Israel has done the world the dubious “favor” of providing a textbook example of how a colonial power fuels an insurgency. This is from today’s N.Y. Times:
The Israeli Air Force on Thursday afternoon bombed the house of Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas leader, killing him along with his four wives and nine of his children, four of them under the age of 18, Palestinian hospital officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich, described Mr. Rayyan as one of the “most extreme” figures of Hamas, which controls Gaza. The military said he had helped plan a deadly suicide bombing in Israel in 2004, had sent his own son on a suicide mission against Jewish settlers in Gaza in 2001 and was advocating renewed suicide missions against Israel in retaliation for the current offensive.
Mr. Rayyan was known in Gaza as a highly influential figure with strong links to the military wing of Hamas, particularly in northern Gaza, where he lived, and as a popular Hamas preacher who openly extolled and championed the idea of martyrdom.
The Israeli military said in a statement that there were many secondary explosions after the air attack, “proving that the house was used for storing weaponry.” It was also used as a communications center, the statement said, and a tunnel that had been dug under the house was used by Hamas operatives.
Most Hamas leaders in Gaza have been in hiding since the Israeli operation began, but Mr. Rayyan was said to have refused to leave his home on ideological grounds. In the past, he had been known to gather supporters to stand on the rooftops of other houses in Gaza that Israel had threatened to strike.
Before I begin discussing this, I want to concede, just for the sake of argument (though I do not know this for a fact and tend to be dubious of many similar claims made by the IDF), that Rayyan may have been the worst terrorist scum facing Israel–that he was a bloodthirsty, cutthroat assassin. Maybe his murder will diminish the number of Israelis he himself would kill in the future. Let us also concede that his death will provide some form of comfort to those Israelis who lost loved ones in previous attacks he engineered.
Given all those concessions, this murder is a morally bankrupt, heinous act nevertheless. It reminds me of the murder of Salah Shehadeh, in which a 2000 lb. bomb levelled an entire Gaza apartment building and killed all the 18 residents of the building who were in it during the strike. Undoubtedly, Dan Halutz, Doron Almog, the officers who planned and executed this act of terror will be confronted with charges before a Hague tribunal for this bombing. There also can be no doubt that Ehud Barak, Gabi Alexander, Ehud Olmert and others will be sought for their role in today’s killings.
It is immoral in the process of killing one wanted man to knowingly wipe out his entire family of thirteen souls. The murder of women and young children cannot justify what Israel has done. This is, as I wrote above, a heinous act. A bestial act, no matter what villainy Rayyan was responsible for. It defies the norms of western civilization. And it is of a piece with Israel’s entire “strategy” if you can call it that in this military offensive. There are no red lines. They’ve all been crossed. Barak is happy for Hamas to see him as a Strangelovian psychopath prepared to go to the ends of the earth to exact revenge for the murder of Israelis. But he doesn’t stop to think that instead, the thousands of Palestinians who will be honored to emulate Rayyan’s act of martyrdom will thirst for their own acts of psychopathic revenge.
For every Rayyan Israel kills, 1,000 will take his place. And they will not only be mere soliders in the conflict. Some of that 1,000 will outdo Rayyan in devising ever greater acts of revenge against Israel for this travesty. So has it been in the past and so will it be till the ends of time or of this conflict, whichever comes first.
Israel is a country, not a terrorist group. Therefore, even if its enemy violates every norm of international law and civilization, Israel must not stoop to the terrorists’ level. When it does, it becomes no better than a terrorist. This is not a new argument. Unfortunately, Israel has forced us to invoke it time and again as it proves that it is little better than the terrorists it faces when it performs such targeted assassinations. And once again I want to make clear that I only know about Rayyan what the IDF claims and that for the sake of argument I’m conceding the terms it is using to describe him.
Finally, if any right wing readers wish to crow about Rayyan’s death–go right ahead. But when 10 or 100 of the next suicide shadeeds dedicate their successful acts of terrorist vengeance to Rayyan’s memory, it will give me absolutely no satisfaction to say this was a chronicle of deaths foretold. You were warned and yet in the pathology of your thought processes you believed that killing one terrorist would bring respite. In fact, it will spawn scores more who will make you pay a severe price in blood.
Once again, lest any of my right wing readers seek to say that this gives me satisfaction in any form, that is a low lie. It gives me no satisfaction to see my own people murdered. Just as gives me no satisfaction to see innocent Gazan women and children murdered simply because they are related to a terrorist and live in his home.
The Gaza operation, and I will cry this to the winds until it ends, is a brutal, cold-blooded, disproportionate attack by Israel on 1.5 million Palestinians who have done nothing more than acquiesce in the rule of Hamas over them. And even if they embraced Hamas wholeheartedly, it cannot justify what Israel has done to them. The attack has not succeeded, will not succeed, and indeed cannot succeed. It was a failure before the first bomb was dropped.
There is only one sane, reasonable resolution of this conflict: Israel must lift the 18 month siege of Gaza and allow the return to normal life. Hamas must end the rocket barrages against Israeli civilians. It is simple, yet at the same time impossible because neither side appears willing to concede.
This is total nonsense. It appears that you don’t have a clue as to what is going on here in Israel. Also, your conclusion is built on misconceptions and foolish “well-meaning” Kumbaya mentality. Both losers.
“For every Rayyan Israel kills, 1,000 will take his place.” Are you advocating this? You should consider that it is more like ly that, “For every Rayyan Israel kills, there will be 1,000 fewer terrorists.”
tzvee, nobody is advocating this. You are so defensive. You have only to put yourself in the shoes of a Palestinian to realize they are now in the same position as the European Jews were to the Nazis. Israel is losing every shred of its claim to the land.
There is plenty of blame to go around here, starting with the British in 1946, and now you must take some too, not just bluster in anger that all this is justified somehow. It isn’t. There are ways to bring true peace, but you use your anger to justify any horror. It is obvious that a large percentage of Israelis agree with you. Be aware that you are being manipulated: you actually don’t want peace, but revenge.
The Nazis are long gone, but WWII will not be over until there is peace in Israel. Is the Jewish wound still so deep that you, as an individual, can justify this?
I am sorry but the nazis are not long gone-as far as it concerns the land in which I live (Germany). One of their main issues against the Jewish people is Israel΄s atrocities. They try to show which “enemy” their grandfathers “fought”. Sad but true, they present thesis like that.
“There is only one sane, reasonable resolution of this conflict: Israel must lift the 18 month siege of Gaza and allow the return to normal life. Hamas must end the rocket barrages against Israeli civilians. It is simple, yet at the same time impossible because neither side appears willing to concede.”
It is simple.
How do you expect BOTH of the parties to begin that dance?
US pressure (not likely until a couple weeks)? European pressure (not likely)? Pressure from the Arab world (not likely given the anger on the street)?
Anger is a temporary feeling, physiologically temporary. Hate is its imprint into permanence.
We don’t know the future. We’ve ALL guessed wrong, even noting historical repetitions that seem to add up to predictability.
Dogs give in and move on. Its been stated often that dogs are therefore more civilized than humans in ways.
@steve: Thanks for your wisdom, Steve. With wisdom like yours Israel will be suffering Qassam attacks for the next three decades or so.
PKlein, let’s not get out of proportion. Yes, there is a handful of dyed-in-the-wool anti-Semites here and elsewhere who present Israel’s actions as an excuse for racism. They’re very much a fringe group, and far outnumbered in the public discourse by their mirror images – those who use the actions of a handful of Muslim fanatics as excuse for anti-Islam/anti-Arab racism.
fiddler, you are right, they are outnumbered.But the seed of hatred is there.Hidden, but there…
It bloggles the mind that Israel does not realize that they are creating far more terrorists than they can ever kill. Unfortunately, by using United States money and weapons Israel is creating far more terrorists for the US than we can ever hope to kill.
There will always be people everywhere who hate Jews, blacks, Arabs, or somebody else in their own unreasoning way, but you certainly don’t put these people in charge of government and deciding policy.
I am reminded that Golda Meir, when asked about the Palestinian problem, replied “There are no Palestinians.” This was in the ’60s.
Whom then is Israel fighting? To whom and for what is Israel selling its soul?
@itwasntme
Israel isn’t selling anything. It is about time it stood up to Hamas and it is. Where were all the humanists when the Holocaust happened? Nowhere to be found!
They are not terrorists, they are militants. The only terrorists are the zionists for stealing the land
“Where were all the humanists when the Holocaust happened? Nowhere to be found!”
You have absolutely nothing to substantiate this. I remember this one famous humanist pastor’s poem. I believe the humanists had all been sent to the camps alongside the Jews.
@Heller
As a student of Jewish history and Holocaust and now the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Israel is a settler state.Herzl’s dream of a homeland for Jewish should not have meant the occupation of millions of arab peoples.
The people of Palestine are paying now in blood for the shameful atrocities committed by Europeans and Russians by wars and pogroms and anti-Semitic laws which was major driving force for Jewish people wanting to leave Eastern European lands.
Nonsense. Same old tired Nazi and fascist propaganda. Look around the net and you will see that you all use the exact same rhetoric with no originality. Think for yourselves. Knee jerk anti-Israel barbs are useless and foolish. It is usually an indication of a sense of helplessness and the need to be loved. WE love you in spite of your hate filled lies.
Richard,
thanks for your response. But I don’t share your particular way you see the world from the comfort of your home in the States. Sorry, but we are fighting Iran as Hamas is only a proxy. Stop for one second and listen to the Arab world. There is almost silence about Israel. The only response is about civilian casualties, that are very unfortunate, but no support for Hamas. You need to be a little less of an ideologue and see the “reality” on the ground.
@Steve
Steve where are you from?
@steve:
No support for Hamas fr. the Arab world?? What about the demonstrations throughout the Arab world including Cairo, Beirut, etc. Talk about “reality.” Yours is seen through rose colored pro-Israel glasses.
DO NOT use terms like Nazi & fascist in this blog unless you are referring to Nazi Germany or to specifically fascist individuals or movements. If you fling propaganda phraseology around like that you’re violating the comment rules.
@steve: It is a violation of my comment rules to call progressives “Nazi” or “fascist.” Don’t do it. If you want to argue, do so using real arguments based in fact & not empty slogans. Argue with arguments, not propaganda.
I feel saddened that there may be no peace for a long time,it is sad for the children of both Israel and Palestine.
The Israel killed the leader of hamas in holiest of all the islamic months,its not spurned on the Arabs but all of the islamic world.
For they have made Rayyan a matyr for the fight against Israeli occupation of palestine.Thus the Israelis have not killed hamas,but given it a greater cause to exist!
Therefore the murder of Rayyan was not a great day for the world not even for Israel!