Last
week I was invited to take part in an hour long
panel discussion on BBC World Service to explore
the current situation in the Middle East with a
particular focus on the 'rules of war.' One of the
panellists whom I found myself seriously at odds
with was the former chief of staff of the Israeli
Defence Forces, Moshe Yaalon. A retired Lieutenant
General who served at the helm of his country's
armed forces from 2002-2005, he is currently 'a
distinguished military fellow at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy.'
One
thing surprised me about him. Despite the legendary
arrogance of Israeli military personnel he was very
polite. There was another thing which did not surprise
me; he was less than forthcoming, rarely passing
an opportunity to wholly absolve the Israeli state
of responsibility for its own violence.
What
prompted the BBC to host the discussion was an opinion
piece General Yaalon had earlier written in the
Washington Post where he stated, 'the rules of war
boil down to one central principle: the need to
distinguish combatants from non-combatants.' This
principle, he asserted, 'has always guided military
and political decision making' of the Israeli state.
He was scathing of media and political figures who
sought to cast doubt on this. For particular pejorative
attention he focussed on the secretary general of
the United Nations, Kofi Annan, whom he likened
to a knave or a fool - without affording him the
dubious leniency of a fool's pardon - for his assertion
that the Israeli military had deliberately targeted
UN observers. Politeness, it seems, can be superficial,
serving as a facade behind which arrogance struts.
I
found his perspective every bit as warped as it
was appalling, being wholly at odds with the facts
on the ground. Drawing on a report by Human Rights
Watch I put it to him that Israel was guilty of
war crimes against civilians, many of them children;
that despite all its pompous moralising on the phenomenon
of suicide bombers, listeners to our exchange would
be hard pressed to see any ethical distinction between
the suicide bombers of Islamic and Palestinian groups
and the infanticide bombers of the Israeli air force.
While
he did me the courtesy of refraining from levelling
allegations that I was some seething anti-Semite
- the usual riposte to those who question Israeli
policy - he remained unruffled as he repeated ad
nauseam the mantra that the blame for the current
conflict lies with Hezbollah alone. There was not
the slightest acknowledgement that Israel might
bear even a modicum of responsibility. This is the
perspective the Israeli military and its mythomaniacs
are determined to pass off to the world as unalterable
truth. Tel Aviv writer, Yitzhak Laor, captured the
military's logic well: 'we have the power and therefore
we can enforce the logic.'
This
is not a simple matter of self-denial but strategic
sleight of hand. Israel knows exactly what atrocities
it is perpetrating in the Lebanon. It seeks to thwart
the right of international citizenry to access such
knowledge. General Yaalon's attitude is one born
of a dangerous rampant militarism underpinned and
reinforced by the centrality of the military within
Israeli society. The rationale is often given that
the hostility surrounding the country propels Israelis
to disproportionately prioritise their own military.
But that hostility is being nurtured by every F-16
launched bomb that has delivered a personal holocaust
to each of the thousand Lebanese civilians so far
obliterated.
There
is a pressing need to take sides in this war. And
the side to be backed is the civilians of both Israel
and Lebanon who have been subjected to persistent
murderous bombardment.
Civilians
should never have to explain their right not to
be killed. Those who kill them can offer no justification,
merely mitigation. In the case of this brutal war
there is more to be said in mitigation for Hezbollah
than Israel. It is estimated that the Israeli Defence
Forces have killed 100 civilians to every three
killed by Hezbollah. Hezbollah have killed three
times as many soldiers as civilians. There is no
equivalent in Israel of Qana. Both sides have disgracefully
abandoned the rules of war. But Israel's disregard
for such rules vastly dwarfs Hezbollah's.
To
challenge the role of militarism whatever its source,
and the wars it invariably spawns, requires prioritising
the rights of civilians over the military. Civilians
have a greater right not to be killed than the military
has a right to kill them. That should be the one
rule of war, to be trumped by no other.
