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bitterlemons-international.org
Middle East Roundtable /
Edition 28
An Israeli View:
An integral part of this conflict
by Yossi Alpher
It is not easy to concentrate the mind and write about the humanitarian
situation in Gaza at a time when even the Tel Aviv area, where I live, is
under the threat of Hizballah rockets fired from Lebanon. But humanitarian
issues--not just in Gaza, but in Lebanon and Israel, too--are without doubt
an integral part of the current conflict.
It is a test of our own humanity that we not ignore them, even when the fog
of war is thick. At the time of writing, Israel was avoiding launching
attacks on Lebanon that would cut the electricity there and render it more
difficult for Hizballah to muster its ordnance and logistics and fire
rockets southwards, killing Israelis, because destroying Lebanon's
electricity production potential would increase Lebanese civilian suffering.
We cannot ignore the suffering, but we also cannot ignore the circumstances
and the behavior of Palestinian authorities who refuse humanitarian aid for
the most cynical of reasons.
There are two dimensions at play here. First, some of the humanitarian
suffering in Gaza and Lebanon is a deliberate act on Israel's part. It is
intended to generate mass public pressure on the respective governments to
force the Islamic militants to release the three IDF soldiers snatched from
Israeli territory and end rocket attacks. Some Israeli attacks on
Palestinian and Lebanese civilian concentrations reflect the fact that
terrorists and their ordnance and command centers are also there; Israel,
once attacked on its own territory by Hamas and Hizballah, has relaxed its
own rules about hitting these mixed targets and is striking back, thereby
inevitably causing additional civilian suffering even though, unlike Hamas
and Hizballah, that is not its objective. Two prime examples are the death
of nine members of the Abu Salmiya family in Jabaliya, north of Gaza city,
on the night of July 11-12, because the Hamas military leadership, the real
target, was conferring in the ba! sement of their house, and the heavy
bombing of the southern Beirut neighborhood where Hizballah maintains its
headquarters.
Human suffering as a means of pressuring Hamas and the Lebanese authorities
hasn't worked in Gaza and may not in Lebanon, both because the authorities
are too weak to act and because Hamas authorities in Gaza and Hizballah in
southern Lebanon are part and parcel of the terrorist problem, not the
humanitarian solution. Large portions of the respective populations support
them regardless of their dismal situation. In some instances of Israeli
military activity there may be room to reconsider whether the cumulative
humanitarian and political damage doesn't outweigh the military benefit of
reducing terrorist freedom of maneuver and strengthening Israel's
deterrence.
The Israel Defense Forces and Israel's political leaders are aware of this
calculation. Thus far, significant international pressure on Israel has not
built up in this regard. This reflects three factors. Most of the developed
world and even many Arab regimes recognize the imperative Israel faces to
deal a heavy blow to the Islamists--their enemy, too--on two of its borders,
whatever the costs. And they recognize Israel's effort in many cases to
limit humanitarian suffering. Finally, the deliberate use of rocket fire
against civilians by Hizballah and Hamas reflects the asymmetrical nature of
Arab-Israel warfare at this juncture in history. By definition, it invites a
disproportionate response. Thus far, much of the world appears to have
understood this.
That effort brings us to a second dimension--one in which Palestinian
Islamist authorities are playing a nefarious role in perpetuating the Gazan
humanitarian crisis. After last August's unilateral withdrawal, Israel was
prepared to invest over $100 million in improving the passages into and out
of Gaza. But militant Islamists preferred to attack the passages, keeping
them closed. The international community invested in developing the hothouse
agriculture plants the settlers left behind, but the fruits and vegetables
ended up rotting on the vine because the passages at Karni and Erez had to
remain closed for security reasons. Abandoned Gaza Strip settlements that
were going to be turned into new housing complexes were instead taken over
by armed gangs.
Israel tried to bypass the security problems dictating the closure of some
of the crossings by offering to open other, alternative crossings, at Kerem
Shalom and Sufa, for the introduction of humanitarian aid to Gaza. On July
12, the United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
in the occupied Palestinian territory reported that the offer had been
rejected by the Hamas-dominated PA.
Most recently, 5,000 Gazans returning from Egypt were stranded on the
Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, which was closed due to the fighting
that followed the abduction of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit. Some were ill,
returning from medical treatment in Egypt; eight died waiting. Israel agreed
at an early stage to repatriate all 5,000 if they entered Gaza, without even
an Israeli security check, via the Kerem Shalom Israel-Egypt-Gaza terminal.
Again Hamas authorities in Gaza refused, solely for political reasons.
Recently, too, the European Union began to activate a fund for Palestinian
humanitarian aid that is channeled directly to the needy, bypassing Hamas
officials who are still boycotted because of their refusal to accept minimal
conditions for interacting with Israel and the international community.
Israel agreed to this program for alleviating Palestinian suffering. But in
early July it was reported that PA Health Minister Basim Naeem asked
Palestinian hospital directors not to cooperate with the program's intention
of paying cash allowances directly to government doctors and nurses.
Turning to humanitarian suffering due to heavy rocket attacks on the Israeli
population, something revolutionary has happened. The Olmert government has
escalated its response to Hizballah and Hamas even though it recognizes this
will cause widespread civilian casualties in Israel. It has determined that
public patience and determination in the face of such large scale terrorism
are part and parcel of our deterrent image. Hamas leader Hasan Nasrallah, in
his provocative public statements, is betting the Israeli public will break.
He is wrong.- Published 17/7/2006 © bitterlemons.org
Yossi Alpher is coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet
publications. He is former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic
Studies at Tel Aviv University and a former senior adviser to PM Ehud Barak.
Bitterlemons-international.org is an internet
forum for an array of world perspectives on the Middle East and its
specific concerns. It aspires to engender greater understanding about
the Middle East region and open a new common space for world thinkers
and political leaders to present their viewpoints and initiatives on the
region. Editors Ghassan Khatib and Yossi Alpher can be reached at
ghassan@bitterlemons-international.org
and
yossi@bitterlemons-international.org, respectively.
hagalil.com 21-07-2006 |
