Det er viktig å få frem hvor variert det israelske samfunnet er, som kontrast til det endimensjonale bildet som tegnes i norske medier. Cordelia Edvardson hadde evnen til å få frem det autentisk israelske. Man trenger ikke «kjøpe alt». Det trengs mange stemmer. Amira Hass er en av dem. Hun har dekket «territoriene» i en årrekke, og skriver meget kritisk om okkupasjonspolitikken og prisen Israel betaler. Men jeg tror hun like fullt ville blitt sjokkert over å lese Gaarders kronikk og noen av hans støttespillere. Det er ikke kritikk. Det er noe helt annet.

It comes as no surprise that this war has not yet been finished in one fell swoop. For six years, the Israeli army has accustomed its soldiers to regard their assaults in the occupied territories as «fighting» and «battles.» They fostered the myth that there was symmetry between the advanced regular Israeli army and groups of Palestinians armed with light weapons and homespun bombs, scurrying among the tanks and helicopters that are demolishing their houses and fields. Indeed, on a few occasions, the Palestinians succeeded in guerrilla operations that killed or wounded the troops. But these were the exception. The suicide attacks inside Israel attest to the «military» weakness of the Palestinian organizations.

Now the IDF has sent to Lebanon soldiers who have been taught to believe that warfare is running down refugees’ homes with tanks and bulldozers; that a battle is firing from helicopters at fighters with Kalashnikov rifles who cannot even scratch the Israeli tank surfaces. These soldiers think that defending the homeland is preventing hundreds of thousands of people from living like human beings, by operating roadblocks in the territories.
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Why bring this up today? First, because the war – state cruelty – against the Palestinians is ongoing. Second, because Israel’s double standard and basic contempt for anyone who isn’t «us» explains better than the army’s outdated equipment and faulty training why it has been receiving blows so far and will continue to receive them. Israel is convinced that in Lebanon, as in Gaza and the West Bank, its unlimited power to destroy is both a deterrent and spur to political change. It is ignoring the human factor – that the Palestinians and Lebanese’ fortitude grows in lockstep with our strengthening powers of destruction.

Ting går ikke according to plan, og det kan ha noe å gjøre med de spørsmålene Hass reiser.

Their power of endurance