you have to hand it to the palestinian PR gurus...
get your team (in this case hamas) to send hundreds and thousands of near-primitve rockets over at the jews - most of the rockets don't really explode per se, as they are really like rocket-launched mallets - really heavy and if they hit your house they just make a big hole, but if they hit a person they kill or damage the person like a mallet does...
but from a TV perspective the hamas rockets are randomly launched, so therefore difficult to film, and when they reach their target they simply go THUD without the big BOOM and debris flying everywhere - so they don't make for spectacular TV...
anyway the israelis understandably get sick and tired of the menace created by these random mallets dropping out of the sky occasionally killing innocent people, punching big mallet holes in houes and roads, and generally keeping everyone freaked-out about when the next one will drop like a mallet out of the sky - so what do they do? - retaliate of course... but at a price...
the price is that israel doesn't use near-primitive rockets, it uses state-of-the-art missiles that even have TV cameras mounted on them - and when israel's rockets hit something they go BOOM BOOM BOOM and lots and lots of debris flies everywhere with huge clouds reaching up into the sky
their rockets do what they are meant to do - they destroy designated targets where ammunition is kept, or where hamas rocket building goes on, or where hamas is launching one of it's mallet rockets, or where hamas command is hiding-out and co-ordinating it's activity - typical military targets
a great difference is hamas does all it's stuff next door or in the backyards of palestine civilians, so there ends up being lots of collateral damage when israel strikes back at those sites of hamas activity - an unfortunate aspect of any war, particularly in built-up areas - remembering that no sane military commander ever wants the innocent to die, but collateral damage is collateral damage
but as i said from the outset, this is a PR coup for hamas, because despite this being a relatively justified response by israel seeking to halt hamas from relentlessly sending over it's mallet rockets, in conducting it's retalitory measures the israelis BOOM BOOM BOOM bombs and missiles make for excellent TV because of efficient devastation they cause, so every TV crew in the world converges on gaza to get pictures of destructive fireworks...
hamas and the palestians then scream that they are being slaughtered, and TV cameras are their to show the big BOOM BOOM BOOMs going off, however there is very little time spent on all the hundreds and thousands of mallet rockets (which are dull by comparison) that hamas lobbed into israel for the months and years preceeding israel's retalitory response of the past week...
so israel starts looking like the big bad guy using big bad weapons against a seemingly defensive gaza population - the same people that voted in hamas by the way...
disaffected muslims in surrounding countries see these latest images and get enraged at the apparent 'injustice', pack some lunch, kiss mom good bye and run off to gaza to assist their 'brothers' against the murderous jews..., so the recruitment aspect of the PR campaign by hamas is usually pretty effective...
meanwhile the UN meets and most members who speak at the security meeting all slap israel on the hand and use words like 'disproportionate', but no one speaks about the hundreds and thousands of mallet rockets sent over by hamas before israel stepped in with a few big guns to obliterate hamas rocket building labs and the like... because if it wasn't on CNN before the security council met, then it doesn't need to form part of the considerations and discussion before the council - otherwise most of the members just want to run away and avoid talking about gaza, israel and anything to do with 'their' problem...
in the meantime forums and bulletin boards around the globe on the interwebs light up with indignation and people telling everyone else why all this started, with an incredible 7,984 different reasons for who is to blame and why, while many who don't offer anything 'constructive' and 'informative' to add to the count of 7,984 different reasons for who is to blame and why, simply jump in with posts like "yeah, right on micko" or "i agree wendy, your 100% right..", while the passive non-aggressives poke their heads in from time to time waving the white flags of "there is no simple answer" or "they are both to blame" or "i hope this all ends soon..."....
while lurking in the shadows of cyuberspace and being ever-ready for moving these 'debates' forward, (but in many instances for continuing to fuel these excitable flames of theological and cultural division), are those who feel responsible for preparing the next title to the next thread after the current thread once again gets shut down and/or deleted entirely - those eager fanners of the flames for 'hearty discussion' keenly toiling away at formulating a catchy thread title that won't raise the ire of the moderators as soon as it is posted...
all the while the great hoard of masses living on the opposite side of the globe to the conflict, who struggle with falling home values and the needs of 5 starving kids to accomodate each and every day, those mums and dads of hard working honest families who don't have the time for the interwebs, they don't give a toss about yet another middle east flare-up - because they have seen it all before, and mostly for all of their life time...
but such hum drum weariness will not forestall our courageous posters here at HC and everywhere else in cyberspace who are possessed of their self belief that their postings can and will make a difference to those in another (much more ancient) country far far away...
