Acts of war: Middle East on edge, smh.com.au
The situation in the Middle East is dire at the moment. In a blatant act of war, the real terrorists, the Israeli government, have arrested the democractically elected Hamas government, obviously using them as bargaining chips to release an 18-year-old, Israeli soldier. The army has crossed into Gaza, once again ignoring any sort of sovreignty Palestinians have over their own land and they’ve launced a bloody offensive.
Their actions are acts of state terrorism and the scale is far beyond anything any Palestinian terrorist could dream of. This outpost of US imperialism is doing this in an attempt to secure US interests in the region. The existence of Israel is an act of war and flies in the face of anyone interested in real peace in the region. This latest offensive is just another case of Israel upping the ante to maintain its control and it should be resisted.
politics, Israel, Palestine, Middle East, war, imperialism
Isn’t crossing a border and attacking a military post and kidnapping a soldier an act of war?
I’m trying to read blogs for both sides, but one side isn’t making much sense.
Which border would that be? Israel are occupying a lot more than Gaza. That whole land, from Syria to Egypt, belongs to the Palestinian people. The very existence of Israel is an act of war.
Mr Benjamin,
The existence of Australia is an act of war. Who does your country “belong” to? Who does the United States “belong” to?
Why must we respect the “sovereignty” of Palestine and totally disregard that of Israel and her seven million people? This is a country recognized by the U.N. in the 1948 accord alongside a Palestinian state even larger than her. Yet, the Arabs sought total war for total dominance, not freedom or democracy or even sovereignty?
Where must the citizens of Israel go? Recall, this is a democratically elected and highly liberal government that even allows for gay marriage, one of a few countries in the entire world. This is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East.
But no, we should turn all this over, even after they have spent half a century fighting just to remain in existence even after the immensity of the holocaust. We should turn this over for the doctrines of Hamas and other Islamist fundamentalist regimes that are a real threat to functional democracy, freedom and human rights? Okay…
Has anyone thought about Peace?
“Isn’t crossing a border and attacking a military post and kidnapping a soldier an act of war?”
No. It is a response, in this case to the continuation of an illegal military occupation, and the regular murder by the IDF of Palestinian civilians.
Now, it *is* an act of terrorism. No doubt about it. It is justified if you think Israeli actions and policies are justified. Otherwise, and this is my viewpoint, neither side’s atrocities are justified. What makes *no* sense is to say one sides’s actions (usually Israel’s) are justified, but the other side’s aren’t.
The important issue with this whole Shalit affair is collective punishment. Israel is using the abduction of Corporal Shalit as an excuse or justification to collectively punish the entire population of Gaza, by blowing up bridges and power stations, by attacking civilians targets like a school and a university campus and by using terror of civilians (eg. sonic booms) to try and force surrender. That is a war crime, but of course, unsurprisingly, the international community is too compromised by self-interest to do anything about it.
And launching Quassam rockets into populated areas to indiscriminantly maim, kill and terrorize any random set of people -is not- collective punishment in some form?
“Has anyone thought about Peace?”
Not those who kidnapped Cpl. Shalit.