The History Behind Gaza Conflict

CBS Evening News: Renewed Fighting Between Israel And Hamas Has Long Back Story

(CBS)  In many ways, the conflict between Israel and Hamas was inevitable -- ever since Hamas took control of Gaza from moderate Palestinian forces 18 months ago. CBS News Correspondent Sheila MacVicar reports.

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Tens of thousands in the Muslim world protested Israel's continuing bombardment in Gaza and chanted, "Down with Israel."

In Cairo, where the Egyptian government had been key in brokering the now-collapsed ceasefire, people called for an end to cooperation with Israel.

If history has shown us anything, getting any cooperation over Gaza has been nearly impossible, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar.

Thirty miles long, at most ten miles wide, and twice the size of Washington D.C., Gaza is one of the world's most densely populated places.

It was ruled by Egypt until captured in the 1967 War. Gaza was occupied by Israeli soldiers until three years ago.

When Israel unilaterally withdrew, it left behind a vacuum filled by Hamas, the Islamist group which does not recognize Israel's right to exist. Hamas is now the elected leadership of Gaza.

"The Israelis, as far as they're concerned, what they face with Palestinian resistance and in particular from Hamas, is in their book no different than what the United States faces from al Qaeda," said Rosemary Hollis, a Middle East expert at City University London.

Since 2005, Hamas militants and their allies have launched more than 6,000 rockets at Israeli targets. Ten people have been killed.

As candidate Barack Obama discovered when he toured the frequently hit Israeli town of Sderot last summer, however crudely ineffective the attacks, people did live in fear.

"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," Obama said on July 23.

But the violence was not one-sided. Israel carried out targeted killings. And more importantly for the people of Gaza, it imposed and tightened an economic blockade that cut off supplies of food, medicine, and even electricity.

The theory was that would encourage Palestinians to reject Hamas. It didn't work.

Unwilling to talk to Hamas, with Israeli elections coming soon and no serious prospects for peace, Israel did what it has done before and vows to continue.

[factsearcher]

Funny how there are no ONE arab country who really wants to take these people into their wings...
The same arabs who took them out...the same ones who promised these people they would get their piece of land as soon as israel was destroyed (they believed that jewish people wouldnt have been able to defend themselves the way they did back then when they were just out of concentration camps where they starved)
However, NONE of these arab countries want them.
And the world has the guts to criticize Israel for defending themselves from the same type of people US, England, France, Spain are complaining about in their own backyard for the terrorists acts agains humanity.

[kaelinda]

Hamas started it when it sent suicide bombers to blow up civilians in Israel. Israel put up with it for months, bowing to international pressure to restrain itself. Unfortunately, international leaders didn''t see any need to call Hamas out on its utterly unprovoked attacks, so Hamas continued to terrorize Israeli citizens. The Arab world accuses Israel of being the state that "broke" the truce after it expired on Dec 19, but no one except America has acknowledged that it was Hamas who broke the peace by sending hundreds of rockets into Israel. Yes, Israel was occupying Gaza until 2005, but that''s because Israel won the 1967 war when three or four countries ganged up on it. And Israel won the 1973 war when more countries ganged up on it. Israel shouldn''t have withdrawn from Gaza. It KNOWS Hamas'' constitution requires that Israel be wiped off the map, and every inch of territory they cede makes it one inch closer to happening. Israel won the Gaza strip in a war and "to the victor belong the spoils." Israel has to close off its borders with Gaza to prevent more suicide bombers from killing Israeli citizens.

[hetup-2009]

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