Gaza

Since the end of the election, I've pretty much stayed away from news, politics, and the like, and kept it light here at elliotblake.blogspot.com, but what's happening in Gaza right now between Israel and Hamas is really troubling, as is the coverage of the conflict.

First, the coverage, which is making Israel the villain in this untenable situation. Hamas broke a cease-fire agreement and started shooting rockets out of Gaza into Israel. What were the Israelis supposed to do? Not respond? What would we be doing if a radical group took over Tijuana and started firing mortars into San Diego? Just let it be? I don't think so. Israel was forced by Hamas to go into Gaza to put a stop to this, but if you look at the front page of the New York Times website, watch CNN or ABC, it's as if Israel just decided it would be a good idea to start something violent in Gaza. Are terrible things happening to innocent people who don't deserve to be in the line of fire? Yes! So where is the criticism of Hamas, for inviting this response with their rocket fire? Hamas has control of Gaza, Hamas is responsible for the safety and welfare of the people there, and they invited an invasion by the Israeli military, which seems to me to indicate that Hamas cares more about Hamas than about the people they are responsible for. (Which also makes me wonder why Hamas has any support at all from anyone; it seems like the nations that support Hamas - like Syria - hate Israel more than they like Palestinians, because if it were the other way around, they'd be doing something to help the Palestinians find a political solution to their problems; as it is, they seem content to just use the plight of the Palestinians as a reason to hate Israel.)

Second, the conflict itself: it seems like a zero-sum game for both sides. Israel gets painted the villains in the eyes of the rest of the world, for defending Israeli territory and people by trying to take out Hamas's ability to fire rockets at them, while Hamas makes a bad situation even worse for Palestinians living in the Gaza strip, and quite possibly gets destroyed in the process. Meanwhile, the fighting is causing a humanitarian disaster, wounding and killing children and noncombatants on both sides. I don't know if any Israeli children have died in this latest round of rocket attacks from within Gaza, but it's almost beside the point, because the death of any children, Palestinian or Israeli, due to warfare, is equally terrible.

I realize it's easy (and probably overly simplistic) for me to say this sitting in my comfortable house far away from where this is happening, easy for me to say this having never lived in a place where a rocket could kill me or my family at any given moment, but reasonable people on both sides - and I have to believe there are reasonable Palestinians and Israelis - have to stand up and say enough is enough, we can't live this way anymore, and find a real solution for peace that recognizes Israel isn't going anywhere, and that Palestinians need to have their own state so they can move on with their lives.

-EB