Inkwell Institute
Middle East Crisis #3
Think back a couple years ago…there was fighting and killing in Lebanon and then in Gaza…then there was an uneasy cease fire, it will never be a peace, just an uneasy cease fire…..and then the rest of the world, well Israel friendly world, began again the tired old plan of trying to find common ground for both parties involved to secure a lasting cease fire and a solution to the nation problem…..
With every effort attempting there seems to always be the same stumbling block…settlements. Israel goes into build mode and the Palestinians go into opposition mode and after a couple of months of back and forth, the shooting begins and the new war begins…..and with that the deaths, injuries, accusations, rhetoric and all the usual BS that goes with the conflict….
Plan after plan has been offered up and plan after plan has been shot down and with the death of each plan comes the death of the people involved…..a never ending cycle of war, ceasefire, BS and then more war……Now it is Obama’s turn in the barrel of the Middle East…it started off pretty good and then in the middle of a visit from the VP Israel announces its plan to build more settlements….pretty much a spit in Obama’s face….and then the words and then after the words fall silent…..the rockets and bullets start……and a way we go on the usual path…..
Israel’s nemesis in Gaza is Hamas and every excursion into the area is lead by the promise of the elimination of said group….and when it is over and a cease fire takes hold…Hamas always remains…..a good thing if you need something to justify the killing and maiming of a population….
But what now? Is the cycle broken? You decide!
Though he balked at setting any timeline for when it would happen, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz promised that Israel would “sooner or later” invade and reoccupy the Gaza Strip, liquidating Hamas in the process.
Minister Steinitz, a member of the ruling Likud Party, said that Israel would have to reoccupy the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas from rearming and that it was “left with no choice” in the matter.
Tensions along the border with the strip have been on the rise since a Friday clash inside the strip in which two members of the Hamas security force and two members of the Israeli military were slain. Israel responded to the clash by sending tanks and military bulldozers against the town of Khan Younis.
It is only a matter of time…….and if my prediction is close to correct, it will be sooner rather than later…..and the people suffer……
Well, I’m sure that you know that the answer to your question in the title is almost certainly a given “yes”… sigh…
However, the thought that keeps popping up in my mind (and won’t go away whatever way I push it) is this:
What would happen (and would HAVE happened already) if we all just kept our goddamned noses out and let them get on with it? No doubt it wouldn’t be good, but do we make ANYTHING at all even the tiniest bit better, or just infinitely worse? Isn’t it all actually just driven by the weapons industries in countries like ours anyway?
In fact, although my more decent self says you have to keep on caring and trying, these days an ever larger part of me keeps on thinking that it would be better to use the capabilities we have now to just say, “This is a line in the sea between you and us – cross it with ANYTHING (boats, airliners, anything) and we’ll blow it to bits. Now go play your sick war games on your own and leave us ordinary folk alone!”
There must be a lot of money in it, or we’d do that!
The money is astonishing…..from the US alone it is billions upon billions ….and let us not forget the rest of the world …like the UK and France and Germany and ….on and on…..