By Yoram Getzler,
The most basic truth that can be expressed in an investigation of any war, including the war in Gaza which the UNHRC, the Goldstone Report investigated is expressed in the term “crimes against humanity”. The basic truth is all war is by its nature a “crime against humanity” and involves a “violation of human rights”!
So the real issue here is context. If war is a crime than the criminal is not necessarily everyone who wages war, but the responsibility falls on the party that is the causes of the war.
Here I am thinking of my personal experiences as a child; of living in a nation at war. First, was WW 2. Here it seems clear that the war was necessitated by the actions of Germany, Japan and Italy. All three countries democratically chose governments whose polity was hostility towards its neighbors and other more distant nations.
The democracy elected nationalist government of Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931. The consequent of Nanking China by the Japanese army, known as the Rape of Nanking due to its cruelty towards the civilian population took place in December of 1937. In the case of Italy their violent consequents extended all the way to Ethiopia, a country in which they had no direct cause or involvement, which they invaded in October 1935.
Spanish Civil War began in July 1936; almost simultaneously Nazi Germany moved to support the Nationalist rebellion against the democratically elected Republican government.
Many claim that the warm up, to the world war was the invasion of Spain by a Nationalist Fascist general in rebellion to the socialist government elected by Spain’s citizens. This conflict was seen as a challenge between the two most antagonistic political communities in Europe at the time. The Socialist/Communists vs. the Fascists. Very quickly the partisan factions of these two political movements felt themselves obligated to send military assistance to the two partisan groups locked in the armed struggle.
In the East, Japan set out to create what it called the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, in which it would replace the colonial power to whom wealth and power would flow. This was accompanied by the racial superiority theories that also supported both Italy, as the heir of the Roman Empire and Nazi Germany as the champions and inheritors of the Nordic/Arian peoples.
While all this was going on the western European powers, principally England & France stood by and satisfied themselves with statements of disapproval and talk of boycotts. The pacifist anti-war consciousness in part a result of the slaughter of WW 1 held sway, especially in Britain, and helped prevent any re-armament needed to confront the forces of Fascism & Nazism. In the US the “isolationist” political philosophy was the consensus. No entanglement in foreign, especially European conflicts was the call of the day.
It took only a few more years and provocations before most of the world was plunged into a purgatory of conflict and violence in which tens of millions of men women & children were killed. During those years Germany and Japan continued to arm themselves and prepare for all out war.
I think there is there a lesson here? There a connection to the Goldstone report, the reactions / actions of the Israeli government and Army to years of attack by the rulers of Gaza. Even US President Obama realized that it was intolerable to continue to allow rockets to be fired from Gaza to Israel, yet was powerless to halt the attacks.
We will never know what would have, could have happened had the powerful large states who later designated themselves “The Allies” of WW 2; the U.S., Great Britain, France & Russia found it within themselves able to understand the dangers of appeasement and inaction when faced with the aggressive determination of the “Axis” states; Germany; Italy; Japan.
But when the push did come to shove and the Allies could no longer avoid the inevitable they did fight, they did wage war, and by definition, they did commit crimes against humanity. I would not, could not say that all their actions were necessary to winning the war. Was the fire bombing of Dresden & Tokyo necessary? Would the wars have been won without these horrendous atrocities? We will never really know.
Now in the here and now; between the full and complete withdrawal from Gaza of the Israeli civilian and military presence there, beginning in April 2001 and continuing into 2006 over Seven thousand (7,000) rockets were fired at mostly civilian targets within the pre-1967 Israeli armistice lines. Only after all those attacks did Israel respond in violently to halt the attacks upon its civilian population.
Yes, Judge Goldstone there some hard questions we here in Israel should be asking Was it really necessary to end the Second Lebanon War, which had already been full of manipulated anti-Israel media coverage with a rain of controversial cluster bomblets designed to maim? Should the government consider demanding that the IDF cease using those munitions?
Could not some other munitions have been used in place of the most photogenic of weapons, the phosphorus bomb, while the worlds TV cameras were lined up just a few miles away? I believe that the government should also investigate the use of this weapon and decide if it is necessary or justified.
While I submit that the true violators of the human rights of the Gaza population were caused by the continued unprovoked attacks emanating from Gaza on Israel. Those attacks are the actual cause of the war, of the Crimes against Humanity.
I also call on those Israelis making decisions of how and with what weapons to pursue our military actions to be more thoughtful and aware of the media realities of our time. It has nothing to do with the justice of our cause, but rather with the prudence with which we struggle for survival in this jungle.
