martes, diciembre 30, 2008

¿QUE POR QUÉ la situación en Gaza es más complicada de lo que la presentan los medios de comunicación y opinadores de aquí? Pues porque no se enteran de algunos factores como, por lo que escribe Jeffrey Goldberg en The Atlantic:
I've been talking to friends of mine, former Palestinian Authority intelligence officials (ejected from power by the Hamas coup), and they tell me that not only are they rooting for the Israelis to decimate Hamas, but that Fatah has actually been assisting the Israelis with targeting information. One of my friends -- if you want to know why they're my friends, read this book -- told me that one of his comrades was thrown off a high-rise building in Gaza City last year by Hamas, and so he sheds no tears for the Hamas dead. "Let the Israelis kill them," he said. "They've brought only rouble for my people."

ACTUALIZACIÓN. A ver si nuestra televisiones, que están mostrando tantas imágenes de niños víctimas en Gaza, se les ocurre mostrar este video en que una niña palestina herida en un bombardeo israelí en el que murió su hermana, culpa de todo a Hamas. Curiosamente este video lo pasó la propia televisión palestina (aunque esté detrás de ello la mano de sus rivales de al-Fatah, no deja de ser curioso comprobar una vez más cómo aquí somos más palestinistas que  los palestinos):


ACTUALIZACIÓN II. Ah, y unas palabras respecto a la proporcionalidad, cuya supuesta falta es continuamente gritada por tantos:
In international law, disproportionality is a term of art: It does not instill an obligation to match your foe only rocket for rocket. Proportionality is not measured against the precipitating action of the enemy which sparked the conflict, it’s measured against the military objective the state is attempting to achieve.

In the current situation, Israel responded to steady rocket fire from Gaza with a punishing air assault aimed at destroying the political and military leadership and manpower of Hamas. This is a legitimate military objective, albeit one clearly more far-reaching than Hamas’ rocket fire. Nonetheless, so long as long as the military strikes are proportionate to the goal of the operation, proportionality is not breached. Most sources I’ve read indicate that Israel has done a stellar job in this instance minimizing civilian casualties — most of the Gazans killed have been Hamas soldiers, policemen, or leaders. The attack was wide-ranging, but so was the mission. This is not a failure of proportionality, as the term is understood in international law. Of course, the technical legal definition of “proportionality” has nothing whatsoever to do with whether, all things considered, Israel’s behavior is wise here. But the proportionality argument is mostly being deployed not as a strategic argument but a moral one — attempting to allege Israel is a lawbreaker here. And that just isn’t right.