By Jonathan Bert
The Extreme Moderate
January 6, 2009
The Palestinian fundamentalist group Hamas sends rockets into Israel, killing four. Israel responds by bombing the hell out of Gaza Strip, killing hundreds, wounding thousands, many of them Hamas soldiers, but too many women and children. More rockets follow, more heavy handed responses, etc., etc., et fucking cetera.
Neither side is doing what is needed to end this strife. Duh! The question is, why is the U. S. picking sides? While it’s hard not to sympathize with the desire of Jews to have a place where they are safe from extermination, the current American policy of Israel right or wrong has to end. Israel is apparently operating with a “Little Man Complex” that blinds them to any hope of any solution. Yes, the residents of the Gaza are, for the most part, impoverished and ignorant, but all the same, many are rational enough to not want themselves or their loved ones incinerated.
There is a faction of Palestinians that are secular, and wish for peace. Israel’s nasty response is very discouraging to this effort, and is actually making this group look like idiots. Fatah is irrelevant, and any effort on attaining peace hinges on encouraging support for them, not blowing them up!
American policy has to become more realistic and rational. The Bush administration has been good at fooling the religious fundamentalists in this country into believing that they have a heart and a soul, using hot button social issues such as abortion and gay rights. Obama and his bunch need to rethink our policies, promote the principles of love and peace. We can’t support the current Israeli government any more than we can support Hamas. Our efforts must be centered on bolstering President Abbas and his Fatah party. So far, it isn’t looking good. Obama talks about change, but doesn’t sound like he has the intestinal fortitude to make change. This is the same attitude that brought Kennedy to escalate the “police action” in Viet Nam that was in it’s infancy when he took office. We all know how that went. Disaster. Now, thirty years after that ignoble defeat, Viet Nam is a tourist trap! The “Domino Theory” didn’t pan out, we should have just left the bad guys beat up each other instead of trying to sell us on the idea that some of the bad guys are good.
In the Gaza Strip conflict, there are good guys! While Abbas and Fatah aren’t gold plated good guys, by Muslim standards they are surprisingly rational and peace loving. Our blind support of Israel is damaging to peace. It has been for decades. It will be a slow process, but if Israel doesn’t help Palestinians with a desire for peace gain a foothold on power, eventually whacko powers of the Muslim world will get more seriously involved, and the rockets hitting Israel will be nuclear tipped. It will be Obama’s responsibility to help point this out, instead of supporting massive retaliation. France, remember them? The guys we should have listened to in 2003? They want Israel to chill out for 48 hours. 48 hours! Two stinkin’ days! And Israel refuses, claiming that Hamas will re-arm if they back off for a minute. Have they no brain? Do they not understand that their attacks are exactly what the insurgents need to garner sympathy and gain recruits? They have done exactly the same thing before, with poor results. I’m beginning to think Israelis are slooow learners.
Israel is wrong, and the United States has to make this clear to Israel’s current government in no uncertain terms. Palestinians must be rewarded for supporting Fatah, bring Fatah to the table and show the people the pathway to peace. Get food, medicine and other basic needs to the residents of Gaza and give the credit to Abbas and company. Hamas was elected because of Israel’s persecution. Israel exists largely through American support, let the World know we can no longer support the mindless murder of innocents. Israel’s militaristic government was elected by the people, with confidence that U. S. support would continue no matter what lunacy the paranoiacs they elected did. Our next President talks a good talk; does he have the guts to walk it?
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7 comments:
The problem is that you only mention Hamas one time. Hamas is the problem. It controls Gaza. It did this through elections and through a bloody coup against Fatah. Hamas is funded (perhaps directed to some extent) by Iran, who also funds (and, again,possibly directs) Hezbollah. These two groups want war with Israel, they want Israel to strike at them. And they are often successful. Then they begin the propaganda war against Israel. It is in Iran's interest to fund these groups because the turmoil with Israel builds power for Iran within the context of Middle Eastern politics.
It is not a situation which can be easily accepted at face value even though it is a strong human desire to see it that way.
There will be no peace until either Israel ceases to exist or the Palestinians of the Hamas and Hebollah ilk accept its existence.
In this particular instance, the people of Gaza have chosen confrontation and destruction. When they choose to seek peace, they will find it available. The path leads through the elimination of groups like Hamas. Only the action of the majority of Palestinians can bring it about. It is not up to Israel or the US.
Douglas, my point in this article is to re-evaluate our blind support of Israel, not trying to drum up support for Hamas. Fatah, the organization of somewhat moderate Palestinians, is in exile in the West Bank, home of Hezbollah. We have to make Hamas and Hezbollah irrelevant, and our support of Israel right or wrong only makes these groups stronger. I do not believe the garden variety Palestinian would hate Israel so much if Israel quit trying to starve them.
And our support of Israel means that Israel allegedly starves Palestinians??? We support Israel because they are the only reliable ally we have ever had in the Middle East. We have never offered unconditional support nor have we condoned every action they have taken. When you re-think our position, make sure you get all the facts and not simply react to the emotional appeal currently being offered.
How about this, as impractical perhaps as it might appear.
How about:
(1) Having a United Nations Peacekeeping Force intervene and establish order.
(2) Shortly thereafter, allow the citizens in the region to identify themselves as individuals who want peace, and individuals who are willing to continue fighting.
(3) Have a neutral body divide the disputed region in half.
(4) Allow the peace oriented citizens to occupy one half, and the warring factions to occupy the other half.
(5) Once everyone has moved to their respective halves, use the UN force to contain the warring factions, and just let them fight it out themselves without injuring innocent parties on either side.
This may seem radical and perhaps impractical, but nothing else has worked todate. If the issue is really about saving human lives, and that is the most important issue, then this should work. If it is really about all other types of secondary and tertiary issues, then it won't.
By the way, very few situations in life exist where only one side in a dispute is the problem.
There are definitely two sides fighting this stupid war. My point is that we have no influence over Hamas, we do not send them money, we do not share intelligence with them. Israel we can and must influence. Israel is starving Palestinians by blockading them. It would be hard to separate warring factions because the personnel keeps changing, public opinion on both sides has some fluidity, and we must take advantage of this. The Palestinians elected Hamas and the Israelis elected the war hawks currently in power there. This can change, but the avenues both sides are taking will prevent that. I love the existence of Israel, I'm not a Zionist, but the people have a right to a safe homeland. Israel's problem is one of numbers: there are a billion Muslims, they will not defeat them militarily. Their heavy handed action is just getting more and more of the Palestinians and other Muslims frothing at the mouth for Israel's destruction! And Israel's actions have killed almost as many Israelis (3) as has Hamas (4). It just does not make any sense! And the U. S., being Israel's primary benefactor has a duty to point this out.
Hamas and Hezbollah and other radical groups will never accept Israel's existence, and they will not be wiped out. The only solution to reduce their power is to make them irrelevant. Please tell me how to do this with tanks and not diplomacy.
Thank you all for your comments.
Log, Isn't that what was attempted in 1948? And did it not lead to the dispute that exists today? It is the basis of the dispute. What we see today is the result of carving out a portion of land that no one had been fighting over for some time, giving part of it to one group of people in need of a place to live and part of it to another. The reaction was that the group who had been living there decided, at that point, that no one could give away "their" land. Even though that land had belonged to yet another group (attained through conquest some centuries before) and ceded to yet others at the end of WWI. Then the UN, in the aftermath of WWII, decided it would carve it up, create some nations where there had been none (with fixed borders), and bring peace and prosperity to the area. See mice, men, and best laid plans.
My apologies, Jonathan, if I seemed angry or if I offended you in my comments. You see, I have re-thought our country's position on Israel many times since my teens and have always found it should remain as support.
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