Views on the rape of Gaza

Philosophical and wide-ranging, from Nir Rosen:

Normative rules are determined by power relations. Those with power determine what is legal and illegal. They besiege the weak in legal prohibitions to prevent the weak from resisting. For the weak to resist is illegal by definition. Concepts like terrorism are invented and used normatively as if a neutral court had produced them, instead of the oppressors. The danger in this excessive use of legality actually undermines legality, diminishing the credibility of international institutions such as the United Nations. It becomes apparent that the powerful, those who make the rules, insist on legality merely to preserve the power relations that serve them or to maintain their occupation and colonialism.

And visceral, from Jennifer Loewenstein (who's lived and worked in Gaza for long stretches):

The sound of F-16s flying overhead dropping bombs is not a sound one ever forgets. In other words, 750,000 children – or half the population of Gaza—have it ingrained in their memories for the rest of their lives. Another equally unacceptable percentage of this group will have had images burned into their minds’ eyes of the devastation and death wrought by these sounds as well, a factor that partially explains why more than 50 per cent of Gaza’s three-quarters of a million children suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: it isn’t easy to see piles of the dead or their blown apart body parts without some kind of reaction. ...

"HAMAS"...the word that, in this case, renders any action taken by the other side, no matter how barbaric or sadistic, legitimate. Couple any noun with the preceding adjective "Hamas" and it will be immediately quarantined as if tainted by some infectious bacteria. This is how to dehumanize a million and a half people overnight; how to render them different from us and dangerous to us.

More from the always perceptive and eloquent Loewenstein here.

Comments

[KDelphi]

"Waiting for a lasting ceasefire"--hell, we've been doing that for 40 years.

And, I suppose, that that is precisely the point...

[Donald Johnson]

A ceasefire in Western terms is defined to be a period of time when Palestinians are blockaded and half-starved and continue to live under occupation, and when violence takes a straight line path from an Israeli weapon to a Palestinian body, but not vice/versa. This is considered a happy period during which the peace process can continue and everyone who matters is safe.

Israel has apparently decided to postpone the ceasefire, but wouldn't it be great if they had just stopped for a bit. Hundreds of Palestinians dead and if only those nasty fanatics would stop lobbing rockets everyone would be great.

Sarcasm aside (though everything preceding is basically how things are perceived in the US press), I've long felt that if we could just get American politicians to agree that both sides have committed atrocities, it would be a huge step forward. Getting them to recognize that the bulk of the blame should fall on Israel, and that the vast majority of the suffering is by the Palestinians would be too much to even dream about.

[KDelphi]

If we would just stop supplying Israel with illegal weapons, dont you think that that might help?

I agree--the MSM coverage is crap.