There is probably no bigger immigration issue than the one involving Israel and Palestine. Currently both of these sides are engaged in open warfare. I have said ‘sides’ because there is no state of Palestine. Obviously, there is a state of Israel, formed May 14, 1948. Much of the deep seated bone of contention is that Israel was formed on former Palestinian lands.
War in this area and between Israel and Palestine is certainly not unusual. It has been going on since the birth of the state of Israel. In fact, it went on before that. Yesterday afternoon, Israeli troops crossed over into Gaza, which is that little area about twice the size of DC on the Mediterranean between Israel and Egypt.
Israel’s objective is to stop the firing of rockets from the Gaza strip into Israel. Who could blame them? A week ago, Israel began firing into Gaza. Since this did not seem to work and the rockets are still sailing into Israeli territory. Yesterday, Israel decided to show Hamas, the ruling elected government in Gaza, it meant business. The battle on the ground now enters its second day. Israel has stated that it is not attempting to topple Hamas, only to upgrade security and to stop the firing of rockets into Israel.
As stated above, there is there is no state of Palestine. It has three non-contiguous areas: Gaza, Golan Heights, and the West Bank. Just bringing up the name Palestine can bring about a fight. It is a term used since Roman times. In this thread, it simply means the area that would be the proposed state of Palestine.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is extremely complex. Explaining the intricacies of the region is far beyond my limited area of expertise. People in regions all over the United States are demonstrating for and against Israel. Emotions are running high. Emotions in the region are even higher and hopefully will not spill over into other countries or regions. The Middle East always heightens our alert in at home.
So here we sit watching a war unfold—a war that is an on-going flare up from decades old conflict on the one hand. On the other hand, this war, like other wars, has the potential of blowing up in our faces and involving other countries of the world, includes ultimately, the USA. Certainly our foreign policy favors the state of Israel which brings about the wrath of other Arabic states in the Middle East.
Finding a stopping place on this subject is impossible, so the readers and contributors of Anti-bvbl are just going to have to take over.
Addendum: If you are like me, the middle east conflict is so complex it takes on a blur of sorts. Here is a link to a timeline that highlights Israel and Hamas difficulties.
I’ve been enjoying the discussion with MH and others and am learning a lot at the same time.
We’re not going to solve the problem but we’ll have some fun trying!
Good point, Gainesville. I have part 2 of this almost ready for press. I have taken the liberty of linking to those 2 articles, and giving you credit for finding them of course. I need to crank up another computer so I can put up a chart. For some strange reason, I cannot upload images to word press from this computer.
I agree about religion not merging. Jews and Muslims can no more merge than Jews and Christians or Christians and Muslims. Actually, I don’t think the actual faith is the bone of contention anyway. I believe the culture and the actual land is the problem. The religion just is a good excuse to do bad things.
Michael, you didn’t really mean religions forming in to one, did you? Doesn’t sound like something you would say.
Gainesville, it looks like Israel is catching hell now from the UN and from some other group and I cannot remember who…International Red Cross? Crescent? Here is my question: How can there NOT be civilians maimed when you have rockets embedded in civilian areas along a 20 miles stretch of land with over a million people living there?
I don’t fully understand the blockage I kept reading about. What is that all about?
OK MH, sounds good about you working on Part 2! Thanks for linking those articles in it, as I think everyone who is interested in this problem should read them.
You are right – religion is NOT the issue here. The main issue is each side thinks the land is “theirs” based on history. It really has nothing to do with religion so we can remove that from the equation. Cultural differences are probably part of it too.
However, i definitely agree with you that no two religions can merge.
I heard about what the UN had to say which was very critical of Israel. Did not hear about the International Red Cross or whomever (I think there is SOME organization like the Red Crescent but not sure who they are).
As you say, in ANY war really – civilians are going to be caught in the crossfire. This one is unfortunate as it is a very narrow strip of land packed with people. Many wars are more spread out and the military installations are more clearly separated from the civilian housing, etc. Civilians are being hit on the Israeli side too so I don’t know what the big deal is. I don’t know how they expect Israel to be able to precisely fire rockets in there and not have some civilian casualties unfortunately. No one seemed to care about that when they had people with bombs strapped to them going into supermarkets in Israel and blowing themselves up.
The blockage was an economic one that tried to choke off the flow of goods into that area, in an attempt to loosen Hamas’ grip on the region. I think at least that was the objective, and I think at least the Egyptians were cooperating. I might be wrong about some of the details – I really hadn’t followed that aspect very closely.
I didn’t know much about that at all and I meant to say blockade. I guess blockage worked though since we both knew what each other were talking about.
Several of the other articles I have read have stated how many of the Arab countries are really tired of Hamas and want them out of there. They are getting the people of Gaza killed. Plain and simple. No one can ask Israel just to ‘turn the other cheek.’ Aren’t there Palestinians living on the Israel side of the Gaza border getting shelled also?
We aren’t talking about the Wilderness, or Battle of the Bulge or Iwo Jima here. The Gaza Strip is teeming with people, many living in crowded conditions. Hamas and other terrorist groups plant those launchers right in the middle of heavily populated areas.
I do understand why people think this is hopeless. Maybe Obama can send Hillary in to slap all of them around. Bill Clinton was almost successful. Maybe she can take him with her.
The new thread is up. Little different info but same theme. We don’t have to change. Those were such great articles. And people do need to know. This situation has such an affect on all of us, even if not direct. And it has the potential to REALLY have an affect on all of us.