Friday, January 02, 2009

Destruction and Creation

Bombs continue to pour down on Gaza. Fine, Hamas isn't a saint, but Israel's actions have always been wildly disproportionate. Locking down a region of 1.5 million people, ruthless bombing knowing very well that innocents will be killed, erasing mosques and homes and depriving a population of their lives and livelihood, wouldn't that count as terrorism?

As Robert Fisk put it

And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" – as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas's home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.

But of course, this is not any different from any of the earlier incursions by Israel. This time too they may be able to kill a few Hamas operatives; but they have already created another generation of suicide bombers in the process.

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