Love, Israeli-Style

Terrorism n. Terrorist principles and practices; the systematic employment of violence and intimidation to coerce a government or community, esp. into acceding to specific political demands. The New Shorter Oxford Dictionary

Ironic to hear a Jewish rabbi, the head of a pre-school not far from Santa Barbara, reacting to a third incidence of vandalism against the school, swastikas spray-painted on the walls in the dead of night. The rabbi spoke of Jewish values handed down the centuries and from every corner of the globe – tolerance, love, understanding, and knowledge – that are the antidotes to hatred, bigotry and racism.

While the rabbi spoke of Jewish values, Israeli rockets, artillery shells and deadly cluster bombs rained down on Gaza, indiscriminately killing Palestinian men, women and children. As the rabbi spoke of love twelve miles from where my family dwells, a United Nations school in Gaza was destroyed by three Israeli tank shells, killing 40 human beings who had taken refuge inside.

And while this act of terror – and what else can it be called? -- was taking place and the lifeless, bloody bodies of innocent children were pulled from the rubble, an Israeli spokesperson had the audacity to accuse Hamas of “war crimes.”

Israel never lacks a justification for its actions. When Israel destroys a Palestinian ambulance with Hellfire missiles (purchased from, or provided by, the United States), the fault lies with Hamas, not Israel, because only Hamas is diabolical enough to transport guns and ammunition in ambulances and thereby make it necessary for Israel to target them for annihilation.

The abuser is really the victim, you see, and the abused deserve to be punished.

And of course that UN school jammed with petrified and helpless people was a Hamas ammunition depot. As an Israeli spokesperson told the Al Jazeera network, Hamas had "booby-trapped" installations in Gaza, leaving Israel no choice but to retaliate. "This is how it is in wars,” the spokesperson said. “We did not choose to be in a war. However, Hamas chose to target Israelis, we did not force them to do anything, and Hamas chose terror."

Like the United States under the Bush/Cheney regime, Israel is always righteous, moral and only acting in its own defense against an implacable enemy; Hamas, on the other hand, never rises above being a “terrorist” organization with no regard for human life, law or recognized standards of decency.

F-16’s, Hellfire missiles and cluster bombs are not instruments of peace. Israel says it has no beef with the Palestinian people, just Hamas, but let’s be clear: Israel’s ferocious assault against Gaza is punishing Palestinians collectively. Hamas did not block critically needed supplies from entering Israel or build settlements on Israeli land or disregard one “peace” treaty after another. Does Hamas bear some responsibility for these hostilities? Of course, but what else can a dispossessed, occupied, and downtrodden people do when politics, diplomacy and decades of UN resolutions fail?

Israel, the United States, and Britain either have short historical memories or willful myopia. A little more than six decades ago, Israel boasted homegrown terrorists determined to wrest Palestine from British control and establish a Jewish homeland. As all people do, Jews ached for their own land and control of their own fate. One leader in this struggle was Menachem Begin, who would go on to become Prime Minister; yesterday’s terrorist is tomorrow’s politician.

Why can’t Israel and its principal benefactor, the United States, understand that the Palestinians want the very thing that the Jews wanted in the early years of the twentieth century? Why does the West always ascribe righteous motives to Israel and evil motives to the Palestinians? The more important question –the one never addressed in the Western mass media – is this: why is Israel allowed to slaughter innocent people with impunity? Is killing really the road to peace and long-lasting security or does it just inflict fresh wounds and slice into old scars?

But don’t say Israel can’t act benevolently – yesterday the Israeli army gave Gaza residents a brief cease fire so they could stock up on supplies before the next wave of attacks. One wonders where in war-ravaged Gaza the people were supposed to buy bread, drinking water, baby formula, medicine, coats, blankets or fuel oil.