In conversation with somebody from the Jabaliya refugee camp, he raised a question that bothered Gaza Strip residents. We were speaking on the phone during the first few days of Operation Protective Edge, which has now been going on for nearly four weeks. He asked why the Israeli public allows the IDF and the Israeli government to kill hundreds of civilians that are not involved in the fighting. Where is the Israeli left he wondered and why are they not out on the streets in force, and how can they watch what the Israeli Air Force is doing to Gazans and remain silent?
Several hours later, I was summoned together with other journalists to a briefing by an IDF general who was explaining why most of the Gaza fatalities are children, women and civilians not connected to Hamas. The general basically said that the IDF and the Israeli government had taken a decision to take off its gloves. Every home would be attacked, if it was the source of fire, and every rocket launcher would be destroyed. A private home that served the military arm in any way would be blown up.
The general added that innocent targets would not be attacked for the fun of it but only if operational aims were served. He conceded that the results of this approach were cruel and expressed regret about the death of innocent civilians as human shields. This approach, he added, also applies to Hezbollah.
I was not able to pass on this detailed answer to my friend in Jabaliya as for some reason the connection to him has been broken off. I don't know to what bomb shelter he has taken himself fearing for his life, or maybe he has just had his electricity cut off and phone lines severed.
His question is a sad mirror image of the question being asked by the Israeli public since the start of the war. Many Israelis ask why Gazans have not risen up against the Hamas movement and thrown it out. This mirror image is the essence of the tragedy. Both peoples want the other side to do the job.
The average Palestinian who the average Israeli expects to rise up has accounts to settle with two major powers before starting to condemn Hamas. The first is Israel and the second is Egypt. So far over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in Operation Protective Edge. Most have been civilians with no part in the fighting that has been forced on them.
While the IDF explains its tough policy as previously described in order to not let Hamas operate out of people's homes, it has created a deep trauma, perhaps irreversible among Gazans. It would be naive of us Israelis to expect that Gazans would blame Hamas first for the trail of destruction from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south.
From their point of view, Egypt is Israel's collaborator in the noose placed around Gaza. It could have opened the border crossing at Rafah and let in some oxygen for the Gazans but it did not do so out of meanness and a desire to settle accounts with Hamas. The Rafah border has been closed for several years and is only opened for a few hours every few days. This policy prevents Gazans from working abroad, receiving medical treatment, travelling overseas and breathing the fresh air of freedom.
The Gazan population is too battered and bruised to dare to rebel. Earlier this week the Israel Air Force attacked the fuel storage tanks of Gaza's power station. Power outages that had lasted five hours on average were doubled. With no electricity, water supply has also been disrupted. Hundreds of families with no connection to Hamas are in silent mourning. More than 6,000 Gazans have been injured and 100,000 have abandoned their homes, some with nowhere to come back to. Among all this desolation and despair, it is difficult to expect a wave of protests and certainly not towards Hamas. And that's not taking into account that it is an armed para-military organization that would suppress any internal dissent with force.
Israel's savior won't come from Gaza's civilians. To strive for a solution that will heal the suffering of Israel's southern residents Jerusalem must make one of two decisions: to bring down Hamas with military force and try to replace it with the Palestinian Authority, or agree a new status-quo with Hamas using international diplomatic leverage - a status quo that would cause both sides to see an armed confrontation as a last resort. At present Jerusalem is inclined towards the second option.
The author is the Arab affairs correspondent for “IDF Radio" (Galei Zahal).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 31, 2014
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