Phoenix, that is a pretty good summary.
Hamas, being who they are, were not the favourites (by us foreigners) to win the LEGAL elections in Palestine.
The actions today look very much like a proxy situation, since there are really no commoners in the Gaza area that wanted what has come to them.
The militants actions are out of control of the locals there, they protect them mainly because they are kin, not because they are much involved in the cause.
We have a situation there that is falling apart every so often, there have never been real peace, but to begin with, they should go back to the old settlement agreement made up once the state of Israel was drawn up.
They can only solve this themselves, the war methods use will not solve nothing but create a situation were ignorant onlookers will feel Israel is cleansing the area of Palestine, or if they read only American media, that Palestine is one big terror group. None of which is true.
The supporters of the Hamas agenda are quite happy with what have happened, now they get the two sides clearly marked, those pro Hamas and those pro Israel. Such a situation will not lead to peace, we should stay as neutral we can, and try to crystallise some kind of facts and reasons behind what is happening.
Shooting into school and living areas is not accepted no matter who is doing the shooting when civilians are living there. Basta. Still it will happen, and we will need to hold each power doing so responsible, but first after we reached a halt in the violence. Throwing blame at either at this moment will only serve their cause of creating havoc and hatred.
Use Google Earth, check the area where they are bombing, and tell me, how they can not hit civil targets. There is nothing else there but private homes, hospitals, kindergartens and offices. No clear military targets at all. Israel knows this, and still they have walked into this “diplomatic” trap with heavy feet.
Hamas have very little political support around the world, but what they have is a “we – them” scenario and they play very well in that game. The lives lost to fire their cause seem not to worry them, and here is the big problem. If they care not to protect their own, who will they care to protect at all? PLO did have another view on this, an old-fashioned political agenda, but Israel never was happy with what they had to agree to settle the situation once and for all.
To the local people that must have been extremely frustrating, on both sides, the Palestine’s since “the Israel government did not want peace” and the Israelites since the PLO just wanted “more and more and death to all Jews”. None of those are true, but politically coloured media truly knows how to fire up a crowd.
Solution? Close all local media (both sides) and let a group of Ghana reporters take care of the reporting. They did wonderfully well now in their own election.
Could that be done? Of course not...
