What is happening in Gaza? They keep referring to it as a "war" but as far as I can see, it is not a war at all. It is an obliteration, a persecution, a mass humiliation, a payback like never before - but not a "war". The term "war" suggests two enemies battling for supremacy and ultimate victory but in Gaza the current brutal episode all appears very much one-sided.
Israel has nearly all the chips - mostly American weaponry and even bulldozers with which they have been vindictively flattening entire Gazan neighbourhoods. The cityscape of Gaza now looks pretty much like Hiroshima after it had been nuked.
It seems quite flabbergasting to me that Israel is now playing a key role in the distribution of vital food aid in Gaza. Is that what generally happens in "war" - with those who have the upper-hand simultaneously providing aid to beleaguered enemy citizens? I think not. No wonder hundreds of Gazans have been tragically killed in their desperate quest for sustenance.
Yes, YP. What is happening there is outrageous; off the Richter Scale. Saw pictures of pictures of children, emaciated, skeletal, starved. Want to get me? Show me a deprived child [and their desperate mothers]. How did Jesus Christ say? "Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem". Indeed.
ReplyDeleteTo keep things in perspective, I dare say that many Israelis do not condone what their government does. It's a shocker how many of us get swept up in the actions of the day's government in any country.
As to your general question what constitutes "war" - a good one, a difficult one. One I'll ponder on.
U
It's horrifying, what's going on in Gaza, and the suffering of ordinary Palestinian people. Sounds like it's only going to get worse.
ReplyDeleteWhile Trump and Netanyahu are in cahoots, that appears inevitable.
DeleteTruth is the first victim of any conflict, and I suspect that whet we are seeing on our screens is ultimately someone's propaganda. Hamas started this last round of violence, and have always declared that their sole reason for existence is to obliterate Israel, so this was always going to be a bloody war of attrition.
ReplyDeleteWhat were the circumstances that created Hamas and gave them oxygen?
DeleteIt's not war, it's genocide and there is no excuse for it. Nothing. I feel for the Israelis and the Palestinians caught between the IDF and Netanyahu, and Hamas; they all have blood on their hands.
ReplyDeleteAs usual it is the innocents who suffer or even pay with their lives.
DeleteHorrible, horrendous, heartbreaking......
ReplyDelete...hateful.
DeleteIsrael needs to do something about its leaders who seem hellbent on killing anyone and everyone just for a spot of land?
ReplyDeleteThey are emboldened by Trump's ignorance and carelessness.
DeleteI suspect Ursula is right -- despite the Hamas attacks on their country, I doubt many Israelis are comfortable with the scale of destruction in Gaza. Even the Israeli military is concerned about the implications of occupying the territory. Netanyahu is a renegade in his own government.
ReplyDeleteNations around the world condemn Netanyahu and his occupation plan... but not Israel's main weapons supplier headed by a petty and ignorant man who does not read and has no sense of history.
DeleteIt is a force of hatred hell bent on genocide, only we are not allowed to protest if we use certain words. It is the use of a superior force to destroy a downtrodden people and on this day of Remembrance of another equally destructive happening 80 years ago, we have every right to question it.
ReplyDeleteThe more voices that are raised, the greater the prospect of justice in the end. 474 war protesters were arrested in London today. That cannot be right.
DeleteThe whole affair just makes me cry, with the Ukraine war too. 😢😢😢😢
ReplyDeleteNetanyahu is not crying - far from it and nor is that big-headed oaf they call Trump.
DeleteNetanyahu is another unhinged man in a long line of unhinged men including Napoleon, Franco, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and Putin to name but a few. Wreaking havoc to go down in history books. They see themselves as powerful, but in reality they are little chihuahuas yapping at the heels of calm considered St Bernard dogs. Things wont improve until the Israeli people get rid of Netanyahu.
ReplyDeleteI wonder which kind of dog you would liken Trump to.
DeleteIt is absolutely appalling and unbelievable. And I can't understand why the world stands by and watches.
ReplyDeleteI am equally flabbergasted Liz.
DeleteTo my surprise, the second highest funder of arms to Israel is Germany. Ok Germany, you made a bad many many years ago, but there is no need to make it up for this amount of time. Back off Germany.
ReplyDeleteA whole new generation of Israel haters has been born in Gaza. It's an own goal, Israel.
The world should not have stood by and witnessed what has happened.
"A whole new generation of Israel haters has been born in Gaza..." Too right Andrew. What is occurring is without a proper sense of history.
DeleteMeasured words. Don't want to start a flame war but I specifically don't agree with (commenting here) Will's invocation of a "war of attrition."
ReplyDeleteShhh! But there has been too much shushing. At last governments around the world are speaking up against Netanyahu.
Deleteit'll look better when they've built a Disney World on it!
ReplyDeleteThat's what Ignorant Trump seems to want... or something like it. The Gaza Experience Theme Park with The Gaza Strip Club and Casino.
DeleteHamas have always exploited the civilian casualty card through their deliberate policy of having no military infrastructure, but using all manner of civilian facilities, including hospitals and schools for their operations, meaning that making any attempt to contain or eliminate them will inevitably result in collateral damage. And ultimately, can Israel survive whilst there is an active Hamas presence hell-bent on wiping them off the face of the earth just a few miles away?
ReplyDeleteI wonder how any of us would feel about living under those circumstances?
Again I would ask - What were the circumstances that created Hamas and gave them oxygen? Isn't Israel's past treatment of Palestinians partly or even largely to blame?
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