Now that they have finished burying their dead, fighting for the lives of the injured and discovering the vast scale of property damage, the citizens of this war in the Gaza Strip — or rather, its victims — are trying to return to their lives. It takes a lot of inner strength. The sense of desperation must be repressed. The fear and the horror that war inevitably brings need to be overcome. The wounded will recover, the homes will be rebuilt and sooner or later, life will return to normal. But the hatred … it will seethe and grow. It will rise from the fresh graves and crowded hospital corridors. It will emerge from beneath the ruins. And with it will come the desire for revenge, as it always does.
Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz, former deputy commander of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Flotilla 13 commando unit, wrote a very insightful article about the implications of Operation Protective Edge, which appeared on the website of the Molad Research Institute. In it he said, “We have turned tens of thousands of Gazans into potential terrorists, thirsting for blood after losing their innocent relatives or their homes and property. Using pressure to leverage the population has never provided the anticipated results. … The method is immoral. … There is not, nor can there be, any justification for attacks on this scale.”
Israel responded with enormous force to the heavy barrage of rocket fire on its civilian population. According to figures provided by the United Nations, more than 1,900 people were killed during a single month of fighting in Gaza. Al-Monitor’s correspondent in Gaza, Asmaa al-Ghoul, wrote a heart-wrenching account about nine members of her family who were killed in the war in Gaza. She was adamant when she declared, “Never ask me about peace again.”
There was a chance for peace not too long ago. It was more than just a chance, too. Who doesn’t remember the reserved but historic handshake between late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and late Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn? On the night that it happened, Sept. 13, 1993, I was a young reporter in Gaza. It was the first time ever that I was covering the celebrations in the city, which had been at the forefront of the first intifada. The whole city took to the streets for the night, rejoicing in the promise of independence, freedom and hope. It was the first night without a curfew in a very long time.
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