Humble Opinions

For some reason, there is something about this world I cannot seem to understand. I am a pretty smart guy, so I don’t think it’s due to a lack of intellect. I read a lot of news every day, and have read many books on history, so I don’t think it’s due to a lack of information. I talk with people that live within the entire range of the political spectrum, so I don’t think it’s due to narrow-mindedness. Maybe it’s because I am too involved in the situation to be able to extract an objective view. I am hoping someone can clear something up for me:

On December 27, 2008, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip, which was a retaliatory military campaign for the daily barrage of rockets being launched into Israel from Gaza over the last 3 years. A total of 6,000 rockets had been shot into Israeli civilian territory by a radical Islamic group named Hamas.

On August 15, 2005, Israel withdrew thousands of its citizens from the Gaza Strip, destroying a total of 21 settlements, thousands of homes, office buildings, entire neighborhoods. To accomplish this, they utilized 14,000 soldiers whom they paid out of their own pocket. They paid each family that was withdrawn from Gaza cash to purchase a new home elsewhere within Israeli territory. In summary, they caused thousands of Israelis to lose their jobs, their neighbors, their synogogues, and their communities. All this was done as a token of peace to the Palestinians.

Through the UN, many millions of dollars were collected (in addition to many direct donations from Saudi Arabia and Iran) to help the Palestinians rebuild on the prior Israeli territory.  Israel continued to supply the Gaza Strip (and continues to until this day) with electricity, and water - paid for out of Israel’s pocket (no UN reimbursements for that).

Instead of building Gaza up, turning it into a vibrant economy and living space, and reciprocating Israel’s peace offering, Hamas immediately seized control of the area and spent 3 full years shooting rockets into Israel (sometimes as many as 30 a day), and digging thousands of tunnels into Egypt from Gaza for smuggling Iranian weapons in. Yet, Israel continued to supply electricity, and power.

Finally, Israel decided enough was enough. It launched a highly organized, precise military campaign to invade the Gaza Strip, in attempt to halt the Hamas rocket fire. Israel successfully destroyed literally thousands of smuggling tunnels, TONS of weapons caches, and killed hundreds of Hamas militants (many times while they were amidst launching a rocket into Israel - you can watch this on YouTube if you’d like).

Unfortunately, hundreds of innocent civilians were killed during operation Cast Lead. A large part of this was due to the fact that Hamas was launching their rockets from civilian areas, using civilian houses, schools, hospitals, and mosques as weapon storage facilities, and were shooting at IDF soldiers from within civilian crowds. Nonetheless, every innocent civilian death is a tragedy, regardless of their ethnicity, or religion.

Operation Cast Lead attracted the attention of the entire globe. Every news station in every country in the world was covering its developments, and everyone seemed to have an opinion to weigh in. Leaders from all over the world made public statements siding with, or against Israel. American officials from all professions and areas of politics were on television giving their opinions. Tens of thousands of blog posts were made about the situation. Rallies all over earth were taking place against Israel’s actions. Rallies in London, rallies in Germany, protests in Iran, even Russians had plenty to say on the matter.

In short, it was a popular topic. Many were not embarrassed to lash out at Israel. I read several editorials daily comparing Israel to the Nazi regime. Etc.

Here’s the part I do understand: There are many people in the world that believe solely in peace. They think peace comes before religion, before ethnicity, before opinions, before everything. Nobody should be killed, ever. They support all types of humanitarian aid, and oppose all action resulting in the loss of life. For them, I see how operation Cast Lead can be a disaster, and something that must be openly spoken against and condemned. I see how they can oppose Israel’s decision to invade the Gaza Strip. Seriously, I get that.

Now here’s the part I don’t understand: On January 18, 2009, Israel ended its campaign, and Hamas / Israel declared unilateral ceasefires. Shortly after, Hamas returned to its normal rocket firing into Israel (albeit they claim it’s a DIFFERENT anti-zionist, anti-israel, anti-jewish group, and they’re completely innocent, even though they control the entire Gaza Strip). Here is a list of news articles covering the rocket launches that have occurred since Hamas’ declared unilateral ceasefire with Israel:

Where are the pro-peace, anti-war rallies? Where are the leaders of countries and their public statements? Where are the protests? Where are the debates, opinions, American officials, and politicians? Where are all the fiery blog posts (aside from this one)?

Seriously, I am begging someone to explain this phenomenon to me. What is going on?!?! I don’t get it. What happened to peace? What happened to no one attacking anyone? What happened to Hamas’ unilateral ceasefire? Am I losing my mind?

I am an open-minded, reasonable person. I do my research, and I accept what appears to be true. That being said, until I see at least an equivalent outroar from all over the globe, and groups of 10s of thousands of people gathering to oppose Hamas rockets being shot at innocent Israelis, I am absolutely uninterested in anything any of you have to say, ever, for the rest of time. I’m serious.

I would be very interested to see a group of civilians in another part of the world live under daily barrages of rockets. They would all need bomb shelters built around their neighborhoods, and they would need to spend their tax money to arrange city-wide sirens that can be sounded 15 seconds before a rocket lands. They would need to know where their children are at all times, and be ready to dash them into bomb shelters at a moment’s notice. They would have to be weary of going outside the house, and they would always need a plan for cover. And last but not least, they would also have to get used to being unheard by the world, and uncared for, even by those that support peace most virulently.

I await some explanations.

Tags: hamas, israel, operation cast lead, sderot

Posted by admin under Opinions & israel |