The Gaza War

War is appalling. After the two world wars, many countries vowed to never rage war again, but not so long ago, we saw artilleries launching again and people dying again in this Gaza War. I hate war, including the Gaza War. Many countries and organization shared this abhorrence and had publicly condemned this military action.

In Europe, fits of anti-Semitic violence erupted in France, Belgium and Sweden. Venezuela cut its foreign relation with Israel, claiming Israel had severely destroyed world peace. Turkey and Syria called the Arab and Islam countries to adopt policies that would bring an immediate halt to Israel’s massacre. Amnesty International accused Israel of using white phosphorus against civilians. United Nations criticized Israel for severely violating the international humanism law.

Although under such enormous pressure, Israel only ceased fire when the Hamas agreed to stop bombing Israel for two weeks. This war between Palestinians and Israelites cost 1,300 Palestinians life.

From the news we hear, Israel is to take the blame. However, I do not believe Palestinians are innocent in provoking this war. The Hamas has vowed to wipe Israel. For years, they have been sending rockets into Israel, killing many Israel civilians. Strangely, the international media paid little attention to the Hama’s blood wash of the Jews. In 2006, international human right organizations pointed that Lebanon had violated Palestinian refugees’ human right for a long time, but there was almost no reaction from the international society. According to American radio talker Dennis Prager, Israelites will not celebrate the deaths of Gaza civilians, but Palestinians will party over the deaths of Jews.

Israel never wanted to harm civilians, but it had to because the Hamas had purposefully dressed themselves as civilians and launched rockets in schools and mosque. Israel tried to be responsible. It had been providing an enormous amount of food relief to Gaza civilians during the war time. Despite these efforts in alleviating the pain of this inevitable war, Israel only has United States as its ally.

Three years ago, after Lebanon sent rockets into Israel, killing 43 in heavily populated northern Israel, Israel raged war. As the Lebanon-Israel war ended, Lebanon said that if they knew how fiercely Israel would respond to their rocket campaign, they might consider again before sending the rockets. Many people said this kind of military action, bombing them because they bombed me, an eye for an eye, should only exist in the Old Testament days. However, Israel did make Lebanon think twice before attacking again, a clear deterrent effect. London University professor Efraim Karsh said, since Israel established 60 years ago, it is the only nation in the world, that its policies and actions are constantly under international society’s criticism. “Why?” he asked. The Gaza War might end for a while, but Karsh’s question demands more pondering.