- What Israel is doing in Gaza has nothing
to do with securing Gilad Shalit's release, according to Israeli newspaper
Haaretz commentator Gideon Levy.
-
- A black flag hangs over the "rolling"
operation in Gaza. The more the operation "rolls," the darker
the flag becomes. The "summer rains" we are showering on Gaza
are not only pointless, but are first and foremost blatantly illegitimate.
It is not legitimate to cut off 750,000 people from electricity. It is
not legitimate to call on 20,000 people to run from their homes and turn
their towns into ghost towns. It is not legitimate to penetrate Syria's
airspace. It is not legitimate to kidnap half a government and a quarter
of a parliament.
-
- A state that takes such steps is no
longer distinguishable from a terror organization. The harsher the steps,
the more monstrous and stupid they become, the more the moral underpinnings
for them are removed and the stronger the impression that the Israeli government
has lost its nerve. Now one must hope that the weekend lull, whether initiated
by Egypt or the prime minister, and in any case to the dismay of Channel
2's Roni Daniel and the IDF, will lead to a radical change.
-
- Everything must be done to win Gilad
Shalit's release. What we are doing now in Gaza has nothing to do with
freeing him. It is a widescale act of vengeance, the kind that the IDF
and Shin Bet have wanted to conduct for some time, mostly motivated by
the deep frustration that the army commanders feel about their impotence
against the Qassams and the daring Palestinian guerilla raid. There's a
huge gap between the army unleashing its frustration and a clever and legitimate
operation to free the kidnapped soldier.
-
-
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- To prevent the army from running as
amok as it would like, a strong and judicious political echelon is required.
But facing off against the frustrated army is Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz's
tyro regime, weak and happless. Until the weekend lull, it appeared that
each step proposed by the army and Shin Bet had been immediately approved
for backing. That does not bode well, not only for the chances of freeing
Shalit, but also for the future management of the government, which is
being revealed to be as weak as the Hamas government.
-
- The only wise and restrained voice heard
so far was that of the soldier's father, Noam Shalit, of all people. That
noble man called at what is clearly his most difficult hour, not for stridency
and not for further damage done to the lives of soldiers and innocent Palestinians.
Against the background of the IDF's unrestrained actions and the arrogant
bragging of the latest macho spokesmen, Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant of the Southern
Command and Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, Shalit's father's voice stood
out like a voice crying in the wilderness.
-
- Sending tens of thousands of miserable
inhabitants running from their homes, dozens of kilometers from where his
son is supposedly hidden, and cutting off the electricity to hundreds of
thousands of others, is certainly not what he meant in his understated
emotional pleas. It's a shame nobody is listening to him, of all people.
-
- The legitimate basis for the IDF's operation
was stripped away the moment it began. It's no accident that nobody mentions
the day before the attack on the Kerem Shalom fort, when the IDF kidnapped
two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from their home in Gaza. The difference
between us and them? We kidnapped civilians and they captured a soldier,
we are a state and they are a terror organization. How ridiculously pathetic
Amos Gilad sounds when he says that the capture of Shalit was "illegitimate
and illegal," unlike when the IDF grabs civilians from their homes.
How can a senior official in the defense ministry claim that "the
head of the snake" is in Damascus, when the IDF uses the exact same
methods?
-
- True, when the IDF and Shin Bet grab
civilians from their homes - and they do so often - it is not to murder
them later. But sometimes they are killed on the doorsteps of their homes,
although it is not necessary, and sometimes they are grabbed to serve as
"bargaining chips," like in Lebanon and now, with the Palestinian
legislators. What an uproar there would be if the Palestinians had grabbed
half the members of the Israeli government. How would we label them?
-
- Collective punishment is illegitimate
and it does not have a smidgeon of intelligence. Where will the inhabitants
of Beit Hanun run? With typical hardheartedness the military reporters
say they were not "expelled" but that it was "recommended"
they leave, for the benefit, of course, of those running for their lives.
And what will this inhumane step lead to? Support for the Israeli government?
Their enlistment as informants and collaborators for the Shin Bet? Can
the miserable farmers of Beit Hanun and Beit Lahia do anything about the
Qassam rocket-launching cells? Will bombing an already destroyed airport
do anything to free the soldier or was it just to decorate the headlines?
-
- Did anyone think about what would have
happened if Syrian planes had managed to down one of the Israeli planes
that brazenly buzzed their president's palace? Would we have declared war
on Syria? Another "legitimate war"? Will the blackout of Gaza
bring down the Hamas government or cause the population to rally around
it? And even if the Hamas government falls, as Washington wants, what will
happen on the day after? These are questions for which nobody has any real
answers. As usual here: Quiet, we're shooting. But this time we are not
only shooting. We are bombing and shelling, darkening and destroying, imposing
a siege and kidnapping like the worst of terrorists and nobody breaks the
silence to ask, what the hell for, and according to what right?
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-
- ********************************
-
- A note from Tikkun:
-
- Why Aren't American Jewish voices of
Protest Being Heard?
-
- The answer is simple: the forces that
support Israel's government no matter what it does have successfully united
and created ÅIPAC as their primary spokesgroup. But the forces
that critique Israeli policy and yet wish to Israel secure and safe have
refused to unite their energies. Instead, they find minor points to disagree
with each other and then use that as their basis for insisting that a unified
alternative to AIPAC will not be created with their participation.
-
- We in the Tikkun Community have repeatedly
called for this kind of coalition to work together and create a progressive
alternative to AIPAC. We recognize the legitimacy of groups saying that
there need to be some clear guidelines so that this alternative to AIPAC
is not dismissed as part of the anti-Israel forces whose real agenda is
to dismantle the state of Israel altogether, nor part of the "Palestinians
are always victims and Israelis are always evil" propaganda machine.
Similarly, it should not be a technocratic peace voice that talks only
in terms of why peace is in the interests of the Jewish people-it must
affirm the humanity of the Palestinian people and acknowledge that their
human rights are important to us also, not only instrumentally as a way
to maximize the best interests of Jews.
-
- You can do something about this. Challenge
those who support these peace groups and insist that they get their organizations
to work together with Tikkun and with each other to form a united progressive
middle path voice in Washington, D.C. While recognizing that each
group has legitimate needs in terms of fundraising and getting their own
groups' ego needs met, it's also important to recognize yet a higher need:
to be effective in challenging policies that are immoral and self-destructive.
Insist to the people who support these organizations that they work with
Tikkun, Jewish Voices for Peace, MeretzUSA, and other peace groups that
support a two state solution.
-
- The primary obstacles to putting this
kind of coalition together with each other and with Tikkun have been:
-
- 1. Brit Tzedeck ve'Shalom
2. Americans for Peace Now 3.Israel Policy Forum
- 4. Churches for Middle East Peace
-
- If these 4 groups would join with each
other and with the Tikkun Community/NSP and with Jewish Voices for Peace
to create a unified voice in Washington D.C. and a unified annual mobilization,
the peace voices would be greatl strengthened. Take, for example,
one instance of this: the recent National Advocacy Days of Brit Tzedeck
v'Shalom, last week. In their recent national communication they proudly
announce that they brought 100 activists to D.C. In our last Israel-oriented
visit, Tikkun had brought some 400 activists. We say this NOT to say we
are stronger, but to say that 400 activists together would have been even
better, and had we cooperated with each other and with the other groups
mentioned above we probably could be bringing between 1,000 and 2,000 people
at a time-and that would have a far greater impact. The differences between
these groups are far less important than the similarities, and the urgency
of having a coherent voice for Middle East peace should be sufficient grounds
to turn attention away from the differences to focus on the similarities.
The national leadership and offices of these organizations have their organizational
reasons for not uniting, but if you approach members or financial donors
of these organizations and urge them to urge their own organizations to
cooperate in the way we propose, or in some other way that they proposed
that includes all the groups mentioned and doesn't exclude any who would
agree with the idea of creating a joint voice and joint lobbying day in
Washington, D.C., you might have a more powerful impact than you might
suspect.
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- © 2005 Tikkun Magazine. Tikkun®
is a registered trademark
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