It's long past time for Israel...

This is in answer to Iona from Israel who sent us (University of the Middle East Alumni group) pictures and links to videos posted on YouTube about Hamas.
Dear Iona,
Do you mean to justify the last Israeli attack on Gaza through your pictures and videos? Do you mean to blame the victim and turn Israel’s genocidal aggression into self-defence? The brutal collective punishment inflicted on Gazans is unjustifiable. The carnage claimed at least 1300 lives and injured more than 5500, most of them civilian kids and women. What is worse is that the timing of the onslaught is determined, as you know, by political expediency. A general election in Israel is slated for 10 February 2009 and the dead Palestinians are only election fodder.
It’s time, long past time, for Israel to be realistic and engage in more serious talks with its neighbors and all parties concerned including Hamas. History is replete with examples of ‘terrorists’ becoming statesmen. Also, This Hamas is, somehow, the creation of Israel through the old game of divide and rule. When Hamas was founded in 1987, Israel allowed it to rise as a counterforce to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. Now that the boot is on the other foot and that Hamas succeeded in building one (may be the only) genuine democracy in the Arab world, Israel and its allies are shamelessly demonizing and vilifying it and rendering the whole Gazans criminals. Yesterday, the problem was the secular Fatah. Today it is the Islamic Hamas. Israel will always find a cloak for its policy of territorial expansion.
It’s time, long past time, for Israel to stop its propaganda machine that purveys the notion that Hamas is a terrorist organization. For the Palestinians, for the Arabs, for Moslems, for many others, Hamas is a liberation organization fighting for independence. As you know, historically, colonization is something no people could tolerate without retaliation. So this war of pictures and videos will absolutely not serve the peace process. It will not hide the truth either. Michael Levy said about truth that “You can bend it or twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth”; it will out, you know.
It’s time, long past time, for Israel to stop playing the “crying and shooting” game. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and killed 17500 people most of them civilian children and women. Qana massacre in 1996 claimed 106 civilian refugee deaths, more than half were children. In 1982 in Sabra-Chatila refugee camp, almost 3500 Palestinians were massacred. These massacre and others that have been carried out since 1948 have had the same objective: expulsion of the Palestinians and grabbing of more land. “Land-grabbing and peace-making are simply incompatible” Avi Shlaim said in The Guardian.
It’s long past time for Israel to end Gaza siege. The residents of this open-air prison are cut off from family and compatriots, walled off from their fields, jobs, schools, and hospitals. They are surrounded by walls, barbed wires, machine gun towers, and checkpoints. Israel controls Gaza's land, sea, and air. The majority of the population lives in abject poverty eating only one meal a day because of the siege which disrupts the flow of supplies such as electricity, water, gas… The siege also resulted in the wasting of perishable exports from Gaza. What sort of people can stand such a life? What sort of mind and heart can tolerate such existence?
It’s time, long past time, for Israel to review its policy and listen to the voices of reason and moderation. I was really overwhelmed by such reasonable voices of many thoughtful people inside Israel itself: Isaac Rabin, Yehoshafat Harkabi, Gidon Levy, Yonit Levi to mention only a few. Many of them moved away from uncompromising stances to support a Palestinian state. Since sticks have not worked, carrots are needed, many advised. Conversely, pounding the Palestinians now and then will only lead to a boomerang effect on Israel. Every time it flexes its brutal military muscles against the Palestinians, it brings more partisans to the Palestinian cause and more converts to the 'ideology' of Hamas, not only in the Arab-Moslem world but all over the globe. Because of Israel's iron fist policy many arch-enemies of the Palestinian cause have changed their minds 180 degree to root for the Palestinians. This has happened inside Israel itself.
Dear Iona,
This does not mean that I applaud the killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas. Killing civilians is fundamentally and morally wrong whatever the faith, whatever the nationality, whatever the color, whatever the age, whatever the sex. Qassam rockets, such as they are, can cause at least psychological damage to Israeli civilian kids, women, and elderly. “Plus de peur que de mal”, say the French. That is, too much fear does a lot of harm. There is nothing worse than living under the perpetual fear of being killed or hurt while doing your job, shopping with your kids, or celebrating with your family…
What is thoroughly disappointing and appalling, though, is the attitude of most western countries. They did nothing to prevent the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290. They watched shamelessly when the Jews and Moslems were expelled from Spain in 1492. They kept silent when the Nazis were persecuting the Jews during World War II ( along with the disabled, the gypsies, and others). Now, the wheel has come full circle and the west watches, once again, with criminal eyes, while history is repeating itself: they are watching while the Palestinians are being persecuted.
All in all, I hope that newer winds of change will soon blow in through the region and through the minds of the different key players there. I hope everyone has learnt enough to stop this unnecessary conflict, be prepared to take the rough with the smooth by making substantial concessions, and opt for a durable peace and stability. I am optimistic that the new American leadership – the third party– will be a fair and serious peace broker. Amen.