IsraelNotes on a Society in Confusion

January 12, 2009

Rahul Mahajan
900 dead and no clear end in sight, as Israel throws its reserves into battle in Gaza.
According to Mondays New York Times, senior Israeli officials believe that Hamass
military is beginning to crack and that Hamas may be ready for a cease-fire agreement.
It is not clear whether Israel is. If they wanted a cease-fire, they had one, enforced by
Hamas with a minimum of violation between June 19 and November 4. A new study by a
right-wing military think-tank in Israel points out that in that period Israel was hit by only
20 rockets and 18 mortar attacks (killing no one), the vast majority by groups opposed to
Hamas, which was highly effective but not perfect in establishing control over them. In
return, Israel was supposed to open the Gaza crossings and allow normal flow of goods;
instead, the Israelis allowed roughly 20% of the traffic allowed in December 2005, itself
a period of stringent control after the military withdrawal. And, on November 4, as the
report points out, the ceasefire was severely undermined by an Israeli attack that killed 7
Hamas fighters. Since that time, the rocket fire increased and simultaneously the closures
were made comprehensive; in all of November, about 20% of one days worth of trucks
were allowed in, i.e., less than 1% of normal traffic, to a population where 80% depend
for their basic sustenance on international aid.
Conversely, if they actually want Hamass control over Gaza to dissolve, then there will
be no force that can stop small groups of fighters from launching rockets into Israel.
Unless Israel either occupies Gaza with a large, permanent presence, something nobody
wants to do, or somehow reimports the Fatah gangs that Hamas routed in June 2007 and
helps them to establish control which would also require an Israeli occupation.
Which of these two endgames ceasefire or regime destruction Israeli leaders want is
unclear, although presumably at some point outside pressure will kick in and they will
have to settle for the first. In the meantime, it is very difficult to see what they gain from
all this violence. True, there is a temporary reduction in rocket fire, but if they continue to
keep 1.5 million people in a cage, it will come back. They cant possibly be trying to
make life so miserable for people in Gaza that they flee, since there is nowhere they can
go and, in any case, the Israelis arent letting anyone out; indeed, several observers have
remarked that this is the first time they have seen a full-scale war on a population that
cant leave the area of fire. This, by the way, is the reason for the mad game in which the
Israeli military satisfies its conscience by calling people and telling them to leave their
houses, which are about to be bombed; and then bombs the places that these people flee
to. Warning people about an attack is hardly evidence of great morality if you dont allow
them a safe haven to go to.
This parodistic assault is hardly the only evidence of something very wrong with Israeli
political society. Just survey the newspapers randomly.

Founded on the idea that it would provide a safe haven from persecution for Jews
worldwide, Israel is now the most dangerous place in the world for a Jew to live.
Although Iranian Jews harassed by security services and offered rosy futures by the
Jewish National Agency are making aliyah when they can, even Iran is safer for a Jew
than Israel. And the result is clear: 2007 was the first year since the early 1980s that
emigration from Israel exceeded immigration.
The centrist ruling party Kadima, just decided to support a proposal to disqualify the
mostly Arab Balad party from Februarys elections, because Balad calls for Israel to be a
multiethnic democracy with equality for all, rather than a Jewish state; according to
Kadima, this means that Balad wants to destroy Israel. Democratically calling for
democracy is illegal in Israel.
Last but hardly least, David Sanger reports in the New York Times, corroborating an
earlier report in the Guardian, that last year Israel requested advanced military equipment
and the right to overfly Iraq in order to mount a raid on Irans nuclear site at Natanz, and
was turned down by President Bush, who was alarmed at the possibility that such a raid
could ignite a broad Middle East war, while simultaneously accomplishing little but
driving Irans nuclear program further underground. When George Bush is the voice of
sanity, when you need a reality check from the man who doesnt believe in reality, you
have a problem.
Of course, the real problem is that the Palestinians are crazy. Ask anyone in Congress.