Israel Completes Preparations for Gaza Offensive Amid Continuing Rocket Fire – Mark Lavie
Israel wrapped up preparations for a broad offensive in the Gaza Strip Thursday after Palestinians fired about 100 rockets and mortar shells across the border in two days. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert made a direct appeal to Gaza’s people via the Arabic-language satellite channel Al-Arabiya to pressure their leaders to stop the barrages. Israeli defense officials said the operation would probably begin with surgical airstrikes against rocket launchers. Harsh weather conditions are currently hampering visibility and complicating air force missions. (AP/Washington Post)
Israel Opens Border Crossings into Gaza
Israel opened three border crossings with Gaza on Friday, allowing about 80 trucks filled with fuels and commodities into the Palestinian territory. Among the goods were 400,000 liters of fuel and 120 tons of cooking gas. The decision to open the crossings at Kerem Shalom, Karni and Nahal Oz came after requests from international aid groups and Egypt. (CNN)
Hamas “Military Industry” Working Overtime to Manufacture Rockets – Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff (Ha’aretz)
For two years Hamas, with Iranian assistance, has been working hard on developing its military power.
In recent years dozens of Gazans have traveled to training camps in Iran and Lebanon run by terror organizations and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Hamas has learned to create ammonium perchlorate compound, an advanced rocket propellant that extends Kassam rocket range beyond 20 kilometers and significantly increases a rocket’s shelf life.
That means that, for the first time, Hamas can maintain a supply of rockets for months at a time.
A Separate Standard for Israel – Mark Silverberg
On any given day, Israeli prisons are hosting Red Cross representatives, journalists, lawyers, prisoners’ advocates, as well as family members of convicted Palestinian prisoners, while Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas on Israeli soil, is being held in isolation and denied any and all visitation rights from lawyers, family and even the International Red Cross in violation of his human rights and international law. So, where is the international outcry for Shalit?
(via Daily Alert)
From the Goldstone Report:
266. The intensified closure regime on the Gaza crossings which began in November continued in December, with imports restricted to very basic food items and limited amounts of fuel, animal feed and medical supplies. According to OCHA, many basic food items were no longer available and negligible amounts of fuel were allowed to enter Gaza. This resulted in the health sector in Gaza deteriorating further into a critical condition, with hospitals continuing to face problems as a result of power cuts, low stocks of fuel to operate back-up generators, lack of spare parts for medical equipment and shortages of consumables and medical supplies.151 On 18 December 2008, UNRWA once again suspended its food distribution programme for the rest of the month, owing to shortages.152
267. On 27 December 2008, Israel started its military operations in Gaza.153
From this brief chronology it’s easy to see factors that Judge Goldstone and his commission ignored or downplayed.
For one thing, Israel allowed in 80 trucks of aid right before launching Cast Lead. It’s possible that that fact is mentioned in the Goldstone report, but if it is, it is extremely well hidden. (Yes, I searched.) Certainly it would have been relevant to mention in the chronology cited above.
But then this went against something else the commission wished to convey, namely the first agenda item:
1. The blockade
27. The Mission focused (chap. V) on the process of economic and political isolation imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, generally referred to as a blockade. The blockade comprises measures such as restrictions on the goods that can be imported into Gaza and the closure of border crossings for people, goods and services, sometimes for days, including cuts in the provision of fuel and electricity. Gaza’s economy is further severely affected by the reduction of the fishing zone open to Palestinian fishermen and the establishment of a buffer zone along the border between Gaza and Israel, which reduces the land available for agriculture and industry. In addition to creating an emergency situation, the blockade has significantly weakened the capacities of the population and of the health, water and other public sectors to respond to the emergency created by the military operations.
By starting off the section, “Facts investigated by the Mission, factual and legal findings,” with the “blockade,” the commission served to undermine Israel’s rationale for attacking Hamas. It makes the focus Israel’s actions, not the arms smuggling that made the blockade necessary and certainly not the firing of rockets at Israeli civilians. Nor does it credit Israel for its massive transfers of humanitarian aid to a hostile entity, even at a time of war.
Finally by making its focus Israel’s blockade and conrtriving to call it a violation of humanitarian law, the Goldstone report effectively ignored the gross violation by Hamas of Gilad Shalit’s rights under international law. In fact it even made Shalit a reason to condemn Israel.
78. The Mission is concerned by declarations made by various Israeli officials who have indicated the intention of maintaining the blockade of the Gaza Strip until the release of Gilad Shalit. The Mission is of the opinion that this would constitute collective punishment of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
99. . . Following the capture by Palestinian armed groups of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006, the Israeli armed forces arrested some 65 members of the Legislative Council, mayors and ministers, mostly Hamas members. All were held at least two years, generally in inadequate conditions. Further arrests of Hamas leaders were conducted during the military operations in Gaza. The detention of members of the Legislative Council has meant that it has been unable to function and exercise its legislative and oversight function over the Palestinian executive.
91. The Mission finds that these practices have resulted in violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including the prohibition of arbitrary detention, the right to equal protection under the law and not to be discriminated based on political beliefs and the special protections to which children are entitled. The Mission also finds that the detention of members of the Legislative Council may amount to collective punishment contrary to international humanitarian law.
189. In June 2006, a squad drawn from three groups – the Popular Resistance Committees, al-Qassam Brigades and the until then unknown Army of Islam – excavated a tunnel under the Gaza-Israel border and attacked the military base of Kerem Shalom inside Israel, blowing up a tank, killing two soldiers and capturing a third, Corporal Gilad Shalit. In reaction to the capture, the Israeli Government conducted a number of targeted assassinations of alleged militants belonging to Hamas and other groups; arrested Palestinian Authority cabinet ministers, Hamas parliamentarians and other leaders in the West Bank; attacked key civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, such as the main power plant, the main bridge in central Gaza and Palestinian
Authority offices; tightened the economic isolation; and carried out major armed thrusts into the Gaza Strip for the first time since August 2005.26
Compare those selected mentions with:
1340. The Mission asked the Gaza authorities to confirm the status of Gilad Shalit. In their reply, which the Mission considered to be unsatisfactory, the Gaza authorities denied being involved in any way with the capture and detention of Gilad Shalit and stated that they are not in possession of any information regarding his current status.
Gilad Shalit has not been allowed visits by the International Red Cross despite the Goldstone commission’s acknowledgement that he’s a “prisoner of war.” And yet the reports saves its outrage for Israel for responding to Shalit’s capture.
Here are the reports “legal findings and conclusions” on the subject of Gilad Shalit:
1343. The Mission is of the opinion that, as a soldier who belongs to the Israeli armed forces and who was captured during an enemy incursion into Israel, Gilad Shalit meets the requirements for prisoner-of-war status under the Third Geneva Convention. As such, he should be protected, treated humanely and be allowed external communication as appropriate according to that Convention. ICRC should be allowed to visit him without delay. Information about his condition should also be provided promptly to his family.
1344. The Mission is concerned by the declarations referred to above, made by various Israeli officials, who have indicated the intention of maintaining the blockade of the Gaza Strip until the release of Gilad Shalit. The Mission is of the opinion that this would constitute collective punishment of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
So to review, looking back at the situation at the time Israel attacked Hamas last year, the Goldstone commission studiously avoided any major discussion of Hamas’s belligerence. Furthermore it found Israel in violation of international law in matters relating to the capture and holding of Gilad Shalit and effectively absolved Hamas for any legal responsibility.
I think that Israel would have had a better shot with the Red Queen.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
