Does Israel actually want peace?
It appears that Israel's removal of settlements from the Gaza Strip was not a gesture of peace, or a recognition that the Palestinians perhaps deserve a little bit of land to scratch out a living on. Given recent events it's clear that Israel just moved its citizens out of the way so that they wouldn't get hurt when Israel started lobbing even more bombs, bullets, tanks and bulldozers into the Gaza Strip.
Gaza is basically just a big refugee camp, one of the most densely populated places in the world where for 40 years people have lived in hopeless poverty under bombardment from their well armed and funded neighbours. Israel has not lost large tracts of economically important land; withdrawing from Gaza was a token political gesture, although it was still unpopular with the loud minority of ultra religious Jews who think the whole of 'Greater Israel' belongs to them and oppose a two-state solution. (Thank fuck it doesn't say anything in the Old Testament about Dumfries and Galloway being part of the Promised Land).
Although incidents such as the bombing of a family picnic have been going on for weeks, their awful ubiquity hardly making them newsworthy, events over the past few days have taken Israel's oppression of the Palestinians to a whole new level. Bridges, power stations and water supplies have been demolished, troops and tanks are reoccupying Gaza and 64 members of the Palestinian government, Hamas, have been taken hostage.
Israel's actions are ostensibly a response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants. They're demanding the return of the hostage in return for the Hamas MPs; the bombings are punishing the Palestinian civilians for the kidnapping and for homemade rocket attacks on Israel. Which does sound fair until you realise that hundreds of Palestinian women and children are held unlawfully in Israel's jails, Israel's military has been blowing the heck out of Gaza and many times more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed in the conflict.
I reckon Israel's incursion and bombings are just a ploy to continue the conflict. The death of Yasser Arafat removed a big corrupt belligerent blockage to negotiations and peace. In recent days Hamas has for the first time recognised the right of Israel to exist - a big step for an Islamic militant organisation previously committed to the annihilation of Israel, and a big step towards negotiation and peace.
So with all the pieces in place for Israel and Palestine to move towards peace, why is Israel acting increasingly warlike? The only answers I can come up with are that:
1) Zionists have too much control in Israel and their government's aim is to take over the West Bank and Gaza with the Palestinians killed or banished to Jordan, so negotiation and peace has no purpose as it would actually take them further away from their goal of a Greater Israel.
2) The Israeli government has realised that in the current climate the main obstacles to this plan (the West) look kindly upon states that take a hard line against supposed terrorists, so it's now or never to up the ante, have a big war (which would be a foregone conclusion: Israel's military might against Palestinian's homemade fireworks) and take over the West Bank and Gaza and kill/banish the Palestinians.
I might be wrong, but if I am, please explain Israel's actions...
Gaza is basically just a big refugee camp, one of the most densely populated places in the world where for 40 years people have lived in hopeless poverty under bombardment from their well armed and funded neighbours. Israel has not lost large tracts of economically important land; withdrawing from Gaza was a token political gesture, although it was still unpopular with the loud minority of ultra religious Jews who think the whole of 'Greater Israel' belongs to them and oppose a two-state solution. (Thank fuck it doesn't say anything in the Old Testament about Dumfries and Galloway being part of the Promised Land).
Although incidents such as the bombing of a family picnic have been going on for weeks, their awful ubiquity hardly making them newsworthy, events over the past few days have taken Israel's oppression of the Palestinians to a whole new level. Bridges, power stations and water supplies have been demolished, troops and tanks are reoccupying Gaza and 64 members of the Palestinian government, Hamas, have been taken hostage.
Israel's actions are ostensibly a response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants. They're demanding the return of the hostage in return for the Hamas MPs; the bombings are punishing the Palestinian civilians for the kidnapping and for homemade rocket attacks on Israel. Which does sound fair until you realise that hundreds of Palestinian women and children are held unlawfully in Israel's jails, Israel's military has been blowing the heck out of Gaza and many times more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed in the conflict.
I reckon Israel's incursion and bombings are just a ploy to continue the conflict. The death of Yasser Arafat removed a big corrupt belligerent blockage to negotiations and peace. In recent days Hamas has for the first time recognised the right of Israel to exist - a big step for an Islamic militant organisation previously committed to the annihilation of Israel, and a big step towards negotiation and peace.
So with all the pieces in place for Israel and Palestine to move towards peace, why is Israel acting increasingly warlike? The only answers I can come up with are that:
1) Zionists have too much control in Israel and their government's aim is to take over the West Bank and Gaza with the Palestinians killed or banished to Jordan, so negotiation and peace has no purpose as it would actually take them further away from their goal of a Greater Israel.
2) The Israeli government has realised that in the current climate the main obstacles to this plan (the West) look kindly upon states that take a hard line against supposed terrorists, so it's now or never to up the ante, have a big war (which would be a foregone conclusion: Israel's military might against Palestinian's homemade fireworks) and take over the West Bank and Gaza and kill/banish the Palestinians.
I might be wrong, but if I am, please explain Israel's actions...
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