"Old News" From Yesterday

I didn't write about this yesterday because I was all about ME, which is sometimes what this LJ is for.

This is "old News" by now, but Sderot and Kibbutzim of the Western Negev were bombarded yesterday with over 50 Qassam Rockets.
50 Qassam Rockets.
At least one person died and several other have been critically injured, maimed and traumatized.
The retaliation and in these cases it always a retaliation, was the usual IDF and IAF maneuvers.

What I find most interesting is that in the International News sites, the retaliation was written about first, giving the obvious impression that that the Qassam rockets were launched in retaliation to the military action done by Israel.

Such. Utter. Bullshit.

I'm a big talker and I'm all for talking with Hamas, but when the complete and utter disregard they show towards their own people by launching rockets that are designed to hurt my people, because my people have the Big Guns and on TeVi, Big Guns look much worse than little rockets despite the damage wrought by both.

The ones who suffer the most are the civilians on both sides of the border. It doesn't matter if they're Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Bedouin or Christian.

Hamas' goal isn't to liberate Palestine, it never was, it is to recreate the Caliphate and bring the Umma together and then go out on a Holy War against the West.
And like most of these kinds of groups (al-Qaeda, the Taliban, etc.) they were created in order to fight the real enemies... the Communist or Marxist Identified groups - or in the case of the Taliban the Soviets themselves.

Old News? Ancient History?

Maybe, but it's certainly a way to see the interconnectedness of it all.
Until the USA decides that it no longer supports Nations that give money to Hamas and Hizbulla (and it's not just Iran, far from it) and that "spreading Democracy" is not the way to go, but co-operation and actual fucking communication; you can bet that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict will continue.

"Us and Them"... not the Pink Floyd song

Maybe it's the fact that I'm the daughter of immigrants.
Maybe it's the fact that I find hypocrisy distasteful.
Maybe it's because I really am *shudder* a statist at heart.

Perhaps this is simply because this is the reality of the situation and no matter how humanist I am in my philosophy, I'm not the one who runs the current socio-political paradigm that creates that huge divide between Israelis and Palestinians.

It's no secret that I sympathize and empathize with Palestinians and Palestinian national self-determination... this is because it is the basic human and civil right of every nation on earth to live in a territory as a home-land. It is what I was taught (and understood) Zionism to be for the Jews; what Zionism actually was and is in praxis is not what I want to write about.

Because of the Zionist movement, Jews did create a home-land in historical Palestine (now Israel and the Palestinian Authority).
The problem is that Israel is a colonial remnant with all the baggage that goes with it.
Israel is different that other colonial remnants, is that it came late in the game and it has now based itself and isn't going anywhere.
Nor do I believe it should.

The history that we all go back to - 1948, 1967, 1987, 2000 etc. It doesn't do any good.
It doesn't matter anymore who started what and when.
Only that we finish it.
By communication, by stopping the usurpation of land, by shifting the status quo even if it pains those involved.
By agreeing, not on a Hudna, but an actual two sided agreement and not a unilateral decision.

It's not in Israel's best interests to keep the people of Gaza under siege and/or attack or keep building settlements in the West Bank. On the other hand it's not in Hamas' best interests to keep bombarding Sderot, the West Negev and beyond, and for Abu-Mazen to start flashing sabers.

Intifada #3 is in no ones interest.

Except the USA.
They get money.

BTW, you can call me naive all you like, but other than what I suggested, there really is only the annihilation of one or both of the Nations in question, which I don't think anyone wants.