“This is not a defense”: Retired Spanish General on Israel’s War in Gaza
As Israel continues its brutal assault on Gaza, I continue to be struck by the difference between some of the news coverage here in Spain (as imperfect as it is) and the coverage I am used to seeing back home in the U.S. In my previous article, I wrote about the Spanish public television program La Noche en 24H and the interview they aired with former International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. Today I focus on a subsequent interview from the same program aired last night (October 19, 2023).
A different kind of “general news”?
In this interview, host Xabier Fortes and his panel of guests spoke with José Enrique de Ayala, a retired brigadier general in the Spanish army who is now affiliated with the Spanish think tank Fundación Alternativas. From the outset, it’s important to specify that Ayala is hardly a committed anti-imperialist, nor did he come on the program to speak in favor of the Palestinian liberation struggle as such. The main value of his perspective, in my view, is that it may tell us something important about what a certain segment of Spain’s political and military elite actually think about the issue when they are not required to speak diplomatically or within the chain of command.
For comparison’s sake, it is also good to remember that during wartime, U.S. establishment media (especially television news outlets) love to give their audiences a parade of retired generals who play an important role within the larger propaganda system. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman once remarked drily during the early days of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq that the networks were giving a whole new meaning to “general news,” essentially turning “news” broadcasts into advertisements for the war.
Similarly, as critics of U.S. establishment media outlets have been saying for decades, U.S. coverage of Palestine and Israel has long been trapped within an extremely narrow set of ideological limits defined by the terms of the U.S.-Israel alliance. This helps explain the complete absence of settler colonialism from the coverage as well as the tendency of journalists to internalize the racist and imperialist frameworks underlying U.S. policy.
In such coverage, “expert” retired generals are rarely given the opportunity to do anything beyond comment on strategic and tactical issues (and, of course, to be cheerleaders for the military itself). They certainly aren’t called upon to provide more contextual, nuanced forms of political analysis. Their job is to make sure viewers are ideologically integrated into the war effort and eager to consume more war coverage.
The Ayala interview on La Noche en 24H was somewhat different. The longer format provided an opportunity for more depth, albeit within the ideological limits of the Spanish media and political structure. This allowed Ayala to offer an analysis that was sharp, detailed, informed by history, and often quite direct in terms of his critique of both the US and European powers. In other words, it had more than a little bit in common with what one might hear from the kinds of experts who are typically excluded from U.S. establishment media discussions of events in Palestine.
Below, for the record, I provide a translation of some of the key passages from the interview. All translations are mine.
On the general situation in Gaza
“This is a disaster for Gaza. This is a humanitarian disaster, a massacre. Thousands of children are dying. I can’t imagine that Gazans, no matter how radical Hamas may be, would have done this so that Israel would invade Gaza and so that there would be even more deaths and destruction. That would be crazy. I think this is more about the desperation of the people in Gaza, and perhaps also to try to avoid having other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia reach an agreement with Israel and leave them [the Palestinians] practically alone.”
On Israel’s actions in Gaza
“It’s ridiculous, partly because it’s a massacre of the civilian population and partly because of not respecting even the minimum elements of international human rights or the UN resolutions…And it’s not even effective. They’re not going to be able to destroy Hamas. And even if they do destroy Hamas, it will reconstitute itself…So what are we really talking about? What are they really trying to do?”
“No one disputes that Israel has the right to defend itself. But this is not a defense. It’s vengeance. It’s not a defense. It’s a punishment. They are massacring the civilian population. You don’t fight terrorism like that. Not by destroying hospitals and schools, bombarding civilians, leaving them without water, without electricity, without food, an isolation that is totally illegal, totally illegitimate from the point of view of international humanitarian law.”
On U.S. and European involvement
“I understand the desperation of the Palestinians, who don’t have a peaceful way to get out of the occupation, that’s the truth. And I understand the fear and the anger of the Israelis at the kind of massacre that occurred in the [music] festival…But that doesn’t justify doing the same thing.”
“If they didn’t have the support of the United States, Israel couldn’t do this. Not in any way. They have failed to respect 26 resolutions of the UN Security Council, from the first one in 1967, [Resolution] 242, which requires them to withdraw from occupied territories. They are completely canceling international law. So I think that if the United States, for whatever internal political reasons, can’t put a stop to this, the European Union needs to do it. Much of the time we are following the policies of the United States, without realizing that our population doesn’t agree. What I’m seeing is a kind of difference between the governments and the people. The European governments continue saying they support Israel unconditionally…Why aren’t they saying that the Palestinians don’t have water, don’t have food, don’t have fuel for their hospitals?”
“A physical [i.e., military] confrontation with Israel is unthinkable because the United States is clearly aligned [with Israel], also the United Kingdom, and the European Union doesn’t have sufficient force to be able to impose its will. I think it would be better to adopt a firm attitude condemning and isolating [Israel], cutting off diplomatic relations if necessary, until they stop these kinds of actions against the civilian population. The European Union could do this perfectly well. Notice that we are seeing the same thing as with the issue of Russia and Ukraine: the West against the rest of the world. The rest of the world is supporting the Palestinians. And the United States and the European Union, with a few allies they have around the world, supporting Israel unconditionally and shyly saying that you have to respect the civilian population. No. If the European Union adopted a truly firm position in this sense, I think Israel would have to think twice.”
On the al-Ahli hospital
“One thing is clear, and that is that Israel had ordered the evacuation of that hospital. And that is exactly what they typically do before their bombings - order the evacuation from whatever building or installation before bombing it.”
“If there is actually an investigation that reaches a definitive conclusion that this was an attack by Islamic Jihad, then we will definitely know about it in detail. If they don’t reach that conclusion, then there will be silence about it, like the silence about the attacks that destroyed the Nord Stream (pipeline).”
On future prospects
Sooner or later, this operation will end, and if the Palestinians don’t disappear…looking at the future, what solution will they find? They’ll still find the two-state solution, they’ll still find the solution of accepting the Palestinians as full citizens. Because what we are seeing is apartheid. The Palestinian territories look a lot like the South African Bantustans. And this is a situation that is not only illegal and illegitimate from the point of view of international law, it’s an unsustainable situation, because they will never have security.”
On Biden’s visit to the region
“I think Biden’s visit didn’t accomplish anything. On the contrary, it served to reinforce Netanyahu’s position. It’s ridiculous that he would return to Washington saying that he succeeded in getting 20 trucks allowed in. It’s ridiculous. What he has done is offer a helping hand to Netanyahu.”
A glimpse of humanity?
Amidst these discussions of political and territorial scenarios, there was a revealing moment. Fortes referred to the breaking news of Israel’s bombing of the centuries-old Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius church, where many Palestinians were sheltering. (As of this writing, it appears that at least 16 civilians were killed in the church bombing.)
As the producers maintained a split screen, we saw in real time the general’s reaction to the news. The mask of the detached military analyst slipped for a moment as Ayala struggled to keep his emotions in check. And I had to wonder: would the carefully controlled world of U.S. television news have allowed for such a moment?
