Loading ...Israel are not the bad guys
I happened to chance upon an old edition of London Student the other day, and an article claiming that “Israel is wrong” caught my attention.
Coupled with recent events which have been occurring in the Middle East, and the ongoing propaganda which constantly portrays Israel as the occupying and aggressive enemy, I decided it was time for the student world to hear the other side of the story.
In July of this year, an Arab bulldozer driver from East Jerusalem drove his construction vehicle into a city bus and several cars in central Jerusalem, wounding fifteen people. Hamas claimed that this attack was the “natural result” of Israeli aggression, but I am here to prove the very opposite; Israel, despite being forced to respond to others’ aggression, has no natural aggression of its own.
In fact, Israel is always under attack, even whilst attempting to negotiate peace. The vulnerability of a country so small is something which the media, and much of the wider world, likes to forget, and the reality of Israel’s intense desire for peace is often clouded by propaganda suggesting the very opposite. But propaganda is all it is, and the world is falling for it.
On May 24th 2000, Israel withdrew from Lebanon in order to ensure its own security and the security of its citizens. It acted in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution in order to bring about an end to the ongoing terrorism whereas Lebanon failed to meet their own requirement to deploy armed forces throughout the country. Nevertheless, it was Lebanon who saw fit to uproot the already shaky relationship between the two, by using Israel’s withdrawal as means to convert to a base for terrorist attacks against Israel, which Hezbollah later claimed responsibility for. As if this wasn’t enough, just months after Israel re-withdrew from Lebanon, Hezbollah terrorists kidnapped two of Israel’s soldiers, whose bodies were recently returned in exchange for the bodies of 199 Hezbollah members as well as five prisoners including the notorious Samir Kuntar, well known for his frequent killings of Israeli citizens. Who is being unreasonable here? In fact, Hezbollah fully intended to go to war in the summer of 2006, as tunnels and bunkers were carved out underground, ammunition was stocked, missile batteries were put around civilian centres, and tons of weapons were brought in from Syria and Iran.
The kidnap of these soldiers was intended to start war, despite Israel sticking to its terms of the agreement in order to avoid precisely what Hezbollah clearly aimed to initiate. Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nassrallah even chillingly stated in the New York Times on May 23rd 2004 that “if Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” Israel has no territorial aspiration in Lebanon, therefore if it is there, it is there for the purpose of defence, and this has been proven time and time again. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is thus not named as such incidentally, but is born out of an ever increasingly dangerous reality.
The priorities of the IDF don’t end here, as the value of life is also treated with the utmost importance. How could an army whose ethical code states that “its soldiers are obligated to protect human dignity” because “every human being is of value, regardless of their origin, nationality, gender, status, or position” be believed by so many to be the aggressive instigator? The very fact that Israel will go to any length to repatriate one of their soldiers, even at the expense of 199 captured bodies and five extreme terrorists, should give testimony to this alone. But it is not only the life of an Israeli that is valued, as the ethical code further states that IDF soldiers “will do all in their power to avoid causing harm.” And again, these words are not merely scripted to present Israel in a positive light.
When thirteen Palestinian civilians were killed accidentally by Israeli air strikes, Israel immediately apologised, despite the inquiry later concluding that the blast was actually caused by an explosive buried in the sand, and that this explosive was most probably planted by Hamas to target Israeli commandos.
And this is where the story is twisted daily; Israel is the victim. It became the victim in 1948 at the inception of its creation as war was waged on it just a day after it became a state, and is still the victim now. As I logged on to the Jerusalem Post website, I saw two headlines, the first reading: “Peace talks to go on as government is built”, and the second, merely separated by one other heading, reading: “Jerusalem terrorist was a Hamas member”; Israel is still desperately seeking peace whilst constantly being attacked.
As Tzipi Livni, the current foreign minister of Israel and potential Prime Minister was in peace talks with chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei last week, yet another 19 Israelis were injured by a 19 year old boy, now named as a member of Hamas by the Palestinian Ma’an news agency, ramming his BMW into a central Jerusalem bus stop.
It would seem that Israel can do no right, but it is certainly not the aggressive perpetrator that the media would still like us to believe.
It seems that the IDF’s respect for life has diminished since the first Intifada, when they restricted themselves to smashing the arms and legs of Palestinians throwing stones at them. Now they simply shoot them.
Rosie Marshall, what planet do you live on? If there were a foreign security force bombing houses in Britain just because they think they belong to terrorists (who cares about the family who lives there), cutting off your water and electricity, keeping 80% of your population in poverty and holding people in prison with no charges under administrative detention and you concluded that this constitutes valuing human life I’d be very surprised. Poor Israel who had to fight a war 1 day after it threw half a country out of their houses, poor Israel who is being attacked while 6 million Palestinians live in refugee camps. Please, some measured opinion would be nice.
If you are involved in a conflict, for whatever reason, you are responsible for that conflict. There is a cause and a continuation coming from all sides. Someone will have to begin and end, maybe by letting them finally fight it out. Or realize that there is such a strong sense of animosity (a feeling of hatred arousing active hostility) between the groups, one side will have to let it go.
There is also the element of gossip in the world that loves this type of drama and feeds off of it. It is unfortunate that entire civilizations are fighting as the world watches. How Sad.
Wow. I know that you can choose to write what you like from any angle, but this argument has to be one of the most unilateral, pig headed angles you could possibly take on the balance between Palestine and Israel.
I can’t believe you would consider the fact that the Israeli Defence Force has “defence” in its name a legitimate reason to conclude that Israel is the blameless guardian of its people.
In the light of Israel’s most recent use of disproportionate aggression, it is easy to say that hindsight is a wonderful thing. It’s possible that you have changed your mind on the subject since the Gaza Strip invasion. At least I hope so.
Why is that Muslims are always portrayed as ‘terrorists’? Is the disproportionate use of violence by Israel Justifiable? 1000 Gazans have been killed ( 40% women and children) compared to 13 Israelis ( 3 civilians ) – Everyone can see that this is unjust and must end – so how can you even defend these actions?
“The priorities of the IDF don’t end here, as the value of life is also treated with the utmost importance. How could an army whose ethical code states that “its soldiers are obligated to protect human dignity” because “every human being is of value, regardless of their origin, nationality, gender, status, or position” be believed by so many to be the aggressive instigator?”
If they say so, it must be so – A patently ridiculous, facile argument.
the comments left here…u guys are complete morons
What’s so difficult to understand is why the media
wants to ignore the truth, ie., that Hamas was
shooting rockets at Israel for a long time before
Israel made a move, until Israel could ignore it
no longer … AND how Hamas is using its people,
INCLUDING ITS LITTLE CHILDREN, as human
shields. This was also one of Huzzbalah’s tactics
in Lebanon and there again the media blamed
Israel when innocents and children were killed
and did not fully report on Huzbollah’s tactics.
Spelling may be wrong but you know what it says.
Israel bows to world pressure, which she did not
need to do, by the way, and hands over Gaza to
the Palestinians causing much pain to her own
peoples living there. And what do the Palestinians
do with this piece of land? Instead of developing
it and making a home there for their people, they
use it to shoot rockets at Israel.
There are about 1 million Arabs living in Israel. You
don’t see them leaving Israel in droves. If Israel
was mistreating or torturing them would they not
wanting to get out of Israel? On the contrary,
Palestinians, in particular, are applying for jobs
and trying to get into Israel by the thousands. If
Israel opened the borders to the Palestinians, there
might be none living in Gaza and the Palestinian
occupied lands except the terrorists.
What does that tell you about Israel? Would the
Arabs and Palestinians want to be living in Israel,
if Israel was such an ogre?
The truth is the Palestinians would be prospering
if their leaders weren’t spending all the money they
get, on ammunition and arms and also probably
socking much of it away in private bank accounts
like Yasser Arafat did.
People should investigate what God has to say
about the Jews and Israel before they speak against
them.
I find it amazing that no one takes time to go look up the history of anything, they take the media facts and believe it as if it were the truth like “sheep”being lead to slaughter!! I often wander why people want to remain so ignorant!
Get your fact straights and stop listening to the dam media slandered facts, you idiots!