Here we go again…

“War is the terrorism of the rich and powerful; terrorism is the war of the poor and powerless.” Peter Ustinov

With shades of Lebanon 2006, Israel is ramping its policy of collective punishment against the citizens of the Gaza Strip. Dropping 2000 lb. bombs into one of the most densely populated places on earth ensures that the already battered infrastructure will be destroyed and innocent civilians will be killed (which I would argue is part of Israel’s intentions). Even the U.N. Secretary general has warned Israel that it is using excessive force. Israel has prohibited reporters and journalists from entering the Gaza Strip to help cover up its crimes, but the pictures and voices of the Palestinian people still leak out.

Since 9/11, we have been constantly bombarded with the “us vs. them” rhetoric of terrorism, in which people can be divided into two stark categories: peace-loving, citizens with nothing but love in their hearts who only want to live their lives in peace and who do no harm to their neighbors; and blood-thirsty, suicidal terrorists whose only goal is to destroy this peaceful existence and sow violent chaos throughout the world. This hyper-inflated dichotomy leads many people to believe that when the U.S. or Israel says it has killed X number of suspected militants in a bombing or raid, these were the bad people, and only the bad people. A glaring example of the U.S.’s record for getting their man is, of course, the Guantánamo Bay detention center. Since October 7, 2001, 775 detainees have been brought to Guantánamo. Of these, approximately 420 have been released without charge, and of the approximately 270 detainees that remain, more than a fifth are cleared for release but must nevertheless remain indefinitely because countries are reluctant to accept them or the Bush administration refuses to release them. Only three have been convicted of any charges. Israel holds more than 8,000 Palestinians in its prisons; I’m curious what percentage of those are really criminals.

Ali Abunimah is the author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse and a fellow with the Palestine Centre in Washington, DC. I find his most recent article, We Have No Words Left to be a realistic description of the current situation.

Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist for the Haaretz newspaper (Israel’s oldest daily paper), where he is also an editorial board member, also wrote this response to Israel’s attack.