Grozny, Chechnya, 1995

Gideon Levy is reporting the Gaza conflict from Israel’s Negev region. He is eager to emphasize that the threat posed by the Hamas rocket attacks is overblown (“This is no Second Lebanon War, to judge by a visit to southern Israel Thursday. Life carries on somehow, no cities have been abandoned and so far the fatalities are in single digits”) but that’s not surprising. What struck me is that he apparently didn’t grasp the meaning of the following conversation with two immigrants from the Caucasus who are now in Sderot.

Two workers from the Caucasus were building a protective wall in the yard, Igor Medeyev and Oleg Aronov. Igor immigrated to Israel from Dagestan, Oleg from Grozny, Chechnya. Both have silver and gold teeth.

Igor is relatively moderate, but here’s what Oleg had to say: “This isn’t a war, this is sentimental. Our state is a little crazy, people talk a lot, we need action. Muslims are not people. Muslims need to die. Better a crazy dog than a Muslim.”

Oleg goes on to explain in his broken Hebrew that if Russian soldiers were sent into Gaza they would take care of things in three or four days. “They know what war is.” (My emphasis - BC)

Igor is slightly taken aback by his friend’s comments and explains that Oleg is still hung-over from New Year’s Eve.

Whether or not he was suffering from the after effects of too much partying, Oleg - notwithstanding his repellent racist comments - is right about Russian military strategy. When they invaded Chechnya, in 1994 and 1999, the Russians deployed a scorched earth policy. Grozny was burned to a cinder, with complete disregard for the lives of civilians and for the laws of war.

Oleg’s complaint is that Israel is, well, a bit too civilized. What’s ironic is that he made that observation to a journalist who wrote these lines about the IDF:

What the system instills is that we are the lords of the land and the Palestinians are an inferior people who under no circumstances are entitled to what we are entitled to; that the occupation is just, obligatory in the situation, that terrorism sprang up in a vacuum, that the Palestinians were born to kill, that the terrorist attacks stem solely from their bloodthirsty character. And all this is wrapped in security considerations that are an excuse for everything, and believe me - everything.

No, Gideon, not everything - not by any stretch of the imagination. As Oleg would doubtless confirm, you need to accompany the Russian military to see what “everything” looks like.