On the Israel-Palestine Conflict

A selection of the top comments, as voted by readers,
on three articles about the Israel-Palestine conflict
from three different news sources, as of July 21st.

The New York Times

“Israel’s Bloody Status Quo”

Paula

I don't know where I belong as a Jew any longer. I am an old woman and I am tormented by the suffering of innocents in Gaza while at the same time I know that if Israel does not respond with force to the barrage of rockets, it will simply get worse and worse until what is fired will no longer be the awkward present devices, but instead rockets carrying loads which will bring death to Israeli families. And yet I wonder if I am supporting some dream of my grandparents early in the 20th century. Am I caught in some idealism which no longer exists? In a very particular personal case, I am literally feeling shattered. What is this Jew that I am? What lies sleeping in some collective psyche written into my own soul which feels so frightened and sad. What is this Jewish self? An old question which is more pressing today. I cannot talk to my peace activist sons whom I feel are so naive and speak in propganda slogans. I cannot talk to those who explain away the deaths of civilians. I go to the IDF site and am filled with pride. I watch the faces of children and read of death and trauma in Gaza and I feel shame and confusion. It is a luxury of safety that I can have such a personal agony of identity. It is minor compared to all the danger and bloodshed. But it is tearing me apart. It is no less than tearing me apart.
448 recommended

Shaw J. Dallal

What Israel wants is "the status quo" minus the Palestinian people. For it is the Palestinian people and their demographic increase that Israel views as the greatest existentialist threat to its Jewish character and existence, as Abba Eban once asserted, and this is perhaps why Israel is not interested in any peaceful solution but is determined "to run down the clock."

Ilan Pappe, an Israeli prominent scholar, has recently written that Israel is now engaged in a slow, gradual, genocidal program, not only against the defenseless and captive civilian population of Gaza, but also against the Palestinians of the West Bank.

And yes, "Israel is the Middle East’s status quo power per excellence." This is because our government, with unlimited economic and military support, helped Israel attain that status.

Our government also comes to Israel’s rescue whenever the international community condemns Israel brutality or tries to curb it.

Only when the United States stops being Israel’s enabler of a sinister, slow, gradual and persistent genocidal program against the defenseless and captive civilian Palestinian population will the Palestinians be saved from a horrific crime and Israel from itself.
418 recommended

Jon

So typical on these pages to lead with headlines focused on blaming Israel.

"Middle East Region's Bloody Status Quo" would be more appropriate but you might as well keep on stirring up the antisemitism to increase readership. Have you forgotten about Iraq, Syria and Egypt and how much blood has been shed in their conflicts?

Of course with Hamas, so much of the bloodshed has sadly been from their own people that they use as human shields.

It is hard to make peace with an enemy that is sworn to your total and complete destruction, one that celebrates the death of your people, and doesn't seem to value the life of their own people.

Israel on the other hand has been trying to minimize casualties which is evidenced by the relatively small number of deaths based upon the 1000+ missiles fired in an attempt to destroy Hamas weaponry.

Israel wants peace and, despite extremists in their country who try to derail those efforts, they have done so with both Jordan and Egypt.

The Holocaust is still fresh in the minds of Jews everywhere, where 6 million were killed by people sworn to their destruction. Until there is a feeling that the Palestinians and their elected leaders really want peace, rather than bloodshed, this will go on.
260 recommended

R.

There will be no peace between Israel, the Arabs, and Iran until Israel's existence is accepted.

Since that will not happen within the foreseeable future, expect more fighting for decades.

And what can Israel do, except protect itself from the surrounding countries that have tried to annihilate it since Israel's founding in 1948?

And one more thing: that Israel has survived all its wars, attacks, and thrived is truly amazing!

Try comparing Israel's growth and creativity (leave the politics out, for this please) to any other country, including those without such dedicated enemies
192 recommended

Greg

The Palestinians have, several times, formally recognized the State of Israel. Even Hamas, in 2008, said it would recognize the 1967 Israel.

The whole Arab League has offered official recognition of Israel and normalized relations.

Israel, on the other hand, refuses to recognize the State of Palestine's existence. Why? Because it cannot agree on it's own boundaries (the biblical one or the legal one).

Comparing "Israel's and creativity" with other countries has absolutely no bearing on the issue of occupation. God herself would not be welcome if she settled on my land and oppressed my daily life.
137 recommended

The Washington Post

“Moral Clarity in Gaza”

mrg124

The paradox is hilarious:  

Israel is the most liberal country in the Middle East, the most tolerant, the most enlightened, the most stable, the biggest defender of social and economic freedom. Yet liberals in America hate them, and pity the barbaric extremists who want to stone gays and enslave women. To add to the insanity, a large number of American Jews vote for the same liberals who despise Israel. Nothing makes sense!
39 likes

IlikeIke

BY DONALD MACINTYRE IN JERUSALEM

WEDNESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2009

A UN fact-finding mission led by the Jewish South African former Supreme Court Judge Richard Goldstone said Israel should face prosecution by the International Criminal Court, unless it opened fully independent investigations of what the report said were repeated violations of international law, "possible war crimes and crimes against humanity" during the operation.

Using by far the strongest language of any of the numerous reports criticising Operation Cast Lead, the UN mission, which interviewed victims, witnesses and others in Gaza and Geneva this summer, says that while Israel had portrayed the war as self-defence in response to Hamas rocket attacks, it "considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole"

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-eas...

Absolute moral clarity in Gaza, one more time. War Crime International Tribunal should pursue this case again over Israel crimes in their prisoner camps
25 likes

rdcnyc

if you take my land, then bulldoze my house and SELL my land I'd be your mortal enemy FOREVER.

The Israelites are too stupid to realize this?

The Kraut seems to be.
25 likes

David

The Gazans could lead decent lives if they gave up one ambition — destroying Israel. It is a pathology of those people that killing Jews is more valued than the lives of their own children. And it is a pathology they share with fellow Arabs across the Middle East, who not only aspire to Israel's demise but predate upon one another in massive cauldron of sectarian and tribal murder.
22 likes

jwebb41

It's been wisely said that if Hamas puts down its weapons, there will be no more war; and if Israel puts down hers, there will be no more Israel. Only one side in this conflict is determined to keep the blood flowing.
16 likes

Al Jazeera America

“In Gaza, a funeral for the two-state solution?”

Keith Ensminger

The murder of three Israeli teens was horrendous, but Israeli airstrikes that killed hundreds of children, elderly, and other civilians is worse. I hope people with the stature of Gandhi, Mandela, and King emerge among Israelis and Palestinians because no people should be caged and terrorized.
+14

Justice

If there is no two-state solution available, get rid of Israel ... and start a brand new country with a brand new name that just includes everyone who lives within the current borders of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
+12

Peter Wolf

Israel's logic is impeccable: they will stall negotiations by making impossible demands, and when the Palestinians revolt after all other options are eliminated, then Israel claims that the violence is proof that a two state solution is impossible.

It is becoming crystal clear to the whole world that Israel's policy has been all along to grab for themselves the whole of Palestine, and reduce all Palestinians to second class citizens where the have no say in the conduct of their own society and culture.

So much for the intentions of the Balfour Declaration and numerous UN Resolutions that " ...... it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine ..... "
+10

tom shelly

50 years and we are supposed to believe Israel has ever considered a two state solution??? The only leader they ever had who really wanted one was assassinated by their own jews. and then the agreement he signed was torn up to shreds ... come on, don't insult our intelligence on this matter, please.
+7

James Moore

I already knew Israel did not want a two-state solution. The two-state solution was supposed to resolve the conflict but instead Netenyahu used the conflict as an excuse not to move forward with a peace agreement. The two-state would have been peace and acceptance of borders not yet accepted but instead the argument of "will they accept any Israeli border?" if they can't accept our occupation now then they won't accept anything as proof that they refuse to accept any Israeli borders. To the contrary It should be clear by now that Israel just doesn't want to accept any form of a Palestinian state. Israeli occupation is a ruthless diseased direction, shame shame on them.
+6

G oogle

But if Israel doesn't WANT to go about murdering children, why does it do it with so much enthusiasm?
+2