If you’re reading this blog, you probably also read news, and maybe you were there when I first talked about Gaza, Israël, and all those things you hear or read on the news.

So, you know the conflict is back, is now labelled as a war, and is going nicely since December 27th. Gaza keeps firing rockets and mortar on Israël, and Israël’s army keeps advancing in Gaza with the goal of stopping attacks.

Today, the number of casualties reached the value of 1000 death in Gaza (while it’s still written that this number is not confirmed by any external source, it still seems plausible).

Ok, so now I’ll provide answers for five questions I hear everyday, I’ll try to stay as impartial as possible, but since I have friends in Israël and I lived there for a few months, I might not be totally impartial. I’m warning you now, so you know in advance, and read this document while you know about this.

1. Israël is killing, and keeps killing civilians, while Gaza/Hamas killed mostly military men.
   Technically, attacks against Israël is not done by an army, so attacking those people means you’ll end killing “civilians”. They are usually labelled “terrorists”, however you might want to think that the children/women killed were not all terrorists. You are probably right, but still again, when you have civilian-looking terrorists hiding in a civilian-looking place, it becomes quite tricky.
   Now, the amount of casualties is pretty high, while it seems attacks against Israël didn’t fall, so I believe lots of blood have been wasted there.
2. Who is winning the war?
   In recent wars, the one who “wins” as you could think, is the one who gets attacked. As long as Israël is getting hit from Gaza, it can say there are “bad boys” there that needs to be punished, and keep attacking. The same is also true in the other side, as long as Gaza keeps being attacked by Israël, Hamas can continue firing rockets.
   The next point is making this sound better. You need quite a lot of marketting to make you looks like “the good guy” in a war. For now I’d say that Hamas looks like the “bad guy” because of previous marketting (labelled as a “terror organisation”, etc) while Israël started an all-out war, then gave some “bits” to show they are the “good guys”.
   Now, everything depends on your definition of “winning a war”, however nowaday, “winning a war” meaning having most other countries recognizing you as the winner.
3. Why is the political pressure on Israël to stop the war having no effect?
   The fact USA is not following is having a strong impact against any attempt to stop the war. Hamas also showed they don’t want to stop the war at all costs by refusing the cease fire proposed one week earlier. I’ve also read in a previous article from BBC News that Hamas was “about to win the war”, and just needed a few more days.
4. How could Hamas win the war?
   I personally believe the only way for Hamas to win against Israël’s well-trained army is to stop firing rockets. Any other kind of threat will cause a strong international reaction, and probably the apparition of other armies (I’m looking at America right now).
   If Hamas stops rocket firing, Israël’s army will have no more a valid reason for killing civilians, and will have to fall back and explain all deaths since the conflict started. Arrived at this point, rocket/mortar firing can resume for a few months before another military operation will be possible.
   Of course, that would require for Hamas to be able to pass orders, and its followers to accept such order. I don’t know how they are organised, but this kind of order is usually hard to accept.
5. How could Israël win the war?
   A war against an ideology is not something you can win easily. I’m not even sure you can win at all.
   If you exterminate anyone following the ideoligy, you’ll be a “bad guy”. If you don’t, they’ll still taunt you.
   Currently, Israël seems to be taking the “average” route, by attacking “all out”, then opening things like a daily truce of a few hours, etc… They are maintaining publicity for the military operations this way, and keep attacking to try to demotivate attackers. While this will have an effect on most people attacking Israël, it’ll still have the reverse effect on some of them, who will begin/continue firing rockets and running operations against Israël.

So, are you saying this war has no permanent way of ending?

If you see any viable long-term option for this conflict, speak it out. I believe if an easy solution existed, it would already be found and applied, however things are not that easy.
Let’s remember that Israël is a country initially imposed on existing countries of the area in 1947 and declared its independence on May 14, 1948.
Of course, if at some point someone else told you you will have to share your hourse with someone else, you wouldn’t be really happy. That was the case for the countries located at the place which became the first Jewish state, and they showed it. In return Israël also attacked, and won more territories than initially planned.

Since those conflicts are barely 50 years old (and not all), the place is quite unstable, and wars are easily started. Everyone has a reason for fighting, however the context has changed. How your country is seen by other countries became important for international market, and as I previously said, the winner will be chosen for its marketting effort. Even countries like Notrth Korea did some (temporary) efforts to fix the way they were seen by other countries and try to resume commercial exchange with their neighbors.

Tags: FAQ, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, News, Questions, war