Mideast military and political analyst Elliot Chodoff spoke at the Albuquerque JCC on Feb. 26, 2009 to a broad cross-section of local Israel supporters, including UNM Israel Alliance members. He urged the audience to learn the facts and not accept simplistic views of the Mideast, such as Shia and Sunni or Hamas and Fatah being mortal enemies and not working together.
Chodoff pointed out that Israel has the legal status of military occupier in Arab regions of Israel. While I disagree based on the various historical documents dealing with the boundaries of Israel and status of lands, Chodoff pointed out that this not an illegal status. To militarily occupy territory is not illegal under international law. Consequently the mantra of “illegal occupation” is false. If it is an occupation at all, it is certainly a legal occupation, and Israel more than fulfills the requirements of an occupying force towards the non-combatant population of the occupied area.
Chodoff, an IDF reserve officer, served in the first Lebanon war, and was called up for the recent operation in Gaza and served there. He dispelled the usual propaganda that we hear, such as that “Gaza is a big open air prison”. The Gaza City area is large and crowded. The rest of Gaza is not, as pro-Palestinian groups prove often in their own videos. Facts and statistics show that the IDF killed far fewer non-combatants than is the case when UN, NATO or US troops fight in urban areas. This was because the IDF went to great efforts to avoid non-combatant casualties, in spite of the fact that Hamas used non-combatants as human shields, and even forced them to remain in targeted buildings in order to use their deaths for propaganda purposes.
