First of all, I would like to correct Eli Kramer’s use of the term “anti-semtism” in claiming that the press and worldwide view is prejudiced vs. the Israelis in the latest battle occuring at the Gaza Strip (”Anti-Semitism colors views of Arab-Israeli conflict,” July 21). However, since both Arabs and Jews are semitic peoples; any response that criticizes the Israelis should be more accurately called Anti-Israeli, anti-Israeli government, or even anti-Netanyahu.
As President Obama has said, there is no question that Israel has the right to defend itself, but, to unleash its mighty armada of fighter bombers, gunboats, tanks, weapons launchers, tanks and highly trained army to “pinpoint” targets in the Gaza strip amounts to “overkill.” The hostility between the Palestinians and Israelis dates back many centuries. After all, Hamas, which has control over Gaza, is as Palestinian as the Palestinians in the West Bank; both regions were annexed by Israelis as a result of their victory in the 1967 “Seven Days War” vs. the coalition of the nations of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
Also, there is no doubt that the Israeli government’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (addition to the Golan Heights) has been the spark that has led to intermittent violence and retaliation by Israel, not to mention Israel’s confiscation of Palestinian land in its constant resettlement of its citizens over the years. Is it any wonder that the Intifada of 1987, for example, happened at all?
Is the American public aware of the extreme poverty existing in the Gaza Strip? That the Israeli government has control over every resource available to both Gaza and Palestinian West Bank? That includes their basic water supply? Their banks? The fundiing they receive from the U.N. for its economic stability, such as it is?
Now, in retrospect, since the historic peace between Israel’s P.M. Menachim Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, the goal of Israeli governments has been to usurp Palestinian land and increasing settlements for its burgeoning population — and that policy hasn’t let up, regardless of how liberal subsequent leaders like President Shimon Peres, and P.M. Yitzhak Rabin were. And, it continues to this day.
Today Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government have resisted any resumption of peace talks with PLO’s Abbas due to their refusal to negotiate return of those West Bank lands, and the consideration of a two-state solution as suggested in preliminary talks with U.S. Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
And how can any real peace be in the horizon when only one Palestinian faction (the PLO) is willing to negotiate is anybody’s guess.
All of which leads us back to the violence unleashed with Hamas’ rocket attacks into Israel itself. Don’t play the numbers game of who has had more lives lost. The deaths of those three kidnapped Israeli teens was denounced by the U.S. and world press just as was the cruel right-wing vigilante Israeli men who set the Palestinian youth afire. Yes, the death of 1,000 Israelis since 2000,, including Israeli soldiers, is testimony enough of the brutality of this never-ending war, but so is the loss of 600 Palestinians in Gaza in just two weeks.
Unfortunately, Netanyahu and his defense minister are determined to wipe out Hamas’ rocket sites and tunnels while Hamas is just as determined to exact a price for Israeli retaliation. This is more than a standoff and likely to lead to nothing more than another chapter without an end, with the U.S. in the middle trying to forge a cease fire and its president being criticized for not being supportive of Israel by the usual list of Republican suspects.