Three years ago, the political party Hamas rose to power in the Palestinian elections. Immediately after, Israel responded by blocking off the Gaza strip to the free flow of people, equipment, imports and exports. Ever since then, there have been conflicts ebbing and flowing. On December 19th, Hamas’ shaky six month truce with Israel came to an end. Since then, Israel has attacked Gaza, who has responded with rockets. The fighting has escaladed, and Israel refuses to cease fire.
In my opinion, Israel should immediately end its attack on the Gaza strip. Israel claims their disagreement is not with Hamas, but with their ability to launch rockets into Israel. However, Israel’s air, land, and sea attacks are causing more damage then the rockets. As of today, January 11th, 879 Palestinians and 13 Israeli have been killed. If Israel’s concern was with the military power of the Hamas, it would seem logical that Israeli militia would target the rocket-launching sites. This proves to be more difficult then it seems. Hamas currently uses tall buildings as their launching sites, and these buildings are filled with civilians. Schools and medical centers have been attacked, and the number of Palestinian civilian causalities continues to rise. Israel obviously cannot complete their goals of disarming Hamas without hurting civilians. Therefore, they should cease fire before more civilians are killed. On January 8th, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1860 was approved by all but the United States, who wishes to wait for the results of the Egyptian peace efforts. Israel has stated they will not accept the resolution.
Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak stated that this was a “war to the bitter end” against Hamas, while Hamas vowed to “fight until the last breath.” If the fighting continues, which at the moment seems inevitable, the United States is in a difficult position. The United States may feel compelled to get involved with the conflict, which will result in a slippery slope. Getting involved is easy, but getting out is the hard part. Intervention does not solve the problem, and can make it worse. American occupation can cause alienation, and to extreme degrees in an Islamic world. An American presence may only serve to exacerbate the problem and create new ones. The United States has already exhausted itself with intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if we continue to intervene, we will waste billions of dollars. The optimal solution is for Israel to immediately end its attack on the Gaza strip. If they choose to persevere, United States needs to stay clear of this slippery slope.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123115402029453553.html#project%3DSLIDESHOW08%26s%3DSB123117403930054195%26articleTabs%3Darticle
Unemployment and a Family of Four: Revised
16 years ago
2 comments:
It is hard to list the stunning inaccuracies in your post, but I'll try:
1. Hamas is not a political party. It is a terrorist organization.
2. The only party that respected the truce was Israel. Hamas terrorists lobbed rockets into Israel all during the truce, just on an occasional basis.
3. The truce did not just "end." It expired by the passage of time. It could have been voluntarily continued into the future had both sides respected it. But that did not happen, at least on one side. Israel did in fact continue to respect the truce. Hamas did not.
3. The truce ended when Hamas immediately started to shoot rockets into Israel again on a full time basis with NO provocation from Israel.
4. The statement "Since then, Israel has attacked Gaza, who has responded with rockets" is a stunning use of elision to obfuscate the truth. Please get your facts right. Hamas attacked Israel and Israel responded.
5. "Hamas uses tall buildings as their launching sites and these buildings are filled with civilians. Schools and medical centers have been attacked." Are you kidding me? Seriously? Again, stunning lack of truth. Hamas uses schools and medical centers to launch rockets specifically BECAUSE they have innocent civilians in them. BECAUSE it knows that if Israel targets them, it is a useful propaganda tool (judging from your post, it has worked).
More importantly, it is not enough to justify Israeli defense of its country by mentioning the (literally) thousands of rockets Hamas has been pumping into every Israeli town with their range, expressly to massacre the defenseless. This, and this alone, necessitated decisive action. A government has a solemn duty to protect its people from gratuitous acts of violence. The Israeli government is unambiguously justified in taking whatever measures are necessary to make the rocketing stop. Hamas carries the entire moral responsibility for putting the people of Gaza in harm's way.
But we should not stop at justifying Israeli action. As their allies against a common enemy -- against Islamists who consider the West to be their ultimate target -- the US should be offering our help and encouragement for the completion of the stated Israeli task: the complete annihilation of the Hamas organization. For by no other means can peace be obtained across the Gaza frontier. An organization that persistently declares Israel has no right to exist, and persistently acts upon this premise, cannot be negotiated with. The Israelis have the material means to destroy Hamas, and therefore the moral imperative to do so.
The principles of just war and this war in particular are humanitarian. You don't "attrit" a cancer, then await its regrowth: you root out every speck of it. In the long run, the Germans were better off for the destruction of Nazism; and the Palestinians would be, for the destruction of Hamas. If they don't know this now, they will know it later. For those who cannot live peacefully with their neighbours must be stripped of the power to disturb them. The compulsion to live peacefully can then lead towards the habit of living peacefully.
Sara, other than Israel, name me any country who would be faulted for invading (with as much military force as is necessary) an entity that attacks without provocation innocent civilians living in a bordering country?
Word of the day = exacerbate (nice one)
What would you have Israel do? Let's say they cease attacking the Palestinian states, what then? Do you truly believe Hamas will stop themselves?
As for civilian casualties, Hamas has no say what so ever when it comes to complaining about civilian casualties. They put the rockets on the buildings and schools and hospitals, they can deal with the consequences. They made their choice, and now Israel is making them pay for it.
Very well done write up. Good information in a very logical form. Nice job!
-Van Der Bur
Post a Comment