Sunday 28 December 2008

Disproportionate


Of course the whole thing is a disaster. For each person who dies it is a disaster and for those around them too. Nor is it going to stop being a disaster. Not for a long time.

On the other hand it is not being mentioned much that it was Hamas who declared the cease fire over and much increased their - mainly ineffective in terms of human life - bombardment of those parts of Israel within their reach. This is after Israel released 227 prisoners on 15 December as a gesture of good will.

So why did Hamas break their ceasefire when they did? I can't hear anyone asking. And why suddenly step up the bombardment? What was there to gain? Why now?

The Hamas charter calls for nothing less than the destruction of Israel. It has reiterated that many times. That is not a call for a two-state solution. Hamas knows that if Israel retaliates there will be many killed and, as often before, the effects of the retaliation can be used as part of the psychological war that Hamas hopes to win, for which the temperature has to be kept very high to ensure international support. Will Hamas worry about casualties? People who send out suicide bombers are not going to be too concerned about incidental loss of life when it is in hope of greater gain.

The Israeli response is being declared disproportionate, as before. But what would be proportionate? How would one go about arranging a proportionate response? Make sure one was firing duds? Aiming to miss? Executing a Hamas prisoner? Would that be internationally welcomed? Fixing the bombs so that when hitting a Hamas target situated in a crowded part of the city they only kill members of Hamas?

Hamas is already deploying longer range rockets. Iran is working towards the possession of nuclear weapons. President Ahmadinejad, the Christmas messager of Channel Four, has often called for the erasure and death of Israel.

You think they don't mean it? If you were surrounded by hostile states who have never recognised you, who have vowed your destruction and keep lobbing rockets at you, you might want to take it a little more seriously. On the other hand - and this is what I increasingly hear - you might be coming round to thinking that maybe Israel, the one country where Jews are not in a vulnerable minority, has outlived international goodwill (friends have said this much to me) and really should be vanished (unspecified how) along with all those Zionists who support it. Remember Zionism equals Fascism, Racism, Nazism, Genocide and the True Holocaust.

So take out most of Hollywood. And those powerful political lobbies. And the bankers. The Jewish bankers at any rate. You know they are to blame for everything. They have fingers in every pie. Then the professions. The press. Start by banning them from certain important jobs. What harm can there be in that? Stop them bellyaching if nothing else. Or at least give them something to bellyache about. Go with precedent. There's no shortage of precedent. And surely there must be a reason for all those precedents.

Not a good year coming.


8 comments:

The Contentious Centrist said...

I'm reading this, in Alan Furst's novel "Kingdom of Shadows":

"The last week, in May, the Hungarian parliament had passed a law restricting Jewish employment in private companies to twenty percent of the workforce.

"Shameful," Morath said "But the government had to do something, something symbolic, or the Hungarian Nazis would have staged a coup d'etat"

Balki read further. "Who is count Betlen?"

"A conservative. Against the radical right." Morath didn't mention Bethlen's well-known definition of the anti-Semite as "one who detests Jews more than necessary."

____

I would put this “international good will” in the same category as Count Bethlen’s definition of tolerance and compassion towards Jews in 1942.

George S said...

Yes, that's how it went in Bethlen's time. Despite Hungary holding out against deportations, it was the first country to enact modern anti-Semitic quotas. We are slowly nudging that way now. Long way to go yet, but there is movement. The psychological ground, in any case is being, prepared.

Thanks for the TNR link for figures. Quite hard to get and always likely to be challenged. I've put it in.

Anonymous said...

I see the protestors are out in force. In great numbers. Throughout major cities. Where were they at the height of Hamas atrocities in 2002 when 220 Israeli's were killed and hundreds injured by suicide bombers. Noticeable by their absence to those who open their eyes. Keep the faith, George. You are not alone.

George S said...

Thank you, Billy.

Anti-Laureate said...

An eye for an eyelash I think

George S said...

An eyelash? The aim is the heart and the total annihilation if the body. The Israeli aim is at the trigger finger. And you haven't told me why Hamas broke the ceasefire. Why?

pierreb said...

Do you think Jews are a vulnerable minority in England?

George S said...


Oh, pierreb, you might consider this:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/alarming-levels-of-attacks-on-jews-605917.html