Gaza: Let’s Get Some Context Here

Israel has admitted it broke the ceasefire and has been planning this for months.  

They were afraid the change of government in the US may constrain their actions so timed the attack to occur in the final days of Bush’s tenure.

 The UN says around 40+% of the dead and wounded are women and children. Since almost half of the population of Gaza is under 15 years old, this isn’t difficult to imagine and I’m surprised it’s not higher.

The Palestinians were there long before the State of Israel was declared. Most Israeli families have arrived in the last 100 years. Israel has taken the Palestinians land, water and livelihoods – all without recompense -and finally penned 1.5 million of them in a patch of land 8 x 25 miles, built a wall around them and for the last 18 months has locked them in there and deliberately denied them access to sufficient food, fuel and medical supplies. By refusing passage for Palestinian goods the whole economy has collapsed as the farmers couldn’t get the supplies they needed to grow the crops in and couldn’t get the produce out.  Prior to the attack by Israel, 80% of the people relied on UN food aid.

Remember, this happened in the 18 months prior to the attack by Israel.

 Hamas is the democratically elected government of the Gaza Strip. The election was clean according to international observers.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/hamas-shocks-world-with-clear-victory-524607.html

Palestinians are predominantly Muslim but are also Christians and Jews.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Jew  This has very little to do with religion and a lot to do with a land grab.  The initial reasons were sound, after all Jews have been on the receiving end of a lot of violence for thousands of years.  The problem is that this desire for security at all costs has disenfranchised and imperilled the people who were actually living on the land prior to the declaration of the State of Israel. 

Palestinians are Semites too.  What is actually being claimed is anti-Zionism.  There are more than enough Jews around who don’t support the Israeli approach.  There are also some orthodox Jews who don’t support Israel.

Whenever you read Israeli justifications, remember this post and ask yourself if their claims sound realistic.