Israel's Excuse for War

Israel, always "acting in defense of its citizens" has a lot of different tactics to spark war in the region. One of them being to push the surrounding Arab countries to the limits of their patience, until they say enough and resort to violence. In response, Israel launches an all out war, and the IDF destroys anything in their way, being houses or innocent children. Let's take the example of the 1967 Six Day War. The start of this war was not in June, but in April, two months before the official Six Day War. Israeli Settlers were advancing deeper and deeper into the heart of the Golan Heights in Syria and they were plowing land, in an area known as the demilitarized zone. The Israeli government was pushing these people further and further. And this strategy was well thought out beforehand. They wanted a reaction from the Syrian Government, they wanted them to shoot at the Israeli Settlers and that's exactly what happened. Because in this situation, there are only two choices the Syrian government could take, and only one choice to defend Syrian land. If they didn't shoot, the Israeli Settlers would advance more and more and settle in Syria, just like they are currently in the West Bank. But they did shoot, and the Israelis launched a disproportionate offensive. This is what Israel's Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan said at the time to the New York Times, "If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until in the end the Syrians would get annoyed and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force also". So the Israeli Defense Minister at the time, said it himself, that this advancement of settlers was to trigger a reaction from the Syrians, and in response Israel would be justified to attack Syria, as an "Act of Defense for the Israeli Citizens". And they did exactly that, causing heavy Syrian casualties as well as the shooting down of several planes over the city of Damascus. These are their tactics, provocation, violence, and lies. And this cycle will never end. We saw it just recently with the Gaza offensive. Israel blockades, Hamas shoots rockets, and Israel announces a war "to ensure the safety of the citizens of the State of Israel", and kills around a thousand and a half people in the process. And I don't have to mention the state of destruction the Gaza strip is in right now, and all of that just for home made rockets being launched and barely killing 5 people and doing any damage. Israel's disproportionate offensives and attacks will never end. The world witnessed in 2006 how Israel bombed Rafik al Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon. Why, because Hezbollah imprisoned two Israeli soldiers and won't release them, in comparison with the hundreds of innocent war prisoners in Israel. Not only did it bomb the airport, but this whole issue became a month long war that destroyed a portion of Beirut. So before the world points fingers at the Palestinians and neighboring Arab countries, they should recognize what Israel had done, what it is doing, and what it will do in the near future.

Israel's Disproportionate "Retaliations"

Much of the time, the Western World, and the United States most importantly, persuade themselves that what Israel is doing, and all the attacks and offensives that take place are a reaction to Palestinian violence and attacks. Let's take the example of the Gaza Offensive, which just ended a little over a month ago. Because of the rockets that Hamas was launching into Israel, Israel decided that it was enough and attacked the small, yet heavily populated Gaza Strip, first from the air and then on foot. Yet the Israeli government, or the world at that matter, never asks why they started attacking Israel in the first place. Maybe it was resistance to the occupation, but in my opinion it was an outcry to the ridiculous blockade that Israel has cast on all the Gaza strip. It controls what comes in and what goes out. There is barely any food, no electricity, no clean water. What could the Palestinians do other than launch rockets. I see these rockets as flares, fireworks that get the attention of the population around them. They were used as signals of desperate and immediate help, just like the sinking Titanic used flares to signal to ships in the distance. After this "Act of Defense for the safety of the Israeli people" was over, the result would be the slaughter of about 1,300 people and more than a fourth of these victims are innocent women and children. When the world confronts the Israeli government with this information, all it can say is "Hamas is using innocent civilians as human shields". If I were to ask the Israeli government to explain what they mean, they would say that "Hamas is hiding in heavily populated areas to get the sympathy of the world when there is a huge number of casualties". However, where can the ruling group of an area live, or hide in that matter. Gaza is one of the most heavily populated areas in the world, with about 1.5 million people living there. I won't deny the "Acts of Humanity" that Israel has done by releasing flyers to the Gazans reading "We Will Destroy Your Home Tomorrow, Go Somewhere Safe". But where is safety? Where is safety in a strip that barely measures 139 square miles that is bombarded by white phosphorous and other lethal bombs every two minutes. Where is the family that just received this flyer going to go? Out on the streets, where it's even more dangerous due to the land offensive, because there is no way out of the Gaza Strip. This is what Tzipi Livni said "We are not telling them to go out of Gaza, we are just telling them to go to a safer place in Gaza". As if the poor innocent families had a copy of the IDF's agenda on what to destroy next.