Ending Israeli pre-emptive ground incursions into Gaza and air strikes on it, and Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, could avoid constant ceasefire breakdowns and wars – a plan by an Israeli peace activist and a Hamas minister could work to end both

Israeli miitary pre-emptive ground incursions into Gaza triggered escalation to war in November 2008 and November 2012. The ceasefire agreement includes an Israeli agreement to end them, along with targeted assassinations like the one that torpedoed the Egyptian government securing a ceasefire sooner. However it has not so far got any Israeli agreement to end all pre-emptive attacks on Gaza against known or suspected plotters of attacks on Israel. An Israeli peace activist and Hamas government minister’s plan could end any need for the pre-emptive Israeli attacks which have caused almost every ceasefire breakdown. It would do it by Israel sharing intelligence on other Palestinian groups in Gaza who are planning attacks on Israel with Egypt, whose government would pass it on to Hamas, who have enforced ceasefires on other Palestinian groups by force in the past – and are seen as credible at enforcing ceasefires by former head of Mossad Efraim Halevy.

President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt and Hilary Clinton have managed to secure the most comprehensive and fair ceasefire agreement so far between Israel and the Hamas government and other Palestinian groups in Gaza  (1).

It includes Israeli commitments to end military incursions into Gaza and targeted assassinations by airstrike. The escalation to war in both 2008 and 2012 began with Israeli military incursions or raids into Gaza ; and the recent war only lasted more than a couple of days due to the assassination by airstrike of a Hamas armed wing commander imploding ceasefire negotiations brokered by Egypt which were close to success.

What the ceasefire deal has not so far dealt with is the wider issue of Israeli pre-emptive attacks in general. Almost every ceasefire breakdown and return to war has been the result of Israeli pre-emptive strikes claimed to be targeting Palestinians involved in planning attacks on Israel.

On 22nd October and 8^th November 2012, as on 5^th November 2008, Israeli ground forces entered Gaza (2) – (4).

The timing of the incursions, in both 2008 and in 2012 , weeks after the Israeli government had called an election and months before it was to be held, has led to suspicions of wars fought for electoral advantage, or at the very least the timing of them determined by it. Certainly in both cases the Israeli government was trying to show how “tough” it was in “defending” Israelis to avoid any vulnerability to criticism from opposition parties (5) – (6)

In both the 5^th November 2008 and 8^th November 2012 incursions the Israeli military said the aim was to destroy tunnels which were being dug out of Gaza, in 2008 to capture Israeli soldiers (this method was used in the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit by Palestinian armed groups); in 2012 to plant explosives for IED attacks on Israeli patrols along the border (one such attack took place after the November 8^th incursion) (7) – (8).

The October and November 2012 incursions were described by Israeli spokespeople as “routine” or “patrols”, but the results were anything but routine (9) – (10).

The October incursion alone led to a series of attacks on Israeli border patrols, Israeli air and artillery strikes in response and Palestinian rocket fire out of Gaza that included 80 rockets fired out of Gaza in the two days after it.

In the 8^th November incursion which set off the recent escalation, Israeli military spokespeople said helicopters “provided covering fire” as Israeli forces entered Gaza before a later IED attack on an Israeli patrol on the border with Gaza. After Israeli tanks, military vehicles and bulldozers came 500 metres inside Gaza Palestinian militants began fighting with them. A 13 year old Palestinian boy who was playing football was killed  (11) – (18).

In each of the three raids the basic pattern of escalation was the same. Palestinian militants fired on the invaders, just as Israeli forces would if armed Palestinians invaded Israel. Israeli forces responded with air strikes. Palestinian armed groups, lacking an air force to respond in kind with, or any air defences effective against the Israeli air force, respond with rockets (19) – (20).

The only difference with the November 8^th raid is that it led to IED attacks on Israeli patrols on the border with Gaza on November 10^th, which Israeli forces responded to with artillery and tank fire, which killed both militants and then boys going to try to help the wounded, before rocket fire into Israel was stepped up greatly. (21).

In 2012 as in 2008 the Israeli government could then denounce rocket fire by Palestinian armed groups from Gaza as terrorism and look “tough” on “security” during an election campaign; and claim that Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza were the aggressors, while Israel was just defending itself. 

Whether this was a calculated plan or just taking advantage of events is hard to say. Either way the pre-emptive incursions led to the same kind of attacks they were supposed to be intended to prevent, just as Palestinian armed groups’ rocket fire on Israel doesn’t “defend” Palestinian civilians but gets them killed by Israeli retaliation.

(And, no, I am not saying using rocket fire which is inaccurate and likely to kill civilians as revenge for the killing of other civilians or combatants is justified – it’s not ; nor am I saying Israeli air strikes’ targets are always legitimate, many are not – I’m just stating facts on the escalation to war in each case.)

Targeted assassination torpedoed first Egyptian attempt to broker ceasefire-

For several days after the 8^th to 10th November incidents and resultant Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli missile strikes it still looked like the escalation could be ended. Hamas had the agreement of all major armed groups in Gaza to end rocket fire and restore a ceasefire brokered by Egypt. Exactly this has happened after dozens of brief escalations over the years, most begun by either Israeli pre-emptive strikes or targeted assassinations by missile strike, or by groups other than Hamas firing rockets out of Gaza. On one night (between the days of 12^th and 13^th November) just one rocket was fired into Israel and only three Israeli airstrikes carried out on Gaza (22).

Then on November 14th the Israeli government ordered a wave of new airstrikes on Gaza, which, apart from killing two children as collateral damage, included the targeted assassination of Ahmed Al Jabari , head of Hamas’ armed wing (the Qassam brigades) who had organised the enforcement of previous ceasefires ; and was in favour of a long term ceasefire (though not peace) with Israel, and was considering a plan for a ceasefire agreement drafted in Egypt by Israeli peace activists and Hamas deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hamad, according to Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin. (23) – (25).

Pre-emptive Israeli attacks by ground forces or missile strike main cause of ceasefire breakdowns – and the plan to end them and most rocket attacks from Gaza through intelligence sharing via Egypt during ceasefires

Israel has always previously “reserved the right” to carry out pre-emptive strikes on any group it suspects or knows to be planning attacks on Israel. These often kill civilians as collateral damage, particularly as missile strikes often target the family homes of militants, killing wives, children and the elderly ; and even where they don’t, they lead to Palestinian armed groups retaliating – usually with rocket fire into Israel.

The ground incursions into Gaza, like the air strikes, are said to be aimed at preventing terrorist attacks on Israeli forces or civilians before they happen , but as Baskin points out that they often lead to the collapse of ceasefires and cause more attacks than they stop, especially due to civilian collateral deaths.

Baskin was negotiating with Hamas foreign minister Ghazi Hamad (26). Together they devised a plan to avoid the breakdown of ceasefires due to Israeli pre-emptive strikes, by Israel passing on intelligence on any planned attack on Israel by Palestinian groups in Gaza during ceasefires to the Egyptian government, who would pass it to Hamas, who would have 24 or 48 hours to act to stop those plotting it in order to avoid an Israeli pre-emptive strike (27).

This is not so far-fetched as it may sound. Hamas have frequently got the agreement of other Palestinian factions in Gaza to maintain ceasefires, and even enforced the ceasefires on any group breaking them (28). For instance it’s police and paramilitary “security forces” arresting members of Islamic Jihad in April 2010 who had fired rockets during a ceasefire, taking their weapons from them and making them sign an agreement not to break the ceasefire again if they wanted to avoid jail and similarly arresting and jailing members of an even more extreme group for ceasefire breaches in 2011 (29) – (30).

In 2007 the Jewish magazine Forward quoted former head of Mossad Efraim Halevy as saying that Hamas were “not very pleasant people, but they are very, very credible”.  Halevy says Hamas’ past actions show they are capable of maintaining a ceasefire by their own armed wing and largely enforcing it on other groups in Gaza (31).

When there are hundreds of rocket attacks on Israel each year, with the majority causing no casualties, there would be plenty of scope for Israel to test if particular leaders in Hamas used the intelligence it was given to try to warn those planning the attack, or to stop them and it. The risks for Israel, with it’s vastly greater military strength, are trivial, while the benefits to both sides of an end to the cycle of ceasefire breakdowns could be huge.

As Halevy says “It may not work, but aren’t we strong enough to be able to try it?” (32).

As current Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in 1999 “The Palestinians…are the weakest of our adversaries. As a military threat they are ludicrous.” (33).

If it worked it would increase trust between the two sides (act as a “confidence building measure” as the jargon goes) and could lead to more willingness to negotiate, at least indirectly through third parties like the Egyptian government, President Abbas of Fatah (now back in coalition with Hamas as the other half of the elected Palestinian government since they won the 2006 Legislative Elections) and Israelis not connected to the Israeli government, like Baskin.

That’s assuming the Israeli government wants peace rather than just keeping the Gaza conflict as a useful distraction from it’s accelerating settlement of most of the West Bank as a prelude to annexation of most of it.

Sources

(1) = Reuters 21 Nov 2012 6.55pm ‘TEXT: Ceasefire agreement between Israel and Gaza's Palestinians’, http://live.reuters.com/Event/Conflict_on_the_Gaza_Strip/57460762

(2) = BBC News 24 Oct 2012 ‘Gaza militants killed in strikes following rocket fire’,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20054554

(3) = guardian.co.uk 05 Nov 2008 ‘Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians

(4) = Human Rights Watch 15 Nov 2012 ‘Israel/Gaza: Avoid Harm to Civilians’,
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/15/israelgaza-avoid-harm-civilians

(5) = guardian.co.uk 01 Feb 2009 ‘Israel threatens 'disproportionate' response to Palestinian rocket fire’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/01/gaza-israelandthepalestinians ‘The preparation to launch fresh attacks on Gaza comes two weeks after Israel halted a three-week onslaught and claimed its aims were "attained fully".…With nine days to the election and with the ceasefire unravelling, Kadima is scrambling to gain ground on its rightwing rival, Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party, which looks set to win the election... Despite waging a 22-day war in Gaza, Kadima's coalition government is still scrambling to prove its national security credentials in the face of continuing rocket fire and Netanayahu's calls to purge Hamas from Gaza.’

(6) = CNN 10 Oct 2012 ‘Netanyahu calls early election for Israel’,
http://www.cnn.co.uk/2012/10/09/world/meast/israel-election/index.html ; ‘The election will ideally happen in three months' time, he said, rather than in October 2013, as originally scheduled.’ (3^rd paragraph – i.e January 2013)

(7) = CNN 10 Nov 2012 ‘Funeral held for boy killed in Gaza’,
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/09/world/meast/gaza-violence/index.html ‘Israeli Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich.…Leibovich said that 300 meters inside Gaza, Israeli border soldiers had discovered a cache of explosives in a tunnel adjacent to a security fence’

(8) = guardian.co.uk 05 Nov 2008 ‘Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians ; ‘Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip late last night near the town of Deir al-Balah. The Israeli military said the target of the raid was a tunnel that they said Hamas was planning to use to capture Israeli soldiers positioned on the border fence 250m away.’

(9) = Al Jazeera 09 Nov 2012 ‘Israel blames Hamas for Gaza blast’,
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012119112941283876.html 4th and 5th from last paragraphs ‘A military spokesman on Friday…"During a routine activity west of Nirim, troops found a number of explosive devices and detonated them in a controlled manner. As a result of earlier fire toward them, they fired towards open areas in the vicinity," he said.’

(10) = BBC News 24 Oct 2012 ‘Gaza militants killed in strikes following rocket fire’,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20054554 ; ‘Two members of the groups were killed in an Israeli air strike on Monday. The Israeli military said it had targeted the militants after they fired mortars at a ground patrol. Palestinian sources said the patrol had entered Gaza near Beit Hanoun…’

(11) = Human Rights Watch 15 Nov 2012 ‘Israel/Gaza: Avoid Harm to Civilians’,
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/15/israelgaza-avoid-harm-civilians ; ‘The current round of fighting began on November 8, during an incursion by Israeli forces into southern Gaza, east of Khan Yunis. The Popular Resistance Committees, an armed group, said it fired at Israeli tanks and bulldozers near Khuza’a and detonated an explosive device in a tunnel in the area, according to Ma’an, an independent Palestinian news site. An Israeli military spokesperson said an Israeli soldier had been lightly injured, Ma’an reported. Residents told the The New York Times that Israeli tanks and helicopters opened fire during the clash……….. …..Several armed groups invoked the November 8 clash as a reason for the Palestinian attack on November 10, which wounded four Israeli soldiers. Israeli forces fired several tank or artillery shells in response. One shell wounded members of a Palestinian armed group, one of whom later died. International media and Palestinian rights groups reported that civilians in the area went to the site of the shelling to help the wounded, and that several minutes later more shells struck the area, killing four civilians and wounding perhaps several dozen more

(12) = Washington Post / AP 08 Nov 2012 ‘Israel’s military says explosive-filled tunnel explodes near soldiers on Israel-Gaza border’, http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/israels-military-says-explosive-filled-tunnel-explodes-near-soldiers-on-israel-gaza-border/2012/11/08/f20732d8-29ed-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html ;  (7^th paragraph and 3^rd from last para) ‘Palestinian militants and Israeli forces were exchanging fire at the time….Before the blast, Israeli soldiers had entered dozens of meters into Gaza, protected by military helicopters firing a cover of bullets to search for explosives, Leibovich and Palestinian officials said.’

(13) = Al Jazeera 09 Nov 2012 ‘Israel blames Hamas for Gaza blast’,
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012119112941283876.html ;"Witnesses confirmed that Israeli helicopters had opened fire as tanks carried out an incursion, sparking a brief exchange of fire with fighters. A military spokesman on Friday confirmed troops had been operating in the area and had fired "towards open areas in the vicinity" after coming under attack by gunmen.

(14) = CNN 10 Nov 2012 ‘Funeral held for boy killed in Gaza’,
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/09/world/meast/gaza-violence/index.html ‘Israeli Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich.…Leibovich said that 300 meters inside Gaza, Israeli border soldiers had discovered a cache of explosives in a tunnel adjacent to a security fence… Palestinian sources said that, before the boy was shot, a number of Israeli military vehicles and tanks had entered Gaza some 500 meters east of Khan Younis, where they came under fire from militants. The tanks responded by firing two rounds towards farmland’

 (15) = guardian.co.uk 05 Nov 2008 ‘Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians ; ‘A four-month ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza was in jeopardy today after Israeli troops killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid into the territory.

Hamas responded by firing a wave of rockets into southern Israel, although no one was injured. The violence represented the most serious break in a ceasefire agreed in mid-June, yet both sides suggested they wanted to return to atmosphere of calm.

 (16) = Reuters 05 Nov 2008 ‘Israel-Hamas violence disrupts Gaza truce’,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/11/05/us-palestinians-israel-violence-idUSTRE4A37B520081105 ‘Hamas fired dozens of rockets at Israel on Wednesday after Israeli forces killed six Palestinian militants in an eruption of violence that disrupted a four-month-old truce along the Gaza Strip's frontier….On Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes killed five militants and Israeli soldiers shot dead a gunman during an incursion into the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces quit the coastal enclave in 2005 and Hamas took control after routing Fatah forces two years later….The Israeli military said the aircraft went into action after militants attacked soldiers who entered Gaza to destroy a tunnel that Hamas had planned to use to kidnap Israeli soldiers.’

(17) = CNN 10 Nov 2012 ‘Funeral held for boy killed in Gaza’ http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/09/world/meast/gaza-violence/index.html ; ‘Funeral services were held Friday for a 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot and killed while playing soccer in Gaza a day earlier…the Gaza Health Ministry accused the Israel Defense Forces of killing the boy…Initially, the ministry said the boy was shot in the head by an Israeli helicopter. Witnesses disputed that account…saying the boy was shot in the side and the gunfire came from Israeli military vehicles…Israeli Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich told CNN that an initial investigation by the military "did not indicate the Israeli military had any connection to the shooting."’

(18) = Human Rights Watch 15 Nov 2012 ‘Israel/Gaza: Avoid Harm to Civilians’,
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/15/israelgaza-avoid-harm-civilians ; 14^th Paragraph, 4^th sentence – ‘Palestinian rights groups, the Gaza Health Ministry, and photojournalist Anne Paq, working for the Israeli-Palestinian ActiveStills media group, reported that a bullet from Israeli machinegun fire fatally struck Hamid Abu Daqqa, 13, in the abdomen as he was playing near his home in ‘Abasan al Kabira, hundreds of meters from the fighting.’

(19) = guardian.co.uk 05 Nov 2008 ‘Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians  ; 3^rd and 4^th paragraphs ‘Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip late last night near the town of Deir al-Balah…Four Israeli soldiers were injured in the operation, two moderately and two lightly, the military said….One Hamas gunman was killed and Palestinians launched a volley of mortars at the Israeli military. An Israeli air strike then killed five more Hamas fighters. In response, Hamas launched 35 rockets into southern Israel, one reaching the city of Ashkelon.’

(20) = BBC News 24 Oct 2012 ‘Gaza militants killed in strikes following rocket fire’,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20054554 ; ‘Two members of the groups were killed in an Israeli air strike on Monday. The Israeli military said it had targeted the militants after they fired mortars at a ground patrol. Palestinian sources said the patrol had entered Gaza near Beit Hanoun…’

(21) = Human Rights Watch 15 Nov 2012 ‘Israel/Gaza: Avoid Harm to Civilians’,
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/15/israelgaza-avoid-harm-civilians

(22) = Al Jazeera 14 Nov 2012 ‘Israel and Gaza reach tacit truce’,
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/2012111316357186271.html
‘Israel and Palestinian leaders have reached a tacit truce that could prevent a new war in the Gaza strip after five days of clashes.The agreement, brokered by Egypt, was made on Monday night…. Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Gaza's Hamas government, praised the main armed factions in the occupied Palestinian territory for agreeing to the truce.

Israel struck three targets in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Tuesday, including what the army said was a weapons depot and two rocket launch sites. There were no casualties. Only one Palestinian rocket strike was reported in Israel by 0800 GMT on Tuesday.’

(23) = USA Today 14 Nov 2012 ‘Israelis brace for attacks after Hamas leader killed’,
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/14/israeli-airstrike-hamas-military-chief/1704159/

(24) = Haaretz 14 Nov 2012 ‘Israel killed its subcontractor in Gaza’,
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-killed-its-subcontractor-in-gaza.premium-1.477886

(25) = New York Times 16 Nov 2012 ‘Israel’s short-sighted assassination’ by Gerwin Bashkin,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/opinion/israels-shortsighted-assassination.html?pagewanted=1

(26) = See (25) above

(27) = Huffington Post 18 Nov 2012 ‘Gershon Baskin, Israeli Activist, Explains Truce Plan Given To Ahmed Jabari Before Gaza War’ , http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/17/gershon-baskin_n_2152231.html

(28) = guardian.co.uk 22 Nov 2009 ‘Gaza militant groups agree to stop firing rockets into Israel’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/gaza-militant-groups-rockets-israel ; ‘Hamas has won an agreement from other militant groups in Gaza to halt rocket fire into Israel for the first time in almost a year, as both sides indicated progress on a deal to release a captured Israeli soldier.’

(29) = Haaretz 12 April 2010 ‘Gaza militant: Hamas stopping rocket fire into Israel’,
http://www.haaretz.com/news/gaza-militant-hamas-stopping-rocket-fire-into-israel-1.284117 ; ‘Hamas is forcing other Gaza Palestinian factions to guarantee they do not launch rockets or mortar bombs at Israel, a source told the French AFP news agency on Monday. ..a member of the Strip's Islamic Jihad militant group, told AFP that members of Hamas' security force arrested four Islamic Jihad militants, forcing them to sign a document stating that they pledged not to fire Qassam missiles or mortar bombs at Israel.The official added that the Hamas men also confiscated the weapons found on the Islamic Jihad militants. Last week, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha told the BBC that Hamas was working to curb rocket attacks against Israel by Gaza militants.’

(30) = Al Arabiya 07 Aug 2011 ‘Hamas arrests Salafists for firing rockets into Israel’,
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/08/07/161181.html ; ‘Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip on Saturday detained two members of an Islamist group suspected of firing rockets at Israel, the group said in a statement. Tawhid wal Jihad, a Salafist organization, confirmed that Hamas security forces had detained two of its members in an early morning raid. …The group acknowledged that the arrested members were part of a group firing missiles from Gaza, confirming earlier reports that Hamas forces had detained fighters who have fired dozens of missiles into Israel this month….In the statement, the group warned that it would continue to fire rockets at Israel….“We urge the police not to heed the decision of the government to stop the holy warriors and protect the defenses of the enemy against the holy warriors’ attacks,” the statement added.’

(31) = Forward 09 Feb 2007 ‘Experts Question Wisdom of Boycotting Hamas’, http://forward.com/articles/10055/experts-question-wisdom-of-boycotting-hamas/#ixzz2D0Wye642 ; 16^th paragraph ‘According to Halevy, Israel should take up Hamas’s offer of a long-term truce and try negotiating, because the Islamic movement is respected by Palestinians and generally keeps its word. He pointed to the cease-fire in attacks on Israel that Hamas declared two years ago and has largely honored. “They’re not very pleasant people, but they are very, very credible,” Halevy said.’

(32) = ‘http://forward.com/articles/10055/experts-question-wisdom-of-boycotting-hamas/#ixzz2D0Xvm0Jo ; 2nd sentence of 15th paragraph , ‘“It may not work, but aren’t we strong enough to be able to try it?” said onetime Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy, who was a top adviser to former prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon.’

(33) = Ehud Barak in an interview published in Haaretz newspaper 18 June 1999 , cited by Avi Shlaim (2000) ‘The Iron Wall :Israel and the Arab World’ , Penguin paperback , London, 2001 , page xii

“Ignorance” and “apologising for terrorism” and war crimes

Denial, Shouting ‘Look over there’ and saying ‘Hamas made us do it’ don’t cut it – both sides target civilians, with Israel’s greater fire-power killing hundreds of times more - and the only way forward is to negotiate with Hamas

A Palestinian fireman at the UN aid depot in Gaza as food and medicines burn after Israeli artillery repeatedly shelled buildings with incendiaries

There are the usual responses by cheerleaders for Israeli actions to the widespread reports of Israeli forces targeting civilians in Gaza. The commonest has been a combination of denial and accusing Hamas of having been responsible for any incident where Palestinian civilians were killed, though there are several other tactics used.

Denial and blaming the other side

Ivor S Tiefenbrun for instance (Herald letters 26th January) says claims of Israeli forces targeting civilians and ambulances in Lebanon and Gaza and the West Bank (including Jenin) in the present and the past are “discredited…propaganda” based on the “ignorance” of “apologists” for terrorists. Like many others he also makes the false claim that every instance of Israeli forces killing civilians has been the result of their enemies “using civilians as human shields”. This is true in some cases, but in many cases it’s not – and in fact the Israeli military has often used Palestinian civilians as human shields itself.

For the truth about the Israeli offensive in Jenin and Nablus in 2002, in which at least 22 civilians were killed, many deliberately, in Jenin alone and at least 70 children killed in “Operation Defensive Shield” as a whole, as well as Palestinian civilians forced to walk ahead of Israeli troops at gunpoint, see this post and the Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem reports it lists

On 14th January 2009 Amnesty International reported war crimes “include Israeli attacks that have been directed at civilians or civilian buildings in the Gaza Strip” as well as Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli towns (1)

After the main UN aid depot in Gaza was repeatedly shelled by Israeli artillery, burning food and medicines, the Israeli government claimed Hamas had fired from nearby. On 15th January CNN quoted Chris Ging, the head of UNRWA, saying there had been no militants and no fighting anywhere near the depot when it was shelled (2).

After the 2006 war in Lebanon and Gaza Human Rights Watch reported that “Israeli forces have systematically failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon …The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices.” (3) , (4). HRW also reported at least 6 confirmed attacks by Israeli forces on ambulances in Gaza, paralleled by many similar attacks in Lebanon (5,6). This month it reported at least two incidents of Israeli forces killing or injuring medics when firing on ambulances (7).

What’s more in 2005 Israeli soldiers reported following orders to shoot unarmed Palestinians even when there was no fighting taking place, including children. Palestinian and British doctors and journalists also came to the conclusion by studying injuries in dead children that they had been repeatedly shot in the head by Israeli snipers. The Israeli human rights group B’T Selem has reported similar cases (8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13).

There is also no doubt any more that the Israeli government and military are doing everything they can to deny the entire population of Gaza enough food and medical supplies. This campaign to deny Gazans enough food, medicines and fuel kills just as surely in the long run – and involves a fair amount of direct killing with tanks, artillery and air-strikes too.

First they instituted a blockade which allows some truckloads of food, medicines and fuel into Gaza some days – just not nearly enough to supply the population according to the UN. By November 2008 the International Committee of the Red Cross was reporting that “chronic malnutrition is a steadily rising trend” along with “under-nutrition”. By December 2008 many Gazans were reduced to searching rubbish dumps for food. On 3rd February 2009 the UN reported that “The number of trucks allowed by Israel to enter Gaza daily to deliver much-needed relief supplies remains insufficient.” (14), (15), (16).

The Israeli military made a great show of letting the media film them letting some UN aid trucks into Gaza, before shelling many of them with tanks and killing the drivers on the other side of the border, where no foreign media were allowed (17), (18). Then they bombed hundreds of civilian targets including the UN aid depot mentioned above, burning hundreds of tones of food and medicines with white phosphorus shells. Israeli strikes also destroyed over 200 factories and food processing plants, including the largest functioning grain mill in Gaza (19). The DEC appeal, by providing some simple facts such as the lack of clean drinking water and levels of malnutrition and suffering in Gaza, was an embarrassment for Israeli government PR men, which is probably why they demanded the BBC drop it.

I’ve provided independent and reliable sources for all the above claims. So what are the sources Mr Tiefenbrun and others have for their claims that all this is ‘propaganda’ by ‘apologists’ for terrorists? ; The Israeli government and military maybe? Certainly if he was listening to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert then the Israeli military are “the most moral, the most high-minded military forces in the world” (20). Unfortunately as Professor Norman Finkelstein has pointed out, even Himmler and the SS claimed they were upholding the highest moral standards and only regretfully doing what was necessary to protect the German people (21). What the Israeli military has done in Gaza is not a Holocaust but statements about how moral you are don’t magically make every action you take right even when you’re targeting civilians either.

Mr Tiefenbrun derides “closed minds”. If he believes the Israeli government, one of the sides in the conflict, are an unbiased source, while the UN, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch aren’t, then perhaps he’s the one who has a closed mind and prefers ignorance to unpleasant facts. You might even say that “his ignorance is matched only by his colossal arrogance”. Stating the facts is “beyond the pale” to him; a telling phrase, since it was first used by colonists in Ireland to deride the native Irish who they looked down on as sub-humans who could be killed without guilt.

Like many others he acts as an apologist for Israeli forces’ targeting of civilians in fact free rants against those who deal with the reality and condemn both Palestinian terrorist groups and Israeli forces for targeting civilians.

“Look over there – they’re doing it too”

Other cheerleaders for the Israeli blockade and offensive have returned to the time honoured practice of the Israeli lobby – shouting ‘look over there, they’re doing it too, so why are you picking on me?’ ; so Sudanese war crimes in Sudan, Sri Lankan ones against Tamils and the Iraq war are raised as if these somehow make Israeli war crimes against civilians justifiable.

“They asked for it by voting Hamas”

Saying that Gazans asked for whatever they got by voting for Hamas has also become fashionable. This is idiotic in several ways. First hundreds of the dead are children too young to vote. Second half the population didn’t vote for Hamas. Third it’s hypocrisy. Israelis have repeatedly elected war criminals like Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert and even former terrorists like Begin – yet no-one suggested that because of this Israeli civilians deserved to be suicide bombed because some of them voted for war criminals.

“Evil Hamas are the problem, but we’d talk to Fatah”

Then there’s the story that Hamas are evil but Fatah are good. This is just the continuation of the divide and rule strategy whereby in the past, when the PLO and Fatah were dominant in Palestinian politics, Israel backed Hamas to divide Palestinians (21). This is also hypocrisy again. When Israelis elected people with a long record of committing and ordering war crimes, from Deir Yassin to Qibya to Sabra and Shatila, like Sharon, no-one suggested Palestinians couldn’t be expected to negotiate with them.

“We are entirely good, They are entirely Evil”

The biggest problem is the problem with any kind of nationalistic or religious jingoism – the attempt to pretend that “our side” are entirely morally good while the enemy are entirely “evil” and that any wrong done by our side either didn’t happen or else was all the fault of the “evil ones”. The reality is that there are very very few people who are entirely good or evil and pretty much no entire countries which are. Pointing out that Hamas are the democratically elected government of the Palestinian Authority and that Israeli forces also target and kill civilians is not a statement that Israel is evil and Hamas are good. It’s a simple statement of the reality – that both sides target civilians, that the stronger side (Israel’s government) has refused negotiations because it thinks it can get everything it wants by force.

“We are democrats, they are terrorists”

The Israeli government is also fond of claiming that Israel is “the only democracy in the middle east” besieged by “terrorists”. However Israel is not the only democracy in the Middle East. Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority have both held plenty of democratic elections. Yet Israel prefers alliances with election rigging dictators like Mubarak of Egypt and corrupt, torturing monarchies like Saudi and Jordan, while bombing other democracies. Not only that but it routinely elects and re-elects war criminals like Sharon and Olmert and its forces target civilians as much as any terrorist group.

“We are strong, they are weak”

Another problem is the ludicrous belief that the other side will react in a way opposite to our own reaction to similar treatment. So Israelis are tough and their will is hardened by attacks that kill their soldiers civilians, but they assume that if they just kill enough Palestinians the Palestinians will surrender. You would think that six decades of Palestinians reacting to Israeli offensives that kill hundreds of them by hardening their attitudes to Israel would make Israeli politicians and generals realise the reality, but unfortunately so far only a minority do. Two, Avreh Cohen and Arieh Spitzen, were quoted by the Wall Street Journal on past Israeli backing for Hamas and on the likelihood that just as bombing Palestinians to drive Arafat and Fatah out of power led to the rise of Hamas, bombing them to drive Hamas out of power could lead to the rise of even more extreme groups like Al Qaeda (21). Perhaps, though, that’s the plan – kill enough Palestinians to make radicalize them in order to justify more bombing to “stamp out extremism”. That distracts attention to the land grab and new settlements in the West Bank. If Israel’s government really wants peace though negotiations that include Hamas are the only way forward.

(1) = Amnesty International 14th January 2009 ‘Growing calls for investigations and accountability in Gaza conflict’,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/growing-calls-investigations-and-accountability-gaza-conflict-20090114

(2) = CNN 15 Jan 2009 ‘Third-ranking Hamas leader in Gaza killed’,
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/15/gaza.aid.plea/
(13th paragraph reads ‘UNRWA Director John Ging denied there were any militants at the compound, and also said that at the time there was no fighting in the area.’

(3) = Human Rights Watch 2 Aug 2006 ‘Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on Civilians’, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/08/02/israellebanon-end-indiscriminate-strikes-civilians

(4) = HRW 2 Aug 2006 ‘Fatal Strikes : Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon’, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2006/08/02/fatal-strikes (5) = HRW 13 Sep 2006 ‘Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Don't Fire on Gaza Medics - Six Attacks on Palestinian Ambulances, Paramedics’
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/09/12/israeloccupied-palestinian-territories-don-t-fire-gaza-medics

(6) = HRW Dec 2006 ‘The “Hoax” That Wasn’t:
The July 23 Qana Ambulance Attack’,
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/mena/qana1206/index.htm

(7) = Human Rights Watch 13 Jan 2009 ‘Deprived and Endangered : Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip’, http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/12/deprived-and-endangered-humanitarian-crisis-gaza-strip
(Scroll down to second third main heading ‘"OPERATION CAST LEAD" AND EXPLOSION OF THE HUMANITARIAN CRISIS’ then to 4th sub-heading ‘Humanitarian Problems Due To Possible Humanitarian Law Violations’ – 2nd paragraph under it reads “Medical facilities and ambulances have also been hit by Israeli attacks, in some cases resulting in casualties among medical personnel. On January 5, Israeli forces reportedly shelled an ambulance of al-`Awda hospital in the north, seriously injuring four medical staff. On January 4, an Israeli airstrike struck an ambulance in Beit Lahiya run by the Union of Health Work Committees, funded by Oxfam, killing one paramedic, Arafa Abd al-Dayim, 33, and gravely wounding another, `Ala' Sarhan, 22. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, they were trying to evacuate a wounded person from a site attacked by an Israeli airstrike when the plane returned and struck the same site again”)

(8) = Guardian 28 Jun 2005, ‘Snipers with children in their sights’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1516362,00.html

(9) = BT’Selem eyewitness testimonies – IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends, in Tubas, north of Nablus, January 2005 - witness Abu Muhsen -
http://www.btselem.org/english/Testimonies/20050120_Salah_Abu_Muhsen_Shot_to_Death_in_Tubas_witness_Abu_Muhsen.asp

(10) = BT'Selem eyewitness testimonies - IDF soldier shoots and kills a 14 year-old boy playing with his friends, in Tubas, north of Nablus, January 2005 - witness Daragmeh - http://www.btselem.org/english/Testimonies/20050120_Salah_Abu_Muhsen_Shot_to_Death_in_Tubas_witness_Daraghmeh.asp

(11) = Summerfield, Derek ‘Palestine – The Assault on Health and Other War Crimes’,
British Medical Journal 16 October 2004 http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7471/924?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Derek+Summerfield+Palestine&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

(12) = Guardian 6 Sep 2005, ‘Israeli troops say they were given shoot-to-kill order’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1563476,00.html

(13) = Guardian 6 Sep 2005, ‘Israeli soldiers tell of indiscriminate killings by army and a culture of impunity’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1563255,00.html

(14) = Independent 15 Nov 2008 ‘Chronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on Israel’,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/chronic-malnutrition-in-gaza-blamed-on-israel-1019521.html

(15) = Observer 21 Dec 2008 ‘Israeli blockade 'forces Palestinians to search rubbish dumps for food',
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/21/israel-gaza-strip-middle-east

(16) = UN Department of Public Information 03 Feb 2009 ‘More supplies must be allowed to enter Gaza, says UN’, http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/47d4e277b48d9d3685256ddc00612265/eb20a38860c16537852575520070a134!OpenDocument

(17) = AP 08 Jan 2009 ‘UN curbs Gaza aid after trucks hit by Israeli fire’,
9th paragraph reads “"We've been coordinating with them (Israeli forces) and yet our staff continue to be hit and killed," said a U.N. spokesman, Chris Gunness, announcing the suspension. The U.N. is the largest aid provider in Gaza.”

(18) = Guardian 10 Jan 2009 ‘Ban on foreign journalists skews coverage of conflict’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-israel-reporters-foreign-journalists

(19) = Guardian 26 Jan 2009 ‘Hamas offers $52m handouts to help hardest-hit Gazans’,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/26/hamas-payout-gaza-infrastructure

(20) = Norman Finkelstein (1995) ‘ Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict’, (2nd edition), Verso, London & NY, 2003, chapter 4 , pages 112-116 of paperback edition

(21) = Wall Street Journal 24 Jan 2009 ‘How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas’,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275572295011847.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

copyright©Duncan M McFarlane 2009

There were Israeli war crimes in Jenin

One of the least unsettling photos taken of Jenin after the Israeli attack on it in April 2002 - for more see Sandiego Indymedia here

It’s become common for those people who think Israeli forces can do no wrong to claim that claims of war crimes in Jenin and Nablus in 2002 were later “discredited” or “proven untrue” – and even that this proved the UN and human rights groups were “unreliable” sources of information. This is then used as supposed evidence to claim Israeli forces have not targeted civilians more recently either.

There is a tiny grain of truth to these claims which has been exaggerated so massively that the resulting claims are completely untrue. The tiny grain is that Amnesty International initially believed hundreds of civilians had been killed in Jenin refugee camp and called this a “massacre”, but after further investigations it and other groups found the number killed in Jenin itself was not hundreds but twenty-two. In the entire ‘Operation Defensive Shield’ which covered Jenin, Nablus and elsewhere 497 Palestinians were killed (according to Amnesty and the UN), including over 70 children (according to Amnesty). Physicians for Human Rights said around 38% of the dead were children, disabled or over 50 years old (1),(2),(3),(4), (5).

If you want to play with words on the definition of “massacre” then whether hundreds or dozens of civilians were killed could make a difference, but the fact remains that Israeli forces targeted and killed dozens of civilians including ambulance crews. They had also fired on ambulances earlier in the same year (6)

During the Israeli assaults on refugee camps in Nablus and Jenin in 2002 there were initially allegations of the massacre of hundreds of civilians from some Palestinians. Amnesty international began an investigation and initially said that the forensic evidence they had so far seemed to corroborate the allegations.

In their final report however they, along with Human Rights Watch and Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, found that dozens, rather than hundreds of civilians had been killed by Israeli forces, along with dozens of armed combatants.

There were also armed Palestinian combatants killed, but this does not justify what was done to civilians. Eyewitness testimony from Israeli soldiers and Palestinians confirmed that Israeli forces had bulldozed many houses without warning, killing many Palestinians. Other unarmed civilians were forced to walk ahead of Israeli forces as human shields or shot or run over by tanks in the middle of the street – including at least one disabled person in a wheel chair. Ambulances, medics and aid organizations were prevented from bringing wounded Palestinians to hospital and even fired on and killed. Journalists were also banned from the area until days after the offensive ended.

For instance B’T selem took this testimony from Israeli soldier Moshe Nissim who drove a bulldozer at Jenin.

“They called out on a bullhorn to warn the residents before I came. But I didnt give anybody a chance. I didn’t wait. I didnt strike once and wait for them to leave. I would smash the house really hard so that it would collapse as quickly as possible…Everything I did was according to orders.” (5)

These are all quite clearly war crimes – a mixture of deliberately targeting civilians, not making any attempt to avoid killing civilians and using them as human shields. The fact that dozens rather than hundreds were killed in this way does not erase these crimes from history. Nor can Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.

What’s more Amnesty reported that “Throughout the period 4-15 April, the IDF denied access to Jenin refugee camp to all, including medical doctors and nurses, ambulances, humanitarian relief services, human rights organizations, and journalists.” (2). So Israeli forces had 12 days in which to move or bury bodies – and bulldozers to do it with. So the 22 civilians Human Rights Watch found solid evidence of being killed in Jenin, like the 70 children cited by Amnesty for Operation Defensive Shield as a whole, may have been far less than the real totals. Any Palestinian witnesses could be killed, or, even more easily, dismissed as lying Arabs – the usual response of the IDF to any claim by any Arab witness.

The UN report on ‘Operation Defensive Shield’ came to few conclusions of its own, preferring to merely summarise the different claims made by the Israeli military and government, the Palestinian authority and investigations by human rights groups, as if the two sides in the conflict were as unbiased as neutral third parties (4).

So those who claim that claims of Israeli war crimes against civilians in Jenin and Nablus in 2002 were ‘disproven’ or ‘discredited’ are mistaken at best. This is even more true for those who claim this ‘proves’ the UN and all human rights groups are unreliable sources.

(1) = BBC 18 Apr 2002 ‘Jenin 'massacre evidence growing'’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1937048.stm

(2) = Amnesty International 2002 ‘Israel and the Occupied Territories
Shielded from scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus’,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/143/2002/en/dom-MDE151432002en.html

(3) = Human Rights Watch May 2002 ‘Jenin: IDF Military Operations’,
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/israel3/

(4) = UN 2002 ‘Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant
to General Assembly resolution ES-10/10’,
http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/index.html ; On the 497 Palestinians killed on the Operation see Paragraph 37 Section E;
For figures from Physicians for Human Rights see Paragraph 57

(5) = B’Tselem 2002 ‘OPERATION DEFENSIVE SHIELD
Palestinian Testimonies , Soldiers’ Testimonies’,
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:qZPp4XdKIKwJ:www.btselem.org/Download/200207_Defensive_Shield_Eng.pdf+Jenin+2002&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=29&lr=lang_en&inlang=en

(6) = B’Tselem Mar 2002 ‘Impeding Medical Treatment and Firing at Ambulances
by IDF Soldiers in the Occupied Territories’,
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:OmUwaNktodIJ:www.btselem.org/Download/200203_Medical_Treatment_Eng.rtf+Jenin+2002&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=32&lr=lang_en&inlang=en