On the situation in the Gaza Strip
I know that the odds of anyone with the power to truly influence this situation reading this are extremely small, but of the rest of you, I ask only this. Pay attention. Pay very close attention. We are witnessing a spectacular attempt to vindicate the philosophy that hate can be defeated with hate, violence with violence, and it can only fail.
The Gaza Strip is an area of only 146 square miles, or approximately twice the size of Washington, DC, and is home to just over 1.5 million people. This computes to a population density of around 4,270 people per square mile.
I do not find the civilian casualties of this ground war to be surprising, nor do I believe that Israel is seeking civilian casualties, but I do believe that dropping leaflets and expecting that any non-combatants will be able to immediately leave the field of engagement is thoroughly unrealistic. There simply isn’t anywhere to go.
I do understand that Hamas continues to be the party which violates truces, and that Israel feels that they will always do so. This standard too, is unrealistic. We can never guarantee that no single radical will attack Israel. Certainly, in a climate of such deprivation and such heavy civilian losses, there will be no shortage of individuals with too much anger and nothing to lose. To stop a cycle of vengeance using violence one must commit genocide, an offense against everything for which the nation of Israel stands.
Yesterday, in response to an article in the Washington Post which was fairly candid regarding Palestinian casualties, a reader wrote in to make the following point: that this situation would only be resolved when Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israel. This is not a new argument to me, but I do believe that it is a common one, and disasterously fallacious. If a person loses their family to civilian casualties of war, then their hate may be all that sustains them. If a person does not believe that they have any future, they are far easier to convince to commit a suicide bombing today.
So what would I have Israel do? For a small portion of the funds Israel spends on defense they could create in the Gaza strip two of the world’s best schools and one of the world’s best hospitals. For, again, a small portion of Israel $13.3 billion dollar defense budget, they could afford to staff and maintain these facilities at a standard many times that of the global average. The message I would send with these facilities would be this, “Your children can attend these schools free of charge, but you must defend them. You will all receive medical coverage in this hospital, but you must defend it. Do not allow these facilities to be destroyed.”
Children are educated in radical madrasas because there are no other schools available. Young men attend speeches by radical clerics because they have nothing else to do. Give these people a future, a means and education with which to confront ideology, a reason to defend the nation of Israel. I dream of a day when Palestinians have a reason to confront the radicals in their midst. When the question of, “I have lost everything, why shouldn’t I fire this rocket?” can be answered with, “because my daughter loves her teacher. Because your cousin’s wife is pregnant, and her baby deserves to be born in a modern hospital. Because we have a future to think about."
This is a war about religion, and there is one religious truth which I hold above almost all others: peace begins with you. If you wish to change the world, you must be the first, and not the last, to lower your guns. An eye for an eye can continue endlessly, until the entire world is blind.
Much love to you all,
-Jeremiah
The Gaza Strip is an area of only 146 square miles, or approximately twice the size of Washington, DC, and is home to just over 1.5 million people. This computes to a population density of around 4,270 people per square mile.
I do not find the civilian casualties of this ground war to be surprising, nor do I believe that Israel is seeking civilian casualties, but I do believe that dropping leaflets and expecting that any non-combatants will be able to immediately leave the field of engagement is thoroughly unrealistic. There simply isn’t anywhere to go.
I do understand that Hamas continues to be the party which violates truces, and that Israel feels that they will always do so. This standard too, is unrealistic. We can never guarantee that no single radical will attack Israel. Certainly, in a climate of such deprivation and such heavy civilian losses, there will be no shortage of individuals with too much anger and nothing to lose. To stop a cycle of vengeance using violence one must commit genocide, an offense against everything for which the nation of Israel stands.
Yesterday, in response to an article in the Washington Post which was fairly candid regarding Palestinian casualties, a reader wrote in to make the following point: that this situation would only be resolved when Palestinians love their children more than they hate Israel. This is not a new argument to me, but I do believe that it is a common one, and disasterously fallacious. If a person loses their family to civilian casualties of war, then their hate may be all that sustains them. If a person does not believe that they have any future, they are far easier to convince to commit a suicide bombing today.
So what would I have Israel do? For a small portion of the funds Israel spends on defense they could create in the Gaza strip two of the world’s best schools and one of the world’s best hospitals. For, again, a small portion of Israel $13.3 billion dollar defense budget, they could afford to staff and maintain these facilities at a standard many times that of the global average. The message I would send with these facilities would be this, “Your children can attend these schools free of charge, but you must defend them. You will all receive medical coverage in this hospital, but you must defend it. Do not allow these facilities to be destroyed.”
Children are educated in radical madrasas because there are no other schools available. Young men attend speeches by radical clerics because they have nothing else to do. Give these people a future, a means and education with which to confront ideology, a reason to defend the nation of Israel. I dream of a day when Palestinians have a reason to confront the radicals in their midst. When the question of, “I have lost everything, why shouldn’t I fire this rocket?” can be answered with, “because my daughter loves her teacher. Because your cousin’s wife is pregnant, and her baby deserves to be born in a modern hospital. Because we have a future to think about."
This is a war about religion, and there is one religious truth which I hold above almost all others: peace begins with you. If you wish to change the world, you must be the first, and not the last, to lower your guns. An eye for an eye can continue endlessly, until the entire world is blind.
Much love to you all,
-Jeremiah