Welcome to my blog. I am a former local journalist who now works in PR and a Conservative and community activist in Woking and Horsell. This blog will keep updated on local issues as well as my interests and quirky news stories.
A milestone - but the conflict rages on
I was first taught about the Arab-Israeli conflict in fourth form history and I must admit as a 14-year-old I found the situation fascinating as a subject of study. Unfortunately the reality is less grounded in paper and more in blood – the recent conflict between Israeli commandos and peace protesters at sea may have hit the headlines but this clash of cultures take the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike on a daily basis.
I’m not interested in pitching up on any one side – I used to be a supporter of Israel but I think being a supporter of either side is increasingly untenable; a solution will never be found by force of support but by an abandonment of tribalism and a calm, reasoned settlement.
Whether that is – or will ever be – possible with the extreme elements contained within either side, is another matter. But what is certain is that there are no winners – from the people who thought it was a good idea to get on ships and deliberately provoke one of the most alert security forces in the world by trying to break a blockade, to the commanders who sent in crack troops to perform a riot control operation against conventions in international waters.
Who has benefitted from this episode? Not the dead and injured, not the people of Gaza who need aid and not the Israeli state, which is being forced onto every conceivable media outlet to justify its actions.
To me there is an equivalence between a state surrounded on all sides by neighbours who want it annihilated and a displaced people who live in abject conditions and without many rights, some of whom resort to violence to improve their lot. To enter the court of interational opinion and try to argue a settlement on the basis of who is the most “right” and “wronged”, who are the “victims” and the “aggressors” is a totally pointless exercise.
This is what “peace protesters” and “Israeli supporters” alike don’t get. The very maintenance of their positions is a blockage to peace. The only way to achieve a better life for everyone is to let go of the very circumstances that bind them together and give them identity. And that, regrettably, is why I feel a solution to the conflict is no closer than when I was at school – and will remain far off for another generation to come.
