Israel Has Every Right To Defend Itself

This is what everyone’s been saying and by everyone I’m refering to the G8 leaders. Whenever someone says those words “right to defend themselves” I think to myself “who is being attacked and who is doing the defending?” More importantly, why after weeks of bombings on a people and their land does no one say Palestinians have a right to defend themselves? All the news reports claim that this whole mess started when Palestinians kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Really? It’s a matter of who cast the first stone except no one reports any of the casualties until Israel gets hit by one of those stones. That’s when the cameras turn on.

It was always a strange thing to say, especially when it comes to Palestine. A people who are essentially occupied, with tanks and soldiers roaming their backyards, a people living in poverty and without a sense of statehood. These are the people who the world considers to be the attackers, the oppressors, and not the other way around.

It’s like the nerd being beaten up everyday at school and when he complains to the teacher she says the bully has every right to defend himself.

The logic baffles me.

Prime Minister Harper of Canada agrees with all the G8 leaders (especially Bush) that Israel has every right to defend itself. And as the Lebanese death toll soars past the 100 mark and God knows how many Palestinians have died in the past month, 8 Canadians were killed in Israeli air stirkes in Lebanon. This will probably mean a re-phrasing of Canada’s position, or even the G8 leaders for that matter. It will probably be something like “Israel has every right to defend itself…just wait until we get all our people outta there first!”