The West was understandably shocked and appalled by Hamas's massacre in Israel. Nothing can justify or rationalize such a display of cruelty. Neither the continuing occupation of the West Bank since 1967, with its attendant violence, nor the rise of Jewish Supremacism, once relegated to the fringes of Israeli society before being whitewashed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, nor the abandonment of Palestine by the Arab countries, the United States and Europe. On the other hand, these three factors cannot be ignored as Israel's ground operation creeps ever closer; they determine Israel's response.
Israeli society is reeling from the horror of the terrorist operation. Discredited for failing to prevent the attack, the government and army are under immense pressure. It must react. Punish. It must strike. Israel faces a precipice. The Hamas attack is also a trap. It destroys the deterrence at the heart of Israel's security doctrine, forcing it to radically review its traditional militarized management of the enclave. The premeditation of this attack is a disproportionate and indiscriminate response, in disregard of the two million civilians living in Gaza. The price Israel could pay for a large-scale operation goes beyond the human toll. Its alliances, regional security and very soul are at stake.
To repeat endlessly – even if the principle is undeniable – that Israel has the right to defend itself does not answer the question of the purpose of a ground invasion. The law of retaliation cannot take the place of military strategy. The army claimed on October 12 that it had already dropped 6,000 bombs on the territory, a purely quantitative approach that only reinforces the idea of indiscriminate strikes.
Every Hamas man is a dead man, promised Netanyahu. Other Israeli officials claim to be "changing reality" in Gaza. The Palestinian territory "must be smaller" at the end of the war, dared Gideon Sa'ar, a new addition to the government from the opposition. Without even mentioning the phenomenal cost in civilian lives that lies ahead, no one on the Israeli side has the time or desire to consider what will come next. If everything is destroyed, who will live there? What will emerge from the ashes, if not more fire?
An uncalibrated operation, poorly explained to the Israeli public, resulting in collective punishment that is indefensible in terms of international humanitarian law, guarantees great torment. There is also the eternal counter-insurgency dilemma: how to distinguish militant fighters from civilians?
You have 71.54% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.