Israel is an occupying power that actively oppresses millions of Palestinians through discrimination, a different set of laws and movement restrictions that resemble apartheid. Israel has brazenly defied international law by building illegal settlements throughout Palestinian land over the last few decades. These repeated incursions and the oppressive treatment of the Palestinian people have compelled the Palestinians to fight back with unconventional means.. after all, Israel does not allow Palestine to have a conventional army, so they have to fight back using whatever means available. Since the Palestinians feel backed into a corner and do not have the firepower to threaten the Israeli army, they have chosen to target civilian populations with their rocket attacks and suicide bombers.

All that to say this: BOTH sides are wrong. Bullets never solve anything.. they just create more problems in the future. However, since Israel has the complete upper hand in military power, finances and international backing, I consider them the “adult” in the situation. They need to be the bigger person and pull out of their illegal settlements and actually write a constitution that treats everyone living in their sphere equally. It’s ridiculous for Israel to expect that ANY Palestinian government will be able to control and manage all of the disparate factions from Fatah to the PLO to Hamas. Instead, Israel needs to take the first steps itself.

Here’s a stat that might interest those who support Israel in this area: Over the last eight years, between 10 and 20 people have died from Gaza rocket attacks. That’s it. 10 to 20. Since the beginning of the recent offensive against Gaza, over 1100 Palestinians have died including more than 500 women and children. Is this just? Is this proportional? Furthermore, there have been numerous recent reports that have shown Israel shooting Palestinian civilians and even targeting schools, hospitals and other venues where they know there are women and children. Israel is now doing the same thing as the Palestinians.. but since Israel has a conventional army and the support of the US, they are justified in the eyes of many.

The point is that the ONLY solution for Israel long-term is to find a way to live peacefully and civilly with their neighbor. At this point, people generally argue that Israel can’t live peacefully when Hamas doesn’t want them to exist. These people don’t know history very well. Hamas has only existed since 1987! That means they just turned 22 years old. So much for centuries-old conflict, eh? Hamas was formed as a SOCIAL-WELFARE organization within Palestine because no other entity was taking care of the third-world Palestinian people. Again, this is Israel’s own fault. A cursory reading of history informs us that terrorists and extremists are ALMOST ALWAYS found in some sort of impoverished condition. Thus, if a country chooses to create and perpetuate an impoverished people next door, said country should not be surprised when they end up with a severe problem on their hands.

So, the solution is a simple one. Israel needs to start doing for the Palestinians what they should’ve been doing all along: Providing infrastructure support to build their economy, actively engaging in talks for a two-state solution where Israel actually concedes what they need to concede (Jerusalem as a shared city, for one) and directly helping the Palestinian people with housing, food, clean drinking water and any other resources needed to pull them out of their extreme poverty.

Here is a fact of which all should take note: When extremist groups are pulled out of poverty they don’t continue to be extremists. Poverty breeds extremism.. I don’t know how else to put it. This, combined with the lack of civil liberties afforded to Palestinians by Israel, creates a perfect storm that will continue backfiring on Israel until they change course.

“Hope breeds moderation.” This is not some campaign slogan or buzz phrase.. these are words spoken by the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan regarding the conflict between Israel and Palestine. It is incumbent on Israel and the West to provide hope for the Palestinians.. this is the only path toward making Israel safe and prosperous while also further ridding the world of terrorism.

The US government has historically treated Israel with kid gloves while refusing to actually engage them on these tough issues. Unfortunately, this carte blanche rubber stamp of US approval is the opposite of what Israel needs to truly be safe and prosperous. Israel’s prosperity and security are intimately tied to the prosperity and security of the Palestinians. Until Israel embraces this and implements far-ranging policy to change course, their problems will only worsen.

**UPDATE**

Click here for more evidence of Israel’s reckless and indiscriminate tactics on the battlefield.. heavy use of weapons that are illegal to use when civilian populations are present. As you can see, Israel cares about the Palestinian civilians just about as much as the Palestinians care about the Israeli civilians.