An Eye for an Eye Leaves the World Blind: Israel vs. Hamas
For the past three weeks, Israel has been obliterating the Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas left and right in the hopes of ending the rocket attacks that have taken place since the cease-fire ended between the two on December 16, 2008. Since that time ended, rockets were launched, so in no way was Israel supposed to sit by and watch as rockets bombarded their southern cities. Since the end of the ceasefire, rockets launched by Hamas have bombarded the southern Israeli cities, driving Israeli forces to action.
However, when they responded, they responded in such a ferocity that was absolutely uncalled for.
First and foremost, I do not support Hamas’ choice of attack. Launching rockets into a city to target civilians is absolutely unacceptable; however, that’s what you get when a known terrorist organization is in charge of the area. Hamas’ launching of rockets into Israel is unethical.
I typically support Israel, but I don’t support their display of brute force. According to Palestinian Health Officials, the death toll is reaching 900. Now, how many of those are soldiers? According to the New York Times, 380 people have been children, women, and medical personnel. How is that acceptable? How is the loss of nearly four hundred innocent lives acceptable?
Equally unacceptable is the Israeli response: killing civilians. Launching airstrikes against a terrorist organization that is known to hide in civilian homes is a completely irresponsible attack. The Israeli military should have used a far different tactic – perhaps ground war should have been the immediate attack and the airstrikes should never have come. I’m no General, but I can look at the results of an attack and say that it was a bad idea. If Israel wants to save face, they need to do two things.
First, they need to take greater care in preventing the deaths of civilians. It is absolutely unacceptable that so many civilians have been killed
Secondly, they need to allow Palestinians more access to relief . This is not a war against the Palestinians; this is a war against Hamas. If Israel is going to invade, they need to allow the Palestinian people to get the relief they need. Otherwise, they are an imperialistic aggressor, and that I do not support.
First, I am not bashing you for expressing your political views, its your right as an american citizen and you should excercise it freely. However, reading from some of your preliminary postings if i remember correctly you are not a firm supporter of the U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afganistan. This is what you asking Israel to do. Your asking the fathers of their children and the husbands of their wives to march into gaza and root out all the terrorists one by one. Does this seem familiar? Its the route America has been using in Iraq in order to avoid civilian casualties since day one. This is, as we have learned, a very costly process. Costly in both money and Israeli lives. Hamas purpously uses civilians to protect there forward firing positions. And it is the fault of the palestinian government for not routing out these home grown terrorists. Israel has been around for approx 70 years and has fought in well over a dozen conflicts already. They are very good at what they do and they must prove it to protect there small piece of land. Their military has the one of the best r and d divisions second only to that of the united states. It comes down to proving your bite is worse than your bark. America didnt have to drop the atomic bomb on japan to win the war in the pacific. But they did it to prevent excess loss of life and to more importantly prove to the soviets that we have the technology and were willing to use it. Same thing is happening in israel. Maybe israel doesnt need to be dropping bombs laced with white phosphourous. But it should send a clear message to hamas that they will not stand for these attacks and that they will not go down without a fight. Hamas clearly poked a sleeping bear and now everyone is upset that the bear attacked.
I am not against the Afghanistan War, but I am against the War in Iraq as one of my articles said months ago. Quite frankly, I feel that we should be in Afghanistan going against those that allowed us to be attacked. Regardless, I support that war. I just don’t think we should be in Iraq.
Anyways…If you’re going to using air strikes, that’s fine. But, targeting places that have civilians nearby is unacceptable. It’s unethical. Instead, use the elite IDF soldiers. They really are one of the best armies in the world. They should deploy a different tactic; deploy one that doesn’t allow schools to be bombed or doesn’t allow the UN building from getting hit.
This recent spasm of violence in the Gaza strip is most upsetting because the Israelis seem to have revenge and bloodlust on their minds.
What do I mean?
Well, the IDF YouTube account has been posting UAV footage of Hamas militants being blown up by smart bombs. This is probably the most disgusting and vile idea ever devised by a people that dare call themselves “civilized”. To post snuff films on YouTube of human beings being obliterated is beyond the pale, really.
It lowers the Israeli military to the position of filmers of war porn, and it makes my stomach sick just as much as looking at a picture of the aftermath of an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing.
Honestly, you’d think for a people that profess such as desire to merely “live on the land of their forefathers” (see Theodor Herzel’s plan to colonize Uganda), you’d think they would be more interested in showing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians they disenfranchised than to post the horrible deaths of human beings. As wrong as they may be, at least treat war and the dead with the dignity every man deserves.
dude, did you go to 169?
Ive always been a staunch supporter of the State Of Israel, If irmly believe that they the has rightfully earned this right in 1967 in a moral sense, not in 1948 as mandated by UK. And that’s where my opinions on the 60 year old conflict tend to fray with both sides.
And the recent events of the last month has had me collecting news from many sources, more sources than I ever had in the past for any news event. I truly wanted to be able to acquaint myself dispassionatley , knowing it would be difficult. getting impartial news about Israeli conflict is not very easy. Both sides have ardent supporters and plenty of journalists
….am i rambling? Anyhoo….
at the age of 32 i pride myself in being able to sift through the BS of some media and get as a clear a picture as I can without from my limited resources.
I have to say, Im pretty disgusted and disappointed with the response of the israeli Military. It began with the UN bombings… and Im seeing too many photos of children hurt. You can manipulate a few images here and there ( and trust me Pallywood is good at that), but you can only manipulate so many. It seems innocent people are getting hurttoo often, that’s my understanding. I support Israel’s right to peace, always have, I just feel the Israeli Government is reacting unjustly lately, and they need to reconsider their actions. I more than ever before, want the Jews of Israel to live in peace and without any harm, and equally so for the Palestinians.
Jacob, explain to me the virtue of a proportional response. Explain to me how future violence can be deterred if the cost is kept artificially low, and the body count on the side of the instigator falls within their expected scope, such that they feel no remorse for their actions. While we in the West love trying to sanitize war so that the images we see on CNN or Fox don’t leave us wetting the bed, doing so ignores the very nature of war, and has as a consequence a desensitizing to it. Israel deserves condemnation not for being too bold, but for being too meek. Hamas would, if given the chance, destroy Israel. While Israel need not embrace exactly that method, they would do well to borrow from the Kach platform.
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