Israel – Palestine conflict. When will it end?

Many people think there will be peace in the Middle East when there is a Palestinian state. These people are wrong. The Palestinians want all of Israel and they will not stop till the have it all.

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, making his first ever visit to the Gaza Strip, vowed on Saturday never to recognize Israel and said his Islamist group would never abandon its claim to all Israeli territory.

“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on an inch of the land,” he told a sea of supporters at an open-air rally marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas and a celebration of the organization’s “victory” over Israel.

Israel left Gaza in 2005, but that did not help the peace process at all. Despite thousands of Israelis being evicted from their homes, the only thing Israel got back in response was thousands upon thousands of rockets fired at civilians.

It’s a problem that doesn’t look it’s going away. What bothers me tremendously is that Israel is always seen in a negative light by the world and the media. People argue this isn’t true, since the Palestinians also seem to think that the media is against them, but sadly, the media is heavily against Israel in many countries and many people are too. Israel really does want peace and perhaps even a minority (yes, I think it’s only a minority) of the Palestinian people would like this conflict to end. But how can we have peace when the Palestinians are demanding all of Israel?

This war started many years ago. Jews have always been living in Israel and Israel has always been the Jewish homeland. In the 19th and 20th centuries when Jews started moving to Israel, this angered the Arabs and they started attacking Jews, murdering many. This is where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began. Jews from all over the world started moving to Israel. First the Turkish were in charge and then the British. Jews moved here peacefully and bought the land they lived on. Land was not stolen from the Palestinians, but the Arabs living just didn’t like the influx of Jews and started attacking them. Thank God the Jews here managed to defend themselves. Ironically, these wars against Israel only caused Israel to expand it’s territory. The wars in ’48, ’67 and ’73 were all due to Arab aggression. Had these wars never have happened, the Palestinians would have their land and the Jews theirs. We would be living in Israel happily and peacefully together. This wasn’t to be though and now we’re in the situation we’re in today.

I think the only way this conflict can ever end, is after a big war where Hamas and Israel’s haters are wiped out or if the Palestinians completely change their attitude towards Israel. Recognition of Israel as the Jewish homeland would go a long, long way. I don’t want to see another war, but it will surely happen, since Hamas has made it clear, it will not give up till it has conquered all of Israel.

The Gaza Blockade

Israel gets a lot of bad press. I’ve heard many people complain about the blockade on Gaza. The IDF blog has a post on Gaza from a somewhat different perspective to what we’re used to seeing in the press. Some of the commentators on the IDF blog think this is propaganda. I think their minds have been warped by the daily propaganda they see on news sites throughout the world.

Here are some of the key points of the IDF post:

The Gaza Strip is ruled by Hamas, a terrorist group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction. Rockets fired from the strip routinely strike southern Israel. With these simple facts in mind, it is easy to understand why the IDF cannot allow imports into Gaza without first inspecting the contents and ensuring that there are no weapons.

Every day, the IDF facilitates the transfer of thousands of tons of goods and gas into the Gaza Strip. These products are delivered to international aid organizations, such as UNRWA or the Red Cross.

All items can go in, even dual-use items — those that can be used for both civilian and military purposes, like certain fertilizers that can be used to build rockets. This policy is in accordance with the Wassenaar Arrangement, the international legal protocol on export controls. Dual-use items merely require an extra security check to make sure they’ll reach the right hands (UNRWA, Red Cross), and not those of Hamas or the other terror groups in Gaza.

Here’s a picture you don’t see every day. It’s a picture of the Central Library of Gaza:

I’ve never seen a picture like this of Gaza from a news site and I don’t think many of us have. The usual images are those of destroyed buildings, but life isn’t as terrible as others would have us imagine.

I’m sure life in Gaza isn’t great with Hamas in control. There are areas of Gaza that have been destroyed by war. In 2008, there was a three week war. Before the war thousands of rockets were being fired into Israel. Israeli cities were under attack daily. Israel was successful in killing many terrorists and the rocket attacks from Gaza dropped dramatically after the war (although the attacks have begun to escalate in recent weeks). The majority of the casualties were terrorists, but civilians were also killed during the war. Of course, there are civilians that perish in any war. Israel tried her utmost to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, but inevitably there were casualties. Civilian casualties were also inevitable due to Hamas using civilians as human shields.

I hope that one day we can live in peace, but sadly that day seems to be a long way away. It is impossible for Israel to make peace with a people that wants it destroyed and wiped off the map. But I have faith that that day will one day come:

כִּי עוֹד חָזוֹן לַמּוֹעֵד, וְיָפֵחַ לַקֵּץ וְלֹא יְכַזֵּב; אִם-יִתְמַהְמָהּ, חַכֵּה-לוֹ–כִּי-בֹא יָבֹא, לֹא יְאַחֵר

For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it declareth of the end, and doth not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not delay. (Chavakuk 2:3)