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It is increasingly hard to believe that the appalling scale of civilian death in Gaza and the wholesale destruction of homes, hospitals and infrastructure are anything other than intentional. We can, perhaps, understand it in terms of the “Dahiya” doctrine, named after a suburb of Beirut flattened by the Israeli air force in 2006. The doctrine was explained by Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, then head of the Northern Command, later Israeli chief of staff and now a member of the Israeli war cabinet:
“What happened in the Dahiya quarter… will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on,” Eizenkot said. “We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there…”
The current ratio of approximately 30 dead Palestinians for each Israeli butchered by Hamas on Oct. 7 is not out of line with previous Israeli punishments of the Palestinian population. It does not include the thousands presumed to be buried under the millions of tons of rubble. I think this ratio will dramatically increase if Israel indiscriminately bombs Rafah and continues to obstruct the aid desperately needed by those currently on the brink of starvation.
Meanwhile, extremist Israeli West Bank settlers, with tacit or open support from the Netanyahu government, continue to steal Palestinian lands. Palestinians suspected of resistance are rounded up and held without trial. There are numerous credible reports of atrocities allegedly committed by Israeli guards against their prisoners.
The right of Israel to defend itself does not confer the right to commit genocide against the Gaza population. Nor does it whitewash the decades of Palestinian dispossession and repression. Nor does it justify the systematic abuse of prisoners. It should not blind us to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decades of obstruction of a viable two-state solution. I believe the moral distance between Hamas’ atrocities and this Israeli government is steadily shrinking.
For decades, year by year Israel has been supported by billions in U.S. aid and arms — funded by our tax dollars — while successive Israeli governments have made a mockery of the U.S.’s professed goals in the region. President Joe Biden’s call for a cease-fire and his stop order related to the further supply of U.S. bombs and ammunition is welcome and long overdue.
Nigel Calder
Newcastle
