City in the Crosshairs

We are learning about Israel and the Middle east again in my class. This video totally made it clear to me how horrible it is there. Not feeling safe in your own country would be beyond terrible.

Wiggle,

In response to your first comment, when did Israelis ever put terrified children in the way as an emotional shield...?

I loved this very relevant podcast in the wake of the gaza strip border closing.

While the focus on protecting children does add a bit of melodrama it encapsulates Sderot's feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness at the hands of Quassam rockets.

The other side of the story is people used as pawns by their own "brothers" to fight a proxy war. There is a lot of "forgotten history" which seemingly allows people to defend the use of terror - never acceptable.

Imagine living in a suburb of NYC, or wherever your hometown is, and having rockets fired at your child's school any moment, with 7 seconds to respond. How would you react? American history does not imply tolerance or acceptance.

For those who believe the Palestinians have long suffered, please consider that Gazans and thousands of Palestinians in Israel have more freedoms than a majority of the population in most other Arab countries. Where else to Arab women vote? How many other Arab territories hold elections?

The Arab-Israeli conflict is arduous. But Israel has a clear right to exist. The Palestinian crisis could have been averted or solved several times in the last 60 years by other Arab countries or outside mediation. Every other WW2 refugee crisis ended over 50 years ago. Terrorism is never acceptable.

Now, we think about terror, and these people live under rockets raining from the sky. That is sure and visible terror, and the consistency of it could drive people mad. Im sure many people have even left the city by now, if they could find another place to live. This pod was well made, the focus on protecting the children gives it power.

Right, we send them billions each year because of the U.S. Israeli lobby, mostly funded by Evangelical Christians, rather than by the mostly progressive Jewish Americans who think the whole idea of funding the war over there is counterproductive.

But who and how the weapons get into the Gaza strip, West Bank, Golan Heights, and South Lebanon is a much more complicated movement of weapons, funds, and tactics. If only they could apply that organizational capacity to a strategy that worked, like disarming, forming a sovereign state, and building a life for themselves that's better than what they've got.

They've got all they would ever need inside themselves to find a way to co-exist with the Israelis. I believe this and I'm certain most of the Palestinians believe it too... but they're still under constant threat by Israel and forced through humiliating checkpoints every day of their lives.

Let's just keep the faith that there will eventually be a break in the violence that not just leaders, but ordinary Palestinians and Israelis can once again talk and build that trust they all so vitally need. The time of bloodshed is coming to a close here, and better days may, MAY be coming soon.

Wiggle,
Of course, I have no idea if they are american-provided bombs. Just an assumption. According to the "A World Policy Institute Issue Brief" by Frida Berrigan and William D. Hartung (July 20, 2006), from 2001 to 2005, Israel has received "$6.3 billion in U.S. arms deliveries".That's a little chunk of change. However, as I said, one cannot assume that the bombs used were of american origin.

ldaudelin, how do you know they're American bombs?

This would be news to me. Last I heard, it was Egyptian and Iranian made weaponry. I could be wrong, but they're getting 'em from somewhere and it'd make no sense that the U.S. would supply an enemy of Israel, a U.S. ally.

In a case like this, it's nearly impossible to have a two-sided report because the moment the Gazans hear that he's interviewing Israelis, the first thing they'd think is the fix would be in. If any Gazans did talk, the next day Hamas would be waiting at their doorstep for a friendly chat.

Same barriers goes for Al Jazeera or Al Arabia if they want to do interviews in Israel, it's quite tough to convince anyone in the Israeli information ministry that they're going to cover it fairly.

Perhaps after this year it'll be possible to get some decent two-sided journalism, but as it is a warzone, there is no trust whatsoever.

One-sided, as we've come expect, but always excellent and in-depth. I almost thought the footage of the rocket attack was your footage, but nope, it was from an Israeli information department.

Great pod with great coverage. Rare to see these scenes from the Israeli side.

Interesting piece but it only shows up one side of the problem. I wish we would have been shown the damage that the American-provided bombs can do in the Gaza strip...

This style of oppositional thinking I'm afraid is far more common in a warzone than Eli Moyal realizes. It's never going to be an "acceptance" gap that Israel and Gaza have to broach, it's a -tolerance- gap. Tolerance means you put up with them, acceptance means you invite 'em in for drinks. Neither is possible when outside actors arm both sides. The only way to get past the first gap is to empathize with the other's position and settle their own pridefulness out of sight from cynical critics. The second gap is filled when the memory of the fear and hate is reassessed as insular and backwards.

Of -course- they're not going to accept each other in 50 years because that's setting the bar rediculously high that any resolution seems fantastical. When Israelis and the Palestinians put expectations as such and then opt to put terrified children in the way as an emotional shield to guard the adults from reassessing their options, no good solution can ever be reached.