CNN’s Diana Magnay reported from a hill overlooking Gaza. The flares of Israeli rockets directed at targets beyond the little settlement of Sderot flashed through the night sky; her soundtrack caught the cheers and whoops of those who’d come to watch the bombardment. Magnay tweeted that these voyeurs were “scum”. She was reassigned to Moscow, but the damage had been done. The enormous disparity in the death toll and the sight of Israeli’s lugging their couches up the hill so they could watch the bombing of the Palestinians in comfort (“war porn”) has left the world with little sympathy for the latest incursion into Gaza.
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What the pictures haven’t shown, of course, is that every bus-stop in Sderot is a bomb-shelter. The village still receives 10 incoming rockets every day. Tunnels have been discovered nearby; bombs regularly destroy homes. Welcome to a conflict with no right and wrong, just death and killing.
Images of horror etch themselves into our minds. The cycle of violence appears so continuous (provocation followed by retaliation) and with no way out (refusal by Palestinian organisations such as Hamas to even recognise the right of Israel to exist; Israel’s recurrent nightmare of annihilation). The region is seemingly condemned to remain a crucible of war. This is the point at which you normally put down the paper, shaking your head. Why read on when the contours of conflict are so entrenched?
The new factor is a dangerous split in the Muslim world between Sunni and Shia. This can’t be reduced to a short tweet, yet it provides an important element of the background needed to understand Hamas’ actions. Originally an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, this organisation, controlling the Gaza strip but in significant conflict with the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank, found its supply-lines strangled. Egypt’s military is implacably opposed to the Brotherhood and displayed this in many ways. Analysts insist, for example, the arrest and incarceration of Australian journalist Peter Greste in Cairo had nothing to do with his reports. He was just a pawn in this ongoing conflict. Greste worked for al-Jazeera, a media outlet based in Qatar. This, like Hamas, is a Sunni state. Egypt acted to put Hamas under pressure in Gaza until Hamas felt it had nothing to lose from provoking Israel.
Finally, Tel Aviv acted, promising a short incursion – a surgical strike – and that’s where things began to go wrong. Although the missiles that the audience was watching from Sderot may appear accurate, the effect on the ground is neither precise nor clean. Particularly when Hamas is operating, quite deliberately, from hospitals and next to schools and "mistakes" occur. Innocents die and the Israelis appear destructive aggressors.
And there’s no doubt Hamas is winning the public relations battle. Portraits of horror ricochet around the social media faster and with more power than Tel Aviv’s explanations of why its action is necessary or arguments about who’s responsible for the original provocations leading to invasion. The duration of the incursion and inevitable collateral damage, as Israel seeks to destroy tunnels and searches for headquarters buried deep underground, is also working against it.
Any sympathy for the invasion is rapidly drying up, yet Israel still needs to ensure it destroys Hamas’ rockets and arsenals. But time is running out. Not everyone is cheering as the missiles fly overhead. Even America is pressing for the immediate cessation of the offensive.
The US prohibited flights to Israel after a Hamas rocket exploded near Ben Gurion airport, revealing yet another dynamic at work – a military one. The bombs being fired off represent ageing missiles, stockpiled over years. That’s why they’re being expended so readily. Newer rockets have greater range and accuracy, providing another reason why Tel Aviv’s military is determined to discover and eliminate them. With tourism such a vital part of Israel’s economy, the country couldn’t afford a precision strike on the airport. Equally, Hamas is carefully watching the international reaction and very aware of its improving bargaining position. Gaza is poor. The organisation has been spending money needed to alleviate poverty on weapons and concreting tunnels instead of building housing. Development has been abandoned in the search for a military solution.
The future depends on the individual participants in the conflict. There is a way to achieve peace. If the Palestinian Authority returns to Gaza; and the hard-liners in Hamas’ military wing are marginalised; and a cease-fire is maintained; and the UN pays the money owed to Hamas employees who haven’t seen their pay for months; and Israel finds a way to bolster the moderate factions rather than antagonise them further; and everyone can simply learn to accept the existence of other factions and nations ... well, perhaps that would be asking too much.
Nevertheless, the increasing precision and destructive capacity of weapons demands that war cannot continue. This was once the cradle of civilisation – today’s victor will gain only dirt and rubble. Neither side is demonstrating statesmanship. The only way forward will be when both sides recognise their need to reconcile.
Nicholas Stuart is a Canberra writer.
