The Gaza Question, Or Why We Should Give a Damn

So I didn’t do my entry yesterday, but thankfully, the real world left me alone. I spent all day watching DVDs and playing videogames with my friends and that’s what break is (partially) supposed to be about. Remind me to show you the presents Mike and Cecilia got me. They’re oddly…appropriate.

The idea is that most of my entries won’t be as long as the Twilight rant, because, in theory, I’m supposed to be busy with school and work, so I can’t afford to write over 1000 words a day, but let’s shift gear from pop culture to something of undeniable importance: the conflict in the Middle East.

….I know, I don’t feel prepared to tackle this topic at all.

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I said last entry that I couldn’t afford to just “shoot off at the mouth,” but speaking honestly, if I tried to do too much research, I’d never get around to expressing much of any opinion. Secondly, there’s a certain type of warped perversion that comes from someone wrapping themselves in history and conventional wisdom when commenting on a contemporary controversy.

You see, it seems to me that the naïve and innocent have a better sense of right and wrong. Where political analysts see a complex weaving of cause and effect, a mere child, with the information given, sees a simple situation: One power is killing a lot more innocent people than the other. That’s not to say that there aren’t layers and complex factors at work here, but at some point, world powers should simplify things for the sake of being effective humanitarians:

Rocket attacks have been raging for more than three days. People are dying. Enough is enough.

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An article to give us context: Day 4 of Gaza Strip Attacks.

If the December 2008 Gaza strip attacks seem familiar to us, that’s because something similarly horrifying happened in the summer of 2006 with the Hezbollah-Israel crisis. Speaking as an ignorant American, from my perspective back then, it looked like some uppity terrorist group made a standard attempt at attacking the state of Israel and Israel reacted completely disproportionately, killing several civilians in their act of “self-defense.” For more recent atrocity deja vu, you may remember the Attacks in Georgia during the Olympics (nothing to do with Israel, but a similarly awful mess of thin excuses and overblown violence).

Now, I could educate myself and try to land on either side of the fence. I could go with the status quo and put my foot down firmly against the “Ay-rab Ter’rists” in support of Israel. Or I could be one of those radicals who insists that Israel is the true terrorist state and championing the Palestinian cause. Rather, I prefer the stance of the ignorant liberal American, who I suspect isn’t sure who is to blame, but simply knows that this is terrible. This is as opposed to the ignorant xenophobe American who has no sympathy for Arabs or Palestinians ever.

There are articles and articles and articles on the origins of the Israel-Palestine conflict. In fact, so much that it’s really information overload. The best way to make sure no one learns anything is by spinning it over decades and decades of bias, hate, and political motives. The simplest cause of this conflict seems to be this: Palestinians live in the disputed Gaza territory, neighboring Israel. The Palestinians work through several avenues to make the Gaza Strip autonomous and free of Israeli presence — political and terrorist. One of the groups that is lumped into both categories is Hamas. Since Hamas took political control in 2006, violence on behlaf of Palestinians and Israel has escalated, culminating in this response to terrorist rocket attacks on Israel originating from Gaza.

Becaue most Americans, including myself, aren't sure where the Gaza Strip is.

So who’s to blame?

Does it matter?

This conflict is a black hole. It sucks in new generations into a war with a cause long ago distorted and destroyed. All that the youth of the Middle East know is that there are forces at work that are trying to kill them, no matter what side that they’re on. Even if a Palestinian originally bears no ill will to Israelis, watching his fellow people getting blown to bits will probably plant some healthy resentment. Similarly, suffering bus attacks and civilian casualties as per Hamas’ M.O. gives your average Israeli no sympathy to the Palestinian cause.

What is our responsibility as Americans?

For one thing, we should get our governments to stop getting so mired in bullshit. Unfortunately, that would involve the entire unraveling of our foreign policy as we’ve known it since the end of World War II.

Gaza. Lebanon. Iran. Al-Qaeda. It all goes back to the Great Problem of the 20th Century: The Jewish Question, as Marx would have put it.

World War II displaced Europe’s Jewish population. Jewish people suffered greatly in the Middle East for centuries as it was. We created Israel at the end of World War II. The antisemites and displaced peoples of the Middle East have been calling for the dissolution of the Jewish state.

Okay, imagine if…I dunno…Central American banded together to annihilate Mexico. We, the United States, step in to save the Mexicans, and after the initial war is over, Mexico is left ravaged, destroyed, and occupied by pissed-off Communist Cubans. To make up for the genocide that we probably let happen under our noses, we give Mexico Texas back. You know, because it was kind of theirs to begin with.

How pissed off would today’s Texans be if we suddenly said that Texas now belonged to the Mexicans?

Real pissed off

So for decades, the Arabs have had a new reason to hate the Jews. And, much like the nerd who takes karate with intent to beat up on his former bullies, Israel has had to beef up military to survive. But now they end up killing several civilians every time they take a swing at their enemies. It’s like the hand of God coming down to swat a single fly.

But you know what the United States will never do?

Side against Israel.

We were there for their creation. We have funded their military operations. Tons of conspiracy theories are flying around about the “Zionists” that are currently running our government. But it doesn’t take a conspiracy kook to see the obvious: We have chosen a side. And like a teacher with a favored pupil, we often ignore it when they do something wrong. Meanwhile, we’re quick to criticize Hams and other Palestinian groups  for their part.

I’m not saying the Palestinian terrorist groups don’t have blood on their hands. I’m not saying they’re not at fault. All I’m saying is that the state that we are currently supporting, like scores of states that we’ve supported in our history, has been responsible for a sizable portion of the carnage during this relentless conflict: And we never hold them accountable.

At the time of this writing the Israeli casulaty count is at about 4 to 6 killed, 31 wounded. The Palestinian count is 375 killed and around 1400 wounded.

Warning: The following videos will disturb anyone who has a weak heart for pain and suffering.

It’s not like this sprouted up overnight:

Here’s a video from someone sympathetic to the Palestinians and anti-Israel:

And, to show that the Palestinian leadership is not full of loonies chanting “death to Israel,” Abbas’ statement, placing blame on Hamas:

The crisis is so great that even the supposedly “Zionist controlled” mainstream media seems somewhat appalled at Israel’s rocketing response. It goes to show that there’s some hope for objectivity.

For the last time, not that it would matter to some raving warhawks, I am not sympathetic to Hamas itself or to terrorist acts commited in the name of Palestinian liberty. I do not look forward to a day when Israel is eradicated. I’m not raving for harsh punishment on the Israelis themselves and I don’t see myself as supporting any side in this stupid, stupid, stupid war that we are tangled up in.

All I’m saying is that people are dying. And I believe in global karma. If we stand by and do nothing, we’re going to end up feeling it too, just like we did seven years ago when the conflict over Israel was brought to our doorstep. If you think Obama’s going to magically keep us safe by supporting the same status quo foreign policy that every U.S. president since Truman has supported…Then you’re sadly mistaken.

And I hope that in my lifetime someone does something, before we all get sucked into this black hole.

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So what do you think? What should our foreign policy reflect? Are we making ourselves vulnerable by making enemies in the Middle East in our undying support for Israel? Or are we morally correct here? Does Israel have every right to defend itself in this matter? Let me know. Educate me.