By Brian Stieglitz (Special to the chronicle)
For those who have been catching up on the news regarding what is going on in the Middle East in the past couple of weeks, it seems that the violence and fighting has reached its peak.
Beginning with Israel’s attack on the Gaza strip where Israel troops have launched missiles into Gaza territory, it is made evident by some media sources that a stone was cast. The day the news let out about Israel’s attack, all that could be seen from a non partisan point of view was that the nation had relentlessly unleashed violence and bloodshed upon innocent people. Despite this, there is more to the story; about a few hundred years more.
Ever since the diaspora, the Hebrew people have been moved around from country to country and home to home into a forced state of nomadism. After finally settling in the state of Israel, the territorial dispute over the border has posed a great threat and problem for the Israeli and Palestinian people.
To explain this further, it is a dispute and misunderstanding. The killings and violence are of course evident, but the root of this chaos and hysteria is no more than a mere question of where does the border lie. The reason the problem has become so out of control results from our violent nature and warlike instincts.
Violence and battle has gone on since the start of the problem, on both sides, and both sides just react to another catalyst. The catalyst that caused Israel to unleash a bombardment of missiles on the Gaza strip results from years of civilian bloodshed by Gaza on Israel, including the final catalyst of the bombing of a bus in Tel Aviv, one of Israel’s major cities.
In response to this bus bombing, Israel made a plan of action entitled the “Pillar of Defense” campaign. This involved an air strike on Gaza, doing to Palestine exactly what they did to Israel as a means of defense and to bring about change. In Jewish mysticism, there is a reading about reacting to violence and terror as a duty to evoke change. For if you don’t, the violent force or person will continue to act in such a way, never learning the lesson to stop. The “Pillar of Defense” campaign is Israel’s way of reacting.
In recent news, the talks of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine, held in Cairo, have been trying to come up with an ultimatum regarding the Israel-Gaza border as the apex of fighting between the two groups subsided over the past week. The process will be challenging and take time and cooperation to finalize, but without the grand scale battles that were sparked by Israel’s attack on the Gaza strip, the negotiation wouldn’t be so vital to the people of the area.
In other words, Israel’s defense attack not only went underway as a response to the attacks on their city, but helped the people of the area to wake up and realize what needed to be done. The “Pillar of Defense” was the reaction to the fighting that, however violent, helped the area to realize what needed to be done: a ceasefire. Moreover, a revelation that the fighting needed to finally stop and peace needed to be negotiated.
Read our article on Syria and Long Island