Left Side of the Aisle #83 - Part 4

Outrage of the Week: Israel and the Clock of History

I have a concept which I call the Clock of History, the timeline of events relating to some set of events occurring in the world. In every conflict, every side, no matter how many sides there are, wants the Clock of History to start at a certain point, with a certain event. That is, each side want all events before that time to be considered irrelevant, unimportant, not to be considered. And every side, of course, wants that clock to start running at the point that is most advantageous to its argument.

This is true of all conflicts; it's especially true in the Middle East, particularly in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. As I record this (on November 21), the bombs and rockets continue to do their evil work in Gaza and southern Israel and there is talk - always talk - of a ceasefire. Whether or not that has been achieved by the time you see this, there still is something that needs to be said now.

Many times, it can be difficult to know when to start the Clock of History for a particular outbreak of a new cycle of death, again particularly in the tangled history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But sometimes it's not.

From late October into mid-November there had been an exchange of fire between the Israeli military and militants in Gaza. But Egypt brokered a ceasefire, with both Hamas and the Israeli military promising not to fire unless fired on. That was on November 13. The next day, an Israeli rocket was used to assassinate Ahmad al-Jabari, the military leader of Hamas - which, our media keeps forgetting to mention, is the elected government of Gaza. There was a ceasefire - and Israel broke it. There simply is no question about this and Israel's fatuous response that a ceasefire does not apply to its policy of assassinating leaders of Hamas is unworthy of attention.

That is when the Clock of History began for this new cycle of blood. The death we have seen and are still seeing is Israel's fault, Israel's moral and legal responsibility, Israel's doing. This is simply not arguable.

So much more needs be said, including about our own government’s shameful displays of fawning fealty to Israeli militarism - and I hope to talk some more about that next week. But I will leave it for now with this: Sometimes it really is clear who is to blame - and this is one of those times.

Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/mideast-conflict-israeli-gaza-violence_n_2134659.html
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-israel-shattered-gaza-truce-leading-escalating-death-and-tragedy-timeline
http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/11/15/when-does-israelpalestine-violence-start/