Every soldier's death is a tragedy, especially when it is one of ours. "Collateral damages," or the deaths of civilians, are even more regrettable, especially when they include children.
That having been said, it is appropriate to take account of numbers. In this small country, and even smaller Palestine, individuals use the term "slaughter" in ways that are not appropriate.
Mahmoud Abbas says that the deaths of 13 Palestinians over the course of several days in Gaza is a slaughter, and represents the likelihood that Israel's actions will end any chance for peace. Among the dead are two boys, who were among a number of children drawn to a fight on a field used by Palestinians to fire rockets into Israel.
It was not easy finding a report about recent Palestinian deaths in the international media. The New York Times put it in the shadow of 14 American soldiers killed when a helicopter crashed, and 37 Iraqis counted dead the next morning.
When our hiking group happened on the site of a battle during the Six-Day War, our leader described the "slaughter" of 8 Israeli soldiers. That evening I looked up some comparable numbers: 53,000 allied troops killed at Normandy in 1944, 20,000 British at the Somme in 1916, and a total of 620,000 Americans dead on both sides of the Civil War.
So far some 1,100 Israelis have died in the intifada that began in September, 2000, and perhaps 4,000 Palestinians. It has been a while since a bus or a coffee house has blown up. While close to 900 Israelis died as the result of Palestinian violence during 2001-03, only 54 died in 2005 and 32 in 2006.
The fall-off has something to do with the 11,000 or so Palestinians confined to Israeli prisons. Each night the IDF picks off a few more on its lists. The 13 deaths represent one of the occasional responses to information coming from informants or Israeli high-tech. We saw the film of Palestinians who had fired on Israel and then entered a vehicle for what was to be their last ride. Analysts say that the IDF is capturing or killing Palestinian technicians and fighters faster than they can replace .
Why the hyperbole about our little war?
I will not buy into the claim that Jews are more concerned about life than others. The wailing of Palestinian mothers strikes me as serious mourning.
Josef Stalin said that one death is a tragedy, while one million is a statistic. He contributed many more than a million to the statistics.
There is also the world's sensitivity to the Holy Land, conflict between religions, as well as the drawing power of Jews and Muslims. A Palestinian student once told me he thought it fortunate that his national struggle was with the Jews. He said that no one would care if his was just another African tribe. He also credited the substantial support for Palestinian interests among Jews of Israel and elsewhere. I responded that I thought the Jews were unfortunate that we were struggling with Arabs. Without their power of numbers, oil and gas, we could have finished with this long ago.
The historical period is important. The land grab of the Americas is a done deal, as are the historical onslaughts of one tribe over others throughout Africa, central Asia, the Arabian peninsula, and the Americas before the Europeans arrived to begin their plunder. Zionism began during the heyday of colonialism, but did not finish its work before the revulsions against the Holocaust and other horrors of World War II, the rise of the United Nations, the economic and voting power of Arab and Muslim states. When Libya and the Sudan are powers in international humanitarian forums, Israel has trouble navigating the upside-down.
Again, it seems too bad that we continue killing and incarcerating one another. I have been listening to folk songs from my undergraduate days: Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and others. Aside from an occasional ditty in what sounds like Hebrew, the sentiments are not those that we can use to cement our control on Palestine.
But here we are. We have tried several times to offer a reasonable deal, and got ourselves bombed in thanks.
We will continue what we are doing as long as they keep aiming at our civilians with whatever weapons they can obtain. The lack of support for Mahmoud Abbas and his senior colleagues in the West Bank, and their quick loss of Gaza are not good signs for any Israelis willing to try serious negotiations. Aside from Abbas' appearance as a congenial grandfather, he does not seem to offer what it takes to make demands that are realistic, and to control those of his countryfolk who will not agree to anything.