In a move that is sure to escalate the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, today Hamas continued firing rockets into Israel. One of these rockets, which was launched from Gaza, landed in a field just south of Jerusalem. Though it did not cause any casualties, the placement of this rocket was significant.
Gaza is located 50 miles from Jerusalem. This is the first time thus far Hamas has sent rockets on a trip of such a long distance.
Hamas has now demonstrated its capability to reach the contested city. For years, Hamas has been firing rockets from Gaza into Israel. They have repeatedly hit land in Southern Israel, an area with a low population density. These rockets have forced residents to repeatedly take shelter. With the new capability of the rockets to reach farther distances and large urban areas, many more lives are at risk. For further background on Hamas' new capabilities and Israel-Palestine relations, please click
here.
While the bombarding of rockets from Palestine undoubtedly is incredibly serious, Israel has taken full security measures to strike back. Over the past few days Israel has retaliated, sending rockets to hit over 800 targets in the Gaza strip. In addition to a full offensive attack on Gaza, Israel has called troops to line the Israel-Gaza Strip border. This could signal a ground invasion in the near future. There has been a great amount of speculation concerning Israel's quick retaliation and use of force, so what do you think? Was israel's response to these rockets too extreme?
5 comments:
Our president has also made comments on this. He believes Israel has the right to self-defense yet he did not like the idea of people dying (on either side). As for myself, I have to agree with Obama. Israel does have the right to self defense. I would take it even farther and say that Israel's response would reflect exactly what I would do given the situation, and when put in perspective, I'm sure the United States would have reacted the same way to an outside threat. I don't think a ground invasion is necessary at this point in time, but it is good that Israel is prepared.
I feel that "sending rockets to hit over 800 targets in the Gaza strip" is a bit too extreme when it comes to self defense. However, sending troops to the Gaza Israel boarder for self defense seems completely acceptable. Gaza and Israel should first talk and try to find some sort of verbal compromise. If Gaza continues to launch rockets, then I think Israel has the right to launch rockets back and use land forces for the means of self defense only.
I honestly don't quite know what to think about these bombings happening in Gaza and Israel... I followed the npr link that you posted Sharon, and I find it even more difficult to make a judgment on Israel's actions when a spokesman of Hamas apparently said, "We are sending a short and simple message [with our rockets]: There is no security for any Zionist on any single inch of Palestine and we plan more surprises."
This war is not just a reflexive "we're trying to protect our people"/"we've got to get the bad guys" kind of battle, it's a full-out raging dispute that's been the product of a century of hatred and bitterness between two groups of people. Do the Palestinian people have the rights to be upset and attack innocent Israeli citizens? Is it justifiable for the Israeli military to exert their power over an already suffering group of people? These questions force me to withhold judgement on the bombings.
With a statistical viewpoint, Gaza is one of the most crowded places on Earth due to its high population density in very limited land space. The effect of rockets from Israel is likely to cause much more destruction and harm to those in Gaza than do the rockets from Gaza which were fired in low population density areas. While violence from either side is not the answer, nor acceptable in any manner, the quick retaliation should be a cause for questions and concerns. I do believe that Israel's retaliation might be too strong of a reaction considering the suffering that has been inflicted by them on the people of Gaza and this is just adding more salt to the wound. I follow this story closely and wonder how quickly this may escalate into full blown war and also acknowledge that ceasefire will most likely solve very little as those have historically been quite short lived. Like Abby has said, it is a complex issue on which I think judgement should be reserved for the time being. However, I still worry for the direction the actions of the past few days have been heading and hope that maybe this time both parties will reach a real solution, though that is probably highly unlikely.
The violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip have escalated because of the assassination of Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari, and I also read yesterday that the Israelis bombed the Hamas headquarters in Gaza.
Both sides have compelling arguments to be upset, but violence is never the way to solve a problem.
Hopefully the negotiations and cease-fire talks that Hamas has mentioned this weekend will help calm the currently escalated tension between the two; however, because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been continuing for so long, I do not have high expectations for any real long-term peace as a result of these talks.
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