Print  email 

Smart warfare isn't smart in resolving conflicts

Notes from the ER

By Tom Burke | For The Olympian • Published February 02, 2009

• Comments (0)

Last week, I was called by colleagues from the Ben Gurian Medical School in Israel, in advance of an upcoming trip as a visiting professor. In the interest of clarity and honesty, they wanted to be certain that I understood the "lay of the land." The first story provoked me to delay my trip, the second to write this column.

I was told that unlike what is described in the news, the people of Israel are intensely polarized regarding their support of the ongoing battle in Gaza. Closer to "home," the picture of the day in the life at the medical school included one to three rockets landing near the school per day, up until a week ago. Although the rockets have slowed, the sirens still go off intermittently, warning that an incoming missile might only be 50 seconds away. The medical students and professors huddle in bomb shelters awaiting the unknown.

Smart bombs are stupid

The second story is an example of why even smart bombs and modern warfare are too stupid to resolve conflict in today's new and global world.

Dr. Aboul Aish is a widely regarded obstetrician who trained in Israel but now practices and teaches both in Israel and Gaza. Aish is an award-winning clinician and educator who is widely known and appreciated for his work on peace building. For 15 years, he has initiated and led numerous joint Israeli-Palestinian health and social programs. He speaks fluent Hebrew but he is Palestinian.

On the Friday before last, he arrived moments after his Gaza home was shelled. Instantly, his three daughters and one niece were dead. His wife had recently died from cancer, but now his entire family is ruined.

I encourage you all to Google Dr. Aboul Aish and you will see an example of a modern man in a modern world. He has asked that the combatants and leadership of both sides cease their actions and let his children be a "symbol of the more than 1,200 Palestinians that have died in the 22 days of war." He has been featured on Israeli television pleading that his children be the last ones to die.