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.
