So instead of writing a rambling and partially wrong and sometime right analasys of the whole Israel-Palestine conflict i will give a few points and then delve a little deeper.
The Good intentions/idea's/positive's to make note of:
- This all started out by people willing to supply aid to those in need.
- Only one ship was attacked, the others were escorted safely to port.
- The world was watching, and so were Arab world news agencies on the ships.
- Most of the Aid is said to be on it's way to Gaza. Hamas however is reportorially refusing some of it.
- Egypt opened it's border to Gaza yesterday, to help the situation.
- Most of those detained from the ships, actavists, volunteers, media and aid workers have returned to their countries of origin.
The Ugly things to take from this.
- The aid convoy acted against orders to stay in Cyprus. And acted politically and provocatively in order to be heard.
- 9 people are dead.
- Diplomatic ties with Israel are damaged Worldwide.
-Turkey is deeply offended, they were once the only Arab ally of Isreal in the Middle East.
- Gaza is still not receiving all the supplies it needs. Apparently 1/4 of what is needed reaches people.
- The Blockade is still in place.
Things to still worry about:
- The predominantly Irish Ship that is still en route to Gaza.
- The blockade has not been lifted, despite international condemnation.
-Israel- United States talks about the construction of Settlements in the West Bank were called off and are likely to be delayed and further ignored for the near-by future.
- Global hypocracies are still rife in terms of Politics and reaction to such situations. Condemnation, harsh comments, sanctions, call's for restraint, all mean nothing.
- Oil is still leaking in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Oil is still destroying the Niger Delta.
-Oil is still destroying the Rain Forrest's in Peru.
- South and North Korea are still on the Verge of war.
- UK Police may soon carry fire arms following today's shooting massacre. Irish Police, will still not Carry arms following Dozens of crime-world shooting and executions over the past decade.
- Firefly is still canceled and hopes of being picked up, after such a long time, and a mediocre movie takings is still unlikely.
What can i really say about all this. Every side in this conflict is wrong in some way.
The Aid workers are good intentioned, but they are also full of several bad eggs and some more extreme people.
Although their act's are noble, they are flauting the will of a nation to protect itself.
They are also supporting the continued existance of a terrorist backed government.
The people of Gaza, and of Palestine in general deserve so much better. After all it is THEIR country.
Israel may now be a country, despite not really being a country that deserves to exist, or is in anyway the good guy. If anything they are the bad guy, but so are the people they are persecuting and inadvertently radicalising.
There is no quick soloution to this. There never is a quick fix. There are far to many hot heads of different points of view involved.
Islamist extremists, Zionist's, Orthodox Jews, Hamas and Fatah, American-Jewish influence, Old-school American Foreign Policy, Iran, Lebenon, The incompetency of the UN, the UN Security Council and the Legacy of fuck ups that follow the once Great British Empire.
I once heard an anecdotal story of a Nutritionist that found that the Diets of those in the Wider Israel/Palestine area have a low Zinc Diet. This man apparently concluded that the Low-Zinc diet lead to increased aggression.
His solution was making everyone eat Marmite.
Now as farcical as that story may be, it sort of describe's most people's reactions to ANY suggestion related to solving problems in the Region.
Now even though the world has relatively ignored the region and the conflict, despite it spilling over into world wide repercussions such as the Uzi Sub-machine Gun, Islamic Fundamentalism (a wider problem not solely related to the P.L.O etc) and security in Airports. (This last one being the fact that before Palestinian's hijacked plans in the 70s and landed them in Jordon, there was almost NO security in Airports. Something that for the most part affects all of us all the time, and generally sucks)
We have all had to listen to this situation, and in some way respond. Most of the time we are generally miss-informed.
There are precidents for defending all side's. Now it is a cluster fuck of Wrong that we can't excuse.
People are dead. These people put themselves in harms way, and attacked military force's in International waters to defend themselves and to protect their intent to bring supplies to a besieged community of 1.4 million people in Gaza.
Military forces, pursued, harassed and boarded ships in military waters in order to prevent them supplying aid to Gaza. When assaulted on one ship, and susstaining injuries and casualties the Military members did all they thought they could do in the circumstance, they opened fire.
They injured many and subsequentially killed 9 people.
This reminds me of the Gideon Masacre in Battlestar Galactica. Those not familiar with the show will have to bear with me. During a bit of a political crises in the Fleet a state of Marshal Law was called for. In order to maintain the running of Galactica certain supplies were needed from the other ships in the fleet. As a from of protest several ships refused to supply anything. In response Raiding parties of armed troops were sent out.
On the 6th sortey a group boarded the Gideon. They were met with a rioting crowd that was uncooperative and throwing coffee and debris at the troops (who are just ship security gaurds and marine like in use normally). Faced with a riot, which they were not geared or trained for the troops were stuck. Subsequentially in the meelee something collapsed that sounded like gunfire. Panicked the troops opened fire. 4 People died.
This messy story isn't referenced to many time's in BSG, but it was pretty shocking stuff. And great writing.
It is incidents like this that cause international outrage. It is only incidents that make people act.
Now how the world acts, i can not predict, or even suggest what would be the best thing to do.
It is all frankly a mess.
It is not like fiction, or even fantasy-science fiction. Ie This is Not Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, the Israeli's are not the Trade Federation, Gaza is NOT Naboo, and the aid workers are NOT Jedi.
There will not be some over-arching conspiracy to bring down the galactic republic. No Israel is acting alone and it is the bully and aggressor here. They can't expect Hamas to stop Rocket attacks, ever.
This blockade will not yield. Israel can't win, and it will eventually have to listen to international Condemnation.
The real challenge is getting people to listen and act without giving up. This situation is likely to be ignored soon. As was the 2004 Tsunami, as is Iraq and Afghanistan, as is the world Drug trade and so has the Haitian Earthquake.
All it will hopefully take is enough people to keep acting, to keep doing good things, for evil to not prevail.
In the grander scheme of things Governments, beliefs, policies and so on mean nothing when people are malnourished, drinking dirty water and oppressed by both a foreign country and their elected Terrorist affiliated government.
.
2 comments:
Seriously epic post. I disagree with some of the generalisations you've made. I don't believe for a second that these protesters are there with the promary intention of backing a terrorist-led government. It may be a consequence of their actions, but I can't think they'd consider that ahead of the well being of those suffering in Palestine.
I do begrudge this situation because it's taking away from another crisis happening in Guatemala. Rather than start a "my crisis is more immediate than your crisis" discussion, I would encourage you to type 'Guatemala sinkholes' into google and try not to shit yourself that it's the end of the world.
Also, Palestine is a FIFA-registered country, so suck it down, Israel!
I've seen the "hellmouth's", they're not that serious.
Haiti, Chile, Columbia, Niger, Indonesia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and many other place's have it far worse than Palestine. But this is all about Palestine.
And i know i generalised, but Hamas are now refusing the aid. The aid workers are indirectly aiding a terrorist linked government perpetuate it's agenda and endanger it's population further.
And the crew of the Mavi Mamara probably did have it as one of their intentions considering they taunted the Israeli's, then wooped them with what ever they could find as they landed.
God Speed to the Rachael Correy too.
Post a Comment