Monday, December 29, 2008

War in Gaza

I have to say that this article by Iain Dale on the subject reads a bit like a press release from the Israeli embassy.

For example at one point Iain writes this:
The media seem to think these rockets are fairly harmless. They are not.
Well, no, they are fairly harmless, just look at the number fired compared to actual casualties and damage.
They are weapons of terror.
This on the other hand is bang on. They certainly are weapons of terror though by no means as terrifying as the weapons that the Israelis use.

Now lets get this clear, no matter what you think of the rockets, and how effective they are, it is clearly ridiculous to keep firing them, especially during a ceasefire. It is also clear that Israel can't actually sit on its arse and watch the fireworks. Mostly harmless rockets are not always harmless, they do kill and injure from time to time, even if it is more luck than judgement which has led them to the target.

Iain then goes on to say:
People blame Israel for the terrible state of living standards in the Gaza Strip. They are wrong. Hamas is to blame for keeping its people in abject poverty. Israel handed over the governmental administration of the Gaza Strip in 2005 to the Palestinian Authority.
Cobblers. Gaza is a large prison camp where the inmates may have complete control, but have no control over the borders* or airspace so they can't get the local economy going and sell produce to either Israel or the outside world.

The other point is that Israel is the author of its own troubles here. Iain says that Hamas is funded by Iran, which is true, but its major benefactor is much closer, in Israel. Israel helped Hamas in the early 1980's as a counter balance to Fatah and the PLO and since 2000 has relentlessly bombed Fatah and Palestinian Authority security infrastructure because it claimed that they were not doing enough to reign in Hamas. Well, since then Hamas have been able to take over, so well done Israel, you have helped Hamas yet again.

The Israelis are now doing roughly the same thing again, which is to bomb the security infrastructure. Civilians are dying which is wrong, but it seems at a rate of 1 civilian to 3 Hamas "security" people, so there is a bright side.

Iain also seems to confuse Hamas with the Lebanon's Hezbollah. Lets be clear, Hamas are no Hezbollah. They have not got the men, training, armament or fighting ability of Hezbollah.

It also has to be pointed out that whilst Israel's bombing in Gaza is disproportionate it is clear who started this. The word on the street in Gaza apparently is that the average Palestinian knows this also, which is clearly bad news for Hamas as they will become about as popular as a rattle snake in a lucky dip. They are also stopping the wounded being treated in Egypt, citing having to make up lists of the wounded! (I thought you just looked at someone, and if they had less than a full set of limbs and/or were bleeding profusely they were wounded and so should be sent for treatment). That will not play well either.

The BBC also has this.

*They do have control over the tunnels.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don'T you think there is a certain resemblance to the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto in WW2. The inmates had little hope and got no help from nearby possible allies.
The surrounding army was vastly stronger - yet the inmate rose up.

Anonymous said...

My question is, What do the Isrealis actually want with the Palestines.
The whole world , including Isreal, agrees it is occupying Palestine. yet it doesn't want to leave. But expects the Palestinians to keep talking peace till the end of time?
The united Nations says it is the right of every person to fight an occupying force, yet people expect the palestinians to just sit and not fight?

Let me tell you. At the end of the day, the people who are oppressed will have to be the ones to fight for their freedom. The palestinians will fight anyhow they see fit until Isreal and the United States are tired and give them their own state. These things take time, but they will achieve it. Look at southern Lebanon.

Look at my own country, Nigeria where the central government with the cornivance of the world major oil companies are basterdizing the land of the people where oil is being taken. And for many many years these people have been complaining and no one listened to them. But now that they have taken up arms to fight the government and the oil companies, that is when the government and oil companies are now talking about righting the wrongs.

This is so with people in other parts of the world. You have to fight for yourself. Waiting for United Nations will do you no good. They are all a bunch of hypocrites.

Hamas graduated from suicide bombing and are now building their own rockets. Who knows what next. It is only when Isreal feels very uncomfortable, that the real peace process or negotiation will begin.

By the way, the same thing happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany. When the Jews were being persecuted, the whole world watched. Nobody came to the aid of the Jews. It was when the world realized that Hitler wasn't going to stop at just the Jews, that they essentially decided to wage war against Germany.

Who would have thought That a people like the Jews who have suffered in the hands of Nazi Germany would now turn around and subject another people, the palestinians to the same persecution they suffered.

It is a pity.

This tells you the kind of people they are.

Anonymous said...

Radical Islam is an extension of Nazi Germany seeking a final solution to the Jewish problem, and accomplishing what Hitler failed to do.
Then it was 'Europe Judenrein' and at present is 'Israel Judenrein', Here is the missing link.
The initial contacts between radical Islam (then the Muslim Brotherhood) and Naziism were established in the early 1940's between Haj Amin Al-Husseini during a visit in Berlin with Hitler,Ribbentrop, Himmler, Goebbels, and Eichmman. Al-Husseini became Hitlers voice to the Arabs in regular pro-German propaganda broadcasts. At the end of the war Haj Amin Al-Husseini was wantd for war crimes to stand trial at the Nuremberg trials. Escaping indictment at Nuremberg and finding refuge in Cairo, Egypt, Haj Amin Al-Husseini became a mentor and a role model to a distant cousine, Yasser Arafat, who regaled in Al-Husseini's stories of the fuhrer and Nazi Germany, and young Yasser embraced the the vision of 'Judenrein Palestine'. From then on, there is continuous and uninterupted line of Islamo-Fascists and Radical Muslim movements and countries commited to anihilating Israel and killing Jews all over the world.
It is time to put an end to WWII, and recognize radical Islam for what it is, and deal with accordingly.

NoSpinNoPC said...

salihu, wake up!!!
IslamoNazis have been killing Jews well before the establishment of the state of Israel. Bosnian Muslim Waffen-SS and the notorious"Handscher troopers" slaughtered>12,500 Jews in Bosnia, in 1944 (no Israel at that time, was there?) Haj Amine Al-Husseni, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood recruited them in 1943-44 to serve the Nazis. And what about hundreds of Jews killed in Palestine in April of 1920 by rioting Muslims celebrating Nebi Mussa, and then again in 1928 and 1929, and in 1936-1938.
Wakeup!! Open your eyes to the truth! Islam is a backwards religio-political movement, with a fascist ideology of conquest and forced conversions. The last contribution to civilization by Muslims was back in the 14-15th century, and the most frequently reprinted secular book in Muslim countries in the past 500 years is Mein Kampf.

Benedict White said...

Anonymous and Nospinpc.

You are both full of something and alas it is not historical understanding.

Yitzak Shamir and others in his gang also met with senior Nazi figures.

As for the riots mentioned by nospinpc, the interesting thing about them is:

The Shia of Southern Lebanon/Northern Palestine (Now Hezbollah, Amal etc) sheltered Jews in their homes.

The other thing to point out is that by that time there was some immigration to the Palestinian mandate with the express intent of creating a Jewish state which would displace the existing inhabitents.