Now I know darn well I'm going to elicit all kinds of howls about "anti-semitism" and "playing the race card." So get to it as soon as possible and try learning some facts after the indignation has abated. Since this new "war" between Israel and the Palestinians broke out the narrative has been that "Israel has a right to defend itself" and that the "Palestinians are terrorists" who need to be punished for their behavior.
Before we go further let us consider the FACTS.
The area known as the Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is 139 square miles and is populated by about 1.7 million people.
The area is locked and blocked by Israel over a long standing row between successive Israeli governments and Hamas that has been designated a terrorist organization by both Israel and the United States.
The people of Gaza live under the constant occupation of Israel that is pregnant with warplanes, bombs, drones, tanks, a navy and every armament imaginable that they use constantly in local, brutal so-called "wars" triggered by Hamas's action or Israel's conjecture. Or simply when a "war" will play well with domestic Israeli politics.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth and one of the poorest.
Gaza survives at the mercy of Israel that allows whatever it chooses to get in and to exclude what it feels like. Gaza, and its government, have no say in the matter.
In essence Gaza is a large refugee camp lorded over by Israel that subjects the suffering people to periodic "wars" that devastate and further make the area look like a shanty town, ramshackle, festering and unfit for human habitation.
Gaza is an easy mark. Hamas has no hope of even competing with the Israeli war machine. So Israel's hype about "a ground offensive" and naming its military excursions like Big Brother America is just a local, bullying power beating up on a defenseless population and exacting collective punishment for Hamas's transgressions.
Now, is Hamas complicit in creating the conditions that Israel likes to exploit? Yes. But Hamas and indeed the vast majority of Gazans have nothing to loose but their chains. Many feel death is more preferable to living like pigs in a pigs sty. So Hamas has a reason to exist and engage in what Che Guevara called "the war of the flea." The flea know that it cannot win but it will make life miserable and unbearable for its host.
Let us now now at the disparity between the Hamas government and the Israeli government. Hamas has no army, a little police force, no air force, no navy and very little resources to spend on health, economic development and education. Thus Israel can bomb, raze, murder and demonize the Palestinians but it is impossible to eradicate the idea of Israel as an aggressor nation from the minds of young Palestinians. So the cycle continues.
As long as Israel treats Palestinians and Gazans in particular as terrorists and modern day slaves, then by its very actions it will breed a new generation of young people that will grow up on a diet of hate and mistrust. Israel cannot be an oppressive, brutal, occupying, controlling overlord and expect love and cooperation from Palestinians. That's just plain stupid. Its also madness. As Albert Einstein once said the definition of madness is doing the same thing the same way over and over and expect a different result. Try telling that to the Israelis.
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