Israel: A Rogue Nation
by Clint 12 comments Leave a comment January 25th, 2008 
Last Friday, Israel closed off occupied-Gaza Strip and its 1.4 million residents from the rest of the world, blockading the flow of basic supplies – including fuel and humanitarian aid. It’s understood that the blockade could lead to a humanitarian crisis in the already-destitute area. The lack of diesel fuel, for instance, threatens “such vital services as hospitals, bakeries, water supply and sewage.”
Yesterday, Hamas blew holes in a separation wall that divides Gaza from Egypt, and brought most of it to the ground. An estimated 350,000 Gazans (more than 1/5th of the population) poured into Egypt to purchase supplies – a sign of how poor the living conditions have become.
Israel says they closed the border crossings to stop Hamas’ continued Qassam rocket attacks. However, Israel is once again violating international law, defying international institutions and ignoring international protests – with the help of the United States.
International Humanitarian Law, as laid out in the Fourth Geneva Convention, strictly prohibits collective punishment of a population, calling such an action a war crime.
With that in mind, the UN Human Rights Council slammed Israel today, passing a resolution that called for “urgent international action to put an immediate end to the grave violations committed by the occupying power, Israel, in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Meanwhile, the US said the blockade was in self-defense and appears to be obstructing a UN Security Council action, even after language was added condemning Palestinians for the rocket attacks.
All this comes just days after the UN said Israel was guilty of another war crime – a bombing of a wedding party that killed about 40 Palestinians. But this is nothing new. From 1967-1989, the UN General Assembly passed 321 resolutions condemning Israel, while the Security Council passed 88 criticizing or opposing Israeli actions.
The international community has strongly rebuked Israel. Condemnations have come from all over, including from Britain, France, Russia, Egypt and Iran. As well they should.
It must be understood that the Qassam rocket attacks are a violation of international law, and as such, they should be condemned. Why then am I focusing on Israel? Two simple reasons.
First, the relationship between Israel and its occupied territories is not one of equals. Qassam rockets, while deplorable, are not effective weapons, and suicide bombings, while grotesque, kill far fewer people than Israeli military action – and potentially far fewer than a humanitarian crisis resulting from this blockade. In 2007, the ratio of Palestinians to Israelis killed in the conflict was 40:1, up from 30:1 in 2006.
Second, as citizens of the US, we are responsible in a very real way for the crimes committed by Israel. Approximately one-third of all US foreign aid goes to Israel; in 2008, we will provide more than $2.5 billion in military aid. In other words, we’re paying for the helicopters that kill civilians in air strikes, and we’re supporting unspeakable crimes such as this blockade. This should move us to act.
Since we are defending a rogue nation, does that not make us by extension a rogue nation? And besides, the Jews are Gods people! We can’t criticize them! That and they have a pretty strong lobby in Washington.
Ian,
Noam Chomsky says we exhibit the signs of a “failed state.”
Certainly over the last few years we’ve exhibited more and more blatant signs of being a “rogue” state. We invaded Iraq without the blessing of the international community. We’ve withdrawn from non-proliferation treaties. We’ve violated the Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners. I’d certainly feel much better about us if those things were aberrations and not part of a larger trend toward barbarism.
As for Israel/Gaza, the situation is disgusting. Let’s say Saddam Hussein was behind this siege of Gaza. Would we not have brought this up at his trial as an example of a crime against humanity? It’s also crazy to me that this situation get’s little coverage in the U.S. media. I guess we’re only smart enough to follow the primary elections and Heath Ledger.
While I agree that the blockade of Gaza stinks, what exactly would you have Israel do? And don’t give me the whole diplomacy stuff, blah blah blah. What would you do right NOW to stop your own citizens from getting rockets shot at them randomly? It is the duty of a government to look out after its own citizens. And I imagine all the Israel-haters out there would be screaming bloody murder if Israel actually reoccupied Gaza as an alternative to a blockade.
Let’s also remember that this isn’t really a “blockade” per se, but the Israelis just aren’t feeding, clothing, and providing fuel for people who are trying to kill them. Imagine if we were doing that for militants in Iraq. It’s ridiculous to expect Israel to keep supplying these things to a Hamas-run area that is actively trying to kill Israelis. Honestly, they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place here. Try offering an alternative solution to their problem that doesn’t unrealistically involve nicing Hamas to death.
And the Geneva conventions… Have you ever actually read them? I recommend it. Don’t provide musical instruments? War crime. No sporting equipment? War crime. Don’t pay prisoners for their time — in advance (because you obviously know how long they’ll be prisoners)? War crime. They’re vegetarian and you feed them steak? War crime. Prisoners’ barracks isn’t as good or better than our own troops’ barracks (gotta love pool tables and air conditioning)? War crime.
Yes, there’s some important stuff in there, but just saying “so-and-so violated the Geneva conventions” doesn’t mean a whole lot. It’s really a lot better to say something like “the Israelis are using collective responsibility for the acts of a few, which is deplorable.”
Chris,
I disagree that it’s not significantly covered in the media — it’s been high on the NYT site the last several days, for instance. The quality of the coverage is a different matter.
Cameron,
In short, I would have Israel abide by international law. Starving Gaza will not improve Israel’s security — probably the opposite.
“And I imagine all the Israel-haters out there would be screaming bloody murder if Israel actually reoccupied Gaza as an alternative to a blockade.”
They don’t have to reoccupy it; it’s already under military occupation. And yes, critics of Israel would oppose that too as it’s another inhumane option.
“Let’s also remember that this isn’t really a “blockade” per se, but the Israelis just aren’t feeding, clothing, and providing fuel for people who are trying to kill them.”
The entire population of Gaza isn’t trying to kill them.
“It’s ridiculous to expect Israel to keep supplying these things to a Hamas-run area that is actively trying to kill Israelis.”
That’s a rather convenient way to frame the argument. Israel has made it so that they control the lifeline to Gaza. If they don’t want to provide the necessary supplies for the civilians there, fine, but they better knock down the walls and let them get supplies from somewhere else.
Gaza isn’t surrounded by Israel. And I saw that the Egyptians broke out the riot gear to keep the Palestinians in.
Again, I agree that it’s a bad solution. But I don’t see a better short-term fix. Israel is at least very consistent with their actions — during lulls in violence they take it easy.
Cameron,
Egypt can certainly share in some of the blame now that they are closing their border with Gaza. However, Egypt doesn’t have nearly as much responsibility for the fate of Palestinians. The Egyptians didn’t expel these people from their homes in the first place. The Egyptians don’t engage in regular military operations in the strip. The Egyptians aren’t blockading Gaza by sea.
Cameron,
Egypt ranks right behind Israel in getting the most US aid (not counting Iraq) and they apparently allow IDF to roam freely in their cities so I would expect them to fall into line and make a serious effort to close up the border pretty soon. They have expressed reservations though about kicking them out; I believe it was Mubarak who said something like “Let the Palestinians eat. They are starving.”
I think the short-term solution is to end the blockade and negotiate a cease-fire.
Who do you negotiate this cease-fire with? Hamas is not a political party — it’s a philosophy. Given that the destruction of Israel is a major cornerstone of that philosophy and their poor track record of negotiating in a practical world, I would love to hear who you think Israel could negotiate with successfully.
And again, I find it hard to swallow that Israel is more at fault for the current predicament than those in Gaza themselves. Israel has been feeding and providing fuel to this area. Maybe if Gazans put as much effort into bettering their lives and having a stable group of folks in charge as they do into making suicide belts and shooting rockets, they wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.
Do I feel for the Palestinians? Yes, I really do. Their homes were taken away and that sucks for the ones that didn’t go back after the founding of Israel because their property was appropriated. But you know what? There’s no excuse to have this refugee mentality after at least two more generations. Just as with an individual, people may screw you and it not be your fault, but at the end of the day it’s you yourself who has to take responsibilty for making your life better tomorrow than it was yesterday.
Hamas is a (legitimately elected) political party that, like any other party, represents a political philosophy; not sure what you mean by that. As far as negotiations, I don’t accept the myth that Hamas/Fatah/Palestinians in general will not sit down and work something out; Hamas, for instance, has been open to hammering out a two-state solution.
I don’t see much point in responding to the last two paragraphs, which blindly debase millions of people based on no evidence whatsoever.
I think Clint’s got it down about right. The movie “Munich” does a great job of addressing the topic. Granted, its a movie and its highly fictionalized and it has a message which means it has a bias. That said, its still based on true events, and its pretty naive and well… stupid, to think that Israel is completely innocent in these matters. Just because its white people fighting brown people doesn’t mean right and wrong are so clear cut. Our media obviously favors one side over the other, especially recently considering how showing any sort of sympathy to people who use suicide bombers would go against public opinion and government policy.
How do we keep getting spammed? I work with a store clerk at my part-time job who couldn’t answer the spam protection question without a calculator and yet still there’s spam.
Pretty impressive… guess I’ll have to change the protection or something