Gaza Withdrawal

Israel is to be commended for finally making the right, but long overdue choice. When the Israeli settlements were created they were illegal land grabs that should never have taken place. There is a UN resolution that supports that point of view, a resolution that they have ignored up to this point.

I do have some sympathy for the families that are being removed from their homes, where they have lived for the last twenty years, but they had no justification to be there in the first place.

I am not going so far as to compare the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel to the Nazi treatment of the Jews, but Israel has created a ghetto in the Gaza strip, with far too many parallels to the Warsaw ghetto of WWII. They have restricted the local Arab people in ways that have insured massive unemployment and little if any representation in government.

Repeatedly the Arabs living in the Gaza strip have tried to correct this situation only to be over ruled by the oppressive hand of the Israeli government. Palestinians have tried to open an airport and seaport to improve their economic plight, but have been refused every time. They have asked that the border between the Gaza strip and Egypt be opened to increase the potential for job creation, only to be denied.

Israel has its reasons for these restrictions, but what they fail to see is that the Palestinians have just as much right to a homeland and self rule as anyone else. The violence in the area is a direct outcome of the failure of Israel to allow Palestinians to have the same rights and opportunities as Jews in their own country.

Israel has just asked the US for billions of dollars to help resettle the displaced Jews, within the true boarders of Israel. But what are they doing to help the Arab population within their boarders? Arabs are considered second class citizens in Israel. The Israeli Constitution was set up to insure that Arabs could never get elected in sufficient numbers to gain any power. No wonder the Palestinians are fed up with the situation. They have been denied a voice in their own governance since the creation of the state of Israel, hardly a fair and democratic approach.

The only solution that will create a lasting Peace in this region is one that addresses the economic problems of all parties involved, as well as providing for fair and equal representation of all Israeli citizens, Jew or Arab.