A lot of writers and thinkers, much smarter and more educated than I, have written about this – so, I cannot help but feel that I am being redundant when I write what I am about to write.
Still, the vast majority of the mainstream media keep on presenting this issue in such glaringly prejudiced and prejudicial manner that I consider it morally necessary to add my voice.
My friend Elsa is doing an interview series during which she raises some less common, but immensely interesting questions. Like, what is the origin of one’s morality, how one arrived at what is right and wrong. It seems to me long ago now that the Western world – led by the USA – held as one of its core moral precepts that ‘one does not negotiate with terrorists’.
Obviously, we have lost our moral compass now, because negotiating with terrorists is now considered to be ‘the moral, balanced approach’!!!
Whether these be the terrorists in Afghanistan or Somalia or Gaza, our media and intellectual and political elites seem to take it for granted that refusing to negotiate with terrorists is immoral and evil and ‘war-mongering’. Am I the only one who finds this change in attitude appalling?
It is precisely because we give moral equivalence to violent thugs and terrorists, that we have empowered and legitimized these enemies of law and order and respect of human rights, that so much of our world is going up in flames. And, unless we change our course, and quickly, it will only get worse.
Oh sure – there are many oppressed peoples in the world. There are people living under military occupation, their rights and dignity stripped away at gunpoint. And yes, there is poverty and lack of opportunity and political oppression.
In all kinds of places.
And no, this is not fair or good, nor should we pretend that it is.
But, no amount of suffering, no amount of oppression, justifies terrorism!!!
How do I know?
I’ve lived it!!!
I grew up the daughter of a political dissident in country under a military occupation by foreigners. As such, I was socially shunned from fear that associating with me would lead to political oppression of those who dared not shun me. My prospects for secondary, much less post-secondary education were non-existent. I was singled out, publicly humiliated by political apartchicks because they could get away with it….let’s just say that growing up me was not all ‘butterflies and rainbows’.
Yet…
To claim that having grown up oppressed and/or under a foreign occupation somehow entitles a person to commit violence, to resort to terrorism, is a slap in the face to all of us decent human beings who have lived through it bu have never lost sight of our humanity!!!
So it is with Gaza.
Strictly and accurately speaking, Gaza is not an ‘Occupied territory’ – nor has it been for a long, long time. And when it was occupied, it was occupied by Egypt, not Israel.
Once the Israelis freed Gaza from its Egyptian occupation, it became a ‘disputed territory’ as several different groups claimed it as their own. This, however, came to an end in 2005 when Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, leaving it to self-govern.
That is right – the Israelis withdrew from Gaza in 2005. They loaded up all the Jewish settlers who lived there and moved them out, leaving their homes and functioning businesses behind – not asking for (much less receiving) anything from Gaza in return.
Yet, Israel still supplied electricity and clean water and all kinds of other things to Gaza, from food to medical supplies, plus, plus, plus.
And the ‘world community’ criticized Israel for ‘blockading Gaza’!!!
This is so patently wrong: Israel could never physically ‘blockade’ Gaza because Gaza has a border with Egypt – a border that Israel has no control over. Therefore, Israel could not possibly unilaterally place Gaza under a blockade!!! Egypt ALWAYS had the power to trade with Gaza, without any regard to what Israel may or may not have been doing.
It is not controversial to acknowledge that the people of Gaza are suffering. Of course they are!!!
But, it it incorrect to assert that Israel is the cause of this suffering.
Even as Gaza is in the middle of a war between the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas and Israel, it is NOT Israel who is causing the most civilian casualties in Gaza!!!
Many of the (Iran-originating) rockets that Hamas fires towards Israel are so poorly aimed, they land in Gaza itself – causing large-scale casualties.
Of course, some of the rockets do hit Israel – but hit targets like the power station that sends electricity to Gaza….
And – many of the rockets misfire – killing the civilians in the schools and hospitals from which Hamas had fired them. And, Hamas has repeatedly refused Israeli offers of humanitarian help in the form of medical aid to civilians caught in this war between the terrorist Hamas and the rest of civilization! They would rather see Palestinian civilians die than live – because the publicity of ‘dead Palestinians’ brings money to their coffers!!!
What ads insult to injury is that the Palestinian propaganda machine – something taken as unquestionable truth by much of the mainstream media – present Israeli victims of this was as ‘Palestinian casualties’!
I speak of none other than the Fogel family!!!
An Israeli Jewish family that was slaughtered by a ‘Palestinian patriot’ – including an infant, nursing at a mother’s breast!
The photos of this very Israeli family slaughtered by a Palestinian Muslim Arab terrorist have been published as photos of a Muslim Palestinian family slaughtered by Israel Defense Forces….
The words fail me….
This is so despicable – yet credulous people all over the world believe it and condemn the very people who were victimized – demanding they meet and negotiate as with equals with the perpetrators of this violence.
Sad – so sad…
I, for one, stand with Israel!!!!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 