Remarks on Israeli / Gaza war

[Andrew Reid]

Last weekend was shocking. Absolute pure evil and terror. A brutal loss of life in Israel.

It is understandable they are out for revenge, but it should be Hamas and terrorist groups that get wiped off the face of the earth. Not women and kids.

A lot of binary views out there, with people taking sides, that's the nature of war I suppose.

This isn't my war.

And it isn't even many of theirs. There are so many civilians in that part of the world who want nothing to do with Hamas and just want to live peacefully in their home without the threat of Israeli bombs falling and occupation.

Surely we can all agree on this - that women and children should be spared.

The Israeli government doesn't seem to want to do that.

Many of the young Israeli victims at the music festival who were slaughtered in the prime of their lives also sympathised with the NORMAL people in Gaza who are NOT terrorists. Most people are not in nodding-dog mode USA-government style total adoration of the Israeli government and their politics.

I also think it is darkly ironic that so many on the extreme socialist left of Western politics and even many in the LGBTQ community seem to want to think of Hamas as heroic freedom fighters. Actually if these people ever came face to face in reality with Hamas they would be the FIRST in line to get beheaded.

I despise the actions of both Hamas and the Israeli government. Palestinian civilians as mere collateral, the occupation of their land, it is all so wrong.

Before wiping out terorism in Gaza there should have been a MASSIVE humanitarian effort to evacuate the civilian women & children population by sea.

By going ahead with a ground-invasion possibly as early as this weekend, is the Israeli government comfortable to be seen in the eyes of the world to be committing genocide? Does it want the death of nearly 2 million innocent people on their hands and to lose the support of the world's public?

Yes they are entitled to destroy Hamas and defend themselves so that what happened last weekend will not be repeated.

No, they cannot be allowed to take senseless revenge on Palestinians by bombing kids in their beds, it is the stuff of war crimes.

Hopefully people in a binary view, blindly supporting ONE SIDE against the other will be able to come to terms with the fact that no binary argument is ever valid in war.

As for the West, we seem to be standing by without any plan whatsoever to get the civilian population out of Gaza to safety. We are sending the navy, warships, no rescue boats, no proper safe corridor into another country, nothing.

Of course it would be a big logistical effort, with massive number of security checks, but even a few large ships could save thousands of lives, even if you just take children or those under the age of 18 and their mothers, sisters, brothers.

Leave the Hamas hardcore fanatics to fight, and get the kids out of there...