Gideon Levy :Air strikes are the bomb
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haaretz.com
One
issue unites Israeli society: Every aggressive Israeli act is applauded
– whether it’s clear what it was about or not, whether the operation
was necessary or not. Just as long as we bomb something. What could be
bad about another bombing in Syria? We’ve already done it a hundred times and everything went well, so what’s wrong with another go?
Why
not shove another stick into that bleeding bull? It can’t respond,
after all. So if we can bomb, why not? It keeps the air force alert,
after not having a real fight for decades. When all is said and done,
it’s a bit difficult to use an F-35 against a girl with scissors at the
Qalandiyah checkpoint, and a bombing gives the air force a halo of
heroism.
Everybody
cheers it. The commentators parrot that the bombing of weapons making
their way to Hezbollah “creates deterrence.” But Hezbollah already has
150,000 missiles and rockets from all that bombing and deterrence.
Behind
all this is the yearning to strike the Arabs, strike as much as
possible, strike as much as we can, strike as long as it doesn’t exact a
price – by air, sea or land. Never mind where, when and why, as long as
we strike.
The
Israel Defense Forces has long become the Israel Attack Forces. Israel
is allowed to do anything. After all, Israel is a pacifist,
peace-seeking country merely defending itself. In its arrogance, Israel
also takes the liberty of violating the sovereignty of its neighbor
Lebanon as much as it likes, invading its sky daily and even bombing
Syria from it. Because who's Lebanon to tell Israel where to fly?
Nothing
is easier than imagining what would happen if a Lebanese reconnaissance
balloon entered Israel’s skies, not to mention a plane. Lebanon’s skies
would tremble and shake; how dare it breach our sovereignty? But Israel
is allowed.
It’s
also allowed to bomb weapons convoys everywhere, because Israel itself
never acquires arms. It’s allowed to do so because it can. Here too it’s
not hard to imagine what would happen if a country’s air force decided
to bomb an arms shipment to Israel.
Israel
is allowed to equip itself with any weapon, whether they're permitted
and prohibited. It’s allowed to bomb weapons development centers because
the weapons produced there are an “equilibrium breaker.” This term is a
bit of comic relief used by the military and yes-men reporters, as if
there were any equilibrium that these weapons were breaking. Israel even
uses this absurd term when it talks about Hamas in Gaza. Just imagine.
According
to Israeli logic, only Israel is allowed to arm itself in the region,
and it has the right to prevent any other group or country from doing
so, whether by force or international pressure. Distant Saudi Arabia
wanted AWACS spy planes, so Israel went bonkers; it has to thwart almost
any arms deal. If it were up to Israel, all the Arab states would be
demilitarized, and only Israel would continue to arm itself with every
kind of weapon.
On
the face of it, there’s nothing to complain about. Israel is a regional
power and wants to preserve its strength. The Middle East is extremely
violent, the threats to Israel are substantial, at least partly, and if
Israel can neutralize its enemies, it must do so. But this is
shortsighted. These frequent bombings of Syria could have a price. This
is how wars are stoked, from one successful bombing to another.
Also,
the idea that the side with the stronger military will prevail forever
isn’t borne out by history. Israel, which bases its entire presence in
the Middle East on its sword, can’t lean on it forever. Syria will
remember that in its most difficult hour Israel humiliated it. Nations
and statesmen don’t forget that. Now Russia is around as well.
The
bombing at the end of the week was a bombshell of an operation. Hats
off to the IDF. But after the 102nd bombing, or maybe the 200th, there
could be payback.
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