I READ with interest Professor Rohan Gunaratna's view last Friday on potential terrorist threats in 2009, 'Terror threat: New approach needed'.

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The fighting in Gaza has to be seen in context. The media fails to point out this very important point. Israel has been occupying the land drawn out for Palestinians by the UN in 1948.

If anything at all, it is the Palestinians who are fighting against the occupiers, rather than Israel defending its territory.

Isn’t it the right of every citizen to defend his homeland? That’s what Palestinians are doing.

Isn’t it wrong to invade a neighbour? That’s what Israel is doing.

How the media portrays that as Palestinians the aggressor and Israel the victim really beats me.

As on the point of the carnage in Gaza, Muslims are not the only ones enraged. All rationale thinking societies around the world are.

Sydney, Melb protesters march against Gaza attacks
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...section=justin


Thousands join march to protest against Israeli action
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...protest-london


European protesters urge end to offensive on Gaza
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090103/..._gaza_protests


Atlanta protest in support of Gaza
http://whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES...emo/index.html


UN: Stop Israeli 'monstrosity' in Gaza
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020202

thehermit,
how do reconcile the 6 day war into the 'wrong to invade a neighbour'?

I can only say that the UN institution is just a joke. There is no way it can provide any protection or justice to the innocent people suffering from wars. The talk of human rights is even a greater joke.

The Maps tell The True Story
The truth is that far from being the poor victim it likes to portray itself as, Israel is in fact the most aggressive and belligerent nation in the region, having invaded pretty much everyone it shares a border with.
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHART...tellstory.html

Reports suggest Israeli forces using cluster bombs in Gaza.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/04/...cluster-bombs/

Jews Must Face 'Dark Side' Of Judaism
http://www.rense.com/general84/mustface.htm

What Christians Don’t Know About Israel
http://www.doublestandards.org/halsell1.html

American / Isreali Dual Citizens in the American Government
http://leisureguy.wordpress.com/2008...s-citizenship/

The Jews of Iraq
http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupatio..._iraqjews.html

If 'you' feel you are marginalised and neglected and therefore you will resort to terrorism, I am sorry the response has to be different. Is the entire earth rich? There are countries and races in Africa who are perennially poor. Poverty or marginalisation doesnot give you the right to bomb others and kill innocent women and children. Who stopped you from earning and prospering. See Brunei, one of the richest lands on earth. You must learn to live peacefully with other religionists. Imagine if You develop close friendship with U.S. and western countries they will help you tremendously.What do you gain by excluding yourself? What do you gain by propogating that your ideology is the most superior one? Are there are takers? You will never realise anything by terrorism. All your life will be spent in organising protests, processions and looting public vehicles.

Lobo

What about the 6 day war? That was more than 40 years ago, isn’t it? Are you trying to justify that the children of Gaza today have to pay for the 6 day war which happened in 1967?

Anyway, if you do your research, you will find that the 6 Day War is the direct result of the hypocritical US backed UN Resolution that partitioned the Land of Palestine into Jewish land and Palestinian Land.

For a few thousand years, Jews and Arabs have been living in harmony in Palestine. It was after WW2, that the US and Europe decide to partition that land.

The 6 Day War was between the Arab nations and Israel. The Arab nations were Jordan, Egypt and Syria. The Palestinians DID NOT participate in that war. As a result of that war, Israel ILLEGALLY occupied the land meant for the Palestinians, and has been occupying that land since.

From that fateful day onwards, Palestinians have been fighting for the RETURN OF THEIR LAND, which has been accorded to them under the UN RESOLUTION, which was made in 1948.

The Gazans are simply fighting for the land back, that was taken away from them by the Israelis. The Israelis took that land from them, in a war which the Palestinians themselves NEVER PARTICIPATED.

Please note that you have echoed the same illogical arguments of the media. You are justifying why children of Gaza must die today, because of an event that happened more than 40 years ago. Not that the Palestinians took part in the 6 Day War!

Incidentally, Jerusalem, under the same UN Resolution in 1948, was accorded "International Status" and hence, did not belong to anybody. Today, Israel lays claim to it, which is ILLEGAL, yet, the world does nothing about it. Also note how the media is complicit in this illegal act by implicating Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That is a factual error. The capital of Israel is Tel Aviv.

Likewise, the occupation of Palestinian land by Israel is illegal. Palestinians have every right to defend a land meant for them - as accorded by the UN Resolutioni in 1948. Yet, the media makes it sound that Palestinians are the aggressors while Israel the victim.

You trust the media too much.

limboonlee,

What is your point? That because of all the points you made, it is OK for Israel to occupy its neighbour's land and kill innocent women and children?

ARe you not bringing totally irrelevant points, just like the media does, to detract that Israel is killing innocents?

1) As history tells it (perhaps some disagree?), in 1948 when the state of Israel was formed, the Arab nations, together with Palestinian villagers, attempted to "throw Israel into the sea." From its moment of birth Israel was fighting for its survival against a sea of hostile neighbours.

2) The immediate issue (as stated by Israel) is the launching of rockets into Israel's territory by an organisation whose purpose of existence is the destruction of Israel - but if you go further back, Hamas might claim the existence of the blockade on Gaza as the reason for the rocket strikes.

My point is, any rational, balanced discussion must recognise that many of the problems are nearly intractable because of the root problem created in 1948: the dumping of a new nation in inhabited land, and the violent response of the inhabitants. This is not to lay the blame at either door - the Jews, fresh from the trauma of the holocaust, wanted a 'safe' land, while the inhabitants of Palestine naturally did not want an influx of potentially (and eventually) hostile supplanters.

The suffering of the people of Gaza is terrible, and no one would wish this on anyone. However, to simply slam Israel for its actions strikes me as unfair - those who one-sidedly condemn Israel seem to be ignoring the little matter of rocket fire.

You may say the response is 'disproportionate' - but you need to be aware that the effect of one rocket strike is itself disproportionate in terms of the fear and disruption to all kinds of activity it engenders.

Without condoning the Israeli actions, I feel that they, like the people of Gaza, are caught between a rock and a hard place.

By the way, a lot of the anti-Semitic rhetoric posted on the internet is scarily close to the anti-Jewish rhetoric of the Nazis. Rabidly anti-Jew, willing to smear or tarnish all Jews as Zionist plotters ready to take over the world - there is a certain kind of insanity in that.