By Dimitris Kastriotis

he pretexts of the Israelis who claim that they are striving to crack down on terrorists are merely ostensible, judging from the unfettered violence, the massacre of civilians, and the systematic attempt to destroy the homes and the property of the Palestinian inhabitants as well as the essential infrastructure which has been built on the occupied territory with European economic aid. It is obvious that the aim is total destruction, the full removal of the essential autonomy of the Palestinians and their downgrading to weak subjects who will be completely dependent on the Israeli economy. It is not the arrest of suspects. Even if this is true, even if the elimination of Palestinian autonomy is considered an acceptable (and hence “moral”) end, the degree of Israeli violence still seems excessive; the Israelis seem to take pleasure in the carnage, reviving what was blatant during the Sabra and Shatila massacres.

If we wish to weigh the moral dimension of the acts of war according to their degree of necessity and by the extent to which they exceed this standard, then we ought to pose the following question: Who is the real terrorist? Is it the one who takes his own life along with the life of the enemy, because he has no tanks or fighter jets? Or is it the armed soldier who annihilates dozens of civilians, albeit within the contours of an operation? From an historical perspective, the most organized form of terror has always been that of state terror. Israel seems to confirm the rule.