Sunday, December 28, 2008

Gaza: The Feast Day of the Slaughter of the Innocents, 2008

I've been struck dumb by the attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, completely unable to string two words together. I hope to write a few letters and make a few calls to Israeli and American officials tomorrow (probably while I sit in an airport going through the same holiday travel hell as everyone else), but in the meantime my friend Amy has some thoughts about the situation:

After watching the news in horror the last two days, I finally have found some words. Not too many, but a few.

This is reportedly the largest action on the part of Israel against the Palestinians since the 1967 war. There is some question of who, exactly, broke the cease-fire. But regardless, the toll is, as always, unbalanced. Over three hundred dead- three hundred- and maybe as many as 1,000 injured; there is no way of knowing how critical the injured are, or how many of them will die of their wounds.

Amira Hass, bless her soul, writes 'Gaza strike is not against Hamas, it's against all Palestinians'.

Today is the Feast Day in Western churches known as the Slaughter of the Innocents.

I am aware that not everyone in Gaza is innocent. But most of them are. Is it just to kill 300 in order to get a handful you were aiming for? Is it just to herd one and a half million people into a section of land, not let them leave, and then bombard them with missile strikes?

My values say it is not.

This is wrong. Very, very wrong.

Edit: Ali Abunimah gives us yet another stunning article.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sad. I wish I could help. As am American I am appalled at the inhumanity of my country.

Anonymous said...

Hamas is the cause of this. They cannot have over 3,000 rockets hit Israel and not expect some military action. Their rockets are launched in residential areas. This is so avoidable. Let us not support Hamas!

j_in_palestine said...

I don't support violence, from any one. But there are some facts that need to be faced. Over 500 Palestinians have been killed since the assault began. Only 5 Israelis have been killed. Everyone of those deaths were tragic and morally wrong, but there's a problem here.