What is ethnic cleansing?
[E]thnic cleansing is a well-defined policy of a particular group of persons to systematically eliminate another group from a given territory on the basis of religious, ethnic or national origin. Such a policy involves violence and is very often connected with military operations. It is to be achieved by all possible means, from discrimination to extermination, and entails violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”
What is this?
The Israeli army has given well-publicized notice to civilians to leave those areas of southern Lebanon that have been turned into war zones. Those who voluntarily remain behind have become complicit. Some — those who cannot leave on their own — should be counted among the innocent victims.- Alan Dershowitz
Now let’s look at these two comments.
Hezbollah and Hamas militants, on the other hand, are difficult to distinguish from those “civilians” who recruit, finance, harbor and facilitate their terrorism. Nor can women and children always be counted as civilians, as some organizations do. Terrorists increasingly use women and teenagers to play important roles in their attacks.- Alan Dershowitz
“It seems like we will go to the end now. We will not go part way and be held hostage again. We’ll have to go for the kill — Hezbollah neutralization.” -Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon.
Now consider this:
Along with the Amal movement, Hezbollah is the main political party and military organization representing the Shia community, Lebanon’s largest religious bloc.
Israel’s job, then, is to ‘neutralize’ Hezbollah. But they presumably do not mean that they intend to ‘go for the kill(ing)’ of the main political party of Lebanon’s largest religious bloc. They need to distinguish between Hezbollah’s civilian and military branches. They also need to distinguish between civilians that merely support the political party and civilians that are actively aiding the militants. And they need to do this from an airplane thousands of feet in the air, or a missile launcher hundreds of miles away.
Since this is impossible, they are taking a different approach (now). They are dropping leaflets telling people to flee. If they fail to flee they are presumed to be guilty and deserving of death. Israel will claim this is not ethnic cleansing because they will eventually allow these civilians to return to their homes. That may be true, but ‘eventually’ can be a long time. And it is not clear what they will have accomplished if they just allow the population to come back home and resume their activities.
Israel’s policy makes no sense. What they are doing is not going to work. On the one hand, this is a bit like the United States reinvading Vietnam. On the other hand, there is no endgame for this. They are just going to turn themselves into even worse pariahs of the international community. They have now accepted in principle the need for an international peacekeeping force but that would require peace. There can be no peace unless Hezbollah agrees to it and Israel allows people to return to their homes.
Israel has started something they cannot finish and that they cannot fix. This is what happens when you listen to neo-conservatives. Just look at Iraq.
