06/01/2009

The Gaza Situation

This is a tricky path to thread whiteout taking sides, but I'm going to try in any case.

So, we have a background to this whole thing, but I'm quite sure we can sum it up as: "Years of conflict over matters that never got settled properly."
It sounds official and good, plus I don't have to write down a short history lesson either.
Who's fighting then?
The Israeli Army and Hamas. This is pretty much clear.
And here we see the first problem: An army fighting against a form of urban guerrilla? This means that Hamas operates mainly in highly populated areas. They blend in with the rest of the population, and can use any civilian casualties (of which they are partly to blame) as propaganda to increase their numbers. They also use populated areas to launch their attacks from, which means that the Israelis have a hard time hitting their attackers whiteout hitting other people too.

Other factors that's also making things worse are the fact that there's an election coming up in Israel, which means the current government must show that it's strong and can act when it's people are attacked.
Another factor is that there's no real infrastructure in Palestine. It's even doubtful if you could call it a country by our standards.
I think that would be part of the solution actually. To repair the infrastructure. Especially if Israel repaired it. That would show the Palestinian public that they're not trying to kill them all, and would decrease the support of Hamas. Though this would also put a lot of Israelis in harms way, which is why I highly doubt it'd happen.
What alternatives are there then? A third party enters the country and repairs the infrastructure with the support of Israel. Military support is more or less out of the question, but some financial support would probably be possible.
Then again, a better infrastructure might also mean that Hamas can attack Israeli civilians more efficient, which no one wants.

A large part of the problem would also be what the two groups think of each other. I'm betting that the Palestinians think the Israeli are just murdering oppressors. While they're just trying to protect their people, and kill those who kill their people.
The Israeli might also think that all Palestinians are cowardly terrorists. After all, if all you see about a group of people is the bad things they do, wouldn't you think the same thing?
And then there's the people who wants revenge for their families, who (depending on which side they're on) either join the military or Hamas. Hamas welcomes them most likely. The Israeli military probably does too. A motivated soldier is a good soldier after all.
But the military shouldn't. Or should at least make sure someone that might be looking for revenge isn't guarding the border to Palestine.
I'm not sure it'd help too much though, since roadblocks gets attacked too, and loosing your friends in a suicide bombing right in front of you will affect you.

It's a sticky situation in many ways, and both sides are to blame somewhat for it. Removing Hamas and improving the infrastructure would be a lot of help in restoring peace in the area, but how to do it? There's no easy answer there, I'm afraid.


(I'd also like to add that this post isn't fact as much as it is opinion.)
Inspired by Chiron.

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