Isreali Scholar: Gaza actions 'totally disproportionate'

 Not wanting to disappoint Moonwolf I will serve as the Israeli propagandist.  :-)

I’ve taken sections of Prof. Shalim’s article that I believe lack a factual basis and responded.  I’ve tried not to take anything out of content.

What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism.

==>  When you lose wars you tend to lose property and territory; for example, at the end of WWII Germany and Japan lost territory.  Israel has fought three all-out wars with its Arab neighbors, 1948, 1967, 1973 and was victorious in each.   (As an aside, during WWII the Mufti of Jerusalem supported Germany.  He went to Germany and he met with Hitler and they planned to build camps and gas chambers in Palestine to kill Jews.  When you’re on the wrong side of a world war, shit happens to you)

==>  The 1967 was is that it was provoked by Egypt and Syria.  Something about Nasser threatening to push the Israelis into the sea, massing armies at the border, and blocking Israel’s sea access.  It wasn’t Israel that started the war, for territorial expansion or for any other reason.

==>  In 2000 Israel did something unprecedented, they capitulated to the nations they defeated three times in war.  Israel offered Arafat 98% of what he wanted.  Did he accept?  No. Did he try to negotiate for the other 2%?  No.  He chose war and the Palestinians have been living with that decision ever since.  As Abba Eben put I; “The Arabs have never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity”

Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza's prospects were never bright. Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development.

==>  Let’s accept this argument; however, Egypt controlled Gaza until 1967.  What did Egypt do to help the Palestinians?

In August 2005 a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis out of Gaza.

==>  Israel left because they had been promised “land for peace” but Hamas spread the lie it was their terror tactics that drove Israel out.  Hamas has used Gaza not for peace but to launch attacks against Israel and to make life miserable for Israelis and their own people.

 Israel's settlers were withdrawn but Israeli soldiers continued to control all access to the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Gaza was converted overnight into an open-air prison. From this point on, the Israeli air force enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs, to make sonic booms by flying low and breaking the sound barrier, and to terrorise the hapless inhabitants of this prison.

==>  Hamas sent suicide bombers and fired rockets into Israel.  Any other country would have put an end to it right then and there.  Israel showed restraint for years. They could have destroyed Gaza in a minute (and still can).

Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything to promote democracy on the Arab side and has done a great deal to undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism.

==>  Two points here.  (1) Why is it Israel’s responsibility to promote democracy on the Arab side?  The Arab states must create their own institutions and government.  And (2) if the Arab states are led by “reactionary Arab regimes” that are out to screw their Palestinian “brothers”, who is Israel to object?  Israel is not responsible for building Arab institutions.

Israel, however, refused to recognise the democratically elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist organisation.

==>  Which it is.

Israel had the right to act in self-defence but its response to the pinpricks of rocket attacks was totally disproportionate. The figures speak for themselves. In the three years after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. On the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.

==>  The professor does not understand proportionality.  Simply put, you don’t wait for someone to kill your child before responding. You stop him before he kills your child.

Over one million Israelis are at risk from Hamas rockets and the whole country is at risk from their suicide bombers. Why are Israeli casualties lower than Gazan?  Perhaps it’s because Israel builds shelters and warning systems and yes, Israel preemptively takes out the rocket launchers and suicide bombers.

Why are Gazan casualties higher?  Is it because Hamas uses women and children as human shields?  Could it be because Hamas stores weapons in schools, mosques, and houses?  Let’s get real: If you’re going to sleep over a pile a rockets don’t expect to wake up in the morning.

Proportionality doesn’t mean if they fire a rocket than I get to fire a rocket although I think if Israel did that and hit Gazan markets and schools the population would drive Hamas out in a week.  Proportionality refers to the risk.  If Hamas puts a million people at risk with their rockets (which are loaded with shrapnel and designed to kill) than Israel has the right to use the necessary force to prevent those rockets from launching

The core messages of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements; that Israel's objective is the defence of its population; and that Israel's forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent civilians. Israel's spin doctors have been remarkably successful in getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack of lies.

==>  Hamas does a very good job of controlling the message, too.  Look at all the photographers outside Gazan hospitals.

A wide gap separates the reality of Israel's actions from the rhetoric of its spokesmen. It was not Hamas but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It di d so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men.

==> Weren’t those six men building a tunnel into Israel to kidnap soldiers?  Are you claiming Israel’s response was “disproportional”?

No amount of military escalation can buy Israel immunity from rocket attacks from the military wing of Hamas.

==>  Correct.  But it can make the cost of that rocket attack very painful.