Humanitarian

UPDATE: AUGUST 3

for new statistics, see:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5242732.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5240746.stm

When discussing war, it’s easy to get caught up in inflammatory and highly emotional rhetoric.  Too often, in this flurry of rhetoric, the facts are forgotten or deliberately concealed, making it hard for casual observers to ascertain the truth.  Rather than launch my own emotional op-ed on the new Israeli-Arab war, I would just like to present some uncontroversial facts about the situation in hopes that it clarify the issue a bit.  So, starting from the beginning, what has happened over the past few months that led to yet another horrifying war in the Middle East?

Timeline of events, Israeli-Arab War 2006:

1. March 3, 2006 – Hamas Ceasefire

Hamas agrees to a unilateral, year-long ceasefire with Israel for 2006, provided that Israel refrains from using force against Palestinians.[i]

2. Early June, 2006 – Israeli attacks kill civilians in Gaza

Israel launches a series of unprovoked military attacks on Gaza.  First, on June 9^th, a family of eight civilians is killed on a beach in Gaza by an explosion caused by the Israeli military, according to Palestinian witnesses and Human Rights Watch.  Four days later, an Israeli missile attack killed eleven Palestinians and injured thirty others.  Another missile attack killed three and wounded fifteen a week later.  In response to these attacks, Hamas suspended its ceasefire.[ii]

3. June 25, 2006 – Israeli soldier captured

Palestinian militants capture one Israeli soldier and kill two in a raid.  The militants offer to return the soldiers in return for the release of some of the 9,000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds of children and thousands of women, held in Israeli jails on charges that are perceived as illegitimate  Israel flatly rules out the possibility of negotiation.[iii]

4. June 27, 2006 – Hamas “implicitly accepts” Israel’s right to exist

Hamas “implicitly accepts” Israel’s right to exist, amidst a massive Israeli military buildup on the border of Gaza, a major victory for moderates in the Hamas movement and a breakthrough which could have created the opportunity for a peaceful solution to the conflict through negotiation.  Hamas’ previous policy of rejectionism had been cited as the only major roadblock to negotiations by Israel and the United States.[iv]

5.  Late June, 2006 – Israel invades Gaza

Israel invades the Gaza Strip, bombing the main power plant (crippling water, sewage, and health systems), transportation networks, and other infrastructure targets.  Israel’s offensive has killed at least 140 Palestinians to date including 35 children (August 3), almost exclusively civilians, with many more enduring resource shortages and other hardships as a direct result of the invasion.[v]  Approximately 1/3 of (democratically elected) Palestinian government officials were kidnapped by Israel, with another 1/3 forced into hiding.[vi]

6. July 12, 2006 – Hezbollah raid against Israel

Hezbollah militants capture two Israeli soldiers and kill eight in a raid.  Again, the kidnappers offer to exchange the kidnapped soldiers for Arab prisoners in Israeli jails.  Again, Israel flatly rules out the possibility of such a nonviolent solution.

7. July, 2006 – Israel invades Lebanon

Israel invades Lebanon.  At least 900 Lebanese have died so far in the Israeli offensive, almost exclusively civilians, 3,000 or more have been severely injured, with a million refugees forced to flee the country.  As many as 40 Israelis have died so far in fighting.[vii]  The invasion greatly exacerbated sectarian divisions in Lebanon, a country which, not long ago, endured a brutal civil war that lasted 15 years and left 100,000 dead.

The facts speak for themselves.  Israel has killed over one thousand Lebanese and Palestinians (approximately: 20 before the first Israeli soldier was captured, 140 in Gaza since that capture, at least 900 in Lebanon) so far during the last two month in its reinvasions of Gaza and Lebanon.  According to Israel, it is morally justifiable to kill over one thousand people in order to secure the freedom of 3 hostages, even when the kidnappers have offered nonviolent, diplomatic solutions to the hostage situation!  Needless to say, Israel’s right to do this is never questioned in mainstream debate in the United States (after all, the US government used the deaths of 3,000 Americans in the 9/11 attacks to justify two subsequent wars which have killed at least 5,000 Afghanis and 100,000 Iraqis respectively).

Another matter which is never seriously debated within the United States is the cause of the current crises in the Middle East: had it not been for the unprovoked aggression of Palestinian and Lebanese militants (perhaps with Syrian or Iranian guidance), it is claimed, Israel would never have reinvaded Gaza or Lebanon.  Obviously, this is in stark contrast to the facts. Hamas only suspended its ceasefire after a series of unprovoked Israeli attacks on civilians which killed over 20 people; realistically, it’s hard to imagine that Hamas could have maintained its unilateral ceasefire while Palestinian civilians were being actively attacked (remember that the only condition of Hamas’ ceasefire was that Israel not initiate violence), and one has to wonder if Israel was not trying to elicit a violent response from a Palestinian militant group to justify a new invasion of Gaza.  In Lebanon, it is less obvious which side is to blame for starting this phase of the conflict.  On the one hand, Hezbollah’s raid was the first instance of violence between Israel and the Lebanese in the current phase of conflict, and in that sense, Israel’s reaction could be construed as a nominally defensive, albeit horribly destructive and uncalled for, overreaction.  However, in another sense, Hezbollah’s attack could be seen not as offensive, but as neither offensive of defensive, but an act in ongoing war.  After all, Israel was holding Lebanese political prisoners hostage, and many Muslims see themselves as a united community, so to them, Hezbollah’s attack was not an act of aggression but a legitimate act of resistance against a government which was already in the process of killing dozens of innocent Muslims in a campaign of aggression.  In any case, even if Hezbollah’s attack was an uncontroversial act of aggression, Israel’s response could not possibly be justified.  A peaceful state, in a similar situation, would seek to negotiate the release of its hostages, especially if the kidnappers had already offered a nonviolent and just solution, rather than engaging in a massive bombing campaign that overwhelmingly punished the civilian population of the offending party’s country.