It is no secret that the people of Israel and the people of Palestine have lived with tension, terror, violence and hate for decades. Israel has occupied the land known as Palestine for decades, and for decades the UN and international community have called the occupation illegal, and have called for some sort of negotiated settlement for peace and self-determination for all sides.
One of the wisest things that I’ve read about the Israel-Palestinian conflict was that there are actually four warring sides in this struggle: 1) Palestinians who want freedom; 2) Palestinians who want to destroy Israel; 3) Israelis who want to protect themselves; 4) Israelis who want to destroy the Palestinians (and one can almost never tell which side is committing the violence and for what reason). And of course, there is always the final side in any conflict, the civilians who will never raise a pistol or drop a bomb, who long for peace, justice and dignity, but may find themselves in the crosshairs just the same. Everyone’s blood is spilled, and the graveyards fill with the innocent and the guilty alike.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become a perpetual cycle of attacks and revenge. You will read a news story about a raid or a bombing attack by one side, who say that they did so because of a recent attack by the other side. And the other side will then say that their attack was because of an even earlier attack by the first side. And this goes back and back and back.
But we are not saying that everyone is equal. As we mentioned, the Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal, oppressive, violent, and horrible. In addition, while acts of Palestinian terrorism are terrible, they do not even come close to the frequency or destructive power of Israel. For example, Palestinian militants sporadically fire rockets into southern Israel. In the past 8 years, these rockets have killed 18 Israelis. In the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, more than 300 Palestinians have been killed in 3 days.
In addition to that, Israel has placed a ruthless economic blockade on Gaza since June of 2007 that has taken a terrible toll on the lives of everyday people living there. This blockade was further tightened in November 2008, and now Israel is blowing up police stations, universities, and government agencies in Gaza.
And Americans should take special notice of this violence: Israel receives billions of dollars in US aid every year, and uses much of that money to buy American weapons, which it then uses in its attacks on the Palestinians.
But Americans are not ignoring this crisis. We have already seen major protests in New York, and San Francisco, and many protests are planned for the near future.
What can you do about this situation?
- Amnesty International is urging people to write to Condoleezza Rice and tell her to use her power to put pressure on Israel. Click here.
- United for Peace & Justice lists a number of ways to take action here.
- The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation lists a number of the emergency protests calling for an end to the recent violence here.
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a few things on this article. briefly and most importantly, Israel, like all other countries has the right to defend itself. in paragraph four of this article it is stated “In the past 8 years, these rockets have killed 18 Israelis. In the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, more than 300 Palestinians have been killed in 3 days”. if you know anything about this conflict it should be that the rockets fired by israelis are responding to rockets fired AT israelis. and just because israel is better at hitting their targets does not mean they are evil.and just because palestinians are unable to hit their targets doesnt make their intentions (to kill innocent israelis) less evil. how many times has israel offered peace talks which were refused by yasir arafat? how many cease fires were broken by palestinian TERRORISTS (not militants).
another comment i have is that israel is not just bombing universities for fun. when hamas roots itself inbetween a hospital and a childrens school or university and fires rockets into israel, shouldnt we consider them to be the evil ones? not only are they bringing the violence to the civilians, but they are fully aware that when israel fights back (which again is well within their right) it will appear to the media that they are firing at the hospitals and schools. please do not be ignorant.
It’s not important who is right or wrong in this conflict, all that’s important is that the perpetual cycle of hatred is ended, Killing is killing and all its going to lead to is more killing.
This article wasn’t even meant to talk about the war. Actually, it was, but that isn’t the main focus of this story. The main focus is the blockade on Gaza, causing the deaths of thousands of innocent people, and the United States government basically funding this heinous operation by giving them tons of money, only to have it given right back in exchange for American weapons.. Which is what gives them the power/ability to keep going.
I have to say I agree with both sides on this.
Isreal has the right to defend itself, no doubt, and I don’t think that they should be blamed for having better aim, but tons of innocent people are dieing in Gaza from this, and the economic blockade on Gaza that America is supporting is terrible.
Make akward sexual advances, not war.
@dakant
How is israel defending itself when the ratio of israelis to palestinians killed is 1:7 (so you do not twist my words, that means israel kills more, about 1,000 israelis killed to 7,000 palestinians killed)
What gives you the right to decide who is or isnt a “terrorsit.” Before you call people ignorant, please do correct research.
Have you heard the quote:
“Terrorism is the war of the poor, while war is the terrorism of the rich.”
Just leave it up to the zionist media to twist peoples perspective on the issue and make the palestinian people the bad guys.
How about when israel did not let the red cross help palestinian children? explain that please. This was stated by the head of the red cross, so do not give me any crap about it being a lie. How dirty of israel. They did not even apologize for this event. (look it up on youtube, search: Israel Prevents Red Cross Reaching Dead)
Before you call me anti-semite, i am not. i have many jewish freinds and they are great people, as are my Muslim friends. I am however anti-zionist.
There are people on the field reporting and taking pictures, both in Iraq and Palestine.
Go to
http://www.uruknet.info
and you will understand to what point American media is subverting reality these days.
Omg. That made me cry =(. People need to realize that we have to do something about war. War is just killing more and more men and women everyday they fight for us. It is nice that they are dedicated, but this is mad. They are putting their lives on the line. Eventually, more people would have to go into war, and they will die also. I DON’T GET IT! WHY DON’T THE PRESIDENTS TALK IT OUT?! IT IS SO RETARDED THAT THEY LOWER THEIR COUNTRY’S POPULATION OF PEOPLE EVERY YEAR BECAUSE THEY SEND THEM TO WAR! =(… SAD STUFF PEOPLE…SAD STUFF =(
its sad to see blatant zionist propaganda on the comments here.
Like it says in the article, Israel has been consistently ignoring UN resolutions for decades. Bulldozing Palestinians homes, and building illegal settlements in their place, restricting food and aid to the people, building a huge apartheid wall, effectively blocking people off from their farmlands, and illegally restricting their free movement. Gaza is basically a prison camp. In the most recent, and widely condemned, attacks on Gaza, they basically destroyed the infrastructure, hospitals, schools, etc. one being a UN school, being used as a shelter. And it was ISRAEL who broke the ceasefire.
Israel unfortunately spend as much on their propaganda machine as they do on their bombs, and have the most powerful lobby in the US and the UK. So when they blatantly murder innocent Palestinians, it is ‘response to terrorist attacks’. The figures about how many are dying on each side maybe have more significance when you see that the Israeli’s that are killed are mostly soldiers, but the Palestinians are mostly civilians.
How can you claim that Israel is defending itself. That is the wrong way round. Palestine has been decimated, and rounded up, backed into a corner and denied basic human rights and supplies. They are the only ones trying to defend themselves here. Zionism is a racist political ideology, and they are blatantly involved in ethnic cleansing of the land they view to be rightfully theirs.
How can you offer peace talks while continuing to make illegal settlements??
Anyway I am glad to see that here there is a more balanced portrayal than the usual nonsense, well done! The movement to bring justice is growing, even within Israel itself, there are people there refusing to go into the army and be forced to be involved in Israels immoral acts.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace
Its always the children the mothers and the poor who suffer the brunt of war. Wile world leaders and rulers sit back and grow fat and rich.Their day of judgement will come…