Mission & Justice

29/12/08

The retaliatory bombing of Gaza by Israel, with reports of large casualties, has all the hallmarks of another tactical and strategic disaster for Israel and Hamas in a war that can’t be won militarily. The script is predictable: more rockets from Hamas, suicide bombings, direct invasion from Israel, more collective punishment, and an outbreak of virulent anti-Israel feeling in the rest of the world, segueing into unforgivable anti-Semitism. Why? The corrupt Israeli and Palestinian leaderships have, in recent years, proved themselves incapable of breaking this terrible circle of ethnic violence and increased prejudice, and Israel, in particular, has proved that it wishes to kneecap anything but a bantustan-like relationship with deprived Palestinian ghettos. Only international leadership can help the two nations, and for this the world will turn to the Obama administration. It is a huge task, but one for which, with his background, he can hit the ground running and take on the nostrums and prejudices of both sides, including the right-wing Israel lobby in the US, to end this unwinnable madness. Unless this happens, Palestinians will suffer even more and embrace religious extremism further, and Israel will become more cocooned and heartbreakingly devoid of any moral connection with Jews whose lives have been intertwined with its destiny. Larry Stillman Elwood (Vic)

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28/12/08; (2 Items)

Israel blitzed Hamas targets in Gaza yesterday with a wave of air strikes that killed at least 155 people in the besieged enclave in retaliation for ongoing rocket fire, officials said. An Israeli man died as Hamas swiftly responded to the air raids by firing rockets into the Jewish state. As Israel warned that the bombardment was “just the beginnning”, Hamas told Israelis living near their Gaza stronghold to “prepare the funeral shrouds”. In Gaza, thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky and mangled, bloody, charred corpses littered the pavement around Hamas security structures in the coastal strip where the bombardment sowed panic in the streets, television images showed. The deadly attacks came after days of escalating violence around the besieged coastal strip that the Islamist Hamas movement has run since June 2007, with militants firing rockets and Israel vowing a fiery response.

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Linda S. Heard; 23/12/08

How long do the Palestinians have to suffer before the international community decides to do something about the cruelty inflicted upon this proud people, whose only crime is to strive for what we all have - a country to call home? How many more generations will be abandoned to a vicious occupation while the world pretends not to notice? How much longer will Israel be given virtual carte blanche to do its worst under the faux pretext of “never again”? Why should these innocents have to pay such a heavy price for crimes committed in Europe more than 60 years ago? Unanswerable questions all but one thing is certain, their endless pain is our collective shame. During this week of joyful celebration, perhaps you could spare a few moments to count your blessings while trying to imagine what it must be like to live in the open-air prison called Gaza.

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