INTO its fourth day, when and how the Israeli onslaught on Gaza ends depends on which side proves what it set out to do. Hamas has new missiles able to reach Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, much to the incredulity of Israelis. Also to Hamas' advantage is a new Egypt led by an Islamist president more sympathetic to Hamas' cause than his predecessor. Israel might soon deploy troops in the thousands for the start of a dreaded offensive aimed at taking down the Hamas rocket batteries as well as showing the resistance fighters that closer ties with Cairo will not necessarily be of much help. Whatever the conclusion, the world does not want another 2008-2009 assault which claimed the lives of close to 1,500 Palestinians and destroyed a great deal of the infrastructure of the Gaza coastal enclave including schools, mosques, hospitals and even a UN headquarters. Some 61,000 homes, 39 mosques and 18 hospitals and hospital facilities were destroyed. Operation Cast Lead was one unrelenting atrocity after the other committed against the people of Palestine. Gaza was bombarded mercilessly. Atrocious acts of violence were committed against Palestinians while the borders were sealed. Another chapter in Israel's disproportionate use of force will once again violate the most fundamental principles of international law in numerous ways. First, it is a violation of the laws of war to use disproportionate force against an occupied people. This violation is amplified when it is done with the goal of denying the occupied people their self-determination. Therefore, second, Israel's action constitutes a violation of the right to self-determination. And, finally, Israel's intentionally disproportionate use of force against the Palestinian people is significant evidence that the crime of genocide is being committed. For more than 60 years the Palestinians have resisted this illegal occupation as they are entitled to do under rules of international law by all necessary means. International law also imposes a responsibility to use force in a manner that respects the laws of war. For example, civilians cannot be targeted either intentionally or through indiscriminate means. When a state resorts to the use of force it enters a process wherein the truth is often blurred and intentionally distorted. Israel's use of force against the Palestinian people in Gaza is a classic example. The Israeli government has invented terminology and ideology to claim that it is acting in the cause of self-defense. Instead, Israel has been for more than 60 years the illegal occupier of Palestinian land and the Palestinian people living on it or forcefully internally displaced. In maintaining this occupation, Israel has ignored dozens of UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions and has created such inhumane conditions for the Palestinian people that these conditions might reasonably be said to be intended to destroy the Palestinian people in whole or in part. Nevertheless, despite the Israeli aggression, the Palestinians must also acknowledge that rocket attacks against Israel could be strategically counterproductive, serving not the goals of the resistance men who launch them, but rather of Israel, by handing it the pretext it requires to continue to collectively punish the populations of the occupied territories.
