Political/Ideological Contortions

"The official history of the civilian is that since the codification of the laws of armed conflict in the Hague and Geneva Conventions, civilians are increasingly protected by international law. Armed forces publicly declare the importance of protecting, sparing and liberating civilians. The shadow side of this story is that civilians are expected to be passive, innocent and submissive. This ideal civilian doesn't exist. Where people live under military occupation figuring as liberation, they engage in nonviolent political action against foreign rule instead of patiently waiting for deliverance."
Christiane Wilke, associate professor, graduate program supervisor, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa

Palestinian youths weep while sitting by the rubble of a home destroyed by an Israeli strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.  Hatem Moussa / CP

In Libya and in Bosnia, NATO stepped in to take sides, identifying one belligerent as the aggressor, the other as rebellious citizens who had lived too long under a tyranny. Bombing raids meant to protect civilians helped to kill many civilians in the wrong place at the right time. The same could be said for the invasion of Iraq by the United States and the Coalition of the Willing. The thousands who died in those theatres were comprised of both combatants and civilians. War is ugly and it kills.

Above all, when a country's right to exist is challenged violently by a neighbour, international conventions hold that the threatened country has every right to defend itself to the best of its ability rather than to meekly accede to its obliteration. And this is precisely what Israel is doing. Against an enemy that seeks to create situations where increasing numbers of their own civilians come under fire and perish as a result, because the ruse of using them as human shields is a particular Hamas tactic.

It is a tactic that has succeeded in the past, aided immeasurably by claims of IDF savagery meant to annihilate Palestinians whereas it is Hamas whose indiscriminate rocket attacks are meant to achieve that purpose, but with few avails. It is Hamas that cries poor and presents as the Arabic knight of vengeance against the usurping Zionists occupying land consecrated to Islam and meant to be occupied by Arab Palestinians in perpetuity. Because they say so.

Hamas has been supported in its goal by Iran which has provided the Islamist faction viewed by civilized societies as a terrorist organization, with advanced weapons and rocketry, and funding and sympathy both have come from Qatar and Turkey to spur Hamas on to ever greater events of self-sacrifice in producing martyrs for the popular Arab/Muslim cause of obliteration from the Middle East of the offence of Israel's presence.

Israel, planning to live in peace and to advance its prosperity and in the process share agricultural and desalinization and technical expertise with its neighbours, has been disabused of the quaint notion that a Jewish enclave could possibly exist within a greater community of Arabs and Muslims in the geography. The Jewish State has been forced to devote a large proportion of its treasury to defence, as a result. While Hamas devotes a spectacular proportion of its donations emanating from international and local sources to offensive weaponry, tunnelling and suicide missions.

Gaza's "underground city", its endless maze of tunnels extending from the Strip into Israel and Egypt meant to conduct smuggling operations of consumer goods, building materials and weapons, along with 'warriors' have also been turned toward an extended purpose of launching attacks into Israel. This new offensive by Hamas and corresponding defence by Israel has had the inevitable effect of highlighting the deaths of Palestinians uninvolved in conflict for whom Hamas has built no bomb shelters, will not permit them to take refuge in the tunnels meant to protect Hamas authorities but whom Hamas deliberately places in harm's way.

When this current conflict comes to an end, as they all do, one after another, Hamas will proclaim itself the victor and Palestinians will rejoice and sweets will be distributed to dull the ululating wailing of lost lives. The victory lies in the fact that Hamas succeeded in driving a major percentage of Israelis into bomb shelters, that it succeeded in closing down Ben Gurion airport, harming the economy of Israel even more than the launching of the protective Iron Dome in its amazing 90% success rate has cost. This is Hamas's "great victory".

In a poll taken by AWRAD this week, a West Bank research firm, 58% of West Bank Palestinians stated their belief that Hamas is 'winning the war', whereas a mere 7% acknowledge Israel's upper hand. Again, 85% gave Hamas a superior mark for its performance. It is not Hamas deliberately targeting Israel to ensure a similar response that will harm Gazans who is blamed for the conflict, but Israel for responding, for attempting to stop the tunnel incursions and the ongoing rocket attacks.

The cost to Israel of this additional round of self-protection will be enormous. When the tally adding up defence costs and tourism losses and manufacturing and retailing losses is finalized, the result will impact hugely on the country's economic picture. For Gaza, the cost has been even greater, with much infrastructure destroyed, along with civil buildings (where arsenals are stored and from which attacks are launched) and peoples' homes. The terror and trauma suffered by Palestinians will be a long time healing.

West Bank Palestinians who have marched in solidarity with the people of Gaza, accusing Israel of war crimes against innocent civilians, rioting and throwing rocks and incendiary devices against Israeli military personnel do not appear to have noticed that Syrian President Bashar al Assad has slaughtered several thousand Palestinians living in Syria, has used chemical gas, barrel bombs and starvation against his civilian Sunni populations; there are no protests, no notice of Arab-on-Arab atrocities.

Israel will be picking up its own pieces in its economic losses. Not so Gaza, where sympathy based largely in the West, somewhat withheld in the larger Middle East viewing Hamas's self-destructive adventurism lunacy and a frightening portent of the future along with what is being viewed with alarm taking place in Syria and Iraq will render less aid generally from that source. But there's no need for it, with Qatar, arguably the wealthiest nation on Earth, able to single-handedly provide enough funds to rebuild the Strip, and Turkey no doubt doing its bit.

Stunned Gazans will suddenly find themselves in a building boom, providing more than ample employment for all those restless young Palestinian men who manage to avoid death in the current conflict. Like a controlled forest fire deliberately set by government foresters to replenish soil, and create conditions for new growth, Hamas has set an uncontrolled fire within Gaza and the results will be a similar replenishing of infrastructure and resources.

And make no mistake, a robust and enthusiastic rebuilding of its weapons caches which will include, thanks to its friends in Qatar, Turkey, Iran and Sudan, a replenished arsenal of more advanced armaments with which to challenge Israel in the next round by a terrorist group whose devotion to dealing death and persuading the population they whose best interests they purport to represent to sacrifice themselves anew to the greater purpose of triumph over the 'invading Zionist entity'.