August 22, 2003
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, severed limbs for severed limbs and other lethal exchanges of body parts too grim to be enumerated. That was the deadly symmetry, once again, behind yesterday's revenge killing of Hamas leader Abu Shanab, by which Israel sought to settle its blood debt - or perhaps just exacted the first instalment - for the massacre of 20 Israeli civilians in Tuesday's bus blast. Never mind that it led so quickly and predictably to a declaration by Hamas and Islamic Jihad that the three month ceasefire was at an end. Israeli officials had already disavowed the ceasefire, arguing that the suicide bombing changed "the rules of the game" and that the ceasefire was dead.
No one should be surprised either that the target of the Israeli attack was a relative moderate who played an active role in negotiating the ceasefire. ("If the occupation stops," Abu Shanab had said, shortly before it was declared, "I think Palestinians are willing to live in peace and stop all kinds of violence.") An Israeli spokesman merely argued that there was a direct link between Abu Shanab and "the terrorists on the ground". Never mind too that the Palestinian Authority seemed at last to be edging towards a commitment to dismantle the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Predictably, that planned crackdown is also now on hold and the tenuous grip of prime minister Mahmoud Abbas is thus further weakened.
Cause and effect in this vicious slugging match are now too inextricably mixed to be easily disentangled, and the protagonists themselves seem quite incapable of doing so. While Israel claims that terrorist attacks have continued to be planned since the ceasefire began, the militant groups can point to the evidence of Israeli targeted killings which have also continued. What is beyond doubt is that the current "game" has been played under the same mutually destructive rules over and again for the past three years. More than 650 Israelis, mostly civilians and including nearly 100 children, have been killed in terrorist attacks. More than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly unarmed and including some 380 children, have been killed by the Israeli army. It is a game in which there are absolutely no winners.
Neither side is entitled to use the others' violence as an alibi for its own, but Israel, with the preponderance of power, is better placed to reflect on the folly, even in narrow terms of self-interest, of perpetuating this vicious cycle. The "targeted killings" of Palestinian militants - and innocent passers-by - were described as exceptional two years ago: now they have become routine. Instead of deterring Palestinian terrorism they have encouraged it to the point where even many Israelis believe that it is being done by their government to sabotage the peace process.
Targeted killings are also in breach of the obligations to which Israel is still bound as the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Geneva conventions clearly state that civilians shall be protected "unless and for such time as they take direct part in hostilities" (against citizens of the occupying power). Israeli leaders say from time to time they would be only too willing to end the occupation and see a Palestinian state emerge - if the terrorists would allow them to do so. There is a way out of this presumed dilemma: just start doing it now - and yes, that will mean dismantling the settlements which are also illegal. Only then can there be peace, but it will be a prize well worth the exercise of restraint instead of vengeance.
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