Death Calculus: The Palestinian Role for Civilians

"In Dense Gaza, Civilians Suffer"
A1, Thursday 1/01/09
By Taghreed El-Khodary

This article's main failure is not in detailing the deaths of Gaza's civilians.

That's essential, but it needs to be complemented by two vital points: the role Palestinian civilians play in Hamas' war against Israel and Israel's moral dilemma in avoiding killing Palestinian civilians, while still protecting its own citizens. Both points are absent here.

Hamas' war against Israel is not only played out in its physical attacks against Israelis, but in a relentless PR war. The two are linked. Hamas kills Israelis and threatens to kill more. Israel must stop Hamas. But this is where it gets complex. The main sources of Hamas' current violence against Israelis – rocket launchers – are intentionally embedded among Palestinian civilians. For instance, they are adjacent or inside schools, mosques and homes.

In the same edition of the Times, just above this article, Hamas' upgraded rocket arsenal is the focus. (see above) To take out the arsenal, Israel is considering a ground offensive, which an Israeli report stated would see "Hamas use booby traps and roadside bombs" in "densely populated areas." As in Jenin during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, Palestinian militants are planning to booby trap and destroy houses – some with civilians still in them – in order to kill Israeli soldiers. Also in the same paper, in a front page article covered on this blog, Hamas was reported to fire on its border crossings with Israel – a move obviously benefiting its own people. This was all vital information easily accessble to El-Khodary.

Gaza's civilians are not killed simply because, as El-Khodary asserts, the Gaza Strip is densely populated.

Rocket launchers could be placed in empty fields near the fence with Israel, where no civilians live, but one, they'd be easily destroyed by Israel; and two, by placing them near civilians Hamas wants to force a painful dilemma on Israel.

The dilemma is a win-win for Hamas: If Israel doesn't take out the launchers, Israeli civilians may be killed. Hamas continues to be the champion of armed struggle and fulfills its mission of causing panic and disunity in Israel; and also making Jews think twice about choosing an unsafe place to live, an obvious strategy seldom noted.

If Israel does take out the launchers, Gaza's civilians will inevitably be hurt or killed in the attack – no matter how precision it is. Hamas can then point to Israel's "massacres" and "aggression" and not simply stoke hatred on the "Arab street" (since that seems to not need stoking), but may start to turn world opinion decidedly against Israel.

This horrific death calculus and Israel's horrible dilemma shouldn't be mysteries to any reporter. It's discussed frequently in Israeli media.

In a story supposedly on the suffering of Gaza's civilians, El-Khodary should be ashamed that she doesn't present to readers the real problem here: Hamas' anti-humanistic ideology and strategy, not Gaza's population density.