Israel's strikes against Hamas
Sometimes, when I have a quiet moment alone in the bus stop or on the bus, I think about how small our little island is. How despite the technology that lets us read about and even see in full colour glory all the news out there, we absorb and digest information in compact soundbites or textbites and file it away neatly in some corner of our brain. And how we then go on living our tidy little lives on this tidy little island.
So in the past few days while I've eaten and slept and gone to church and shopping and Siheng's house, perhaps 300 people died in the Gaza Strip. All this I know because of a neat little news article that appears printed in a paper, furnished with clipped photographs and headlines.
And so, from my comfortable armchair, I begin to make and offer judgements. Personally, really, I think it's a mess, and that Israel really shouldn't be making these massive airstrikes, even if most of the casualties are indeed hardened Hamas militants. Israel's goal is, apparently at least, to stop the rocket attacks on their citizens. This may indeed be achieved temporarily, but it won't deter fanatical Palestinian militants hungry for martyrdom forever. They'll call a truce, mourn and bury their dead, build more rockets, and start all over again. Killing a bunch of militants will just attract more to join their cause, and the belligerents' children and grandchildren will probably be blasting away at each other forever. Maybe. Likewise, for most of us, Hamas' unwillingness to unilaterally stop firing at Israeli towns seems irrational, given the enormous and disproportionate costs it inflicts on their people.
But all this speculative talk has probably been offered millions of times over by various armchair critics around the world, so this is nothing new. Sometimes I try to imagine it from the perspective of those involved instead. From the POV of a frustrated Israeli general who's tried negotiation and everything else but failed because of Hamas' stubborn refusal to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. From the POV of a politician of a country who has been fighting for her life since her inception, who cannot afford to let his nation be seen as weak or a pushover by hostile militants and external powers. From the POV of a Palestinian who has lost his family in a shower of bombs, and sees Israel as a bully who must not be submitted to.
And the answer is really that there are no answers, not that we can offer anyway. None of us are qualified, or even have enough information about the situation (as in ground experience, not neat textual summaries) to make any kind of judgement or condemnation on either side. And if we did have the first-hand experience, if we lived and breathed the life that goes on halfway around the globe, if we stepped out of our naivete, I'm not sure it would be for the better. It's a strange and troubling world we live in.
Perhaps, if our main goal in life is to be happy (which is frankly a perfectly reasonable goal), it's best after all to live and die in our own sheltered little bubble.
So in the past few days while I've eaten and slept and gone to church and shopping and Siheng's house, perhaps 300 people died in the Gaza Strip. All this I know because of a neat little news article that appears printed in a paper, furnished with clipped photographs and headlines.
And so, from my comfortable armchair, I begin to make and offer judgements. Personally, really, I think it's a mess, and that Israel really shouldn't be making these massive airstrikes, even if most of the casualties are indeed hardened Hamas militants. Israel's goal is, apparently at least, to stop the rocket attacks on their citizens. This may indeed be achieved temporarily, but it won't deter fanatical Palestinian militants hungry for martyrdom forever. They'll call a truce, mourn and bury their dead, build more rockets, and start all over again. Killing a bunch of militants will just attract more to join their cause, and the belligerents' children and grandchildren will probably be blasting away at each other forever. Maybe. Likewise, for most of us, Hamas' unwillingness to unilaterally stop firing at Israeli towns seems irrational, given the enormous and disproportionate costs it inflicts on their people.
But all this speculative talk has probably been offered millions of times over by various armchair critics around the world, so this is nothing new. Sometimes I try to imagine it from the perspective of those involved instead. From the POV of a frustrated Israeli general who's tried negotiation and everything else but failed because of Hamas' stubborn refusal to acknowledge Israel's right to exist. From the POV of a politician of a country who has been fighting for her life since her inception, who cannot afford to let his nation be seen as weak or a pushover by hostile militants and external powers. From the POV of a Palestinian who has lost his family in a shower of bombs, and sees Israel as a bully who must not be submitted to.
And the answer is really that there are no answers, not that we can offer anyway. None of us are qualified, or even have enough information about the situation (as in ground experience, not neat textual summaries) to make any kind of judgement or condemnation on either side. And if we did have the first-hand experience, if we lived and breathed the life that goes on halfway around the globe, if we stepped out of our naivete, I'm not sure it would be for the better. It's a strange and troubling world we live in.
Perhaps, if our main goal in life is to be happy (which is frankly a perfectly reasonable goal), it's best after all to live and die in our own sheltered little bubble.