The Gaza War

Over the past two weeks, I have closely followed the developments on the Israeli-Hamas war that has sparked international condemnation of the actions of the Israeli government. With that in effect, I will be posting updates here on my blog, as well as my reaction to various news reports from Time, The Guardian, Associated Press, Yahoo News, and various other agencies.

My stance on the issue (currently) is that Israel's response to Hamas' attacks are exaggerated and uncalled for. However, from a realist's perspective, Israel is indeed doing what any nation state would do. In this century though, I would have expected a nation state as technologically, strategically, tactically, and economically more superior power to practice restrain when dealing with a threat to its sovereignty.

This is an interesting development in world events, as Israel has shown again and again its contempt to the United Nations and the International Law of Human Rights, in its reactions against the general Palestinian populace. As it stands, over a thousand Palestinians lay dead; more than half are civilians, as compared to the thirteen Israeli dead, with ten of those being soldiers.

I fear that this is a prelude to the next great world war. I will not be a doomsayer, but the Great War of the early 20th Century and the Second World War concerned mostly tangible points of contention, i.e. the sovereignty of states; territory. This war is pitting two great religions against each other, and wars of religion are probably the most vicious of them all, and in today's world, the situation in the Middle East region of Palestine dictate that the first shots have been fired. If peace is attained, I doubt it will last until either the Palestinians or the Israelis leave the area, something highly implausible in my opinion.

Expect regular updates. I will blog from University if need be.

Jay~