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And there lie the bodies
By Gideon Levy
Tags: Gideon Levy, gaza, hamas 
 

Click here for more articles by Gideon Levy

The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape's topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe's diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place.

Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest.
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They liquidated Nizar Ghayan? Nobody counts the 20 women and children who lost their lives in the same attack. There was a massacre of dozens of officers during their graduation ceremony from the police academy? Acceptable. Five little sisters? Allowed. Palestinians are dying in hospitals that lack medical equipment? Peanuts. Whatever happened to the not-so-good old days of Salah Shahadeh? When we liquidated him in July 2002, we also killed 15 women and children. At least back then, moral qualms were raised for a moment.

Here lie their bodies, row upon row, some of them tiny. Our hearts have turned hard and our eyes have become dull. All of Israel has worn military fatigues, uniforms that are opaque and stained with blood and which enable us to carry out any crime. Even our leading intellectuals fail to speak out on what havoc we have wreaked. Amos Oz urges: "Cease-fire now." David Grossman writes: "Hold your fire. Stop." Meir Shalev wants "a punitive operation." And not one word about our moral image, which has been horribly distorted.

The suffering in the south renders everything kosher, as if the horrible suffering in Gaza pales in comparison. Everyone is hungry for revenge, and that hunger is excused by the need for "deterrence," after it was already proved that the killing and the destruction in Lebanon did not achieve it.

Yes, I know, war is war. After all, they brought this on themselves. They are a terrorist organization and we are not. They want to destroy us and we seek peace. Still, is there nothing here that will stop this blood pipeline? Even those whose hearts are hardened by "moral righteousness" will have to momentarily halt the bombing machine and ask: Which Israel do we have before us? What will become of its standing in the world, which is now watching the events in Gaza? What are we inflicting on the moderate Arab regimes? And what of the simmering popular hatred we are sowing throughout the world? What good will emerge from this killing and destruction?

It is doubtful whether Hamas will be cut down to size as a result of this wretched war. Yet, the face of the state has been cut down to size, as have civilian elites who are apathetic and scared. The "peace camp," if it ever existed, has been cut down to size. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz authorized the Ghayan killing, regardless of the cost. Haim Oron, the leader of the "new left-wing movement," supported the launch of this foolish war.

Nobody is coming to the rescue - of Gaza or even of the remnants of humanity and Israeli democracy. The statesmen, the jurists, the poets, the authors, academe, and the news media - pitch black over the abyss. When the time comes for reckoning, we will need to remember the damage this war did to Israel: The blood pipeline it laid has been completed.
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  1.   Grow up Gideon 05:05  |  Peter Williams 04/01/09
  2.   Gideon Levy: Totally useless in stopping the rockets from Gaza 10:15  |  Ari 04/01/09
  3.   Gideon Levy, so what do you propose ? 10:45  |  Esther 04/01/09
  4.   Gideon, condemn Hamas. 10:48  |  Tzfonit 04/01/09
  5.   Blood 10:49  |  Ralph 04/01/09
  6.   And there lie the bodies 11:02  |  American 04/01/09
  7.   I am agree with you Gideon Levy. 11:05  |  cfs 04/01/09
  8.   Every country needs its own Gideon Levy 13:22  |  Marco 04/01/09
  9.   Voice of Reason 13:27  |  Boyd 04/01/09
  10.   Hamas is certainly to be condemned 13:28  |  sh 04/01/09
  11.   war is hell 13:36  |  marinelurp 04/01/09
  12.   `Our Moral Image` 13:53  |  Sam 04/01/09
  13.   #8 Marco - You Can Have Ours 14:24  |  Jay A Friedman 04/01/09
  14.   Sam, sam,sam 14:32  |  Marilyn 04/01/09
  15.   Peace to all..... Stop the dehumanization 14:32  |  Ziad from Lebanon 04/01/09
  16.   HAS LEVY EVER HEARD 14:36  |  Robert 04/01/09
  17.   Imagine... 14:38  |  Tami 04/01/09
  18.   He`s right. nobody is coming to help Hamas 14:40  |  Joe Sittizen 04/01/09
  19.   Thank you, dear Gideon 14:44  |  Pedro Miguel 04/01/09
  20.   #8 Marco 14:50  |  Sarah 04/01/09
  21.   Gideon Levy:don`t give up 14:55  |  Leila 04/01/09
  22.   gideon levy 14:55  |  karin 04/01/09
  23.   Please halt the holier-than-thou stuff 14:58  |  Lee 04/01/09
  24.   You seem to think that Israelis don`t care... 15:00  |  Lee 04/01/09
  25.   Morality is praiseworthy 16:15  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 04/01/09
  26.   marilyn 16:18  |  x-ray 04/01/09
  27.   Imagine 16:19  |  Larry 04/01/09
  28.   Ziad #15 16:27  |  Esther 04/01/09
  29.   Palestinian grief and Israeli grief 17:07  |  Moshe 04/01/09
  30.   Gideon Levy is rignt 19:14  |  Raimundo Moreira 04/01/09
  31.   Competition 19:15  |  Arie 04/01/09
  32.   3000 19:16  |  Arie 04/01/09
  33.   Israel will win the one state solution 19:19  |  Ben 04/01/09
  34.   No29 Palestine grief and Israelgrief 19:22  |  tbora 04/01/09
  35.   And there... 20:06  |  Salomon E. Lewy 04/01/09
  36.   Bravo Gideon 00:25  |  JD 05/01/09
  37.   My wife and I support Levy 100% 00:28  |  Hassan Sullivan 05/01/09
  38.   Gideon, what about the real problem 00:50  |  P Johnson 05/01/09
  39.   A truely great piece 01:14  |  Charles Levi 05/01/09
  40.   Thank you 01:23  |  O 05/01/09
  41.   STOP the ROCKETS for peace 02:12  |  mourad 05/01/09
  42.   Shut up Gideon 03:44  |  Joe K 05/01/09
  43.   thanks you for raising questions Gideon 06:44  |  David 05/01/09
  44.   Oh Gaza... 06:53  |  NEJ 05/01/09
  45.   Thank You 07:00  |  DC 05/01/09
  46.   mourad #41... an accurate and genuine plea... 07:32  |  Esther 05/01/09
  47.   If you have a heart, you will sympathize with the Palestinians 07:33  |  SDHD 05/01/09
  48.   60 years of this 07:54  |  eshrat 05/01/09
  49.   Sherman`s march to the sea 08:05  |  Susan 05/01/09
  50.   Is it true? 08:06  |  Otto 05/01/09
  51.   Neighbors` guilt 08:10  |  Karl Becker 05/01/09
  52.   To all who think like Gideon Levy 08:15  |  pirrelli 05/01/09
  53.   their lies the bodies 08:16  |  Tony Palermo 05/01/09
  54.   I am sickened by this 08:22  |  Wanda 05/01/09
  55.   on behalf of Gideon Levy 08:24  |  John and the truth 05/01/09
  56.   as an outsider 08:26  |  michele 05/01/09
  57.   How long so you wait? 08:34  |  Sherlock Holmes 05/01/09
  58.   and there lie the bodies 08:42  |  jeff montanye 05/01/09
  59.   Thank you, Mr. Levy 08:46  |  Marsha 05/01/09
  60.   To #14 Imaginary rockets 09:00  |  Sam2b 05/01/09
  61.   if it was so bad ..... 09:11  |  richard 05/01/09
  62.   Gideon Levy Tell Me Who is to BLAM? 09:32  |  Gil 05/01/09
  63.   shalom from Greece 09:41  |  kirk spanos 05/01/09
  64.   another election based upon fear mongering? 09:57  |  Arnvid 05/01/09
  65.   sam to be (not yet sam) 10:05  |  John and the truth 05/01/09
  66.   180 Degrees 10:30  |  Lavrentii 05/01/09
  67.   How many of our children must die??.. 10:47  |  Adina a dreamer 05/01/09
  68.   Thank you Gideon 11:00  |  Neil 05/01/09
  69.   They are a terrorist organization and we are not 11:31  |  Carol W. Pampaloni 05/01/09
  70.   Voice of Morality 11:33  |  Williams 05/01/09
  71.   Re : And there lie the bodies 12:05  |  David 05/01/09
  72.   Carol naivete` 12:27  |  John and the truth 05/01/09
  73.   And there lie the bodies 13:04  |  David Gertz 05/01/09
  74.   To Davide #71 (page-1) 13:56  |  HE 05/01/09
  75.   To David #71 (Page2) 13:59  |  HE 05/01/09
  76.   Gideon, thank you 14:21  |  Maria Arthur 05/01/09
  77.   Thank you for your sane voice 16:22  |  Mesonto 05/01/09
  78.   Dealing with Hamas` permanent war against Israel 16:29  |  Bernardtrois 05/01/09
  79.   #72 Moral Equivalency 17:02  |  Veritas 05/01/09
  80.   gaza 17:22  |  Charlie Smith 05/01/09
  81.   And, there lie the bodies????? 20:49  |  Joyce Van Buskirk 05/01/09
  82.   The Naton Rages 00:06  |  Nelson Robison 06/01/09
  83.   have a break 00:08  |  999 06/01/09
  84.   Lesson 07:01  |  Charles 06/01/09
  85.   Blind hearts and broken lives 08:13  |  John Raifsnider 06/01/09
  86.   respect from stockholm! 13:18  |  rami 06/01/09
  87.   The only thing normal people can do about it 08:35  |  JimmyO 07/01/09
  88.   The weak side is always right. (?) 20:15  |  Oded 09/01/09
  89.   Josh 05:26  |  Cohen 12/01/09
  90.   #51 - you have it right! 06:47  |  Sarah 20/01/09
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