Let me start out by saying that I like Jews. In fact, I like Jews a lot. Israel, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.
So Israel is still blockading the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinians are still mad about it. That much hasn’t changed. But now, due to the increasing number of attacks via rocket launchers from the militant Palestinian end of things, Israel’s stepping up its campaign to make the little bastards give up once and for all.
The Israeli government has refused United Nations emergency relief workers access to the Gaza Strip over the past week. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) usually supplies food for the 750,000 Palestinians that live in poverty there, but their trucks have been turned back due to Israeli warnings. On Thursday the UNRWA announced it was suspending aid to the Strip.
Not even fuel has been allowed through. The only diesel power station on the Strip was cut off from its European Union-funded fuel and has shut down operations entirely.
Not to be quick to place blame or anything, but I’m ready to place some blame. Israel’s wrong, the Palestinians are right. There are those who seek to destroy Israel, and some of them are very close at hand. But to force 1.5 million people into poverty, destroy a fledgling nation’s economy and then up the ante by denying them basic supplies so they can maintain some form of human dignity?
That’s not acting in a spirit of national defense. That’s not pursuing a peaceful compromise between two groups in conflict. That’s out-and-out armed oppression of a free people.
And obviously I know the threat Palestinian militants pose to Israel. They have killed innocents with just as much ease as the Israeli military has. And the continued fighting has made conditions more dangerous. But this is not the answer.
The way to peace is to reach out to your fellow man. Distance oneself from radical militants and say, “Let’s stop this here and now.” Reinstate a truce. Don’t lay siege to an entire people and give them a reason to hate Israel.
This is cruelty, and worse still, it’s cruelty that will perpetuate itself without actually having any positive impact on the conflict as a whole. Aid workers must be allowed back in with full support from the Israeli government if the region is ever to see peace and stability.
As usual, Israel, it’s your move. Make the right one for once.