UNDERSTANDING ISRAEL & HAMAS IN THE GAZA

 

…Vast damage in the Gaza from Israel’s response to the rocket-bombs from Hamas.

The Jews and the Arabs have only been at war for about 1500 years, give or take a century or two.

Other than what they hear on the daily news reports about the Israeli’s and Palestinian’s Hamas organization sending rockets into each other’s territories, I wonder how many Americans know any of the specifics about the territory known as the Gaza Strip, or as it’s called today, just…“Gaza”.

First, here are some of the basics:

The Gaza is a region of Palestine on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea that borders Egypt on the south and southwest and Israel on its east and northern border.  In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly "accorded Palestine non-Member Observer-State status within the United Nations".

·       Gaza is only 25 miles long and 3.7 to 7.5 miles wide at its widest point.

·       The population at the beginning of 2014 was 1.82 million Palestinians. 

·       Gaza has the 13^th highest growth rate in the world and is one of the most populated places on the globe.

·       The military organization of the Palestinians in the Gaza is called Hamas

·       Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union, Jordan, Egypt and Japan.

·       However it’s not considered a terrorist organization to those in Iran, Russia, Turkey, China and many Arab nations.

I do not agree to the Palestinian’s attitude of not recognizing the right for Israel to exist.  But I think I have become more understanding as to why these people as a whole are acting as they are in their current situation.  That is not to condone any activity from either side, just a better understanding.

First, how many Americans really understand just how isolated the Palestinians in the Gaza area really are today?

To say that the Gaza region is increasingly isolated is a total understatement.

Due to all the terrorist activity with the Hamas bombs and suicide bombers that were coming into Israel, the Israeli’s have since closed the borders into Israel to the east and the north.  They have also closed the approach to Gaza from the sea with Israel's boats, drones and fighter jets for keeping Hamas from receiving rockets and arms from their outside supporters such as Iran, Russia, and other Muslim nations.

To the people of Gaza and to the Hamas, their most important patron was previously the Muslim Brotherhood, which was led by the previous government in Egypt.  That organization is now gone and has been replaced in Egypt by the brutally anti-Islamist regime of President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi.

So, rather than coming to Hamas’ defense, Egypt has now sealed the border crossing into Gaza which in effect, is helping Israel squeeze Gaza in a vise.  Gaza is sometimes referred to as the “world’s largest prison of millions of prisoners”.  No one goes in, no one comes out.  One of the few ways to get food, relief, medical supplies and yes, guns, rockets and arms, is through one the more than 250 tunnels that run into Gaza from the outside. 

 

Today, 50% of those inside Gaza are under 18 years of age.  As long as this war continues between the Palestinians and the Israeli’s, these young individuals in Gaza will be influenced to join the radical Islamist groups.  At some point, these young individuals need to go to school, find good jobs and to become part of a surviving community.  Today, that option does not exist. 

 

…One of the many Hamas rockets being sent into Israel.

Years ago, when the Israeli’s left the Gaza strip and turned it over to Hamas, it was hoped that it would become a “Singapore” type nation of the Islamic world.  It has instead become a radical organization that has vowed to kill all the Jews.  It uses its building resources to build tunnels and it’s money to buy rockets, not to build schools or provide food and health care for its citizens.

Today, the United Nations’ facilities within the Gaza region are responsible for providing much of the health care and much of the sorely needed food and medicine.

Another use of these "tunnels" during their frequent conflicts with Israel is that Hamas can launch rockets from them into the civilian areas of Israel.  They have also run tunnels into areas of Israel where they could appear as a surprise at any time and instantly wipe out any number of civilians or kidnap or kill Israeli military personnel.  For this reason, the Israeli’s have sworn to close all the tunnels running into and out of Gaza.

There is no way I am going to try to explain the difficult and complicated situations that have plagued both Israel and Palestine.  That includes the current issues, and all the back and forth conflicts that have occurred in this region since Israel became a reality after the holocaust and World War II.  Better writers than myself have attempted, and many have failed, at that task for years.

But anyone that has lived with relative freedom of movement, as do most Americans, we would find it understandable as to why this part of the world continues to become an on-going powder keg with an often, pre-lit fuse.

The points of view from Israel is that they say that Hamas is using their own innocent civilians as shields as the Palestinians shoot off their rockets from their own schools, hospitals and UN enclaves.  Israel says that they are not retaliating by targeting these areas with innocent civilians, but more than once, innocent Palestinian civilians and children have been shot and killed by the Israeli Military’s rockets from where no Hamas rocket were launched.  Israel has stated that they can aim their rockets with extra precision, but many times that has not been the case.

 

…The high-tech Israeli “Iron-Dome” defense system that can blows Hamas rockets out of the sky

Eventually, as this conflict continues, the Islamist militants in Gaza will most likely dig new tunnels and restock their stores of rockets. Even if Hamas were to disappear tomorrow as the Gaza’s military organization, just how long would it take before something very much like Hamas would arise to take its place?

The obvious way for Israel to minimize Islamist radicalism in Gaza and the West Bank would be to attempt to show Palestinians a brighter potential future under moderate secular leadership. Instead, since Palestine continues to not recognize Israel’s right to exist, Israel has undermined the Palestinians by building on the land that would normally have been Palestinian territory in an equitable two-state solution.  In either case, neither side is going to win or to give up.  A true, no-win situation that currently shows no possible chance of resolution.

As far as U.S. interests are concerned, it is obvious that the US policy should be to support Israel and to fight Islamist terrorist groups such as the Islamic State. But we should not lose sight of the fact that radical Islam, as a region-wide phenomenon, is an ideological force that cannot be rocket-bombed out of existence.

Channeling the Islamist impulse onto a constructive path is one of the great international challenges of the modern age.

Killing civilians in Israel by Hamas and in Gaza by the Israeli’s just makes that task even harder on a daily basis.

Copyright G.Ater  2014