Gaza – Doug's Views

Center of the Arab–Israeli conflict

The battle between Arabs and Jews flared up again this week with rockets being fired into Israel and Israel countering with air strikes and threats of invasion. I’m not a believer or a fan in either of the religions at the heart of the conflict but I can understand the arguments. I don’t agree with the US government official stance that Israel has the right to defend itself only because I reject the entire Israeli political and military policy to date. I agree with the need of the Palestinian people not to be treated as 2nd class citizens in the land their family has called home for centuries but I don’t approve of use of rocket attacks or terrorism. There will be a two state solution but the question is how many people have to die until that happens.

The land that is Israel is claimed by Jews and Arabs as a homeland. History gives both strong evidence in their claims.

The troubles in the Middle East flared up this past week as Israel went after Hamas in the Gaza strip. First there was air strikes and now with the weekend came a ground invasion. Of course it was all set off by Hamas and their agents firing rockets into Israel. Unfortunately in this situation there won’t be any winners and neither side have a good defense for their actions.

The root causes of these troubles began when people of Jewish heritage began to move into the Palestine area It is their historical and religious homeland. The state of Israel was created in 1948.

The problem is that Arabs also claim the same area as their historical and religious homeland. They don’t care for Israel or Jews since it has meant being displaced from their homes and treated as second class citizens since 1948.

That conflict has seen several wars, terrorism, and protests.

There have been calls for a solution to end the pattern of violence and either the Palestinians reject it or Israel does. Any real solution would reduce the size of Israel and it s power over the Arabs in the area.

A real solution would require Palestinians sharing land with the Jews in a two state plan and to stop the ineffectual terrorism and rocket attacks. These slights might rev up the people in the neighborhood but rockets against one of the more technological advanced militaries in the world is just plain stupid.

Israel is not going anywhere and neither are the Arabs.

What I do know is that allies of these two groups need to stop enabling their fighting and force them to work out a solution.