Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza

As this post is being written, the Israeli airforce is bombing the Gaza Strip and causing serious damage and loss of life. So far over 280 people have been killed in the strikes, and over 600 wounded. Keep in mind that wounded could mean anything from a small shrapnel wound to the loss of all your limbs and being maimed for life. This is a massive operation meant to shock the Palestinians and strike fear into Hamas. Most of the casualties were Hamas operatives, but at least 15 civilians have also been killed.

It is hard to imagine the scale of such an attack until you see video footage of the mass wreckage and chaos in the aftermath of this massive assault.



There is no doubt that Hamas provoked this massive attack with its kassam rocket fire into Israeli towns. But was that rocket fire completely without reason as Israel claims? Of course not. Israel has been blockading and squeezing Gaza dry ever since Hamas was elected in Gaza. Gazans are suffering with no electricity, no running water, extremely limited fuel supplies, and limited pharaceutical supplies. Their economy has been destroyed. Israel has been practicing collective punishment against the Palestinians in Gaza, because of their disapproval of Hamas. Israel often claims that it has already ended its occupation of Gaza, but with these horrific conditions for Gazans, they obviously feel little control over their own lives. This is an occupation and a punitive blockade.

Under such circumstances of course the Palestinians will react irrationally. Of course they will be angry. Of course they will lash out violently. If you keep an animal trapped in a cage and poke it with a stick over and over again, it will start to get vicious and fight back. This is the reality of the Kassam rocket fire. I would prefer to see negotiations, and I think Hamas are far too irrational to be leading the Palestinians. But Israel has caused the conditions that result in this insanity.

So Israel is now massively punishing the Palestinians of Gaza for what it caused them to do in the first place. Israel has been using the iron fist against the Palestinians for decades, and it has never worked. Beating the Palestinians down only makes them more angry and aggressive when they get up off the ground. Only justice and a fair political settlement will satisfy the Palestinians.

This cycle of violence will continue until Israel grants citizenship and full rights to all its residents, both Jewish and Arab. The current apartheid regime whose stated goal is to maximize the amount of territory inside its borders while minimizing the number of Arabs inside its borders, must become democratic and the Palestinians must have full rights in their homeland. And of course the Palestinian refugees who lost their country and lost their homes, must be compensated and given the option to return to their homeland. Only this democratic solution that grants equal rights and citizenship to Jews and Arabs will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

More brutality and aggression intended to show the Palestinians who's in charge, are an exercise in pure futility. The Palestinians have already been to hell and back, so they are not going to give up until they get what they are entitled to. And that is the right to live with dignity as human beings in their homeland. Only then will the bloodshed stop. But based on Israel's pattern of behaviour, I have a feeling that this cycle of violence will continue for decades longer.

When this conflict finally comes to a close in the distant future, we will tally up the death toll. And much of the blood will lie on Israel's hands.