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Gaza and the Endless Tragedy of War Email Print

By Bob Kendall
01/11/2009 09:09:07 PM EST

The editorial in Financial Times January 4 summarized the Israeli-Gaza conflict objectively:

"Gaza to be sure, was already a cauldron.  But it has got that way in no small part because of flawed western policies: first through allowing the Israeli Palestinian conflict to stew, and then attempting to isolate Hamas -- which was democratically elected three years ago -- and doing nothing to lift the Israeli siege that has turned Gaza into a prison for the 1.5 million inhabitants.

"None of these conflicts is at all easy, but rarely are they responsive to brute military force.  The record suggests force breeds extremism and, in extremis failed states.

"Israel's regular attempts to enhance its security and break the regional logistics by force well illustrate this.  The occupation of Palestinian territory after the 1967 Six Day War has locked it in a deadly embrace with its Palestinian neighbors that only the creation of an independent Palestinian state can break.

"Ripples through these regions easily build into waves -- the U.S.-allied leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan initially happy to see Israel hit Hizbollah or Hamas quickly change their tune as soon as their peoples rally to the militants.  Their legitimacy and survival is at stake.

"Happily, the superficial-muscularity of the Bush-Cheney era -- the idea that you can bomb people into moderation and alignment with western interests is about to end."

The diplomatic focus on the Israel Gaza conflict was lost when an endless series of rockets was the Hamas response to the Israeli blockade, which naturally made existence in Gaza miserable.

If United States diplomats had attempted to illustrate how mutually beneficial cooperation could be economically advantageous to both Israel and Gaza, a vision of prosperity and peace might have emerged, instead of this tragic war with over 800 killed.

Of course, in both Israel and Gaza those determined to wage war to express anger at what they feel justified in feeling had to be overcome through outlining what peaceful cooperation was capable of achieving.

This could have been proven to both sides if U.S. diplomats had the total honesty of admitting the tragic truth of the misguided Vietnam War and the endless air strikes that killed an estimate 2 ½ million or more Vietnamese and Cambodians and over 59,000 U.S. service personnel.

Admitting the truth that the Iraq War was launched on misinformation of weapons of mass destruction threatening the U.S. proved to be non-existent and the Iraq War was according to Alan Greenspan "largely about oil."

But the Iraq War has left 600,000 to more than one million Iraqis dead, along with 4,222 U.S. service personnel deaths while 2 ½ million Iraqis have fled.

The illusion that U.S. citizens live in apparently is that we are safer.  George Bush was not impeached and the delusion is lessening as the U.S. economic system collapses and billions of dollars are printed to bail out our entire system.

Israelis and Palestinians could both benefit from the self-destructive economic damage the U.S. has achieved by comprehending two important facts:

Deregulation of our economic system promoted by Ronald Reagan is always destined to lead to a dead end.

War doesn't solve problems, it only generates more deaths, along with destruction and debt that will burden future generations.    


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Gaza and the Endless Tragedy of War | 3 comments (3 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Forbidden Facts (none / 0)
It appears everyone has a Middle Eastern interest to protect and a finger of blame to point, but hardly anyone is willing to face the glaring reality o f the Gaza population growing so far beyond that tiny land's ability to feed it (1.5 million) that some sort of  humanitarian disaster is probably inevitable, regardless of anything Israel and the U.N. are willing to do about it. Nor does anyone dare to admit that the people of Gaza are doing it deliberately to overwhelm their hated neighbor, demanding a "right of return" throughout the area which, if Israel accepte d it, would be ethnic suicide.

After all, that's how the Albanians invaded and took over Kosovo, and NATO supported their right to do so! Thus,  with that example, the Palestinians just need to keep on birthing 5,6,7,8 children per family and the weight of their growing numbers will conquer where everything else  has failed, invasion by population explosion their weapon of last resort!

"Live simply that others may simply live."

by nrdthxpr on 01/13/2009 01:48:42 AM EST

Palestine - Muslims - Jews - The Rest of Us (none / 0)
One of the problems with people in general and liberals in particular is that they refuse to actually listen to others. It is this refusal to pay attention to what people who disagree with you say that allows liberals to actually hand the rope to the hangman and the sword to the beheader while denying that they are about to be hanged or beheaded.

It is this tragic unwillingness to face the realities all around them that allow them to make decisions which give to their enemies all they need to triumph - or at least to cause misery and damage beyond imagination and description. This is particularly the case these days when dealing with Islam and Islamists. If liberals think for one moment that by championing terrorists organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah they are making friends and allies for the future peaceful development of the middle east or the world or Palestine or anyplace on earth, the only suggestion I have is that they are seriously under medicated.

Listen to what the Islamists say, and they appear to be the vast majority no matter how much liberals like living in the river of denial. Let's listen to the rantings of just one of the Mullahs of late:

"Muslim brothers," said the government-appointed preacher, Sheik Eid Abdel Hamid Youssef, "God has inflicted the Muslim nation with a people [Jews] whom God has become angry at and whom he cursed so he made monkeys and pigs out of them. They killed prophets and messengers and sowed corruption on Earth. They are the most evil on Earth."

It is important to remember that he is not making this description of Jews (and other non-believers like western progressives and liberals) out of whole cloth. He is freely quoting the holy book - the Koran.

There is no room in a Muslim world for Jews, Christians and especially not for polytheists, who down through history have generally been slaughtered without question.

Neither is democracy some sort of infallible god to be worshipped, adored and mindlessly embraced. After all we have seen how even in the USA democracy can be used to blatantly deny fundamental human rights to a class of citizens, such as the denial of the rights associated with marriage to the g/l/b/t population. This backed by the same sort of Christian religious ignorance, superstition and ugliness that so dominates cultures wherever Islam gains any political strength

Wake up people. Islamists and Islam is no friend to liberals, progressives or any other lovers of freedom and human dignity.

by leland61 on 01/13/2009 07:13:30 AM EST

Islam (none / 0)
Let us now consider the Jews holiest book, the Talmud. The Edito Princeps of the complete code of Talmudic Law, Maimonides' Mishneh Torah-replete not only with the most offensive precepts against all Gentiles but also with explicit attacks on Christianity and on Jesus (after whose name the author adds piously, "May the name of the wicked perish") Dr. Israel Shahak, Jewish History, Jewish Religion pg 21.

Sanhedrin 116a. Jews must destroy the books of the Christians. (new testament)

Rosh Hashanah 17a Christians and others who reject the Talmud will go to hell and be punished there for all generations.

You get my drift; there is NO LOVE FOR ANYONE BUT JEWS IN JUDAISM. I call it ANTI-GENTILISM.

by patsylowe on 01/23/2009 02:10:51 PM EST

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Gaza and the Endless Tragedy of War | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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