The Battle Of Algiers Offers Insights Into Israel-Gaza War

 I haven't posted about the Israel-Gaza* war for a variety of reasons, the key ones being the unreliability of the many accusations flung back and forth, the very complication of the issues including all the action going on behind the scenes that we don't know anything about.  

I've come up with a list of about a dozen issues that I see as important for anyone trying to understand what is happening and why.  Surely there are more.  And they all have threads that wind into the other issues. 

Guerilla Warfare 

One of the issues is the nature of guerrilla warfare.  Having been alive as the Vietnam War (or the American War as the Vietnamese call it), Afghanistan - first Russia and then US - I've learned a little bit about guerrilla warfare.  We see it when a militarily weak group of people feel badly mistreated and take on their overwhelmingly powerful perceived oppressors.   

Here's Wikipedia's summary:

"The main strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare tend to involve the use of a small attacking, mobile force against a large, unwieldy force. The guerrilla force is largely or entirely organized in small units that are dependent on the support of the local population. Tactically, the guerrilla army makes the repetitive attacks far from the opponent's center of gravity with a view to keeping its own casualties to a minimum and imposing a constant debilitating strain on the enemy. This may provoke the enemy into a brutal, excessively destructive response which will both anger their own supporters and increase support for the guerrillas, ultimately compelling the enemy to withdraw. One of the most famous examples of this was during the Irish War of Independence. Michael Collins, a leader of the Irish Republican Army, often used this tactic to take out squads of British soldiers, mainly in Munster, especially Cork."

In this case, Hamas are clearly the guerrillas against the overwhelming military strength of Israel.   

Wikipedia in a separate article offers a history of guerrilla warfare back to 6th Century BC China.

For me, the nature of guerrilla warfare got much clearer when I saw the movie The Battle Of Algiers, sometime in the 1970s.  

I'd strongly recommend watching this film for anyone who wants to understand what is happening now in Israel and Gaza.  

The Internet Archive has posted the film and has links to embed it in blogs and other websites.  I have never before posted a full movie like this and it feels a bit wrong.  You can also watch it at the Internet Archive.  

Aside from showing guerrilla warfare from the point of view of the guerrillas, it's a classic example of cinéma vérité.  It's just a really well made movie.  

Without understanding the underlying reasons a group uses guerrilla warfare tactics, it's hard to understand a war in which guerrilla forces fight against a much more dominant culture.  

History shows us many examples where overpowering military advantage eventually loses to an organized, but much, much weaker resistance movement.  But there are also examples of that weaker unit being crushed.  My sense here, though, is that the ruthlessness of Israel's response will create millions of more resisters among the Palestinians. 

Astute readers will have figured out that I've once again avoided the topic of Israel and Gaza.  Yes, and no.  It's much to complex a topic to deal with in one post.  I'll refine my list of key issues and then post the list.  Then I'll cover as many of the issues as I have the stomach for in other posts - some on just one issue, others may combine a few.  

In the meantime, I'd challenge readers to come up with their own lists of the key issues.  Then you'll be able to compare your lists with mine and, I hope, improve my list in the comments.  

Make some popcorn and enjoy the movie.  

*I've labeled this Israeli-Gaza war, but one could also say Israeli-Palestinian war.