Palestinians Are People, Too

Loath though I am to admit this, until quite recently, it hadn't registered that Palestinian is the name of an ethnic group, not a political/terrorist group. Deep down, I may have known better, but certainly not on a conscious level. Palestinians are people of Arab descent. Mostly, they're Muslim, there's quite a few Christians, probably a few atheists (maybe not, though, there are no atheists in foxholes). They are men & women, children & elderly. Palestinians are born, grow up, go to college, marry, have children ~ you know, just like everyone else. I'm sure that there are few black sheep in the family to go with the doctor, the deli owner, the professor. Don't they sound dull? They are. The Ailabounis are ordinary, just like the Andersons and the Schmidts.  I bring this up now because Israel's current activities are, for all intents and purposes, lauded by our president.

Barack Obama says that the US is "fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself." That's cool. I can accept that. What I can't accept is Israel's definition of defending itself. Apparently, three Israeli civilians were killed recently by Hamas rockets, so Israel is fighting back. Israel, which borders the Gaza Strip (Palestinian territory captured by Israel in 1967) on the northwest & southwest, blockades access to the Mediterranean on the northeast, so the only "friendly" border is the southeastern border with Egypt. This is akin to the US being surrounded by hostile forces except for the California coast. Unnerving, isn't it?

Israel lets Palestinians enter Israel to work, when it feels like it. The border crossing makes a day with the TSA feel like a picnic. And, since the borders are closed capriciously, even Israelis who want to hire Palestinians often can't, due to unreliability ~ you need your employees to show up. Israel controls which people, food and supplies get into Gaza. When they want, they can completely close it off. Yes, there are smugglers' tunnels. Weapons probably get through, but so do frivolous things like food and drugs (antibiotic type stuff). No one should have smuggle food. EVER!

With this much control over Gaza, and with the size of the Israeli Army (176,000) they should easily be able enter Gaza City, find the Hamas leader and do whatever they wish. Israel has all the coolest new military toys, as well they should, considering that they spend $14,000,000,000 dollars a year on their military ($2,799,500,000 from the US). So does Israel go on a manhunt? Nope. They send rockets, and drones, and drop bombs on the suspected houses of Hamas leaders. Not smart bombs, old-school blow-up-the-block bombs. Israel loves to say that Hamas is at fault when civilians are injured because they put headquarters in civilian areas to use civilians as human shields. 

"Hamas is using the Gaza population as human shields," said Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the chief Israeli spokesman. "They are exploiting crowded residential urban areas." With a population density of 12,000 per square mile, everywhere is crowded. The reason bad guys use civilians as human shields is because it works ~ because the good guys do everything possible to avoid hurting innocent bystanders. There are terrorists in Hamas (the government of the Gaza Strip) but over 40% of the population is young children. And most adults aren't terrorists either.

In five days, 37 Gaza civilians have been killed ~ I've read the Old Testament ~ it's an eye for an eye, not 12 eyes for an eye. As many ten Israelis have been wounded, so they wounded 720 Palestinians (again with that funky math). Makes you wonder who the bad guys really are. Israel seems to want to eliminate the Palestinian people. Every year on Yom HaShoah, Israel remembers the Holocaust victims, perhaps they should reconsider their own actions. It's time they stop. Israel must stop treating the Palestinians the way the Nazis treated their families. Shouldn't God's Chosen People be better than this?