Sunday, December 28, 2008

Gaza:A Tale Of Selective Morality and Tribal Warfare


Needless to say,Israel's response to months of rocket and mortar attacks on its citizens has brought forth widespread protests across the Muslim world and its various beach heads in the West. Not to mention 'concern' in the so-called international community.

In Damascus, Syria, more than 5,000 people went out in the streets burning Israeli and American flags. In Jordan, one of the two Arab countries that has diplomatic relations with Israel, protesters called for the deportation of Israel's ambassador, lawmakers in what passes for Jordan's parliament burned an Israeli flag and US ally King Abdullah called the Israeli response “unjustified aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza”, and said that it “should stop immediately”, according to Petra, the Jordanian news agency.

In Turkey, the Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan referred to Israel's defense of its citizens as 'a crime against humanity'.

In Iran, the Ayatolah Khamenei issued a fatwa against Israel, saying it was time for Iran and the Arabs to unite and destroy Israel and that anyone who died killing Jews was a holy martyr.

There were protests throughout Iraq in Baghdad, Mosul, Samarra, and Falluja that pretty much involved all factions. The 'moderate' Ayatolah Sistani said condemnation didn't go far enough:

"Expressing condemnation and denunciation for what is going on against our brothers in Gaza and expressing solidarity with them by words only doesn't mean anything in the face of the big tragedy they are facing," he said in a statement released by office in Najaf.

"Now more than at any other time, both Arab and Islamic nations are required to take a practical stance for the sake of stopping this repeated aggression and to break the unfair besieging of these brave people."

The Mosul protests had an ironic twist when a Muslim suicide bomber lit himself up at the rally, killing two.The demonstration's organizer, the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party knew whom to blame, of course. The party's Mosul spokesman, Yahiya Abid Mahjoub said, "The ones who targeted our brothers in Gaza are the same who targeted us in Mosul today. They are agents of Israel."

Damned Jews..... they're everywhere, aren't they?

In Britain, a violent Muslim protest at the Israeli embassy resulted in ten arrests, as Britain cringed as usual, referred to ' the humanitarian crisis' and called for an immediate end to Israeli attacks on Gaza. I have no doubt that this will intensify the Brown government's desire to ramp up an economic war with Israel.

Other international voices joining in the chorus included the UN's Ban K. Moon, Spain, the EU, a whole slew of Iran friendly Latin American countries like Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia and of course the anti-Semitic Organization of Islamic Conference ( OIC). To my knowledge, the only countries to actually voice support openly for Israel's right to defend itself are the US, Australia, and Canada.

(update: add Germany to the list)

Here in America, Muslim brotherhood front CAIR weighed in, calling Gaza 'a massacre', and there were violent pro-Hamas demonstrations in New York, in New Jersey, in Detroit and on a number of college campuses courtesy of the Muslim Student's Union and the MPAC.

Of course, none of these people were opening their mouths when Hamas rockets were slamming into Israel.

Another item that the Muslim world and their western appeaser allies were silent on was the event pictured above.

No, that didn't happen in Gaza, but on the same day in the eastern province of Khost, Afghanistan, where the Taliban targeted a bunch of 8 and 10-year-old kids as they were coming out their school..and killed 14 of them with a truck bomb. Not to mention the 58 listed as wounded.

It was the last day of the school year for the kids, and the bombing was deliberately planned to coincide with their leaving class:




Afterwards, the ground was littered with bloody textbooks and shoes.



That particular crime against humanity made the wire services - barely - but somehow never made it on to the agenda of the Muslim world or the rest of the folks busily condemning Israel for defending itself today. Nor will it.

For Muslims, the reason is a pretty simple one. They regard the war against the Jews as a jihad and a tribal war just as they always have, with all that implies. Any western-style concessions are simply a tool to be used for war. To them, a bunch of dead infidels and the dominance of Dar Islam are simply the way Allah planned it, and the sooner the better. That's why they had nothing to say about Mumbai, or Beslan, or any of the numerous butcheries committed in the name of Islam...and when the targeted victims happen to be Muslim, they are simply declared kaffir, non-believers, and thus fair game. That's how the Pakistani army was able to rape and slaughter its way through what's now Bangladesh with a clear conscience, and how the Sudan is able to do the same thing to Muslims in Darfur today.

If by this, you understand me to mean that a great many Muslims lack any sense of what we would consider justice, tolerance or simple human decency I won't contradict you.

As for the non-Muslim appeasers, their motivation is different but no less deadly.

For a number of them, it's a matter of fear. They really believe that if they give the Muslims Israel, they'll be able to live in peace and apparently have forgotten the lessons of Munich. Others, like Britain's Labour government are dependent of Muslim votes to stay in power. And still others are politicians and government officials excited by how generous people like the Saudis can be after they retire when it comes to funding things like presidential libraries, foundations, lucrative business opportunities and exorbitant fees for speeches and 'consulting' to those in government that do the Arab's bidding. And for some, it's a mixture of all three.

The truth outs itself eventually, and these western appeasers will have to relearn the lessons of history. For now, it's enough merely to note their disgusting hypocrisy and morally repugnant cowardice for the record.

The Israelis, however, can take a lesson from this.. but only provided they've finally decided that they're more concerned with the security and survival of their country than with trying to contort themselves according to 'rules' set by the so-called international community that apply to Israel and no other nation on earth.

Gaza is a perfect example.

I've already heard a great deal of verbiage about Israel's possible 'exit strategy' and 'final goals' in Gaza. Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister tells the media that she's 'in close connection' with Condi Rice,that according to her Israel has no plans to reoccupy Gaza, as if territory that never officially belonged to any country could be considered 'occupied'. She wasn't even clear enough to admit that destroying Hamas would be a legitimate war goal.

In fact, the current Israeli government is so concerned about cringing before world opinion that they'd prefer to have missiles launched against their country and allow Hamas' fighters and officials to hide in the tunnels underneath Gaza City and regroup to prepare to meet an Israeli ground offensive than look 'inhumane' by pulling the plug on Gaza's Israeli-supplied electricity.

It leads me to wonder exactly what's going on. Are Olmert and company merely trying to batter Hamas into another phony ceasefire that isn't one? Or is the plan for Israel to destroy Hamas and invade Gaza in order to hand it over to Abbas and Fatah?

Based on the Israeli government we're talking about, I wouldn't be surprised to find that's the plan, and if so, it was likely co-ordinated not only with the Bush Administration and Condi Rice but with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak when Livni met with him last week - which would explain Egypt's anti-Hamas stance on the matter so far.Mubarak has no real reason to have any sympathy for Hamas, an Iranian proxy and an offshoot of Egypt's radical Muslim Brotherhood.

If that indeed is what Olmert, Barak and Livni have in mind,they're tragically mistaken if they think it will be a step towards peace.

Israel will get absolutely no love from the Muslim world or from the EU for this, simply because it's Israel. As for the Palestinians, their genocidal hatred of Jews isn't going to change one iota. To them, the hated Jews will have just participated in overthrowing a democratically elected Hamas government most of them voted for to install a corrupt and despised Fatah overlord.

As for Abbas, his reaction to the gift of all this free territory will be far from any semblance of gratitude. He will simply want more, and be under even less pressure to make any compromises than he is now.

That's assuming Gaza's Arabs don't chase him and his friends out again with a new pro-Hamas revolt....a very likely scenario given the clan makeup of Palestinian society.

Nor will it end the threat to Israel's south in the long run. Even if Abbas manages to hang on for awhile, the radical elements in Fatah will insist on a military build up to prosecute the War Against the Jews if Israel refuses to give the Palestinians 100% of what they want....which would amount to national suicide for Israel. The war in Gaza will only have to be fought again in a few years.

There's an alternative to this, of course,and it would actually provide a real incentive to the Palestinians to embrace peace towards Israel.

Rather than spilling blood doing Abbas' and Condi Rice's dirty work, the IDF should eliminate the threat to Israel's south once and for all. That involves a full scale war aimed at driving Hamas out of Gaza for good by exterminating as many of its fighters and leadership as it can get its hands on,using whatever means necessary.

It also means blowing the Egyptian border fence 'by accident' or allowing Hamas to do it and facilitating as many of Gaza's inmates escaping the lunatic asylum into Egypt as you can, and then not allowing them to return.

And finally, it means transferring most of the rest of Gaza's present inhabitants off to the Palestinian occupied areas in Judea and Samaria ( AKA the West Bank), annexing Gaza to Israel permanently and moving the Jews back in.

The UN, the EU and the Arab world will of course denounce this 'theft of Arab land' but are unlikely to do anything concrete about it once the facts on the ground are in place.

And considering that's how a lot of them feel about all of Israel anyway, the Israelis actually have little to lose, and can now finally look forward to peace on its southern borders.

Not only will that be worth the temporary diplomatic fallout, but it will actually be an incentive for peace.

The reason the war against Israel's civilians continues is because the Palestinians have yet to experience any major consequences for it,and the world mostly continues to enable their horrific and brutal behavior. It's by no means certain, but losing Gaza might just make an impression on like minded jihadist Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and make them realize that peace with Israel might prevent the same thing from happening to them. Actually realizing that you have something to lose is a powerful incentive.

If nothing else, the Palestinians will understand the deterrent on a tribal level and have a motivation towards the compromises necessary for peace with the only nation in the Middle East that has ever given them so much as a square dunam of land to call their own.

As for Gaza,the Jews will change it beyond recognition. The Arabs were given Gaza outright by Israel with high tech greenhouses that produced fruits,vegetables and flowers in abundance for local consumption and export. They destroyed them. They were given ample investment capital by the World Bank in excess of any other developing region in history. The money was stolen or used to buy arms. Factories were built just over the Israeli border with the idea that the the Palestinians would be able to find employment and create a better life for themselves. The factories were bombed and rendered unusable.

Gaza today is exactly what the Arabs made of it. It is their monument.

Instead of a terrorist cesspool swimming in its own sewage, Gaza as part of Israel will become a garden, a beach resort and high tech trade center.

Granted, the present Israeli government is unlikely to do this. But they should. It's the only way to avoid having to deal with the same problem again in a few years.

And had it been done years ago, things would be very different today.

3 comments:

Right Truth said...

Amazing article.

I agree, if things had been done differently years ago, things would be very different today. But alas, we cannot go back and undo anything. We have to work with what we have, a terrible situation for Israel.

Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth

Freedom Fighter said...

Thanks Deb...very much.

I'm pretty much convinced that th escenario I've envisioned will be enacted anyway if Israel is going to survive.

A couple of days after the Oslo photo-op,Yasir Arafat went on Jordanian TV and explanied that he had signed Oslo just to get a foothold in the territory and to fool the Jews. He said,almost verbatim that either the Jews would push Fatah into the sea or the Arabs would push the Jews into the sea, underlining that this was a tribal war that was not going to end with coexistence.

Not much has changed, and it's about time Israel realized it.

Best Wishes for the New Year,
Rob

Ymarsakar said...

It leads me to wonder exactly what's going on. Are Olmert and company merely trying to batter Hamas into another phony ceasefire that isn't one? Or is the plan for Israel to destroy Hamas and invade Gaza in order to hand it over to Abbas and Fatah?

Have you considered that Olmert and company needed the invasion of Lebanon and Gaza in order to counter domestic problems such as netanyahu's power base?

- which would explain Egypt's anti-Hamas stance on the matter so far.Mubarak has no real reason to have any sympathy for Hamas, an Iranian proxy and an offshoot of Egypt's radical Muslim Brotherhood.

If regime change is the goal, then I prefer John Bolton's strategy of giving the Wes tBank to Jordan and Gaza to Egypt. Or rather "forcing" them there.

If that indeed is what Olmert, Barak and Livni have in mind,they're tragically mistaken if they think it will be a step towards peace.

Israel will get absolutely no love from the Muslim world or from the EU for this, simply because it's Israel.


But if Olmert only cares about his domestic power base then international opinion wouldn't matter in his calculations, Joshua.

To them, the hated Jews will have just participated in overthrowing a democratically elected Hamas government most of them voted for to install a corrupt and despised Fatah overlord.

If Israel topples Hamas and replaces them with Fatah, then how will Israel ever have the justification to declare total war against a lawfully elected Government? They will forever be limited to "assassinations" and unconventional warfare. And that has worked out not so well for Israel over the decades.


Rather than spilling blood doing Abbas' and Condi Rice's dirty work, the IDF should eliminate the threat to Israel's south once and for all. That involves a full scale war aimed at driving Hamas out of Gaza for good by exterminating as many of its fighters and leadership as it can get its hands on,using whatever means necessary.


If Hamas is the elected government of Gaza and if Israel declares war on Gaza, then all the civilians in Gaza become collateral damage if they are used as human shields by Hamas. Meaning, there at least becomes the legal justification to take them out and that justificaton is that whatever civilian casualties that results from a war is the primary responsibility of the host government. In this case, it would be Hamas, since they are responsible for the lives of their own civilians. If they want them to stop dying, they should surrender. They will never stop using them as human shields, but calling on them to surrender and when they don't surrender, does give Israel a good pretext to keep bombing Hamas without giving them "warnings" on their cell phones.

And had it been done years ago, things would be very different today.

if they had somebody like President Bush in charge, they would have done. But they don't have somebody like President Bush in charge.