[Vision2020] The War in Gaza: "Bombing 1.5 Million People in a Cage"

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Greetings:

This is my radio commentary/column for this week.  This was the most difficult column I've ever written, and I'm sure people firmly on one side or the other of this tragic conflict will not be satisfied.

The 2,000-word version is attached. The Idaho State Journal would have published the full version in their Sunday Insight, but the page was already taken for this Sunday, so much of this would be old news by Jan. 25.  A 1,100-word version was published today in the Los Cabos Daily News, an expat newspaper in Cabo San Lucas.

May the suffering in Gaza soon end!

Nick Gier

THE WAR IN GAZA: "BOMBING 1.5 MILLION PEOPLE IN A CAGE" 

By Nick Gier

An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind
--Gandhi

Ever since its founding in 1948, Israel has been fighting enemies who are committed to its destruction. Because of weapons provided by the U.S. and their own grit and determination, the Israelis have won every battle, even though it is now widely believed that they lost, at least politically, the 2006 war in Lebanon. 

The Lebanese Shi’ias of Hezbollah are actually stronger than ever--politically as well as militarily--and the Israelis now want to make sure that the same does not happen with the Sunni Hamas in the current Gaza War.  

After 21 days of bombing, shelling, and ground assault, Hamas has been weakened but it is definitely not defeated.  There are between 15,000-20,000 Hamas fighters, and only about 550 have been killed. Furthermore, 15-20 rockets are still being launched into Southern Israel every day.

There is world-wide condemnation of Israel’s bombing and shelling in Gaza, one of the densest populations in the world. Civilian deaths are approaching 600 and about 2,250 have been wounded. The Quds hospital was set on fire, evidently with artillery shells containing white phosphorous, the offensive use of which is banned by international law.  

The Israelis are being charged with killing a UN driver and attacking three UN schools where Palestinians were seeking refuge.  Even though the GPS coordinates for UN buildings have been given to the Israelis, UN headquarters in Gaza was shelled repeatedly on January 15, and a UN food warehouse burned to the ground. UN officials reject categorically the Israeli claim that Hamas fighters have been shooting from their buildings. 

When Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that "there is no humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip," she was obviously not helping Israel's already badly tarnished image in the world.  Also unfortunate was the comment by the Israeli Interior Minister that it is necessary to "break the will of the Palestinians." 

Some say that the Palestinians have no excuse because a majority of them voted for Hamas in 2006, and they allow Hamas fighters to hide in their houses, schools, and mosques. Blaming all Palestinians for this war is as absurd as blaming all those who voted for Bush for his incompetence.

Just as insensitive as those who blame all Palestinians are those who dismiss the 30 Israeli dead in seven years of rocket attacks as the equivalent of one weekend of deaths on Israel's highways. Israelis still have memories from the Gulf War, when the entire nation wore gas masks awaiting what they thought would be chemically laden Scud missiles from Iraq. The warheads carried conventional explosives, but it was just as terrifying then as it is now.

George W. Bush’s naïve ideas about democracy and pushing for elections when people are not ready for them has had disastrous results. Early elections in Iraq led to the rule of a corrupt Shiite majority and a deadly civil war. Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders wanted to postpone the 2006 elections in which Hamas was the big winner, but Bush insisted that they go ahead.

The Bush administration has now joined Israel in refusing to recognize Hamas’ legislative mandate and has supported Israel’s brutal blockade of Gaza, which has led to the malnourishment of 75 percent of its children.  The tunnels have not only been dug for the transport of weapons, but also for basic supplies for survival.

Just as the bombing of Lebanon did not force the Lebanese to disown Hezbollah, so, too, even if Gaza is completely leveled, the Palestinians will not give up their support for Hamas. In fact, Fatah, which has been cooperating with the Israelis in the West Bank, may lose credibility because they are now perceived as giving insufficient support to their brothers and sisters in Gaza.  

Over 80 percent of the residents of Gaza are refugees, 60 years removed from their ancestral homes in present day Israel. Some of the elders still have keys to the original locks on those residences. 

In 1978 I met a Christian Palestinian in Denmark and for he first time I learned what it meant to be stateless. Israelis have a right to be safe in their homes, but the Palestinians also have a right to return to the land and houses that were theirs long before the state of Israel was founded.

Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
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