Living in a young and very isolated country like New Zealand it’s hard to imagine what it’s like living in countries mired in conflict for millennia.
So I find it hard to understand the rights and wrongs of the Israel/Gaza situation. I can understand anger on both sides, I can understand wanting to stand ground and fight for freedoms and for safety for citizens.
I don’t like occupations and walls and virtual imprisonments. I don’t like the rocket firing into residential areas.
But I eally wonder at the mindsets that are entrenched there. And suggestions like this in an Op Ed in the Jerusalem Post by Girad Sharon (son of an ex Prime Minister) seem to do him or the JP any credit:
A decisive conclusion is necessary
There is no middle path here – either the Gazans and their infrastructure are made to pay the price, or we reoccupy the entire Gaza Strip.
A strong opening isn’t enough, you also have to know how to finish – and finish decisively. If it isn’t clear whether the ball crossed the goal-line or not, the goal isn’t decisive. The ball needs to hit the net, visible to all. What does a decisive victory sound like? A Tarzan-like cry that lets the entire jungle know in no uncertain terms just who won, and just who was defeated.
To accomplish this, you need to achieve what the other side can’t bear, can’t live with, and our initial bombing campaign isn’t it.
THE DESIRE to prevent harm to innocent civilians in Gaza will ultimately lead to harming the truly innocent: the residents of southern Israel. The residents of Gaza are not innocent, they elected Hamas. The Gazans aren’t hostages; they chose this freely, and must live with the consequences.
I agree with this:
There is no justification for the State of Gaza being able to shoot at our towns with impunity.
But this sounds way over the top:
We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren’t surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too.
That sounds sick, and I don’t see how it will heal the deep wounds in the Middle East.
Steve W
/ January 8, 2013Sharon and his ilk tend to come – historically – from the autocratic / dictatorial old regimes of Eastern Europe / Russia. They have not known democracy and have little interest in human rights. Corruptions can be a big part of the culture, too, depending on precise origins. The liberal democratic Israel of the 1950s, 60s was already fading by the early 70s as the democraghic shifted to people more inclined to see ethnic cleansing as their final solution…..in slow motion, of course….with all the appropriate scapegoats and immediate tactical justifications. You tighten the screws until the victim fights back…then use the response as justification for a new move..a new theft of land. This is not a new strategy. The early settler governments in New Zealand did the same thing to the Maori. Parihaka anyone?