Early last Friday, Israeli aircraft attracted the Gaza Strip in order to pre-emptive stop attacks as well as respond to a single RPG that harmed no one.  This over aggressive tendency of Israel is, to me, an extremely self-destructive tendency for Israel.  Their minister of defense says these kind of responses are necessary in order to keep up the understanding that Israel will not accept any kind of violence.  For years Israel has believed that by responding to any violence with swift much more powerful violence, they will manage to keep aggression from surrounding nations down.  

But in the end all they build is resentment.  I realize that Israel has dealt with an immense amount of aggression towards it, much of which has been unprovoked.  For this reason they inevitably are quick to respond with such violence, but even though they have managed to keep the aggression from there neighbors at bay they can not keep this up forever.  Eventually the resentment for Israel’s violence, especially in the many cases that have affected innocent citizens, will grow out side the region.  Even in the UN we are beginning to see a growth of countries supporting Palestine for state hood.

Israel has to come to a new relationship with its neighbors.  As we are seeing with Iran, the surrounding nations are growing in military capabilities.  Iran has described vividly how many missiles it would be prepared to attack Israel with and in a few years it is possible that they may even have necular weapons.  The world around them is changing in lieu of the Arab Spring, and its time they find a way to get on the right side of this new wave.  My point is that with a few concessions of sincere commitment to the Palestinian people’s grievances, then they may manage to show the changing Arab people that they really want a peaceful and economically successful middle-east as well.

Here is the article that inspired this blog: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/08/143402473/gaza-official-dozens-wounded-in-israeli-airstrikes