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CJ
mtnkodiak
09 January 2009 @ 11:46 am
The Gaza Strip  
Can anyone point this ignorant American to a good resource for helping to understand what's going on over there?  It would seem that violence is really escalating lately, with probable war crimes being committed.

I hated history classes in school and avoided them.  Now I wish I would have paid attention a bit more.

Burning questions:
  • What caused Israel to change it's mind about Gaza after the 2005 peace agreement?
  • Is it "all about" religion, or oil?  Or both?
  • Why doesn't any western nation intervene to stop the bloodshed?
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Current Mood: numb
 
4 comments | Leave a comment
 
( 4 comments — Post a new comment )
Greg[info]saintpookie on January 9th, 2009 07:07 pm (UTC)
Here's a start. BBC seems to have a lot of coverage that might help.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7818022.stm
CJ[info]mtnkodiak on January 9th, 2009 08:54 pm (UTC)
Thanks, I will check it out.
Joe[info]joebehrsandiego on January 10th, 2009 05:32 pm (UTC)
CJ- this post from Open Left was interesting to me.

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=10820

The Guardian is (my judgment) the best source for news on the issue.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/



Edited at 2009-01-10 05:40 pm (UTC)
Cee-Lo[info]dedos on January 10th, 2009 09:24 pm (UTC)
From my limited understanding, it's not about oil at all. It's about the state of Israel being created by the U.N. after a series of violent conflicts in the area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel#History). It's about culture and religion and that sort of nonsense.

Israel is trying to defend its borders from rocket attacks from Hamas. The ruling party in Palestine is Hamas, and they have repeatedly claimed to never give in and accept Israel's legitimacy. So they lob a couple of rockets over the border, and Israel assumes nothing will be done about it by the Palestinian gov't (and they are probably right), so they take it upon themselves to make sure the members of Hamas get the message, and lots of civilians pay the price.

Diplomacy is tricky because Israel has nukes. Also if you appear to favor Israel, you incur the wrath of all the Arabs in the area, and they have oil and money. So it's messy all around.