Article

2018-12-16 Israel-Palestine-Jordan

As one Palestinian family’s history shows, home demolitions won’t stop attacks

The editorialist misses a key point, I think: money spent on rebuilding demolished houses is money unavailable for other things, like financing future terrorism, and so the demolitions have strategic value even if the tactic itself is a wash. Interesting facts culled from a longer, and more emotional piece.

[IsraelTimes] The Abu Hamid family, whose home was demolished by the Israeli military early Saturday, has a long history of involvement in attacks on Israeli security forces.

In 1991, the Israel Defense Forces destroyed the family’s home in the al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah over the involvement of one of the brothers ‐ Nasser, a Fatah member ‐ in terrorism. That house was later rebuilt... before being demolished again Saturday.

In 1994 another brother, Abdul Munim Abu Hamid, along with two Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, members, killed Shin Bet agent Noam Cohen. Abdul himself was killed a few months later.

Nasser Abu Hamid, upon his release from prison, became a founder of Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades at the start of the Second Intifada and in April 2002 was incarcerated
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
by the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield, not far from the family home.

Other brothers would also spend time in Israeli prisons over the years, among them Islam Yusef Abu Hamid.

During an operation of the elite Duvdevan unit in al-Amari in May, he is said to have thrown a marble slab from a roof at Israeli forces, killing Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky ‐ and leading to the razing of the family home early Saturday.

THE SOUND AND THE FURY
The family’s history shows that home demolitions are, unfortunately, highly unlikely to deter would-be attackers.

Although some seem to believe destroying assailants’ homes is a comprehensive solution to preventing terrorism, the case of the Abu Hamid family shows that not only do they not prevent attacks ‐ they can sometimes even fuel motivation for Dire Revenge.

The Abu Hamid home will be rebuilt within a few years, likely with Paleostinian Authority funding, as one Fatah leader has said.

Even if the Fatah money is not forthcoming, someone else ‐ perhaps Hamas ‐ will provide the funds.

There is no magical solution for preventing attacks on Israeli citizens and soldiers, and anyone who holds up house demolitions as the ultimate means to do so is either mistaken or deliberately misleading others. It is an excellent way of soothing the families of the victims and an Israeli public out for Dire Revenge, but nothing more than that.

At the height of the suicide kaboom wave of 2003, three years after the start of the Second Intifada, a report was drawn up by the IDF on the policy of home demolitions, a practice that had received an official green light in the summer of 2002. Hundreds of terrorists’ family homes had since been destroyed.

But the report determined there was no evidence that the demolitions had a deterrent effect and that furthermore, the number of attacks actually rose a few months after the implementation of the policy.

In early 2005, a committee appointed by then-IDF chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon and headed by Gen. Udi Shani recommended ending the razing of homes on the grounds that they were not proven to be a deterrent, and declared that the damage outweighed any benefit.

While Israelis in recent years have become used to a rather low number of attacks, the lava in the volcano that is the West Bank continues to bubble beneath the surface. The Shin Bet and IDF can attest to this, having prevented hundreds of attacks over the past year ‐ sometimes with the close cooperation of the Paleostinian Authority’s security services.

Posted by trailing wife 2018-12-16 00:00|| || Front Page|| [12 views ] Top

#1 home demolitions won’t stop attacks

It will if they're in it

Posted by Frank G 2018-12-16 07:06|| 2018-12-16 07:06|| Front Page Top

Bill Sherman might disagree.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-12-16 07:09|| 2018-12-16 07:09|| Front Page Top

#3 ...compare Charleston before the war to Charleston after Billy got done with it. Same could be said of some Japanese cities by the end of 1945. The Japanese had to relearn the lesson of not bombarding a federal military installation. Seemed to have worked in Germany too as both are among the least militaristic countries in the world today (vs their pre-WWII cultures). Although the Chinese seem intent on changing that in the Pacific.

Posted by Procopius2k 2018-12-16 08:17|| 2018-12-16 08:17|| Front Page Top

#4 It means they arent doing enough of it to make a dent in the money. And maybe chain the offender in the house before explosive demolition.

Posted by Injun Bucket8891 2018-12-16 13:33|| 2018-12-16 13:33|| Front Page Top

#5 Although some seem to believe destroying assailants’ homes is a comprehensive solution

Nice straw man, scarecrow! I doubt anyone actually believes that. A comprehensive solution would be repeated carpet bombing until the miscreants grow tired of their ways.

While we're at it, let's give the "collective punishment" meme a kick in the groin. The idea of knocking down a family home as punishment for the crimes of an individual seems strange to us in the West because we regard the individual as the basic element of society. Not so in clan-based societies. There, honor killings make sense because the woman has reduced the clan's reputation. Marrying a cousin makes sense because it keeps wealth inside the clan and doesn't drag the group into someone else's feuds. It is a different way of looking at the world. If it doesn't affect the clan, it doesn't really matter.

Posted by SteveS 2018-12-16 17:14|| 2018-12-16 17:14|| Front Page Top

#6 "some" or "critics say" mean absolutely NO real journalism is involved. It's bias reflected in a "report" that fulfills an agenda

Posted by Frank G 2018-12-16 17:26|| 2018-12-16 17:26|| Front Page Top

#7 Why stop with their house? Destroy the neighborhood and the people in it. Dead people don't commit terrorism. Though they do vote democrat and Hezbollah.

Posted by Silentbrick 2018-12-16 17:46|| 2018-12-16 17:46|| Front Page Top

#8 It's only a matter of scale.

Posted by KBK 2018-12-16 18:29|| 2018-12-16 18:29|| Front Page Top

08:45 Procopius2k
08:42 Skidmark
08:41 Galactic+Coordinator+and+Company6935
08:38 Skidmark
08:31 Skidmark
08:29 Jack+Creanter7508
08:26 Jack+Creanter7508
08:25 Skidmark
08:20 Jack+Creanter7508
08:19 Jack+Creanter7508
08:16 Xyz
08:12 Skidmark
08:10 Besoeker
08:07 trailing wife
08:06 Besoeker
08:03 Skidmark
08:03 Besoeker
07:59 Cesare
07:59 Skidmark
07:56 trailing wife
07:56 Besoeker
07:47 Super Hose
07:47 Xyz
07:45 Mullah Richard