Gaza
The tanks are rolling in Gaza again, as the Israeli leadership indulges its penchant for collective punishment yet again. Gaza's only power station has been bombed, denying electricity to the entire strip, and water supplies appear to be hext on the Israeli hitlist. This, as pointed out by Terrorism News, is a war crime.
Israel's strategy is deliberate - they make Palistinian civilians suffer in the hope that they will turn over the terrorists who live among them, this is the reason that Israel has consistently used bombs, missiles and artillery to attack their targets in Palistinian territory. Civilian deaths can be dismissed as collateral damage, regretable but necessary. Terror being fought with terror on both sides. The people of Gaza are caught in between; if they act against the terrorist they face reprisals, if they don't then Israel considers them fair game.
A strategy like this doesn't work - there have been decades of collective punishment and assassination in Palestine and look at the result: the democratic election of a terrorist organisation. If you abuse a population it fights back. But still the heavy handed tactics continue. Look at the situation in Ireland. We know that in order to defeat terrorists whose beliefs, if not their methods, are supported by a large population is to deal with the underlying issues, to negotiate. Imagine if Britain had used Israeli tactics in Ireland.
It is so simple that it's hard to believe that the people in power do not know this. But the right-wing regime in Israel is propped up by the cycle of violence, just as Bush has been propped up by the war on terror, so on and on and on it will go.
Israel's strategy is deliberate - they make Palistinian civilians suffer in the hope that they will turn over the terrorists who live among them, this is the reason that Israel has consistently used bombs, missiles and artillery to attack their targets in Palistinian territory. Civilian deaths can be dismissed as collateral damage, regretable but necessary. Terror being fought with terror on both sides. The people of Gaza are caught in between; if they act against the terrorist they face reprisals, if they don't then Israel considers them fair game.
A strategy like this doesn't work - there have been decades of collective punishment and assassination in Palestine and look at the result: the democratic election of a terrorist organisation. If you abuse a population it fights back. But still the heavy handed tactics continue. Look at the situation in Ireland. We know that in order to defeat terrorists whose beliefs, if not their methods, are supported by a large population is to deal with the underlying issues, to negotiate. Imagine if Britain had used Israeli tactics in Ireland.
It is so simple that it's hard to believe that the people in power do not know this. But the right-wing regime in Israel is propped up by the cycle of violence, just as Bush has been propped up by the war on terror, so on and on and on it will go.
posted by Ben at 1:41 pm
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