“Israel’s strategy is to kill civilians”: An Op-Ed for the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper of Vermont in 1997

“David Ben-Gurion”, a woodcut portrait by Mervin Jules (1912-1994).

The State of Israel has for long promoted the idea that its armed forces have rigorously pursued an ethical code when involved in military operations. Alongside the Zionist narrative of Israel being a democratic nation embedded in the midst of authoritarian states is that of a country in possession of the “world’s most moral army”. It is a narrative which has increasingly worn thin during the prolonged campaign against the Palestinian Gaza strip since 2023. Many are becoming apprised of the fact that the killing of civilians as a strategy of waging war is deeply ingrained in Israeli military doctrine. The following letter to the editor of a provincial American newspaper in 1997 sheds light on an ever present modus operandi which evolved into the “Dahiya doctrine”, applicable to the destruction of Lebanese population centres, and the “Mowing the grass” policy which was applied in Gaza. It is a policy which has now evolved into one with the goal of exterminating as much of the Palestinian population in Gaza in order to pave the way for their total removal in accordance with the longstanding aspirations of Political Zionism.

Editor of the Reformer:

In a recent letter to the editor, Bob Grossbaum blames the cycle of violence in the Middle East firmly on the Palestinians.

The picture he paints is of a plucky and beleaguered Israel constantly “living with border raids by terrorists, bombings … shootings … minings, etc.”  These raids are carried out by Arabs whose “mindset” is one of hostility to Israel’s “modern ways.”

That there is violence against Israel is true, of course and is well reported in the U.S. Not so well reported, however, is the vastly larger scale of violence that Israel delivers on its neighbors as part of a long-standing policy of intimidation and provocation.

Although it is not well advertised in the U.S., it has always been Israeli policy to deliberately target Palestinian civilians in Lebanon and beyond for political reasons. This policy is independent of, but hides behind, any terrorist attacks on Israel. But don’t take my word for it. Israeli policy is quite explicitly spelled out in the various writings and speeches of the policy makers themselves.

In his “Independence War Diary,” Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion wrote in 1948 that Israel must “strike mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise the action is inefficient. At the place of action there is no need to distinguish between guilty and innocent.”

The policy was confirmed as ongoing by General and Chief of Staff Mordechai Gur during Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon. Gur said in an interview in al Hamishmar (May 10, 1978) that “For 30 years, from the War of Independence until today, we have been fighting against a population that lives in villages and cities.”

Veteran Israeli military analyst Ze’ev Schiff, writing in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz a few days later (May 15, 1978), was surprised at Gur’s frankness but didn’t dispute him: “In South Lebanon we struck the civilian population consciously, because they deserved it, … the importance of Gur’s remarks is that the Israeli army has always struck civilian populations purposely and consciously… even when Israeli settlements had not been struck.”

Prime Minister Moshe Sharett lamented Israel’s policy in his “Personal Diary,” published in 1979: “the long chain of false incidents and hostilities we have invented, and so many clashes we have provoked.” Sharett himself referred to Israeli policy as a “sacred policy”. Sharett also quoted another Prime Minister, Moshe Dayan, as saying the Israeli raids in Lebanon “make it possible for us to maintain a high level of tension among our population and in the army. Without these actions we would have ceased to be a combative people.” Sharett wrote that “the conclusion from Dayan’s words are clear: This state … must see the sword as the main, if not the only, instrument with which to keep its morale high and to maintain its moral tension. Toward this end … it must adopt the method of provocation-and-revenge.”

The policy was again admitted by a high-level Israeli government official in 1981. On Aug. 16 in reply to a letter by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, former U.N. Ambassador and Foreign Minister Abba Eban wrote in the Jerusalem Post that “the picture that emerges (from Begin’s letter) is that of an Israel wantonly inflicting every possible measure of death on civilian populations in a mood reminiscent of regimes which neither Mr. Begin nor I would dare mention by name.” Eban supported the policy, though: “there was a rational prospect of the cessation of hostilities.”

In other words civilians would be deliberately bombed for political reasons. This is exactly what happened when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, killing 20,000 people. Almost all of the dead, and their “afflicted” families were civilians. And again in 1988, Israeli policy was explained from the top. This time it was by Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin, who we remember now as the recently martyred man of peace. Rabin said in the Jerusalem Post on Sept. 8 that “We want to get rid of the illusion of some people in remote villages that they have liberated themselves,” adding that bombing these villages "will make it clear to them where they live and within which framework.” Would civilians be killed by these raids? Not accidentally according to Rabin: “more casualties … is precisely our aim.”

At this point, readers may be asking themselves why the Israeli policy is not mentioned much in this country. The reason is because Americans pay for it. Israel is totally dependent on U.S. aid, and what is Israeli policy is U.S. policy. Mr. Grossbaum may prefer to believe that Palestinians are the only ones carrying out terrorist attacks against civilians. However, Israeli prime ministers, defence ministers, generals, chiefs of staff, ambassadors, foreign ministers and military analysts would say this is not so. They would say that Israel conducts an on-going military campaign of intimidation aimed deliberately and consciously at civilians and independent of any terrorist attacks against Israel.

Given that the evidence supports them, I would agree.

Michael Fulton
Putney

© 1997, Michael Fulton and the Brattleboro Reformer/© 2025, Adeyinka Makinde (Preamble).

Source: The Brattleboro Reformer, Saturday, October 25^th, 1997.

A sketch of T.E. Lawrence who died 90 years ago today

Colonel T.E. Lawrence photographed in 1919 while serving as British Liaison Officer to Emir Faisal at the Versailles Peace Conference. Photo credit: Imperial War Museum.

Thomas Edward Lawrence, the famed British Army officer died on May 19th, 1935.

Lawrence was an intelligence officer who became enmeshed in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire. His memoir about his experiences during the Great War was published in 1926. It was titled Seven Pillars of Wisdom. The book formed the basis of David Lean’s epic movie Lawrence of Arabia, which was released in 1962.

Lawrence was a distant cousin of Major General Orde Wingate who as a Captain oversaw the quelling of the Arab Revolt in Palestine between 1936 and 1939.

Both men are noted for having innovated distinct forms of irregular warfare.

The photograph was taken in 1919 while serving as British Liaison Officer to Emir Feisal at the Versailles Peace Conference.

Army ranks (select):

. 1916 - Second Lieutenant
. 1916 - Captain (Temporary rank)
. 1917 - Major (Temporary rank)
. 1918 - Lieutenant Colonel (Temporary rank)
. 1918 - Colonel (Substantive rank)

Lawrence left the army in 1919.

He later served almost 13 years in the RAF and British Army as enlisted personnel.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

May 9th is 'Victory Day' in Russia

A replica T-34 tank at the Soviet War Memorial in Tiergarten, Berlin captured in August 2015. Photo credit: Adeyinka Makinde.

May 9th commemorates the USSR's defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

The signing of the German Instrument of Surrender took place in the late evening of May 8th,1945 which was May 9th, Moscow Time.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

The T-34 Tank

Blueprint of the T-34 tank.

Produced by the U.S.S.R. during its "Great Patriotic War" (Velikaya Otechestvennaya Voyna) as World War 2 in referred to by Russians, the tank is viewed with a similar reverence and affection to that which Britons hold for the Spitfire plane.

The T-34 is, I think that it is safe to say, considered to be the best all-purpose tank of World War 2.

It had a powerful engine, was fast and extremely manoeuvrable. It was well equipped and highly defendable because the high calibre anti-tank weapons of the day could not penetrate its armour: they simply bounced off the tank!

In order to disable the T-34, the Germans needed to come in close and aim for slits or its engine compartment. Ground troops literally needed to be in a position to mount the tank and toss a grenade into the crew area. Alternatively, the other hope of stopping it was via the use of air power.

It was a tremendous piece of technology for its day and played a major role in the Red Army's defeat on the Eastern Front of the forces of Nazi Germany.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

Lecture to Naval Warfare Course (NWC 9) at the Naval War Collge Nigeria

I had the honour and pleasure this morning to have delivered an online lecture on the Bonny amphibious operation to the participants on this year's Naval Warfare Course (NWC 9) at the Naval War College Nigeria.

The lecture was presented to 30 participants as part of the Module on Naval History. The participating officers are mainly from the Nigerian Navy but with a component from the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air force and foreign allied navies, coming this year from Ghana, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are generally middle cadre officers i.e. Lieutenant Commanders, Commanders and their equivalents in the other armed services.

My thanks go to Captain Timothy Etubus, the Sponsor Director of the lecture, and other staff at the college including Air Commodore Seun Oluwatayo who gave the closing remarks after I had concluded my lecture by fielding questions from the participants.

NB.

My article "The Bonny Landing: The anatomy of Black Africa’s firstamphibious operation, July to September 1967" was published in the August 2024 edition of The Mariner's Mirror, the international journal of the Society for Nautical Research.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

Adeyinka Makinde is based in London, England.

Moise Tshombe and The Wild Geese

“Sad are the eyes, yet no tears…” Image of Moise Tshombe in the opening titles of "The Wild Geese" (1978). The opening sequence of "The Wild Geese" was designed by Maurice Bindman.

The name Moise Tshombe is one which is written in infamy.

It was Tshombe who led the resource-rich province of Katanga to secede from the Congo and whose gendarmes executed Congo’s charismatic Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba on Katangan soil. Both actions, accomplished at the behest of the old colonial power Belgium, have left Tshombe with the unfortunate legacy of being the archetypal colonial stooge. 

Photograph of Tshombe the former leader of the Katangan secession from Congo (1960-1963) and former Prime Minister of Congo (1964-1965) while he was being held in detention in Algeria following the hijacking of a plane on which he had been travelling while it was above the Mediterranean Sea. Credits: The original photograph of Tshombe in captivity appeared in the German news magazine Stern in 1969.

The turmoil which accompanied Tshombe’s period as a political figure was marked by the activities of white mercenaries who actively aided Tshombe’s bid for secession and who later revolted against the central government led by General Joseph Mobutu who dismissed Tshombe from his role as Congolese Prime Minister after the secession was revoked.

It was no surprise that elements of the Tshombe story and of mercenary behaviour were portrayed in the Hollywood movie The Wild Geese.

Released in 1978, the film includes scenes depicting the hijacking of an aeroplane carrying an African political leader, as well as one in which the mercenaries react to “betrayal”. Quite interestingly, the image of Tshombe in Algerian captivity appears for a number of seconds in the opening titles. His face appears sullen as his eyes gaze wistfully at the camera of his West German visitor. They speak of a man who although stoic is ill-at-ease and contemplative of his impending doom.

It is an image that serves well as a metaphor for the continuing state of his country.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2025).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.

Relic of Na Trioblóidí: Leaflet Warning To The Republican Population About SAS "Death Squads"

Image of leaflet via Press Association.

This is a leaflet issued in the mid-1970s by a group calling itself Citizens United For Border Security warning the Republican population of the presence of the British Army's special Forces regiment, the SAS (Special Air Service), along the border between British ruled Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The SAS was deployed to Northern Ireland from 1968 to 2007, primarily, it is claimed, in a plainclothes, intelligence-gathering role, focusing on countering the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA).

The leaflet began to be distributed at the beginning of 1976.

In February 1976, John Biggs-Davison, a Conservative Party MP described it as a "preposterous document".

But British Prime Minister Harold Wilson acknowledged the presence of 'D' Squadron of the SAS in south County Armagh after 3 British soldiers were killed in November 1975 and 10 Protestant workers were massacred at Kingsmill in January 1976. These events were part of a backdrop of increasing sectarian violence in rural areas

The SAS kidnapped an IRA man named Sean McKenna in March 1976 in the Republic of Ireland border area, and the following month it killed an IRA Staff Captain named Peter Cleary. Then when an Irish forester named Seamus Ludlow was kidnapped and murdered at the beginning of May, the Irish the Garda (police) and the Irish Army set up a checkpoint on Flagstaff Road.

This would lead to the "Flagstaff Incident" of May 5/6,1976.

Two undercover SAS soldiers were apprehended at the checkpoint while on their way to relieve two other colleagues on border duty. This was followed by the arrest of a further four who had gone in search of the first two who were suspected of been victims of an IRA ambush.

The subsequent arrests of eight British soldiers led to a diplomatic incident.

In March 1977, the eight SAS men were tried and found guilty of possession of arms and ammunition without firearms licensing. The firearms were returned to the British government after forensic evidence determined that they had not been used in the commission of any crimes being investigated in the Republic.

There would be 54 further incursions into Irish territory by British forces in 1976 as they struggled to contain the activities of Republican guerrillas much of which was centred in South Armagh.

It came to be known as “Bandit Country”, a place rife with sniper activity, ambushes, kidnappings and assassinations carried out by both insurgents and security forces. Arraigned against the likes of McKenna and Cleary were formidable SAS men such as (the) Captain Julian “Tony” Ball who was among the first of several SAS contingents deployed to Northern Ireland in 1976 where he was stationed at Bessbrook base (BBK) in South Armagh.

No stranger to Northern Ireland where he was previously deployed with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers, Ball often liaised with Captain Robert Nairac, a Grenadier Guards officer who worked in intelligence and performed many undercover tasks. Nairac was abducted outside a pub at Dromintee in south Armagh in May 1977 and spirited across the border by republican sympathiser where he was tortured and killed.

Some Republicans remained convince that Nairac, like his friend Ball, was a member of the SAS, but this seems unlikely because the secretive SAS always “claim” their members in death, and Nairac's name is not written among the relevant rolls of fallen SAS soldiers.

© 2025 (Adeyinka Makinde).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.