Swift and peaceful end to holy war

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Events in the Gaza Strip on the 50th anniversary of 1973’s Yom Kippur War certainly caught the government of Israel by surprise, even though their foreign spy agency, Mossad, and its domestic equivalent, Shin Bet, have long been touted to be among the best in the world. Seems they were not all they are cracked up to be, as hundreds of heavily armed Hamas fighters entered Israel by bulldozing border security fences, launching boats and even paragliders to stage really brutal attacks on nearby Israeli towns. Thousands of rockets were simultaneously launched from Gaza, which has about 2.3 million Palestinians squeezed into a 25-mile-long strip of the Mediterranean coast; it is about five miles wide on average, and among the most densely populated in the world.

Tensions with Israel grew steadily worse over the years, and when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a coalition government last year with the Jewish Power Party and the Religious Zionist Party, the stage was set for another confrontation. So the attack by Hamas may have been a surprise to Israel’s government, but was never a shock as the names of the participants on both sides signify another religious or holy war between Muslims and Jews. Countries of the West, which are mainly Christian, have all chimed in to back Israel; condemning the terrorist tactics of Hamas, The three Abrahamic religions from the Holy Land all worship the same deity under different names of Allah, Yahweh and Jehovah, and all preach a ministry of peace and love, but hate-filled militants have represented offshoots of all these religions for centuries.

Palestinians have been on the receiving end of brutality and humiliation in their homeland for over 75 years; if you treat people like animals, then it should not be surprising if they eventually react like animals, but the outcome of this latest ethnoreligious conflict is unknown. America has armed Israel to the teeth, to the tune of many billions of dollars, since its inception as a state 75 years ago, and is now promising even more military assistance. The Palestinians has been helped by neighbouring countries, but they never really had more than a plastic spoon to engage in a knife fight. Things seem to have changed with Hamas taking several dozen civilians and military hostages into Gaza, after mindlessly slaying several hundred civilians. Israel has declared war, with the military capability of pummelling Gaza to so much dust, but those hostages are bargaining chips for Hamas. Those religious readers who pray should get on their knees and call on their god for a swift and peaceful end to this latest holy war.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada