The Gaza Strip
It is not from Israel that the United States conducts its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our efforts in those theaters of conflict are supported by logistics in other nations, many of them who follow the teachings of Mohammad. Should Israel become a rogue nation, the United States will have other reliable allies in the Middle East. Policies that suggest otherwise are fostered by those with religious adherence to Judaism and family ties to Jews, and those who refuse to see otherwise. Really, the conviction of these who support the “Jewish State” are so strong, and in some cases so radical, that American values such as those that support the freedom of speech, liberty, equality, and justice for all, are trampled upon. The pro-Israel groups work to ensure that even the most myopic policies of the “Jewish State” are unchecked, and unquestioned. Such is the condition that Washington’s policy for the Middle East seems to be run run by Tel Aviv or heads in our own backyard that are more “Jewish” than American.
Against this backdrop it is unlikely that there will be peace anytime soon in the Middle East, and the senseless imprisonment and destruction of the homeland of 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will continue unabated until the pressure cooker blows up. It is not just the Israelis who blockade the Palestinians of Gaza from the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, medicine, education. So too are an immoral lot of Egyptians that tacitly support Israel’s policies to the Palestinians, and profit from the desperate need of a people who burrow holes under the border of Egypt to smuggle food into the Gaza Strip. So too are a scurrilous and an immoral lot the nations of the world who stand quietly while 1.5 million people are maimed, killed, starved, and dispossessed of their land and homes by extremists who do not see the value of peace.
It is true that the Palestinians have their share of extremists but it is also equally true that Palestinians cannot match proportionally Israel’s attack or retaliation upon that weak and impoverished people.
Many Jews have the tendency to believe that those of us who criticize Israel hate Jews. Yet Peace activists (some of whom are Jews) and commentators who speak out against the embargo of the Gaza Strip are against tyranny and oppression. We are against the false imprisonment of 1.5 million people in the Gaza, and believe that the time for a Palestinian State is long overdue. No one hates Jews for practicing Judaism any more than we hate Catholics for practicing Catholicism. It is when religion becomes so muddled within a group that it dictates who they are, and becomes so dangerous and extreme that they cannot think outside that box, that others become alienated from extremism that offends the sensibilities. Israelis, Egyptians, Americans, and others alike, have to realize that no one can carry out a policy of tyranny and oppression against a people without having to shoulder the consequences of it, and the refutation of it. Those in a position of power have to set good examples that the rest of us may be inclined to follow.
