Gaza, Again

Sitting here on the Platinum Coast of California on a lovely summer day, sun-kissed, birds chirping and a Monarch butterfly floating outside my window. All is peace and beauty, and yet I can’t stop thinking about the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, thousands of miles from here, under siege once again by the might of the Israeli military.

As it always does, Israel claims to merely be defending itself from Hamas rocket attacks. As always, Israel portrays itself as the aggrieved nation. Israel also claims that it doesn’t target civilians, but when the casualties are tallied, it is mostly civilians who are killed or injured. Thus far, the death toll on the Palestinian side is north of 100, on the Israeli side, 0. The Hamas forces are either very inept marksmen or they rely on impotent rockets.

Israel, of course, has the full complement of high-tech weaponry, much of it supplied, or financed, by the United States – Israel’s staunch ally and international protector. Fighter jets, laser-guided missiles, drones, cluster bombs, and bunker busters, Israel unleashes the full kit on Gaza; Bibi Netanyahu, egged on by extremists who wouldn’t mind seeing every last Palestinian exterminated, promises more to come, including the possibility of a ground invasion. The mainstream media in America accepts Israel’s pronouncements at face value, repeats the tired narrative that the Arabs are the aggressors and that Hamas is ultimately responsible for civilian deaths. The rest of the world, even the Arab world, stands by and looks on, mostly silent.

On Democracy Now the other day a spokesperson for the Israeli ambassador claimed, with a straight face and total conviction, that Israel’s occupation of Gaza ended five or more years ago. And yet, Israel continues to control all movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, including by air and sea. The Israeli navy has maintained a maritime blockade since 2009. Israel prohibits the entry of basic building materials like cement. Gaza residents cannot even rely on electricity for more than a few hours each day.

Along with military might, Israel boasts a finely tuned propaganda machine.

In one media report I saw Netanyahu said more than one thousand targets in Gaza had been attacked over the course of four days. Gaza is roughly twice the size of Washington D.C. In an area so small the question to ask is, what hasn’t been targeted? Is there anyplace in Gaza where civilians can take refuge?

In Gaza the cycle of violence and retribution has no end. The United States and Europe could intervene, if they had the will, but no point holding our collective breath. Israel has a blanket pass and a get-out-of-jail-free card with no expiration date. Even when Israel’s policies are dead wrong, they are deemed right because the lives of Jews have been weighed and metered and determined to be of more value than the lives of Palestinians.