Israel & Palestine

The iconic comedian Bill Hicks distinguished and differentiated the use of the word 'war' when describing the Gulf War conflict of the early '90s: "Well, a war is when two armies are fighting."

Two decades later the Middle East remains beset by violence, and over the past few days the incessant embroilment between Israel and Palestine escalated with a series of Israeli air strikes targeting Hamas members in the Gaza Strip. One of the most bloody and sporadic conflicts of the last half-century, Israel's latest of many military initiatives is in response to rockets and crude missiles fired into Israeli territories from Gaza.

I would personally say I'm quite successfully impartial and unbiased in this issue, or at least equally critical of both positions. I have no religious or political affiliation or association to either side, and have an intense distrust of any party or group who either scream Allahu Akbar before suicide attacks, or who claim divine and holy right to demand and insist (with violent consequences if disobeyed) that land and property now belong to them.  However, the dominance and exercise of military power that Israel exerts in the conflict is undeniable.

  

The statistics need no explanation to reveal the true dissimilarity between the damage and injury inflicted on the citizens of Israel and Palestine, particularly during the years of increased bloodshed (2002, 2004, 2008-'09, present).

In the past six days alone, at least 105 Palestinian citizens have been killed by Israeli air strikes - last week, three Israelis died in a Hamas rocket attack. Notice any disparity between those two figures?
  
Israel's militarism is absolute, and the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) are without doubt the most accomplished close-quarter and urban combatants in the world. Consisting of ground forces, air force, and navy, the IDF is infamous for its unhesitating and uncompromising utilisation of force (even against civilians) until any aggressor or provocateur surrenders or is annihilated. For this reason Israel has been criticised by the international community, and particularly condemned for its brutal Zionist expansionism into Palestinian territories. 

When Hamas rockets fired into Israel from Gaza (that aren't intercepted by "Iron Dome", Israel's advanced anti-missile defence system) strike the ground, they of course kill civilians in the immediate vicinity (they are sometimes literally directly hit by the rocket itself). However their crude and basic nature causes extremely low explosive capability, and limits their destructive power sometimes even only to damage the individual room of the building they hit, and only very rarely more than those in close proximity.

Israeli security personnel survey a building after it was hit by a rocket

Unsurprisingly, the Israeli military responsive is more than a little different. In the Israeli air strikes, entire buildings are levelled and destroyed in an instant by a single missile, reduced to piles of twisted steel and smouldering concrete rubble.

Palestinians stand around the ruins of a former Hamas building

However, although use of such excessive force against a comparatively defenceless and disempowered population is deplorable, Palestine is viewed globally with sympathy and support due to its victimised nature - yet this should be distinguished from its intentions and desires. It cannot seriously be argued that if in possession of the same military resources and technology as Israel, Hamas would respond with a ceasefire or call for reconciliation.

Public support for Hamas by the Palestinians is reinforced with every Israeli attack, and Israel is loathed and hated by countless citizens - while many wish for the destruction of the Jewish State and its inhabitants altogether. Although Israel and Palestine differ so greatly, they are united by a mutual hatred. 

In my opinion, there will never be peace in the region until religious tribalism is eradicated - a notion even the most idealistic do not contemplate, and dismissed by many as a laughable impossibility. While America remains predictably complicit in its unconditional support of Israel, and the IDF prepare for the possibility of a full ground invasion, one sad certainty is that more lives will be pointlessly lost in the future attempts to acquire this small but significant area of land.