Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Proxy war

While Israel and Hamas are the actual combatants in Gaza, the war is a proxy war between the USA and Iran, being fought by their respective allies. This is similar to the previous wars that Israel fought, for example against Egypt when it was a Soviet ally, and the Second Lebanon War in 2006 fought between Israel and the Iranian proxy Hizbollah.
When the USA abstained on UN Security Council Resolution 1860 and the other Western countries support the resolution calling for an "immediate" ceasefire (while Hamas is still intact), they are demonstrating their detachment from Israel and from its war against a terrorist entity supported by the Islamist enemy of all Western States, namely Iran. They can afford to do that because it is Israel's people and army that is bearing the brunt of the fighting. It certainly reminds one of the policies of Britain and other Western countries in relation to German hegemony of Czechoslovakia and Spain prior to WWII, namely appeasement.
Meanwhile Iran is busy developing its nuclear weapons that the US, France and Britain have vowed it must never be allowed to develop. But, the Western States are much too busy compromising with Arab interests and placating their domestic public, made up of a significant and noisy Muslim minority as well as an influential liberal class that is inherently pro-Palestinian, who tolerate whatever terrorism they may carry out against the Jews (since they are the "colonial, imperialist occupiers"!).
In this environment, with the media displaying their usual pro-Palestinian bias, the longer the conflict goes on, the more successful the IDF is, the more the voices become raised to save the poor Palestinian women and children. Don't they realise that they are dupes of one of the most successful PR campaigns in history, that supports an anti-liberal, fascist agenda! Apparently not, since they go along with Palestinian and Hamas flags raised and tender feelings. Certainly some of them were concerned when British and American forces killed thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, but most of them could hardly care less. Now when the Israelis are doing it (to a much lesser degree) they must show how incensed they are. How many of them showed any concern for the hundreds of civilians killed by British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan nor for the disproportional force used there?
It is certainly a pity that Israel gets such bad press, especially given the attempts to avoid civilian casualties (of course some automaticlaly discount this) when they actually telephone Gazans (over 100,000 phone calls have been made) to warn them to leave their houses, and drop flyers to advise them to avoid Hamas sites and to stay off the streets, as well as allow hundreds of trucks carrying supplies into Gaza (under UN supervision). I know it's not enough, it never is, and I know that mistakes occur and innocent people are killed. But, that is not the intent, unlike most other armies. But, the fascists of course will have none of this, Israel is the hated enemy and can do nothing right.
There is a choice that Israel can make, to stop the fighting immediately, and save some lives, and get improved media coverage (although not by much) and grateful liberal support (not likely), or press on with their military campaign in order to inflict as much damage as possibleon the evil enemy Hamas now that they have the opportunity. Around 90% of all Israelis support continuing the war until the rockets stop and Hamas is badly damaged and not to accept any ceasefire unless it includes cessation of rockets and smuggling of weapons. This is the rational, pragmatic and expedient thing to do, and I hope the current Government, for all its faults, will not shrink from that task.

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