If security is really the issue, Israel will not gain anything by attacking Gaza again and again
On and on it goes. When Israeli soldiers stormed into the West Bank claiming they were looking for those kidnapped teenagers, they arrested hundreds (between 350-600) and killed a half dozen Palestinians in the process. It didn’t take long for Hamas rockets to start raining down on the Iron Dome and for the Israeli Military to launch another offensive in Gaza.
So far, Palestinian civilians are once again receiving the brunt of the casualties. Of the 210 dead and 1200 wounded, at least 70% of them are civilians. On the Israeli side, one civilian dead and several wounded. This is the third Israeli offensive in Gaza in the last five years and the fifth in the last nine. What does Israel hope to achieve this time that they could not accomplish before? Nothing, other than more punishment.
For proof, you need to look no further than the ceasefire agreement that Israel was willing to sign the other day. Israel is no more secure today than when the fighting started. They have yet to put a stop to Hamas rocket and mortar attacks. So what was the purpose other than pure punishment?
For the record, Hamas rejected the ceasefire (they didn’t violate it) because they distrust the new Egyptian government and were not consulted on it before hand. They are also looking for the blockade to be eased and the newly re-acquired Palestinian prisoners to be released, so they would likely have rejected it even if they were first consulted.
If security is the main goal, as the Israeli government and their allies always tell us, they’re going at it the wrong way. Palestine has been occupied for forty-seven years and Gaza has been blockaded for close to eight. If Israel sincerely wants peace and security (I’m sure the hawkish Netanyahu government does not), they need to leave.
Repeated bombing of an already poor, battered and isolated territory is not going to lessen the amount of resistance. Americans should have learned that when they occupied Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s their home and they’ll keep fighting until the occupation ends.
Hamas was born out of the first intifada (uprising) against the Israeli occupation in the late 1980’s. They were considered extreme at the time and remain so in many respects, but still, Hamas is the only real armed resistance Palestine has. Hamas is the type of group that a long uninvited occupation breeds.
When an occupying force blockades land, builds massive walls, usurps territory for settlers, destroys much needed infrastructure, arrests people by the hundreds, and kills children with artillery (by accident or not), you have to wonder if Hamas will be the worst of what Israel has unintentionally (or intentionally) created.
I keep telling people that as long as there is an occupation, peace and security will never exist because there will always be resistance to it. If the United States one day decided to occupy Quebec in order to get their hands on our vast amounts of fresh water, guess what? As much as I love my American friends, I would do what I can to resist it. I may even pick up a gun for the first time. Who knows?
The Israeli/Palestine conflict is obviously more complicated, but the basic premise still holds true. Israel gains nothing by bombing the shit out of the occupied territories time and time again. All it does is give groups like Hamas validity among Palestinian civilians and it will certainly of resistance.
“Nonviolent resistance has proved ineffective. So has violent resistance. Israel has settlers and extremists and we have Hamas. They have been too extreme and Hamas has been too extreme. We both suffer.” – Anwar Qasqeen, a middle-aged Gazan fisherman
Hasn’t anyone heard of Apartheid? The South Africans finally saw the light. It’s too bad that Mandela didn’t have a talk with the Zionists before he passed.
Mike refuses to condemn Hamas as terrorists and outright sympathizes with terrorists.
So pathetic. But what do you expect. Scum.