[Marxism] Israel's new war ethic

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<_http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14612_ 
(http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14612) >

 
 
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Explaining to those viewers who might be wondering why Israel allows  
humanitarian assistance to the other side during times of war, he declared that 
 if a 
full-blown humanitarian catastrophe were to explode among the Palestinian  
civilian population, the international community would pressure Israel to stop  
the assault. 
There is something extremely cynical about how Israel explains its use of  
humanitarian assistance, and yet such unadulterated explanations actually help  
uncover an important facet of postmodern warfare. Not unlike raising animals 
for  slaughter on a farm, the Israeli government maintains that it is providing 
 Palestinians with assistance so that it can have a free hand in attacking 
them.  And just as Israel provides basic foodstuff to Palestinians while it 
continues  shooting them, it informs Palestinians--by phone, no less--that they 
must  evacuate their homes before F-16 fighter jets begin bombing them.  
One notices, then, that in addition to its remote-control, computer game-like 
 qualities, postmodern warfare is also characterized by a bizarre new moral  
element. It is as if the masters of wars realized that since current wars 
rarely  take place between two armies and are often carried out in the midst of 
civilian  populations, a new just war theory is needed. So these masters of war 
gathered  together philosophers and intellectuals to develop a moral theory 
for postmodern  wars, and today, as Gaza is being destroyed, we can see quite 
plainly how the  new theory is being transformed into praxis.  
-Neve Gordon teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University.  



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