Gaza on Fire Tonight

The bombings of Gaza has been going on for a week. No signs of truce; Benjamin Netanyahu and Khaled Meshaal both are right-wing politicians who distrust and hate one another, and the chance that they are going to have the political will to stop this madness is slim. No truce means more rockets fired from Gaza-more wasted rockets that doesn't do any damage on Israeli military force, as it keeps on getting intercepted by the Iron Dome, just making the life of Israelis miserable, with incessant sirens, and civilian premises targeted, angering the Israelis more-and more of Israeli shelling of Gaza-with the population of Gaza being 1.5 million, compacted in a tiny piece of land just around 10 km(more or less) wide, the inevitable civilian casualty is going to be heavy and heartbreaking-and more of the bad news that make up the majority of my information source.

Israel, with its heavy-handedness that is apparent each and every time, tries to smack Hamas out of Gaza and out of the equation; a very 'original' and 'great' solution (they tried that last time in 2008...or 2009?) which can be greater if not for the fact that Hamas has been really dedicated towards serving the Gazans, and thus enjoys considerable support from Gazans especially, not to mention their allies who can be found all around the world, in the form of al-Ikhwan. Israel, as usual, mentions that Hamas is a terrorist group (this is an ambiguous term at most-but I don't argue that Hamas can be really murderous, racist, extreme and bigoted sometimes in their actions and rhetoric) that fires rockets at Israeli cities non-stop since 2001 (so effing long ago, and as it happens nearly all the time, it's not even newsworthy) , and that according to them, justifies the bombing of Gaza.

Hamas, of course, mentions the Israeli siege on Gaza (I did one post about Mavi Marmara, you can find it yourself; my political position has changed a lot since then) that has been really suppressing the Gaza people's way of life; no mobility, no supplies, no money for the last I-don't remember-anymore-how-long-it-has-been few years. And that justifies firing rockets as a sign of protest and resistance against the bloody siege in particular, and the Israeli occupation in general. Yeah, that's how Hamas sees it; "We didn't start it, it has been Israel's fault all this time, for Allah's sake, are you blind?"

Meanwhile, being the slow, ineffective peace-broker as they usually are expected to be, the UN has tried to bring a not-going-to-last-for-long temporary ceasefire between both sides. The post-revolution Egypt, under the leadership of President Morsi, has tried for a few days to moderate between the two sides, but is troubled by the fact that Egypt can't do as much as it would like to do, given the agreement between his country and United States, also the peace agreement between his country and Israel that he has (being forced to) pledged to uphold (if not, no foreign aid that your desperate land desperately needs from the States). Also, United States has also expressed their belief in Israel's rights to self-defense (it's so routine, it's to be expected), but cautioned against further escalation (you know that Obama is not much of a friend to Netanyahu).

And hence the bombing should continue for a few more days. That's the routine, that's the ritual. More casualties, more hatred, a harder way to peace.

(Update; as of now (11/21/2012, 1.49 am Japan Time), there seems to be an agreement on ceasefire between both sides)