After Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s war in Gaza, Hamas has emerged as a more potent threat
By MOSHE GIT
Earlier this month a large majority of the United Nations General Assembly members voted to send the Goldstone report to the Security Council. The U.N.-sponsored Goldstone report on Israel’s punishing incursion into Gaza last January has become a major threat to Israel’s international standing. Since its publication in late September, the Israeli government has been spending a great deal of time and effort attempting to rebut its conclusions.
The Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict is popularly known as the Goldstone report, after the head of the inquiry, Justice Richard Goldstone, former judge of South Africa’s Constitutional Court and former prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The 452-page report blasts the IDF for ostensibly committing war crimes against the Palestinians of Gaza.
Originally, I considered reviewing the report before joining the Israeli and Jewish chorus that condemns it.
However, on second thought, it occurred to me that no matter what the report says, even if it was most approving of Israel Defense Forces conduct, Israel is dead guilty; perhaps not guilty as charged, but guilty nevertheless.
As soon as the news broke about the Israeli incursion in Gaza (dubbed Operation Cast Lead), I sent a critical commentary article to the AJW. My point was that the incursion was likely to cause death and mayhem, both to IDF soldiers and to Palestinian civilians, and to increase Palestinian animosity towards Israel, without producing worthwhile results.
I got some flack from readers for my criticism; but, alas, it has proven to be justified.
The abducted Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, is still a captive, and while the launching of Kassam rockets on Israel’s nearby population centers has now trickled to almost nothing, it is hard to attribute the latter to Cast Lead. During the entire period of the incursion, the rocket fire didn’t cease and, for a number of months afterward, the frequency of rockets from Gaza into Israel increased.
The present lull may safely be attributed to the fact that it enables Hamas to quietly smuggle upgraded weaponry into Gaza. In addition to increasing its short-range Kassam arsenal by 150 percent compared to pre-Cast Lead numbers, Hamas has acquired antitank missiles that will allow its forces to confront Israeli armor head-on for the first time. And, according to recent reports, Hamas now has Iranian missiles that are capable of hitting as far as the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Thus, Hamas now constitutes a threat to Israel far beyond what it was before Operation Cast Lead.
Also, during Operation Cast Lead, the IDF lost 13 soldiers. If one observes the emotion that the fate of a single soldier, Gilad Shalit, evokes in us, imagine the gift that we could have received by sparing the lives of 13 soldiers. Yet, these soldiers are forgotten; nobody even remembers their names.
And we should not forget that about 1,400 Palestinians — most of whom were civilians, including some 400 children — lost their lives during the operation. It’s no wonder that the world looks at Israel with disgust.
Since Cast Lead, Israel’s international stature has gone downhill. Arab countries distanced themselves. Mauritania, the only Arab country that had voluntarily established diplomatic relations with Israel, severed its ties. The Gulf States, most notably Bahrain, are considering cutting off the meager relations they have had with Israel. Jordan’s King Abdullah, who is supposed to be a friend, criticized Israel severely. Turkey, Israel’s greatest ally in the Muslim world, made a 180-degree turn. Anti-Israel demonstrations popped up in countries like Spain that previously had been friendly. Even Uruguay, which prided itself on being a partner to the establishment of a Jewish state (it helped bring about the U.N. 1947 partition resolution), has now cast its vote against Israel.
Soon after Israel pulled out of Gaza, long before the establishment of the Goldstone commission, taped testimonies of IDF soldiers described shocking acts of misconduct during the Gaza war. These testimonies were silenced or belittled. Now the Israeli government deflects criticism by arguing that the IDF’s conduct was exemplary.
Perhaps it was. However, the main guilty party wasn’t the IDF, but the Israeli government that launched the travesty. The details of what has transpired in Gaza may not exonerate Israel. As jurists say when circumstances are unclear: res ipsa loquitur (“the thing speaks for itself”) — the mayhem and destruction that Israel brought about speak for themselves.
Just now, Shaul Mofaz, former IDF chief of staff and a defense minister, suggests negotiating with Hamas. This should have taken place right after Hamas won the Palestinian elections, and certainly before launching Cast Lead.
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Moshe Git lives in Minnetonka.
(American Jewish World, 11.27.09)
