Dangerous post
A brief and backwards history of Israel:
-Israel is bombing Gaza because Hamas has been bombing Israel
-Hamas has been bombing Israel because Israel set up a blockade around Gaza
-Israel set up a blockade around Gaza because Hamas was bombing Israel
-and so forth.
There has got to be a better way. Israel's "Since you won't stop killing our children, we're going to start killing yours until you stop killing ours" approach to conflict resolution is as repugnant as Hamas' routine cruelty, especially since Israel has killed more civilians in retaliation than Hamas has killed Israeli civilians. Although sadly it has been effective - since the attack on Gaza on Dec. 27, only four Israeli civilians have been killed, showing that when rocket launching pads are destroyed, it's hard to fire rockets at other countries. And the world is paying attention again; there is international pressure for both the Israeli military and Hamas to cease fire.
Right now the ball is in Hamas' court. If they were to stop the bombings on Israel, Israel would withdraw from Gaza. After that, I'm not sure what should be done. Maybe a UN peace-keeping force on the border between Gaza and Israel? That would be a face-saving way for both sides to back down, and if the UN force could monitor Palestinian crossings into Egypt to make sure that no rockets are smuggled across, the blockade could be lifted. But they all need to stop using violence to achieve their ends.
At some point I really need to do a Middle East time line. But for now, I leave you with an editorial that explains the situation much better than I can:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/06/iftikhar.gaza/index.html#cnnSTCText
-Israel is bombing Gaza because Hamas has been bombing Israel
-Hamas has been bombing Israel because Israel set up a blockade around Gaza
-Israel set up a blockade around Gaza because Hamas was bombing Israel
-and so forth.
There has got to be a better way. Israel's "Since you won't stop killing our children, we're going to start killing yours until you stop killing ours" approach to conflict resolution is as repugnant as Hamas' routine cruelty, especially since Israel has killed more civilians in retaliation than Hamas has killed Israeli civilians. Although sadly it has been effective - since the attack on Gaza on Dec. 27, only four Israeli civilians have been killed, showing that when rocket launching pads are destroyed, it's hard to fire rockets at other countries. And the world is paying attention again; there is international pressure for both the Israeli military and Hamas to cease fire.
Right now the ball is in Hamas' court. If they were to stop the bombings on Israel, Israel would withdraw from Gaza. After that, I'm not sure what should be done. Maybe a UN peace-keeping force on the border between Gaza and Israel? That would be a face-saving way for both sides to back down, and if the UN force could monitor Palestinian crossings into Egypt to make sure that no rockets are smuggled across, the blockade could be lifted. But they all need to stop using violence to achieve their ends.
At some point I really need to do a Middle East time line. But for now, I leave you with an editorial that explains the situation much better than I can:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/06/iftikhar.gaza/index.html#cnnSTCText