"I fear that the Israelis are doing exactly what Hamas hoped for in their response to the atrocity."Robert Litt.
What is Israel to do? They were flagrantly, heinously attacked. It was an outrage. They must do something big, something that changes an intolerable status quo for the better.
Today's Guest Post returns to the theme I brought up two days ago. The actions that might feel right, the actions that might be demanded in a democratic polity, may not be the ones that best advance Israel's interest. The world now, and history, will look closely at how Israel responds.
There is news happening in a rush. The House is trying to choose a Speaker. Trump's legal problems. The war in Ukraine. The new economic numbers. The 2024 presidential nominations. I am in New Hampshire looking closely at that nomination story, I saw Nikki Haley last night and will see a half dozen more candidates today. But those reports can wait. There is a crisis in Israel.
Today's Guest Post is written by a college classmate, attorney Robert Litt. He is former General Counsel for the Director of National Intelligence, and is currently of counsel in Morrison & Foerster’s national security and global risk and crisis-management practices. He advises industry-leading organizations on sensitive national security and privacy matters, white collar investigations, and government enforcement actions. Litt is has extensive experience advising clients on national security matters. Readers may recognize his name from national media, which use him as a well-respected commenter to make sense of national securiry issues. His selection to be General Counsel passed the senate unanimously.
Guest Post by Robert Litt
I have a recollection that many years ago there was an editorial cartoon about the Mideast, perhaps by Pat Oliphant. Israel had been the subject of public condemnation for something - perhaps an incursion into Lebanon - but the PLO then hijacked a plane and blew it up on an airport runway (after the hostages were allowed to leave the plane). The cartoon showed a Bedouin-style tent with a group of stereotypically dressed Arabs sitting inside; through the open flap one could see a smoking plane, and an Arab running in holding a large trophy overhead, saying “Great news, comrades! We've just reclaimed the world stupidity trophy from the Israelis!”
I don’t mean to make light of the horrible suffering on both sides. But I fear that the Israelis are doing exactly what Hamas hoped for in their response to the atrocity. And as a lawyer who spent some years dealing with national security issues, I’m focused on the legal aspects, recognizing that there are diplomatic, moral and public relations aspects as well. Historically, despite much criticism, the IDF has actually been fairly careful about trying to comply with the laws of war by attacking what they consider to be military targets. Civilian casualties are inevitable in a war and are not considered a war crime if they come in the course of an attack on a valid military target, and the civilian casualties are “proportionate” to the military objective. When you bomb a munitions factory, civilian workers will be killed.
There’s no conceivable legal justification for what Hamas did - no one can say with a straight face that they were attacking military targets. And while in the past Israel has been able to defend its airstrikes in Gaza as going after military targets (with civilian casualties inevitable because of Hamas’ practice of placing military facilities in civilian areas - which can itself be a war crime), reports suggest that they are not being so discriminate now, and are, for example, flattening entire blocks. Moreover, I find it hard to consider cutting off all food, water and electricity to a population of 2.5 million as a valid military strategy. Sadly, it seems like Israel is just seeking punishment and revenge. Their rage and need to protect the country is understandable, but I wonder what the IDF lawyers are thinking.
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17 comments:
Jews have been persecuted for ages. Their determination to find a safe homeland is understandable. Palestinians were living on the land they claimed. Their outrage over being dispossessed is understandable. Gaza has been an open-air prison since 2007, with Israelis preventing its occupants from leaving. Their frustration is understandable. Hamas used Gaza to attack Israeli civilians. Israel’s fury is understandable.
Both sides have valid grievances and both sides have responded by indiscriminately slaughtering civilians. Robert Litt refers to the laws of war, which sounds like an oxymoron to begin with, but cutting off food, water and power to millions would definitely not comply. Now Israel is ordering a million or so to relocate themselves from North Gaza to the South. Litt is right – it’s hard to sympathize with either side. They've both resorted to barbarism, but right now Israel has abandoned any pretense of being the good guys.
License for genocide. An eye for an eye leads to more blindness.
It's nice to have my own opinions validated by somebody as qualified as Mr. Litt.
I'm of the opinion that Netanyahus orders to completely shut off the water, power, food and medical aid to Gaza is in itself a War Crime, especially when coupled with the Israel denial of any hope of escape to non Hamas civiliansctrying to seek safety outside the prison fences surrounding Gaza.
The US needs to get out of the middle east, and especially stop funding terrorism-supporting religious-based oil-producing countries.
Mike, a FB friend who is a longterm resident of Israel, began a post by saying
"We will win this war, b ut can we win the Peace".
My belief is that there are no winners in a War like this, only more murder and tragedy, and the planting of more seeds of retribution, by all sides involved.
An eye for an eye leads to a blind world. Is that really what we want?
Congress can’t function without the House and the House can’t function without a speaker, but Republicans dumped their speaker on October 3 and then took a week off. Meanwhile, unless they can get it together and pass a spending bill before October 11th, the government will shut down.
The U.S. is Israel’s biggest ally, so it’s no surprise that Hamas chose to attack Israel in the midst of this chaos. Ironically, the Republicans responsible blame it all on Biden. Welcome to the far-right’s concept of leadership – a sneak peek at a possible new normal in 2024.
Calling Gaza an open air prison is a lie.
Israel completely withdrew from Gaza in 2005, leaving the Palestinians in Gaza with prime Mediterranean beachfront property. The Palestinians could have created a prosperous tourist paradise there. Instead, they voted in Hamas, and chose to use that property as a base for terrorist attacks against Israel.
The blockade against Gaza was a response to those terrorist attacks, an attempt to keep weapons out of the area. Gaza shares a border with Egypt. Egypt blockades its border with Gaza for the same reason the Israelis do: to try to keep weapons out of the hands of Hamas.
To the extent that Gaza has become a “prison,” the responsibility for it falls on the Palestinians and their terrorist attacks against Israel.
The depraved terrorist attack on Israel this past Saturday, has rightfully convinced Israelis that they can no longer allow Hamas to be in charge of Gaza. They will now eradicate Hamas. They will do it with the minimum possible collateral damage to civilians consistent with that goal, but they will achieve that goal.
There’s a saying that when a Jew is killed, everyone becomes a historian. Everyone rushes to “contextualize” the murder. This is the era after The Holocaust; job one is to stop the murderers. “World public opinion“ is just going to have to accommodate itself to that.
“I don’t mean to make light of the horrible suffering on both sides”.
In my view, anyway, Mr. Litt is only making light of the horrible suffering on the Jewish side, with a rather glib pivot from these standalone, historic Hamas atrocities into above-the-fray rationalizations and calls for perspective and restraint which are never, ever directed at Israel’s implacable —and rageful?—enemies.
Human Rights Watch described Gaza as “the world’s largest open-air prison.” Michael Trigoboff says that’s a lie. For those who might like a more credible source, here is actual information:
“The strip has been under a blockade by Israel and Egypt, restricting the movement of people and goods since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. Israel controls its airspace and shoreline, as well as what goods can cross Gaza's borders.”
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/10/1204873146/what-is-gaza-strip
Mr. Trigoboffs response was entirely in line with what I expected from him.
I can't help but notice while the Media is devoting countless hours to the suffering of Israelis (entirely real), very little mention is being made of Palestinian Civilian casualties from errant bombing and artillery strikes, or thecsuffering if children with no access to food, water, shelter or even medical care.
Any veteran of Combat knows that "surgical" bombing exists only in the minds of fiction writers and armcha I rcwarriors in the bowels of the Pentagon, and "Collateral Damage" is a euphemism for dead and maimed Innocent peopke.
Human Rights Watch is an anti-Israel propaganda machine. They, along with most of the rest of the “human rights“ NGOworld pay disproportionate attention to Israel, while paying much less attention to much worse human rights problems in places like Africa and China. It’s similar to what goes on at the UN, where an amazingly large proportion of their negative resolutions are directed at Israel.
When questioned about this, these organizations typically say things like, “We are holding Israel to a higher standard.“ That standard is incompatible with Israel’s survival in its rough neighborhood, but they don’t seem to care about that.
Jews are familiar with being held to “higher standards“ that are incompatible with our survival. To quote, Bob Dylan, “We used to care, but things have changed.“
Hamas uses its citizens as human shields. Israel will not respect the lives of those shields more than the lives of its own people. Hamas is responsible for the lives of the people it is using in this inhumane way.
The survival of Israel is far more important to me than meeting or not meeting the expectations of anyone on this blog.
Just to make it clear, in case anyone else failed to notice:
The quote I provided regarding the blockade of Gaza was from NPR, not Human Rights Watch. Of course, the far-right would probably object to NPR as a reference anyway because they deal in facts.
Just to make it clear, I would point out the anti-Israel bias in many components of the liberal mainstream media, including NPR.
OK, just to make it clear, go ahead and point out some of NPR's anti-Israel bias.
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