The Current Situation Between Gaza and Israel free essay sample

There has not been a moment of peace in former Palestine since the United Nations proclaimed the land as the State of the Jewish people in 1948, which changed the name of the land to Israel. In the Gaza strip, just above Egypt, there are constant fire attacks from both Hamas into Israel, and in defense, from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) into Gaza. Since Hamas took over Gaza in June of 2007, Israel began a blockade preventing food, gas and medical supplies from entering the Gaza strip with the intention of forcing those living in Gaza to stop firing missiles within the Israeli border (Israel Hasbara Committee). With recent events currently occurring in this region; the breakdown of the border between Gaza and Egypt, and the Palestinian â€Å"human chain,† a large number of newspapers victimize the Palestinians. Though many international newspapers seems to hold a biased against Israel and the countries recent decisions in dealing with Gaza, such as such as the Palestine Times and the Economist, several international newspapers such as The Hindu Times of India, The People’s daily of China and The Jerusalem Post go a step further to explain Israel’s actions. When Hamas, a radical Islamist group with the main goal of eliminating the State of Israel, took over the Gaza strip last summer in June 2007, Egypt began a blockade against this Palestinian region. After Hamas leaders captured Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel followed Egypt and began a blockade upon Gaza, as well (Human Rights Watch). The Israeli blockade denied the Palestinians from purchasing â€Å"food, fuel and medicine† and later in October of 2007 reduced the fuel supply to the Gaza strip (Human Rights Watch). Since the blockade thousands of missiles and attacks from the Gaza territory have landed into large cities in Israel, including the city of Sderot. After being attacked for numerous months, which resulted in 82 wounded Israeli civilians, Israel placed a total blockade on January 17, 2008 (Human Rights Watch). On January 18, Israel closed off all its boarders between Gaza and warned that the boarders would not be opened until rocket bombs, 16 that day, stopped entering into Israel (Mcarthy, Roy). On January 23, Gaza helped Palestinians break part of the wall in Rafah, allowing many Palestinians to enter Egypt where they could purchase necessities. On January 23, Israel eased the blockade upon Gaza, providing them with fuel and electricity. After attempts to seal the boarder on January 25, Palestinians bulldozed the wall down again. Meanwhile, 20,000 Palestinians, 30,000 less than expected, formed a â€Å"Human Chain† along the border between Gaza and Egypt, with encouragement from Hamas. What was supposed to be a peaceful protest, did not go as planned; missiles were still fired into Israel, and young Palestinians threw rocks across the border (al-Mughrabi, Nidal). Rumors of the Palestinians breaking across Israel’s border resulted in the IDF taking causation and standing at the border. First we will analyze the Palestine Times, which seems to only include strong propaganda against Israel. The newspaper is completely biased against Israel and attempts to victimize the Palestinians. Nearly every headline of the newspaper has a subject relating to the current situation between Gaza and Israel. One can feel the strong despise toward Israel, embedded within each article, since every article writes negatively about the State. One article in Particular, â€Å"Gaza Blockade Backlash,† describes Israel as failing to bring upon peace. These articles in the Palestine Times focus mainly on Israel’s reactions but fail to discuss all the bombings, attacks and missiles fired into Israel from Gaza. The article â€Å"Abbas halts peace talks with Israel as violence spreads† posted in the International Herald Tribune of France is biased against Israel. Though the author, Isabel Kershner, describes incidences that have occurred on both sides of the border, her choice of words undermine the bombs that fall into Israel. â€Å"Militants in Gaza responded by firing huge barrages of rockets at Sderot . . . † Here Kershner describes the situation as though Gaza’s bombing in Sderot was a form of defense, failing to mention that bombs in Sderot from Gaza have been landing in Israel on a daily basis for months. She continues about the bombing â€Å". . . killing an Israeli civilian, the first such fatality in months. Though only one Israeli civilian has lost his/her life in past couple of months, Kershner fails to mention that though not as many Israeli civilian lives have been lost, Israeli citizens are still being bombed by the Palestinians and therefore live in constant fear. Another biased newspaper is the Economist, a newspaper from England, which completely victimizes the Palestinians among the current situation. This newspaper has the intention of swaying readers against Israel, especially in the article â€Å"What Comes after Catastrophe? At the top of an article is a picture of a young Palestinian boy next to some lit candles. The article paints the picture that the Palestinians are poor and helpless and though most Palestinians in Gaza are destitute, one may wonder why Hamas, the ruler of Gaza, does not do anything to help its economy. The helpless, innocent Palestinian front continues with a story of a Palestinian man who is â€Å"whimpering in pain† and who is denied entrance into Israel due to the closing of the boarders. The article emphasizes that the man and his sister, who is accompanying him, are forced to pay a costly fee for a taxi to get to the mans â€Å"scheduled chemotherapy appointment in an Israeli hospital† and creates an image for readers to sympathize for them. Though the article does do some explaining as to why Israel closed the borders, out of defense â€Å"for a rain of Palestinian rockets on Israel,† the Economist harshly explains that many lives have not been taken from these attacks. The Economist fails to emphasize the large effect bombings can have on people, weather lives are lost or not. The Economist then seems to glorify Hamas’s leadership, disregarding that it is a terrorist group, by stating that â€Å"it has improved internal security, restored some state services and taken bold initiatives. † Even more shocking is that the Economist blames the lack of peace along the border on Israel claiming that Israel is focusing on a â€Å"new war. How could Israel agree to peace with the Palestinians when hundreds of missiles are being dropped into its territory from Gaza? Though the Economist from England fails to recognize Israel’s strive for peace, an article from The Hindu, a newspaper from India, does not. The article, titled, â€Å"Peace with Palestinians not certain in 2008: Olmert,† explains that though Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert wants peace, he is skeptical that the Palestinians will seize their attacks on Israel in the near future. The article also quotes Olmert who explains that Israel is ‘absolutely determined to make a giant step forward . . . to conclude once and for all this historic conflict between the Palestinian people and the people of Israel. ’ An article from Al Jazeera, a newspaper from Mecca, Saudi Arabia seems to be unbiased toward Israel, though the article does seem to use the victimizing technique with an image. Like the Economist, at the top of the article is a picture of two crying Palestinian boys both holding candles in their hands. Underneath is a caption explaining that Israel’s reduction in fuel has lead to blackouts. Regardless, the article makes claims about Israel that it’s reduction in oil to Gaza is â€Å"collective punishment† but uses a quote from Israel’s deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, to explain the situation, that Israel’s reduction in fuel to Gaza is Israel’s attempts to make Gaza less dependent on Israel. The article emphasizes that the reduction in fuel is a very small amount, less than 1%. The article uses a lot of other quotes from Israel justifying the reasoning behind Israel’s actions, including one quote from Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for Israeli Defense minister Ehud Barak. Barak explains Israel limitation of fuel to Gaza is so Hamas will think twice about using the fuel to produce more bombs to throw in Israeli territories. Both the Times of India and People Daily Online of China explain the situation unbiasedly. On February 25, both newspapers released an article about the Palestinians plan of creating a human chain and the measures Israel took to defend itself. Both articles explain that Israel’s increase in soldiers along the border was simply a form of defense, in protecting Israeli citizens, if the Palestinians in Gaza tried to break down the wall on the border. Both articles include Israel’s kind warning that if anything happens to the Palestinians Hamas is responsible. Finally we analyze an article from Israel, the Jerusalem Post and find that unlike the Palestine Times, this Israeli newspaper is not biased toward itself. Though the newspaper does have an opinions archive in which people can post their own opinions which may be biased, most articles fairly portray the situation. Authors of â€Å"Gaza Human Chain a Few Links Short,† Shelly Paz and Rebecca Anna Stoil, mention a positive thing that Hamas did that no other newspapers included, â€Å"some 2,000 hard-liners marched to a point several kilometers away from the Erez Crossing, but Hamas police blocked the main road leading to Erez and called on the protesters to obey the law. Paz and Stoil explain that after hearing rumors that the Palestinians would form a â€Å"human chain† and possibly cross across the Israeli border, the Israeli Defense Force practiced scenarios for the situation but hoped not to use them. They quoted IDF deputy spokesman Colonel Ze’ev Sharoni who spoke on behalf of the IDF, We are prepared for any scenario, but we hope it wont develop into anything beyond a simple demonstration. From all the sources I have read from research, I feel that the articles that are written with a biased against Israel, fail to justly explain the whole truth. These newspapers such as the Palestine Times and the Economist fail to provide the complete truth to their readers, creating propaganda. These articles fail to explain that the missiles being fired into Israel threaten the security of the Israeli people. Until the missiles stop entering Israel from Gaza, Israel will no longer have to defend itself from Gaza and the blockade will be taken away. With Gaza firing missiles into Israel on a daily basis peace will just be prolonged. Some countries and organizations view the blockade on Gaza as a humanitarian issue, but non have analyzed the real question; why should Israel support a region that has rulers who are terrorists fighting against it’s existence? In my opinion, it is not Israel’s responsibility to provide for the Palestinians, the responsibility should be solely upon Hamas, Gaza’s ruler. I agree with the Israeli General Council, Jacob Dayan, who spoke at the UCI campus on Thursday Feburary 28. Dayan mentioned that Israel still provided enough fuel to Gaza for hospitals and schools to have proper electricity, but Hamas chose to use the limited fuel to produce more bombs to launch into Israel. From this assignment I have learned that newspapers from China, India and Israel are unbiased towards this situation and I will look to these newspapers to receive information on the current situation among Israel and Gaza. As long as the Palestinians in Gaza continue firing bombs into Israeli territory, there will not be peace between Gaza and Israel.