Well, I am none of those things. I am a former journalist who worked during an era when trying to sort things out in a fair and objective manner was the prime directive. Anything less was a mortal sin.
So this is how I see it. And if you don't like it, well, I'm sorry. But I believe I am being as objective as it is humanly possible to be.
Israel's position is that it was just sitting there, minding its own business, when Hamas started shooting missiles into Israel. I don't think that's true. Israel was minding business, but not minding its own business.
First let's dispose of the kidnappings. Three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed by someone, likely Palestinians. Israel immediately blamed Hamas, though never produced credible evidence. Then some fundamentalist Jews kidnapped and killed a Palestinian kid -- tit for tat in the land where both sides live by the Old Testament's "eye for eye" rules.
The missiles started flying from Gaza shortly thereafter. It's easy to conclude that the kidnappings were the spark. But you'd be wrong. The kidnappings alone would not have ignited the fires that blaze now. No, there was a lot of ignitable gas in the air long before those events.
You have to divide Israel's Palestinian operations into two halves; Gaza and the West Bank. They are different, yet based on the same template. It's the way American politicians and settlers dealt with their Native Americans long ago. We of European origins saw ourselves as the superior culture. we wanted and needed the lands the indians were on. They had to go.
So, with a mix of false promises, covert and overt violence, we took what we wanted, moving the indians onto easily controlled reservations. They were either herded there under the gun, or lured there with the promised of being granted their own lands. But those promised lands continued to shrink and shrink as our settlers moved in. The rest is history.
Tiny Gaza has become a classic reservation for Palestinians. It is small, crowded, geo-policially isolated and its population restricted -- actually imprisoned -- within its fenced and mined borders.
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