are liquidated - the Shin Bet does not
have a reputation of totally avoiding the blurring of the truth - it
is highly unlikely that individuals whom Israel claims were
liquidated because they were on their way to perpetrate a terrorist
attack, were in fact engaged in that activity. It is very doubtful
that this despicable method, which is condemned by the entire world,
including the United States, is as effective as its practitioners
would have us believe: many liquidations in fact generated the next
terrorist attack.
An equally dubious proposition is the contention that liquidations
are preferable to harming the civilian population. The fact is that
Israel, which late last week demolished the homes of hundreds of
shepherds in the southern Mount Hebron region in revenge for the
murder of the settler Yair Har-Sinai from Sussya, is both eliminating
wanted individuals and harming innocent civilian populations.
The government's need to "do something" against terrorism is leading
it to adopt unconscionable methods. Its need to show Israeli public
opinion that "something is being done" has led it to make public its
shameful decisions and thus to give them validation that undercuts
its moral status even further. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense
Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz - will
one day be held to account for such decisions; and Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres, too, to whose credit it can be said that he was
outraged by the publication of the liquidation decisions last week,
will not entirely be able to escape blame
ISRAEL'S CAMPAIGN OF REVENGE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING
by Jeff Halper*
July 5, 2001
On July 3, after an Israeli from the settlement of Susiya in the southern West Bank
was found murdered, and without any suspects being identified or arrested, the Israeli
army unleashed an unprecedented campaign of revenge and ethnic cleansing against the
entire civilian Palestinian population of the area. (The same day the Israeli
government authorized a wholescale campaign of assassinations as well.) As this is
being written, we are in the third day of this campaign.
The first 24 hours witnessed the demolition of at least five Palestinian homes in the
city of Yata, which was completely sealed off to the outside world, leaving the army
to act with impunity towards the civilian inhabitants. Reports are that up to a
thousand residents were forced from their homes before demolishing dozens of them. The
army also attacked residents in the entire rural area between Yata and the area around
Jibna where the Palestinian "cave-dwellers" live. Additional houses were demolished,
wells and reservoirs destroyed and the agricultural infrastructure severely damaged.
Even the Channel 1 Israel news spoke of the army as acting out of "revenge." If this
is so, the Israeli army, which once prided itself as a "defense" force whose moral
code included "purity of arms," has been reduced into a mere gang. The fact that no
outside observers were allowed into the entire West Bank south of Hebron during this
24-hour period, including journalist and human rights observers, and even the Red
Cross was prevented from providing humanitarian aid to the hundreds of families
affected, raises fears about acts of violence and intimidation committed with absolute
impunity by an army against a defenseless civilian population (most of the area
affected is in Israeli-controlled Area C). Not only does international law forbid such
actions, but the Fourth Geneva Convention requires Israel as an occupying power to
protect the civilian population under its rule and provide for its welfare.
Among the families whose dwellings were destroyed was Rasmiya Nawaja Jamal, a woman in
her 60s whose husband Mohammad was murdered by settlers from Susiya ten years ago (no
one was ever tried). Rasmiya, who ekes out a living as a shepherd, managed to raise 12
children on her own, the family living in an underground cave. Since her compound is
situated close to Susiya, the family has endured harassment for many years, including
settlers riding horses through her living area. Two years ago the Israeli Civil
Administration demolished the cave, claiming that the Nawaja family had no permit to
live there. Rasmiya then constructed an ingenious compound over her demolished cave,
made of skeletons of automobiles. She and her smaller children lived in the shell of a
mini-van, her son and his family lived in the cab of a truck, and a pick-up truck was
converted into a stable. Rasmiya used the fenders to fence off her gardens, and even
constructed a cooking area of solar panels. On Tuesday morning the army returned and
destroyed Rasmiya's compound, as well as those of her neighbors, making more than 50
people homeless. They also uprooted more than 1000 olive trees belonging to Rasmiya
and her neighbors, and destroyed all their cisterns.
This morning we received word that Civil Administration bulldozers were destroying
homes, farming structures and cisterns in the area of Jibna. This is where, two years
ago, the Israeli army tried to force the area's 3,000 farming families out of their
cave dwellings where they had lived for generations. In October, 1999, the Israeli
army declared their lands -- some 100,000 dunams of land (25,000 acres) south of
Hebron -- as a "closed military area." (In fact, this was only one of 16 orders
closing vast tracts of land throughout the West Bank at that time.) The land, though
semi-arid and rural, is home to an entire society of Palestinian farmers who had
farmed and grazed that area for centuries, developing a unique culture around the many
caves that dotted the mountainous landscape. The expulsion order affected, at that
time, around 42 families, consisting of around 730 people (among them some 500
children), who were violently and brutally driven from their homes.
They army claimed they needed the land for a "firing zone," but in fact it is coveted
because it connects the Israeli city of Arad with the settlements of the area and
creates a corridor from Israel to Kiryat Arba and Hebron. At that time ICAHD and other
Israeli human rights organizations initiated an appeal to the Supreme Court, which
ruled in March of 2000 that the families would be allowed to stay in their homes until
the issue of their residence was resolved. Since that time, the Civil Administration
has admitted it cannot find fault with the families' claims to the land. Today's
action, then, was intended to by-pass the Supreme Court by simply demolishing the
houses under the guise of "security." One of the caves, belonging to the family of
Musa Jabarin, was demolished today, together with four other houses, a number of
cisterns and many farming structures essential for the economic survival of the
community. Clothes, furniture, dead chickens, pieces of pens and chicken coops lie
scattered over the ground. (Pictures will be posted on the AIC website:
www.alternativenews.org). Many other families were ordered to remove their belongings
and preparations were made to demolish their homes as well. But an appeal to the
Attorney General's Office has resulted in the Civil Administration being ordered to
desist -- at least for the time being.
It should be noted that according to Amnesty International Israel has demolished at
least 7000 Palestinian homes since 1967, to which more than 500 have to added since
the Alaqsa Intifada began.
At a time when Sharon is being feted by the Chancellor of Germany and the President of
France, Israel's occupation and the actions it engenders stands in stark violation of
international law. Collective punishment is explicitly forbidden in Article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, and the demolition of houses constitutes a grave violation
of Article 53. The increasing use of international courts to enforce accountability to
human rights covenants (upon which Israel itself has signed) should put the Israeli
government and its agents on notice that they may find themselves one day being tried
for war and civil crimes. Besides the simple injustice and moral indefensibility of
such actions...
* Jeff Halper is Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and
Editor of "News From Within".
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