My Two Cents...
Disclaimer number one: Like most people I’m still getting the news as they come out, so bare with me. My last update status is from July 20th, 2014 at 10 A.M and I’m writing this on my way back to São Paulo with no Internet. So if anything happens or somebody drops a nuclear bomb in the meantime… screw it, I ain’t rewriting anything.
Disclaimer number two: Also, to my point, I'll make it clear that I don’t take pleasure engaging in discussions about Israel and Palestine, mainly because people tend to get very emotional and aggravated to a point that the quality of discourse becomes dreadful and very unbecoming. It’s mostly people yelling from both sides with things like “Boycott this and that” and "The Palestinians (or Israelis) are nasty animals.” That truly bothers me. And if you ask me, I’d say both of them are accurate in their statements. Hobbes pointed that out very long ago, "Homo homini lupus": Man is a wolf to man…
So that being said, my main goal here is to act like freaking Switzerland to the best of my ability throughout this whole story, okay? Okay.
So… When people talk about this issue they often say that the wrath goes back thousands and thousands of years. Which is true, but the backgrounds of every other war goes back to thousands and thousands of years, and just because a dispute is ancient it doesn't mean it's intractable.
So let’s not start at a couple thousand years ago, let's start in the late 1940’s when Britain still had a huge chunk of the world colonized. The United Nations then decided that Britain's colonization of Palestine should be terminated and two independent states should arise: Israel, a sovereign homeland for the Jews, and an independent Palestine. The Holy city of Jerusalem would be ran by the UN, which would be bordered by Palestinian territory.
Brilliant idea! And in fact everyone, I said EVERYONE, who hasn’t gone entirely bonkers, still agrees that this would be the only solution. An independent Israel and Palestine, and a shared “Commonwealth-ish” Jerusalem. But guess what? It hasn’t happened.
Sixty years and a whole lot of wars later, Israelis have radically expanded their borders as a defense mechanism against further attacks and the Palestinian land (who’s still not independent), has been split into two, very unorganized, areas: The West Bank, and a midget sized strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea called Gaza. Both Israel and Palestine have dishonestly attacked and brutalized the other, and it's pointless, although very tempting, to make historical judgments about whose horridness has been the worse.
In 2006, the Palestinians had their first official free elections and the Fatah party, which has been the most influential party in Pakistan for years and had major popular support, loses to none other than… the terrorist organization Hamas. (?) Really? “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”… But I digress.
Yes, Hamas has been held accountable for many of the attacks to civilians and suicide bombings that took place in Israel, but they're also responsible for roughly all of the infrastructure built in the past decades in Gaza. They built roads, schools, hospitals, city councils, orphanages and etc. Even if these are not the best amenities in the world, and nobody claims they are, let’s give credit where credit is due. It’s been reported that 90% of Hamas' domestic budget goes into social welfare, which is surprisingly admirable.
And we should also keep in mind that Palestinian voters, just like any other voter in the world, don't vote solely thinking about their foreign affairs. After all, most voters prioritize things like health, education and the economy, and the same goes with the Palestinians.
But anyhow, since then Hamas and Israel have been throwing rockets at each other every so often, eye for an eye, and it has worsened consistently, culminating in the ground invasion of Gaza a couple of days ago.
Ultimately, Israel (and most of the world) wants to get Hamas out of power, which I personally think is a great thing, but sadly most experts say that this war could empower Hamas rather than weaken it. So that’s a pickle…
But behold, my friends! Here’s the Filipe’s Pathway to peace between Palestine and Israel, presented in a simple bullet point format (because that’s apparently how people get their info nowadays.):
Israel needs to stop all illegal expansion of their settlements on Palestinian land, dismantle even their old ones and also free its political prisoners;
Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade need to cease any attacks in Israel immediately and for good. The backlash is not doing their own people any favors;
Fatah needs to quit spoiling its legitimacy with their stupid fraud and corruption charges. And if they come through, Hamas will be down in no time;
With that in place, Israel and Fatah can finally sit down together and think about drawing a map similar to the original one from the 1940’s, with true and long-lasting independence for both Palestinians and Israelis, even if that means Israel opening itself up to some sort of security breach, that's an issue no one's going to be pleased with, but everyone should be able to deal and live with.
So Yeah… Take it like the little bitch we know you are, UN. You’ve been served!
Salaam, Shalom and Peace Out.
