Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Hosea said: “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” This captures the nature of the Israeli Occupation precisely. Bernard Avishai uncovered a damning piece of evidence about the Dimona suicide attack thanks to the researchers’ friend, Mr. Google:

Fifteen year-old Mohammed Salem Al-Harbawi from Hebron is a case in point. According to the Defense for Children International, he was arrested in the beginning of July of 2003 and taken to Atzion detention centre. Like many other prisoners, the report continues, Al-Harbawi was visited by a lawyer, but was unable to see or communicate with his family:

The unhygienic conditions in this centre mean that most inmates, including Mohammad, have contracted skin diseases, including boils. By July 28, 2003, Mohammed was affected so badly that he was taken for hospital treatment. After the doctor had examined him, Israeli border guards took him back to the prison. On the way, the guards stopped the jeep and started to attack him inside the vehicle. The five guards beat him to such an extent that he lost consciousness.

I stumbled over this report of his stay in prison when I Googled Al-Harbawi’s name. Last Monday, now a child of 20, he blew himself up, along with Lyubov Razdolskaya, 73, in the streets of Dimona…

In his post, Avishai notes the ever louder pounding of the drums of war by the Israeli political and military echelon. Supposed moderates like Haim Ramon and Meir Sheetrit are baying for Gazan blood in the aftermath of the incessant assault that Sderot is suffering from Qassam rockets.

Avishai’s point is that all an Israeli attack on Gaza will do is increase manifold the number of future Al-Harbawis eager to take their revenge against their Israeli abusers. It isn’t that often that the brutal reciprocity and cylicality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be seen so clearly as in the case of the 15 year-old Al-Harbawi.

A young boy beset by five brutal Israel prison guards beating him unconscious merely for the fact that he has contracted boils in prison. While none of us would justify taking the life of another because of such treatment, can any of us say for certain what we would do were we in this boy’s shoes? Faced with an unending Occupation and the ongoing insult of the Gaza siege, might the thought of personal revenge so overcome our minds that we might resort to such a terrible act? And can any of us who are reasonable doubt that an Israeli invasion of Gaza will not only fail miserably just as the Lebanon invasion did–but that it will make the problem of suicide bombing and future terror that much worse?

The Israeli Occupation sows the wind and Israeli (and Palestinain) civilians reap the whirlwind.

Thanks to Sol Salbe for informing me of this article. Lt. Col. (res.) Ron Ben Yishai, Defense columnist for Yediot Achronot (and serving in the paratroopers), provides a primer in Ynetnews on the IDF’s uses of artillery and why it is the least effective and most liable to error in situations like the one faced in Beit Hanun. If you read the following closely (paying special attention to the italicized passages) you will find that, whether he intended to or not, Yishai is laying out the strongest case that can possibly be made for the ultimate failure of the entire Gaza counter-insurgency operation.

Reuters video (click here for Ynetnews page then click on video screen)

And lest anyone doubt the utter horror of this heinous massacre, please view this short, but devastating Reuters video at Ynetnews (Firefox users will need install the Active-X plugin to view it; IE users should have no problem).

Please note that this is not the dovish raving of a peacenik (though many erroneously accuse me of being one here). This is the hard headed realism of an experienced military commander who understands the effectiveness of his weapons and chooses them carefully. This is someone who, while he may fight Palestinian militants to the death, understands that there are moral and tactical constraints that must be respected whether Israel wishes to or not. He is precisely in the Rabin mold. But he is precisely not in the mold of today’s IDF officer. Or at least not the ones I’m reading about in the Israeli press exemplified by Dan Halutz. It is both surprising and gratifying to read of such an IDF officer’s hard-headed pragmatism regarding this horrid incident. In short, he should be the next IDF chief of staff. And precisely for the reasons I outlined above he will never be.

Yishai begins by saying despite the fact that there may be alternate extenuating explanations for what happened:

These facts make almost no difference in the grave overall picture that is already…entrenched in Palestinian and world public opinion, which accuse the IDF of committing a massacre. This should not come as a surprise to anyone. In the dozens of years the IDF has been dealing with rocket fire from Lebanon and Gaza, one thing has been proven beyond any doubt: Artillery fire (using cannons) is the least effective means in preventing rocket and mortar fire. On the other hand, it is most susceptible to end up hurting innocent civilians. Moreover, preventive artillery bombardments that missed their targets entangled Israel in the international arena more than any other means employed by the IDF. On more than one occasion, they forced the State of Israel and the IDF – in the face of international pressure – to halt operations and actions that were essential in thwarting terrorism.

There’s no point in listing all those cases. The list is long and grim. It is enough to recall the bombing of Qfar Qana, during the Grapes of Wrath operation in 1995, which left more than 100 innocent Lebanese civilians dead. Following the incident, Israel was forced to halt its operations against Katyusha rocket launchers, accept Hizbullah’s ceasefire terms, and explain its actions to a United Nation commission of inquiry. Another case involved the Gaza family killed on a beach several months ago…

Amos Harel notes in Haaretz the disturbing fact that:

By sheer coincidence, the artillery battery that erroneously killed 19 civilians in Beit Hanun, belongs to the battalion that killed 100 Lebanese civilians in the first Kfar Kana massacre. That was the hitch that stopped Operation Grapes of Wrath in April 1996.

Uh, the IDF might want to consider disbanding this unit. Or do they want to wait for yet another massacre before they do something to curb its grievous mistakes?

The reason for the above is that artillery bombardment in proximity to residential areas, as accurate and careful as it may be and even employing large safety margins, will always be susceptible to errors. Some of those errors are a result of the lack of eye contact, at the time of the firing, between the cannons and the target. Many other errors result from the shells’ natural distribution.

Artillery is a weapon system designed to “cover” territory and not hit specific targets, particularly when it is used as “preventive fire” at territories rather than a specified target.

Another common reason for tragic incidents where innocents are hurt is errors in calculating the point of impact and technical failures in the armaments involved, which lead to the shells missing the target. Even shell duds that failed to explode threaten civilian populations no less than shells that were properly aimed and exploded.

Directly aimed tank fire is more accurate than artillery fire, but is also risky when employed in residential areas, because such fire is susceptible to missed shots and errors in identifying the target, particularly during nighttime. These facts are well known to IDF officials, particularly after the recent Lebanon war where about 130,000 artillery shells were fired. Now it is clear that the effectiveness of this weapon against Hizbullah fighters was marginal, while the economic cost was astronomical and reached millions of dollars.

Even before the Lebanon war, it was proven that artillery fire failed in preventing or even minimizing Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. This is the reason why the IDF Southern Command decided recently, on the recommendation of Gaza Division Commander Moshe Tamir, to stop or at least highly limit the use of preventive artillery fire. The trouble is that this recognition of the limits and risks associated with artillery fire were not implemented and so we got another horrifying testament to the dubious effectiveness and needless danger of hurting innocent civilians that is inherent in such fire near residential areas.

Read that carefully, a division commander ordered a policy of “highly limiting” artillery fire and the policy was “not implemented.” Amos Harel describes the situation a bit differently. He claims that Tamir himself approved the deviation from his own policies. This indicates an IDF commander so desperate for results that he rescinded his own policy, probably against his better judgment. This shows an army so lacking in discipline that it deviates from standing policy in the hopes of achieving a specified result. And of course it fails. If you can’t achieve a result following SOP then you’re highly unlikely to achieve it by violating them.

This is precisely the IDF that failed so miserably in Lebanon. Lucky for the IDF Palestinian militants cannot punish them as severely for their failures as Hezbollah did. But this is a gang that literally can’t shoot straight. Consider another grievous operational error noted by Amos Harel:

Veteran artillery men were terrified to discover that the battery had fired at Beit Hanun on the basis of range aiming from the previous night. The corps’ artillery procedure demanded that before firing at a designated target, the unit had to reset range and bearing that morning, because changes in the weather and humidity could affect the shell’s trajectory. Without such resetting, a 450-meter deviation from the target is not so radical.

They used coordinates for their firing based on test firing 12 hours earlier! This is like an airline pilot making an instrument landing and then 12 hours later, instead of doing it again, he decides that the coordinates he used for his last landing would work just as well this time. What he doesn’t take into account is that the wind’s direction and force could’ve changed dramatically thus causing him to crash.

And consider this statement from one of the IDF Gaza officers, which vainly attempts to portray artillery as an effective means of interdicting rocket fire:

IDF GOC Southern Command Yoav Gallant told Channel 2: “Israel’s citizens don’t know how many times artillery fire has prevented Qassam [rocket] launches. When you fire at the launching area area two or three hours in advance, there is a good chance of preventing the Qassam fire.”

Or not. Based on the results, I think I’d trust Yishai’s judgment before I’d trust Galant’s. Besides which, you’ll notice Galant doesn’t address the grievous error rate in such blanket artillery attacks. That’s because he doesn’t care about Palestinian casualties. He’s only interested in results. Or supposedly interested in results. If he were really interested in results he’d examine how successful such tactics are. Yishai doesn’t believe what he’s saying about artillery’s “effectiveness.” Why should we or any Israeli?

Israel will have to address the results of the disaster not only on the moral plain but also in terms of the damage to its position in the international arena. We must also recognize the fact that every such disaster boosts the motivation of Palestinian terror groups to continue the Qassam fire and terror attacks as well as the legitimization they receive on the Palestinian street.

If an IDF lieutenant colonel understand this why can’t Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz? If you needed any proof that Yishai is right, read this Haaretz subheadline: “21 Qassams said fired at Israel in wake of IDF shelling on Gaza.” Or consider this wise, but sad testimony from a massacre survivor:

At the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Maali Athamnah, 27, the aunt of the newly orphaned Isra and two other siblings who survived, Islam, 14, and Muhammad, 3, who broke both his legs, broke into tears reading a list of the dead, nearly all of them relatives. Another 80 people were wounded.

Ms. Athamnah said she did not support the militants’ firing rockets into Israel. But she said: “Just think who is firing them: those who lost family members to Israel. And think about these kids now. They will be the rocket firers in the future. No mother, no father. No house. They will be the next ones to fire the rockets.”

Yishai asks why the IDF would pursue such flawed tactics as artillery barrages in densely crowded urban areas knowing of the possible disastrous consequences:

So why does the IDF still continue using artillery fire? It appears the answer stems from the frustration of IDF commanders after military operations considered successful do not curb or significantly reduce Qassam fire.

Again, a return to the IDF’s lack of discipline borne of the utter failure of its military ’strategy’ (if one can call it that).

Such operations, like “Autumn Clouds” at Beit Hanoun and “Defensive Shield” in the West Bank in 2002 are supposed to create an intelligence infrastructure that would bring results in the long run. Yet meantime, the IDF and political echelons are slammed in the media and by residents of Sderot and Ashkelon. The pressure exerted on commanders in the field as a result of the ongoing Qassam fire, and the frustration that stems from it, lead them to ignore professional considerations .

Experience shows that even if it ultimately turns out that the civilians killed in Beit Hanoun Wednesday were hurt by a “work accident” in a Hamas weapons warehouse in town [ed., Haaretz and Ynetnews quote many IDF sources which concede that it was a result of an artillery assault, not a "work accident"], the Palestinians and international community will continue to blame Israel.

Therefore, the required conclusion is that the IDF must completely end preventive artillery fire. Foregoing this means would not fundamentally change the results of fighting Qassam fire, but at the same time will prevent severe physical and perceptual damage among innocent Palestinians and diplomatic damage to the State of Israel that will curb its ability to act against terrorist rocket fire.

Shelling victim rushes wounded child to Gaza hospital (credit: Reuters)

Just as I was celebrating a remarkable Democratic victory in Congressional elections, this horrible incident occurred. An IDF artillery unit has murdered 19 Palestinians, all civilians, including 10 children and 7 women and destroyed the homes of four families in the process:

Israel Defense Forces artillery shells struck a residential area in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun early Wednesday, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others. Ten children and seven women were among the dead, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, adding that 18 of the victims were members of the Athamna family. Khaled Radi, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said all of those killed were civilians. According to witnesses, the victims were sleeping when the 15-minute barrage of shells first hit. Radi also said at least 40 people were wounded, all civilians. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni expressed regret for the deaths, saying that Israel did not set out to harm innocent civilians. The IDF confirmed that an artillery battery containing 12 shells had aimed at a site from where Qassam rockets were fired at the southern city Ashkelon on Tuesday. The artillery fire had been intended for a location about half a kilometer from the Beit Hanun houses. At this stage it is unclear whether the incident was caused by a technical or human error. The initial assumption is, however, that the wrong coordinates were fed to the artillery unit.

Pray, in this day and age of technological sophistication how does an artillery shell miss its target by one-quarter of a mile?? And why was Israel using artillery anyway to interdict Qassam rocket assaults:

The army has reduced the amount of artillery fire into Gaza in recent months, saying it was ineffective against the Qassam cells and inaccurate. Nevertheless, the army decided to continue firing artillery shells sporadically, in specific instances.

Yet, Tzipi Livni has the chutzpa to say Israel did not set out to harm civilians. When you use a weapon you know to be inaccurate and then kill innocent civilians you can no longer make such a claim credibly. You are guilty of woeful negligence at least. And did the shelling accomplish the desired effect of eliminating the Qassam fire? No, of course not:

Eight Qassams were fired at southern Israel from Gaza following the shelling.

I’m sure you’ll be reassured as I was to know who is investigating this outrage:

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz appointed Major General Meir Kalifi to head an investigation into the shelling.

For those who don’t remember, he’s the same jackass general who “investigated” the Gaza beach massacre (that also involved artillery shelling) and gave the IDF a clean bill of health.

I’m sure he’ll conduct a thorough and impartial investigation letting the chips fall where they may. And this is the bitter fruit of such criminal military offenses:

Rahwi Hamad, 75, who lives across the street, said he woke to the sound of shells exploding and people screaming. “I opened my window and I looked out and I saw a shell hit a neighbor’s house … When I came out, another shell had hit the house,” he said. “There was a stench of blood and (burned) flesh.” Large holes had been punched in
the fronts of the houses and their balconies had collapsed. Surviving relatives sat weeping in front of the buildings. One man dipped his fingers in a puddle of blood and daubed it on his face. “God avenge us, God avenge us,” he cried.

Another survivor said this:

“It is the saddest scene and images I have ever seen. We saw legs, we saw heads, we saw hands scattered in the street,” 22-year-old eyewitness Attaf Hamad told Reuters news agency. “I saw people coming out of a house covered in blood. I started screaming to wake up the neighbours.”

Oh Condi and George…is it time for a ceasefire yet? Remember Lebanon where the same duo refused a ceasefire in order to allow Israel to “soften up” Hezbollah? Or should Israel continue killing scores or even hundreds more such civilians before you’ll get off your goddamn butts and do what you should do to knock heads and make things happen here. Oh the shame of it. Bush fiddles while Gaza burns. George, if you want to redeem your God forsaken presidency after today’s ignominious election defeat, you’ll gird yourself and do the right thing. Help bring peace between these two self-destructive peoples. Create a legacy. To paraphrase John Prine: just give us one thing that we can hold on to and be proud of in your presidency.

UPDATE: Haaretz initially reported that 19 had died. Most other media publication only noted 18 deaths at the time. But since then, 2 other vicitms have died bringing the total to 20 dead as of November 19th).

““Hadil [Ghaliya] threw herself on the sand near her dead father and cried: ‘Dad, Dad.’”–note playing cards on sand which they’d been playing with only moments before (photo: Ramatan News Agency)

Those of us who are progressive Zionists believe that Israel can be a light unto the nations; and that at the very least creating a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict represents Israel’s self-interest. The goal of this blog is to suggest ways in which Israel can fulfill its highest values.

But what in heavens name can you do or say when a crime of such magnitude is committed in the name of the Israeli people? Let’s start from the beginning. According to the IDF, Palestinian militants had been planning to launch Qassam rockets from a site 400m from a Gaza beach which was full of beachgoers on a hot afternoon. Apparently, at least one errant shell hit the beach killing seven civilians including six members of the Ghalia family (this from the NY Times account):

The Ghaliya family, husband Ali, wife Raisa, and three children, ages 1, 3 and 10, were having a picnic on the northern Gazan beach on a hot afternoon and were all killed in the shelling.

We’re killing babies and mothers now. Is there no decency? At long last has Israel lost all sense of common decency??

Gazan girl wounded in IDF shelling of Gaza beach (photo: AP)

Haaretz reports the same family suffered an earlier tragedy at the hands of the IDF:

Less than two years ago, four members of the family were killed when IDF shell hit the family farm in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia. The military had been targeting the area in response to Palestinian mortar fire.

At times like this I wish I was Jonathan Swift so I could sublimate my fury in savage, artful political satire. But I am blazing with anger and cannot manage the sublimity of Swift’s extraordinary literary achievement. I can only rage at the injustice. Rage at the terrible toll Israeli civilians will have to pay for this blunder.

You must read the testimony of the victim, Wiham Ghaliya. She bears witness as no one else can. Can anyone be so heartless as not to weep at this outrage?

“There was a big boom and screams when the shells landed and I started running. I remember my father lying nearby, and now he is waiting for me. I saw everyone running away and I ran away too. I searched my family and I ran to find mum and dad. Then they took me to hospital. They told me I am a little ill. But I want to return to my family. My parents and my brothers are home waiting for me. I want to return to them,” she told Ynet.

Baby trams, tables, and ripped umbrellas stained with blood, were evidence of the horror that took place on the beach.

“All the people started running away as they looked in all directions for their relatives. It was an upsetting scene. Screams and bodies were everywhere. I wanted to reach my father, who was badly injured. I tried to get close to him to tell what we Muslims say in a moment of death. I tried to tell him, ‘There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is his prophet,’ but he couldn’t breathe or open his mouth,” Wiham said.

“I saw my father dying in my arms and the bodies of my brother and sisters dispersed everywhere. They took me to hospital, thank God, I am lightly injured, but I lost everything. My family was around me but no one was alive. Four sisters and a brother, my father and a stepmother, but no one was alive. The Israelis ruined my life and my future. I have nothing to say and I have no energy to speak. They said they didn’t fire. I don’t know what to say. They kill and lie.”

Wiham sat in the family’s mourning tent in Beit Lahiya when he spoke to Ynet. “I hope Allah will have mercy on them and avenge their death. In a moment we became nothing, with no taste for life. We were by the beach and we tried to find a little happiness and rest and this doesn’t happen to us a lot, and until we had the chance to live in this atmosphere; everything was blown away because of the Israelis who don’t let us breathe and live. There is no point in living.”

In past public statements, the IDF has warned that it was “closing” the range between shelling target sites and civilian areas to as little as 100m. Critics of this escalation noted that shrapnel from Israeli shells can land as far away as 200m from the target. So it seemed only natural that the IDF was indeed announcing that they didn’t care if they killed innocent civilians who were in the margin or error. But now the IDF, by its own admission, sent a deadly shell 400m off course causing this disaster.

This tragedy is not just horrible on its face because of the innocent life snuffed out. But it will have much greater collateral damage as Hamas, which had been pursuing a studied and careful strategy of honoring a 16 month ceasefire against Israeli targets has felt compelled to break the hudna. Its representatives have declared Israeli targets fair game once more for terror attacks. This is nothing short of a disaster of the first magnitude.

Gazan outside hospital mourns death of seven civilians (photo: Reuters)

To read in Haaretz that the IDF has “apologized” for, and called a halt to the shelling is nothing short of gruesome irony. Once the golem is let loose how do you call it back? You remember the story of Rabbi Yehuda Loew of Prague who called a Golem into existence to save the Jews of Prague who were under attack. The Golem had the word emet inscribed on his forehead. After the Golem ran amok, Rabbi Loew was forced to destroy the monster which he did by erasing the aleph in emet leaving letters which spelled meyt or “death.” The IDF has let loose shells from hell all inscribed with the word meyt. And now, there is no way or erasing the word or the deed.

Of course, along with the so-called IDF “apology” comes a heinous veiled suggestion that Palestinians themselves might’ve been responsible:

In addition to the more likely scenario that a shell strayed from its path, the army was also exploring whether the explosion might have been caused by a “work accident.” [an IDF euphemism for Palestinian bombmakers who accidentally blow themselves up while assembling bombs].

Wounded boy victim of IDF beach shelling rushed to hospital (photo: Reuters)

Didn’t Malcolm X once say about American racism, “the chickens are coming home to roost?” Well, with this grisly news we can equally say that the fruits of a brutal Israeli policy of retaliation for Qassam rocket launches has also come home to roost. Now, not only Israeli civilians but all of Israel and Palestine will have to pay the price in blood.

It gives me no joy or pleasure in writing these words. I want only what is good and just for Israel (and the Palestinians). But how can you have sympathy for Occupation policies like these which bring such death and devastation to innocents (and I include Palestinian terror attacks in this denunciation)? Today’s news only reinforces the need for Israel to end the Occupation NOW. Undertake final status negotiations with Mahmoud Abbas NOW. Don’t wait a minute longer. How many more innocent lives must be taken from us before both Israelis and Palestinians will get this message through their goddamn thick skulls???

I usually try to write a more tempered style about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But in times like these when reality takes leave of its senses (if reality can be said to have any sense), caution and temerpateness are thrown to the winds just as body parts were scattered on the beach in Gaza. For the love of God and humanity, end this carnage now before it is too late.

George Bush and Condoleeza Rice–get off your asses and get things moving between these two parties. Work with the EU and the Quartet to put pressure on them to sit down and talk–Now. How can you do anything less?? The following, I’m sorry to say, is more like the “leadership” of which the U.S. is capable regarding this conflict:

The State Department on Friday night called for Israelis and Palestinians to show mutual restraint and avoid actions that could increase tensions following the IDF shelling of Gaza beach that killed seven Palestinian civilians.

The United States expressed regret for the killing and wounding of the Palestinians in Gaza and noted that the Israeli government had also issued a statement of regret and had launched an investigation, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement.

“We call on the Palestinian Authority to prevent all acts of terrorism, including the firing of missiles and rockets from Gaza,” McCormack said.

The United States has been in contact with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the government of Israel and will continue to monitor the situation closely, McCormack said.

Surely, they jest! They call on the PA to prevent terrorism when the IDF sends Palestinian body parts flying on a beautiful summer day on a Gaza beach?? What planet are they on?? And if they think Qassams are bad, just wait to see what else is in store.

This will also be a test for Amir Peretz, Israel’s defense minister. His hometown of Sederot is one of the areas targeted in Qassam attacks. But this disaster must deeply offend his sense of justice. Will he intercede and change IDF policy regarding the rocket firings? Can he do anything at all to make this sorry situation a little less horrible? I wish I was sure the answer might be ‘yes.” But this statement from him doesn’t bode well:

“We don’t seek to fight against the Palestinian people, only against terror,” Peretz said.

After you’ve just blown seven Palestinian civilians all to hell is NOT the time you say we don’t seek to fight against the Palestinian people. That is the time you call a permanent end to the shelling of densely populated Gaza urban areas. Peretz considered doing this a month ago and backed down. I hope he’s regretting his mistake. I hope he’s tossing and turning in his bed tonight. I hope he’ll get off his ass and do something.