Yesterday one man stood before a crowd of millions in Washington DC, ushering in a new era of Hope; at least that's what everyone desperately wants. In Gaza, another picked his way through the still-smouldering debris of a UN warehouse.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was unequivocal in his condemnation of Israel's excessive force in Gaza. His visit came amid escalating accusations of war crimes in Israel's bombing of UN facilities, and its alleged use of white phosphorus, during a three week war cynically brought to an end in time for the inauguration.
The crisis galvanized British anti-war sentiment in a way not seen since 2003. But some still seek to counter this outrage with the question, 'what would you have done?'.
'What would England do if someone started firing rockets out of Gretna Green?'
Washington Times journalist Randall Kuhn BRILLIANTLY UNWOUND that specious argument in an op-ed piece last week.
I am appalled by the pictures of Gaza that have been coming out in the aftermath. The towns are simply rubble. Then a friend sent me a link to a FASCINATING AND CHILLING piece from Frieze Magazine that goes some way to explain the devestation.
The Israeli army study contemporary philosophers such as Gilles Deleuze. The result is where post-structuralism meets modern warfare. Instead of regarding a street in Gaza as simply that, they refuse to comprehend the space in front of them as delineated by the enemy, but instead move 'horizontally through walls and vertically through holes blasted in ceilings and floors'.
In a dispute centred on underground tunnels through which rockets are smuggled, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) carve out 'overground tunnels'.
This is an 'infestation' which involves 'a conception of a city as not just the site but also the very medium of warfare - a flexible, almost liquid medium that is forever contingent and in flux.' Essentially they are deconstructing the syntax of the urban space and smashing it in turn. It means maximum destruction.
I urge you to read the article: it makes terrifying reading, and shows just how mindful and deliberate the violence of war can be.
