JERUSALEM // While Hamas and Israel were edging tentatively
towards acceptance of a ceasefire late last week, Israel upped its assault on
Gaza, driving its troops deeper into Gaza City, intensifying its artillery
bombardment and creating thousands more displaced people.
Israel’s military strategy in Gaza, even in what is likely to be
the “final act” as officials are calling it, is following a blueprint laid down
during the Lebanon war more than two years ago.
Then, Israel destroyed much of Lebanon’s infrastructure in a
month of intensive air strikes. Even in the war’s last few hours, as a ceasefire
was being finalised, Israel fired more than a million cluster bombs over south
Lebanon, apparently in the hope that the area could be made as uninhabitable as
possible.
Similarly, Israel’s destruction of Gaza has been continuing with
unrelenting vigour, even though according to reports in the Israeli media the
air force exhausted what it calls its “bank of Hamas targets” in the first few
days of fighting.
The military sidestepped the problem by widening its definition
of Hamas-affiliated buildings. Or as one senior official explained: “There are
many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum because
everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel.”
That includes mosques, universities, government buildings, the
courts, at least 18 schools, ambulances and several hospitals, as well as
bridges, roads, and power and sewage plants. At the end of last week it also
appeared to include a media centre and the UN headquarters in Gaza.
Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah, far from the
wreckage, estimate the damage so far at more than US$1.4 billion (Dh5bn),
pointing out that at least 24,000 residential apartment buildings need repairing
or rebuilding.
Yesterday, Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, called for an
international meeting to work on Gaza’s postwar reconstruction. Everyone is
agreed it will be a mammoth task that will take many years.
None of this will be regretted by Israel. In fact the general
devastation, far from being unfortunate collateral damage, has been the
offensive’s unstated goal. Israel has sought the political, as well as military,
emasculation of Hamas through the widespread destruction of Gaza’s
infrastructure and economy.
This is known as the “Dahiya Doctrine”, named after a suburb of
Beirut that was almost levelled during Israel’s attack on Lebanon in summer
2006. The doctrine was encapsulated in a phrase used by Dan Halutz, Israel’s
chief of staff, at the time. He said Lebanon’s bombardment would “turn back the
clock 20 years”.
The commanding officer in Israel’s south, Yoav Galant, echoed
those sentiments on the Gaza offensive’s first day: the aim, he said, was to
“send Gaza decades into the past”.
Beyond these soundbites, Gadi Eisenkot, the head of Israel’s
northern command, clarified in October the practical aspects of the strategy:
“What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every
village from which Israel is fired on. We will apply disproportionate force on
it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are
not civilian villages, they are military bases. This is not a recommendation.
This is a plan.”
In the interview, Gen Eisenkot was discussing the next round of
hostilities with Hizbollah. However, the doctrine was intended for use in Gaza,
too.
Gabriel Siboni, a colonel in the reserves, set out the new
“security concept” in an article published by Tel Aviv University’s Institute of
National Security Studies two months before the assault on Gaza. Conventional
military strategies for waging war against states and armies, he wrote, could
not defeat sub-national resistance movements, such as Hizbollah and Hamas, that
have deep roots in the local population.
The goal instead was to use “disproportionate force”, thereby
“inflicting damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long
and expensive reconstruction processes”.
Col Siboni identified the chief target of Israel’s rampages as
“decision makers and the power elite”, including “economic interests and the
centres of civilian power that support the [enemy] organisation”.
The best Israel could hope for against Hamas and Hizbollah, Col
Siboni conceded, was a ceasefire on improved terms for Israel and delaying the
next confrontation by leaving “the enemy floundering in expensive, long-term
processes of reconstruction”.
In the case of Gaza’s lengthy reconstruction, however, Israel
says it hopes not to repeat the mistakes of Lebanon. Then, Hizbollah, aided by
Iranian funds, further bolstered its reputation among the local population by
quickly moving to finance the rebuilding of Lebanese homes destroyed by Israel.
According to the Israeli media, the foreign ministry has already
assembled a task force for “the day after” to ensure neither Hamas nor Iran take
the credit for Gaza’s reconstruction.
Israel wants all aid to be be channelled either through the
Palestinian Authority or international bodies. Sealing off Gaza, by preventing
smuggling through tunnels under the border with Egypt, is an integral part of
this strategy.
Much to Israel’s satisfaction, the rebuilding of Gaza is likely
to be even slower than might have been expected.
Diplomats point out that, even if western aid flows to the
Palestinian Authority, it will make little effect if Israel maintains the
blockade, curbing imports of steel, cement and money.
And international donors are already reported to be tired of
funding building projects in Gaza only to see them destroyed by Israel a short
time later.
With more than a hint of exasperation, Norway’s foreign minister,
Jonas Gahr Stoere, summed up the general view of donors last week: “Shall we
give once more for the construction of something which is being destroyed,
re-constructed and destroyed?”
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