Filed under: opinion | Tags: america, blockade, diplomacy, Elections, fatah, gaza, Hamas, Israel, posted by zionismlives, tunnels
Ok, so the battle for the safety of Israel’s citizens is over—for the moment. But the war between Israel and its enemies continues and will continue if respect for human dignity and diplomacy is not undertaken by both sides of the conflict.
In the most recent war, we can all (hopefully) agree that Hamas did many awful things including continuing rocket fire on Israeli civilians, using Palestinian civilians as shields, and keeping the war going despite the heavy casualties in their population.
But, I will claim (and many reading this will no doubt disagree with me) that Israel has acted in ways that I am ashamed of. It continued the complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, despite the fact that the blockade is a major excuse by Hamas for its shameful rocket attacks. This complete blockade, having been in place for more than 18 months (since Hamas’ violent takeover of the Strip in June of 2007), is a big reason why there are so many tunnels from Egypt to Gaza. With the normal ways to get goods out of the question for Gazans, they searched for a means to get basic goods to their people and thus make a living. The solution came in the tunnels that Hamas soon utilized to smuggle rockets and arms into their land.
Israel also created a complicated travel system in Gaza during the War that prevented many humanitarian supplies from getting to their intended targets. I cannot and will not deny the fact that Israel and other countries and organizations pledged lots of supplies to the civilians of Gaza, but I will maintain that the vast majority of those who needed the help were unable to get it. This is because of the active military actions in the Strip and the lack of communication between IDF forces and humanitarian suppliers. This pushed Gazans to blame Israel, not Hamas for their troubles because to them, Israel both destroyed their homes and denied them access to medicine and such. Israel, I know, was not out to hurt the civilian population of Gaza, but it did not justly deal with the realities on the ground that civilians were going to be hurt because of Hamas’ despicable tactics.
Filed under: opinion, politics | Tags: cease-fire, gaza, Hamas, Israel, peace, posted by zionismlives, Rockets, war
This is going to be more of a controversial post. Bear with me. And, keep in mind, I love Israel with all my heart. It just needs to be put in its place every now and again, especially with so many Jews spewing blind, pro-Israel propaganda these days.
I will not deny the suffering of Southern Israel. And I do not believe the world should deny it either, although it does on a daily basis. The physical damage the daily rockets, that now endanger over one million lives, inflict is nothing compared to the mental damage they inflict. I just saw a report that said more than 75% of children in Sderot and surrounding areas suffer from various forms of trauma.
However, I am fundamentally against any full out war, especially one that has caused 920 deaths—43% of them, according to CNN, civilians. That is just short of 400 innocent Palestinian men, women, and children that have died so far. Yes, we must be amazed at the precision of the IDF’s campaign in making the other 57% of the casualties Hamas. But, that previous number is still astounding, and makes the costs of this War too much. Israel has claimed that a much higher percentage of the deaths are Hamas—an obvious discrepancy that comes from different meanings of the term “civilian.” To Israel, anyone that is in some way related to Hamas is considered a militant. That means all the people working in the government and all the people working for the social branch of Hamas are considered militants. A secretary in a government office and a social worker should never be considered militants. Israel sends flyers and makes calls to the civilians that there is going to be a bombing, but, where do the civilians go when their movement is greatly restricted by IDF ground troops and the simple fact that none of them can leave the country? In addition, Israel has made a few mistakes about civilians.
The example of the Samouni family is a good one. They were living in a Hamas-controlled area, and were told by the IDF to move themselves into one house for their safety. That night, the building was shelled, killing 30 members of the family. The wounded were not able to be helped for days even though IDF soldiers and tanks were just 50 meters from the building, because the army said it was too dangerous for aid workers to enter the scene. (The article about the incedent)
Oznia, a blog of Israel things 