Another socialist blog

I’ve been hesitant to write about Israel’s war against the Palestinians, not because I lack an opinion but because I doubt I can do justice to the subject.

What Israel is doing to the Palestinians is nothing less than a war crime. By that I mean that Israel is in stark and flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits collective punishment and reprisals against protected persons or property. It also prohibits Occupying Power from moving settlers into the occupied territory, deporting civilians out of the occupied territory, and destroying property except where absolutely necessary in a military operation. Destruction of Palestinian homes and fields in reprisal for attacks on Israel, which is a standard Israeli tactic, is not just mean-spirited, it’s an actual de jure war crime. So are the settlements. So are the confiscation of land and water resources. Prolonged curfews and sealing-off of various areas by the Israeli military, which are so destructive to the Palestinian economy, are war crimes, not just short-sighted policy.

Using the word “terrorism” to describe Israeli policy is by no means out of line with Israel’s history. Just a few examples come to my own mind right away. These aren’t necessarily the most important ones, and they aren’t in order of importance.

• In 1994 a settler entered a mosque in Hebron and massacred at least 30 people during prayers. Israeli soldiers on guard outside the mosque did not challenge the perpetrator, a man who had publicly threatened violence against Arabs, to explain why he was carrying a rifle into a mosque.
• Ariel Sharon himself is personally responsible for the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982, in which an estimated 2,800 people died or disappeared.
• In 1973 Israeli fighter planes shot down Libyan Airlines Flight 114, a regularly scheduled passenger flight, killing 113 people.
• Menachim Begin, who became Israel’s Prime Minister, was himself a terrorist, having personally planted the bomb that blew up the King David Hotel, killing 91 people, during the British occupation of Palestine. (What’s amazing to me is how much this picture of the King David Hotel looks like this picture of the Oklahoma City bombing.)

The desperate terrorist response of Palestinians to the occupation does nothing to make Israel less culpable. This isn’t a symmetrical situation, no matter how much our news media refer to “the cycle of violence” involving “both sides.” One side is in military occupation of foreign territory, one is occupied. One side has helicopters and tanks and planes, one side has none. One side enjoys an alliance with the world superpower, one does not. Israel, despite all the PR to the contrary, is not beseiged and is not the victim.

Nor can the United States claim to be an honest broker of peace in the Middle East. The U.S. bankrolls Israel to the tune of $5.2 billion, and there’s no end in sight. The Bush administration talks a lot about getting rid of the “terrorist infrastructure.” We could get rid of some serious terrorist infrastructure in our own budget.