What You Don’t Know About Gaza

It came to a surprise to me that my earlier post didn't get the positive response that I hoped for. Well I guess we all look at things differently. You from one angle and I, from another. Maybe we don't see eye to eye on certain issues but let us argue on the basis of facts. Let me clarify that I am not anti-Semitic, I am only an ordinary person who advocates the notion that every human should be treated with respect especially if they are mere civillians.

1st comment:

"Where was this cartoonist's outrage when for years the Israelis were being
bombed by Hamas?Palestinians have been known to never miss an opportunity to
miss an opportunity. Looks like they've missed yet another. If they're
serious
about wanting peace, they should sack Hamas and their terrorist ways
and begin
real negotiations."

2nd comment:

"You can't reason with idiots. Israel has gained nothing by allowing the wild
asses to have their own land. Hamas won't rest until Israel is gone. What would
a reasonable person do if he is constantly under bombardment by meat heads that
want nothing but his destruction The only peaceful Hamas is a dead Hamas. The
person who allows innocents into a place where he is firing rockets from, is the
killer of the innocent. Wake up stupid Americans. BTW I'm not Jewish."

3rd comment:

"The State of Israel was created by the United Nations in 1948. It is a
legitimate sovereign state. And as a state it has the right to defend itself.
Hamas was firing rockets at innocent Israeli civilians, so after plenty of
warning that Hamas had to stop the attacks, Israel was finally forced into this
defensive action.And to those who maintain that diplomacy had failed so Hamas
had no choice but to carry out these unprovoked attacks, you are dead wrong.
Israel has been in negotiations for years, and has made peace with both Egypt
and Jordan. But Hamas in it's charter calls for the utter destruction of Israel.
If Hamas had it's way it would murder each and every Israeli. So how can Israel
negotiate with a terrorist organization that wants to destroy it?If Hamas would
only stop the rocket attacks and acknowledge Israel's right to exist, then there
could be peace.The blood from the civilian casualties in Gaza is on the hands of
Hamas, not Israel."

Here are a few facts taken from the New York Times itself. I think it's quite a legitimate source to support my stand in the previous post.

What You Don’t Know About Gaza

By RASHID KHALIDI
Published: January 7, 2009

NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.

THE GAZANS Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948.

THE OCCUPATION The Gazans have lived under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel is still widely considered to be an occupying power, even though it removed its troops and settlers from the strip in 2005. Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out. Israel has control over Gaza’s air space and sea coast, and its forces enter the area at will. As the occupying power, Israel has the responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to see to the welfare of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.

THE BLOCKADE Israel’s blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation.

The blockade has subjected many to unemployment, penury and malnutrition. This amounts to the collective punishment — with the tacit support of the United States — of a civilian population for exercising its democratic rights.

THE CEASE-FIRE Lifting the blockade, along with a cessation of rocket fire, was one of the key terms of the June cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. This accord led to a reduction in rockets fired from Gaza from hundreds in May and June to a total of less than 20 in the subsequent four months (according to Israeli government figures). The cease-fire broke down when Israeli forces launched major air and ground attacks in early November; six Hamas operatives were reported killed.

WAR CRIMES The targeting of civilians, whether by Hamas or by Israel, is potentially a war crime. Every human life is precious. But the numbers speak for themselves: Nearly 700 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since the conflict broke out at the end of last year. In contrast, there have been around a dozen Israelis killed, many of them soldiers. Negotiation is a much more effective way to deal with rockets and other forms of violence. This might have been able to happen had Israel fulfilled the terms of the June cease-fire and lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip.

This war on the people of Gaza isn’t really about rockets. Nor is it about “restoring Israel’s deterrence,” as the Israeli press might have you believe. Far more revealing are the words of Moshe Yaalon, then the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, in 2002: “The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.”

Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia, is the author of the forthcoming “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East."