Thursday, February 02, 2017

Ending Hamas' rockets is not a measure to peace. It takes courage to realize that.

Hamas use of rockets can be easily viewed as a defense against genocide.

May 25, 2011
By Ronit Avni

...We can begin (click here) by encouraging the incoming Obama administration to take into account the needs of both peoples - not just one side - in the interest of long-term peace; we can demand that they exhaust all diplomatic channels to end this conflict. We can call on the Israeli government to negotiate a halt to settlement expansion so that Palestinians feel the dividends of diplomacy. We can continue to condemn the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in southern Israel by Hamas so that people like my colleague, Anat, can stop spending time in bomb shelters with their children. We can demand a ceasefire in Gaza that, in JStreet‘s words, “ends all military operations, stops the rockets aimed at Israel, institutes an effective mechanism to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza, and lifts the blockade,” so that Gazans like Alaa Hajjaj, after days huddled with his 40-member extended family in a home with no water or electricity, can once again see daylight. We can invite journalists to feature the voices of bridge-builders on an ongoing basis so that their calls don’t get drowned out by extremists. We can discourage our fellow Americans from becoming settlers or from buying settlement properties. To curb incitement, instead of using sticks, we can reintroduce carrots into the negotiation process. We can support only those leaders that see no good way forward but peace.

Clearly, numerous choices remain.... 

Anyone can pick up guns, kill indiscriminately, roll bulldozers into neighborhoods and send drones to spy and kill, but, to harness the real essence of peace is the real definition of strength under fire.

21 August 2016
By Yonah Jeremy Bob

...Despite targeting Hamas, (click here) the IDF declined to identify who was responsible for firing the rockets, but Palestinian reports indicated that it was the Abu Alu Mustafa Brigades, the “military” arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine....

When the goal is to take all the land currently Palestine and even beyond Palestine, who cares who dies the politics are more important.