Israel wanted a humanitarian crisis

[delad]

The scale of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, and the almost daily reports of war crimes over the last three weeks, has drawn criticism from even longstanding friends and sympathisers. Despite the Israeli government's long-planned and comprehensive PR campaign, hundreds of dead children is a hard sell. As a former Israeli government press adviser put it, in a wonderful bit of unintentional irony, "When you have a Palestinian kid facing an Israeli tank, how do you explain that the tank is actually David and the kid is Goliath?"
Despite a mass of evidence that includes Israel's targets in Operation Cast Lead, public remarks by Israeli leaders over some time, and the ceasefire manoeuvring of this last weekend, much of the analysis offered by politicians or commentators has been disappointingly limited, and characterised by false assumptions, or misplaced emphases, about Israel's motivations.

<snip>

There is, however, no shortage of evidence available that points to rather different Israeli aims. Estimates for the proportion of civilian deaths among the 1,360 Palestinians killed range from more than half to two-thirds. Politicians, diplomats and journalists are by and large shying away from the obvious, namely that Israel has been deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians and the very infrastructure of normal life, in order to – in the best colonial style – teach the natives a lesson.

<snip>

Deliberately targeting civilians and vital infrastructure for political purposes links smoothly, into the post-conflict phase, with the Israeli and US plan to try and rescue the deeply discredited image of the Palestinian Authority through a politicised reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. As US state department spokesman Sean McCormack coyly put it, the "military solution" must be followed up by investing in infrastructure and helping the population "so that they can make a different kind of political decision".

<snip>

Yet, there is more going on here. Israel seeks to turn the Gaza Strip into a depoliticised humanitarian crisis, always on the brink of catastrophe, always dependent; its population reduced to ration-receiving clients of international aid. Yitzhak Rabin famously wished that Gaza "would just sink into the sea", but perhaps the best Israel can do is to share the problem with the international community, possibly to the extent of troops on the ground.

Increasingly focusing on Egyptian responsibility is also part of this, whether in terms of arms smuggling, aid supplies, or for some, direct rule.

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/gaza-israelandthepalestinians?commentpage=3

Comment; the article is quite long but well worth a read

[MichiganVote]

1. There will be a nuclear war in the ME one day. Depend on it.

[bemildred]

2. Yeah, some interesting bits.

It does seem reasonable to argue that either a.) the IDF did pretty much what they wanted to, in terms of physical damage, or b.) they are serial grossly incompetent users of advanced weapons. The "Hamas made us do it" argument does not really wash, even though it might have some truth to it.

[Vegasaurus]

3. They could easily have killed a half million or more people

their advanced weaponry could have obliterated much more than it did.

And Hamas "did" make them do it.

If Hamas is quiet and does not terrorize, the borders open, goods flow in, and life is better.

Hamas's choice (but they always make the wrong one).

[bemildred]

4. Hamas put up puny resistance.

It's hard to see how they are in a position to "make" the IDF do anything.

[delad]

6. a nuclear bomb would have wiped them out altogether

and because the IDF *didn't*, they obviously were acting with restraint

[delad]

5. that's what it boils down to basically

considering another article you posted put Gazan fatalities at 70% civilian, there really aren't any other possibilities, or i'm overlooking them (unless of course that figure is wrong). but do you really think the IDF is that incompetent? Deliberate carelessness couldn't achieve such 'strategic' destruction, ie amount of civilian infastructure (i'm referring to the info in the OP here).

[bemildred]

7. You really cannot rule out incompetence, or stupidity, altogether.

I don't really think it makes a lot of difference what the mix between the two was. Either way you have an organization that cannot be trusted with heavy weapons.

[delad]

8. maybe a case of deliberation with an admixture of stupidity

No, i do understand what your saying. I'm sorry if i seem a little off-hand but i seriously am having difficulty believing that Israel didn't plan bombing the civilian infastructure in order to create a truly desperate situation. They've prevented sufficient fuel, food and medicine getting into Gaza for months and then they blow the shit out of it (including using white phosphorous on one of the most densly packed places on earth) and now they're going to sit back and prevent the UN from accessing the strip. Seriously. fuck sake.

[bemildred]

9. Well, "don't give a shit" can work too, but I hear what you are saying as well. nt