NZFOI: Well said…
The Levant is a complex place. I don’t understand it. I suspect that many of those who live there struggle to come to grips with its long history and interlocking internecine grievances, real and imagined.
So, I am not going to proffer my view on the rights and wrongs of the various resentments that continue to boil over into violence in that troubled region. My sympathies lie with the State of Israel. I lay no claim to objectivity.
What I can, and will, comment on is the way the latest conflict is being covered in this country and the reaction of a number of our citizens who have elected to wade into this difficult area with the confidence and certainty of a dilettante at a gallery opening.
The latest burst of activity began, according to news stories, with a fracas at the Al Aqsa mosque. No one died.
In response to this, or at least in the immediate aftermath, Hamas, the governing body of the Gaza Strip, unleashed thousands of rockets towards Israel. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) reacted. This isn’t a shock. The first responsibility of a state is to defend its citizens.
I’d say sending a barrage of rockets is a declaration of war, a casus belli, that would justify invasion and occupation of the enemy. Israel did not do that. They elected to target selective military infrastructure and political leaders they feel are responsible.
In any military engagement there is the risk of civilian casualties. The IDF claims that Hamas use the civilian population as human shields but that, regardless, they maintain that they are taking great care to avoid collateral damage.
On the face of it, this claim stands up. If the IDF wanted to inflict mass civilian deaths on the Palestinian population they have the means to do so. None of this should be controversial. Even if you believe Israel is illegitimate, the facts point to a limited military response rather than total war. It is true that the death toll is lopsided, if we accept uncritically the casualty figures from Hamas, but this reflects the effectiveness of the Israeli defence systems rather than any proof of disproportionality by the IDF.
However, this has not been the reaction by some in these islands. What we have seen is media coverage heavily concentrated on the attacks by the IDF in Gaza and on local anti-Israeli protests which, in my view, has created the impression of an unconstrained bombardment of the civilian population.
I am not going to claim that all those who make false statements about Israel suffer from anti-Semitism. To do so would require opening a window into another’s soul and there is another explanation that I think fits: hyperbolic claims against Israel are rewarded in the potent currency of social media likes and re-tweets.
You don’t need to hate Jews to appreciate that making outlandish and sometimes false claims against Israel will get you on the news and be rewarded with praise for your compassion and humanity. But I do not believe this is a complete explanation of what we are observing. While Hamas and the IDF exchange rockets and invective, there is another conflict 2000 kilometres to the south: Yemen. Here, on this blighted desert land, a war by proxy between Saudi Arabia and Iran has claimed over 200,000 lives.
If the real concern was the deaths of children, we would have marches, protests and parliamentary resolutions flying out faster than a barrage of Hamas rockets about what is happening in Yemen. There isn’t. What we have is an obsession with Israel and her failings that is absent for any other global conflicts.
Hanging like a spectre over this drama is the Holocaust, the event that in many ways led to the creation of the Israeli state. We like to gloss over this tragedy as a historical anomaly, a creation of a fevered Teutonic mind that we are excused of responsibility because we fought the National Socialists.
This is a misreading of history. The genocide began after the war was declared and the allies did not go to war to save European Jewry. Rather we have used it as an ex-post rationalism to bolster our moral superiority. This crime was a European one, and it was the culmination of a millennium of hostility to the descendants of Isaac, son of Abraham.
All Western nations, including our own, have been tainted with the stain of anti-Semitism. From the crusades and the expulsion of the Jews by Edward I, through to forced conversions, blood libel, pogroms, ghettos and grotesque characterisations, no western nation is without sin.
There are valid reasons to critique Israel. The settlements, blockades and universal healthcare are all things that trouble me. If I lived there, I would be as contrarian towards their government as I am to my own. There are many who feel strongly, some with cause and others just responding uncritically to media coverage, about the plight of the Palestinians.
But there is also vitriol, lies and a double standard that is applied to and directed against Israel; some of which may be driven by ignorance and a desire for attention, but there is an undercurrent that does not look like good people with honest intentions campaigning against a perceived injustice. To me, it has a darker feel of an ancient hatred repackaged for a modern era.
Damien Grant is a Stuff columnist.
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