Nation that always cries it is a victim. Readies its army to expand mission creep.

[moniss]

46. Also not understanding why there is violence is also

not valid. All violence is not justified but what has gone on in Palestine and the entire region since the onset of WW1 has many facets that cannot just be boiled down to "one side attacking another innocent side" sorts of explanations. The main root problems began, and still continue to be, about oil and shipping and the machinations of Western countries for their greed and control.

The British used both Arabs and Jews in deceptive ways making promises to each it knew were in conflict and couldn't be readily kept. In the period between the World Wars the Western countries knew well the importance of oil for their military needs and the British in particular were determined to hang on to their colonialist ways of extracting resources at their benefit and of little gain to the people of those regions. Along with US involvement they alternated between various groups and factions arming and financially supporting one or the other as their plans to install "friendly" puppets as leaders resulted in a constantly changing landscape of murder and backstabbing. What lesson did the West teach these various groups by such conduct? So now the West pleads that violence is not the way to conduct matters? The West still uses violence, subterfuge, dishonesty, clandestine operations etc. in the region and they support Israel's activities for those same means.

During much of this time prior to partition the Haganah, by way of it's groups like the Irgun and Stern Gang, carried out violent attacks on the British in Palestine as well as throughout Palestine. But partition was proposed but was only accepted by one side. The Western powers again used their position of strength after WW2 to promise the Arab nations and Palestinians that all of their issues would be attended to such as "right of return", "compensation for land taken" etc. and absolutely none of it has been. What the Arabs and Persians did see however was the Western powers ramping up and continuing their efforts at controlling the internal affairs and leaders of Arabs and Persians by supporting a whirlwind of different factions/persons using all of the previously described methods. The US and the British were also trying to outdo one another during the period as they began to realize their previous oil deals that were so much in their favor now had to be renegotiated.

The Iranians for example have very good reasons and basis to hate the Western governments and to never believe a single word that comes from the mouth of a Western leader. The actions of the US and the British in the '50's and since were and are as reprehensible as anything the Iranians of which the Iranians stand accused. This sort of thing wasn't isolated either. During this entire period we engaged in these sorts of activities in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt etc.

During the whole of time since the partition Israel has also engaged in the clandestine activities in other countries in the region and around the world. The portrayal of that nation as just "trying to be left alone" is total BS and always has been. But it plays for the propaganda effect. For example Israel has tried to portray the Gaza conflict as "We left them alone and then they attacked us." Pure BS. Israel, after withdrawal, turned Gaza into a prison with control of the flow of goods and the waters in the hands of Israel. Along with that there was constant clandestine spying activities and placing of surveillance equipment inside of Gaza.

Yes indeed nobody should have rockets rain down upon them but to portray this as unprovoked and without basis is to not accept the reality of more than 100 years and I have only given some of the major aspects and there are so many more reasons why people in that region are absolutely right to believe nothing that comes out of the mouth of any Western leader. They've heard it before and they know those words and assurances are worthless and usually are are deceptive and a ploy for other things.

Put bluntly leaders made dueling promises they knew they could not keep. Then tried to manage the fallout using despicable means while protecting their own greed and needs. So they took land from one and pledged it to another while promising to compensate and allow return. They never did and the one who got the land swore they never would allow for it. Based on broken promises some of the nations in the region took the approach that since the deal was broken then the side that got the land was illegitimate.

But a bell cannot be un-rung and so here we are. So now even what little area the Palestinians were shunted to, Gaza and the West Bank, is to be taken after being a killing field. Let alone the issue of what about the Palestinians in refugee camps in other countries, set up by the ones making promises, and promised all along that "some day" the promises made would be kept. The Western betrayal of it's promises to the Palestinians for over 75 years is horrendous and no amount of violence from either side or attempts to whitewash it will remove the lasting stain of what colonial and expansionist powers have done.

Once people have been lied to repeatedly and whipsawed for over 100 years no amount of "conferences", "peace talks", "summits" etc. will accomplish anything as long as one party says that the main promises that are yet outstanding are forbidden for discussion. This refusal to make good on those main promises is also used by the other side to say there won't be peace until they are fulfilled. Fulfilled. Not just more words in the wind. That wind has blown through the desert for over a century.

When Netanyahu says he wants to have an Arab government take over civilian control he actually means an Arab leadership approved by him who will do exactly and only what he wants. He sees himself as another "Lord of The Desert". It is not about anything to be done for the Palestinians but rather what will be done to them.

My writing this is not an exhaustive telling of everything that has gone on and there is certainly more such as the British in Egypt, The French in Lebanon, the Suez Canal, the oil pipelines, the various incarnations of Western oil companies operating in the region, the concern about Soviet influence and on and on. The point I have tried to make is that there is much more than an "us versus them" or "they started it" nature to all of this. Even if Hamas and Hezbollah, along with Iran, all disappeared you would still have this massive problem where a large area of land was taken, people expelled by force, promises made to compensate/allow return and the promises being thrown aside. Combined with decades of occupation and repression in what little land left to the Palestinians, the broken promises aren't going to go away. The problems they were meant to address aren't going to go away either.

There are those who don't like the term "genocide" but they cannot refute that the death and injury to a civilian population on this scale is a wholesale slaughter and is anything less than horrific in scale compared to the attack suffered by Israel. They cannot refute that withholding food and medicine to the point of starvation, massive malnutrition and medical deprivation has taken place when doctors and experts from across the globe have visited and described it. Whatever term they wish to use does nothing to change the fact that it is a massive barbaric attack on a civilian population that grossly exceeds what came before.

So here we are. I recommend 2 very good books on the whole subject both by the historian James Barr. First is "A Line in the Sand: The Anglo French Struggle for The Middle East 1914-1948" also under other subtitles and then "Lords of the Desert: The Battle Between The United States and Great Britain for Supremacy in The Modern Middle East" also under other subtitles. These are heavily footnoted and a great deal of the information is from classified files only released in the last decades.