Asymmetrical Response
Since September of last year, the Israeli army has:
- Killed at least 214 Palestinian children and injured approximately 6,000. Two-thirds of these children were shot dead using live ammunition, and of these, fully a third were killed by direct shots to the head;
- Systematically beaten and tortured some of the 170 under-16-year-olds being held in prison;
- Broken up a hunger strike by imprisoned children using tear gas, beatings, and confinement;
- Launched at least 150 attacks against children’s schools… in 76 cases schools were targeted with live ammo or tear gas and 41 schools were shelled with heavy munitions;
- Herded the Palestinians into 220 separate ghettoes-cum-concentration camps for easier processing;
- Basically sentenced 200 to die by forbidding them access to kidney dialysis;
This horrible list goes on and on. Israel is being attacked by suicidal terrorists, but this hardly justifies the use of overwhelming and savagely unrestrained force against a civilian and basically defenceless people. A few car bombs by religious fanatics (most Palestinians by comparison are secular) can never prevail against one of the most ruthless armies in the world, and one stoked with some of the best killing toys by the Pentagon. But equally, short of genociding several million Palestinians, Israel is a long way from achieving their Final Solution. Sharon’s goal of annhilating any central Palestinian authority and secreting them in little cantons where Israel can cut local deals with whatever warlords seize power there is flawed. The Boers in South Africa tried this for a generation, by creating black homelands and elevating local leaders they hoped to eliminate the ANC and create a compliant underclass of migrant serfs. That didn’t turn out very well for them.