This Ongoing War..
13 November '12..
Before reading on, please stop for a moment, and remind yourself that
- Israel is not, in any practical sense, in a war with neighbouring states. The people doing the shooting - and trying to do the killing - are irregulars: without uniforms, without constraints, without the responsibility of feeding, clothing and educating the people among whom they live. We are not at war with a state.
- No nation on earth has stepped in, or is proposing to step in, to help Israelis deal with the matters that have the country vexed today. In every meaningful sense, Israel is alone in facing this.
- The overwhelmingly strongest side, as measured by military equipment, discipline and effectiveness, in the immediate physical vicinity of the place from which we write these words, is Israel.
- Without a doubt (and we do not speak as military strategists or in the name of anyone but ourselves) Israel could decide five minutes from now to unleash utterly devastating military force against the people taking potshots round the clock at us. To sharpen the point, those potshots are being taken with literally zero regard for the welfare of Israel's civilian population. Israel's civilian population is the target. The reality is that Israel could, but it has not done anything of the devastating kind of thing. There are of course many cogent reasons why, but it's not physics; it's a decision. We heard someone this morning say it well: Israel's responses have been like carrying out a lobotomy - it's far closer to surgery than to defensive warfare.
- You (yes, you) are unable to name - or to identify from a police line-up - the organizations, and/or the leadership of the organizations, who hold in their hands the power to deliver life-and-death attacks on residential areas across the physical majority of Israel's surface. Admit it. The attackers are basically anonymous. Even the professional news media people here have a hard time figuring out who gets the 'credit' for one or another of the round-the-clock attacks.
With those points in mind, here is a 12 noon update from Jerusalem on Tuesday November 13, 2012.
(Read full update)
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