As many of you know Israel and the Occupied Territory of Gaza have been trading rocket fire over the last 3 days. The news has been inundated with updates, changes, death counts and statements from around the world.
There are so many things I want to say, things that I find interesting about this situation- how the Arab Spring and changes in regimes make it possible for countries like Egypt to pull their ambassador out of Israel in response to the attacks on Gaza. Under Mubarak that never would have happened- too much US/Western backed pressure. Arab countries have rallied behind the Palestinians in Gaza and protests around the world have called for the ending of violence.
Both sides obviously have a role here, and from reading this or talking to me you know the perspective I’m coming from. I think that there is a very big difference between national security and disproportional retaliation, and Israel has crossed that line as it has in the past. In this most recent conflict in Gaza over 45 Palestinians have been killed and many more wounded, while 3 Israelis have been killed.
This so far has remained a case of launching rockets, but 75,000 Israeli troops have been called up in case of a ground attack. If you look at a map of Gaza in proportion to the state of Israel you can see what that would do- effectively push the 1.7 million Palestinian residents of Gaza into the sea.
Sound familiar?
This is not only a war with weapons, but a war of pictures and words. Israel has mobilized social media sites to document its attacks on Gaza, gloating over their assassination of Hamas’ military commander, Ahmad Jabari. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has created a Facebook, a Twitter, and even a Pinterest account to spread their messages of war and hate.
The hacker group Anonymous has begun to take action, taking down Israeli private and governmental sites in response to the attacks on Gaza.
If Israel has the right to self defense, so does Palestine. This is asymmetrical warfare, the 4th largest world military power against 1.7 shoddily armed and blockaded people.
When is enough? When does this situation get bad enough for the world to react? Will it take the murder of 1.7 million people before we realize that the problems between Israel and Palestine need to be fixed? How many kids have to die, families be torn apart, rocket strikes?
I can tell you, enough needs to be soon. We need to stop operating under political or religious umbrellas and start reacting as humanitarians- people who want their families to be safe just like those in Israel and Gaza, people who realize that weapons will never bring peace.
Here are a few interesting articles- check out any news site and I’m sure you’ll find more.
