Israelis are still dropping bombs on Gaza tonight, and people are still getting killed. Houses are being destroyed. They are still getting away with unspeakable acts. I don’t remember when it became “acceptable” for modern western governments to kill civilians in wartime (or in peacetime), or to justify the actions of their allies when they target civilians who happen to be standing in the way of suspected terrorists. This shaky legal and moral position might have been given a jump-start the year before I was born, in 1945, when the United States created a justification for killings hundreds of thousands of civilians. Despite debates that preceded the killings, the “unspeakable” became “acceptable” – and the Enola Gay took off with a full payload and with the full approval of what might have been considered unthinkable to a more noble savage Yes, I was born in the shadow of the horrific bombs that were unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And my early years were spent while the apologists for these horrific acts spun their webs of deceit. But it probably goes back to a time much earlier when my country justified the genocide of its native people and got away with it for a time. Those people just did not fit in with the nation’s plans for expansion and its vision of manifest destiny. Certainly there were attempts in my lifetime to curb genocidal tendencies that rear their ugly heads from time to time. Conventions were drafted and debated and signed. Loopholes were built in for those “special circumstances”. Damn, I have been through the times of theory, and I have experienced the slippery moments when theory was put into practice. But the United States still holds sway when questions of “acceptable” versus ‘unthinkable” are debated. It has the political clout although it may have lost the moral clout of earlier days. And it has jumped in one more time to justify genocide – allowing it to be undertaken by its closest ally in the Middle East, perhaps its closest ally – period. I am witnessing firsthand what can take place when “unspeakable” acts of genocide are given the imprimatur by the enabling partner in the codependent relationship between the U.S. and Israel. It’s ugly… I can tell you. From up close and personal, it’s ugly. It’s our worst nightmares that have taken flesh It’s that video game on steroids that is put into the hands of an adolescent nation. Bodies fall dead and remain in the streets – civilian areas are bombed round the clock for multiple days – the houses of “terrorists” are bombed (often with the residents in their beds) – medical workers are targets – hospitals, mosques and schools are destroyed – snipers await unsuspecting aid workers – initial “targeted” attacks deteriorate into random bombings – drones cover the skies round the clock. Damn, I even had a trusted mentor on such matters who caved to media bias and suddenly was trying to convince me that the concept of proportionality had no validity when it comes to war. In his mind, war was still all about the survival of the fittest. So that is how he will justify this current genocidal attack on Gaza. Proportionality has been thrown out the window. Israel feels fully justified in bombing civilian homes (occupied or vacated). - and taking them down with one or multiple bombings. A small rocket, a mobile text message or silence is all that it takes - and it is gone. With U.S. blessing is feels morally obligated to drop thousands of tons of explosives in the name of preserving democracy in the Middle East (its own bastard form of democracy of course). It is literally getting away with murder, and it has received the blessing of my country in the name of security. But I and nearly two millions others are the object this bad joke, a tinker toy morality. Bombs drop almost non-stop round the clock now. The targets now are hospitals. And that bomb that just exploded a few blocks away has probably targeted children playing on their rooftop or a beach, or a journalist or a doctor or an activist who became a little too outspoken. There is no safe place in Gaza. I do not plan to step one foot out of Gaza, but I no longer feel safe in Gaza. I honestly don’t. Seeing how Israel and its military are acting when it determines the fate of civilians. Seeing the number of dead and injured civilians. Seeing what happens to people who venture in to targeted areas to retrieve the dead and dying. Seeing the one sided coverage that the media is offering. What chance does a civilian or an international really have when Netanyahu has urged his military to take off of the gloves. Loosely translated that means forget the Geneva Conventions or any conventions (even our own). And the Israeli Occupation Force seems to be “just following orders”. Gaza is the laboratory for a new rule book for waging war. Israel is literally getting away with murder, and the United States is the international referee (and enabling parent) that seems to have lost its whistle in a world cup game that went bad from the start. There’s no off sides in this one sided conflict. When you find the bodies of dead civilians strewn along the streets of Al Shujaya, and when the referee turns his head – you instinctively know that there is no safe place in Gaza. What can change all of this, however is that the over-equipped, necessarily slow moving and morally deficient aggressor may get his ass kicked badly on a battle field where conventional rules and equipment no longer mean success for Goliath. The defending resistance fighters have sixty six years of passionate yearning to be free and are unencumbered by the tools of technology and modern warfare. If Netanyahu is serious in his projections that there will never be an independent Palestinian state, that level of hubris will likely lead to defeat on the battlefield as well in the court of public opinion. And still the bombs fall, despite my ruminations. One fell just an hour ago very close to the house. I did not even budge... Like the others who shared the cool night with me, we just kept talking about better times. Yet still not knowing how one survives in a time when the rule book has been rewritten and we will never be quite sure how safe we are. After all, we would just add one to the list of the dead. And be written off as Collateral Damage. Stay safe, my brothers and sisters. Allah will protect you even if the new rule book considers you just an inconvenient footnote. I hate those damn drones.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 22:46:30 +0000
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