Behind The Times

Kari Travis | Managing Editor

Palestinians and Israelis are fighting. Again.

It does seem redundant, doesn't it? Every time we turn around, another skirmish breaks out along the Gaza strip.

But this isn't just another round of riots in the Middle East.

You might have seen something about it in the headlines over the past few weeks. It's a pretty major deal. After all, when Israel launches a military campaign to retaliate against Palestinian Hamas and its operations, you can bet there are foul games afoot.

Some might even call it the brink of a war.

But before we go jumping to that conclusion, let's take a look at the events lead up to the intense violence of the past few weeks.

First, we'll cover the basics.

The brutal and bloody fights that break out over that tiny strip of land bordering the Mediterranean Sea might not make much sense unless you get some background. The fight over the Gaza playground has gone on for decades - since 1967, to be exact. During that year, the Six Days War broke out and Israel gained control of that portion of land.

Obviously, Palestinians weren't happy about it.

Fast forward to the year 2005 and the end of Israel's occupation in the area. The entire explanation is exhausting, so we'll just condense it to the following sentence: After a drawn out disengagement process, Israel pulled its troops and its people out of Gaza.

There was just one problem. Whenever one ruler moves out, another comes in.

In June of 2007, an Islamist militant group called Hamas took control of Gaza. This event marked an escalation in the rocket retaliation against Israel, according to the BBC.

And at long last, here's where we get to the dish behind the most recent drama. On Nov. 14 of this year, the head of a Hamas military operation was killed in an Israeli "surgical" air-strike that rocked Palestinian targets and caused panic among civilians, according to Reuters.

The ordeal that followed can be boiled down into a three simple but important details.

Hamas was ticked off.

Israel was hit with more than 300 Hamas-fired rockets over a period of 24 hours.

Both Israeli and Palestinian civilians were traumatized or killed.

While many feared (and still fear) that war would be the result of the overwhelming violence, talks in support of a ceasefire began on Nov. 18, and an agreement was officially announced on Nov. 21.

But expectations for the cease-fire's success are low, The New York Times reported.

Now that you've finished reading a brief history of the situation, you might be asking a couple of questions. Why is this happening now? And who's fault is it really?

Glad you asked.

The answer to the first query is both hard and easy to answer. The events sparked on Nov. 14 were, quite frankly, inevitable. The Israeli and Palestinian groups have been at political odds since the establishment of Israel in 1948. From an empirical, academic perspective, it's a land battle that will never let up.

The answer to the second question is not so easy. Additionally, the intent of this column's snarky analysis is not to point fingers or place blame. For that fact, maybe we're too caught up in trying to figure out whose side we should be on.

Maybe we're missing the point.

The fact of the matter is that both Israelis and Palestinians are people groups with rights. Sure, one group may be governed by a militant organization, but citizens aren't stripped of their humanity by the actions of their government.

So do yourself a favor and try to look at both sides with sympathy. After all, rocket retaliation fired from either side of a conflict ultimately does the same amount of damage.