You share many valid thoughts and observations but I feel the need to call you out on a key one where this (pro Israeli) reader feels you misrepresent: Immediately following the genocidal belief based massacre by Hamas Israel did indeed decide to block the flow of goods and services into Gaza coming through crossings and channels it controlled. Since the Rafah crossing is an undeniable fact and it, along with many kilometers of borders leads to Egypt, you cannot however talk of a blockade and allude to genocidal motives.
Israel simply decided that “enough was enough” - despite years of upon year of rocket attacks and cross border raids from Gaza into Israel, Israel had continued to supply many of the the goods and services that Gazans (who strongly support those same Hamas militants carrying out those attacks) relied on for their day to day existence. Gazans crossed into Israel to work, to shop, to receive medical care. I for one fully supported Israel’s decision then to make the point that you “don’t bite the hand that feeds you” and make Gaza Egypt’s problem (aka “Let’s see how they like that”). You can argue that this was cold hearted, cynical, cruel even (note: war is all of that - welcome to the result of your actions Hamas & co.) but not genocidal, nor borderline so.
A fair and balanced summation of the situation. I have a friend living in Israel who has an underground bunker with half a metre of steel and concrete protecting him and his family. He says they have endured years of spasmodic rocket attacks - some day several and close by. He claims Israel plays down the casualties and damage done by these attacks to convince Hamas they are not worth the cost.
Have you considered going back prior to 1948 and the partition looking at what is enmity that has endured for hundreds, even thousands of years? It is difficult to find any basis for optimism and a permanent solution.
Lets start with the premise that there are many good people in both Israel and Palestine/Gaza.
Then look at the politics.
Its the politics that caused this conflict.
While I disagree with some of the detail of your descriptions. The trend of your writing seems to be appropriate. On one point I don't agree however is with your reference/ belief in Qanta Ahmed.
First you say she is a Muslim as tho validating her opinion. She in fact stopped practicing as a Muslim in 2011 and has been an Israeli supporter for many years.(Check her Wikipedia).
Qanta says in the referenced piece
I Saw the Children Hamas Beheaded With My Own Eyes
This is blatantly untrue and pure headline theatrics. Even the Israeli s admit that no Babies were beheaded, Qanta says she arrive a few days after October 7th. So again the headline is provably incorrect.
Another point for clarification that most if not all main stream media miss is: that while HAMAS appears to be the organiser of the Attack, they were not the only participants. From Palestinian Jihad to various rogue groups the 1500-2000 (estimated) attackers were not all HAMAS. Some reports say that HAMAS were a trained military group in uniforms with a military code of conduct. Not true of the other participants.
Also you say it was an anti sematic attack. Firstly HAMAS is ant Zionist not Anti Semitic.
The HAMAS primary objectives were military, they destroyed a number of military and police positions. I have no idea who(which group) were responsible for the shootings at the festival and the other reported atrocities. Keeping in mind that a number of fatalities were caused by IDF responses.
Having been in a war zone. I can understand friendly fire incidents.
The timing and scale of the attack was a terrorist attempt to involve the world in the Palestinian situation. Not Simply an anti Semtic raid as you infer.
Trumps Abrahamt accords were close to getting Israel and Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to sign up to ""peace"" normalization agreements with Israel. Those acts would have buried the Palestinian cause.
Some large and dramatic action (and its predictable Netanyahu response) was required to bring the Palestinian problem in to world focus.
This has happened and the humanitarian disaster has resulted.
Going back to my first point.
Its the average Israeli and Palestinian who suffer while sadly politicians ""play power games""
Lucy Rogers has fallen far too far down the rabbit hole of postmodern guff, using phrases like “Terrorism recontextualised”,” It should inform our willingness to believe” and “Bias is polarising the discourse”.
I suppose that’s the defence lawyer speaking, trying to build a case acceptable to the court. But this is all mirrors looking at mirrors looking at mirrors trying to look at reality and all through a very thick fog of war. This is not an attempt to find baseline reality.
The situation is obviously bigger than just Gaza and is enormously complex. Perceptions, cultures and narratives do affect human actions, but they don’t MAKE reality.
What happens when an immovable object meets an irresistible force?
Well obviously, either the object will move, or the force will be resisted. Just because they are called “immovable” and “irresistible” doesn’t make them so, that will be determined by reality not by names. This also applies to names such as “Democracy” “Rights” and “Genocide”.
Getting back to the matter at hand, for at least the last 50 years, Israel has based its defence on a strategy of being the pre-eminent military force in the region, having enough power to defeat any possible combination of actual or potential enemies. All backed up and underwritten by the superior position of the American military-industrial complex.
This can’t possibly last.
It is already slipping away, like a certain conjunction of planets in the solar system, together for a brief time but now spinning away through space.
If Israel is to survive (and I’m totally agnostic on this point, I don’t believe I’m under any obligation at all, political, moral or spiritual to support Israel and a “Nation’s Right to Exist” is pure fiction) then it will need a totally new strategy.
One last point, scripture tells us,
“When a man’s ways please the LORD he will cause even his enemies to be at peace with him”
Proverbs 16:7
It’s a good piece and works even if you don’t believe that things are sorted out by an Abrahamic deity but only by the natural laws of the universe.
It also implies, by the transitive property, that if your enemies are NOT at peace with you (for example by fighting over the same patch of dusty ground for the last 75 years) then your ways have NOT pleased the Lord.
Ok, that's a helpful analysis of views expressed in the local scene; but will you commit yourself to any specific viewpoint? Can you show any firm convictions?
You share many valid thoughts and observations but I feel the need to call you out on a key one where this (pro Israeli) reader feels you misrepresent: Immediately following the genocidal belief based massacre by Hamas Israel did indeed decide to block the flow of goods and services into Gaza coming through crossings and channels it controlled. Since the Rafah crossing is an undeniable fact and it, along with many kilometers of borders leads to Egypt, you cannot however talk of a blockade and allude to genocidal motives.
Israel simply decided that “enough was enough” - despite years of upon year of rocket attacks and cross border raids from Gaza into Israel, Israel had continued to supply many of the the goods and services that Gazans (who strongly support those same Hamas militants carrying out those attacks) relied on for their day to day existence. Gazans crossed into Israel to work, to shop, to receive medical care. I for one fully supported Israel’s decision then to make the point that you “don’t bite the hand that feeds you” and make Gaza Egypt’s problem (aka “Let’s see how they like that”). You can argue that this was cold hearted, cynical, cruel even (note: war is all of that - welcome to the result of your actions Hamas & co.) but not genocidal, nor borderline so.
A fair and balanced summation of the situation. I have a friend living in Israel who has an underground bunker with half a metre of steel and concrete protecting him and his family. He says they have endured years of spasmodic rocket attacks - some day several and close by. He claims Israel plays down the casualties and damage done by these attacks to convince Hamas they are not worth the cost.
Have you considered going back prior to 1948 and the partition looking at what is enmity that has endured for hundreds, even thousands of years? It is difficult to find any basis for optimism and a permanent solution.
Lets start with the premise that there are many good people in both Israel and Palestine/Gaza.
Then look at the politics.
Its the politics that caused this conflict.
While I disagree with some of the detail of your descriptions. The trend of your writing seems to be appropriate. On one point I don't agree however is with your reference/ belief in Qanta Ahmed.
First you say she is a Muslim as tho validating her opinion. She in fact stopped practicing as a Muslim in 2011 and has been an Israeli supporter for many years.(Check her Wikipedia).
Qanta says in the referenced piece
I Saw the Children Hamas Beheaded With My Own Eyes
This is blatantly untrue and pure headline theatrics. Even the Israeli s admit that no Babies were beheaded, Qanta says she arrive a few days after October 7th. So again the headline is provably incorrect.
Another point for clarification that most if not all main stream media miss is: that while HAMAS appears to be the organiser of the Attack, they were not the only participants. From Palestinian Jihad to various rogue groups the 1500-2000 (estimated) attackers were not all HAMAS. Some reports say that HAMAS were a trained military group in uniforms with a military code of conduct. Not true of the other participants.
Also you say it was an anti sematic attack. Firstly HAMAS is ant Zionist not Anti Semitic.
The HAMAS primary objectives were military, they destroyed a number of military and police positions. I have no idea who(which group) were responsible for the shootings at the festival and the other reported atrocities. Keeping in mind that a number of fatalities were caused by IDF responses.
Having been in a war zone. I can understand friendly fire incidents.
The timing and scale of the attack was a terrorist attempt to involve the world in the Palestinian situation. Not Simply an anti Semtic raid as you infer.
Trumps Abrahamt accords were close to getting Israel and Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to sign up to ""peace"" normalization agreements with Israel. Those acts would have buried the Palestinian cause.
Some large and dramatic action (and its predictable Netanyahu response) was required to bring the Palestinian problem in to world focus.
This has happened and the humanitarian disaster has resulted.
Going back to my first point.
Its the average Israeli and Palestinian who suffer while sadly politicians ""play power games""
Lucy Rogers has fallen far too far down the rabbit hole of postmodern guff, using phrases like “Terrorism recontextualised”,” It should inform our willingness to believe” and “Bias is polarising the discourse”.
I suppose that’s the defence lawyer speaking, trying to build a case acceptable to the court. But this is all mirrors looking at mirrors looking at mirrors trying to look at reality and all through a very thick fog of war. This is not an attempt to find baseline reality.
The situation is obviously bigger than just Gaza and is enormously complex. Perceptions, cultures and narratives do affect human actions, but they don’t MAKE reality.
What happens when an immovable object meets an irresistible force?
Well obviously, either the object will move, or the force will be resisted. Just because they are called “immovable” and “irresistible” doesn’t make them so, that will be determined by reality not by names. This also applies to names such as “Democracy” “Rights” and “Genocide”.
Getting back to the matter at hand, for at least the last 50 years, Israel has based its defence on a strategy of being the pre-eminent military force in the region, having enough power to defeat any possible combination of actual or potential enemies. All backed up and underwritten by the superior position of the American military-industrial complex.
This can’t possibly last.
It is already slipping away, like a certain conjunction of planets in the solar system, together for a brief time but now spinning away through space.
If Israel is to survive (and I’m totally agnostic on this point, I don’t believe I’m under any obligation at all, political, moral or spiritual to support Israel and a “Nation’s Right to Exist” is pure fiction) then it will need a totally new strategy.
One last point, scripture tells us,
“When a man’s ways please the LORD he will cause even his enemies to be at peace with him”
Proverbs 16:7
It’s a good piece and works even if you don’t believe that things are sorted out by an Abrahamic deity but only by the natural laws of the universe.
It also implies, by the transitive property, that if your enemies are NOT at peace with you (for example by fighting over the same patch of dusty ground for the last 75 years) then your ways have NOT pleased the Lord.
Ironic, no?
Ok, that's a helpful analysis of views expressed in the local scene; but will you commit yourself to any specific viewpoint? Can you show any firm convictions?