The past two weeks have been filled with news reports of “terrorist kites,” “incendiary kites,” “burning kites,” “burning condoms” (really is that the best use of them???) and “terror fires.” While the kites and condoms continue unabated from the borders of the Gaza strip, the rocket attacks and counter attacks are increasing for as Minister of Knesset Ayelet Shaked of HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) said ‘We won’t accept kite terrorism.”
But, are these kites terrorism or ‘just’ evil? While I was in Israel in 2001-2002, public buses were blowing up, restaurants were empty for fear of suicide bombers and in the spring, 30 civilians lost their lives and 140 were injured during their Passover Seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya by a suicide bomber. In 2015-16, random civilians were targeted in Jerusalem and elsewhere by lone wolf stabbings. When a stabbing/shooting occurred less than a mile from our home on a bus line that we utilize, we had to decide if we would continue to let our girls walk to school alone. When compared to these two periods, the loss of agricultural fields seems pretty tame – lives are affected but no one has died. But then again, I do not live in that area. I have not lost my livelihood, had to bring my kids inside to play, or wonder when the next siren will go off. None of the nearly 2500 acres of Israeli fields, forests and agricultural lands lost to fire are mine and my kids are not the soldiers trying to subdue the multiple fires each day. The newspapers are not talking about the “Winds of War” in my back yard.
The Jerusalem Post just published that May 2018 had the highest number of terrorist attacks since October 2015 and the Shin Bet announced that they have already prevented more than 250 terror attacks in 2018. These numbers do not include the kites. Why do they make that choice when others make the choice to call them terrorism?
What anyway, is terrorism? The first use in English of the word “terrorism” occurred during the French Revolution – the Reign of Terror where violence was used by the government to compel obedience. In general, it is an attempt to terrorize another population or to instigate a reaction in a population which is perceived as stronger. In Israel, nearly any form of Palestinian violence against Jews or the state is classified as terrorism.
Local to Israel, terrorism dates back at minimum to the Roman period. During the 1st century we had the Siccari Zealots (think Masada) who would assassinate Romans and Roman collaborates and in the 11th century an off shoot of the Shia Muslims, the Hashshashin (Asssasins) were active. In 1929 there was the massacre of 67 Jews in Hebron and in the 1930s Lechi and later Irgun would aggressively defend Jews from Arab attacks as well as go after the British. In that same decade, the Palestinian militia led by al Qassam took up armed resistance against the British by attacking Jews (today’s al Qassam Brigade of Hamas and Qassam rockets are named after him).
1989 would bring to Israel the first Palestinian suicide attack on an Egged bus between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Those suicide bombings would continue into the 2000s along with rockets from Gaza in the South and Hezbollah in the North. Just after candle lighting in November 2012 we had our first air raid siren in Jerusalem and headed down to the bomb shelter – with one child in tears and the other pretending to read a book from which she never looked up but also never turned a page. Those rockets from Gaza are once again falling in Israel. These are acts of terrorism.
Do we lessen the impact of the word for ‘real’ terrorism when we use it for incendiary kites? Fields, forests and back yards have been burned, anguish and fear have returned to those trying to make a living in the area, and the financial costs continue to be computed. Is that not terrorism?
Israel is the Goliath to the Palestinian David. They are flying kites and we are flying drones. They shoot non-guided rockets and we perform targeted bombings. This is a public relations battle that Israel fights constantly. Lets face it, the Palestinians are better at PR than we are. And everyone wants to root for the little guy. It is a constant and uphill battle. But kites are not rockets and to date no lives have been lost – so why do some call them terrorism?
During the Holocaust, Janusz Korchak who accompanied “his” children to the gas chambers in Treblinka said “Just as the sea gives a child a toy – a boat, so the wind has to give him a kite.” Kites are toys. In Gaza, the person on the ground with a kite string in his hand is often a child. These kids are not putting these kites together and bringing them to the launching sites – the men behind them are. But, the news shows the child and the Israeli soldier trying to protect Israel is faced with a child. Israel is not going to shoot a child – but what do you do when the life of that one child might be weighed against the lives of other children? David might be helpless but he is creative. It has been suggested that calling them Terror Kites helps to lessen the gap between how serious it really is and how it seems to be. It shows the world that we are the helpless David and they are the Goliath with no restrictions. On the other side – some say the Israeli government is looking for a way to incite. If you lower the criteria of what “terrorism” is, then a larger response can be justified.
So are the kites being flown into Israel from Gaza terrorism or ‘just’ evil. From the Palestinian side they are neither, they are resistance and from the Israeli side – it depends on who you talk to. Of course, the way things change in Israel this conversation could easily be mute by next week while we move onto other challenges.