Israel's unjust incursions into Gaza
The skyline was obscured by pillars of black smoke rising from a United Nations compound that had been pummeled by Israeli artillery for hours. Firefighters and U.N. aid workers scrambled to take cover as an Israeli helicopter gunship circled overhead.
This is the image of Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands and located west of Israel, which has been plastered and publicized on TV screens, newspapers and magazines worldwide for the last two months. On December 27, 2008, Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip in attempt to crush the government that had been lobbing shells into Israel since their election in June of 2007. Hamas, the democratically elected government in control of the Gaza Strip, has lobbed over 200 shells into Israel over the past two years in response to the blockade Israel established to cut down the smuggling of arms into Palestine.
Hamas’ mission statement calls for the replacement of the state of Israel with a Palestinian Islamic state, although its prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, offered a long term truce with Israel if they are willing to retreat to the borders of 1967. Hamas is not a group of Islamic fundamentalists who believe in the destruction of Israel. They are not a select faction that acts alone. Hamas is more than its fighters and leaders. It is the people of Gaza, and contrary to Israeli belief, the people are undefeatable.
Since the fighting began, Israel has moved methodically and mercilessly deep into Gaza, killing over a thousand people, injuring over 6000, and displacing over 100 thousand. To call the Israeli ‘retaliation’ disproportionate is a mockery of words, an understatement and a misunderstanding of the situation. Not only has Israel angered the entire Arab world with their crusade on an imaginary and undefeatable foe, but in doing so they have created more support than ever for said foe, Hamas. Not only has Israel relentlessly bombed Mosques, schools and hospitals, but it has also caused billions of dollars of damage to Palestinian infrastructure.
And what has this destruction yielded? The deaths of, according to Israeli intelligence, ‘200-300 hundred’ Hamas fighters. The death of the Hamas interior minister Said Siam, who was killed along with his two sons and brother when his house was razed to the ground by an Israeli air strike? This campaign is not a means to an end, but a way of prolonging a war with no apparent end in sight.
This is not to say that Israel’s actions are completely unwarranted. The misfortune that Israel and her people have experienced over the last 5-6 decades is something no nation should ever have to go through, and is nothing short of a tragedy. Between fighting terrorist organizations that hide behind civilians, and being hated by all her immediate neighbors, Israel is understandably distressed. But this does not excuse her committing atrocious war crimes, such as, according to the London Guardian, the use of white phosphorus in an urban area, or the intentional bombing of civilian residential neighborhoods. The fact of the matter is that Israel is a more powerful; more technologically advanced and is superior militarily to any of its closest neighbors, especially Palestine.
Before this new offensive Israel had the chance to end, if only temporarily, the seemingly eternal feud with the Gaza strip, and take the moral high ground. Unfortunately for Israel and the rest of the Middle East, the closing of that window is quickly approaching.
This is the image of Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands and located west of Israel, which has been plastered and publicized on TV screens, newspapers and magazines worldwide for the last two months. On December 27, 2008, Israel launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip in attempt to crush the government that had been lobbing shells into Israel since their election in June of 2007. Hamas, the democratically elected government in control of the Gaza Strip, has lobbed over 200 shells into Israel over the past two years in response to the blockade Israel established to cut down the smuggling of arms into Palestine.
Hamas’ mission statement calls for the replacement of the state of Israel with a Palestinian Islamic state, although its prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, offered a long term truce with Israel if they are willing to retreat to the borders of 1967. Hamas is not a group of Islamic fundamentalists who believe in the destruction of Israel. They are not a select faction that acts alone. Hamas is more than its fighters and leaders. It is the people of Gaza, and contrary to Israeli belief, the people are undefeatable.
Since the fighting began, Israel has moved methodically and mercilessly deep into Gaza, killing over a thousand people, injuring over 6000, and displacing over 100 thousand. To call the Israeli ‘retaliation’ disproportionate is a mockery of words, an understatement and a misunderstanding of the situation. Not only has Israel angered the entire Arab world with their crusade on an imaginary and undefeatable foe, but in doing so they have created more support than ever for said foe, Hamas. Not only has Israel relentlessly bombed Mosques, schools and hospitals, but it has also caused billions of dollars of damage to Palestinian infrastructure.
And what has this destruction yielded? The deaths of, according to Israeli intelligence, ‘200-300 hundred’ Hamas fighters. The death of the Hamas interior minister Said Siam, who was killed along with his two sons and brother when his house was razed to the ground by an Israeli air strike? This campaign is not a means to an end, but a way of prolonging a war with no apparent end in sight.
This is not to say that Israel’s actions are completely unwarranted. The misfortune that Israel and her people have experienced over the last 5-6 decades is something no nation should ever have to go through, and is nothing short of a tragedy. Between fighting terrorist organizations that hide behind civilians, and being hated by all her immediate neighbors, Israel is understandably distressed. But this does not excuse her committing atrocious war crimes, such as, according to the London Guardian, the use of white phosphorus in an urban area, or the intentional bombing of civilian residential neighborhoods. The fact of the matter is that Israel is a more powerful; more technologically advanced and is superior militarily to any of its closest neighbors, especially Palestine.
Before this new offensive Israel had the chance to end, if only temporarily, the seemingly eternal feud with the Gaza strip, and take the moral high ground. Unfortunately for Israel and the rest of the Middle East, the closing of that window is quickly approaching.
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