By Nicole Sivan
Israelis are not dying in great numbers, so they must be the aggressors. This is the logic spewed out by many news organizations, even on my beloved MSNBC this past Wednesday. Imagine if we used such logic in WWII and accused the US of using excessive force because American civilian causalities were almost non-existent compared to the German and Japanese civilian death counts. Because the war was not fought on American soil, sparing American cities from destruction and minimizing the American loss of life, was America the aggressor in WWII? Or was America forced to respond to the aggression of irrational leaders holding countries and populations hostage in unprovoked aggression? So, again, because the Israeli death count doesn’t match that of the people of Gaza, is Israel the aggressor in this current conflict?
More importantly, what is this new round of fighting all about and why are rockets flying from Gaza into Israel? Why, in response, is Israel launching targeted aerial strikes back at Gaza and massing troops along the border? Is an all out war ground war next?
A History of the Hamas/Gaza/Israel Conflict
In August of 2005, Israel withdrew its military personnel from the Gaza strip, dismantled its four settlements in the territory, and forced out the Israeli civilian population, destroying their homes, schools and businesses and relocated them to temporary mobile housing within the Green Line. It was years before these people were able to rebuild their lives within Israel proper. This was an extremely emotional and controversial move by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and for days Israeli television aired footage of Israeli soldiers crying along side settlers as they were forced to abandon their homes, their towns and their livelihoods. But, the majority of Israelis, myself included, supported this move in the name of peace. No, we will not be occupiers. Turn the Gaza strip over to the Palestinian Authority. Let there be peace and tranquility on at least one of our borders.
After the Israeli withdrawal, infighting began within the Palestinian Authority between the two leading parties: Fatah, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (identified with PLO leader Yasser Arafat) and Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas gained control of Gaza in 2007, weeding out Fatah leadership in the territory by either executing them or exiling them to the West Bank. Dialogue between the two parties has only recently resumed. While Israel has maintained an uneasy truce with the Palestinian Authority and Fatah on the West Bank, Hamas has continuously waged war against Israel from Gaza. Hamas does not believe Israel has the right to exist, within any borders, and has stated that every Israeli man, woman and child is a legitimate target. Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, when in session, are a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank. Hamas does not participate in these discussions.
Since 2007, southern Israel, especially the devastated Israeli city of Sderot, has endured a barrage of relentless rocket fire from Gaza. Life in Sderot has been paralyzed these past seven years. Residents have abandoned the second floors of their homes and sleep in safe rooms or bomb shelters to avoid the continuous nightly run to safety as the sirens sound. Children know the location of every bomb shelter on their route to school and unfortunately use them often. Residents of this area of the country have been held hostage by the steady stream of rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza. Unable to sell their homes and move, and the government unwilling to cede legitimate territory in the country due to terrorism, the residents of Sderot and the surrounding area have learned to exist, grow, and flourish beneath the wail of the air raid siren and the explosions of rockets. Is this continuous rocket fire reported by the international media? Almost never. Is this a topic of conversation at the U.N.? No. Does Israel do much about it? Rarely.
Sadly, rocket attacks into southern Israel have become the norm.
The Current Gaza Conflict
So, when does the situation esculate and when do we find ourselves in a conflict like the one currently unfolding?
On June 12, 2014 three Jewish Israeli teenagers on the West Bank were kidnapped and killed. Their bodies were discovered on June 30 buried under rocks. Hamas has been tied to the kidnappings and killings, although the terrorist organization has not made any official claims to the actions. In response to the murders, six Jewish Israeli teens from an extremest background, kidnapped and murdered an Arab Palestinian teenager from Jerusalem. In anger, riots erupted throughout Arab neighborhoods in Jeruslaem and the country worried it was on the brink of a third intifada. Israel has condemned this killing declaring “a murder is a murder” no matter religion or nationality, and the authorities have found and arrested the suspects of the Palestinian teen’s murder. Even the mother of one of the Jewish teenagers killed has publically condemned this latest murder and has reached out to the Arab teen’s family in a show of solidarity among parents mourning the brutal, untimely and unnecessary deaths of their children. Hundreds of Jewish Israelis have flocked to the teen’s family mourning tent to offer their condolences. Hamas, however, although refusing to take responsibility for the Jewish teens’ kidnappings and murders, also refuses to condemn the murders and have, in fact, publically praised the killings.
Further taking advantage of the situation, or perhaps everything unraveling just as they planned, Hamas has resumed its rocket fire into Israel from the Gaza strip. Sometimes up to one hundred rockets in a day are launched from Gaza into Israel. Southern coastal cities such as Ashdod and Ashkelon, and the Negev capital of Beer Sheva, have come under fire. Rockets have been launched towards Israel’s nuclear reactor in the southern city of Dimona. And for the first time Hamas is trying to show its true reach and military capabilities by hurling rockets northward toward Israel’s main population centers, reaching the nation’s largest cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Even residents in northern towns and cities near Haifa have been sent scurrying under the wail of the air raid siren. In all, more than 3.5 million Israeli citizens are now in the line of fire.
Many of the rockets aimed at central and northern Israel have been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome System, which was built and created with the help of funding by the United States. The Iron Dome System consists of missiles that in mid-air chase after Hamas launched rockets, causing harmless explosions high in the sky. However, this system is not functional for the short range rockets aimed at southern Israeli population centers.
Israel is retaliating against these rocket attacks by making strategic air attacks on locations in Gaza believed to be launch spots, arm depots, or the homes and hideouts of Hamas leadership and militants. Israel works very hard to minimize the loss of innocent civilian life in Gaza, which is why they strategically choose locations for an air strike. They even fire warning shots at a location before attacking, call the locations, or distribute flyers warning civilians to flee an area. No country in the history of human warfare has ever gone to such extreme measures to minimize civilian causalities.
Is Israel perfect? No. Are there civilian causalities? Yes. But, what’s the difference between Israel and Hamas? Hamas is indiscriminately firing rockets into Israel hoping to achieve civilian causalities. If an Israeli is injured or killed, even a child, Hamas rejoices in victory. In contrast, Israel makes every effort, despite the state of war, to minimize Palestinian civilian causalities, and Israelis do not celebrate when they see images of Palestinian civilian deaths on the television. A mother is a mother, a father is a father and child is a child. Israelis feel sadness for the loss of life and curse Hamas for inciting continuous conflict that leads to such casualties.
Hamas, on the other hand, does not feel remorse for the loss of Palestinian civilian life, despite the propaganda they spout on television. They continuously use their own people as human shields and rejoice in the world public opinion and news coverage they receive when innocent Palestinians are killed. Sympathy on their side and Israel painted as an aggressor. Victory for Hamas! The innocent deaths of their own people are part of their strategy. When Hamas launches missiles against Israel, what else do they expect except retaliation? They obviously not only expect it, they want it. There is no other explanation for what they do. Hamas is an organization without any heart and soul, without compassion even towards their people. And the poor Palestinian civilians of Gaza are caught in this continuous war and the crossfire between these two armies.
Israel Calls This an Operation of Defense
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a CNN interview, “the people of Gaza are not our enemy.” Instead, “Hamas is the enemy,” who with the help of Iran has built a “terrorist machine.” Israel maintains a blockade around Gaza in an effort to limit the amount of weapons shipped into Gaza and Israel has warned Hamas time and time again to stop shooting rockets. Israel has offered “quiet for quiet.” Hamas has refused and now Israel must act. Regev explains that through this military action Israel hopes to dismantle Hamas’s rocket supply and military infrastructure. The “Israeli operation is defensive,” he says. “Our goal is to bring peace and quiet to our citizens… and to protect our people.” Regev asks what the United States would do if rockets were fired at their citizens. What if Florida was under rocket attack? Would the United States sit idly and endure such rocket fire?
Shimon Peres, Israel’s President, also concurs with this outlook declaring, “We didn’t start the war, they (Hamas) started it.”
Can Anyone Broker Peace?
Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Saeb Erakat, says that part of the problem in this current round of hostilities is the inability to reach a ceasefire agreement because there is no one to talk to Hamas. In the past, Egypt negotiated ceasefires between Israel and Hamas. However, the new President of Egypt is not on good terms with Hamas and it is difficult to find a third party who can speak to both Hamas and Israel. Erakat believes Israel and Hamas need to restore the ceasefire agreement reached in 2012, the last time the fighting escalated to this extent. Erakat concedes that “this cycle of violence will not provide peace and security” and “we all stand to lose” through this escalation. But, when and how will calm prevail?
As of today, there is no end in sight for this current round of hostilities. An Israeli ground invasion might be the next step in this operation to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza. Whether this will be another round of military action that will achieve nothing or if this will become the operation to quiet the rockets from Gaza once and for all is still too soon to tell. But, who started this round of violence does matter and the number of causalities on each side does not determine the aggressor.
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