Matthew Henry John Bartlett

After the march today I read the paper and it made me angry.

The Dom Post editorial proposed that all that needs to happen to stop the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza is for Hamas to stop firing rockets.  The editor was joined in this view by a columnist on the following page; I’m sorry I can’t remember who.  At some level this is true, but it is offensively simplistic.  I object on four main grounds (so far):

1. All Israel has to do is stop the land and air assault.
2. By that logic all you have to do to stop a bully is to give him your lunch.
3. This argument completely ignores the circumstances in which the Palastinians have been living for so many years – it is as if Hamas’s rockets were the very first stone thrown.
4. Finally, although Israel claims that their objective is to stop the rocket attacks, the strategy they are pursuing blatantly, blatantly will not achieve this.  It may be creating some dissent in the Gaza population against the leadership of Hamas, but obviously its most likely effect – other than the heartbreaking suffering and deaths it is causing – is to breed further militantism.  Who wouldn’t want to stand up when these atrocities are being perpetrated against their people?

My final comment doesn’t mean I think it is right to fight back that way; I don’t think Hamas should be firing rockets either.  I recognise that there is suffering on the Israeli side too, and wrong on both.  But Israel’s actions are those of a bully and there can be no justification for this offensive.