Gaza: Leaders Lie, Civilians Die and the Lessons of History Are Ignored

Quite a lot of the dead this weekend appear to have been Hamas members, but what is it supposed to solve?  

By Robert Fisk

We’ve got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don’t care any more — providing we don’t offend the Israelis. It’s not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel’s side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs — who, as we all know, only understand force.

Ever since 1948, we’ve been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis — just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist "death wagon" will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be "liberated." And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" — as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas’s home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.

     The blood-splattering has its own routine. Yes, Hamas provoked Israel’s anger, just as Israel provoked Hamas’s anger, which was provoked by Israel, which was provoked by Hamas, which … See what I mean? Hamas fires rockets at Israel, Israel bombs Hamas, Hamas fires more rockets and Israel bombs again and … Got it? And we demand security for Israel — rightly — but overlook this massive and utterly disproportionate slaughter by Israel. It was Madeleine Albright who once said that Israel was "under siege" — as if Palestinian tanks were in the streets of Tel Aviv.

By last night, the exchange rate stood at 296 Palestinians dead for one dead Israeli. Back in 2006, it was 10 Lebanese dead for one Israeli dead. This weekend was the most inflationary exchange rate in a single day since — the 1973 Middle East War? The 1967 Six Day War? The 1956 Suez War? The 1948 Independence/Nakba War? It’s obscene, a gruesome game — which Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, unconsciously admitted when he spoke this weekend to Fox TV. "Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," Barak said.

Exactly. Only the "rules" of the game don’t change. This is a further slippage on the Arab-Israeli exchanges, a percentage slide more awesome than Wall Street’s crashing shares, though of not much interest in the US which — let us remember — made the F-18s and the Hellfire missiles which the Bush administration pleads with Israel to use sparingly.

Quite a lot of the dead this weekend appear to have been Hamas members, but what is it supposed to solve? Is Hamas going to say: "Wow, this blitz is awesome — we’d better recognize the state of Israel, fall in line with the Palestinian Authority, lay down our weapons and pray we are taken prisoner and locked up indefinitely and support a new American ‘peace process’ in the Middle East!" Is that what the Israelis and the Americans and Gordon Brown think Hamas is going to do?

Yes, let’s remember Hamas’s cynicism, the cynicism of all armed Islamist groups. Their need for Muslim martyrs is as crucial to them as Israel’s need to create them. The lesson Israel thinks it is teaching — come to heel or we will crush you — is not the lesson Hamas is learning. Hamas needs violence to emphasise the oppression of the Palestinians – and relies on Israel to provide it. A few rockets into Israel and Israel obliges.

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GAZA CITY slideshow

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Not a whimper from Tony Blair, the peace envoy to the Middle East who’s never been to Gaza in his current incarnation. Not a bloody word.

We hear the usual Israeli line. General Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the Israeli army’s "research and assessment division" announced that "no country in the world would allow its citizens to be made the target of rocket attacks without taking vigorous steps to defend them". Quite so. But when the IRA were firing mortars over the border into Northern Ireland, when their guerrillas were crossing from the Republic to attack police stations and Protestants, did Britain unleash the RAF on the Irish Republic? Did the RAF bomb churches and tankers and police stations and zap 300 civilians to teach the Irish a lesson? No, it did not. Because the world would have seen it as criminal behaviour. We didn’t want to lower ourselves to the IRA’s level.

Yes, Israel deserves security. But these bloodbaths will not bring it. Not since 1948 have air raids protected Israel. Israel has bombed Lebanon thousands of times since 1975 and not one has eliminated "terrorism". So what was the reaction last night? The Israelis threaten ground attacks. Hamas waits for another battle. Our Western politicians crouch in their funk holes. And somewhere to the east — in a cave? a basement? on a mountainside? — a well-known man in a turban smiles.

FROM THE FRONT LINE

After fleeing the first attacks in Gaza City, a Palestinian journalist weighs the options for his family.

By Hasan Jaber

When the first blast sounded, on Saturday at just past 11 a.m., I hardly took notice. I was at work in my office on the second floor of the Palestine Tower in Gaza City, where I write for the local newspaper. Large explosions had been increasingly rare since Hamas and Israel struck their ceasefire pact six months ago. Still, I decided to stay put and keep writing. By the time the second bomb landed, moments later, I knew something serious was happening. The whole office broke into a panic. I ran as fast as I could, shouting to my colleagues to leave the building.

The streets outside were packed with terrified people. I could hear a cascade of Israeli bombs falling in the distance. Mothers rushed to the nearby kindergarten and pulled their kids out of class. The scene was so chaotic that I thought Hamas might be losing its grip on power. I ducked into a shop. I began to worry that the Israelis might target the Palestine Tower, where Hamas keeps its media office on the third floor. I tried to call family members on my cell phone, but the lines were jammed. Finally I heard the news: dozens of Palestinians had been killed. I knew then that the Egyptian-brokered peace talks had collapsed.

I rushed to the nearby police headquarters. Smoke was still billowing from the destroyed building. It was full of bodies. The injured called out for help. A man with a short beard, wounded but barely alive, gasped for breath. Rescue workers and private citizens pulled the wounded from the rubble and packed them into ambulances and cars. But the large number of injured made their job difficult. Finally, an angry policeman shouted to us to leave the place, warning that the planes might return. I began to think again about by family. I tried my wife again, but still couldn’t get through.

I hopped in a taxi and headed home. Thousands of frightened students were in the streets. On the way back I couldn’t help thinking about the awful situation I am living in with my family in Gaza. According to local polls, nearly half of all Gazans want to emigrate. So do I. Why stay here among the war and killing? I don’t want my kids to go through the same things I have. My wife has always refused to leave. In the car on the way home, I resolved to discuss it with her again.

As soon as I arrived home and opened the door, my kids rushed toward me. They covered me with kisses. My 10-year-old, Abdullah, described how he dove to the floor with his classmates at school after hearing the blasts. My 12-year-old daughter, Aseel, was embarrassed because in the rush to leave her classroom, she had lost some of her textbooks. When she passed the smoking police station on the way home, she said she thought she was going to die. The experience seems to have been hardest on my oldest son, Hosam, who is 14. He just sat in front of the television all day, glued to the news reports. He refused even to come to dinner. My wife and I have tried to talk to him about what he saw, but he stops after only a few words. I’m thinking about taking him to a mental-health clinic. But frankly we all need psychiatrists.

I tried to do some reporting, but couldn’t help thinking about what we might do in the event of a ground invasion. What would happen if militants launched a rocket from nearby our home? I went over in my mind how we might stockpile food, water and other necessities. I thanked God when the electricity failed. At least we didn’t have to watch any more TV. We sat in the dark, telling the children stories about their childhood to distract them. It worked–for a couple of hours. Eventually, we got tired and went to bed, but my kids insisted on sleeping in our room.

My wife and I stayed up talking about the situation. It had never been like this before. We are paying a price in this crazy war, and nobody in the civilized world cares. But at least the chaos has finally motivated my family to do one thing. As the bombs sounded in the distance, I finally convinced my wife to leave Gaza.

© 2008 Independent UK All rights reserved.