The Evil European

And to be weak is strong.

The powerful always look to being seen as weak or victims to justify their actions, while seeking to portray those in weakness as being powerful.

"As ever, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little doubt as to who is the real victim. The resort to military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood, self-pity and self-righteousness."
Israeli War: Eye for an eye? The eye is for an eyelash

As is always the case with this particular conflict I have to make a number of statements.
I am not anti-Semitic, I am not a member of Hamas, I am not a mooslim terrorist and evil dooer, I believe that Israel has the right to exist and be a free and peaceful land, I am not a Nazi etc.

The fact is that what happened to the Jews plays a very strong role in my world view. As a child I learnt about the plight of the Jews over the centuries and the Holocaust. I studies and Anne Frank and ending up cry when I finally visited her house in Amsterdam. The persecution of people for who they are is wrong. The abuse of state power is wrong. Discrimination and bigotry is wrong. These tenets form a core of my being (I'm not very good with words but I am sure you get the drift).

That is why I believe what is going on in the Gaza strip and West Bank is wrong.

I also be live in creating a better future. Recent discussions about Gaza always bring up the past, the persecution of the Jews, how the early state of Israel was nearly wiped out. To build a future you need to know about the past, but not live in it.

If Israel is going to have a future, it has to deal with not just its own past, but the past of those living in Gaza and the West Bank, and in doing so, acknowledging the injustices that have lead to the present. Then maybe everyone can look to the future.