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TechnoratiChaos of Gaza Cries Out For a Political Deal
Will this ever end? That's the first human reaction to the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip and the slaughter at a Jerusalem yeshiva.The sources of violence are political. Unless there's a political solution, the violence won't end. That simple but profound truth has been around for decades. We are witnessing only its latest manifestation.
Gazans rain rockets into Israel. Israel mounts a ground and air assault. A Palestinian, an Israeli Arab at that, guns down eight students at a seminary, as Baruch Goldstein had gunned down 29 worshippers at a mosque in Hebron in 1994.
James Reilly, professor of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the U of T, sums it up this way:
"The operative assumption on the part of Palestinians is that the Israelis have inflicted so much pain on us that they deserve whatever violence we can inflict on them.
"The operative assumption on the part of Israelis is that if we hit the Palestinians hard enough and often enough, they will agree to peace on our terms."
This has not worked and won't.
As of this writing, about 125 Arabs have been killed in the last week vs. 12 Israelis, including the eight murdered in Jerusalem. That's about the same ratio as in the 2006 invasion of Lebanon. Yet, as in Lebanon, Israel has not achieved its goals.
There's no guarantee that rocket fire from Gaza will stop. And Hamas is not destroyed. Rather, like the Hezbollah, it has emerged stronger, a symbol of resistance.
Having declared Hamas a terrorist entity, Israel and its allies, including Canada, are in the ludicrous position of not dealing with it even to arrange a ceasefire.
This despite the fact that a majority of Israelis, according to a poll, favour a truce with Hamas. And several leading Israeli thinkers, including Shlomo Brom, a retired general, advocate a dialogue.
As in Lebanon, Israeli credibility has suffered as well.
Israel said up to 90 per cent of those killed in the Gaza operation were militants. Palestinians said more than half were civilians. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem backed the Palestinians, saying that by its count, Israel had killed 54 civilians, as of Monday.
That brings forth the argument that there is a difference between terrorists who target civilians and actions in self-defence that kill civilians. There is. But dead innocents are dead innocents. Infinitely more of them are Palestinians.
Thus, the worldwide anger and the condemnation by the UN's Ban Ki-moon of Israel's "disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children."
Even the strongly pro-Israeli Harper government piped up:
"We are very concerned by the impact on civilians of measures taken by Israel, such as increased military operations, restrictions on border crossings and reductions in the delivery of vital goods and services," said Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier.
"Israel must take better measures to protect civilians and to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access to the population in need in the Gaza Strip."
It hasn't. A report by eight British NGOs makes that abundantly clear.
The Israeli blockade has created the worst humanitarian crisis since 1967, said the coalition that includes Amnesty International, Save the Children, Oxfam and Christian Aid. Their report speaks of severe food shortages, crumbling health services and water and sewage systems.
"The whole infrastructure is in a state of collapse, whether water, sanitation or the medical services," said John Ging, director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
About 80 per cent of Gaza's 1.5 million people are dependent on food aid. Of the 110,000 workers employed in the private sector, 75,000 have lost their jobs.
Canadians are complicit, as Ottawa was the first to help impose collective punishment on the Gazans. So are many of our politicians and the media who demonstrate selective outrage and inconsistent logic day in and day out.
The only comforting news has been that Israel has rightly chosen to continue the peace process.
Haroon Siddiqui appears Thursday and Sunday.
Will this ever end? That's the first human reaction to the death and destruction in the Gaza Strip and the slaughter at a Jerusalem yeshiva.
The sources of violence are political. Unless there's a political solution, the violence won't end. That simple but profound truth has been around for decades. We are witnessing only its latest manifestation.
Gazans rain rockets into Israel. Israel mounts a ground and air assault. A Palestinian, an Israeli Arab at that, guns down eight students at a seminary, as Baruch Goldstein had gunned down 29 worshippers at a mosque in Hebron in 1994.
James Reilly, professor of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the U of T, sums it up this way:
"The operative assumption on the part of Palestinians is that the Israelis have inflicted so much pain on us that they deserve whatever violence we can inflict on them.
"The operative assumption on the part of Israelis is that if we hit the Palestinians hard enough and often enough, they will agree to peace on our terms."
This has not worked and won't.
As of this writing, about 125 Arabs have been killed in the last week vs. 12 Israelis, including the eight murdered in Jerusalem. That's about the same ratio as in the 2006 invasion of Lebanon. Yet, as in Lebanon, Israel has not achieved its goals.
There's no guarantee that rocket fire from Gaza will stop. And Hamas is not destroyed. Rather, like the Hezbollah, it has emerged stronger, a symbol of resistance.
Having declared Hamas a terrorist entity, Israel and its allies, including Canada, are in the ludicrous position of not dealing with it even to arrange a ceasefire.
This despite the fact that a majority of Israelis, according to a poll, favour a truce with Hamas. And several leading Israeli thinkers, including Shlomo Brom, a retired general, advocate a dialogue.
As in Lebanon, Israeli credibility has suffered as well.
Israel said up to 90 per cent of those killed in the Gaza operation were militants. Palestinians said more than half were civilians. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem backed the Palestinians, saying that by its count, Israel had killed 54 civilians, as of Monday.
That brings forth the argument that there is a difference between terrorists who target civilians and actions in self-defence that kill civilians. There is. But dead innocents are dead innocents. Infinitely more of them are Palestinians.
Thus, the worldwide anger and the condemnation by the UN's Ban Ki-moon of Israel's "disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children."
Even the strongly pro-Israeli Harper government piped up:
"We are very concerned by the impact on civilians of measures taken by Israel, such as increased military operations, restrictions on border crossings and reductions in the delivery of vital goods and services," said Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier.
"Israel must take better measures to protect civilians and to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access to the population in need in the Gaza Strip."
It hasn't. A report by eight British NGOs makes that abundantly clear.
The Israeli blockade has created the worst humanitarian crisis since 1967, said the coalition that includes Amnesty International, Save the Children, Oxfam and Christian Aid. Their report speaks of severe food shortages, crumbling health services and water and sewage systems.
"The whole infrastructure is in a state of collapse, whether water, sanitation or the medical services," said John Ging, director of United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
About 80 per cent of Gaza's 1.5 million people are dependent on food aid. Of the 110,000 workers employed in the private sector, 75,000 have lost their jobs.
Canadians are complicit, as Ottawa was the first to help impose collective punishment on the Gazans. So are many of our politicians and the media who demonstrate selective outrage and inconsistent logic day in and day out.
The only comforting news has been that Israel has rightly chosen to continue the peace process.
Haroon Siddiqui appears Thursday and Sunday. hsiddiqui@thestar.ca.
.
© 2008 The Toronto Star
14 Comments so far
Show AllIsrael continuing the peace process? Some kind of a bad joke? On the one hand Israel talks peace process (show stopper) and on the other hand it continues the vicious attacks and displacing Palestinians by stealing their land. Or perhaps Israel means 'piece' process - one piece of land at a time? May Israel never have to reap what it is sowing.
zoya: "It's too bad about the Yeshiva killings, but they are merely collateral damage in the Palestinians' long fight for freedom."
No collateral damage; Olmert has confirmed this yeshiva is the equivalent of a hard core madrasa that has produced many Zionist military and civilian leaders.
voxclamantis: The baseball analogy is sick. For the Israelis, they are satisfying their greed at a relatively low cost of their own lives. Israeli losses are significantly smaller per capita than the difference in motor vehicle death rates between Israel and the US. For the Palestinians, they are losing far more, and it hurts. Add the intentionally high (on the part of Israel) infant mortality rate, and it hurts more.
carmudgeon99: "As much as I dislike the Israeli method of problem-solving (make it worse). I am not a fan of Palestinian retaliation (blind scorpion-like retaliation)."
It appears the yeshiva killing has had a very positive effect in the recent rash of violence. It has given the Palestinians some dignity, allowing them to cut back on the rockets. It is my observation that Israelis increase their rate of killing not in response to Palestinian violence, but for the purpose of inciting it. If the Palestinians could kill 1 for 1, the death totals would be lower.
gallero: Israeli schools and many synagogues preach the gospel of killing for greed, garbed in the guise of "The Promised Land". That Palestinians respond in kind is to be expected. That Jews do not preach suicide attacks, and Palestinians support them, only reflects the relative military strength of both sides. Jews celebrate military suicide in some cases; remember Masada?
"The only comforting news has been that Israel has rightly chosen to continue the peace process." This is a nonsensical statement, Haroon!
Israel has chosen TO PRETEND TO continue the peace process is closer to the truth. Israel has no intention of allowing a Palestinians State to be created. None whatsoever!
It is playing cat and mouse with the Palestinians while it takes all their land and their future.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Israel doesn't want peace. It wants to continue its land theft and atrocities against the Palestinian People. It wants complete capitulation by the Palestinian People. It wants complete obedience from the Palestinians. It wants complete control of everything the Palestinians do. Oops, I guess that would be peace!
What I have noticed is that neither Israel, nor any other country who is called an ALLY of the US, can do no wrong.
The author compares an Arab terrorist to Baruch Goldstien, a deranged jew who murdered Arabs in a Mosque???
Hardly the same. The Palestinian Government ( Fattah & Hamas ) inculcate they youth with 'death to the jews' through TV, schools, textbooks, religion. 'Shahida' (suicide/murder ) is glorified by the media and government. The Israelis do not. Big difference.
Hamas has publicly stated its mission is to kill Jews and destroy Israel.They have not stated they want a 'poltical' settlement.
The Arab rules of war are different. firing rockets from crowded civilian areas knowing full well retaliation will kill innocents and provoke the reactions such as those written by the fools above.
The Israelis should be commended for their restraint. Maybe Hamas will learn when their provoked death toll is in the tens of thousands.
Oh, and the Israeli embargo??? Got a better answer to the rockets and heavy weapons? The Gazans brought it on themselves.
Israel couldn't continue to occupy one foot of Palistinian land without the full and complete complesity of the US government. It is our tax dollars that are keeping both the Iraq occupation and the Israeli occupation in place. It is bankrupting our nation and it is against public opinion both here and in Israel.
Within Israel there is a very strong peace movement, as well as a strong, active left. However, here in our nation we are attacked if we even speak out for peace. A recent example is Dennis Kucinich. His opponent, "Corporate Joe" Cimperman, was heavily funded by AIPAC money. In the international wire service, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, used by the Israeli govt, an article this week showed heavy interest in Ohio's 10th District congressional race. In a prominent article on Dennis' race, it stated that Dennis' opponite, "Corporate Joe" Cimperman, had his race; "Financed, in large part, BY PRO-ISRAELI DONORS." The article stated further that; "Cimperman raised $500,000, WITH MUCH OF IT COMING FROM PRO-ISRAELI DONORS, furious at Kucinich's harsh criticism fo Israel."
For the record, Dennis' "harsh criticism of Israel" is that he called for our govt. to have a more even handed policy in the Mideast and to work for peace, rather than funding war.
Thus, we are not only funding illegal, immoral and hugely unpopular wars/occupations, but we are also funding the AIPAC bastards to come to our our country and subvert our elections. And to do all this, we are quite literally, taking food out of our babies mouths. We are denying our people health care, education, housing and jobs, just so that we can fund wars and occupations to help big oil companies.
Israel is going to invade and occupy gaza in the next six weeks... hungry and poorly armed people are much easier to subjugate.
After all, isn't that why we chose Iraq?
"Are you who philosophize disgrace, and criticize our fears? Take the rag away from your face for now ain't the time for your tears." B.D.
Cry out for a deal... I'll cry with you... but we're living in a country where it's illegal to give a Palestinian a sandwich and a cup of coffee.
As much as I dislike the Israeli method of problem-solving (make it worse). I am not a fan of Palestinian retaliation (blind scorpion-like retaliation).
Both sides are acting like abused children.
As a teacher of mine said in 1999 when asked about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:
"Look what we are doing to us."
This could now be applied in many more conflicts around the world.
Israel continues The Holocaust.
How can a deal be done when, to a nation, the west refuses to acknowledge the rights of the Palestinians and belittles their suffering? The only thing that Israel and the west will accept is the complete annihiliation of Palestine and the dispersal or massacre of all its people. Then Israel will swell to fill its "biblical" boundaries and the sectarian cleansing will be complete.
VOX -- We're firing on similar cylinders, broadcasting on adjacent stations, and feeling the synergy of synchronicity.
Especially when you mention "We might try hazarding some new theories about the human pathology so clearly epitomized by the Israeli-Palestinian squabble…"
Take a look at this earlier post of mine, on a 3-day old thread: US Deafening Silence on Israel Speaks for Itself
Power to the People.
Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK
If there need be additional evidence of the consequences of long term torture and terror on people, and culture - we need look no further than how blinded by their own WWI pain the Zionists have become - to inflict similar upon the Palestinians.
Justice due to the Jews, was never upheld world-wide, and the creation of Israel was not upon unoccupied and freely available land.
Justice due to the Palestinians, is hardly even seen in the news.
WE must have balance and justice.
Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK
We might try hazarding some new theories about the human pathology so clearly epitomized by the Israeli-Palestinian squabble, since we have very nearly a laboratory experiment, a science fair ant farm, here to study and learn from. It is not useful, following every monotonous alternation in this mechanical vendetta, to wave our hands in hysterical circles and ask Why? Why? The hysterical "Why?" is rhetorical, a mere exclamation. Perhaps we need a clinical "Why?"
We might, for example, hazard the theory that for tribal Arabs and Hebrews war is a substitute for baseball. I'm serious. I think they are enjoying themselves. These aren't stupid people. They know that the mechanics of vendetta are so predictable that they might as well be blowing up their own children instead of the enemy's, given the certainty of the net result. Yet they rally around the next revenge like college cheerleaders immediately following every funeral. If they weren't having fun, they would stop doing it. I think we ought to look at that. I think we ought to stop looking at it as a tragedy and a dirty shame, since that perspective is not informative. We might learn more about its etiology if we look at it as a form of human enjoyment and satisfaction. Something Chris Hedges would say gives them meaning and orientation in an otherwise uninteresting world.
It's too bad about the Yeshiva killings, but they are merely collateral damage in the Palestinians' long fight for freedom.