Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” - Prof. Joel Hayward's ...

Chapter 10
a lost bomber), <strong>the</strong> Germans succumbed to <strong>the</strong> temptation to target towns <strong>and</strong> cities
in <strong>the</strong> UK.
Israeli Statements
The precedents set by <strong>the</strong> British during <strong>the</strong> Second World War in terms of use <strong>and</strong> ethical
arguments in favour of air power have been an important rhetorical tool for Israeli leaders.
Israeli behaviour in this context is significant in underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>the</strong> GSJ’s strategic <strong>and</strong>
rhetorical aims. Firstly, political rhetoric in <strong>the</strong> Middle East is an interactive process. What
<strong>the</strong> Israelis say influences <strong>the</strong> Arab counter-argument <strong>and</strong> vice versa. Style is similarly
mutually developed. Secondly, civilian casualties caused by Israeli bombings have been
<strong>and</strong> continue to be a major source of grievance <strong>and</strong> motivation for militant Arab <strong>and</strong>
Muslim groups operating throughout <strong>the</strong> world.
In 1982 Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin claimed that civilian casualties in Lebanon
caused by Israel’s air raids were no different from <strong>the</strong> casualties caused in Denmark as a
result of RAF raids in WWII. Begin was referring to an RAF attack on a Nazi Gestapo
headquarters in Copenhagen which resulted in <strong>the</strong> deaths of over eighty children, twenty
nuns <strong>and</strong> three firemen on 21 March 1945. In reality, <strong>the</strong> RAF had taken great care to
avoid civilian casualties <strong>and</strong> had consequently chosen a low-level attack using Mosquito
aircraft. Unfortunately one of <strong>the</strong> aircraft hit a tower <strong>and</strong> crashed into a school <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>
o<strong>the</strong>r aircraft assumed that <strong>the</strong> resulting fire was <strong>the</strong> target. This was a mistake, made all
<strong>the</strong> more tragic by <strong>the</strong> fact that <strong>the</strong> RAF took great care to avoid civilian casualties in that
instance. As with most rhetoric, context <strong>and</strong> factual accuracy are often sacrificed in favour
of political effect. To <strong>the</strong> uninformed, Menachem Begin had a point <strong>and</strong> his argument
helped to deflect some of <strong>the</strong> international criticism of Israeli actions.
More recently, Benjamin Netanyahu <strong>and</strong> Shimon Peres, both ex-Israeli Prime Ministers,
explicitly rejected British media criticisms of Israel’s bombing of Lebanon in August
2006. They repeatedly pointed to British air power <strong>and</strong> German civilian casualties during
WWII. Netanyahu said in various statements that as Britain <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> US had bombed
Dresden, killing tens of thous<strong>and</strong>s, in response to <strong>the</strong> V2 rocket attacks on Engl<strong>and</strong>,
<strong>the</strong>y should underst<strong>and</strong> Israeli bombing of Beirut in response to Hezbollah’s Katyusha
rocket attacks against Israel. In reality, no rocket production capability was identified at
Dresden before it was attacked. Such detailed inaccuracy may be of interest to historians
but it is an irrelevance to political rhetoric. The fact remains that both <strong>the</strong> US <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> UK
deliberately bombed German towns <strong>and</strong> cities with <strong>the</strong> specific objective of undermining
civilian morale through overwhelming casualties during WWII. Having set that precedent
<strong>and</strong>, more importantly, having not formally renounced <strong>the</strong>ir actions, <strong>the</strong> US <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> UK
are unintentionally providing political <strong>and</strong> ethical cover for Israel <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r actors in <strong>the</strong>
<strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong>, <strong>Insurgency</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> “War on Terror” 171