Bob Shepherd working with a small news team back in 02 “negotiating” a way through the city of Ramallah…”oh well, there’s always another route through.“
First of all, I wish to condemn the heinous crimes carried out by Hamas from Gaza into Israel 4 days ago. And my heart goes out to the innocent individuals who have been killed wounded or captured, and of course their families.
I first met with Hamas inside Gaza while working with the media just over 20 years ago during an ugly 18 month conflict known as the Second Intifada. I watched Hamas at night laying anti tank mines in case of another Israeli border incursion on the ground that was deemed by Hamas to be imminent. I even met Hamas’s most important individual at that period, Sheik Ahmad Ismail Yassin, co founder and “spiritual leader” of Hamas, and the father of the Palestinian suicide bomber. Yasin was always based in Gaza, and a world away from the political wing of the PLO, Fatah, with their leader General Yasser Arafat based in the West Bank. The former not willing to negotiate with Israel, the latter still willing.
Even way back then Hamas wouldn’t recognise Israel, instead intent on wiping them off the face of the earth. It was an interesting meeting with Yassin, when asked by the journalist in his interview in a safe house in the central Gaza Strip away from the city, “why do you recruit and send out suicide bombers?” His answer was as I would expect…”the Israelis have the best US provided military might, from F16 jets, to attack helicopters, to tanks and artillery…we now have the suicide bomber.”
Hamas’s leadership back then were animals, they were not human beings, even though they were well educated and well groomed, something that I noticed straight away. Anyone who recruits and sends out suicide bombers on their behalf should not live to see another day. However turn the clock forward just over 20 years to 4 days ago, and their new leadership showed that they’ve become even more radical, more inhuman like…and not fit for this planet ever.
In the last 20 years, I’ve met Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, all inside Gaza or the West Bank. Later I’ve met the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the beginnings of ISIS in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve met Wahhabists (the Taliban are students of Wahhabism) from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and inside Afghanistan…I’ve met and spoken with more Islamist Jihadists than I care to remember…but boy it enlightened me to just how humans can hate…and therefore behave.
But sadly it doesn’t end there.
On the other side of the Palestine scenario are the Israelis…like Palestinians most are mainly peace loving individuals. But when the leadership becomes radical, it all kicks off. And for decades now, that’s just what’s happened. The leadership of Israel have all the military tools in their box, but that doesn’t mean that they use them against civilians…no matter where Hamas members are hiding themselves.
If foreigners took my land at home, burned out my family, and killed my parents…I’d turn nasty.
If foreigners wrapped my already over populated city and nearby towns and villages on a coastal strip, turning it into a prison for my parents life span, my own young innocent life to fatherhood, and the chances of my children’s life being the very same…I’d turn nasty.
So here we are, one part of Palestine is a prison, the other part is shrinking by the day with foreigners taking lands because they believe it’s their God given right from some 2000 years ago.
Well, here’s the thing…today science is big, we’ve even stepped foot on the moon, we’ve sent buggies and probes with cameras to far off planets, and one day we hope to send humans to Mars.
A wee while ago now, my family and I got DNA tested. I found out that my ancestors spent time in the Palestinian/Israel region 7000 years ago…predating the Jews by 4000 years! But still, I wouldn’t dream of going there in anybody’s name, and burning people from their lands. I wish DNA was up and running 20 odd years ago when I spent 18 months going through the Intifada!
Science, yes…just maybe if it was brought into the equation, it could solve many a dispute.
Meanwhile, two wrongs do not make a right!
Israel killing innocent civilians inside of the Gaza Strip right now in order to eradicate Hamas is not the answer. Kill 1 innocent individual and you make 5 more Hamas radicals at least.
In my humble opinion, Hamas do not represent the Palestinian people, and the Palestinian people do not represent Hamas.
Already other radicals are taking a pop from other neighbouring borders to Israel, that’s not good for anyone. Honesty, openness and fairness is required from all who have a dog in this fight. And the USA and the UK and others have got to be completely impartial to calm the long term future. There will always be Regional proxies…Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria, Egypt, Turkey etc, but Western Nations have done enough damage to the Middle East since the Sykes Piqot Agreement of 1916 between France and Britain, who between them carved up the Middle East for their own gains without understanding the tribes in the Region, and the correct lines (if indeed there is such a thing) in the sands.
Those that have chosen for what ever reason to settle their families in the Middle East from the rest of the world, and those tribal individuals who have been there for generations have to be left to sort it out. And in my view the way forward is for bright youngsters from both sides to put away their parents’ bigotry and bias, and communicate directly…because right now both leaderships of Hamas and the Israeli government are nothing short of sociopaths…the innocent civilians of both sides deserve way better.
Young bright people…choose your leadership that will allow both sides to live together peacefully and prosper…I know that there are many of you who are not today in politics, but are still students who can achieve that.
The next twenty years will mean even more bloodshed than we’ve already seen for decades now, just so long as at least one of the sociopathic leaderships of this bloody contest continues, but the only people that can solve the Middle Eastern problems are those that truly live there.
Whether I live long enough to witness it or not, I wonder what kind of Middle East will be seen in twenty years time, because the last twenty have been absolutely shameful?
Bob Shepherd 
They will never sort it out, they read from their religious books and their beliefs.Sadly it will go on just like it’s been going! Very sad it’s horrible.
Very enlightening Bob. You are right, those living there need to sort it out. Hammas are pure unadulterated evil and cold blooded murderers.
Hey Bob, this might sound like a bit of an odd one, and I’m definitely not a UFO nut. What are your thoughts on all the recent news and congressional hearing on UAPs and crash retrieval programs? If it is all true and there is life off this planet, I often wonder if the world knowing this would put an end to this type of conflict, or at least have some type of positive affect on it. The divide we often see amongst ourselves as humans and the awful results such as what’s going on in Israel and Palestine at the moment, could make us rethink our difference’s and look at our own planet from a different perspective. Cheers.
What is happening is very very sad. Unfortunately people at a music festival suddenly became the front line. It was always going to happen, as you point out kill on inocent, and you make 5 radicals. Those “new” Hamas fighters must know that for most of them it was a one way trip. No armour or air support. Just hope that it does not spread to the Golan. The barber in Wessex Camp had some relation who was involved in the famous Jaffa oranges. Became a refugee so hate must now be inbred. Just saying.