The crisis on the Gaza strip January 2009

Lets go back to basics with a little bit of history and as you know even that is interpreted in a different light depending on the angle you come from.

Palestine was the land of the Palestinians, before Jewish immigrants arrived and gradually bought property in Palestine, first through legitimate means and later by coercion, and still later by devious and surreptitious means before the Palestinians who previously welcomed these people realized what was happening around them. Finally in 1948, the immigrants set up the state of Israel and those Palestinians who refused to live as second-class citizens in the Jewish state had no option but to live as immigrants in Jordan, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip. This strip is a barren tiny space less than half the size of Manhattan Island in New York.

The Palestinian leadership since 1948 ingrained on the refugees that they would one day return to their homes, which were now in the state of Israel. So when a democratically elected government, lead by the militant Hamas party pledging the eventual destruction of the state of Israel came into power it seemed that Israel had a sworn enemy on its borders.

To cut a long story short, the hardcore Hamas militants, have kept up a barrage of rockets to Israel, usually of low intensity and strength, but latterly with a longer range. The ammunition, has been smuggled through porous borders with Egypt. Israel using the policy of maximum force has decided to target Hamas, and bomb from the air, from land and from sea using the latest technology, bought and given by the US and some developed by Israel.  

While Iran and some Arab states or individuals, support Hamas with money and equipment, the US supplies Israel. So there is a proxy war going on where the Arabs can only see the US pounding the hapless Palestinians!!

It is therefore a US problem as they are the only friends in the world Israel has, and as they have this feeling of being surrounded by enemies, they are carrying out what their electorate believes is the only way to go. Remember there is an election in Israel in the offing. Palestinian deaths will only increase the electoral assets of the perpetrator. This is the background of the crisis.

This is one area the UN has been impotent in, as all UN resolutions have been ignored by Israel, and as they have a veto power in the form of the US to defend their interests they act with impunity in ignoring all resolutions.

The innocent Palestinians are the most affected as there will be a further 1000+ deaths of innocents and they are still refugees in their own land, and if one goes to Gaza, you will realize it is the last place on earth you can convince anyone to live in as their home. In short this largest refugee camp on earth will remain like this until something more acceptable is made available. 

With so many Jewish people both in Israel and the US believe it is a god given right that Israel is the land of the Jews, in essence Zionism, this is not accepted by the rest of the world. Let me also put my two cents into this argument. Any God will never allow any country to be taken over in his name. So no one has a right to a country by way of religion. Over the years people have settled all over the world and once borders were closed and passports issued post 1900 one was hemmed in and only permitted to enter anyone else’s country through the laws of the acceptor.

There is no possibility of a solution to this crisis until an acceptable solution is given to the Palestinian people to live in dignity in their homeland, however that is defined. In fact an impartial observer will say it is Israel that has to give more land concessions than the beleaguered Palestinians. They need contiguous land, airports, sea-ports and infrastructure to be a state. Nothing short of a return to the 1967 borders will allow this to happen. The world will have a Mideast Crisis till this is achieved. No one other than the innocent Palestinian people are really affected, so this will not be done as they just don’t have the political capital from anywhere for that objective.

It therefore takes a statesman with a lot of guts to solve this crisis once and for all, and at present I do not see one on the horizon. President Obama is the only one with the moral authority to do something, but his utterances and obeiscense to the Jewish lobby who helped him financially to get elected are anything by supportive of the Zionist cause. He can of course take a volte face in the interests of world peace and take a stand and impose a settlement. 

The Palestinians have been let down by their own leaders pursuing personal agendas, UN playing international games, and by Israel playing big bully, using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Only God can help them, so help them.