Israel in Gaza II: The Uncomfortable Truths On Both Sides.

This loosely continues my previous post, in which my position was though I hate Israel’s current brutal campaign in Gaza, I understand it, and I would not take part in the protest marches held on Saturday.

 

Look at how complex this current Gaza campaign is, wrapped in polemic and self-fulfilling deception.

As ever, sorry to all bloggers below for appearing in my blog, but I believe in credit where credit is due. So it’s academic rigour, I’m not suggesting you agree with me on anything.

 

To the Discomfiture of the Pro-Israeli Camp.

 

There are some valid doubts cast on the Israeli viewpoint, or rather, justification, of this Gaza campaign in this  Nation article (hat-tip Giovanni Tiso) debunking five assumptions being wheeled out by the Pro-Israeli camp. It’s well worth a read, and though I could debunk some elements of the debunking, some of the points certainly stand, such as was the current campaign instigated by Hamas rockets: probably not.

 

The current campaign was in fact most likely based in Israel’s demand for revenge over the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens several months ago, the blame for which was put on Hamas. Only, uncomfortably, it is now proven the teenagers were not taken in any sort of Hamas plot. (hat-tip Carrie Stoddart-Smith)

 

Add to this that the anger of those existing in Gaza is justified on the level that their living conditions are appalling. I don’t agree with the view that Israeli policy for Gaza is essentially apartheid, rather, I prefer the view I have seen tweeted by Morgan Godfrey, it is more akin to the reservation system which has destroyed the lives of Native Americans. You can easily enough Google Gaza living conditions to prove this for yourselves, some of which are summarised well enough by Laurie Penny in this piece.

 

Unfortunately, however, it’s more complicated than this.

 

To the Dsicomfiture of the Pro-Palestinian Camp.

 

Blogger Whaleoil has an interesting Youtube clip up this morning. Not going back at all on my previous post where I stated my welcoming of multiculturalism, and open immigration, including – to the commenter in that post who states I don’t understand anything – for moderate Muslims, it is yet true that unfortunately it’s the radicals that set the agenda and the action. Not just in Islam. Obviously the majority of Germans in the 1930’s were good people, but it was the radical Nazis who set the agenda which ended up in sixty million murders. The majority of the Russian people were good people, but it was the Communists who set the agenda of bloodbath, purge, and the destruction completely of an individual’s freedom. Just as the majority of Muslims in America are good people, however, it only took seventeen radicals on 9/11 to change the course of that country forever.

 

So, the moderate majority is essentially irrelevant. To that, in relation to Gaza, I say yes and no, because the moderate majority of Palestinians are problematic in that via democratic elections in 2006, the majority voted in a radical Hamas government, giving them 76 out of 132 seats. Yes, that still leaves an awful lot of Palestinians who didn’t vote for them, but the message sent to the radical Zionists, was that moderate Islam in Palestine was something worse than irrelevant for it had voted for Hamas violence justified by a barbaric mysticism, not peaceful, reasoned  negotiation to better the lot of their intolerable lives.

 

Even in this current escalation - and while writing this those bastard Hamas have just chosen to start firing rockets into Tel Aviv again to end the twelve hour truce, despite Israel offering a 24 hour extension and still holding their fire - I can find link after link to stories slating the Israelis, but can someone provide a link to a single article written by a moderate Muslim living in Gaza that is also asking their own Hamas to stop firing rockets so their children won’t be massacred as they are now, and a peaceful interim solution found? A single link please?

 

I suspect you’ll have as much luck as I would finding a link to a piece written by a Zionist in Israel asking their government to stop the illegal settlements, and to use resources to improve the lot of the people living in Gaza. Because the radicals set the agenda on both sides of this debate.

 

And so to summarise, in a world where reason ruled, and individual human lives were respected, Israel would use some of its US$3 billion aide from US to build infrastructure in Gaza to create cooperation, friendship and peace, rather than hatred and war. In that same perfect world, Hamas would use the money it has to buy weaponry, to build that infrastructure also. The Israelis and Palestinians are as far from that perfect world, as we are in the West from the free society, for as I mentioned in passing in my last post there is a solution, that being societies formed around constitutional republics in the form of minarchies, based on a humanist ethic (not barbaric mystical nonsense), and where the primary role of a meagre sized state is to protect its smallest minority: an individual. To protect that individual’s right to do and say whatever the hell they want, so long as they harm no other. To protect that individual particularly from the machinations and bureaucratic collectivism of out-of-control (welfare) tax surveillance states. Problem is the chances of such civilised free and prosperous capitalist societies being formed when God, Allah, or Marx and any variation of politics based on identity is involved, is absolute zero. Never, as in ever.

 

That’s also why you will never see me on such a protest march.