Israel signed a truce but peace has to wait

A truce was signed today in Gaza. This is a good news for the people in Gaza who had been for the past two months under continuous aerial, sea and ground bombardment. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, hundreds of mosques were hit, 80 of which completely wiped out, and thousands of Palestinians killed. This was a ferocious battle, one of many in the past five years. This was not war in the traditional sense because it was only one side that has the armaments, the best air force, the most powerful ally, international recognition, access to supply venues, relationship with international companies. The other side was starved, squeezed, impoverished, denied all except oxygen--the only non-commodified necessity of life.

This was a war between matter and mind, between machine and human dignity. For the past five years, minds triumphed over matter. From under the rubbles-- with injured bodies, with lost ones, with grief, with sorrow, with pride, with joy, with a sense of tragedy, with a faith, with humility, with dignity-- rose the Palestinians to bury their dead after one round ended.

A long truce maybe agreed to, but it will not last. Peace is never maintained between human when there is such a huge military disparity. Strong humans seldom respect weak ones. If the Palestinians had weapons of more destructive capacity, the Israelis and the international community would have valued their blood more; Israel would have spared them its attacks and hoped they would do the same.

A sad commentary on human life. But that what it is.

Now with a colonial mindset, that traditional proclivity of powerful humans to try to crash others takes a new dimension.

Israel has never respected any truce. A truce is always signed by Israel when its people seem frustrated with war and when it fails to score a rapid victory. Israel is a country based on a dream of easy land, easy resources, and good life created and protected by men who claim to be so brave that no one can stand before them, and so moral that they do no evil. Quick wars, where the enemy is silenced and the chosen people triumph are the ideal. Long, messy and deadly ones are not.

But Israel needs wars to live. Wars provide more land, but more money as well. Those who support Israel support it because its "idea of a fair war" in the words of one of its supporters, "is when it is outnumbered 10-1." That image of a warrior, that image of a colonial vanguard, keeping a jungle in check, is a part of its raison d'être.