A thing about Gaza
The complexities of the Gaza/Israel conflict and the politics of the Middle East in general are probably beyond a humble customer service adviser like me. I’m know so little about the region I had to make sure before I used capital letters when writing the phrase, ‘the Middle East.’ I am that ignorant. One thing I do know, however, is that killing children is wrong.
You’d think that was obvious conclusion to make but two groups believe otherwise, 1] the governments of the west, 2] old people with well maintained gardens. The latter probably have a point.
‘He worked hard on that you little shits. Play in the park.’
However, much less justified is the killing of Palestinian children. The argument is that Israel has the ability to defend itself. And it does. Every nation does. Nevertheless, when you look at the facts, when you look at the death toll on both sides, it’s clear this is most ridiculous use of the self defense argument since Steven Gerrard beat up that DJ.
The recent outbreak in violence was a response to the murder of three Israeli teenagers. A complete tragedy and your heart has to go out to their families. It’s just not something that can be used to excuse the deaths of over a thousand innocent people. It’s like responding to a jab in the arm by stabbing your attacker 13 times in the heart, murdering their whole family and fucking their dog. Especially when we now know Hamas wasn’t involved in the murder of those kids.
Israel’s action in this particular conflict is even starting to draw criticism for their biggest supporters, the United States. President Obama………………’s press secretary condemned a bombing of a United Nations school but since they also sent them a bunch of shiny new rockets you would have to question how serious the condemnation is. Their plan seems to be similar to a parent who catches their kid smoking so forces him to finish the pack; they expect Israel to bomb themselves out. It’s a good plan, unless you live in Gaza.
‘Son, the best way to beat this highly addictive drug is to take as much of it as you can.’
What’s strange is the reaction in Northern Ireland. Allegiances are split down sectarian lines because if there is one thing we love in Northern Ireland it is a bit of sectarianism, even if it somebody else’s. There was actually a clash between protests the other week. In fairness though, Willie Fraser led one of the protests. Willie could start a fight in an empty room, provided he thought that room had republican sympathies.
‘It’s door was painted green and was pointing south.’
It’s somewhat understandable; people have drawn parallels between Nationalists and Gaza and between Unionists and Israel. I say sort of because 1,841 civilians died during the entirety of Troubles, current estimates put the death toll in Gaza at north of 1,400. That’s all the suffering of nearly 30 years of war condensed into just a few weeks. We are like not them; we have had it far easier.
So I go back to my original, stop trying to understand a millennium old conflict, stop acting like we’re just like Gaza or Israel and just agree that killing children is wrong. When we do that we can pressurize our governments to stop Israel from doing it.
