- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
"Where have you been for the last eight years? What have YOU done to stop the rocket fire?"
I personally have done nothing to stop the rocket fire and am in no position to do so. I know what I would NOT have done, which is inflict collective punishment on Gazans through daily personal humiliations, blockades, and now massive loss of life through bombings. I just cannot see how this would achieve anything apart from at best a short-term respite for Israelis from Hamas rockets, and further radicalizing Palestinians and their supporters, thus endangering Israel (and all the rest of us for that matter) even more.
I know the parallels are not exact, but I lived through the IRA campaigns in the mainland UK where IRA terrorists planted bombs in pubs and other public places, killing many innocent people (far more than have been killed by Hamas rockets as it happens). The British government did not exactly cover themselves in glory with their response to this, but bombing Belfast or Dublin would have been unthinkable.
