Israel - en militær Goliath, uden moralsk særstilling, uden retten på sin side
To interessante indlæg i dagens Ha'aretz. Yoel Marcus gør opmærksom på, at den israelske hærs operationer tyder på, at vi har at gøre med en stor, rig og dum kæmpe, ikke med en lille, væver og intelligent hær, som Israel ellers gerne vil gøre sig til af.
IDF er en Goliath, ikke en David, og derfor er den lige nu magtesløs overfor en fjende, der ikke er ret meget større end et forvokset frivilligt brandværn:
Two weeks after Israel set out to defeat Hezbollah, its military achievements are pretty limited. A country that stood up to seven Arab nations in the War of Independence, a war of the "few against the many," with an army that pulverized the invading forces of three Arab nations in the span of six days, is now facing an embarrassing role reversal: a war of the "many against the few" in which Israel is on the floorboards.Politiken kan så i dag berette, at Hizbollah regerer i Beiruts ruiner - hvilket igen bekræfter hvad vi tidligere har været inde på i denne blog, nemlig at Israel næppe gør andet lige nu end at styrke Hizbollahs position internt i Libanon.
Who would have believed that a guerrilla organization with a few hundred regular fighters, something like a brigade and a half, could paralyze half a country, firing off hundreds of missiles every day? A total of 2,200 by Sunday morning, says the defense minister. Who would have believed that cities like Safed, Acre, Nahariya, Tiberias and especially Haifa, the capital of the North, would wake up every morning to the sound of sirens and deadly rocket fire that would turn tens of thousands of people into refugees and shut down life in a large part of the country? And that's even before Hezbollah has tried to use its long-range missiles on Tel Aviv.
Who would have believed that the Israel Defense Forces, the army that is prepared for large-scale wars, that Iran fears will attack its nuclear facilities, that can drop 23 tons of bombs in a single night, is incapable of stopping Hezbollah's missile fire? How is that as soon as the IDF announces Hezbollah's TV station has been bombed, Hassan Nasrallah pops up in blooming health to continue his taunts against us?
Samtidig gør Ze'ev Maoz, ligeledes i Ha'aretz opmærksom på, at Israels såkaldte moralske overlegenhed i denne krig er en illusion hans indlæg har endog overskriften Morality is not on our side:
There's practically a holy consensus right now that the war in the North is a just war and that morality is on our side. The bitter truth must be said: this holy consensus is based on short-range selective memory, an introverted worldview, and double standards.Det må være klart for enhver læser, at den kritik af Israel, der er blevet udtrykt her på siden, ikke skal opfattes som et forsvar for Hizbollah og dets angreb mod civile mål i Israel. Men Israel er ikke den svage part i denne sag, og har, som Maoz er inde på, ikke "retten på sin side" - og det må fortsat stå fast, at der må være en vis form for proportionalitet mellem "overtrædelse" og "afstraffelse" - og efter Geneve-konventionen ligeledes en vis nytteværdi i form af i hvert fald hypotetiske chancer for at skade fjenden. Og bombetogter mod infrastruktur og civilbefolkning har ingen nytteværdi, men er ren kollektiv afstraffelse, som man i årevis har praktiseret også mod Gaza og Vestbredden.
This war is not a just war. Israel is using excessive force without distinguishing between civilian population and enemy, whose sole purpose is extortion. That is not to say that morality and justice are on Hezbollah's side. Most certainly not. But the fact that Hezbollah "started it" when it kidnapped soldiers from across an international border does not even begin to tilt the scales of justice toward our side.
Let's start with a few facts. We invaded a sovereign state, and occupied its capital in 1982. In the process of this occupation, we dropped several tons of bombs from the air, ground and sea, while wounding and killing thousands of civilians. Approximately 14,000 civilians were killed between June and September of 1982, according to a conservative estimate. The majority of these civilians had nothing to do with the PLO, which provided the official pretext for the war.
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On July 28, 1989, we kidnapped Sheikh Obeid, and on May 12, 1994, we kidnapped Mustafa Dirani, who had captured Ron Arad. Israel held these two people and another 20-odd Lebanese detainees without trial, as "negotiating chips". That which is permissible to us is, of course, forbidden to Hezbollah.
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There is a propaganda aspect to this war, and it involves a competition as to who is more miserable. Each side tries to persuade the world that it is more miserable. As in every propaganda campaign, the use of information is selective, distorted and self-righteous. If we want to base our information - (or shall we call it propaganda?) policy on the assumption that the international environment is going to buy the dubious merchandise that we are selling, be it out of ignorance or hypocrisy, then fine. But in terms of our own national soul searching, we owe ourselves to confront the bitter truth - maybe we will win this conflict on the military field, maybe we will make some diplomatic gains, but on the moral plane, we have no advantage, and we have no special status.
Brodden i Marcus' og Maoz' artikler er oplagt: Israel er i denne konflikt en Goliath, som ikke har retten på sin side. Men hvad kunne man så have gjort? Vel, måske der er antydningen af, hvad man kunne have gjort, i refusenikkernes udtalelse, som vi citerede i går: Man kunne, også uden at revertere til idel pacifisme, have nøjedes med at holde sig til noget, der gjorde nytte, og man kunne måske endda have langtidssikret sin løsning ved at sikre flertallet den libanesiske befolknings opbakning til sine aktioner mod Hizbollah?
På dén måde var Hizbollahs raketangreb måske Israels største chance i årevis for at gøre noget ved problemet - en chance, der nu synes evigt og endegyldigt forspildt.