Invitation Farewell Party

Destruction of Palestinian society: the Iraqi model

Many commentators criticize the manner employed in Gaza, its violence, its terrible human cost, the destruction ... Many also questioned the possibility for Israel to achieve its war aim announced (to stop rocket attacks from Gaza, weaken Hamas permanently ...). In fact, the mere finding that the way fight the war returns, exactly, to obtain the inverse of the goal announced (Hamas will be strengthened, violence permanently anchored ...), should lead to understand that this is not the right approach to question. Unless the Israelis take for fools able to engage in wars whose political goals are clearly unattainable by such means.

For my part, I think the model of events in Gaza is to be found in Iraq. Another war generally analyzed through, because again we start from the war aim announced, democratization, or another object suspected (Predation of natural resources), to examine the means used to achieve this.

But in both cases, it is certainly more constructive way to observe the conduct of the war, to see what are the results to see if these findings follow logically from the manner of proceeding, and therefore conclude that purpose of the war was the result. This allows more likely to achieve real goals (potentially ulterior) announced that starting goals (possible alibis) or supposed preconceived goals.

Alain Joxe published in January 2007, an analysis that seem most relevant on this issue: considering that the real purpose of war is neither democratic nor predation, but the destruction of Iraqi society itself, then the Iraq war is a terrible success.

The "global strategy" of the United States and its reality , Alain Joxe

Strategic analysis can not take literally the statements of intent, even if they are part of the file. It would therefore be wrong to give any credibility to the idea that the political aim of war (the "Zweck" in the vocabulary of Clausewitz) was never really the democratization because the U.S. has never implemented any appropriate means. By crushing virtually without a fight with bombs and bulldozers Iraqi armed forces, completely destroying all institutions, disbanding all officials, the U.S. has plunged the Iraqi society into chaos. When an army of occupation can not afford a repressive ubiquitous presence, combined with a reconstruction, and when a country, moreover, is full of arsenals, distributed to the "widespread popular defense" then the market recovered black sectarian militias, the occupant is clearly starting to build chaos. The construction of chaos does not follow fussy and police, instead, it relies on the uncontrolled release of all the violence unleashed by fear, uncertainty and insecurity in the state of war. The American troops retreated rapidly in fortified positions and no longer practiced as punitive, then never take the field. Rejuvenating necessary "neoliberalism" chaos in Iraq can be considered a success bloody . If today requires increased resources, it is for a new political goal, perhaps away from the United States.

Critics soldiers were publicly stated by the Army at first by retired generals, demanding more staff, then by active duty officers, claiming a political objective reality. We can therefore say that militarism is not Rumsfeld's militarism military but a political choice. The military wanted more troops for successful democratization: these are naive soldiers. The war against terrorism initiated by Rumsfeld, was and remains for President Bush a "war of thirty years." She drove to completely destroy everything that could yet to emerge from Iraq's Arab society, most technologically advanced Middle Eastern state power efficient and potentially democratic. The permanent destruction of the state is a political goal achieved.

Wrongly all existing comments on the Iraq war are starting with the 2003 invasion.

The fear of being accused of "conspiracy theorist" forbidden elsewhere commentators link the events that have yet hit the country continuously for more than fifteen years (the first Gulf War, the embargo, the invasion, the onslaught of mercenaries and militias ...) for read a coherent overall strategy. Yet, proponents of these wars, they do not hesitate to mention a long-term :

When Pentagon official described as close to the super-hawks group Wolfowitz-Perle, told the observed that "[w] e see this war as a war against the virus of terrorism. If you have bone cancer, it is not sufficient to cut the patient's foot. You must do the entire treatment of chemotherapy. And if that means embarking on a new Hundred Years War, well that's what we do. "

For Iraqi it is obvious that we need at least back to the War of 1991 (some dating back to war against Iran, which helped deplete the Iraqi society). A formidable armada bombarded the country and massively destroys the entire military infrastructure, but also civil.

Then for twelve years, a terrible embargo imposed directly on the civilian population of a country that already has more infrastructure. The humanitarian cost is monstrous. Sophie Boukhari gives a quick overview in the UNESCO Courier in July 2000, it cites U.S. Congressman Tony Hall:

Even if sanctions were removed quickly, the people I met in Iraq would have a bleak future, "he writes. Because their children are in a sorry state; one in four is malnourished and one in 10 decays, hungry or sick. The main cause of infant mortality, diarrhea, is 11 times more common in Iraq than elsewhere, and polio, which had been eradicated from the Middle East, again became a wound. Schools and sanitation systems are ruined, the hospitals lack equipment and medicines. Ordinary people have exhausted their reserves and their health trying to survive with two to six dollars per month ... It will take a generation before the Iraqi population rises. That's

Iraqi society that is the target. An information report of the National Assembly shows :

The humanitarian situation in Iraq has led many individuals to protest against the status quo. Several senior UN officials have resigned in succession to draw attention to " destroying an entire society " in the words of Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq resigned in 1998 and whose resignation was followed by that of his successor, Mr. Von Sponeck in February 2000. It also include the resignation last year, Ms. Jutta Burghardt, head of the World Food Programme in Iraq.

invasion of 2003 is then a further step towards the destruction of Iraqi society, not the starting point of a new "war."

A point largely overlooked in U.S. strategy is the wave of militias and mercenaries in the country. Completely hidden, or widely undervalued (it evokes 40,000 mercenaries in 2006), the figure appears discreetly in an article in Le Monde of 11 December 2008 :

After Security Treaty signed in November between Iraq and the United States, the 163,000 "private agents' currently used by the Americans (they were 230,000 in 2006) will be subject to Iraqi law since 1 January 2009.

The scandal should be huge, but this figure is virtually unknown to the general public: the Americans have established in Iraq much more "private agents" than regular troops: in 2006, there were (according to the known figure of the World) miciliens and 230,000 mercenaries in Iraq paid by the United States for about 150000 U.S. Army soldiers. Notoriously, mercenaries and the militia would never lead to stability or democratization, they can only be the tools of terror of the people and the destruction of society.

The chaos is obtained through an attack that is not limited to campaigns of "shock and awe", whose inefficiency to break popular resistance is known. On strategic bombing, their main sponsor in 1942, Arthur Harris, the cynically justified:

This goal is the destruction of German cities, the death of German workers and the disruption of civilized community life throughout Germany. It should be emphasized that the goals set and accepted of our bombing policy are the following: destruction of houses, utilities, transport and human lives, the creation of a refugee problem on an unprecedented scale, and the destruction of morale both at home and on fronts by fear of shelling intensified and extended. These are not by-products of attempts to hit factories.

The "collateral damage" massive bombing and were never designed to be "collateral": they are instead the primary purpose of the massive bombing. However, history has shown that such bombings are never able to break the will the people who suffered. However, the list of damages established by Harris (destruction of houses, utilities, refugees ...) is real, and is now used to produce another effect: to establish a lasting peace in the chaos target company.

This is a new type of strategy: a systemic attack on society itself. Besides the military infrastructure is primarily a company that is broken, through the destruction of all its components: the economy (up substistance is threatened), health, culture, knowledge, education the civil infrastructure of subsistence agriculture, civil society ...

The military arsenal, according to this new need, supplemented by a plethora of social scientists. The scandal of "embedded anthropologists " broke in late 2007, the Monde Diplomatique title "The anthopologist, military weapon " in March 2008.

Alain Joxe had announced in early 2007: "The chaos of Iraq can be considered a success bloody. [...] The permanent destruction of the state is a political goal achieved. "

Returning to Palestine.

I think that the Iraq strategy that we see now being implemented in Gaza. The purpose of war must be formulated as follows: the destruction of Palestinian society itself. So says Professor eg Salah Abdel-Jawad in an interview World of January 5, 2009 :

It is not simply to destroy a particular political movement. Otherwise why bomb government buildings, the Islamic University and the American School in Gaza? Like the looting of public buildings made in 2002 during the invasion of the West Bank, these actions are part of a concerted plan. It aims to destroy not only the Palestinian political entity but also and above society. The goal is to create a kind of resignation, bitterness, to impose a daily violence that the Palestinians end up one day turn against them. Evidence collected by

Hass (Haaretz, December 30, 2008):

"This attack is not against Hamas. It is against us all, against the whole nation. "

The goal? It has long been known: "a land without a people." Collin Dennis points out in The Social (January 3, 2009):

This situation itself is not dropped from heaven. It follows directly of Zionist settlement in Palestine and the proclamation of the State of Israel in 1948. Westerners were able to clear customs cheap crimes committed against Jews by paying their debt on the backs of the Arabs. The lie invented by the Zionist propaganda (Palestine "a land without people for a people without land") was quickly confronted with the reality and the creation of the Jewish state was made by the massacre of civilians ( for example the massacre of Deir Yassin by the Irgun committed by the former Prime Minister Menachem Begin) and the mass deportation - this was not yet called "purging Ethnic necessary to confiscate land and property of Palestinians. In short, a typical colonial war of conquest, the new generation of Israeli historians started to reveal the truth.

In this text, he said: Those who believe

be useful to the Palestinian people by comparing Israeli policy to exterminate the Jews by the Nazis are wrong just as heavily. Israel has no desire to destroy the Palestinians as such.

is an important point. It does not seem appropriate to speak of genocide, as the systematic physical destruction of individuals is not possible. However, since it is not possible nor desirable to physically eliminate all the individuals, the target is the Palestinian society, which must be, she completely destroyed. After denying the existence of the Palestinian people, Israeli propagandists have denied the existence of a "Palestinian society" (we still find this argument in almost all their writings), it suffices to make the field this negation.

It is not impossible, as the destruction of Iraqi society has proved it.

Without going back to 1948 ... we can trace a succession of events whose similarity with the Iraqi events is troubling.

Elections of 2006, Hamas won the legislative elections. Western countries allied to Israel to impose severe sanctions to punish Palestinian voters wrong. The sanctions already imposed a territory particularly fragile Hamas manages to maintain a minimum of public health services and education.

In 2006, Israeli shelling against Gaza (Operation Summer Rains "): the only power of the territory is destroyed. The IRIN in January 2009 published an interesting paper on this subject: " Where does the electricity in Gaza - analysis.

Throughout 2006 and 2007, the United States, with the agreement of Israel, arming and leading the militia of Mohammed Dahlan of Fatah. It is the policy of incorporation of mercenaries and militias, who are profoundly changing the nature of the Palestinian forces and their relationship not only the occupation but also to the population. In mid-2007, Hamas ejected Fatah.

All the while, Israel and Egypt imposed a near total blockade of Gaza. The political and military inefficiency is obvious, but the impact on Palestinian society is enormous. Gaza is an environmental hell and in December 2008, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) describes the advanced stage of destruction of Palestinian society: mass unemployment, access to drinking water, care, education, food, electricity ...

A report by the UN agency, this is due to the blockade imposed by Israel. The OCHA said that the rate of unemployment in the Palestinian territory from 32% to 49% in one year.

The 1.4 million residents of Gaza have the greatest difficulty in ensuring their livelihood because of food shortages. They are also without power up to 16 hours per day.

drinking water whose quality is 80% lower health standards, comes once a week to half the local population for several hours.



[...] According to the UN report, 40 000 permanent and temporary jobs have been lost in the fisheries and agriculture.

Only 23 industrial companies on the 3900 are existing functional permanently.

According the UN organization, 70% of farmland in Gaza are no longer irrigated. Which would lead to desertification.

Due to lack of spare parts and lack of electricity, medical facilities have become obsolete.

In March 2008, Matan Vinai, Deputy Israeli Defense Minister, promised a "shoah " for Palestinians:

The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets will increase by more scope, more shoah which he could face is important, because we use all our might to defend ourselves.

The current bombing and invasion should no longer be so considered, as in the case of Iraq, and as one step towards the total destruction of Palestinian society, and not as an event sponsor warrior specific purposes. The succession of events in Gaza is, in short, very similar to events that struck Iraq: initial bombing and destruction of infrastructure, total blockade, installation of mercenaries and militias, and once again completing a phase of bombing to destroy that remained (and possibly restart a new cycle of decay and societal clashes militia).

And again: "chaos can be considered [...] like a bloody success. [...] The permanent destruction of the state is a political goal achieved. " And the Israelis can proclaim:" There is no Palestinian society. "

sociéticide It is a crime.