Perspectives on Gaza

This being one of the most diverse blogs I’ve ever participated in, let alone read, I thought that I could start a lively discussion on people’s thoughts and perspectives regarding the recent Israeli incursions into the Gaza strip. This being one of the most explosive and politically charged issues of the day, I can imagine that there is a wide gamut of opinions on the matter, and I think that it is precisely the sort of issue that this blog was created to foster discussion about.

Recent news in the region indicates that Israel has continued to put real military pressure on the Gaza residents as well as the political leadership of Hamas:

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel launched rapid-fire air strikes against Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday after rebuffing a proposed ceasefire by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

Israel is threatening to expand its offensive unless militants release Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier abducted in a cross-border raid on June 25, and halt rocket fire on Israeli cities.

At least three militants were injured in an early morning air strike near the Karni commercial crossing, Palestinian medics and police said.

I’ve written my thoughts about the matter before, and I would say that my prevailing attitude- which is a cautious support for curbing militant actions in the region- remains the same. Though I am sympathetic to the real humanitarian problems with the incursion, I have to admit that the blame seems to fall squarely on Hamas, who, believing that Israel will be forced to cease putting pressure on Hamas due to the outcry over the humanitarian crisis fostered by their incursion. Hamas realizes that the more the Israeli action harms the civilian population, the more likely they are to be pressured by various international groups to cease their attempt to recapture their soldier- a conflict that is a mere pretense for the larger war between Hamas and Israel that has been brewing for some time.

At the same time, Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilian targets- namely, the power plant and the infrastructure for water and other desperately needed resources- seems both inadvisable and ethically problematic. Although such actions no doubt ratchet up the pressure on the Hamas government, they do so not while avoiding collateral damage but by causing it. The legitimacy of these targets is certainly in question, and in a region where the civilian population has already been forced to undergo so much hardship, it seems like this sort of action is precisely the kind of thing Israel should carefully avoid.

There is a real danger in analyzing this conflict to adopt a view that does not recognize the complexities and failings of both parties. Those of my own political persuasion often times refuse to look at the real injustices the Israelis have visited upon the Palestinian population, but often in respose, those of differing views come close to painting Hamas as saints- or at the very least, acknowledging their crimes not in any real, honest way, but as a disclaimer that attempts to justify unfair demonization of Israel. Both paths, I think, are clearly no representative of the actual situation and the complexities inherent in it, but also merely fuel in the fire, feeding the conflict rather than working toward a real solution.

I would very much like to hear the opinions of other bloggers on this site, and I hope that we can have a calm, civil, and rational discussion on the matter.

Curtis Schweitzer