Israel and Gaza, it usually goes something like this…
Rockets are fired from Gaza. Dozens, maybe even hundreds over some days. Israel then hits Gaza with a barrage of precision strikes and takes out Hamas targets.
Tragically, civilians often die. Back and forth for a few days, then it stops, often as quickly as it started.
Hamas claims success, Israel claims success. It all dies down, goes quiet, then kicks off again a few months later. Wash, rinse, repeat.
But what we have seen this past week is unprecedented. Thousands of rockets fired, then Hamas fighters breaking through and on the ground in Israel, killing civilians in the streets and taking hostages and dragging them back to Gaza.
Totally unprecedented.
It is a total failure by the usually very competent Israeli security services.
Where were they? Where were the army, the IDF? How did this happen? It makes no sense.
What Hamas has done must have taken months, possibly longer, of intricate planning. How did the Israeli security apparatus not know anything about this?
As for the security fences and walls around Gaza? In parts it makes the Berlin Wall look like a fence round your back garden.
I’ve been there. Believe me, no one gets in or out of Gaza without official permission. If you get anywhere near the walls and fences you are shot at. So, what happened this time?
How could this happen?
Bulldozers were seen crashing through fences, they were not stopped. Why? Where was the IDF? Then Hamas fighters came over the walls in paragliders. How were they not spotted and taken out? Why did Israel not see it happening?
Maybe it’s because of the thousands of rockets fired early last Saturday, ie it was a massive diversion tactic. But I’ve read that it then took the authorities hours to connect the dots of what was happening before they even attempted to retake Israeli towns. Hamas, it seems, was given a free reign for hours.
Iran, who sends money, weapons and gives training to Hamas, said earlier this week: “We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime.” Sickening.
As for the terrorist group Hezbollah to Israel’s north? That worries me. Watch this space.
Interesting that Russia, who is a close ally of Iran, has gone very quiet, apart from the other day saying it’s all a failure of America.
As for those in the west cheering at the news of Israel being attacked – do they have any clue what they are praising? Idiots. Shame on them.
Shame also on anyone who wants Israel to totally flatten Gaza. It is home to over two million people, the vast majority of whom are innocent and want nothing to do with the violence of Hamas.
Ignorance of a complex issue
For goodness sake, I’d like to use stronger language, but can’t. What is wrong with people who egg on and cheer death and killing of someone from the other side?
All my years on writing about this most complicated of issues, I have never taken sides. Those in the west who do back a side totally, have obviously been to Gaza many more times than I have and know much more. Or they are ignorant of the issues.
“Free Palestine!” scream the well-intended on social media. I’m sorry, but they have precious little idea just how complicated this all is. Free Gazans yes, but firstly from Hamas.
Be under no illusion, Hamas are not freedom fighters. They do not have the best interests of the Gazan people. No one in the west should support them, let alone cheer them on.
It has been reported that some of the bodies recovered in Israel may have been beheaded. This is yet to be confirmed.
Israel is, as we know, retaliating. It is bombing Gaza with full force. Yes, Hamas is being targeted, but countless innocents in Gaza are also dying. They do not deserve this. The death of innocents there is heart-breaking and not justifiable.
Two wrongs never make a right.
There is also a near total blockade of Gaza – that means no water, no electricity, no food, no medical supplies. The death toll from this alone could be huge.
Powder keg situation
There are, seemingly, no answers as to how to not just stop this war, but how we move forward when it does stop. It simply cannot go back to how it was before. We have crossed a threshold. We are on the brink of, well put it this way, the entire region is a powder keg just waiting to go off.
As of writing, the widely expected Israeli ground invasion into Gaza is not in full flow. It may well be once you read this. I feel it will happen, it’s only a matter of time. But Israel will only go in when it feels it has weakened Hamas sufficiently.
However, the streets of Gaza are no place for Israeli tanks, especially now when so many buildings are levelled. It’s going to have to be boots on the ground, street-to-street, hand-to-hand fighting. And remember, Hamas will be ready, expecting and possibly even wanting this. They will be holed up, underground in their vast expanse of tunnels. Waiting.
Waiting for what may well be the final battle.
Simply going by the might of the Israeli army, they will probably, I hate to use this word, “win” this. But what then? The situation can’t go back to what it was previously, ie Gazans locked up behind walls.
Gaza cut off from the world was, and is now more than ever, unsustainable.
Palestinians in Gaza live in the biggest open prison camp in the world. This cannot go on. But how do we break this never-ending sickening violence?
Israel and Hamas must talk surely?
Common sense says yes. However, one must remember Hamas’s main aim is the total destruction of Israel. And they have no fear of death for they are ready to die for Allah.
On reflection, I think we made a huge mistake when Hamas took power in 2007. We should have started to talk with them then. Too late now.
Citizens deserve to live in peace
I worry for Muslim and Christian friends in the West Bank. I worry for Jewish friends in Israel. As for those I have met in Gaza, I’ve heard nothing. I fear many are already dead.
I have met with families and shared food with them in refugee camps in Gaza. They have in the past few days been bombed. I doubt they are alive.
Never before has Israel been so brutally attacked. Its citizens deserve to live in peace.
Never before has Gaza been so heavily bombed. Its citizens deserve to live in peace.
Here are some of the quotes that ordinary Gazans told me during my three visits there.
“Where are our bombs, our guns? We are not like this. We are not terrorists. Tell the world, tell them about us.”
“I want to leave this prison.”
“Most of us do not support either Fatah or Hamas. We just want peace.”
“Whatever this land is called in the future, Israel or Palestine, I don’t really care, just take down the wall, open the checkpoints and let us be free.”
Only when Hamas and other such groups are defeated can life even begin to move forward. Then Israel simply must agree to take down these walls. Two million people cannot and should not be forced to live like this.
As for Israelis being dragged into Gaza and held by Hamas. It terrifies me what they are going through and what may happen to them.
During our interview in Gaza, the Islamic Jihad spokesman told me: “We do not target civilians.”
I didn’t believe him then, and I certainly do not now. Today, Islamic Jihad are holding hostages inside Gaza.
What does the future hold?
While the world’s focus is understandably on the here and now, it’s what happens after that concerns me.
I don’t know what the future holds. The so-called two state solution? It’s been dead in the water for years. It was never realistically going to happen.
I’m not suggesting we all sit round a campfire, smile and sing Kumbaya. I’m not dreaming of a land of milk and honey where we all skip along holding hands.
But how about one country – personally I don’t care what they agree to call it – from the land to the see, with no walls, no division, no checkpoints. Jews, Muslims, Christians and atheists all living side by side, in peace.
Is that really too much to ask?
Sadly, probably.
Why? Far too many vested interests. Too much brainwashing and hatred.
As for organised religion, don’t get me started.
Regarding the way we treat each other, those who are different to us, makes me come to the conclusion that the human race really has a long way to go before it can honestly claim to be “civilised”.
George Mitchell: The truth about Gaza – from someone who has been there
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