Gaza Blues

"Saddam, Saddam
 Ha Habib,
 Edroob, Edroob
 Tel Abib" 

Palestinian chant for the destruction of Israel, 1990

Gaza must be one of the most depressing areas in the world. It has the highest population density on the planet.  The people are starving and are blockaded. They have no hope. Trade is mainly accomplished through tunnels to Egypt from which the Israeli occupation turns a mostly blind eye.

I last visited the area in 1990, during the Gulf War, visiting Ashkelon and some of the surrounding cities but not entering Gaza itself. My father was born in Israel and I still have relatives in the Negev, at Revivim.

Like most human beings, I am conflicted regarding the Palestinian problem.  They seem to be playing a very dangerous game - on the one hand Hamas has a charter that calls for the annihilation of Israel and feels it has the right to lob missiles with impunity into the heart of this very small country, under the guise of legitimate resistance and liberation.  Yet they also seek to cast themselves as martyrs and victims of a sometimes brutal occupier. Israel would like a secure solution and to create a similar relationship to the one they have with the Palestinians on the West Bank, an area that has been pretty quiet for the last year or two.

I read an interesting piece in Tikkun the other day where an Israeli makes a claim that Hamas was actually a creation of the Mossad or Shin Bet.  They officially deny having a hand in the formation but not the fact that the result has proven beneficial in some way by splintering and bifurcating the population into secular and islamic camps.  

I have a love/hate relationship with Israel. I love the people in a general sense but find them to be very calculating and to be masters of the endgame finesse.  The finest chess players in the world have been jews, Lasker, Botvinnick, Kasparov, Tal, Steinitz and Fischer.  And I think that they are in a very dangerous game here. A game for their very existence.

I was hoping that the Israelis would not move ground troops into Gaza but they have.  Maybe they had no choice.  There are certain to be horrible casualties among both sides, with many innocent civilians hurt. And I think that there must be a larger macrocosmic agenda in place in Israeli calculations.  I don't know but here is my guess:  This invasion has nothing to do with Kassam missiles and everything to do with pulling the teeth of an enemy on the southern flank prior to taking on Iran.  Nahash Sefta. Reports have circulated that the range of the Gaza missiles can now almost target the Israeli Nuclear Facilities at Dimona.  Israel can not risk such a move on the chessboard as an unarmed Israel would quickly become mincemeat to it's angry neighbors.

I had many palestinian friends when I lived b'eretz.  They deserve to live a life of dignity as do all human beings.  But as I have said before, if you ask Israel to stop the blockade and then attack the checkpoints, if you cry foul while simultaneously terrorizing the Israelis with rockets, if you choose to adopt a covert war strategy while hiding behind a civilian population, the fruits will be bitter.

I actually brought Israelis and Palestinians together for a small meeting in 1990 under the watchful and nervous eye of a government agent, and was amazed to find that people who had lived next to each other there whole lives yet had never really talked about their feelings and grievances with each other.  They were very nervous. One of the players had walked away from Gaza, a mark of shame in a warrior society. I had been given an invitation to a local palestinian man's home for a feast but he got scared and rescinded the offer.  People forget that there are many Israeli Arabs that have lived in peace with Israel since it's founding. There needs to be less demonizing and more actual talking.

Israel can not continue to build settlements in the occupied areas, they must be true to their word.  They can not let a vocal religious minority define their actions with a biblical roadmap. Palestinians must stop the violence and recognize Israel's right to exist.  Ot the whole world might just go up in a puff of smoke one day.