Posted on December 29, 2008 - by Calvin L. Smith
Let’s Talk About Proportionality
The current Israeli operations in Gaza once again bring to the fore the oft-recited mantra so favoured by the Western media and Arab world. I’m talking, of course, of Israeli “proportionality”, a phrase used ad nauseam. “Israel’s operations have killed [at the time of writing] 300 people compared with Hamas rockets which have killed two”. Thus goes the argument, which time again serves as the basis for condemning Israel. I won’t bore you with the facts of life, which are that if in the playground you keep on taking a swipe at someone bigger than you, when they eventually retaliate you are going to get hurt rather badly. Pro-Israel commentators make this point from time to time, but clearly not enough for it to become a mantra (i.e. whereby something vocally repeated over again actually becomes a ‘fact’ – incarnated - whether true or not, an Eastern concept which by the way underpins so-called positive confession). No, instead I will dwell briefly on two other aspects of proportionality worth considering here, one relating to Hamas, the other for the media.
The first is Israel’s proportionality when it comes to targeting Hamas. This morning the UN said 51 civilians had so far been killed, including several children (I note this is a far cry from yesterday’s media reports which blamed 60+ children’s deaths alone on the Israelis, together with many other civilian casualties… where are the corrections in today’s press reports, I wonder?). Now war is a desperate, horrible thing, and the death of any child (or adult for that matter) is a cause for deep sadness. I will not pretend otherwise and the pictures we see on our television sets are deeply disturbing. As such, it is important for pro-Israel Christians not to be perceived as so pro-Israel they ignore the realities of war. These realities are also why despite accepting the necessity of war from time to time, the Bible also recognises its cruelty and destruction. Thus we read David was not allowed to build the Temple in Jerusalem because he had blood on his hands. So let us not ignore the untold horror suffered by many Gazans and their families at this time. But neither must we ignore a wicked organisation such as Hamas, which not only chooses to fire rockets daily onto Israeli towns Sderot (where I have been and seen what such actions do) expressly in order to kill Israeli civilians, but which also displays such a callous disregard for the life of its own people by provoking Israeli responses while at the same time basing its militant infrastructure next to schools and hospitals and in the middle of civilian areas.
But getting back to proportionality, if 51 fatal casualties are civilians, this means some 250 Gazans killed were Hamas militants (a fact now confirmed, it seems, by the UN). Indeed, Israel has no choice but to limit civilian casualties for the sake of world opinion. Compare this with literally thousands of rockets fired at Israel since the 2005 Gaza pullout by Ariel Sharon, in which all Hamas targets have been civilian. I rather think we don’t need lessons from Hamas about “proportionality”. I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel makes a mistake and accidentally kills a large number of civilians in a single, badly-aimed strike, or else civilian casualties mount rapidly which make it politically impossible for Israel to continue with its Gaza operation. Hamas has proved time again it doesn’t think that way. Its people’s lives are expendable. Again, we don’t need lessons about “proportionality” from such people.
Now one for a Western media so obsessed with “proportionality”. This morning we learned of a total of 51 Gazan civilian casualties to date, which continues to be the focus of massive world attention. This morning also saw the World Health Organisation state that it now believed 1,500 people had died from cholera under the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe, a story that has been rumbling for some weeks (but which, inexplicably, moves lower down the pecking order of news stories the higher the number of deaths). So where is the outcry – the “proportionality” – here? Are African lives worth somehow less than Arab lives? Or could it be that lives taken through a despot’s inaction are somehow less valuable than lives taken by a democratic government’s efforts to protect its own citizens, simply because that country happens to be Israel?
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December 31, 2008
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Hello Calvin,
So wrapped up are we in guilt for the mistreatment of Jews over the centuries, and so desirous of being even handed that middle eastern conflicts rarely get rational attention. It is good to find it in your article.
Many years ago, I had occasion to read some of the UN debates which led up to the formation of modern Israel. So inflamed and outraged were those Arabs who saw their brothers as dispossessed even if they were not themselves, that the continuing conflict might have been regarded as inevitable.
Arab might is increasing and the relative power of Israel on the decline. This is frightening.
Peter
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January 5, 2009
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Hi Peter, thanks for your comments. Happy New Year to you.
Two points. First, some Arabs were indeed angry at some of their brothers being dispossessed. But this must be juxtaposed with the fact that the Zionist settlers bought the land from Arab landlords in the first place. Thus, the concept of snatched Arab lands is not as simple as people make out, and partially a myth. Yes, from 1967 onwards land captured after the Six Day War (launched, incidentally, by various Arab countries who engaged in a surprise attack on Israel and then lost the war badly) remains under Israeli control. But the Zionists did not snatch land or disposses Arabs – they bought it. Some Arab tenant farmers then found themselves without land they rented becuase other Arabs had sold it from under them. Thus, the founding of the state of Israel is not based on stolen land, neither must we mix up this with Arab land lost during subsequent wars. Actually, buying Arab land contiues to this day (eg the Ophel Ridge, or the original Zion, where Jews buy Arab houses at inflated prices).
And by the way, many Arab regimes who express such rage have, for their part, kept Palestinians in refugee camps in their own countries, refusing even to extend citizenship to them and choosing to keep them in limbo so that remain a constant sore upon Israel as far as world opinion goes. So let’s be even-handed here, if we are to highlight and discuss Israeli injustices (of which there are undoubtedly examples), that doesn’t mean letting the other side off for its contribution to the problem. Unfortunately, many on the Left do exactly that. Yet the Arab world has been just as cruel to the Palestinians as Israel is purported to have been.
Secondly, your point about the threat faced by Israel from the Arab world is an important one. Indeed, this is why Israel is and always has been obsessed with its security, and why we outside the Middle East ought to seek to understand the issue from within that context. Those of us who regularly visit the Middle East, see the daily security issues Israel has to deal with, as well as the views of some local regimes towards Israel (often to detract from their own failed domestic policies) understand (though may not always agree with) Israel’s actions.
But at this stage I do not agree with your analysis. This past conflict has demonstrated one thiong: the Arab world is increasingly divided over Israel. At the heart of this is a Sunni fear and loathing of the Shi’ite Iran-Hamas-Hexbollah-Syria axis, which they hate more than Israel, and even see the latter as a bulwark against what they regard as a dangerous movement (remember, Sunni Arab states fear Iran’s ambitions as much as many in the West do). Even Palestinians leaders are divided between Hamas and Fatah (which begs the question, if they can’t make peace with among themselves how can they make a lasting peace with Israel?).
There may well be something in what you say at some stage (indeed, for those of us who believe in predictive prophecy, the Bible speaks of Israel’s problems from surrounding nations before the Lord returns, although whether that relates to the current situation or something else we don’t know about at present is a matter of conjecture).
I trust this comment has not been overly simplistic and polemical. I recognise the situation is complex. Feel free to come back and comment further.
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January 6, 2009
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March 11, 2009
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This is somewhat belated, but I have found an article by Alan Dershowitz on this subject. As usual, he’s excellent. See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123085925621747981.html