The Attorney General has ordered the IDF not to cut electricity to Gaza, even for short periods, without showing concern for protecting humanitarian interests, like hospitals.
Where is the Palestinian attorney general who should be ordering the fighters there to desist from aiming their missiles at Israeli civilians?
Once again, Israel is tying its own hands. This latest decision may get us a favorable clucking of the tongues from European and North American policymakers. It may not delay by a great deal the effort to pressure Gaza. Perhaps the IDF will only have to give enough warning of a pending electricity cut so that hospitals can turn on their generators. Israeli bureaucrats are still fighting this among themselves. Meanwhile, electricity is not our only weapon. Fuel supplies are being cut, and the ground troops plus the air force are doing their bit on a daily basis. In a situation where there are not likely to be final solutions, every little bit may help.
I have my own Modest Proposal for how to deal with the missiles still being fired toward Sderot and other Israeli settlements. For those about to read on, you should view it in the spirit of Jonathan Swift's A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND FROM BEING A BURDEN TO THEIR PARENTS OR COUNTRY, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC (1729). The man whose greater fame as a writer of parody came from Gulliver's Travels suggested in his modest proposal that the Irish eat their children.
My own modest proposal is for Israelis to fire one artillery shell at a settlement in Gaza for every missile fired toward an Israeli settlement.
Outrageous? Inhuman? Or an appropriate tit for tat?
It would cause mass movement toward the Egyptian border. and upset the Egyptians, who never liked the idea of Palestinians in their country.
It will produce angry words and threats from Egyptians, other many others. But it may also prompt the Egyptians to tighten their controls over the movement via their border with Gaza of weapons, ammunition, explosives, and fighters from elsewhere who wish to aid their Palestinian brethren.
It will violate international law against collective punishment and civilian damage. It will cause foreign activists and their governments to issue arrest warrants against Israelis who are involved.
Probably. But international law highly touted by Israeli as well as by others does not seem to be balanced in protecting Israeli civilians from Palestinian violence.
As for Israelis being punished, I have another modest proposal.
There are enough former members of the IDF capable of doing the work, who are likely to volunteer if given the chance. Young soldiers and officers will not have to expose themselves to the dirty business of shelling civilians, and thus make themselves liable to arrest if they travel overseas. The men and women who aim the guns, load the shells, and send them on their way might be old enough to have done enough traveling, and/or sufficiently annoyed at the problems of modern travel to swear off doing any more of it.
The aged fighters might not have to sully the IDF's name by using its weapons or ammunition. There is enough stuff available in the international market, plus enough Israelis capable of buying it and moving it to the outskirts of Gaza. Some of those who supply Palestinians are probably willing to supply Israelis.
To be sure, there are likely to be details having to be worked out. I aspire to being in Swift's league, but am probably not ready for it. Suggestions welcome.