Understanding the Gaza Catastrophe

Israeli soldiers stand on their APC's and gesture towards the Gaza Strip on January 2, 2009 near Israel's border with the Hamas-run territory. Israel continues to reinforce its troops amid talks of an internationally-brokered ceasefire.

I am no high-brow scholar, merely a former student of Arabic and Middle East history with numerous Arab and Jewish friends in the Middle East. I cannot pretend to write an article such as this one found on the Huffington Post, and I won't try.

I do, however, highly recommend it.

Understanding the Gaza Catastrophe by Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories

Posted January 2, 2009 11:00 AM (EST)

Excerpt:

"The people of Gaza are victims of geopolitics at its inhumane worst: producing what Israel itself calls a 'total war' against an essentially defenseless society that lacks any defensive military capability whatsoever and is completely vulnerable to Israeli attacks mounted by F-16 bombers and Apache helicopters. What this also means is that the flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, as set forth in the Geneva Conventions, is quietly set aside while the carnage continues and the bodies pile up. It additionally means that the UN is once more revealed to be impotent when its main members deprive it of the political will to protect a people subject to unlawful uses of force on a large scale. Finally, this means that the public can shriek and march all over the world, but that the killing will go on as if nothing is happening. The picture being painted day by day in Gaza is one that begs for renewed commitment to international law and the authority of the UN Charter, starting here in the United States, especially with a new leadership that promised its citizens change, including a less militarist approach to diplomatic leadership."


Palestinian children from the Al-jojo family look from their family house at the damage after an Israeli air strike destroyed the neighboring house of Dababish family in Gaza, Gaza Strip, January 1, 2009. Israeli warplanes attacked government buildings in the Gaza Strip on New Year's Day after Israel and its Islamist Hamas foe both spurned ceasefire calls. Read more!

Israelity Bites

Photos courtesy of The Huffington Post

Some of you may not know my position on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Many of you don't care, and the majority won't agree. For the record, I believe that Palestinians are treated with all the respect of caged animals in a third world zoo. And their captives wonder why they always try to bite.

The current assault by Israeli forces--one of the strongest overreactions in years--is heinous and barbaric. Hamas' attacks are not justified, either, but let us just take a look at the comparative scope for a second, shall we? C'mon.

How much does the general person actually know about the Gaza Strip, actually? When was the last time any of you watched any documentaries on the occupied territories? There are plenty out there. Gaza Strip, directed by James Longley, is a very good place to start.

They are not as fun to watch as, say, Stranger than Fiction, which I watched last night as the bombs continued to fall in the tiny strip of land that is Gaza--4-7.5 miles wide by 25 miles long, with approximately 1.4 million inhabitants. But short of joining the resistance and getting myself killed, or sending messages to Barack Obama who, according to spokesman David Axelrod, is "generally sympathetic" to the Israelis, there's not a whole helluva lot I can do.



One thing I will do it provide a link to someone who devotes more time and space to the issue than I do. The blog is Israelity Bites, contradictions, vexations, discoveries and epiphanies in the Holy Land.

Read more!