Chandler  

I went to cnn.com this morning looking for a video of a bearded Palestinian man that I had seen just a portion of.  The man in the video was talking about how Israel was killing their children and the war would not end until Israel had paid with their own children.  I only caught one or two sentences of the video and I wanted to see the whole thing.  I got the impression that he was trying to say that Israel killed Palestinian kids first and for that would be punished.  Well I have to say that I agree, sort of, the first group to violently kill children should be punished; the problem is that any kids that die when Israel fires into Gaza are collateral damage whereas when Hamas blows up a bomb on a city bus they are targeting children and civilians intentionally.

I could not find the video I was looking for, but I did find a very interesting article written by Nic Robertson at CNN, “Gaza horrors sow seeds for future violence”.  It is basically a hit piece on Israel which is what I should have expected from CNN.  I think that the premise of the article is correct; prolonged exposure to violence by children will make it easier for those children to turn to violence when they get older.  However, I believe that Mr. Robertson has backed the wrong horse in this race.  Although at the end of the story he touches on the fact that there are children on both sides of this issue that live in fear; Mr. Robertson focuses the majority of the article on the Palestinian kids, and how they are being traumatized by Israeli attacks.  But the question that you really need to ask yourself is would Israel’s Army have gone into Gaza if Hamas was not firing rockets into civilian neighborhoods in Israel?  I think not.

Yes, war is never a good thing.  Yes, it is even worse when there are civilians and children caught in the middle of the fighting.  The problem that I have with the way that this is being portrayed is that it is not Israel that picked this fight.  It is not Israel that is hiding behind civilians.  It is not Israeli voters that voted Hamas to govern the Palestinian people.  It is Hamas that is firing the rockets into Israel, and hiding behind civilians. It is the Palestinian people, however, that have put them into the offices that they hold.  It is the Palestinian people that allow Hamas to fire rockets into Israel and hide among the population.

Hamas is a terrorist organization; there is no doubt about that.  And in my opinion they are nothing but cowards!  Any group of men that starts a fight and hides behind women and children are gutless worms.  Maybe that is just the Marine in me coming out, but I firmly believe that if you want to pick a fight you square off with your opponent and fight it out.  If you lose you lose and you walk away and lick your wounds.  If you win you should be gracious in your victory.  Hamas does none of the aforementioned!  They continue to cowardly attack soft civilians targets to drive fear into the hearts of the Israeli people; and they, Hamas, have brought this violence upon Gaza.  The story should have been about the real perpetrators of the corruption of the Palestinian children and how wrong they are.  The only reason that the IDF has moved into Gaza is because they have been continuously attacked by Hamas from the same neighborhoods that they now occupy. 

The IDF is not indiscriminately shooting up Gaza.  In fact if you look at the Palestinian casualty numbers that are being kicked out by the United Nations, 517 people have been killed.  They also say that of the 517 Palestinians killed only about 25% are civilians.  It may seem cold to use the term ‘only’ when talking about civilian casualties, but when you look at the numbers it means that the Israelis are killing three times more bad guys as they, Hamas, hide among the civilian population using women and children as human shields.  I believe that this stat speaks volumes about the professionalism of the Israeli Soldiers on the ground in Gaza; it kind of reminds me of the American Soldiers and Marines that spent time in Al Anbar province a few years back. 

The other thing to note is that Israel is only going after military targets of opportunity.  When Hamas pops out of a hole and fires rockets at Israel the location is targeted.  And if I am not mistaken, Israel has actually come out and said that they regret any innocent deaths, but that Israel will defend themselves.   

It is Palestinian parents, Hamas and the Islamic mind set that will create the next wave of homicide bombers, not Israel defending Israel.  When the Palestinians continue to teach their kids that it is a glorious and honorable thing to become martyr by strapping a bomb to your chest and killing Israelis and Americans, there is a very good chance that they may grow up and blow themselves up on a bus full of Israeli civilians or fly planes into skyscrapers.  When the parents of the children in Gaza begin to teach their children that homicide bombings are not the way things will improve.  When those same parents teach their kids that Israel has the right to exist as a nation things will improve.  When the Palestinian people begin to build their own infrastructure, create their own jobs and industries, and become productive members of the global community things will improve.

Until Palestinians start to take responsibility for themselves and their actions, when the shooting stops, this will be no different than the cease fires that have preceded this one and will ultimately end bringing yet more violence, brought about by the same people that claim to be the victims!