I don’t understand why the media continues to look at the
current military flare-up between Israel and the Gaza Palestinians as if it
were 2 countries fighting each other for a grievance over land in some kind of
moral equivalence. Israel did, at one time, occupy Gaza and had over 20,000
settlers living there. Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon uprooted every single one
of them, which was expensive monetarily, politically and from a moral
perspective. PM Sharon didn’t want to occupy them, and wanted to demonstrate,
at great political cost and anguish to those involved, that Israel wanted peace
– and more importantly that the Palestinians in Gaza weren’t fighting over
occupation, but over the destruction of Israel.
PM Sharon was right, of course. The Gaza Palestinians have
armed themselves to the teeth and have 3 wars with Israel under their belt.
Each time when Israel fought Gaza and was on the brink of winning,
international political (US pressure) pressure stopped them in their tracks,
leaving Hamas still armed and preparing for the next fight.
The calculus of political alliances in the Mideast has
realigned, and Hamas no longer has the support of Egypt or Hezbollah. Iran is
spread thin in Syria and Iraq and unable to re-arm them. The USA’s ability to
pressure Israel to cease fire is nil because of President Obama’s support of
the Muslim Brotherhood and his support for a PA/Hamas government, despite the
fact that Hamas is considered internationally as a terrorist organization AND
is waging war crimes by shooting over 500 advanced missiles against Israel’s
civilian population.
The fact that more Israelis aren’t killed or injured
compared to the Palestinian casualties is simply due to the nature of the
combatants: Israel developed an anti-missile system, early warning systems, and
bomb shelters to protect her citizens. Hamas in Gaza puts their missiles on top
of or next to houses, they store missiles in basements, they encourage families
to get on top of roofs AFTER Israel has gone to the trouble of warning them to
evacuate before they blow it up. Hamas has been able to interrupt life in a
vast area of Israel, which is untenable.
Three days after the start of the war, Israel has received unconditional support directly from the
leaders of Australia, England, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, France, and every Western country with the exception of President Obama. Instead, he sent
his Mid-East emissary to attend a peace conference in Tel Aviv, and he quickly
lambasted Israel for not making peace with the Palestinians. The meeting was
cut short and they all had to run to the bomb shelter because a Hamas rocket
had targeted Tel Aviv. That says it all for our President, doesn’t it?
