Intifada….

January 3, 2009

I am not an expert on the Middle East.  But I have been there.  In Jerusalem; in the West Bank.  That alone doesn’t really give me any credibility.  What it does give me is sympathy.  For both sides, actually, in this current conflict around the Gaza strip.     Because as much as we’d like to make it a cut and dry Hamas vs. Israeli conflict, it is and it isn’t.  

For the most part, i agree with the Krauthammer AND Gerson editorials in today’s Washington Post — if there was ever directional moral clarity, it is clearly shining through this week.  Hamas is a terrorist organization.   Period.   They put their own people, the Palestinian people, at risk of death, to further their own organizational ends.   Contrast this disregard for Palestinian human life with the humane warnings of the impending strike, which the Israelis have given citizens of Gaza prior to the strikes this week.  Apparently, and rightly so, Israel is fed up with having many of its citizens live in constant fear of missile attacks.  

It is inconcevable to me that Hamas is in a position of power.  Save Iran, most of the Arab states don’t know what to do with the situation from a positioning point of view.  The cannot publicly support Hamas, yet they still seek many of the key goals to which the Palestinians have held strong for decades — land, access, sovereignty.   Its incredibly unfortunate that some of the long term goals of the Palestinians — goals around access to Jerusalem, free flowing travel capacities, cannot even be on the table in this current discussion.  How can they be when Hamas refuses to even recognize the right of Israel to exist?  

When I visited Deheshu refugee camps in the West Bank and saw their suffering, when I stayed with Palestinian Christian’s in Bethlehem who couldn’t travel to work in the city – I saw first hand the true second-class citizen status they could not shake and under which they had to live, work and breath, day-in and day-out.  However, until Hamas is no longer in power, how can we hope that things will improve?  That Israelis living in the settlements within missile striking range of Gaza will be able to sleep at night?   Any true cease fire must at least start here…

May God have mercy and spare more innocent lives of a people so desparate to live…..in peace…Right now, children on both sides of this conflict are growing up knowing only fear.

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    • Tonya is a Community Content Producer forWUSA9.com, DC's CBS affiliate.