Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Israel and the victory that never comes

Self-defense and exasperation are quickly turning into a massacre

The latest figures are speaking of 435 Palestinian dead in just over a week and, according to the BBC, today "at least 30 people were killed and 55 injured when Israeli artillery shells landed outside a United Nations-run school in Gaza".

So what exactly is this military victory Israel is looking for? The whole world concedes Jerusalem has a legitimate right to self-defense, but how far does the concept of self-defense stretch? Didn't they try the same many times before? How many dead will make Israel stop? Were the two thousands who lost their lives in Lebanon two and half years ago enough? How come a similar invasion/attack/self-defense didn't bring any peace?

And if killing civilians regardless in the name of ideology is what exposed Islamist fundamentalism to universal condemnation, how is the Olmert government acting any different now?

Because this is the most amazing story. The Israeli government is justifying every action by claiming that the new Hamas government brought it upon themselves, but it's not as if it was all peace'n'love before Hamas either. The human memory may be short, but Israel were constantly questioning Al Fatah and the PLO's legitimacy too.

For years now, Israel stayed true to Newton's third law of reciprocal actions. Every single bus that blew up in Tel Aviv was automatically met by equal or double retaliation. Unless I'm extremely naive, that didn't deliver much peace either. Could it be, just by chance, that bombs will always produce more enemies than they get rid of?

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