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Life After the Bombs
Hatem Moussa / AP Photo
As the U.N. Human Rights Council endorses a report accusing Israeli forces of war crimes, Judith Miller reports from the streets of Gaza and finds the tide is turning unexpectedly against Hamas.
As the United Nations debates Arab-Israeli peace prospects yet again, consider Gaza’s zoo. The pint-size “Amusement Land” contains several generic “fish” in dusty aquariums, a cage filled with “house cats” and another with “dogs” (two Wheaten terrier mixtures and a mangy desert stray), a pair of falcons and ostriches, a peacock, which shares a cage with a rooster, parakeets and other assorted “birds,” monkeys, a gazelle, and one sad-looking lioness. The zoo’s centerpiece is a cage containing two bedraggled zebras. Only, it turns out, they are not zebras.
Ahmed Barghut, the zoo’s owner, said that the real zebra died during Israel’s 22-day bombing campaign this year, when he and his son could not travel to the outskirts of Gaza City to feed the animals. Unable to afford a new zebra, which the owner said would cost $4,000, his son painted stripes on two local donkeys and placed them in the zebra cage.
Over time, other cheaper replacement animals were brought to Gaza through the maze of more than 1,500 underground tunnels to and from Egypt that also supply Gazans with much of their food and daily necessities, at a hefty price.
A pro-Fatah university professor said he hoped that Israel would maintain its Gaza blockade for at least two more years. “By then, Hamas will be finished forever.”
Israeli officials assert and local polls agree that militant Hamas is losing ground each day that Israel continues its siege of Gaza, an enclave 25 miles long and 6 miles wide—the size of greater Detroit—where some 1.4 million people have been imprisoned for nearly three years. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency says that 80 percent of Gaza’s refugee population, or about 800,000 people, now depend on its daily food rations to survive. Unemployment has soared and one-third of the population lives in abject poverty, says John Ging, the UNRWA office director.
The zoo, however, is but one example of Palestinian resilience that undermines Israel’s three-year old blockade and complicates its effort to persuade Gazans to reject Hamas in favor of its rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which unlike Hamas, is willing to make peace with the Jewish state. Thanks largely to cooperation with Israel and the U.S., the West Bank’s economy is booming—projected to grow at a rate of more than 7 percent this year. Tourism is up; so are agricultural exports and per capita income. A four-year-old U.S.-sponsored training program headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has helped Fatah, the Palestinian Authority’s core group, reform its police and security services, resulting in enhanced security on the West Bank and devastating pinpoint attacks against Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other militants determined to strike Israel and foment discord among Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Gazans are being collectively punished—in violation of international law, says UNWRA director Ging—for their decision following Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005 to elect Hamas over Fatah in the 2006 legislative elections. After Hamas violently expelled Fatah forces a year later, splitting Gaza administratively from the West Bank, Hamas used Gaza as a launching pad to attack Israel. Between 2001 and the end of 2008, Hamas and armed militants it once tolerated fired more than 8,000 rockets and mortar shells on Israeli cities from Gaza, killing 14 Israelis and wounding more than 400. The inevitable outcome was the short, but devastating 22-day military offensive last December that resulted in war crimes by both sides—but especially by Israel—according to the report by the United Nations “fact-finding” task force headed by Richard Goldstone, the Jewish South African jurist, which Israel and the United States have both criticized. (On Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Council endorsed the report).
While Israel claimed to have targeted Hamas’ “infrastructure of terror,” said Ging, it had actually destroyed Gaza’s “infrastructure of democracy”—the parliament building, as well as schools, a biscuit factory, a juice producer, a cement plant.
“We are trapped in a prison where stress is normal,” says Eyad Sarraj, a Western-trained psychiatrist who runs the Gaza Community Mental Health Centers. More than 15 percent of the population, he estimates, suffers from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Children— —one half of the population is under 18—are the primary victims, registering unprecedented levels of bed-wetting, sleeplessness, phobias, depression, flashbacks, loss of concentration, and impulsive behavioral disorders.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Leslie H. Gelb, a former New York Times columnist and senior government official, is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy (HarperCollins 2009), a book that shows how to think about and use power in the 21st century. He is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
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Judith Miller is an author and a Pulitzer Prize-winning former investigative reporter for the New York Times. She is now an adjunct fellow at Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor to its magazine, City Journal, and a Fox News commentator.
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Judith Miller is an author and a Pulitzer Prize-winning former investigative reporter for the New York Times. She is now an adjunct fellow at Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor to its magazine, City Journal, and a Fox News commentator.
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Judith Miller is an author and a Pulitzer Prize-winning former investigative reporter for the New York Times. She is now an adjunct fellow at Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor to its magazine, City Journal, and a Fox News commentator.
I can certainly understand why Israel doesn't want an Islamic fascist group like Hamas as a next door neighbor, but sooner or later they ARE going to have an independent Palestinian state as a neighbor. The idea of two-state solution has been around since the 1920s and 1930s, and if there is a better way of solving this toxic problem, I have never heard of it.
The Israelis are rational people. As long as they aren't bombed, they would co-exist with anyone.
really Israelis are rational???? I have a hard time with that and I would like to know where you get your facts? This was a great article and points out the glaring flaws in Israels campaign of terror against woman and children who only have rocks and sticks to fight against machine guns and apache helicopters!!!! Isreal is an oppressive regime like any other oppresive regime and treating people like animals has never made friends.
Ever heard of the old saying keep your friends close but your enemies closer??? Or how about you catch more fly's with honey not vinegar?? Bring prosperity and security to Palestine and you will win the hearts and minds of a young generation that has only known war and misery! Shame on Isreal and I am sick of them.
Suzanne... I'm not generally the first to jump to the defense of Israel and I think your primary argument has a lot of merit, but the Palestinians don't just have rocks and sticks, unless you meant rockets and sticks of dynamite.
There you go with "fascist" again. I continue to wonder, as this words peppers almost all of your posts, whether you unconsciously invoke this term in order to prepare the way for acceptance of your position--by coloring the other side as one without motive, without reason, without value...Hmmm...I am wondering if the overuse of the word "fascist" might not also be fascist itself? You are a sane person; how about stepping back from the incitement.
Thank you Ms. Miller for that insightful window into the soul of this, festering misery stuck in perpituity.
If the world is oh so tired of hearing about this feud, one cannot even begin to imagine what living within the boundaries must be like.
While I abhore hearing the suffering inflicted, particularly, on these poor Palestinian children, we are shown once again that squeezing the life blood out of these militant groups by turning their own people against them is the most effective way of draining the energy and will from the beast.
If the rage is allowed to subside from the common man, they are given time to reflect on the futility of infinite hatred.
I can only imagine how many Gazans must wonder how much greener the grass looks over there in the West Bank. How maybe if they cut the head off the Hamas snake, they could join the rest of their Palestinian brothers and sisters in the lush well fed world on the other side of the fence. How, if America seems to be shaking hands with Palestinians on that side of the fence, maybe America isn't the great Satan. A result that can only be achieved through diplomatic channels and not " shock and awe "
I do not condone some of the terrible crimes perpetrated by the Israeli's even though I can understand what fuels the anger, however, the peaceful and successful relationship between Fatah and Israel seems to prove a critical point, that the problem IS Hamas and it's patent refusal to make peace and break bread.
I have had many Middle Eastern friends and the common thread that bonded them all was there inability to let go of an issue when offended " you have defiled my honor and you shall pay forever ".
The two state solution is indeed the answer but will produce no real fruit until Hamas says " enough is enough. We cannot allow this burden of history to fester on and on and on. "
A two state solution cannot even be discussed if two factions ,that despise each other, are fighting within one of those states. Either one faction is killed off or they must break bread first within Palestine and then talks can begin between Israel and a unified Palestine.
Will this ever end ?
Identification with the aggressor, alive and well.
Maybe Ms. Miller can track down Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in Gaza? I have heard reports on Glenn Beck's show that a nuclear weapon is being developed in a local mosque with North Korean, Venezuelan and SDS support.
lol LProyect !
Does Glenn Beck really rail about SDS, too? I don't know, I never watch him. I generally ignore him really. (unless of course he cries on his show, in which case I pay just enough attention to laugh at his horrible acting).
Moron...Lproyect that is.
A very refreshingly insightful, inspiring and question raising article for which I am sure many readers will and should be grateful.
Two things come to mind however, firstly the fact that the report compiled by Mr. Goldstone is not getting the recognition it deserves is somewhat telling of the fact that until both sides agree to compromise we're not going to moving forward in any sense, if Israel waits around for Hamas to change then we could waiting for a very very long time, granted that Hamas must do its part, lets face it, negotiations, especially ones on topics as prickly as this one are about reaching compromise on an issue all while letting both sides save face and not look like they gave in; Israel can only control its actions, furthermore it is in such a position where it does have the sufficient wiggle room to do so. The massive diplomatic machine in place around this issue could allow them to do so. At the end of the day, playing the "we won't budge until Hamas does" empowers Hamas in the sense that it effectively puts them in charge of how Israel is going to act.
Secondly, the issue brought up towards the end of this article: will this siege really manage to wipe out Hamas? Or will it instead empower them, giving their cause and plight more relevance? Or worse, bring about a whole new breed of even more radical and even more desperate militants (Jund Ansar Allah being mentioned)? At this time my opinion on the matter is swaying more to the side of this approach not necessarily being the most appropriate. Israel tried to wipe out Hezbollah a few summers ago, now that very same "terrorist organization" is the main opposition party in the Lebanese Parliament, the cases are of course not identical, but they definitely bear enough resemblances to be relevant to one another.
In essence, do the means justify the end? And which is the lesser of two evils when it comes to electing an appropriate course of action?
Judith Miller has no credibility. Nothing she writes can be believed. She aided and abetted Bush/Cheney in lying our nation into an unjustified war, and now she works for Fox News.
Amen!
Miller left the Times in disgrace. She literally was in bed with her sources. Now she's on TDB? Must be a pal of Tina's. Sorry, no rehabilitation for Judy.
I must agree with these two replies. Miller is considered a joke in the journalism community. It would be foolish to draw any conclusions from her notoriously poor reporting.
Yes, Israel guilty of "war crimes." By this logic, the U.S. and Britain were also guilty of war crimes in bombing Germany in 1945. Which is to say, b.s. on both fronts. It is the exact, exact, same thing.
You're right something that happened 65 years ago in the context of a world war is totally comparable and relevant to today's conflict... Either that or we havn't made any progress as an international community in that time which is equally if not more worrying...
Any country that uses white phosphorus bombs - bombs which are totally indiscriminate and burn straight through human flesh including bone, any country that shoots children with white flags trying to run from the conflict in the back of the head, any country that forces people into buildings and then bombs and pushes those buildings down on the women and children inside is a country that is totally depraved and morally bankrupt.
Any country that financially supports these actions, such as the US, is equally so. Neither group is worthy of the term human. This is sheer unvarnished evil.
Supporters can write all the words they want to in defense of these monsters, but it means nothing. The behavior speaks for itself.
words words, so chip and easy to use....Israel does not use white phosphtheorus BOMBS as you say. it did use YP smoke in the middle of gaza, which doesnt make it alright this substence can cause heavy burns when comes directly with the skin, but its very very hard to get killed by it, one bullet is much more efficent. please mind your facts.
i cant answer to shooting CHILDREN with white flags, it sounds horrible, but as far as i know nothing of that sort has been dan, and if it did happen, i would gladly hang does fighters myself
the same goes for other insdents of course, but it seems to me you are judjing israel not as a country but as a unified body, that is full of hate and wants only to kill palstinens. real life is a little different, with a few more colores, israel is no longer in lebanon, gaza and most of the west benk, isreal does not fire missils indiscriminately into another country. not to talk about blowing WOMEN and CHILDREN. israel does not teach its children to hate and kill,and open your eyes and compere the life of gazens and the life in the west benk, and now why is that?
and i am not talking about sending soldiers to a far away place, this happens right on our borders, i dont like action from both sides but i do think hammas has a greater responsebility for this grim outcome.
and the last thing. i want to see any country in this world that would seat and do nothing while missils fall into their cities, one!!, this is an act of war!! and there is a price for it.
as you understand, i am an israeli.
Judith Miller?!?! Are you serious?!?! It´s clear in this piece she is putting a thin veil over her neocon leaning political views (though she did put quotes around U.N. ¨fact finding¨, which is probably a stylistic trick she picked up from Fox News). I don´t see the point of this piece. It doesn´t have an insightful point of view or any new insight. It doesn´t present a solution but also doesn´t clearly state the problem. The only conclusion I can take away from this piece is that Miller sees palestinians as hopeless and pathetic and believes that Israel has no choice but to blocade and bomb them for the next decade.
Gazans have themselves to blame for their suffering. They freely elected Hamas which had the public support to shell Israeli towns ad lib and kidnap for ransom Israeli soldiers. They made their bed they sleep in.
Your a moron Israel has the WMD, Bombs, guns etc the body count dosent lie..Israeli creates the terror..and they keep stealing land and demolshing homes on a daily basis.You my friend are not a good jew. There is no way you follow the ethical and moral laws of the Torah
Tina!! Please, what are you thinking? Are you getting tired and sloppy as an editor after only one year? This is the only reason a daily reader can imagine....for publishing this tedious dribble from a hack such as Judith Miller. I thought my head was going to implode from her compulsive use of quotations. Not, mind you, to recite an actual human quote, but rather to convey snarkiness...with the intention to discredit any possible criticism of Isreal of course.
Can't you just see her on Fox reading this piece from a teleprompter and performing the little two finger air quote gesture every time she mentions war crimes and Isreal in the same sentence? I considered actually counting how many times she resorted to this sophmoric little trick, but I was afraid it would induce a migrane to actually read this piece a second time.
Did she manage to present a single objective fact about the truth on the ground in Gaza? Probably. But who cares. Whatever truth or objective insight may be included is rendered instantly irrelevant when you know it is coming from the infamous Judith Miller. Her past performance as Dick Cheney's press secretary while masquerading as a journalist, would be laughable if the consequences had not been so devastating. Some may choose to forgive her lack of journalistic ethics, but it should never be forgotten. Ever. And until she chooses to acknowledge the role she played in marketing an unnecessary war, she should never be seen as a credible journalist again. Ever.
Part of what makes TDB a reliably fabulous read, is the rich inclusion of diverse viewpoints. As a progressive Democrat, I often enjoy reading the submissions from the conservatives and even the occasional unapologetic neocon. Because while I almost always disagree with their broad interpretations, there is usually, buried somewhere within the stretched truths, some measure of credibility to their perceptions - that informs me of an alternate possibility that I hadn't considered. And I appreciate that, as I also appreciate reading the comments that follow from all across the political spectrum. But I simply cannont stomach the notion that TDB would give such a valuable platform to this miserable excuse for a journalist. We all make mistakes Tina, but please...never again. Let her go back on Dick Cheney's payroll where she belongs.
P.S. Dear Frenchmanaz: While I enjoyed your passionate writing style, I beg to differ with your description of the "lush well fed world on the other side of the fence" of Gaza. One can only assume that you have not spent any time in Palestine, or if you have, you were't paying attention. I have spent plenty of time in Palestine and Isreal. And my eyes were opened to the unavoidable truth that humiliation and hardship are the only thing the Palestinians can count on in their daily life. The 3 year old little boy that I held in the (only) rehabilitiation hospital in Rumallah, (where the supply shelves remain empty most days and the employees can wait months for their paychecks)...who was left paralyzed from the waist down from IDF mortars...even at 3 years old, I'm certan he understood that the prospects of his life, were not going to be lush. The woman I cried with as she showed me the picture she carries of the tiny little casket, that held the child she lost while delivering him in the back of an ambulance while it sat in a checkpoint for 3 hours...2 of which she spent cradling her stillborn child...No, I don't imagine she feels the lush life you describe. Or the unemployed farmer who carried the deed to the small olive grove his father left to him, that is now a condominium complex like any you would see in South Florida, that is so often described with the more charming term of: Isreali settlement. No...since that once independent farmer can no longer feed his family without government assistance, I suspect he would not consider his family well fed.
The power that Hamas has acquired and uses to inflict nothing but suffering on the innocent pawns in Gaza, is a disgrace that should have never happened. But happen it did....thanks in no small part to the pathetic excuse for a foreign policy, of the Bush administration. The situation now is certainly, one hot mess, that I don't pretend to know how to correct. But I do know one thing: I sure as hell don't care to hear what Judith Miller has to say about it.
Excellent comment, lucky, from start to finish. Sadly, it will probably be the first and last of yours I read on this site because I am unsubscribing. Anyone that publishes articles by Judith Miller, one of the biggest liars and propagandists ever to disgrace the front pages of the NY Times, clearly has no concern over the credibility of information on their website.
So long Daily Beast. There's no excuse for this one.
What in HELL is Judith Miller (THAT Judith Miller) doing writing for The Daily Beast??? She has absolutely no credibility on anything to do with foreign affairs--remember her PAGE 1 story in the NYT about WMD! And her secret (unacknowledged) source was Ahmed Chalabi--YETCH! Give that woman a cold Neo-Con and send her home!
P.S. Of course she is anti-Hamas! She is anti-Palestinian as well and thinks everything Israel does is wonderful!
What type of racists nonsense is this infidel Miller speaking of,She is suggesting that the Palestians like the treatment there getting from Zion's headquaters.. Do you have a brain ? are you mad ? or just totally insane Miller has no problem supporting the worlds biggest terrorist regime the Zionist
A two state solution is possible if religious fanatics and political anarchists are driven from the area. The people of both sides want security without the imposition of radical hate groups. The real war crimes are caused by those who would reject the right of one people to exist even at the expense of perpetual conflict and poverty of the people they rule. Hamas is an anarchist organization. It represents insanity and it would impose insanity on the entire region if it remained in power. An honest government representing the people would have brought peace and security to the Palestinians long ago.
Thank you.
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