Israel, Hama and Gaza – oh my!
I have been wanting to write this for a few days now and for various reasons have not been able to. Now I am, so here it comes.
I have been bombarded with news of protests, demands, marches and talk over the last few weeks. A lot had to do with the recent killing of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer on New Years. But just as much has had to do with the escalation of violence in the middle. That violence is the military push by Israel into Gaza against the terrorist Hamas organization.
A bulk of the chatter surrounding these protests, demands and the what not has centered on Israel and how inhumane and out of place people believe their military advances to be. To that I cannot help but wonder how anyone sees that? Hamas has been bombing Israel for entirely too long (more than once is entirely too long in my opinion) and Israel has shown great restraint in asking, peacefully and diplomatically, for Hamas to stop that crap. Hamas chose not to heed Israeli requests and Israel was put into a position to defend itself.
Why would anyone tell a country not to defend itself? Yes, I know that advancing on Gaza seems like an attack against Palestine. But is there some chance that Palestine has been in concert with Hamas? News reports wouls suggest that. And not only has Hamas established themselves in Gaza, they have also continued to barage of bombings on Israel throughout the Israeli advancement. Country after country, person after person, voice after voice is calling upon Israel to stop the violence, yet it seems as though no one is holding Hamas or Palestine responsible for what has taken place. Except Israel. They are holding Hamas and Palestine responsible. Yet no one sees the Israeli side of it.
Why would a country that has been attacked in military fashion to want to open a can of whoop ass on the folks doing the attacking? Wouldn't you? If someone was throwing rocks at you would you not defend yourself from that until the throwing stopped? That is what Israel is doing. Yet people are holding Israel in contempt for their defending of their country.
I am not usually one to take sides in foreign affairs. Seriously, that is something that, to be honest, I feel is best settled by those in the heat of it. But as my airwaves are being held hostage by folks right here in the Bay Area marching in protest and placing demands on the US state department to get involved in favor of Gaza, I can't help but look closer at this. And I gotta say, unless I am not seeing the entirety of this situation (which there is a likelihood of) then I cannot see how Israel should be told to stop attempting to squash the attacks being levied upon them.
Am I wrong for thinking this way?
