Bernard Spiegal

It hits you first: the grotesque hypocrisy of Prime Minister Netanyahu, responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of Palestinian children, expressing sympathy for the twelve Druze children killed at Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israel annexed Golan Heights. His heart, apparently, is broken. He emoted:

Among the victims were young children playing soccer, along with other victims. Our hearts are all broken by these scenes.

We embrace the families, and we embrace the entire Druze community in this difficult moment, which is also our difficult moment.

The ‘embrace’, however, was rejected by the people of Majdal Shams:

Representatives of some of the families of the victims in Majdal Shams refused to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who tried to coordinate a meeting with some of the families

Presumably assessing that attending the funerals of the children would yield some political, public relations payoff, thereby neutering, perhaps only for a moment, the widespread condemnation of Israel’s genocidal killing of Gazan, West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians, Government ministers, including Bezalel Smotrich, made haste to display themselves at Majdal Shams equipped with preprepared crocodile tears.  They were not welcome:

Get out of here, you criminal. We don’t want you in the Golan, one protester shouted at Smotrich.

You have come to dance on the blood of our children.

The rush to blame Hezbollah

There must be a concern at the seeming – perhaps ‘unseemly’ is better – rush to hold Hezbollah responsible for the killings, this accompanied by the inevitable bellicose soundbites by Israel’s Prime Minister:

I can say that the State of Israel will not remain silent. We will not let this go unanswered

In holding Hezbollah responsible for the attack on Majdal Shams, there is too neat a fit with what would suit the Israeli government, Netanyahu in particular.  Holding Hezbollah responsible potentially kills two birds with one stone:

• in the event of an escalation of the conflict, publics tend to coalesce around their governments, even if previously critical. Netanyahu has need of Israelis’ support beyond the rabid, right-wing constituency, that are his current allies

• it forces those countries that have in general been supportive of Israel’s genocidal conduct – arms supply, military cooperation, political cover – but recently have been a bit uppity, raising concerns about the danger of escalating the conflict, back into line.

Grounds for doubt

I make no claim to be in a position to state definitively whether Hezbollah, or any other actor, is responsible for the killing and injuring of the children of Majdal Shams.  There are, however, significant grounds for doubting that Hezbollah is responsible for the attack.

Hezbollah generally takes responsibility for attacks it undertakes. The BBC makes the point that:

Hezbollah denied it had anything to do with the strike, but had earlier on Saturday claimed responsibility for four other attacks, including one on a military base around 3km (2 miles) away.

And not to be ignored, or marginalised, is Hezbollah’s own statement:

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon categorically denies the allegations reported by some enemy media outlets and various media platforms regarding the targeting of Majdal Shams and confirms that the Islamic Resistance has no connection to the incident at all, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib told the BBC that he did not think Hezbollah carried out the attack, but added it could be a mistake by the Israelis or by Hezbollah – I don’t know.

Amal Saad, lecturer on international relations and politics at Cardiff University, author of ‘Hizbu’llah: Politics and Religion’ among others, makes the point that in the 2006 war one of Hezbollah’s missiles accidently hit a Palestinian town killing two Arab children in Nazareth. Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah personally apologised on television, paying condolences to the victim’s family:

In my name and on behalf of my brothers, I apologize to this family…Of course, the word apology is not sufficient. I bear full responsibility. That was not intended at all.

It is also asserted that the type of damage wreaked at the site of the explosion does not accord with what one would expect from the type of ordnance Israel appears to assume Hezbollah used

All the above suggests that extreme scepticism is required when coming to a view as to who is responsible for the tragic deaths at Madjal Shams. Disgracefully, but not surprisingly, little of the above features in mainstream media news and comment. Instead, we are required to observe the essentially ritualistic peregrinations of Blinken and Lammy, going here and there, crying for peace – but arming Israel anyway. Meanwhile, our attention distracted, Israel continues to tear at the flesh and blood of Palestinians, cruelly, callously, vulture-like.  

Madjal Shams: A Druze village

The village of Madjal Shams is Syrian territory, occupied, and since 1981 annexed, by Israel. The people of the area consider themselves Syrian, and refuse to take Israeli citizenship. They are members of the Druze people, an Arabic-speaking, distinct ethnic group. Wikipedia explains that the Arabic language and culture are integral parts of Druze identity.

The question must surely arise: What would be Hezbollah’s motive for directing a lethal attack on this particular village, one in which the population disavows Israel?  

Creating a crisis with the wider region may suit Netanyahu and his government very well.  It could neutralise, or at least dilute the potency of the protests demanding a ceasefire and the immediate return of the hostages.

It could, almost certainly would, undermine attempts to unseat him.

Israel: a stranger to veracity

Israel’s great allies – USA, UK, EU, Germany, France and others – have consistently neutered themselves of meaningful influence by cleaving uncritically to the mantra ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ thus granting Israel permission to do what it will. 

Israel lies. It consistently lies and distorts the truth.  Israel’s commitment to fabrication and dissembling, supported implicitly by its allies, carries with it the real and present danger of miscalculation, thereby taking us down a road best not travelled.