"They shelled everyone in Gaza ... they shelled children and hospitals and mosques and in doing so, they gave us legitimacy to strike them in the same way,"said Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar. Of course the hospitals and schools and even the mosques are ammunition dumps and launching pads for the thousands and thousands of missiles Hamas has launched and is launching indiscriminately into Southern Israel for the very purpose of provoking an attack which, seeing as they are hiding in schools and hospitals and apartment houses would generate the kind of inadvertent martyrdom Hamas, in its self-righteous cowardice, likes to assign to innocent people. They're still firing them into towns and villages and still refusing to stop even if it allows a cease fire and the end of the killing.
Of course it's hard to cite something as a provocation when it follows your prior provocation, but the chain of provocation and response is so long, any party can pick a beginning that suits their arguments -- and of course they do.
Is the Israeli response disproportionate? Of course, but if someone fires a bullet at you would you limit yourself to firing only one in return -- and of the same caliber? I think not. Would we have given Germany back to the Germans or Japan back to the Japanese had they persisted in firing hundreds of rockets at us every day of the week? Have Hamas's rocket attacks and suicide bombing attacks been entirely against civilians? Of course. Have Israeli embargoes and draconian restrictions followed massacres? Yes, and around and around we go.
Is this kind of insanity the ineluctable result of two religious cultures claiming the same ground for religious reasons? In any event, I'm not a believer in any peaceful solution that will allow all concerned to lead decent, secure lives. If Israel were to turn over all territory taken after neighboring states tried to annihilate them, I have no doubt that every square inch would be used as a base of operations to once again attempt to kill every Israeli and every shot would come from behind a screen of women and children. So far, that's just what has happened.
There has been a tense and angry peace between Israel and other neighboring countries, but I see no hope for a Palestinian state in addition to Jordan, unless it's willing to accept Israel's existence -- and Hamas is not about the acceptance of Israel.
Hamas' strategy is to provoke Israel into vicious insanity - and it works. As they haven't the manpower or the weapons for anything but barbaric terrorism against innocent civilians, they depend on getting sympathy through the sacrifice of their own innocent citizens - and it works and as long as it works, they're not going to fix it.
4 comments:
that might be so but this doesn't look the same. neither did the invasion of lebanon in 2006. hamas did indeed recognize israel's right to exist and i think everyone in the middle east is sick to death of all the bullshit that america and israel has perpetrated in that region. both sides argue back and forth but the bottom line is- starving innocent civilians doesn't work. bombing the shit out of schools, etc, doesn't work. and while loss of life is loss of life- it always seems to be 10's of israelis to hundreds of palestinians dying. not exactly a fair fight when you box your enemy in and bomb the shit out of them. just sayin'. there is more than just the hamas rocket launches in play here. and americans never get the full story because of the judeo-christian bias here.
What I find peculiar in all this is that Israel has managed to seal off the borders of Gaza to food, medicine, electricity and lots of other vital essentials but, apparently, can't keep "thousands and thousands" of rockets out of the hands of Hamas.
Seriously, how f'ing stupid does society have to be to continue buying the Israeli narriative? Because it doesn't add up.
No, nobody gets the true story - nobody. There are no good guys here and both sides are victimizing their own people and the other side's people for political ends. Being a victim does not make one virtuous and that of course goes for both sides.
As an example, a recent video making the rounds in the last couple of days purported to be a shot of Israel attacking Gaza, turns out to have been shot in 2005 and depicted an attack attributed to Hamas on a refugee camp. The lies are as thick as the smoke from phosphorus bombs.
But of course you're right - our perceptions precede the facts we use to justify them, but that's always the case and always should serve as a warning to the convinced.
I don't buy anyone's narrative and every action and every interpretation conceals a hidden motive. Hamas could have avoided this and could have avoided a majority of the casualties and so is not innocent of all responsibility. Do you recall any offer of peace or of ending support for violence in return for turning back on the power or opening the border? Do you recall a population in utter jubilation when New York was attacked? Good faith, moderation and respect for human life - that's not spelled HAMAS.
Yes, I despise the use of air power to subdue a population, whether it's the population of Baghdad, Lebanon or Gaza,
but taking the position of "we won't stop shooting at you until you stop defending yourself" isn't a credible bid for peace no matter which side is using it.
There have been some 6000 rockets fired and perhaps there's another story to why there are shortages of food and medicine. There certainly is a reason behind the disappearance of billions in foreign aid and it isn't because it was used to build schools, was it?
It will be hard to convince me that Hamas doesn't do everything it can to maximize Palestinian casualties by using innocents as human shields. That tactic has been used over and again. If they recognize Israel, they have a funny way of showing it.
I think there are madmen on both sides and no fights are fair. We'd still be fighting the Japanese if we engaged in fair fighting and anyone who thinks Hamas tries to be "fair" is simply deluded. Does anyone really think that open borders between Israel and Gaza would result in cessation of suicide bombers and rocket attacks? Just how many attacks per week is acceptable before retaliation is called for?
It's hard to trust people that break each and every cease fire, each and every time, but maybe I'm just a cynic.
Once again, I'm 100% sure that any land returned will be responded to with attacks against Israeli civilians and that Hamas' intention is not to build a separate state, but to have it all if it requires the death of all their people and all of Israel's.
It may well be that the current Israeli leadership feels exactly the same about having it all and certainly there is evidence for it. If we can't convince Israel to stop building "settlements" to provoke Palestinians and if we can't convince Palestinians to stop supporting the kind of actions that provoke embargoes and walls and other offenses there can never be any peace, because no one else will or has the power to do it except God, but of course we wouldn't have this dispute without him, would we?
It's amazing how you can twist your rather neurotic and firmly delusional hatred for Democrats and Liberals (both of which I am)into such a tirade.
You're the only one using mockery - everyone else is speaking from concern for humanity as different as their opinions might be.
Post a Comment