Sunday, January 4, 2009

Slow Learners

The news from the Middle East is not good. Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, seems to have gone on a suicide frenzy by provoking Israel to attack the tiny Palestinian enclave. It is an uneven fight and the civilian population is paying a terrible price. However, it is the ordinary people who voted Hamas into power. No matter how righteous their cause, they have not yet come to grips with reality - they can never defeat the Israelis. In this the Palestinians of Gaza seem to be slow learners. The sooner they accept defeat and recognize the supremacy of Israel the sooner their life will improve.

2 comments:

Bramblyspam said...

You would do well to read up on the other side of the story. Hamas didn't want this war, and they know full well the strength of Israel. The problem is that the people running Israel have no interest in the peace process or in a viable Palestinian state under any conditions.

I believe you're mistaken when you believe that "recognizing the supremacy of Israel" will allow the lives of the Palestinians to improve. For years, Israel has been systematically strangling Palestine - not for security reasons, but for demographic ones. It's not without reason that the Palestinian situation is frequently compared to the Warsaw ghetto.

From the Israeli perspective, if the Palestinians were allowed to be full citizens of Israel, then their higher birthrate would make them the majority in the foreseeable future. However, there's a strong sentiment in Israel that all the land promised to them in the old testament is rightfully Israeli, and they can't give up any of it for any reason. The solution has been to force the Palestinians into a geographically tiny area and then making life in Palestinian areas a living hell, in the hopes that the Palestinians will go away. This has been Israeli policy for many many years, right up to and including the present.

I highly recommend mideastweb.org as a resource on these issues, it's a site that strives to present both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian issue in an impartial manner.

I Opine for Fun said...

I think it's pretty well established that it was Israel, and not Hamas, who broke the cease fire.