A country burns. The death-dealers deserved to die, you say. Death is easy to pronounce. It's the smell of burning children that's hard.
-- Sampurna Chattarji, Mumbai,
India from her poem "Easy"
On Jan. 9, Congress overwhelming passed resolutions supporting Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks by Hamas. Congressman Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters after the vote that he had "no trouble justifying the war that Israel has undertaken, but I am deeply troubled by the suffering, destruction, and loss of innocent life that it inevitably entails."
Exactly what this war entails was described by a CNN news report a few days earlier. "Israeli artillery struck near a U.N. school sheltering civilians in Gaza, killing at least 40 people after, according to the Israeli military, Hamas militants fired mortars from the location."
When America's legislative leaders accept the loss of innocent lives as inevitably part of a war we deem just, we answer our question, "why do they hate us?" The hardening of hearts may feel justified, but violence breeds more violence. Israel's response to Hamas' rocket attacks has given energy to the call for jihad by Islamic extremists.
Before dismissing this viewpoint as liberal whining, consider conservative Republican congressman Ron Paul's position regarding the U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan. He writes "it is unreasonable, even utopian, not to expect people to grow resentful and desirous of revenge when your government bombs them." And he argues that "our government's foreign policy has put the American people in greater danger and made us more vulnerable to attack."
To be sure, Paul brands actions by al-Qaeda and Hamas as criminal terrorist. But he explains that "looking for the motive is not the same thing as making excuses; detectives always look for the motive behind crime."
Without American support for the International Criminal Court, there will never be a detective-like investigation and subsequent trial of terror suspects. Instead, the mightiest military force in the world chose warfare that led to the deaths of tens of thousands, innocent civilians who have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
For the people of Gaza, there is also no international court to seek relief for their grievances against their stronger neighbor. And as they saw other nations turn to armed conflict, they too chose militant leaders by electing Hamas to a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council. But Israel and the west refused to recognize Hamas, so there was no possibility that serious peace negotiations would ever occur.
Hamas' actions are still inexcusable. Whether the Palestinian grievances are legitimate isn't the point either. Without the right to due process in a court of justice, people easily become desperate, and civilized behavior tends to break down.
When there is no judicial alternative, the historical lesson that all people should follow dates back almost 100 years. The successful Indian independence movement led by Mohandas Gandhi was founded on the ideas of mass civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. More recently Martin Luther King Jr. used these techniques to bring profound change to race-based oppression in America.
Hamas and the Palestinians must learn to embrace the ideals of these historical figures by mobilizing self restraint. It's clearly the more humane and respected path.
But how then do we imagine ourselves as more civilized when we justify the use of our massive weaponry in response to violence perpetrated against us and our allies? The death-dealers deserve to die, we say, and when children die with them, those words are repeated by the likes of al-Qaeda and Hamas.
The powerful truth of nonviolent resistance is that it's not a practice limited to the meek and oppressed. We have the same kind of choice. We can unleash our mightier weaponry at every provocation, or we can stand it all down in hopes that Israel, Hamas and others will follow. I believe we need to find the courage and patience that Gandhi and King possessed if truly we aspire to live and lead the civilized world.
Rich Moniak is with Juneau People for Peace & Justice.
By RICH MONIAK