“Israeli air raids on Gaza kill three Palestinians”

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letters: News in letters published 16/01/2010
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The Daily Star
“Israeli air raids on Gaza kill three Palestinians”
January 9, 2010

During the destruction of Palestine and the Palestinians, scenes of Israeli soldiers shooting Palestinian children throwing stones filled TV screens around the world and generated a lot of sympathy for the Palestinians, as well as more support for their cause.
The Israelis soon got the point that open violence and oppression against the Palestinians wasn’t getting them anywhere, especially with the cameras of the international media rolling. So now they’re trying another tack , and one which has been very successful so far-the silent death and destruction ploy.
Every day the Israelis torment or afflict the Palestinians in little and big ways, out of sight of the camera: Houses are bulldozed, trees are ripped up, roads are blocked, Israeli settlements are expanded,
Palestinian lands are confiscated, Palestinians are prevented from working or going to school, men are rounded up for questioning, militants are shot, and men and women are stripped, humiliated or beaten up. And these things happen in Palestinian-ruled cities and lands, at the hands of heavily armed Israeli soldiers which occupy them.
The Israelis provoke the Palestinians to violence, but they can’t strike back very easily against the troops and tanks that surround their cities and patrol their roads. So Palestinians send suicide bombers inside Israel to inflict horrible destruction on Israeli civilians. That destruction is anything but silent! Scenes of Israeli suffering, carnage and death fill TV screens around the world and make the front pages of major papers. Israel then has its justification for more open attacks on Palestinian areas to stop the suicide bombers and round up the militants and they go further and further in their retaliation, destroying as much as they can.
Naturally, since these are military operations, the cameras are banned. If any atrocities happen to occur, there’s no proof. Palestinians are wounded or killed, their houses and cities are crushed, their government institutions are obliterated, and their leaders are humiliated. All that just perpetuates Palestinian rage and revenge attacks. But when Palestinians strike back at Israeli civilians with suicide bombings, these open attacks are used against them, both in the media and by the Israeli military, which launches devastating counterattacks where they do their dirty work in secret! The open attacks by Palestinians produce worse counterattacks by the Israelis and more secret destruction, which produce more open attacks by the Palestinians. So the vicious cycle goes on, and it’s one the Palestinians are losing, as they’re being ground down, humiliated.

Ted Rudow III, MA
Menlo Park, California, United States

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