Their lives are disrupted by frequent trips to their bomb shelters. But they have bomb shelters. More and more of the Palestinians no longer have homes -- or even the schools where they sought shelter when those homes were destroyed.
Israeli forces have now knocked out Gaza's only power plant, leaving 89% of the people without electricity; a hospital has been hit; daily death tolls now reach over 100; the Palestinian/Israeli ratio of civilian deaths is 300 to 1; over 200,000 within Gaza now have no home. The home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was destroyed. His reaction was:
"My house is not dearer than any of the houses of our people. . . . The destruction of stones will not break our will and we will continue our resistance until we gain freedom."Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel must prepare for a lengthy siege.
What is the end point? What will be left?
The Palestinians see themselves as resisting the invasion of their homeland by the powerful Israeli forces backing up the settlers. Rocks thrown and rockets lobbed across the border into Israel express their desperation but also their unwillingness to give in.
Israel rightly sees itself being attacked by Hamas, an organization that refuses to accept Israel's right to exist. The fact is that Israel does exist, powerfully so -- and in the foreseeable future it dominates Gaza and is well on the way to its utter destruction. There is more than one way to say: "You have no right to exist."
Who started it? You can only answer that by clarifying who started it when? Are we talking about 5,000 years ago? Or when the Jews were dispersed all over Europe? Or when they came back and formed the State of Israel after WWII? Or was it the 1967 war? Or when the people of Gaza voted Hamas in as their ruling party? Or a few weeks ago when three Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered? Or when some thugs kidnapped and burned alive a Palestinian 14 year old boy?
When did it start? Could we shift it to: When will it end?
Ralph
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