Read Dion Nissenbaum on the “lawn-chair war” being waged (or, more precisely, ogled) by residents of the Israeli town of Sderot:
- They gather every morning on the southern Israeli hilltop as the pairs of Apache helicopters on attack runs swoop over the Mediterranean coast and air strikes send charcoal clouds curling over the Gaza Strip skyline.
They don’t seem to be bothered by the occasional Qassam rockets and mortar rounds that explode in the surrounding fields.
They have come to watch the war.
They come from Sderot, the southern Israeli town hardest hit years of persistent Palestinian rocket attacks that are the casus belli for the Israeli military campaign to destabilize Hamas.
The journalists have come too.
Also, look at the second photo in the photo gallery on this WaPo page (also published in the print edition.) The caption reads: “Israeli children in the southern town of Sderot collect fragments of a Palestinian Qassam rocket that landed outside their neighbor’s house. ”
Now, I assume that Israeli parents are no less concerned for the wellbeing of their children than Palestinian parents or any other parents. So I conclude that these kids’ parents thought the risk involved in their kids going outdoors to do this was very low. (And the kids don’t seem to be collecting their fragments in any kind of rushed or scared manner. More, they are just sauntering along a street-lamp street.)
Street lamps? Children sauntering in the street? Residents sitting on lawn-chairs watching the crump of artillery shells a mile or two away?
Does this sound like a war?
And just a couple of miles away, Palestinians are living through hell on earth. There are many excellent, first-person accounts available on the web. Including this from Dr. Said Abdel-Wahad yesterday:
- Husain al-Aiedy is a Palestinian (58 years of age) lives to the east of Gaza city. He has been living in the same place for more than 25 years. His house is located in the middle of green fields. He is an UNRWA employess. He is now in one room with 20 others of his family, and families of two of his brothers. They are packed in one small room without electricity, water, food or telephone! just nothing around him except a battlefiled. Last night at 10:30 p.m. Mr Al-Aiedy was caught in the middle of the fight and a shell landed in his house to injure five of his family! He has been appealing to have an ambulance to evacuate the injured but in vain. All appeals to send him an ambulance to evacuate the injured and if possible, the rest of the family, have failed so far! At a circle of more than one and half kilomteres the Israeli army is in total control, thus no one can reach Mr Al-Aiedy except the Israelis! This situation needs an urgent humanitarian action by human rights organizations from anywhere!
This is not a war, it’s a bloodbath. Certainly, under the definitions in international humanitarian law, a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
International humanitarian law places on any military commander a positive duty to use force only with both discrimination (that is, discriminating between military persons and facilities and those that are non-combatant; and minimizing to the maximum degree possible any harm to the latter) and proportionality (that is, the nature of the attack must be proportionate to its military aim.)
Israel’s military is observing none of these restrictions.
The number of deaths in Gaza from bloodbath that started December 27 is now rising ever higher into the 500’s, and there have been thousands of serious injuries.
Proportional to the population of the US, 500 dead in Gaza translates into 100,000 dead in the US. That, in just ten days. (How would Americans feel?)
UN workers say that at least a quarter of the Palestinian deaths have been of civilians. In the past couple of days, the proportion of civilian deaths seems to have risen considerably.
In Israel, there have been five confirmed deaths, four of them civilians. (Updated, 3 p.m. 1/5/09.)
No wonder it’s lawn-chair time in Sderot! A time for kids to roam the street “collecting rocket fragments” as a hobby or a curiosity.
Please not that in making the above observations I am not calling for any increase in the number of Israeli casualties. I am calling for an immediate end to all casualties. I am calling for an immediate and ruable ceasefire that I hope will segue directly into a definitive international effort to define and implement a final-status peace between these two peoples, who have suffered for too long.
But meanwhile, no-one can credibly claim that the present fighting is a defensive “war of no choice” for Israel that has been forced upon it. On the contrary, it was not.
We can recall that back in February, when there was an earlier round of escalation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Israel’s deputy defense minister threatened to unleash “a new Shoah” (Holocaust) in Gaza if Hamas should continue firing and upgrading its rockets.
Israel never followed through completely on that threat at that time, and in June its government reached a six-month ceasefire deal with Hamas. There were infractions of that ceasefire from both sides (including, by Israel, a number of major ground incursions, artillery attacks and, most importantly, a complete failure on commitments to lift the siege of Gaza.) But it did provide a welcome measure of relative calm to both peoples. When its six-month term expired, Hamas decided not to renew it because of Israel’s non-compliance with the six-monther.
So now, is Israel following through on Vailnai’s threatened Shoah?
In international law, a finding of genocide requires a finding of mass killings plus a finding of “genocidal intent.” I don’t think, in the present circumstances– Vilani’s threats notwithstanding– that such intent could be proven.
However, genocide is not necessarily always the worst of international crimes (despite what many western liberals seem to believe.) “Crimes against humanity” can have lethal and society-destruction effects that are just as grave as those from genocides, even in cases where genocidal intent cannot be proven. As, for example, in the many mass killings that have been plaguing Congo or the Central African Republic in recent years. And as in Gaza, today.
End the killing! Let Palestinians live a life of lawn-chairs and confidence in their future!
“End the killing! Let Palestinians live a life of lawn-chairs and confidence in their future!”
All they have to do is recognize Israel and end their war. The Palestinians began the war and are entirely and solely responsible for ending it. Peace will come when they’re ready for it, not before. In the meantime Israel needs to focus on its self-defense and protect its people. Just as every other nation on the world would do under similar circumstances.
Mike,
What Israel are the Palestinians to recognize? The Israel boundary of 1948? of 1967? of 2008? of Greater Israel?
What about Israeli recognition of Palestinians and their rights?
One struggles in vain to understand the mindset of those like Mike above who parrot the mindless mantra that Israel is only doing what every other nation in the world would do to protect its citizens. Have they lost all humanity? Have they no feeling for the murder of hundreds of innocents and the maiming of thousands?
There would have been no rocket fire if Israel had simply agreed to stop its targeted murders and lifted the blockade that created the Gaza Ghetto. Why did Israel not agree to such simple steps at no cost to themselves and save hundreds of lives?
No, Mike, no civilized nation in the world would commit the atrocities being committed by Israel under these circumstances where there were other, simple and humane options available.
‘Mike’ is probably a member of the army of Stepford commenters, Twitterers, etc now being organized through the new hasbara site Help Us Win.
We need not assume that he has ever studied the situation in Gaza/Israel particularly closely or knows anything at all about it first hand.
“The Palestinians began this war”? Excuse me?
Zombies of the world unite, eh, Mike?
The politics of an Israeli extermination campaign
http://petras.lahaine.org/articulo.php?p=1770&more=1&c=1
NATO bombed Serbia to stop exactly what is taking place in Gaza. Then the perpetrators were hauled before the International Court of Human Rights.
Israel is clearly in violation of the Article 4 of the Geneva Convention. It is in violation of the US Arms Export Control Act, which forbids the use of US furnished arms against civilians. I’m sure that there are other instance of international law that can be found. I hope human rights lawyers are busy right now assemblying cases that will seal the Jewish monsters in their Jerusalem caves forever. One step over the border and they will be arrested.
Or should Israel wish to join the civilized world again, it will have to turn over its butchers to the International Tribunals, as Serbia has done.
International Crisis Group details how to end the current Gaza conflict:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5838&l=1
First Helena mocks Tel Aviv residents “sipping lattes.” Now she targets Sderot residents “sitting on lawn chairs.”
Meanwhile, I wonder if Helena considers this comment “courteous, fesh, helpful and to the point.”
“I hope human rights lawyers are busy right now assemblying cases that will seal the Jewish monsters in their Jerusalem caves forever.”
But she’s not antisemitic. She’s just anti Zionist.
“…should Israel wish to join the civilized world again…”
Again? When has Israel ever been a part of the civilized world?
Ah, Joshua, where were you all this time.
If Sderot residents are enjoying the “war” from their lawnchairs and allowing their kids to wander around outdoors at night, don’t you think this undercuts the arguments that (a) this has been a “war of necessity”, or (b) that the contest is somehow “proportionate”? I am not mocking anyone. I’m merely noting– as most people around the world are today– the sharp differences between the way the two peoples have been experiencing this war.
You’re right, I agree that calling the Israeli government “Jewish monsters” is not helpful. On the other hand, they are Jewish (and lead what they proudly proclaim to be a “Jewish state”, and to speak in the name of “the Jewish people”); and their actions are certainly monstrous. So let’s keep the distinction between criticizing people’s actions and damning them all, as people, flat out.
So what do YOU think about the moral quality of the actions of the Israeli government and its military?
Sderot residents, at a moment’s notice, often have 15 seconds to drop everything that they are doing and rush to bunkers. Schools throughout the southern region are closed. Some residents are not on their lawn chairs, they have left the region because they can no longer take the trauma. Business have closed down entirely. That some Israelis may stick it out and take a fateful approach to what happens does not undercut the fact that, after Israel left Gaza entirely, Hamas has slowly but surely increased the range and damage of their weaponry.
That “only” a few dozen Israelis have been killed over the years is largely a testament to the fact that Israel invests huge resources into protecting its citizens.
Funny how when Hamas insists on “sticking it out” and subjecting Gaza to a war of their choosing, they are considered “resilient” but when Israeli citizens decide to try and stick it out, it somehow means that they are not endangered at all.
Imshin had a very simple post explaining why the war was necessary. You may remember her. She was on your blogroll until you decided to engage in “discourse suppression” and remove any voices that were not as stridently anti-Israel as your own.
It is not so much your one sided, mocking, nasty and hateful posts that are the problem. What’s most insulting is that you masquerade as a “peace activist.”
As for the Israeli government’s actions. I think that, on balance, the government showed reasonable restraint in waiting as long as they did. I think that their actions are harsh, but within any international laws of war. Ultimately, responsibility rests on Hamas, a genocidal hate group that, prior to the war, launched 70+ rockets into Israel, bragged that Israel would never enter Gaza, and held a disgraceful “rally” publicly mocking Gilad Shalit and his family.
Now that I’ve answered your questions Helena, let’s see if you can provide some straightforward answers.
So Helena, what do YOU think about the moral quality of the actions of Hamas and its “fighters?”
What do you think of its charter?
When you had the chance to get your scoop with Khaled Mashal, did you ask any remotely challenging questions asking him to justify Hamas’s explicit calls for genocide? Or its flagrantly illegal targeting of civilians? Or its decision to drop Fatah supporters and other collaborators off buildings when they staged their takeover of Gaza?
Or did you just engage in your usual fawning over those spunky resistance fighters?
Prior to the big December 27 escalation, how many thousands of pounds of ordnance did Israel lob into Gaza, compared with these “70-plus” rockets, all of very limited size and capacity, that you write of?
I do not deny that Hamas takes actions that are violent and have inflicted casualties and fear on civilians (though, as even IDF officials have admitted in the past, Hamas has done a lot more TARGET its rockets on Israeli military installations than most people in the west give it credit for.) But still, whatever period we’re talking about– pre-tahdi’eh, tahdi’eh, immediate post-tahdi’eh, or the current war– the disproportion between the damage that each side has visited on the other is in the realm of 100 to one, or more. It is that disproportion of the lethal (and terrorizing) effects of the violence I was referring to in the post. Children sauntering in the streets of Gaza today with their parents’ permission? I don’t think so.
Once again, Helena refuses to provide straightforward answers to questions.
I will add one follow up to my post. Today, there were reports that one of Hamas’s rockets hit a kindergarten in Ashdod. The school was only empty because Israel’s Home Front Command had ordered it evacuated. Were it not for these precautions, who knows how many children would have been killed?
Fortunately, no one was killed. And this will simply be another news blurb that will be forgotten within a day or two. Nevertheless, it makes Helena’s assertion that this is a “lawn chair war” without necessity all the more absurd.
It’s Dion Nissenbaum’s term (based on his own direct observations), not mine. Quoted here with full and appropriate attribution…
Joshua, will you join me in expressing, at least, your condolences to all those bereaved by the fighting and the hope that all the killing might be brought to a speedy end? Or do you want to see the people of Gaza “punished” some more?
Yes.
Please ban Joshua for at least one month.
Joshua, You’re giving the Jews a bad name. They’re doing well by themselves already, they don’t need your help. Helena is much too polite to even engage in your sophistries and pilpulistic conversations.
To be very clear, my Yes was to Helena’s initial question. I have no interest in seeing Gaza’s people punished for any reason.
Let me also note that it is really sad to see how the anti-Israel crowd is engaging in “discourse suppression.” It is pathetic that Dominic, who actually admits that he does not believe that Israel has a right to exist as a sovereign nation, dares make statements about banning users.
And now KKKassandra has made two blatantly antisemtic statements in one thread, but has received Helena’s protection under the “Courtesy doesn’t apply if you are attacking Jews.”
What is most disheartening is that a website purportedly devoted to “peace” has become a haven for some of the most explicit Jew hate on the web.
I will speak for myself in response to the latest comment. You are pathetic, you are a sicko and a self hating Jew. Today the Izraelis hit two UNRWA schools, scores of civilians were killed including children, True they are not Jewish, But they are innocent human beings , and they count more than any Jewish DEATH , why, BECAUSE THEY ARE OPPRESSED.
Because Jews were oppressed during world war 11 the six million were mentioned more than the hundreds of millions that were killed, not because they were JEWS but because they were opressed and murdered .
Helena
Civilians coming to watch the shooting is as old as history.
Xenephon signed up to come and watch and spent a few years wandering around Asia Minor for his pains.
The citizens of pPais commentedunfavourably that the poilu in 1914 werent wearing their red trousers.
The good citizens of Washington came out to watch 1st Bull Run with picnics, and got blamed for starting the rout.
http://www.historynet.com/war-watchers-at-bull-run-during-americas-civil-war.htm
Does anyone know which of the three models of Qassam are bein fired so we can keep track of how much explosive has been fired on either side. The amount of bang in the different warheads varys?
Kassandra may find the text of the EU Israel Association agreement of some interest.
when the big supporter of the zionist state will be economically not able to support it than the whole ‘jewish state’ will become history. This is starting to dawn on the biggest supporters of Israel and there is now a gradual realization that this kind of criminal behavior by the “Jewish State” is not helpful in the long run. It is the economy stupid….The neocons will start jumping to the front lines of reversal of course of the big supporter…
But the wave of emigration from Israel by the more thoughtful Israelis who do not want to be part of this crime will keep growing. A sound opinion of one Israeli professor was given a voice on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman yesterday
I thought it was only 19th Century ideals that Frank and Joshua admired. Now it turns out the ziojews are reaching back much further. Wasn’t Baal one of the gods the jews worshipped? One aspect of that was offering your children to Baal’s flaming furnace. Is this what the ziojews are emulating, something that’s always been done, only now it’s Palestinian children?
From Angry Arab, here’s the “traumatized” citizens of Sderot watching the IDF massacre machine at work: “Avi Pilchick took a long swig of Pepsi and propped a foot on the plastic chair he had carried up the hillside to watch the fighting. They are doing a good job, Pilchick said of the IDF, but they can do better.” Angry Arab even has a picture of the subhuman ziojews that inhabit Sderot.
Joshua, Frank and Avi are indeed spoiling it for the reasonable jews. Do you think that the average joe will be able to distinguish between a Zionist and a non-Zionist?
Frank might take a look at the Guardian’s Jan 5 issue.
How do I answer Kassandra’s criticism from the wisdom of her years?
Will I be accused of condescending to her for pointing out that Christians, Jews and Muslims all worship one God and are all People of the Book? It is mentioned in Rule Two that Moses brought down from the mountain and as Shirin pointed out there is great tolerance shown in the Surah Al Maida The Table.
May I gently point out that Baal is a Carthaginian God and that Child Sacrifice was indeed practised there at the Topeth according to the archaeological evidence? But that was before Scipio called Africanus flattened the place and ploughed it with salt and sold the surviving inhabitants into slavery.
May I recoil in horror at the word subhuman because it translates as Untermensch and is one that should never ever be used again about human beings?
Is it allowed that I quote from the Surah Ornaments of Gold?
“The Apostle says “Lord these men are unbelievers”
Bear with them and wish them peace. They shall before long know their error.