Home > Qana bombing may turn support for war in Israel
Qana bombing may turn support for war in Israel
The World Today - Monday, 31 July , 2006 12:26:00
Reporter: Eleanor Hall
ELEANOR HALL: Ten years ago, when Israel’s Army shelled a UN compound in Qana, killing more than 100 civilians, it was one of a series of events that led to an explosion of internal opposition to Israel’s continued presence in Lebanon.
Four years later Israel pulled out of Lebanon altogether. And leading the campaign for that withdrawal was an Israeli group called Four Mothers.
One of the founders of that group, Rachel Ben-Dor, now says she has watched the start of this war with despair.
But she says the attack on Qana yesterday may prove to be a turning point again in the Israelis’ near unanimous support of the war.
RACHEL BEN-DOR: Even the Minister of Defence a few days ago said I promise every mother and father that we are not going to get stuck in the Lebanese mud again, and so they are aware of the resistance they will get if we are going through this scenario again.
And they know that the public won’t let them, and in this sense we raised some kind of platform for people to say we learned, this is not going to work. So I don’t think that it will be so difficult to convince them to leave.
And in fact, the Government doesn’t say that they’re going to stay in Lebanon, but we have to (inaudible) that this would actually happen, that they will stop and finish and go back and start negotiating.
ELEANOR HALL: Does it surprise you, though, that there is overwhelming public support inside Israel for this offensive?
RACHEL BEN-DOR: On one hand, yes. On the other, like, they didn’t learn, don’t they see what’s happening over and over again, is their memory so short, are they willing to go back again?
On the other hand, you know, when you are being hit the immediate notion is let’s hit back, let’s get rid of them, we are strong, we can get rid of them, which is a very dangerous illusion, because to think that you are so powerful and therefore you’re going to get rid of terrorists or any other group that’s bugging you, one thing for all, and that’s it, the world will be quiet - well, from the Bible time we are trying to do that, and it’s not realistic.
And I understand where it’s coming from, but unfortunately I don’t think that this will solve the problem. It doesn’t work like that, never, ever in the world.
ELEANOR HALL: Your home in Israel was on that northern border with Lebanon. What do you say to claims that Israel’s response now is not proportional?
RACHEL BEN-DOR: The problem is when you have these weapons and army and you immediately start to use them without any balance, you’re kind of drawn into this chaos. And I show that our voice is supposed to create this balance, like we did before, but the anger and the fear is bringing people like animals to go after each other.
ELEANOR HALL: What about this latest attack in Qana? Last time it was a turning point inside Israel. What’s your sense of it this time?
RACHEL BEN-DOR: Well, you know, I hear all the correspondents and the military spokesmen, and they said that the Hezbollah trapped us and brought us there, and maybe they did because they are vicious, and I can say all the bad words about them if it’s going to help, but it’s not.
They start to talk now about the wrong war and the right war, and unfortunately what they want to say, when you start a war casualties are all over the place, and tragedies like this are going to happen. Sooner or later they’re going to happen.
ELEANOR HALL: What do you think this offensive is doing to Israel’s reputation?
RACHEL BEN-DOR: This is what I’m afraid of as much... and I know they try... you know, Israel is... everybody’s in the Army, like family and friends, and I know these people, and I know the way we are being brought up to reinforce our moral values to the Army and not to hit citizens.
And I see now that everything is falling apart because we are so desperate. The Hezbollah keep sending these missiles and people are getting so upset, and their only reaction is let’s hit harder. And the problem is that we have a bigger force than they are, and we are getting more violent about that, and then we cause a lot of misery.
It’s really hard for me to see everything we created, if this would achieve anything. But at the end of the day we have all these casualties, and again we are not going to achieve anything.
ELEANOR HALL: And yet rather than another war, meaning that the public support drops off, there seems to be more public support than ever inside Israel for this conflict with Lebanon?
RACHEL BEN-DOR: Unfortunately what I realised through our activities, yes, we are very powerful and, as they say, successful to achieve the end of the war, but we couldn’t have done it without casualties.
So this is what is going to happen. It’s happened in Vietnam, it’s happened in Iraq, it’s happened all around the world, so this combination of the voice of peace saying let’s try different ways, let’s try less fighting and more negotiation, so it’s happening after a lot of bloodshed.
ELEANOR HALL: And that’s Rachel Ben-Dor, the founder of Israel’s Four Mothers group, which is credited with convincing the Israeli Government to pull out of Lebanon in 2000.