Like the return of a bad movie
11/07/14 05:26
As readers of this blog already know, I’m not much for watching movies. So it is unlikely that I will be watching Dawn of the Planet of the Apes anytime soon. After all I haven’t gotten around to watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes yet. I did watch the 1968 movie, Planet of the Apes at some point long after it was released in theaters. I think someone owned or rented a VCR tape of the movie and I gave it a watch. Perhaps I saw it on television. I don’t really remember, except that I was pretty much not impressed with the fake costumes and the money spent acting out what seemed to me to be an implausible storyline. Seeing ads for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes seems to me like sone of those things the just keeps happening. After eight films, two television series, various comic books and at least one video game, the idea seems to be completely exhausted. But somehow it keeps coming back.
I know it is a poor analogy, but I have a similar reaction to the photographs of smoke rising from Gaza after more attacks from Israel. We’ve see this before. We already know the story line. Militants in Palestine, usually in Gaza, fire rockets at Israel. They are poorly funded and their military technology is pretty primitive and the rockets usually fail to come even close to their targets. Sometimes a few people in Israel are wounded. Tragically sometimes one of the rockets finds a few victims and people are killed. Israel responds with sophisticated and deadly accurate weapons and the death toll rises. More than 100 Palestinians have died in the most recent round of attacks. In virtually all of these attacks and counter attacks the victims are predominantly civilians. The militants say they are striking out against Israel’s military and its abuses of power, but they rarely inflict any damage on the military. The Israeli Defense Forces say they are responding against the militants, but most of the casualties are simply regular people trying to go about their regular lives.
After the death toll rises to a certain point the militants run out of rockets and then after a while more Israel will stop lobbing weapons at targets in the Palestinian areas and a type of calm returns.
Until the next time someone gets a rocket and tries to aim it at Israel.
Like the Planet of the Apes movies, it seems to be a bad idea from almost every point of view, but it keeps coming back again and again. In the case of the Planet of the Apes movie, it is making enough money for the investors and producers to make them want to do it again. In the case of the violence in Israel and Palestine the weapons manufacturers are making some money, but not enough to begin to justify the human suffering.
In this round of violence, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes this week. Militants in Gaza continue to fire on Israel causing damage and injuries. Israeli leaders say that “dozens of terrorists” are among the dead. It is impossible to know for sure since the militants continue to fire rockets at Israel - presumably they aren’t all dead. And with over 100 killed and nearly 700 injured in Gaza it is safe to say that most of the victims were not the people who are attacking Israel.
I know the gist of the arguments and a bit of the history. In the 1967 war Israel captured the costal territory now known as the Gaza strip. They kept troops in the area and exercised strict control over the people until 2005, when they pulled their troops out of the area. Israel continues to control most of Gaza’s borders, water and airspace. Except for the southern border, controlled by Egypt, Israel has the territory surrounded and is able to restrict the movement of people and goods in and out of the region. 1.7 million Palestinians live there under severe socio-economic hardship. Israel says the restrictions are necessary to control attacks by militants, but the attacks continue to flare from time to time.
Hamas governed Gaza from 2007 until the unity government was formed with Palestinians in the West Bank this June. Israel has never recognized the legitimacy of Hamas leadership, claiming that Hamas is dedicated to the complete destruction of Israel. Hamas has certainly been responsible for attacks against Israel. Hamas has claimed responsibility for some of the rockets in the recent round of conflict.Hamas claims it is defending the people of Gaza. Israel claims it is defending the citizens of their country.
No one is perfectly defended. No one is completely safe. No one wins in these conflicts. There are only losers.
And neither side seems to be able to think of anything new or different to try. It is like a bad movie playing over and over and over again.
In 2008, Operation Cast Lead was launched in response to rocket fire. An estimated 1300 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians. 13 Israelis also died, including 4 who were killed by “friendly” fire from their own side.
In 2012, Operation Pillar of Defense resulted in 167 Palestinian deaths. Six Israelis were killed.
What appears to be different this time is that Egypt, which was a key player in brokering cease fires in the past seems to be less inclined to serve as mediator in the present conflict. It has opened the Rafah border crossing for Palestinian casualties, but not for those who simply want to flee from the area to escape attack. The civilians behind the fences walls and gates seem to be contained with nowhere to go.
But this isn’t a movie. It is real life.
Unlike Planet of the Apes, I can’t simply ignore it and wait for the fervor to die down and the storyline to be forgotten.
I’m not inclined to go to a theatre to watch humans and apes fire weapons at each other in order to escape from the real world. There are enough lethal weapons being used in real life. I don’t need to spend money to watch more violence on the silver screen.
I know it is a poor analogy, but I have a similar reaction to the photographs of smoke rising from Gaza after more attacks from Israel. We’ve see this before. We already know the story line. Militants in Palestine, usually in Gaza, fire rockets at Israel. They are poorly funded and their military technology is pretty primitive and the rockets usually fail to come even close to their targets. Sometimes a few people in Israel are wounded. Tragically sometimes one of the rockets finds a few victims and people are killed. Israel responds with sophisticated and deadly accurate weapons and the death toll rises. More than 100 Palestinians have died in the most recent round of attacks. In virtually all of these attacks and counter attacks the victims are predominantly civilians. The militants say they are striking out against Israel’s military and its abuses of power, but they rarely inflict any damage on the military. The Israeli Defense Forces say they are responding against the militants, but most of the casualties are simply regular people trying to go about their regular lives.
After the death toll rises to a certain point the militants run out of rockets and then after a while more Israel will stop lobbing weapons at targets in the Palestinian areas and a type of calm returns.
Until the next time someone gets a rocket and tries to aim it at Israel.
Like the Planet of the Apes movies, it seems to be a bad idea from almost every point of view, but it keeps coming back again and again. In the case of the Planet of the Apes movie, it is making enough money for the investors and producers to make them want to do it again. In the case of the violence in Israel and Palestine the weapons manufacturers are making some money, but not enough to begin to justify the human suffering.
In this round of violence, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes this week. Militants in Gaza continue to fire on Israel causing damage and injuries. Israeli leaders say that “dozens of terrorists” are among the dead. It is impossible to know for sure since the militants continue to fire rockets at Israel - presumably they aren’t all dead. And with over 100 killed and nearly 700 injured in Gaza it is safe to say that most of the victims were not the people who are attacking Israel.
I know the gist of the arguments and a bit of the history. In the 1967 war Israel captured the costal territory now known as the Gaza strip. They kept troops in the area and exercised strict control over the people until 2005, when they pulled their troops out of the area. Israel continues to control most of Gaza’s borders, water and airspace. Except for the southern border, controlled by Egypt, Israel has the territory surrounded and is able to restrict the movement of people and goods in and out of the region. 1.7 million Palestinians live there under severe socio-economic hardship. Israel says the restrictions are necessary to control attacks by militants, but the attacks continue to flare from time to time.
Hamas governed Gaza from 2007 until the unity government was formed with Palestinians in the West Bank this June. Israel has never recognized the legitimacy of Hamas leadership, claiming that Hamas is dedicated to the complete destruction of Israel. Hamas has certainly been responsible for attacks against Israel. Hamas has claimed responsibility for some of the rockets in the recent round of conflict.Hamas claims it is defending the people of Gaza. Israel claims it is defending the citizens of their country.
No one is perfectly defended. No one is completely safe. No one wins in these conflicts. There are only losers.
And neither side seems to be able to think of anything new or different to try. It is like a bad movie playing over and over and over again.
In 2008, Operation Cast Lead was launched in response to rocket fire. An estimated 1300 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians. 13 Israelis also died, including 4 who were killed by “friendly” fire from their own side.
In 2012, Operation Pillar of Defense resulted in 167 Palestinian deaths. Six Israelis were killed.
What appears to be different this time is that Egypt, which was a key player in brokering cease fires in the past seems to be less inclined to serve as mediator in the present conflict. It has opened the Rafah border crossing for Palestinian casualties, but not for those who simply want to flee from the area to escape attack. The civilians behind the fences walls and gates seem to be contained with nowhere to go.
But this isn’t a movie. It is real life.
Unlike Planet of the Apes, I can’t simply ignore it and wait for the fervor to die down and the storyline to be forgotten.
I’m not inclined to go to a theatre to watch humans and apes fire weapons at each other in order to escape from the real world. There are enough lethal weapons being used in real life. I don’t need to spend money to watch more violence on the silver screen.