The Tragedy of Fighting Terror with Terror.

These words are not easy for me to write, and still, they should be written. This post walks a fine line, but one that should be walked. It crosses bridges that should be crossed and reveals truths that should be discussed. Its purpose is to show that Israel is using increasingly alarming terror techniques in its fight against the Palestinians.
I further argue that at this point the state terror used by Israel imposes by far a greater risk to Israel itself than the Palestinian terror.

Some parallels between the Hamas and the Isareli government:

- Both do not acknowledge each other, even though they both were elected democratically by their own people. Furthermore, both choose violence in order to attempt to destroy the other. By doing so, both only strengthen their partner to this bloody dance.

- Both kill hundreds of civilians, on purpose. Yes, even Israel. For example, Israel used artillery and other inaccurate weapons during the last war. One cannot use these weapons in the most densely populated place on earth and hope that no civilians get killed. There is one difference between the Hamas and Israel, and Israel should not be proud of it: more Palestinians (overall and civilians) were killed during the 3 weeks of Israeli operation in Gaza compared with Israelis who got killed by Palestinians in the 9 years since the Second Intifada broke. 3 weeks vs. 9 years.

- Both kidnap soldiers and put them in inhumane conditions. Again, only one tiny difference: while the Hamas kidnapped one member of the Israeli army, Israel holds thousands of Hamas members.

- Both do so in the name of religion.

- Both need the other to exist in order to justify their own ideology of hatred and racism.

- This is a key point: they both hide behind civilians. One of the most common criticism towards the Hamas is that it operates from civic centers, and its soldiers use human shields to protect themselves. For example, the Jewish Chronicle published the following caricature last week:

Here is another similar caricature.

However, also Israel uses human shields. First, its biggest military bases are in the middle of civilian concentrations (HaKirya in Tel Aviv, Pikud Darom in Beer Sheva, etc). But I am not talking about this. I am talking about the Neighbor Procedure (נהל שכן).
Bear with me, this is tricky.
When searching for suspects from house to house, Israeli soldiers take local people and make them knock on the doors and open them, so that if the suspects open fire, the locals will get hurt and not the soldiers. This was declared illegal by the Israeli supreme court, yet nonetheless, the army still uses this procedure and ignores the court order.
More can be found here. Testimonials from the recent Gaza war can be found here: "soldiers had made them, at gun point, open doors and enter houses to search for Hamas members". And if you believe only Jews, here Israeli soldiers talk about using this procedure.
So again, both sides use human shields. Again, one difference - while Hamas uses its own people, Israel uses Palestinians to protect its soldiers.

- Both declare that their goals are to terrorize the other side. Israel calls it 'so they learn a lesson', but I am not sure how this is different.

- Both parties took advantage of the truce to prepare for the next war...

There are also differences, of course. Naturally, I do not defend the Hamas. It is a terror organization and Israel should protect itself against its violence.
However, Israel cannot - - - well, it can, it does, but it should not - become a terror organization itself.

Furthremore, I argue that this imposes a greater risk to Israel compared with the Palestinian terror. Why is it dangerous?
- First and foremost, we loose the moral ground and the basis to our existence.
- Second, it creates emotional scars also in the soldiers, that lead, so I believe, to increasing domestic violence - in home, on the road, between individuals, etc.
- Security wise - it gives legitimacy to the worst terror against Israel. For example, what can Israel claim now when Iranian missiles will start falling on Tel Aviv?
- It puts our democracy at risk. For example, in the recent war, there were many cases of pro-peace demonstrators being attacked by security forces and dehumanized. One example for such story was told by a friend of mine to the Guardian. Another example - the Israeli parliament voted for disqualifying the Arab parties from participating in the elections. (who said democracy is for all? Also in Iran the government can choose who will run in the 'democratic' process...). Luckily, this miserable decision was later overturned by court.

But my main point is not that this is not a smart move. My main point is that this simply should not be done.

Luckily, Jon Stewart found a better way to say it.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Gitmo's World - Death to America

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Now, that it is over, we can ask. Who began the Gaza war and why?

The views from Gaza were horrible, where hundreds of children were killed during the Israeli assault. Devastating stories come also from the Israeli side, where kids in Sderot have lived under fire for the last 8 years.

Was this war really necessary? In the last six months before the war there had been a cease fire between Israel and the Hamas. This was a peaceful solution for both problems. No dead Palestinians, no rockets on Israel. Who ended the truce?

The views are conflicting (obviously). Israel argues that the Hamas ended the truce, while the Palestinians argue that it was Israel.

The Hamas was the first to declare the truce was over. Certainly, they made the political mistake. More accurately, they announced that they are not renewing it after 6 months.
What is less known is that this was a result of an Israeli attack in Gaza, and thus de facto, it was Israel who broke the truce.

Here is the full story:



And for those who need more references, here they are.

Notice that the Israeli attack took place on November 4th, the day of elections in America. A coincidence or an attempt to avoid the media? (surprisingly, the current war ended right before inauguration, not to upset the new boss).

Anyhow, as an Israeli, I found the whole thing quite disturbing. Was Israel really the first to break the cease fire? So I asked a friend of mine who lives in Sderot. Yes, she is one of those who were attacked almost daily for the last eight years, until the cease fire broke. Surely, she knows when rockets were falling and when not. And here is what she said (Hebrew followed by my translation):

"זה נכון, נורו טילים בודדים פה ושם, אבל לא של החמאס. אנחנו יודעים גם מחברינו בעזה שהחמאס אכף את הפסקת האש ביד ברזל. גם את הפסקת האש שברה ישראל עם סיפור המנהרה ואחר כך סיפור המוקשים. הרגו 20 פלסטינים ואז הם החזירו, וההמשך ידוע.
בינתיים צה"ל ממשיך לכתוש גם הלילה, בשביל האגו של מנהיגנו שלא מסוגלים לסיים את הפרשה ורבים על הקרדיט. פשוט נורא."

Translation: "This is true. Several missiles were fired here and there, but not by the Hamas. We know from our friends in Gaza that the Hamas indeed enforced the cease fire with an iron fist. Israel broke the truce first with the tunnel story and then with the mines. Israeli killed 20 Palestinians, so then they took their turn, and the rest is known. Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues to pound this night too, for the ego of our leaders that cannot end the story and fight over the credit. Simply horrible."
(January 14, 2009)

We heard similar things during an event we held here in Pittsburgh. On the line is Eric Yellin, another friend form Sderot (his blog is certainly worth reading).



Btw, also the main-stream Israeli media acknowledges it. Only that according to Israeli estimates, the Israeli attacks should not have caused the Hamas to break the truce (Hebrew only, sorry).

Let me make several things clear:
- No Hamas rockets on civilians in Israel are legitimate, of course, even if Israel was the first to break the truce.
- Hamas wanted to continue the truce not to work on its flower garden, but to rebuild its army.
- Perhaps the Israeli attack on November 4th was necessary.

Still, there was a truce, no people were hurt on either side of the border, Israel broke it, and now it is lying. If these facts are wrong, please show me where.

So I went on to study this issue. How do truces between Israel and the Palestinians end? This post examines who was the first to kill after days of non-violence. It found that "it is overwhelmingly Israel that kills first after a pause in the conflict: 79% of all conflict pauses were interrupted when Israel killed a Palestinian, while only 8% were interrupted by Palestinian attacks (the remaining 13% were interrupted by both sides on the same day)."
In other words, after quiet days, it is usually Israel that is the first to reignite violence. This is even clearer when looking at longer periods of no violence:
"of the 25 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than a week, Israel unilaterally interrupted 24, or 96%, and it unilaterally interrupted 100% of the 14 periods of nonviolence lasting longer than 9 days."

I certainly do not justify the rockets on Israel. As said earlier, I have friends with children that live under these attacks. The Hamas is a terror organization. I simply examines the deeds of my people, looking at myself in the mirror. Is Israel much better?

But why does Israel do that? Unlike the facts written above, these are speculations. I will address these some other time. May we all have a quiet year.

Fun Trivia for Days of War: Who is the Following Organization?

Image via Wikipedia Question 1: Which terror organization am I?
Our mystery organization was a militant group that operated in Palestine/Israel in order to free the land that had been promised to its people by the lord.

It argued that only fighting and terror could free their land from the evil occupier. No person is immune, and every killing is justified. I think the picture is clear, but just to be sure, a couple of examples:

• It blew up a hotel (and killed 91 people).
• It attacked a settlement (and killed 110 civilians)
• After 3 of its members were killed by the ruling army, it kidnapped two soldiers (and executed them).

Hint - the photo on the top right is of its leader.
Okay, who is our mysterious organization?

1. The Hamas, of course, what is the question?
2. Hmmm... not Hamas? Perhaps the Fatah
3. I know, I know! it's Al-Qaeda!
4. All of the above, these guys can't be trusted.
   

Well, here is a slight surprise for you. The organization is actually a Jewish terror organization. It was called the Irgun, and it operated against the local Arab population and the British Army during the late 30s and 40s (before the establishment of Israel). Here is a summary of its ideology: "every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs and the British; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state" (Howard Sachar: ''A History of the State of Israel, p. 265-266). Substiute 'Jew' for 'Muslim', and you get the instant version of the Hamas ideology.

The parallels are astonishing. A terror organization, attacks civilians, kidnaps soldiers, and all in the name of freedom and justice.

Lesson 1 - Israelis should at least understand where the Hamas is coming from. It is part of our (hi)story as well. We did the same 70 years ago. People under occupation do crazy stuff.

Question 2: How did the main Jewish establishment respond?
You may think that the Irgun was a tangent phenomena in the Zionist story. But it wasn't. Actually, the parallels are pretty striking also here. Today the Palestinians have the moderate PLO, and back then the Jewish population under the British had the Hagana. But look what the Israeli government had to say about the massacre in the village I mentioned above, 20 years later:
"In 1969, the Israeli Foreign Ministry published a pamphlet “Background Notes on Current Themes: Deir Yassin” in English denying that there had been a massacre at Deir Yassin, and calling the story "part of a package of fairy tales, for export and home consumption"." (all-knowing Wikipedia). Just to be clear about the facts: there is no doubt that the massacre took place. This is why the Israeli Foreign Minstery did not publish this in Hebrew. But it did deny it in English.

Lesson #2: We should be tolerant towards the Palestinian response to the Hamas terror attacks. In times of war, people are willing to tweak reality and justify the most horrible actions. This is part of our (hi)story as well. We did the same only 40 years ago.

Question 3: How did this whole fiasco end? Justice was made with the people in charge, right? After all, the famous Jewish moral is aImage via Wikipediabove all.
How can I put it gently... well... not exactly. The person who head the Irgun during the events mentioned above was Menachem Begin, the person and the legend.
Rings a bell? Begin was later elected to become the prime minster of Israel. It also did some good - Mr. Begin gave up 2/3 of the Israeli territory, the Sinai peninsula, in exchange for peace with Arabs.


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Lesson 3: It makes sense that a head of a terror organization is democratically elected to head a country. This is not a good enough reason to boycott him. What are we, in kindergarten? Talking to him may actually do some good. We should know it, since it is part of our (hi)story too. We did it only 30 years ago.


Arye Mekel, who used to be the Israel’s Consul General in New York, said the following (and I am sure he was not the first): “A people that does not know where it is coming from, does not know where it is going."
It is time we take a closer look at our deeds. Where ARE we going?