Subscribe to the print edition and enjoy The Republic in
your bathroom!
Plus, your subscription goes a very long way in helping to support The Republic and its writers and produces. It's like paying for the music you like.
Click here for details
|
Israel
Make war not peace
The pattern of attacks between Israel and Palestine reveal a desire for low-level ongoing war
By Reed Eurchuk
|
Once again, faced with the threat of peace, Israel chose war. This time the “peace threat” came in the form of a ceasefire proposal from Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, following a particularly bloody few weeks of Israel bombing defenseless Gaza, followed by a horrific bombing by a suicide bomber of a Jerusalem religious school.
“Shortly after the appeal by Ismail Haniyeh,” reported ABC News, “Israeli troops opened fire on a car in the West Bank town of Bethlehem and killed four Palestinian militants, clouding the prospects for a cease-fire.”
This follows the killing of 125 Palestinians in Gaza by Israel during a single week in early March 2008. The Palestinians have no standing army, no air force, are poorly armed and are without adequate food, water or medical supplies. Predictably, a Palestinian, enraged by the massacre reacted and killed eight Yeshiva students and himself in a suicide bombing.
Israel’s recent action follows a long pattern of committing acts of aggression when faced by peace proposals. Steve Niva, a professor of International Relations at Evergreen State College in Olympia, analysed 10 years of suicide bombings and found two salient features. First, suicide bombings are often a response to an Israeli provocation that immediately preceded the bombing. Second, Niva found a pattern of Israeli atrocities “during major cease-fires by militant Palestinian groups as diplomatic efforts to ease the hostilities.”
Niva wrote on Counterpunch in 2003, “the vast majority of the nearly 100 Palestinian suicide bombings since they began in 1994 have followed an almost predictable sequence: Israeli attacks that cause major Palestinian civilian casualties or Israeli assassinations of important militant leaders are the most common trigger leading to suicide bombing cycles.” According to Niva the first Hamas suicide bombing inside an Israeli city occurred on April 4, 1994 a few weeks after American-Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinians as they prayed at a mosque in Hebron. Niva goes on to provide a chronology of some of the horrid suicide bombings in Israel, and ties them to Israeli assassinations or massacres at a date immediately prior to the suicide bomb:
2001 July 31: Israel killed two Hamas leaders thus destroying a two month ceasefire on attacks upon Israeli civilians observed by Hamas.
2001 November 23: Israel killed Hamas militant Mahmud Abu Hanoud, at a time when Hamas had abided by an agreement worked out with the Palestinian Authority not to attack targets inside Israel, and only a few days prior to a visit from US envoy General Zinni.
2002 January 14: During a Palestinian cease fire, Israel killed Fatah militant Raed Karmi, which led, two weeks later, to Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades first suicide bombing.
2002 July 22: Israel assassinated leading Hamas militant Salah Shehada in Gaza. The attack also killed 15 civilians, 11 of them children. The savage mass murder came hours after a unilateral cease-fire declaration by both the Palestinian nationalist militia Tanzim and Hamas. Sharon had been briefed on the ceasefire announcement by European Union go-betweens prior to the slaughter, yet he went ahead anyway.
2004 March: Israel killed Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, according to Israeli writer Neve Gordon, just prior to an agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian authority about the distribution of authority in Gaza.
So Israel’s use of assassination, massacre and overwhelming force serve strategic and political purposes. As Birzeit University professor and political analyst Ali Jarbawi told the Guardian’s Chris McGeal, following Israel’s murder of wheelchair-bound Sheikh Yassin, “Sharon [then Israel’s Prime Minister] doesn’t want negotiations; he wants a managed conflict because it justifies his strategy of unilateral disengagement on his terms. Killing Yassin ensures that the conflict goes on.” Managed conflict, that is, ongoing low-intensity warfare, permits Israel to continue its expropriations of Palestinian land and resources and the expansion of its settlements, using “security” as its rationale. At the same time Israel can continue to hide behind the logic of “security” concerns and continue to harass Palestinians in hopes of forcing more into exile.
The Israeli state strategy enrages not only Palestinians but also fans hatred and appetite for war among the Israelis. The signs suggest that Israelis may be in the mood for change. In early March, a poll by Israel’s leading daily, Haaretz, found a large majority (64%) of Israeli citizens saying it is time to negotiate with Hamas. Israel’s obscene attacks on Gaza managed to provoke an outraged reaction, the effect of which will likely lessen Israelis’ appetite for dialogue and could feed the flames of those seeking vengeance.
“Israeli right wing hegemony is fed by terror,” wrote Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon. Politicians worldwide cultivate fear to provide cover for military aggression, but Israeli politicians have honed it to a fine art. Perpetual war: that is what the state of Israel offers its citizens and the Palestinians.
Hear Israeli historian Ilan Pappe speak in person at the Vancouver Library (350 West Georgia) in the Alice McKay Room (lower level) on Saturday, March 29th at 7:00 PM. Admission by donation. Ilan Pappe’s most recent book is The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
|
The Republic
print version is generously supported by the following regular advertisers:
Storm Brewing
604-255-9119
Dan's Homebrewing
692 E Hastings
Co-operative Auto Network
604-685-1393
Turk's Coffee
1276 Commercial Drive
Dutch Girl Chocolates
1002 Commercial Drive
Magpie Books and Magazines
1319 Commercial Drive
Artrageous Pictures & Framing
1256 Commercial Drive
Bouzyos Greek Taverna
1815 Commercial Drive
Magnet Hardware
1575 Commercial Drive
Uprising Breads
1697 Venables
Highlife World Music
1317 Commercial Drive
Mark's Pet Stop
1875 Commercial Drive
Abruzzo Cafe
1321 Commercial Drive
Our Community Bikes
3283 Main Street
Does Your Mother Know
Magazines Etc
2139 West 4th Ave
Kali
1000 Commercial Drive
Uncle Don
Freelance Curmudgen
on CFUR Radio, Prince George
Receptive Earth
Hemp & other Earthly delights
4168 Main Street
Geist
Magazine of Canadian ideas & culture
Momentum
Bike magazine
West Coast Seeds
Where to find the print version of The Republic:
Vancouver
Aboriginal Friendship
1607 E Hastings
Bean Around the World
10th & Trimble
Benny’s Bagels
Broadway & Larch
Big News Coffee Bar
2447 Granville
Black Dog Video
Cambie & 19th
Book Warehouse
550 Granville
632 W Broadway
2388 W 4th
Cambie Hostel
300 Cambie St
Capers Community Markets
2285 W 4th
1675 Robson
Carnegie Comm. Centre
Hastings & Main
City Square Mall
Cambie & 12th
Cuppa Joe 189-175
E Broadway
Dadabase
Broadway & Main
Danny’s Coffee
Denman & Pendrell
Denman Community Ctr
Denman & Nelson
Denman Mall
Denman & Nelson
Drive Organics
Commerical & Napier
Does Your Mother Know?
2139 W 4th
Duthie Books
2239 W 4th
East End Food Co-Op
1034 Commercial
Elysian Room
1778 W 5th
Food Stop
Commerical & Venables
Gemeral Store
312 Cambie St
Gold Coin Laundry
B-way & Waterloo
Granville Island
Public Market
Grind
4124 Main
Higher Ground
Broadway & Vine
Il Mercato
1641 Commercial
Joe's Café
1150 Commercial
Laughing Bean
Hastings & Penticton
Lugz
2525 Main Street
Magpie Magazines
1319 Commercial
Our Town Cafe
245 E Broadway
Pacific Central Station
Bus Depot
People's Co-op Books
1391 Commercial
Polonia Sausage
Nanaimo &Hastings
Rebound Health
Hastings & Kamloops
Receptive Earth
Main & King Edward
Rhizome Cafe
317 East Broadway
Simon Fraser
Downtown Foodfair
Soma
2528 Main Street
Sweet Tooth Cafe
Nanaimo & Hastings
Turk's Coffee
1276 Commercial
UBC
Student Union Building
Union Food Market
810 Union
Uprising Breads Bakery
1697 Venables
Vancouver Community College
250 W Pender
Vancouver Public Library
350 W Georgia
1661 Napier
2425 MacDonald
370 E Broadway
West Vancouver
Capers
2496 Marine Dr
West Vancouver Library
1950 Marine
Duncan
Community Farm Store
330 Duncan St
Victoria
Bean Around the World
533 Fisgard
Munro’s Books
1108 Government
University of Victoria
Graduate L0unge
Victoria Public Library
735 Broughton
Powell River
River City Coffee
4801 Joyce
Local Loco’s Music & Arts Cafe
Flying Yellow Breadbowl
4698 Ewing
Powell River Library
4411 Michigan
Kaslo
Blue Belle Bistro
302 Fourth
SunnySide Naturals
404 Front
Nanaimo
Nanaimo Public Library
Harbourfront Br
Port Place Shopping Ctr
650 S Terminal
The Green Store
Port Place
Mermaid’s Mug
357 Wesley St
Nelson
Mountain Pass Imports
402 Baker
Toronto
Moonbean Cafe
30 St. Andrew St
Future Bakery
483 Bloor St West
Oakville Peace &Ecology Centre
148 Kerr
|
The Republic of East Vancouver masthead
The Republic of East Vancouver supports no party, advocates
for no cause, represents no group, serves no master, and considers
problems with no preconceived notions. We hope to afflict the comfortable,
both materially and intellectually, and comfort the afflicted—of
both kinds as well, and we are trying to do both things at the same
time.
Publisher, Editor
Kevin Potvin
Advertising
Kevin
Potvin
Support
Dan Crawford, John Daigle,
Jack Etkin, Janis Harper, Carl Johnson, Hilary Jones, Chris King,
James Mecham, Albrecht Meyers, Peter Miller, James Pope
Contributors in this and recent issues
Bruce Alexander, Dan Adleman, Toby Alford, Kevin Annett, Santo Barbieri, Bob Broughton, Mike Bryan, Stephen Buckley, Matthew Burrows, Maria Calleja, Ron Carton, Chad Christie, Joshua Corber, Dan Crawford, Gail Davidson, Eric Doherty, Joe Donaldson, Lorena Jara Patty Ducharme, Shadia Drury, Taivo Evard, Reed Eurchuk, Farnaz Fassihi, Thomas Feakins, Anthony Fenton, Reza Fiyouyzat, Andrew Gordon Fleming, Ryan Fugger, Sasha Gagic, Matt Goody, Guy Hawkins, Spencer Herbert, John Irwin, Nick Istvaniffy, Junius, William Kay, Mike Keep, Kate Kennedy, Donald Kropp, Chris LaVigne, James Lindfield, Brian Lindgreen, Karen Litzke, Keith MacKenzie, Michael McLaughlin, Sonya McRae, Rafe Mair, Sonia Marino, Jennifer Matsui, Michael Millard, Isaebel Minty, Michael Nenonen, Wendy Nylund, Derrick O’Keefe, Stephen Osborne, Sean Orr, Evan Augustine Pederson III, Stephen Peplow, Kim Peterson, Kevin Potvin, Mary Rawson, Andrea Reimer, Erin Riley, Phil Rockstroh, Becky Scott, Jason Scott, Chris Shaw, Jeff Steudel, Alex Tegart, Scott Turner, Elbio Grosso Trentini, Patrick Vert, Chris Walker, Sean Wilkinson, Brad Zembic
For comments or suggestions, please contact the
Republic Webmaster
|
