‘Twas a Famous Victory [Updated]

When I was a high school student, the poem by Robert Southey, After Blenheim, was a standard part of the English curriculum. Now that a cease fire has come into effect in Gaza, little Wilhemene’s comment and little Peterkin’s question seem quite relevant:

They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.

“Great praise the Duke of Marlboro’ won,
And our good Prince Eugene.”
“Why, ‘twas a very wicked thing!”
Said little Wilhelmine.
“Nay, nay, my little girl,” quoth he;
“It was a famous victory.

“And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win.”
“But what good came of it at last?”
Quoth little Peterkin.
“Why, that I cannot tell,” said he;
“But ‘twas a famous victory.”

Incredibly enough, the BBC quotes the top Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, as saying: “God has granted us a great victory.” And the BBC quotes Ehud Barak as follows:

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak also declared victory on Wednesday, as Israeli forces completed their withdrawal.

“We won in a big way,” Mr Barak told Israeli Channel 2. “Hamas was dealt a blow it never imagined and will be quiet now for a long time.”

[And while Israeli leaders have been more cautious in their pronouncements, the NY Times quotes the chief of military intelligence, Amos Yadlin, as saying that "even Hamas had to figure out how badly it had been harmed." In other words, Hamas is not yet aware of the extent of its defeat.]

Since the fighting has died down, it is an appropriate time to assess the true impact of the war. This BBC article provides some of the raw statistics for this famous victory:

How does Israel justify this devestation? A few days ago I mentioned this New York Times piece, which presents those justifications but effectively serves as a vehicle for expounding Israeli propaganda. In particular, I am referring to these lines:

Israelis deeply believe, rightly or wrongly, that their military works harder than most to spare civilians, holding their fire in many more cases than using it.

Because Hamas booby-traps schools, apartment buildings and the zoo, and its fighters hide among civilians, it is Hamas that is viewed here as responsible for the civilian toll. Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction and gets help and inspiration from Iran, so that what looks to the world like a disproportionate war of choice is seen by many here as an obligatory war for existence.

“This is a just war and we don’t feel guilty when civilians we don’t intend to hurt get hurt, because we feel Hamas uses these civilians as human shields,” said Elliot Jager, editorial page editor of The Jerusalem Post…

The writer A.B. Yehoshua, who opposes Israel’s occupation and promotes a Palestinian state, has been trying to explain the war to foreigners.

“ ‘Imagine,’ I tell a French reporter, ‘that every two days a missile falls in the Champs-Élysées and only the glass windows of the shops break and five people suffer from shock,’ ” Mr. Yehoshua told a reporter from Yediot Aharonot, a Tel Aviv newspaper. “ ‘What would you say? Wouldn’t you be angry? Wouldn’t you send missiles at Belgium if it were responsible for missiles on your grand boulevard?’

Except for the first paragraph, there are no qualifications on the Israeli statements. The fact that Hamas “booby-traps” schools is presented as fact. The fact that Hamas “hides among civilians” is presented as fact. Yet in the real world, the facts are far more complex. Every time a massive number of civilians were killed in this war (which happened often) Israeli army spokespeople reflexively stated that Hamas militants were firing on Israeli forces from amongst the civilians. But when the actual event was scrutinized by outsiders, the Israeli army backed down and equivocated. There are more than one horrifically tragic attacks which received coverage (this, this and this, for example) where one can ask: even if there were militants hiding amongst these people (and there is absolutely no evidence that there were) do the results justify the carnage? Was killing another couple of Hamas guerillas worth the death of so many innocent people?

Moreover, considering that the Gaza strip is the most densely populated place on the planet, where exactly were the Hamas guerillas supposed to go to avoid being amongst civilians? There is nowhere in Gaza that isn’t just a few meters from a large number of civilians. The argument that the Israeli army works hard to avoid civilians is a blatant lie. The mere act of invading Gaza guaranteed many civilians will die. The most accurate armaments in the world would be hard pressed to avoid massive civilian casualties. But worse still, evidence suggests that Israel is using all kinds of weapons that actually guarantee many more civilian deaths and horrific injuries, with some of these weapons banned by international treaties.

Hamas justifies its own war crimes by making similar arguments. As quoted in the article Amira Haas, the Hamas spokesperson says “all Israel is military.” Presumably, I remember during the first Gulf War, many of Saddam’s scud missiles fell very close to the neighborhood where my company at the time had offices. Saddam was targeting Israeli military headquarters, which was not very far from our offices and which is located right smack in the middle of a densely populated residential Tel Aviv neighborhood.

If the “hiding among civilians” argument doesn’t remove the moral stink from either side, neither does the “what else were we supposed to do?” argument. The question to both sides is this: why didn’t you spend the last six months leveraging the existing cease fire to negotiate an extension and to reach a broader agreement?

The New York Times presented the Palestinian argument here (as as aside, for more pearls from the mouth of Chief of Staff Bogie Ya’alon, you can read this and this). It is an incontrovertible fact that Israel has been besieging Gaza since the first intifada, and essentially making Gaza into one big prison since Hamas came into power. It is also a fact that Israel struck first in violating the current cease fire. But that doesn’t mean there was nothing Hamas could do except attack Israel. The EU requirements of Hamas to break the embargo are “renounce violence and recognize Israel.” Renouncing violence is not the same as renouncing the right to self defense. And recognizing Israel’s right to exist is not the same as a border agreement or recognizing the legitimacy of Israeli occupation or any other pretext Hamas might give to avoid making such statements. In fact, having reached a cease fire agreement with Israel meant Hamas implicitely recognized the legitimacy of there Israeli counterpart (and vice versa). Hamas complying  with the EU would have undermined the US and Israeli embargo and provided great relief to the Palestinian population in Gaza.

Israelis argue that Hamas is a “terrorist organization” that refuses to recognize Israel and therefore negotiations are inherently futile. And yet, Israel and Hamas managed to negotiate a cease fire six months ago. Why didn’t Israel work to renew it? In any case, whatever one might say about Hamas, the siege of Gaza is collective punishment against a civilian population and inherently a war crime. The horrific devastation of Gaza by the Israeli army these past three weeks is a war crime. The fact that Hamas perpetrates war crimes doesn’t justify Israel doing the same.

Or does it? More on that tomorrow.

P.S. I have used Southey’s poem once before. That article is worth reading now as well, considering the upcoming Israeli elections and the fact that Netanyahu is running his campaign touting his great economic victory as finance minister! How quickly people forget.

Tags: Feature, Hamas, Hypocrisy, Israeli Army, Moral Equivalence, War Crimes