Help me on this. Most of my friends, most of the people I respect, seem to find the Israeli response to Palestinian shelling unaccountable and reprehensible. Tragic and awful I go with 100 %-- but, my understanding is that the initiating event was an attack on Israeli civilian populations by rockets launched from Gaza. I also learn that Israeli armed forces have found a system of tunnels the only use for which is to enable clandestine attacks on Israel by Palestinian forces in Gaza, led by Hamas, recognized internationally as a terrorist organization, which seems to tag-team Middle Eastern mayhem with Hezbollah, which is probably even worse, terrorism-wise. Now, I go with the notion that babies and mamas being burned in their homes is appalling, unendurable, but I wish I were more certain whom to blame. If there is a big dog tied in the next yard and I go over and hit it with a stick, and it bites me, whose fault is it? If the bite is a lot more effective than the stick-hitting, does that change the succession of culpability? Do we find Hamas oft-repeated determination to effect the annihilation of Israel and its people just a charming peculiarity, that Israel should take in good humor? What, honestly, should Israel do when it is attacked by missiles, and invaded through underground tunnels by people who feel it is their right and duty to wipe it from the face of the earth? And before we get all pseudo-historical, let us remember that the Palestinians did not appear in public discourse until the British began calling that part of the world Palestine after WWI, making up Palestinians as they made up Jordanians and Iraquis and Lebanese out of people who had to get used to these appellations and these artificial political boundaries. An ancient and cohesive people called the Palestinians is to some degree a fiction, unless it is taken to mean those people living in that part of the world when the British decided to call it Palestine. I also am given to understand that Israel is the only regional nation that affords the Palestinians and legal recognition at all-- that they are welcome and considered citizens so long as their brothers from across the border are not launching rockets-- though This may need to be researched. This is my understanding at the moment. What am I missing?
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 14:23:51 +0000
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