It's in my heart to say something about what's happening in Gaza. I am - praying, if you will - for the people of Israel at this time because I'm afraid that they've lost their way and that they're amassing some really horrible karma.
I think I can see their frustration with the terrorists blindly firing rockets over the fence into Israel, but it's Israel's fence and I think they have a responsibility for the custody of the people confined within it. I try to imagine circumstances - levels of gang activity, etc. - that would justify putting walls around an entire population and then directing fire on them with bombs and artillery, and I can't get there. We don't do this in prison riots where everybody in there is presumably guilty of something.
What is Israel's objective? The Hamas militants firing those rockets are criminals whose objective is to destabilize the relationship between Israel and the Arab world. As with our response to 9/11, certainly Israel has been provoked; but will their response advance their objectives or Hamas'. What is being created inside that fence? Peace?
L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa, whose sincerity on any topic is open to question, spoke today of the fear in the eyes of Israeli children. Children within the Gaza perimeter have reportedly stopped reacting to incoming strikes because there is no break. Will these children be able to live together when this is finished?
There's an expression I remember from my younger days: "Kill them all and let God sort them out." I understand where that comes from, but it has never, ever led to lasting peace.
3 comments:
Well said and oh so true. Still are the Israelis supposed to sit and be target practice for Hamas? Sooner or later one has to ask, "How much is enough?"
I don't have an answer. I don't understand people living behind fences in refugee camps 60 years after the birth of Israel.
I was reminded this morning of the apparent effectiveness of our strategy for pacifying urban areas in Iraq, but if Israel's intent is to simply eliminate Hamas, repair the fences, and leave things as they were, then they'll have to come back sooner or later.
I don't know the answers either and feel the frustration you are expressing. There is more to it than the immediate-- like an embargo and barricade to keep Gaza from receiving outside goods. None of it will buy peace because you can't kill everybody who hates you and if you could, someone else would replace them. As you said-- karma. They may not believe in it but believe in it or not, it has a way of getting us
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