Amira Hass on Gaza
Israeli journalist Amira Hass writes in today’s Ha’aretz:
What luck my parents are dead. Back in 1982 they could not stand the noise of the Israeli jet fighters flying over the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The shriek of a plane horrified them in their house in Tel Aviv. We don’t have to see it to know, they said.
…
Even before the language laundromat developed to its current sophistication, my parents were nauseated by phrases like the “the war for peace in the Galilee” or “disturbances of public order” when the public order was the occupation and the disturbance was resistance to it. When order is preventing the Palestinians from having what the Jews have a right to and demand. What luck that they are not alive to hear Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni explaining that we have nothing against the Palestinian people, and the cabinet secretary explaining that there is no humanitarian crisis and this is just Hamas propaganda. To recognize lies, they did not need to know the names of the people who had not had running water for five days or more. Forget the bombardments, forget the electricity, food, even sleep. But no water? Because of the bombardments by sea, land and air, people cannot even go out to get drinking water from the city faucets. And when someone does have running water at home, it’s undrinkable.
Because of my parents’ history they knew what it meant to close people behind barbed-wire fences in a small area. A year, five years, 10 years. From 1991. How lucky it is that they are not alive to see how how these incarcerated people are bombarded with all the glorious military technology of Israel and the United States. “We urgently invite Mohamed ElBaradei to come here and prove we do not have nuclear weapons,” says Iyad – a well-known comic, even under bombardment. But Saturday night he only said “difficult, difficult,” and hung up the phone.
My parents’ personal history led them to despise the relaxed way the news anchors reported on a curfew. How lucky they are not here and cannot hear the crowd roaring in the colosseum.
Full story here.
Typical Hass, she writes he same article everytime using different words. Everything is alwasys Israel’s fault and there is always room to squeeze her parents history in it somewhere. So what’s her solution? Who does she want leading Israel? What Israel should do instead? We need leaders! Everybody has a damn opinion about this. Now just reprint some Gideon Levy (another Haaretz gem) and his opinions about how IDF pilots are war criminals and you’ll have proof of how Israel is the worst country in the world ever! It’s always the same story from the same angle.
Efrat,
Given that you mention his name, Gideon Levy actually did offer an alternative to the military option that, in my opinion, would have had a much greater chance of stopping the rockets on southern israel, and would have resulted in far fewer civilian casualties then have resulted from operation cast lead. You can read it here:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1048368.html