As a young lad of 20 I visited Israel where my sister worked in the intensive care unit of Jerusalems main hospital. I stayed in youth hostels and we travelled the country from North to South including West Bank cities like Nablus. I have fantastic memories of meeting lovely people both Jewish and Palestinian, sitting in little Souks in the Old City, and the modern side of Jerusalem which was buzzing at the weekends. It saddens me to see the loss of life taking place, but people who make comments from the outside should make better effort to understand the situation. After WW2 and the death of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis, and the pogroms that tool place European Jews vowed they would have a homeland once again. When they returned neighbouring countries went to war with them in 1948 which Israel won, they were attacked again in 1967 which they won in 6 days, and again in 1973, as a result of those wars there borders extended. On the back of negotiations the lands in the West Bank and Gaza came under the control of Palestine. The problem is an intractable one as both people groups have a legitimate claim to the land. The reality is that the state of Israel is not going anywhere, the desire of the nations around them to drive them into the sea has been unfulfilled, but puts Israel on a siege footing. Historically they have fought fire with fire, as they dont have any choice. They have built up an impressive defence network that stops most of the missiles, however stopping them at source makes sense. The fact that Hamas fires missiles from residential areas is wholly irresponsible. The question most people seem to ignore is, if Hamas didnt fire rockets at Israel would they be firing missiles at Gaza? The answer is No they wouldnt. Hamas aggression is bringing hardship on their own people.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 22:16:09 +0000