After thousands of rockets and mortars landing in what virtually the entire world accepts as the sovereign and unoccupied State of Israel, Israel began a large-scale bombing operation of Gaza this weekend. This new fighting, focusing on military and governmental targets is almost certainly justifiable.
To quote President-elect Obama from an earlier visit to the often bombed Israeli town of Sderot, "If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
But justice alone is not necessarily a sufficient reason to go to war. Having the right to do something does not always make it the right thing to do. Those of us, who appreciate the justice of this action, should also be asking if this escalation is wise. And about that, I am not so sure. Having spoken to numerous Israeli friends and relatives in the past twenty four hours, I can report that the people of Israel are of many minds about the intensified war against Hamas in Gaza.
As one friend from Tel Aviv remarked, "there is no apparent exit strategy and little reason to believe that Israel will be so destructive as to make Hamas re-think its commitment to destroying Israel. This means that sooner or later the two sides will need to speak, and sooner is better than later." Is he wrong? It was the failure to recognize the elements of truth is my friend's observation which dragged Israel into decades of fruitless conflict in Lebanon.
But, as many more friends and family members commented,
"The equation needed to be changed - there needs to be a sufficient level of deterrence established so that hundreds of thousands of Israelis do not spend the next decade living in bomb shelters." They are certainly correct that no nation would tolerate the situation as it was. So what to do? How does a nation establish a reliable truce with people not only ideologically committed to their destruction, but actively perusing it?
Sitting at a distance, the readers of this blog have more options than those on the ground, on either side, in the Middle East. Of course, we can follow the usual path, mounting arguments for the rightness of our current interpretation of events and do battle in the press. Or, we can begin to ask ourselves the kinds of questions which people find hard to ask when physically threatened.
We can ask ourselves if justice is really being served in this war, and if it is, are we also acting wisely. We can ask about the appropriateness of any cause which demands the total destruction of its opponent. We can ask ourselves if we see any other possibilities than the ones being played out currently, and if not, why not? Those are the questions that are asked by people seeking peace and they are the ones we have the safety to ask, regardless of how we view current events in Gaza.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
Even if Hamas is destroyed in Gaza, there are still nations surrounding Israel, inimical to Israel, who will take up the cause of Death to Israel! I see all-out war.
But what is Israel to do? Take it all on the chin? I don't think so. Until the Arab nations are willing to accept the reality of Israel, it's going to be war, I'm afraid. We should most earnestly pray that G-d is with us!!
israelian hits schools and worship houses and normal people..5oo palastine killed 17% were children.......now obama tell your daughters they are so lucky
The Israeli - Gazan conflict has been going on for decades, since Yasser Arafat (whose father was a Gaza Palestinian) exhorted extermination of the Jews in Israel, tried to blow up water pipelines to Tel Aviv over 40 years ago, financed suicide bombers, engaged neighboring Arab states to invade Israel (and lost multiple times) and has left a legacy of constant attacks into Israel from Gaza.
This problem is two generations old, and is not about to disappear in the next 10 days, unless Israel, as well as Egypt and Iran and other Arab "brothers," allow the Gazan Palestinians to emigrate en masse to Iran.
But that solution must come internationally, behind the scenes. Obama himself can not suggest that solution -- it must be offered by the Arab "brotherhood." So Obama must be diplomatic in the interim.
Only when the Gazans have been absorbed into other Arab countries (where they can presumably live a peaceful life), will there be peace in the middle east and a new Palestinian state in the West Bank be able to be created.
Make no mistake about it -- trading land for peace means Gaza -- the Gazans must trade their land in order to the Palestinians to have a state in the West Bank.
Palestine is Palestinian. No one is the rightful owner of Palestian land other than the Palestinians. If we want to use the Bible as an authority, then the Palestinians are the seed of Abraham.
How ridiculous to confiscate the land and lives of others after 2000 years and claim it as legal. Israel is the illegal war state built on the blood and bones of the Palestinian people.
What is happening now in Gaza is a bloodbath. No one can justify the extermination of the Palestinian people. The Holocaust is no longer Jewish, it is Palestinian. More than 900 Palestinians have been slaughtered and thousands more have been injured. Whole familes have been wiped out.
Molten Lead is unjustified. The blood of the Palestinians will indelibly stain the hands of all who condone this massacre and partake in it.
Bottom line- destroy Hamas and get rid of Jewish Settlers stopping Israel and the Palestine from making peace.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.