[I]t hardly matters who or what triggered this latest round – especially since the root cause of this perennial conflict dates back to Biblical times, and each side claims divine provenance for its actions…
[T]his cycle of violence is such that not even the Almighty God could ever reconcile Hamas’ jihad to drive the Israelis from the Middle East with Israel’s categorical (and existential) imperative to defend itself.
[Bush’s promise of peace in Middle East goes up in smoke, The iPINIONS Journal, December 31, 2008]
The Israelis seem poised to follow up their week-long aerial assault on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with a blitzkrieg-ground assault that would make the Nazis green with envy. But, as the cartoon above suggests, except for killing a bunch of people (on both sides), this assault will do nothing to change the overall dynamics of their ongoing conflict, which seems destined to last until kingdom come.
That said, I feel obliged to reiterate my solidarity with the longsuffering Palestinians. I hasten to add, however, that it is debatable whether their suffering has been inflicted more by Israelis or by their own leaders.
After all, nothing has fated the Palestinians to eternal misery quite like the ongoing internecine battles between Hamas and Fatah, which remain as great an obstacle to peace as anything that could be blamed on the Israelis.
Likewise, I feel obliged to reiterate my belief that the Israelis have an unconditional right to defend themselves. And the best way for me to illustrate this point is to pose the following:
It is arguable that the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians what the Americans have been doing to the Cubans for 50 years. But does anyone doubt that the Americans would completely obliterate Cuba if the Castros dared to launch a single rocket into the United States…? (And trust me, just as it is in Iraq, they would not bother keeping a body count of how many Cubans they kill “defending” their American homeland.)
Therefore, just imagine what restraint the Israelis have shown over the years – given that the Palestinians have launched thousands of rockets into Israel, killing people indiscriminately….
God help them (Palestinians and Israelis alike)….
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Bush’s promise of peace in Middle East goes up in smoke
Nelyn says
I think we have the same perceptions………..