Hamas, Guns and Children. On Hypocrisy, War, Peace, Sympathy, Cynicism, Arab Mentality!
Jack Cohen.
Hypocrisy:
I’m fed up with hearing the first item of the News being the casualty count in Gaza, but given without any analysis or comparisons. The civilian casualties in Gaza are actually quite small in number compared to other conflicts. The total number of deaths given according to Hamas sources is ca. 400 in 14 days of fighting. But, a large proportion of these must be combatants (note that Hamas combatants are usually without uniforms and often counted as civilians). Hamas estimate 50% and Israel estimates 70% are combatants, so if we choose 60%, an estimate of civilian deaths is 160. This is an incredibly small number given that there are ca. 1.6 million people densely crowded into Gaza and that the IAF has flown ca. 2000 sorties.
In the Syrian civil war in the past three years the current conservative estimate of civilian deaths is 160,000, or ca. 1,000 per week. In the Iraq war from 2003-2011 there were estimated to be a minimum of ca. 135,000 civilian deaths or 350 per week. In the NATO campaign in 1991 in Kossovo-Serbia the civilian casualties were estimated at 2,000 in two months. Then there were the civilian casualties in the Vietnam War from 1955-75 inflicted by US forces, estimated at 880,000 civilians. One can of course also include the millions of deaths of various native populations contributed by the British Empire in India, Kenya, Australia, America and so on. And this is without including the Holocaust and other massacres carried out by German and other European forces during WWII that go into millions. Then of course there was the UK carpet bombing of Germany and the US dropping atomic bombs on Japan. So let’s have a bit of humility over the hypocrisy of civilian casualties in Gaza.
If the civilian casualty count is anything to go by, Israel deserves to be commended in Gaza, since the IDF warns civilians with leaflets, phone calls and SMS messages of the pending attack on a specific area. Hamas, while digging bunkers for their leaders and tunnels to attack Israel at a huge cost (millions of dollars, derived from US and EU assistance), gave their civilian population NO shelters. By contrast Israel not only has civilian shelters everywhere, but spent a huge amount with US support for the Iron Dome system that is very effective at protecting civilians as well as giving a Red Alert alarm to warn civilians to take cover. Perhaps the worst thing is that Hamas fires missiles from populated areas and stores their missiles in schools (including UNRWA schools) and mosques. Let’s keep things in perspective.
War and Peace:
The deaths of a further 20 IDF soldiers in Gaza in the past few days is a tragedy, but not unexpected. As well as Hamas having years to construct their extensive tunnel system, that have been used very effectively to strike into Israel, they have also had time to prepare ambushes and bury explosives. This is what happens in war, it is the price of survival. There is nothing we can say to alleviate the suffering of their families, but I try to remember that when we had no army, Jews were being killed at a much higher rate, in the Holocaust thousands a day perished. Much better that a few dozen should die with a gun in their hand fighting to save innocent Jewish civilians. They are our martyrs and heroes, but they are also our defenders.
This morning two teams of terrorists were caught and killed by IDF forces as they tried to infiltrate Israel from tunnels from Gaza that open inside Israeli territory. It is to destroy these tunnels that the IDF had to go in on the ground. But, it is also important that the IDF administer a devastating blow to Hamas. There are two reasons for this, first if Hamas is broken it will not be able to recover for a long time and this will give Israel some peace. If 25% of an organization is destroyed, including personnel and materiel, then it ceases to be able to function effectively. This should be one of the targets of the IDF. Second, the situation today is not the same as it was during the last conflict in Gaza in 2012. At that time Pres Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was President of Egypt, and he allowed Hamas to replace their destroyed and used weapons, including long-range missiles, through the tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. Pres. al-Sisi is an enemy of the MB who displaced Pres. Morsi, and he is fighting Hamas in Sinai. He has closed the tunnels and will not allow Hamas to be resupplied with weapons and missiles, so this is a great opportunity tfor Israel. If the IDF can now destroy most of the weapons caches of Hamas, including their missile stockpile (already about 50% used and/or destroyed), then Hamas will be unable to replace them and Hamas will be much weakened in the future.
There are increased calls for a ceasefire, particularly using the civilian casualties in Gaza as an excuse (were there such calls in Iraq or Syria?). Pres. Abbas has journeyed to Qatar, that is the only country, apart from Turkey, that is actively supporting Hamas in this conflict. The only other people who actually are supporting Hamas are the western liberal intelligentsia and the Muslim rabble. Egypt has proposed a ceasefire, that Israel accepted and Hamas rejected, but Egypt is not supporting Hamas and the Arab League and most of the other Arab countries have kept a low profile. They acknowledge that the loss of Palestinian civilian life is largely due to Hamas and its tactics.
Can there be a ceasefire acceptable by both sides? At present not! To save face Hamas is insisting that Israel must stop the naval blockade of Gaza (that Israel cannot do because they would import weapons and missiles), Egypt should open the Rafah crossing, (that al-Sisi will not do for the same reason), and Israel should release arrested Hamas operatives and allow free transfer of people between Gaza and the West Bank (something that Israel will certainly not allow). Israel’s conditions for a ceasefire have not been spelled out, it accepted the Egyptian proposal which is without conditions. But, its conditions must be the destruction of all offensive tunnels and the destruction of all missiles in Gaza. Hamas will not agree to this and they continue to fire missiles over Israel all the time. So the fighting will continue until the IDF has done sufficient damage to Hamas that it will be forced to sue for a ceasefire to avoid further damage and the loss of its control of Gaza. When that may happen cannot be predicted, but it will take some time. So the diplomatic vultures who are currently circling (Secty of State Kerry, French FM Favius, UN Secty Gen. Ban ki-Moon, Italian FM Mogherini) may as well go home for the time being.
Sympathy and Cynicism
There was a time when Jews generated a lot of sympathy amongst the liberal western elite, because of course they were defenceless and were being murdered at an alarming rate. But, it didn’t help, because the sympathy for those killed usually came too late, after they were dead. Now the sympathy is being expressed for the enemies of the Jews, the poor Palestinians, because they are relatively defenceless, even though they seem to have an unlimited supply of missiles and plenty of guns. But, the Jews had enough of the sympathy of well-meaning people, and decided to take their destiny into their own hands. That is why we are now able to fight our enemies. Let them have the sympathy, we’d rather have the Iron Dome and the IDF.
There is no doubt that the lingering effects of having been the eternal victims of whoever was out there with a weapon and an excuse for hatred, is still with us. That’s why we try to limit civilian casualties among our enemies. Of course, if we were to kill people like our former enemies did, the Germans, the Ukrainians, the Poles, the Lithuanians, and so on (the list is too long to give here) then we could make a death toll among the Palestinians that they would be proud of. But we are not like that, and even they, having enjoyed their bloodlust killing Jews, are even quite humanistic now. Even the British and the Americans, who are always preaching to us, have been able to raise up quite a toll of dead civilians when they have a mind to (remember Vietnam, remember Kenya). In the last round in Europe, when NATO attacked Serbia to prevent a larger massacre in Kossovo, they managed to murder 2,000 Serbian civilians, as well as bomb the Chinese Embassy, by accident. Were US actions in Iraq ever “proportionate”, what about “shock and awe.” But, of course, only Israel is not allowed to make “collateral damage.”
Our forces are now in Gaza routing out Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. But, these terrorist organizations cause great suffering and death to their own people, by not making shelters for them, by not agreeing to a ceasefire (that Israel accepted) and by using them as human shields. Nevertheless, the world automatically assumes that all deaths in Gaza are civilians, whereas in fact at least half and probably more like 80% are combatants. Yes, I know they show the bleeding children on the News, but there will always be a bleeding child in any conflict and the Palestinians will always have them ready for the cameras (just come to the emergency room of the Shiba Hospital). But, we’d rather let them have the world’s sympathy than be the ones taking the casualties and being the losers in this deadly war.
Regarding the cynicism of Hamas, in previous conflicts they were caught taking bodies from the morgue (killed in road accidents or simply dead) and transporting them to the hospital in an ambulance to add to the body count. They also show photos of injured and dead children on their Facebook page, at least one of which was taken from the Syrian conflict. There is a report that Hamas has issued instructions to its social media supporters that all dead must be labelled “civilians” and not just that but “innocent civilians.” It has also been found that Hamas military operatives are moving around in ambulances to avoid being killed by IDF targeting. Perhaps the most cynical aspect of this conflict is that while Hamas spent years and huge amounts of money constructing tunnels and bunkers under Gaza for their leaders to hide in and from which to infiltrate and attack Israel, they constructed NO shelters for their civilian population. They have issued instructions that when Israel drops leaflets telling the civilians to move out before that area is targeted, that the civilians should ignore this warning and remain there. They also fire rockets from houses and schools and store rockets in schools (including UNRWA schools) and mosques. Hamas is deliberately causing most of the civilian casualties.
It has been argued that one reason that Hamas did not accept the Egyptian ceasefire proposal that Israel accepted is that they have nothing to show so far from their campaign to attack Israel with missiles and inflitration. It is said that they at least need a high civilian casualty count in order to gain the sympathy of western liberals and the media. But Israel is taking every action to keep the civilian casualty count down, such as not only dropping leaflets, but actually calling them on their cell phones and sending SMS messages. Also all offensive IDF actions are subject to approval that no civilians are obviously there. Comparing this Gaza conflict to that in Syria there is no comparison, in three years of fighting there have been ca. 160,000 deaths in Syria, that is over 1,000 a week, while in 14 days of fighting in Gaza there are only ca. 500 casualties, including mostly combatants. Obviously Israel is trying to keep the casualty count down, and Israel should be commended for this, not constantly criticized.
Jumping to Conclusions
According to the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay (not known as a friend of Israel), the casualty figure in Gaza of 600 killed so far is “significant.” The Turkish PM Erdogan has ludicrously called it a “genocide.” But, wait a minute this number from Hamas itself includes Hamas and other terrorists killed in combat or while launching rockets at Israel (usually not wearing any uniform). According to an analysis of the casualties by Al Jazeera (also not known as a friend of Israel) 68% of the casualties are young men of military age (18-35). Israel claims 90% are combatants and Hamas claims 25%, so 68% is probably a reasonable estimate, especially since Israel uses targeted strikes. According to this number that means that 32% or ca. 192 civilians have been killed in 2 weeks of intense bombing and ground attacks, in a densely populated area containing 1.6 million people. I would say that this number is relatively “insignificant” when you consider that there is intense fighting going on and that up to now 29 IDF soldiers have been killed in combat. There seems to be a general attitude, as we have experienced before, that Israel will be damned whatever the numbers. By comparison, ca. 1,000 civilians are being killed every week in Syria, and ca. 350 were killed every week by US forces during the invasion of Iraq. The reason the civilian death toll in Gaza is so relatively low must be due to the many precautions Israel is taking to avoid civilian casualties.
Pillay also said publicly that some of Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to war crimes, such as targeting the homes of terrorist leaders. After all, if the terrorist leader is not there and is in hiding and only his family is there and they are killed, that amounts to a war crime. But, it could also be that the terrorist leader is there and the home was being used as a military headquarters, in which case it is a legitimate target. Only an unbiased investigation after the event will find whether Israel had enough evidence to justify such a targeted attack. I am convinced that Israel would not target a house unless it had good evidence that it was a legitimate target, otherwise it would not be worthwhile for the IDF to attack it. Pillay should hold her criticism until there is a consideration of actual evidence, rather than shooting from the hip. Nevertheless the UN CHR voted to investigate Israel for “war crimes” but did not mention Hamas, even though Hamas is clearly carrying out war crimes by indiscriminarnly firing rockets at Israeli cities and using its own populatiuon as human shields (this behavior has been documented). Of course the UN agency has a majority of Muslim and affiliated states from Africa and S. America as well as Russia and China that vote with them. PM Netanyahu labelled this decision “a travesty.”
Another UN action causes grave concern. For years we have been warning that UNRWA, the UN Palestinian welfare organization, is aiding and abetting terrorists. The Palestinians are the only group of “refugees” in the world that have a UN agency dedicated solely for their needs, while all other refugees in the world come under the UNHCR (High Commissioner for Refugees), including the Syrian refugees. Not only does UNRWA employ Palestinians who are members of terrorist organizations, but they glorify Palestinian “martyrs” (suicide bombers) in the UNRWA-run schools, and they store military equipment there. In two cases it has been found that there are caches of missiles stored in UNRWA schools. Chris Gunnes, their spokesman in Gaza stated that he did not know about this (he was shocked!) and that when he learnt he ordered that they immediataely be turned over to the appropriate authorities. Who are the “appropriate authorities,” why Hamas of course. It has been suggested that Israel suspend all cooperation with UNRWA (which would severely curtail its operations) and initiate a process to wind it down, sixty years after it was founded, and let the Palestinians be treated as all other refugees in the world, that would be fair.
Arab Mentality
Arab proverb: “kiss the ring again and again, until you can cut off the hand.”
The Arabs and Muslims in general have no concept of democracy, no idea of a “loyal opposition” and no tolerance for toleration. In their culture, which is one of honor killings and martydom, an enemy is always an enemy, there is no compromise. One of the reasons for this is that absolutism is an act of faith in Islam. Islam meaning “submission,” must triumph, it is Allah’s will, and people who refuse to become Muslims (infidels) because they are ignorant and stupid, must be shown the right way or be killed, it’s that simple. In Muslim thought the world is divided into two regions, Dar al-Islam, the region of Islam (or peace) and Dar al-Harb, the region of war. Ironically just the exact opposite is the case, the region of Islam is contorted by war and the rest of the world is relatively peaceful, how do they explain that to themselves. It does indicate something terribly wrong with the basis of Islam.
That is why after 100 years of the war against Jewish sovereignty, the Arab/Muslims cannot stop the war of attrition against Israel. That is why we have another cycle of missiles being fired from Gaza against our cities. All Israelis are legitimate targets as far as Hamas is concerned. It has nothing to do with “settlements” or “occupation,” as most naieve westerners think, but is all due to the right of existence of a non-Muslim entity in their midst. One might argue that Egypt and Jordan have signed peace treaties with Israel, after being totally defeated in wars in 1967 and 1973, wars that they initiated when they had every advantage on their side (surprise and the numbers). But, even today, 35 years after the peace treaty with Egypt was signed, many people in Egypt still regard themselves as actually at war with Israel.
This mentality is the reason why all major Arab countries are in some kind of war, from Morocco to Iraq, the whole Arab world is engulfed in turmoil and violence. In particular: Libya, since the overthrow of Qaddafi, the various power centers cannot compromise; Iraq, the historical Shia:Sunni schism is now the major cause of conflict, with thousands being massacred; Syria, the civil war has destroyed the country, leaving three distinct areas, that controlled by the pro-Shia Assad regime, by the Sunni Islamists and by the democratic opposition, so far ca. 160,000 people have been killed with ca. 7 million refugees; Egypt, the al-Sisi regime has declared war on the Muslim Brotherhood, displaced Pres. Morsi and put hundreds to death, and are fighting a war against the jihadists in Sinai. Such a widespread and ubiquitous resort to war and violence cannot be just by chance, it is the Arab mentality, the Arab culture. The war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel is in fact a minor skirmish in the unfortunate proclivity of the Arabs for violent confrontation instead of peaceful compromise.
But, let’s admit that Europe was also once engulfed in war for centuries, based on religious differences (Catholic vs. Protestant) and tribal nationalism (Germany vs. France, etc.) . The ultimate hope is that if Europe can be pacified after so many hundreds of years of bloodshed, maybe the Arab world can be too. But, I wouldn’t bet on it, so Israel must keep its powder dry and its finger on the trigger, so to speak. It’s the only way to survive in this neighborhood.
Jack Cohen, Netanya, Israel
Jack Cohen Born in London, UK, lived in suburban Washington DC area for 30 years, moved to Israel in 1996. He has a web site: Comment From Israel
Jack Cohen
