The Art of War

Bonus blog today, since my last one is an emo whine. Of course for some of you this might be just as boreing, sorry. Israel and Palestine. In case you have been living with your head stuck in the sand, they have been fighting over a tiny patch of land (among other things) called the Gaza Strip. This 493 square kilometer patch of land is surrounded on two sides by Israel and Egypt to the south, has been the center of contention every since the boarders were established in 1947 after the war. Israel occupied the land from 1967 – 1994. Israel still controls its airspace, most of its boarders and its ports. So in other words Israel controls what can legitimately come in and out of the country.

You can see where this might be a bit of a problem for those who live in Gaza. They democratically elected a régime called Hamas. Hamas, are not nice people, they resent Israel for pretty much everything, and thus begin lobbing rockets into Israel, pretty much at random. Israel struck back at one point with bombing runs carried out by their elite air force. The international community of course disagreed with Israel’s actions and called for a cease fire, which Israel complied with. Hamas, however only used this time as a lull in the action to re-arm and resume lobbing rockets.

Now here we are again, Israel says enough is enough and proceeds to bomb the shit out of Gaza Strip. This time when cries for a cease fire come, Israel says “No, tough cookies. We’re not going to fall for that one again”, and continues its assault today, now with ground troops as well as air.

So, now that we’re all on the same page, is Israel in the right? At first I was all for Israel kicking ass. If it was my country I would do much the same, especially when diplomacy has failed before. One other thing I’d like to set straight here, what the media reports is hundreds of civilian deaths, or “Gasp, Israel bombed a school”. Well they fail to mention that Hamas was firing rockets from that school, or hospital or wherever. How do you fight an enemy like that? One who would use human shields as not only protection but for PR and propaganda?

Anyway, now I’m conflicted. The casualties for Gaza are stacking up, and it appears that Israel is once again going to occupy the land again. Also, I heard an interview with a Palestinian on a local talk show here in DM and heard her side of the story. Its compelling, and chilling. Hamas was voted in because in part the populace wanted a change…they wanted hope. Sound familiar? It sounds a lot like a certain president elect, I have a feeling a lot of people voted for the guy just because they thought he would be different, not because they actually bothered to check into his policies or political views. But that’s for another blog. The point is, I now feel Israel is close or even crossing the line of reasonable retaliation. I do feel for the people of the Gaza strip, most of which are people like you and I that just want to get up and go to work and not have to worry about an air raid. But Hamas is just as defiant, even with tanks on their doorstep they refuse to negotiate. To make matters worse rockets are now being fired into Israel from Libya, possibly opening up another front.

What a clusterfark. Israel is our ally too, if they go to all out war we are bound to do something to help. If you thought Iraq was bad, this would be worse. I’m convinced there can be no peace in the Middle East. There is a high enough percentage of so-called radicals who fanatically believe in their religion and thus there is nothing short of genocide we can do to quell that. So, what does one do when there is no way to win?