planet earth looks blue

The end of the year Israel-Palestinian conflict sounds a little too much like two siblings fighting over the holidays.  They’ve behaved themselves for awhile, but living in close quarters for too long, the ever-present tensions have finally boiled over.  Something that the rest of the family knew was going to happen at some point, but just didn’t want to admit.  And now, in this modern, globalized world, the dysfunctional family must decide whose side to take and what to do about it, or watch as the two brothers beat each other into a bloody pulp.   

So, the question is, who drew first blood?  We’ll have to go back to early November, still within the Egyptian brokered cease-fire, which officially ended on December 19th.  On November 4th Israel forces entered Gaza to blow up a tunnel, that they claimed Hamas was going to use to capture Israel soldiers.  Hamas of course never captured any soldiers, and who knows if they ever were going to, or what right such speculation gives Israel to move into Gaza at all.  During the raid 6 Hamas militants were killed.  Israel drew first blood.  

Since then, in response, Hamas has been sending rockets and mortar shells into Israel territory, but they have yet to actually kill any Israeli’s.  Israel has been launching the air-strikes since early November, killing another dozen Hamas within the next month.  All of this went relatively unnoticed, as the rest of the family perhaps considered this to be only a little scrap, nothing big enough to render world attention.  

  Israel waited until the official end of the Egyptian cease-fire to retaliate against the daily rocket and mortar shell attacks by Hamas.  As of today, they have launched three days of brutal air-strikes into Gaza, killing 300, and injuring hundreds more.  At least 50 of the Palestinian deaths were innocent civilians, aka, women and children.  So far there have been 2 Israel fatalities.  Keep in mind that Israel has had an embargo imposed on Gaza for some time, making life challenging for the 1.3 million Palestinians living in the area.  It is difficult for any aid to move into Gaza, let alone food, medicine, and basic needs.  The hospitals are having a hard time dealing with all the injured because they don’t have enough supplies.  

Still not sure which brother is the bully?  Let’s go back a little further, to 1948, to a land called Palestine.  Palestine was a mandate of the British Empire at the time.  In the spring of 1948, when Britain withdrew, leaving the UN Partition Plan to split Palestine into two states, giving the Jews there own land, and leaving the Arabs that already lived there basically broken pieces of what Palestine once was.  Israel declared itself a state, first recognized by the US, then others, sparking the exodus of 750,000 Arabs from their homes into the West Bank and Gaza.  This happened at the same time that 600,000 Jews moved into brand-new Israel.  They were either Holocaust survivors, or Jews fleeing Arab states.  So basically, to make up for the past several millennia of abusing the Jewish people, the post WWII western world decided to give the Jewish people a homeland - how noble.  But at the expense of the Palestine people already living there.  Sounds like the parents are playing favorites to make up for their years of neglect.  

How does this mess get solved?  The Jewish people have a long history of being victims, but does that give them the right to victimize others?  We know the history of bloodshed in the region, and the potential for more, so maybe its time to really listen to what all these people need.  And if we want to consider ourselves above such conflict, if we ever want peace in the region, then we have to stop labeling one side as terrorists just because they don’t have the US funded superior weaponry of the other, and are forced to use guerilla tactics, which of course was how the American Revolution was one.    We have to take a deep breath, count to ten, and listen.  

2008-12-29