ISRAEL

The west needs to hold Israel accountable and expect better from the Jewish people

If ever there were a people 

who new what suffering was 

If ever genocide was visited

upon a homeless nation 

If ever a people knew 

really KNEW 

what being a victim was 

If ever a people knew 

We should expect better

Better than artillery rounds 

dropped on children's hospitals 

Better than "militants" as an excuse

Better than the propaganda 

    in the western press

Better than the brutal occupation 

they've forced upon their victims 

Better than a totalitarian land grab

in the name of "settlements" 

Better than 1000's of dead bodies 

in the name of security

Israel 

You have fallen for 

the power 

of the bomb

You could teach the world better 

Show us the humanity 

 history taught your soul 

Show the world restraint 

from the insanity 

Your people suffered 

for so long

Israel 

The civilized world

waits for your answer 

Author's Note

If all you know about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is what you here in the American press, your picture is horribly distorted by what the US government wants you to believe about "terrorism" and US, Israeli foreign policy. Israel has a right to exist, so do the Palestinians. Israel could teach the world humanity rather than the lesson of the gun Israel has decided. Stop blaming the Palestinians and really look at the situation. Israel has to make a move towards humanity, even if HAMAS doesn't follow. The Jewish people's history demands it.

Reviews

[Tai Ryens]

It is a rather difficult situation, in many ways: political, physical, even moral. As of right now, both parties are quite disgusting with their affairs with each other, one side inspired by their "God-given right to eradicate the Israelis" while the other side murders children to "keep themselves safe." Both sides have a long history of hating each other and the ones in control believe they will never be able to peacefully coexist for a variety of reasons, and that is causing major problems for everyone in the region, especially the innocents.

I agree, Israel needs to take the moral high route and search for a peaceful solution instead of the path they have chosen. I do hope they do, eventually. Well expressed, Baby, keep spreading the truth.

[Baby Ricochet]

I don't know what the answers are or even if there are any. I do know razing Gaza to the ground is a bad option though. Subjugating people with brute force is tempting on the face of it but history has proven, over the long run, brute force usually back fires.

[stars are far]

you know in our religion God says that jewish were the best people in the world, the jewish, and then they come to Palestine and destroy their image that God has given them..
And when Isreal gives warning to kill people and whatever, what are they supposed to do ? their homes are bombed ,their is no place to go to.. so they should just sit there and wait for their coffins !!..
Hamas isnt the issue, they are not palestine itself, they are just a part, i dont know how the world sees them, but i dont support them, plus Palestiens have the right to defend themselves against the bombs.. and hey i really support your point of view.. "the civlized world waits for your answer".. yes they do wait and will keep waiting.. and just saying, i mean they teach you that Palstines are terrorists , supporting their words based on what ??? ... i dunno..
Palstines are not terrorists , and they have the right to live..

[Baby Ricochet]

Unfortunately there are no easy answers here. There's no doubt HAMAS has been a major problem but the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians by Israel in the name of security isn't any better.

[KAOlmsted]

I don't even know where to begin with your *um* ((what's a word for that weirdness you do...support terrosrists??)) Isreal gave them warning...Hammas said the targets were schools and hospitals... am I the only one who sees this??? Nah. The whole world sees it.

[Baby Ricochet]

I'm on of the side of the people trapped under the bombs and in this conflict, it's the Palestinians. Israel is obviously waging a war of attrition against the civilian population of Gaza in in a continuing effort to subjugate them, as they have been doing for decades now. There's no doubt HAMAS is a brutal and insane enemy but dropping artillery rounds on schools, hospitals and shelters then claiming there were rockets near by is no less barbaric. Israel is a powerful nation and they're holding all the aces. They need to do better than indiscriminate slaughter.

[KAOlmsted]

Thanks for the spell check, I don't know how to spell what I don't support ;-) I do like hummus, though.

[Aethereal]

I believe that the Israelis are convinced that any radical terrorist organization such as HAMAS who uses children as shields and tortures hostages may never be trusted to keep a long term peace agreement involving concessions. The Palestinians would now have the moral high ground if they had gone the way of Mahatma Gandhi or Marten Luther King, but that isn’t going to happen. In fact, if Arabs had strived for a Mahatma Gandhi type of peaceful coexistence from the get go there would now be a peaceful demilitarized Palestinian-Israel state where all political powers are shared equally. Every show of force triggers a counter force until both sides are completely annihilated by each other, or a miracle happens. What we need is a miracle.

[Baby Ricochet]

I'm a great admirer of Gandhi and Dr King. To me the civil rights movement, when it was controlled by SNCC with Dr king at it's helm was the most heroic time period in American history. Suppressed people stood up and got a sympathetic Kennedy/ Johnson administration to push for real change. When the movement drifted north to more complex and subtle forms of repression and SNCC lost control, the movement turned militant. After Dr King's assassination, all bets were off. Now we have an African American president and though it's obvious racism is alive and well we have come a long way as a culture. Americans are a flexible people. There's no doubt HAMAS has committed acts of atrocities against the Israeli people but waging a war of attrition on civilians, which is obviously what Israel is doing. Dropping artillery rounds on schools hospitals and shelters for any reason is no less barbaric than indiscriminately firing rockets at civilians. Israel is going way beyond self defense with this.

[Aethereal]

If Israel can’t attack schools and hospitals, then HAMAS would just start shooting its rockets at Israeli settlements and cities 24/7 without retribution if they launch from schools and hospitals. Just wait till HAMAS begins using high velocity long range electromagnetic rail guns against Israel that shoot rounds that Israel would have no way to stop. HAMAS could launch rail gun rounds filled with biological, poison gas, and radioactive powder at all hours of the day, and with no warning. Israel is waging war on HAMAS, but HAMAS is using civilians as shields. It doesn’t take much radiological powder, gas, or bio-weapons to kill a hundred thousand people down range. Israel and HAMAS should work with the United Nations to find some way of preventing a weapon’s escalation in the future.

[Baby Ricochet]

A lot of horrific things could happen. That doesn't make what's happening now any less horrific nor does it make a deliberate war of attrition on civilians justifiable. I'm in no way in support of HAMAS. One doesn't have to be in support of HAMAS or the Israeli government's military strategy to understand slaughtering children in the name of security is immoral. In so doing one is saying the life of a Palestinian child is worth less than the life of an Israeli child and Palestinians should be wiped out for being in the way. Israel could have taken a more restrained route and still damage HAMAS ability to attack them. They're not killing Palestinians on a mass scale to get at rockets. They're doing it to break the Palestinian's spirit of defiance and to divide them in an effort to get some Palestinians to name names within HAMAS. If the massive bombing campaigns of WWII proved anything it proved you couldn't break a nation's will by bombing them. It only increased their resolve to fight on. That's what Israel is doing now. I just hope the latest cease fire holds and the Israel can come to some kind of lasting peace with the Palestinians. I'm sure you do too.

[Aethereal]

No matter how much Israel gives in towards the Palestinians, militant radicals in HAMAS will still want and fight for more until they have driven all the Israelis into the sea. This fight has no end game short of the complete annihilation of both societies sometime in the far future. How are we to instruct them how to find peace among themselves if we ourselves couldn’t prevent the American civil war? Theirs is a Semite Civil War just as World Wars One and Two were Germanic Civil Wars. We just don’t know how to prevent brothers and sisters from killing each other. Humans have always preempted threats from those whom they fear whenever they get the strategic drop on them through the development of superior weapons. Collateral damage always results from such madness.

[Baby Ricochet]

When their side does it, it's a terrorist attack. When our side does it, it's collateral damage. The mangled corpses of the innocent smell the same no matter who it is.

[Aethereal]

And for that reason neither side should fire the first shot. HAMAS fired the first shot inciting Israeli self defense action. Just hold a truce until another first shot is fired, then there would be peace if no one fires first again. Who shall blink first?

[Aethereal]

The side at fault is the side who shoots the first shot after a United Nation’s truce is held. Didn’t this present conflict begin with HAMAS shooting the first shot? I’m not taking sides as I’m just trying to find the side who incited the other through a violent act. A judge takes no sides.

[Baby Ricochet]

I'm writing about Israel in this way because I have some faith, however dim it may be, Israel could take the lead (because HAMAS never will) in establishing some kind of lasting peace with the Palestinians. Israel's recent assault on a UN school being used as a shelter sparked international outrage. Even many of Israel's western allies are becoming critical. Both sides have called for a 72 hour "unconditional" cease fire. ( the "unconditional" part means no snipers or road side bombs) while Israeli and Palestinian leaders meet in Egypt to work on an agreement. The Palestinians will most definitely demand the blockade on Gaza be lifted which the Israelis have been hostile to. Dealing with an enemy like HAMAS it's obvious why the Israelis are wary. It's equally obvious why the Palestinians are wary too. Both sides have too much bad blood between them to do any good.

[Aethereal]

That 72 hour cease fire has been broken as I read the news this morning, also the stock market has crashed, and an Ebola epidemic is spreading. Everyone loses, and children are crying! Life on Earth has never been easy.

[Baby Ricochet]

Israel claims to have broken it in response to rocket activity by HAMAS. Who really knows what happened. On the ground in a combat situation it's all but impossible to figure out who did what first half of the time. I read Israel called the cease fire because they were running out of ammunition. How true that is I don't know but I do know when you launch an assault you run out of supplies of all sorts quickly. I'm sure the US will sell Israel all the supplies they need. As much as I don't like Israel's current military strategy refusing to re-supply them would be a very bad idea. Their military strength is their biggest bargaining chip and you don't say no to an ally as important as Israel. I think it was Golda Meir who said "we can forgive Arabs for killing our children but we can't forgive them for forcing us to kill theirs." Quite a profound statement I thought. I fear there's going to be many more lives lost in this and when the shooting stops the Palestinians will be worse off than they have ever been and Israel's security situation will be as precarious as ever. That's been the history of this conflict and it doesn't look like it's going to change.

[Aethereal]

It's sad when ancient Semite blood brothers and sisters fight against each other over different historical cultural norms. We did the same during our American Civil War. As Abraham Lincoln once said, and it’s just as true today: “This too shall pass!”

[Lyn Anderson]

This is a tough one, and beautifully expressed. Sadly, I know no Israeli's who do not agree with you. The dilemma is two fold, because the other side does not believe in Israel's right to exist. My non-Jewish middle eastern friends do not believe there is such a thing as a compassionate Israeli. I do not know what the solution is. Fixing their screwed up political system would be a start. Wouldn't it be, for all of us? It's not as simple as blaming the Palestinians, because had the other side the power, what would we be discussing at that juncture.? Sit the a******s in charge down and make them figure it out.

[Baby Ricochet]

Historically occupations have been difficult for everyone involved and this one is little different. Gaza is a sealed off, densely populated ghetto controlled by the Israelis and it's HAMAS home turf. HAMAS mistake is Israel isn't going anywhere and Israel's mistake is brutalizing a people in an effort to subjugate them typically has the opposite effect. I don't know what the answers are any more than anyone else does but waging a war of attrition on civilians, which is what Israel is obviously doing, isn't it.

[Lyn Anderson]

Perhaps if the civilians on both sides could gang up on the leaders, but none of them have the clarity to see who it is who is victimizing them.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i have never blamed the palestinians...and agree so wholeheartedly with what you have said here...
"and the civilized world waits, and it waits"
and it waits.

[Baby Ricochet]

We're going to be waiting a long, long time.