I took this photo from our “safe space” as the IDF went around Ramallah in the West Bank back in 2002 kicking out international journalists. They would say it was a closed military area, and wanted no news gathering for the world to see.
Every morning when we wake up, we find that there are plenty of others inside the Gaza Strip who aren’t waking up. The death toll of civilians, and especially children is rising hourly at an alarming rate. Over 10.000 that they know about and can name…however, just how many have been vaporized or in pieces rotting away under the rubble, those cannot as yet be accounted for, and may never will?
War is atrocious…but this isn’t war…in my view it’s a cycle of violence that has had it’s quiet moments along with it’s volatile moments over the decades. This latest conflict in the cycle of violence however, is no doubt the worst seen in many years between these two states.
Adults are the decision makers in this conflict from both sides. Whether it’s to kill or to be killed. Hamas has killed around 1400 human beings on one side, and taken over 200 hostages into the Gaza Strip. On the other side Israel has responded with the death of over 10.000 human beings…and as I write this the killing continues.
This morning Netanyahu has said that when the “war” ends, Israel will be responsible for the security of Gaza…in other words, like areas of the West Bank, Gaza will once again be under occupation.
If that is allowed by the international community to happen, then the cycle of violence continues…it may even spread…and if so, it will definitely end up on our own streets thousands of miles from the Gaza Strip and Israel.
I took this photo in 2002 during the Second Intifada when the IDF took weeks slowly destroying Arafat’s Mukata inside Ramallah, by use of engineered explosives, tank rounds and machine gun fire. After this period I went inside the Gaza Strip with a news team to cover the conflict from there. Over twenty years later heavy over the top targeting still continues inside close communities of civilians.
Nothing has changed in over 20 years, hollow speeches from US “envoys.” Always backing Israel 100%, with closed door conversations to eventually ease off, as it’s beginning to fall onto those backing the Israeli aggression. That goes for the UK and others taking the same stance as the US in this what has always been a “one sided arse kicking contest.”
But as I wrote on day 22 of this conflict, something most definitely was not right about Hamas’s crazed and bloody attack followed by the hostage taking event in broad daylight, with little response from Israeli authorities and their military might.
A sad and huge loss of civilian life in Southern Israel in towns and communities close to Gaza that shocked the world.
If I could guess Israel’s huge response to this carnage and hostage taking back at the time, basing it on past conflicts between the two sides, then so could those international actors who get paid the big bucks to ensure stability, peace and a Two State solution.
In my view, they have all failed…miserably! They have all failed the children of Israel, the West Bank, and in particular right now, the children of the Gaza Strip.
I don’t know how many Israeli children died on the 7th October, but in my view just one is one too many. Yet I’m guessing that there could well be over 5.000 dead children in Gaza from Israel’s dreadful response… and again one is one too many.
In the last 20 years in the Greater Middle East there has been hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced in the many wars between the countries of the region and their proxies. All for greed and power, with the layers of proxies including super powers playing in the sand where the lines were drawn mainly by the British and the French back in the early 1900s and into the late 1940s.
Israel’s security problems as a modern State is mostly by being expansionist in my view, mainly for over 20 years now through pushing the illegal settlements inside the West Bank. Again condemned by powerful countries here in the West, but mainly tongue in cheek as they continue their total support for Israel. The US for example sending billions of $$$$$ in aid annually, with the US taxpayers paying for their military capability of their army, navy and air force…which means paying for many of the munitions that are taking the lives of thousands of Gaza’s children right now.
So, just who in the world has the chance to step up, be extremely tough with all sides in order to give the Israeli and Palestinian children of the region a life where both can continue safely side by side going into the future?
It makes me shake my head when I hear the talking heads of Israel from the PM downwards saying that we are only taking on Hamas targets…when I know full well that there is a better non military way to suppress Hamas. The present leadership of Hamas is sitting Lording it inside Qatar in complete luxury compared to the Palestinian civilians in which they govern today. They have electricity, clean running water, food on the table at the click of fingers, a roof over their heads…and above all security. To the international community paid to solve this problem…is this right? While Qatar plays the game of “go between.”
On the other side, while Netanyahu and his top cronies rake in the international sponsored $$$$$ while taking apart Gaza with high explosives and all who live there becomes a target…is this right?
Without stating the obvious, yet given the above, it most certainly would not be difficult to hold the leadership of both sides’ feet to the fire, free the hostages and stop the conflict immediately.
This could have been done weeks ago, thereby saving many lives today, and nipping in the bud any regional and global expansion of the conflict today or tomorrow. At the same time, planning for who can take on Gaza, and just where both parties go from here could be well sorted and put into place.
The only way that this can happen though, is for “true envoys” of truth and peace, and a Two State solution to be put in place through the United Nations. Therefore they cannot come from the US government, the UK government or any of those countries with direct political and economic ties to either side.
Years ago as a young special forces soldier, I was taught the difference between facts and supposition. I was taught to go through all of the “what if” scenarios, and I was taught the “6 Ps” as a basic recruit aged 17…prior planning and preparation prevents poor performance.
So why has the International actors who are supposed to be acting not bothered with such basics in order to be proactive? And why has the Israeli government and military not bothered with such basics in order to be proactive prior to the dreadful day of 7th October 2023?
Bob Shepherd 
Hi Bob Nice to read your blog keep them coming.
Best regards and good health.
Jim Waldron