Tuesday, January 6, 2009

The feud continues

The new year begins with an ill-conceived war between Israel and Hamas. It is the 11th day of the battle, Israel has sliced Gaza into two parts, rockets are still set forth, and the carnage continues.

News media repeatedly shows the death and destruction caused in Gaza and the hundreds of wounded civilians admitted in hospitals. Children are the casualties du jour.

Israel's claim to initiate such a mass scale invasion of Gaza are in self-defense, in retribution of the rockets shot by Hamas on Israeli's grounds and people, and to eliminate Hamas from the political front effectively. However one has to ask how such a disproportional invasion will determine the long-term results of the political map between Israel and Palestine?

The more images of Palestinian casualties are shown on the news media, the more volunteers line up on the doorsteps of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other such militant political machinations. What is the end result of so much carnage? Neither states are secure from each other.

Israel cannot salvage or undo the damage to their image and to their cause by the numbers of death between the two states - Israel 5, Palestine 555 to date. These numbers alone will severely undermine Israel's claims that it is a state that deals with negotiations and diplomacy foremost.

In any case, the war continues and the deaths accumulate.

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