Pager slaughter in Lebanon, humanity of no consequence
Sep 21, 2024
Thousands of Lebanese citizens, injured or murdered by apparent Israeli planted explosives in pagers and other communications devices, are referred to as Hezbollah operatives, even though victims have included small children.
A macabre picture does not end there. The public is given the usual either or account of slaughter in a war depicted as between Israel and its enemies, hence invitations to politicians to take sides. This binary convenience ignores the sadism inherent in Israel’s claims about defence, let alone questions about international law or values concerning a common humanity.
Expect more deceit and denial by exceptional Israel, assume crippled Hezbollah is obliged to say it will seek revenge and know for sure that mainstream media will be excited about the technology required to place explosives in pagers.
Even a quick unpacking of this latest Lebanese catastrophe reveals issues which need to be addressed if perspectives about peace might be heard.
The Israelis announce the next barrage of military solutions, their recipe for a future dependent on brutality, death, destruction, fear, and killings in the most modern form. Their barely concealed pride in military solutions is reported by mainstream media thirsty for the latest drama. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announce war on another front. Pulverising another side brings victory. No-one should challenge Israel’s decades-old fascination with killing. The idea that justice for Palestinians would mean security for Israel sounds like blasphemy.
Accounts from the other side of this war come from Hezbollah spokespersons or from powerless Lebanese citizens whose hospitals can’t cope with the thousands suffering beyond belief injuries. The description “murder” sounds clean cut. It conceals horrific injuries. A Lebanese surgeon reports experiences unprecedented in his years of medical practice. Among hundreds of casualties he witnessed organs protruding, faces blown away, eyes destroyed, hands which missed fingers, lower abdomens ripped apart and all this in hospitals with too few resources.
Who cares? Emotions should be stifled, reactions geared for a new kind of warfare. If enemies can be labelled unworthy, there should be no limit to the brutality dished out to them. Get used to it. The technology in military solutions will improve.
Mainstream media’s response perpetuates the either or accounts even to the point of taking sides. In descriptions of Hezbollah supporters, newsreaders repeat the same formula used when referring to Hamas, but this time it’s “Hezbollah, identified by Western governments as a terrorist organisation”. There’s no comment about well-organised state terrorism, no pause to consider whether terrorists caused this slaughter by pagers. Imagine the media uproar about terrorism if one Israeli citizen was killed by a remote explosion.
Who cares if you’ve been conned to focus your judgments on one side of this war-for-ever equation?
The plight of Lebanese, Palestinian or Israeli children prepared to take sides for wars is a common humanity question ignored by narratives about two sides in the carnage in Lebanon. The description “war” is as deceptive as claims about murder. The lifelong misery of men, women and children who suffer terrible injuries is treated as some after-thought. Better each night to see pictures of Hassan Nasrallah promising revenge, watch men in khaki sitting round a table, presented as brave in their thirst for brutality, or listen to spokespersons telling lies and never challenged.
In those contexts, pleas for the interests of a common humanity sound like respect for non-violence. Theories about the conflict necessary to conduct politics become supposed strong men’s real politick: non-violence coupled to rules in international law should be derided.
Witness the Australian Government’s latest cowardice, as in their abstention on a UN resolution demanding Israel end its occupation of Gaza and the West Bank within a year. No sign of concern for a common humanity, only allegiance to the notion that wars and illegal occupation should continue.
In the pager killings, and in the ways they have been reported, lies a terrible danger. International law is of no consequence. Rules of war are being rewritten. A so-called international community is asked to accept murder should prevail. Don’t dare to think beyond that.
Hezbollah may fire rockets. No one should be squeamish about horrific injuries. Supported by US war machines, Israel will decide.
Cowardly nations will look on, but still mutter “rules-based order”.
Catastrophe in Lebanon shows the need to rescue humanity which otherwise remains lost in struggles between an inevitable two sides, armed with the last rocket or with this latest achievement, the science fiction explosive pagers.
Anomie is a state of lawlessness. Kill and destroy the only option. Best to abstain. There are no rules.
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