Reflections on the War in Gaza
By Carol Gee
The war in Gaza has been a terrible event, terrible for the Palestinians and terrible for Israel. It has been terrible for Hamas and for Fatah, for Gaza and for the West Bank. It has been terrible for those trying to help, the NGOs, the UN, and Egypt.
The loss of life has been astonishingly asymmetrical. And the loss of innocent lives has been just heartbreaking. As a result protest has broken out all over the world, including in Israel. The nation of Israel cannot justify its actions as defensive. And Hamas has been shortsighted and stubborn in maintaining its rocket attacks on Israel. And the United Nations has, once again shown that it is ineffectual at its most basic work.
The timing of the war was chosen because of the transition of power in the United States, and because the Bush administration lost credibility as honest brokers for peace a long time ago. America's interests have not been what is best for the Middle East, but myopic and misguided. The timing took terrible advantage of President-elect Obama's lack of authority of the situation, knowing that he would respect the principle of one president for foreign policy at a time. Congress is out of touch with how widespread the dissatisfaction with what our friend Israel has done in Gaza. It is an unfortunate and unrealistic situation. The timing also has to do with Israel's political calendar. With the current Prime Minister having lost credibility and standing in his country and with elections coming in February, the war inevitably looks like it was fought for political gain at home for the Israelis.
The news about the war has been bad. And it has been badly reported, biased against the Palestinian people who lost their lives as innocents. Opinion makers ignore the astounding loss of life in the Gaza strip, they ignore the politics of the situation in the U.S., Israel and the West Bank. And they ignore the failures of the Bush administration regarding a long-awaited peace agreement in lands that have tried to settle it with violence for many decades.
Terrorists get to their views because of grievances, either real or perceived. Their terrorized adversaries will never be able to kill them fast enough or in enough numbers to attain peace. Because others look on, see what is happening, and take up the cause as soon as they are old enough. Terrorism is a tactic that is not confined merely to those who fit the stereotypical model.
Nations can find themselves getting into vengance-driven responses or aggression that puts them at risk of losing their souls. If nations had such things as "souls." Individuals have souls, nations have values and histories and constitutions and norms and good will to throw away. If they lose their way, as has the U.S., Israel, and Palestine (both parts). People in authority need to step back, take a breath, and open their eyes to the larger reality.
The war in Gaza has been a terrible event, terrible for the Palestinians and terrible for Israel. It has been terrible for Hamas and for Fatah, for Gaza and for the West Bank. It has been terrible for those trying to help, the NGOs, the UN, and Egypt.
The loss of life has been astonishingly asymmetrical. And the loss of innocent lives has been just heartbreaking. As a result protest has broken out all over the world, including in Israel. The nation of Israel cannot justify its actions as defensive. And Hamas has been shortsighted and stubborn in maintaining its rocket attacks on Israel. And the United Nations has, once again shown that it is ineffectual at its most basic work.
The timing of the war was chosen because of the transition of power in the United States, and because the Bush administration lost credibility as honest brokers for peace a long time ago. America's interests have not been what is best for the Middle East, but myopic and misguided. The timing took terrible advantage of President-elect Obama's lack of authority of the situation, knowing that he would respect the principle of one president for foreign policy at a time. Congress is out of touch with how widespread the dissatisfaction with what our friend Israel has done in Gaza. It is an unfortunate and unrealistic situation. The timing also has to do with Israel's political calendar. With the current Prime Minister having lost credibility and standing in his country and with elections coming in February, the war inevitably looks like it was fought for political gain at home for the Israelis.
The news about the war has been bad. And it has been badly reported, biased against the Palestinian people who lost their lives as innocents. Opinion makers ignore the astounding loss of life in the Gaza strip, they ignore the politics of the situation in the U.S., Israel and the West Bank. And they ignore the failures of the Bush administration regarding a long-awaited peace agreement in lands that have tried to settle it with violence for many decades.
Terrorists get to their views because of grievances, either real or perceived. Their terrorized adversaries will never be able to kill them fast enough or in enough numbers to attain peace. Because others look on, see what is happening, and take up the cause as soon as they are old enough. Terrorism is a tactic that is not confined merely to those who fit the stereotypical model.
Nations can find themselves getting into vengance-driven responses or aggression that puts them at risk of losing their souls. If nations had such things as "souls." Individuals have souls, nations have values and histories and constitutions and norms and good will to throw away. If they lose their way, as has the U.S., Israel, and Palestine (both parts). People in authority need to step back, take a breath, and open their eyes to the larger reality.
(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)
Labels: Gaza, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, war
posted by Carol Gee at
4:00 PM
2 Comments:
The destruction has indeed been so asymmetrical that virtually all the bloody photographs have been of Gaza citizens. Bombings in Israel go fairly well uncovered. For Hamas, that's cause for a "mission accomplished" banner.
Israel is using, in my opinion, weapons that should not be used; like white phosphorus. Yet I'm at a loss to say what I would do in their place. For one thing, I'm Jewish and so anything I might say would be perceived to be biased, and perhaps that's true. For another thing I'm an American and my country has engaged in several unnecessary and perhaps fraudulent wars where casualties were far more asymmetric and for which many of us are quite unrepentant. That could be perceived as hypocrisy and indeed it is. We've killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and exiled millions in retaliation for nothing. Far more people have been killed in Afghanistan than were killed in New York and we're killing people in Pakistan every week - we call it retaliation - they call it "asymmetrical" and yet they keep on with the terrorism, don't they?
But what do you do when you're the subject of daily attacks and relentless suicide bombings directed against women and children? Do you cede more land when every square inch thereof is used as an ammo dump, launching pad and operations center for more and more terrorist attacks? How do you seek peace when each and every cease fire is unilaterally broken with attacks against schools and marketplaces? You can't tell me that isn't the case.
Retaliation in kind would be just as unacceptable and completely ineffective as retaliation with full force and the only hope is from some outside agency willing to intervene - and no one will do that, not in the middle east, not in Africa, not anywhere without natural resources we want.
I am not about to apologize for Israel's relentless building of settlements but I cannot see how the people of Gaza are not the direct victims of Hamas and its relentless, intransigent, indecently inhuman policy of always using Palestinians as de facto hostages, always locating launch pads in high school lunchrooms, always storing explosives in shelters and day care centers and hospitals and mosques and apartment buildings - and always, always, always sending women and children out as human bombs to kill other women and children, year after year after year as generations go by.
The Hamas objective is obviously designed to maximize casualties and even to the extent of not accepting relief supplies through the same channels that they accept weapons through on the Egyptian border. Retaliation feeds their objective of turning the world against their enemies and restraint brings relentless terrorism. How do you solve a disagreement with someone more willing to kill his own children than to back away from killing yours? I've yet to hear a critic tell me what he would do to establish lasting peace.
There are no good guys in this picture. No good guys in the world.
By
Capt. Fogg, at 5:00 PM
Dear Captain, I am awed by your very thoughtful and passionate comment. BTW, you are one of the good guys and so are we all who get knots in our guts over this seemingly unsolvable violence. Terrorism, doing violence to innocents to strike terror in the hearts of adversaries, is never justified. Never.
I also agree with you about the asymmetry of U.S. responses to a terrible act of terror on 9/11. We would not have called the operation "Shock and Awe" otherwise. And I agree that "U.S. interests" in the Middle East turn out to be pretty selfish most of the time.
At heart I am anti-war. And I have no answer for the question of what do you do to establish a lasting peace.
But I am convinced that both peoples -- the Israelis and the Palestinians -- have certain basic rights that have never been guaranteed in any agreement: land, freedom to self-govern, water and resources, secure borders, political parties, access to an ocean, etc. I am sure I have forgotten many.
I am also convinced that the reconciliation process used in South Africa is a model for any set of enemies to use to let go and move on.
Who knows, Fogg? Maybe Obama's got ideas.
Thanks again for your wonderful comment and for taking the time to add to the dialogue.
By
Carol Gee, at 6:24 AM
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