Re: [Marxism] The defenders of evil

["Gary MacLennan" <gary.maclennan1@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Eli,

I am just watching on Al Jazeera a video of the Israeli training facility in
the Negev.  There they have created a Palestinian village and they practice
going from street to street flushing out the 'terrorists".

The officer in charge called this a "real" experience.  The Al Jazeera
correspondent pointed out that the facility was empty while Gaza towns were
full of civilians, who would be caught in the crossfire.

That of course is true, but I doubt if  concern for civilian lives is at all
on the minds of the IDF.  What they are worried more about and transparently
so is the risks involved in directly encountering the resistance fighters.

So for now the Israeli reservists skulk behind the tanks and wait until an
area has been flattened by artillery, tanks, planes, drones, helicopters and
ships and then they move in and move back again.


This the military strategists have labeled stage two in contrast with stage
one which was the aerial bombardment.  The third stage seemingly would
involve moving the soldiers into the heart of the towns.

But although it is very difficult to tell from here what I suspect is that
what we are seeing in Gaza is the endless replay of the aerial bombardment.
There is no stage two or stage three.  The Israeli infantry will only
venture from out behind their tanks when all Gaza is on fire.

This reluctance to face up to the resistance fighters in evoking memories of
the disastrous experiences of Israeli infantry in Lebanon in 2006.  What is
being constructed here is an image of the IDF as being vulnerable when it is
not being protected by the savagery of "shock and awe" - that is bombardment
from land, sea and air.  It would seem that the ubermenschen of the IDF are
not so "uber" after all.
So there is a real danger for the Israeli state that the Palestinians will
emerge with a growing realisation that they are not a defeated people and
that the IDF is not invulnerable.  Such an eventuality would obviously have
great consequences for the Arab region as a whole.

regards

Gary
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