Friday, January 16, 2009

Palestine

I have been thinking about writing a post about Palestine for months. I wanted to explain how Iraq's relationship with Palestine has deteriorated since 1991 and why the Palestinians in general have supported Saddam Hussein, and how disappointing that has been for many Iraqis. I wanted to point out that the Arabs never protested the mass murder of Iraqis as much as they have protested the Israeli bombing of Gaza. It sickened me to see photos of Palestinians in Gaza protesting the killing of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the Jordanian who mass murdered Iraqis and instigated the sectarian war in Iraq.

Even after all this, it is hard for me not to sympathize with the Palestinian civilians who just want to live normal lives, especially after I read about the killing of children. Iraqi civilians have also been "accidentally" killed by US forces, but in Gaza the number of civilians, and children, killed by the IDF seems unusually high. What have these children done to Israel?

The conflict in Palestine has lasted more than 60 years now, and the root of the conflict remains the same: the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. The Palestinian Diaspora is huge, and many of the original refugees and their descendants live in Gaza. The conflict will continue if its root is not resolved fairly.

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