Violence and Lies

Violence and Lies
What, Exactly, is Israel's Mission?
By NEVE GORDON
CounterPunch
December 29, 2008

The first bombardment took three minutes and forty seconds. Sixty Israeli
F-16 fighter jets bombed fifty sites in Gaza, killing over two hundred
Palestinians, and wounding close to a thousand more.

A few hours after the deadly strike, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
convened a press conference in Tel-Aviv. With Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
sitting on his right and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on his left, he
declared: "It may take time, and each and every one of us must be patient
so we can complete the mission".

But what exactly, one might ask, is Israel's mission?

Although Olmert did not say as much, the "mission" includes four distinct
objectives.

The first is the destruction of Hamas, a totally unrealistic goal. Even
though the loss of hundreds of cadres and some key leaders will no doubt
hurt the organization, Hamas is a robust political movement with
widespread grassroots support, and it is unlikely to surrender or
capitulate to Israeli demands following a military assault. Ironically,
Israel's attempt to destroy Hamas using military force has always ended up
strengthening the organization, thus corroborating the notion that power
produces its own vulnerability.

The second objective has to do with Israel's upcoming elections. The
assault on Gaza is also being carried out to help Kadima and Labor defeat
Likud and its leader Benjamin Netanyhu, who is currently ahead in the
polls. It is not coincidental that Netanyahu's two main competitors, Livni
and Barak, were invited to the press conference - since, after the
assault, it will be more difficult for Netanyahu to characterize them as
"soft" on the Palestinians. Whether or not the devastation in Gaza will
help Livni defeat Netanyhu or help Barak gain votes in the February
elections is difficult to say, but the strategy of competing with a
warmonger like Netanyhu by beating the drums of war says a great deal
about all three major contenders.

The third objective involves the Israeli military. After its notable
humiliation in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, the IDF has been looking
for opportunities to reestablish its global standing. Last Spring it used
Syria as its laboratory and now it has decided to focus on Gaza.
Emphasizing the mere three minutes and forty seconds it took to bomb fifty
sites is just one the ways the Israeli military aims to restore its
international reputation.

Finally, Hamas and Fatah have not yet reached an agreement regarding how
to proceed when Mahmoud Abbas ends his official term as President of the
Palestinian National Authority on January 9th, 2009. One of the outcomes
of this assault is that Abbas will remain in power for a while longer
since Hamas will be unable to mobilize its supporters in order to force
him to resign.

What is clearly missing from this list of Israeli objectives is the
attempt to halt the firing of Qassam rockets into Israel's southern towns.
Unlike the objectives I mentioned, which are not discussed by government
officials, this one is presented by the government as the operation's
primary objective. Yet, the government is actively misleading the public,
since Israel could have put an end to the rockets a long time ago. Indeed,
there was relative quiet during the six-months truce with Hamas, a quiet
that was broken most often as a reaction to Israeli violence: that is,
following the extra-judicial execution of a militant or the imposition of
a total blockade which prevented basic goods, like food stuff and
medicine, from entering the Gaza Strip. Rather than continuing the truce,
the Israeli government has once again chosen to adopt strategies of
violence that are tragically akin to the one's deployed by Hamas, only the
Israeli ones are much more lethal.

If the Israeli government really cared about its citizens and the
country's long term ability to sustain itself in the Middle East, it would
abandon the use of violence and talk with its enemies.

Neve Gordon is the chair of the Department of Politics and Government,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and is the author of Israel.s
Occupation, University of California Press, 2008. His website is
www.israelsoccupation.info