'I find it hard to believe that people in Gaza don't wish to live, love, drink coffee and smoke'
Photo: EPA
Author Eli Amir
Photo: Noam Moskovich
A hotbed of hatred created by Hamas
Op-ed: Islamic organization has thrown Palestinian and Israeli societies into an insane situation, a factory of hate for generations to come.
I look at the people and children in Gaza and it breaks my heart. What we are seeing there, in this insane situation Hamas
has thrown them and us into, is a hotbed and factory of hatred for generations to come.
The situation we have reached is very strange. Imagine Paris or London being bombed with missiles day and night.
But Europe judges the Middle East with European spectacles, failing to realize that we live in a different world. And their hypocrisy when every incident in which we hurt innocent people, even accidentally, stirs them up against us, while in other places in the world thousands are being slaughtered – and everyone keeps silent.
Hamas is a murderous and merciless organization, first and foremost towards its own people. It amazes me that there are no opponents and rebels rising up against it. I find it hard to believe that the people in Gaza don't wish to live, to love a woman, to raise a child, to drink coffee and to smoke hookah.
Human Shields
Interior Ministry tells locals to stay in homes despite Israeli phone calls, 'knock on the roof' procedure' urging them to evacuate.
I hear people here speaking harshly and saying, "We will destroy the terror in Gaza," "We'll turn stone after stone." But who will come instead of Hamas? ISIS?
We won't destroy the missiles or Gaza, because Hamas' reason for living is the war on Israel. They have built there a city fortified with millions of tons of concrete which cannot be infiltrated. The struggle against Israel gives them money, life and prestige. A ground activity will bring us no benefit, and every nail an Israeli soldier loses there will be a pity.
We should look at this series of attacks like we looked at the retaliation activities of the 1950s: They hit us and we hit back. The blows are difficult, the weapons have improved – but these are still retaliation activities. Not a single activity of this type will destroy the missiles or the hatred factory.
If we look at what is happening that way, we'll do good for ourselves. As long as the Palestinian people don’t get a leader who says, "We cannot destroy Israel. We must establish a state on the maximum amount of territory we can achieve, take responsibility over our fate and use the millions of dollars we receive for construction and prosperity" – this is what our life will look like.
In the meantime, we must see reality as it is, pursue peace, learn to give up and know that this conflict is destroying us too and completely ruining the Israeli society. We must try to find real paths to Jordan, to Egypt, to Saudi Arabia, to any moderate element in the Middle East – and hope for the best. Why we are an optimistic people which waited 2,000 years for its own state.
The Israeli society, which is split during its daily life, proves once again that at times of danger it knows how to come together, unite, maintain its cool and strength, helping the leaders make reasonable decisions.
When I hear ministers speaking harshly, I – a leftist, who would have thought – welcome the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu is in power alongside Moshe Ya'alon, the levelheaded defense minister, and the wonderful IDF chief of staff, who is not trigger-happy and calculates his moves sensibly and intelligently. We should support them till the end of this operation.
