Gaza: A view from the other side

I am certainly no expert in Middle Eastern affairs. Like many here, I just gather all the information I can and then form my opinions based on my own internal belief system. Like all, I have built in biases and pre-dispositions that shape those beliefs.

I am Jewish and have thus spent a lifetime having the history of Israel and the Jewish People explained to be from a very Zionist perspective. I have family in Israel and through the modern wonders of instant electronic communication, I am privy to the facts as they see them instantly.

Even so, I am often critical of the Israeli government and how they respond to given situations. As someone, who has spent a life in politics and public relations, I often look at an event in terms of how it will be perceived. When it comes to world perception, Israel can rarely win unless it has suffered a catastrophic loss. Thanks to the efficiency of the Israeli military and intelligence communities, those catastrophic losses are few and far between. So a military response, as the current one in Gaza is sure to be condemned by most of world community (with the excpetion of Pro-Israel lobbies here in the States.) Knowing this, my first response to the recent Israeli measures is to ask, “what the hell are they thinking?”

And reading the responses from those here at No Quarter has shown me that I was pretty much on target with how the world would view what Israel is doing. I have enormous respect for Larry Johnson and the other writers who have openly condemned the Israeli government in the strongest possible terms. Israel is again losing the P.R. war. But, public relations isn’t everything. There is another side. Victor Hanson wrote a thought provoking piece posted over at Real Clear Politics that provides other points of view worth considering. You can read the entire piece here

I will summarize a few key sections.

Legitimate military action is strangely defined by the relative strength of the combatants. World opinion more vehemently condemns Israel’s countermeasures, apparently because its rockets are far more accurate and deadly than previous Hamas barrages that are poorly targeted and thus not so lethal.

Second, intent in this war no longer matters. Every Hamas unguided rocket is launched in hopes of hitting an Israeli home and killing men, women and children. Every guided Israeli air-launched missile is targeted at Hamas operatives, who deliberately work in the closest vicinity to women and children.

Killing Palestinian civilians is incidental to Israeli military operations and proves counterproductive to its objectives. Blowing up Israeli non-combatants is the aim of Hamas’ barrages: the more children, aged and women who die, the more it expects political concessions from Tel Aviv.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 to great expectations that the Palestinians there would combine their new autonomy, some existing infrastructure left behind by the Israelis, Middle East oil money and American pressure for free and open elections to craft a peaceful, prosperous democracy.

The world hoped that Gaza might thrive first, and then later adjudicate its ongoing disputes with Israel through diplomacy. Instead, the withdrawal was seen not as a welcome Israeli concession, but as a sign of newfound Jewish weakness — and that the intifada tactics that had liberated Gaza could be amplified into a new war to end the Zionist entity itself.

Hanson makes some valid points. The problem is, Israel can never win. It is a nation surrounded by “neighbors” who will always have large groups within their populations intent on seeking the destruction of the Jewish state. Hamas and other groups like it can only be defeated by their Arab brothers. The question is what is more likely to get them to stand up to the likes of Hamas. Turning the other cheek and ignoring the rockets aimed at your citizens while trying to negotiate or destroying the communities that house the missile launchers, munitions and terrorists?

Israel has chosen the second option. The collateral damage is horrific and unacceptable. This response will undoubtedly add to anti-Israel fervor and strengthen the resolve of those who are sympathetic to Hamas. At the same time, maybe, just maybe, it may cause others to not allow Hamas to set up shop where they and their children live. There is no black and white, it is all an ugly gray tinted with crimson Arab and Jewish blood.