THE ISRAELI DOCTRINE OF DESTRUCTION

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE ISRAELI APOCALYPSE

(Due to the exceptional quality of 80% of the images presented
below, I ask you to please open the thumbs to see an amazing
wealth of detail so frequently overlooked in the usual smaller images.)

In the piece I posted yesterday about the destruction of the Samouni chicken farm, I mentioned my feeling that such devastation was part of an over all campaign to steal from the Palestinians any and all ability to be self-sufficient. I have since read that this is exactly the case; they followed the same tactic in their siege of Lebanon a few years ago. This is known as the “Dahiya Doctrine”, named after a suburb of Beirut that was almost leveled during Israel’s attack on Lebanon in summer 2006.

The Dahiya Doctrine in Beirut, Lebanon,
before and after Israeli attack in 2006.

This 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”.“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 our targets 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. And it has been approved."

Disproportionate force or "overkill"?

These are the words of IDF Northern Command Chief Gabi Eisenot, openly threatening to kill Lebanese civilians and destroy entire villages in Israel’s leading daily paper. Eisenkot calls this the "Dahiya Doctrine", after the poor, densely populated Shi’a suburb of Beirut that Israel flattened in 2006, killing or displacing almost the entire population. Human Rights Watch condemned the “massive destruction” that was inflicted on Dahiya as “both indiscriminate and disproportionate”, describing how “Israeli forces attacked not only Hezbollah military targets but also the offices of Hezbollah’s charitable organizations, the offices of its parliamentarians, its research center, and multi-story residential apartment buildings in areas considered supportive of Hezbollah."

Did Eisenot forget to mention hospitals? Nope.

Gaza al Quds Hospital before the latest siege of Gaza.

That is exactly what the Israeli military has done in Gaza during this current blitz. Never mind that the whole attack was based on falsified evidence! This long-planned and all-too-indiscriminate slaughter of hundreds of civilians, the wounding of thousands, and the destruction of homes, hospitals, schools, mosques and economic infrastructure cannot be justified in the name of Israeli national security.

Today, after the seige, the hospital is a shell.

In the last days before Israel imposed a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza to avoid embarrassing the incoming Obama administration, it upped its assault, driving troops deeper into Gaza City, intensifying its artillery bombardment and creating thousands more displaced people.

THIS is how Zionism protects the Obama administration from embarrassment?

Israel’s military strategy in Gaza, even in what its officials were calling the “final act”, followed a blueprint laid down during the Lebanon war more than two years ago. Does not the very term "final act" bring back memories of Hitler's "final solution"?

Gaza after application of Israeli protection of Obama measures.

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.

Cluster bomb. Made in America or UK.

Similarly, Israel’s destruction of Gaza continued with unrelenting vigour to the very last moment, even though according to reports in the Israeli media the air force exhausted what it called its “bank of Hamas targets” in the first four days of fighting. Actually, the Mon., December 29, 2008, headline of Ha'aretz read,

"MOST HAMAS BASES DESTROYED IN FIRST 4 MINUTES."

Most victims of cluster bombs are children. Often the individual bombs
have small colourful attachments that child sees as a toy.

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."

Was this farm destroyed because a Hamas member drank milk?

That included mosques, universities, most government buildings, the courts, 25 schools, 20 ambulances and several hospitals, as well as bridges, roads, 10 electricity generating stations, sewage lines, and 1,500 factories, workshops and shops.

Center of a Palestinian town before the Blitz.

Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah estimate the damage so far at $1.9 billion, pointing out that at least 21,000 residential apartment buildings need repairing or rebuilding, forcing 100,000 Palestinians into refugeedom once again. In addition, 80 per cent of all agricultural infrastructure and crops were destroyed. The PA has described its estimate as “conservative."

Center of town after application of the"Dahiya Doctrine"

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.

A mosque, devastated in Israel's latest incursion into Gaza,
in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip.

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. We make the rules, and we can break them too, just like we can break the spirit of the Palestinians."

Is this "far enough into the past" to please you, Mr. Galant?
Most likely, this child is thinking of the future!

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, this plan, as we know now, was intended for use in Gaza, too.

Depiction of Eisenkot's Plan Made in Hell

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.

More devastation courtesy of those brave men in their flying machines.

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.”

Is there any "long and expensive reconstruction process" for this "collateral damage"?

Col Siboni identified the chief target of Israel’s rampages as “decision makers and the power elite”, including “economic interests and the centers of civilian power that support the [enemy] organization.”

The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).

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.” For THIS purpose they killed and maimed thousands of innocent Palestinians, and condemned the survivors to lives of squalor, famine and disease?

Young terrorist at a candlelight vigil to address shortages of basics in Gaza.

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.

A common finding during the reclamation of a bulldozed reservoir.

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.

Israelis took special care to damage all water facilities in Gaza.

Israel wants all aid to be be channeled 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. The longer this siege has lasted, the more important these tunnels have been to keep the people alive. Everything from medical supplies to farm animals have been brought into Gaza by this means.

A disoriented calf is smuggled into Gaza from Egypt by tunnel.
Israelis routinely kill livestock as part of their stranglehold process.

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.

Please enlarge to see the scope of the Separation Wall surrounding Gaza.

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.

Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store talks with Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki

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?”