Those wacky Israelis and Palestinians were at it again. Now they’re not. They’ve just agreed to more talks in Egypt and now there is another ceasefire.

The 72 hour ceasefire was over and they started bombing each other once again. They were arguing with the press about who broke the ceasefire first. Like it fucking matters. The ceasefire was broken and now it’s back on, but fighting will continue as long as Israel occupies that area. They continue to build settlements and control the borders and blockade their ports and they are never gonna have Hamas stop firing rockets as long as that is going on. That’s the bottom line.

It’s amazing how everyone glosses over that fact or tiptoes around the issue because of the powerful Israeli lobby in the United States. Everybody sidesteps the issues because of a political or monetary affiliation. The easiest way to achieve peace is to have a two-state solution. Plain and simple. If the West Bank and Gaza were truly an independent state that was called Palestine and was recognized by the UN and sanctioned and supported by the US, you would have peace. But there are people in Israel who don’t want to make that happen.

It’s make easier to play the persecution card. It’s much easier to say, “Poor us. What would you do if you had people firing rockets at you?” A logical person would ask, “Why are they hurling rockets at you?”

“Well, it’s complicated…”

“No wait, why are they hurling rockets?”

“Because they live on land that we’re supposed to have according to the bible and we don’t want to give it to them. So we go in and establish settlements there anyway and we’re really shitty about it.”

“If you stopped doing that, would they stop hurling rockets at you?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Well, don’t do that anymore.”

“We don’t want to. We don’t want to give them the land. We don’t want a two-state solution.”

“Well, then you’re gonna keep having rockets launched at you.”

Back and forth it goes. It’s silly. You have one country oppressing and abusing another area that wants to be a country and the abusive country wonders why the people of the oppressed country is rebelling against them. After international pressure, Israel withdrew their settlements, but still retained control of the borders and waterways. Yet, they still don’t understand why the Palestinians are upset.

“We’ve withdrawn from their area!”

“Yeah, but you still won’t let them leave or enter freely.”

“Yeah, because they’ll come and kill us!”

“Not if you leave them alone and let them govern themselves.”

Israel doesn’t like who the Palestinians voted in as their representatives. Palestinians think the land was given to them by their God and Israel thinks their God gave it to them. This whole conflict is based on religion. It’s not based on peace. Israel can claim they want peace all they want, but ultimately they are the superpower, the big dog. They have the nuclear weapons and they have the Iron Dome, which was funded by the US. It’s up to them to decide if they want peace. They need to offer a solution where they offer something in exchange under the condition that if Palestine violates the terms, they have to deal with the US.

Palestine needs to be treated like any other country. They need to be treated with the respect and dignity that others countries expect. They elected Hamas because they were the only ones helping them. If the US, Israel and the international community got together and worked towards rebuilding and sustaining Palestine and gave them something to hope for, they wouldn’t be so quick to get behind a group that launched rockets. They would be more receptive to positive change in their community that wasn’t forced on them by an Hamas militant.

You can’t oppress people forever and expect them to fall in line. You would think Israel of all people would understand this. You can’t keep bombing the shit out of someone until they submit to more oppression. Hamas is not going to go away. They are the elected rulers and they are the ones who have to be negotiated with. George W. Bush pushed for democracy for the Palestinian people and this is what we got. Everybody said it was a bad idea, that the Palestinians loved Hamas. Now we have what we have and Israel and the international community have to deal with them. Same thing happened in Egypt. We pushed for democracy and they elected the Muslim Brotherhood. Democracy is only good when the people who are voted in are who we like. When the wrong people get elected, democracy sucks.

Things will only settle down when you give the Palestinians their own region. Make them abide by international law. When they violate the law, let them feel the wrath of the international community, led by the United States. Let them experience what it is like to govern themselves and what it is like to suffer the consequences when they go against the world, whether through sanctions or other means. Oppressing and bombing and giving them nothing is not gonna work. We will never get anywhere.

So the ceasefire is back on. You are going to see growing support for Palestine, not for Hamas. Let me be clear on this. People who support the Palestinians don’t support terrorism like Israel says. They support the Palestinians being able to support themselves and have their own land and govern themselves. That’s the bottom line. Hamas is part of their government that was elected.

Listen, I’m a die hard Democrat. I despise Republicans and everything they stand for. They promote hate and intolerance and corporations and rich people and thieving terrorists like Cliven Bundy and the band of militant yahoos who pointed assault rifles at federal agents. But Republicans are part of our government in America and I love America. The United States of America is the greatest country on earth, but there are elements of it that I hate. Like the redneck assholes who strap assault weapons on their backs and think it’s perfectly OK to walk into Appleby’s and put their guns on the tables and think people aren’t going to freak out. I despise those motherfuckers. But I love the United States of America.

Same thing with the Palestinians. You can support Palestine and their right to have their land and government and denounce those factions who kidnap children and kill them. You can support Palestinians and their cause without supporting those who murder or oppress women. I’m not equating Republicans to terrorist groups. We are much more evolved than other countries with their crazy religious beliefs, including Israel. I’m talking about the bigger picture. People don’t support the radical elements of Hamas and other groups who believe in killing children. But that doesn’t mean you dismiss the entire concept of the Palestinians having their own country. You don’t dismiss that Palestinians have a legitimate gripe about what is going on there. You can’t say that by demolishing Hamas there will then be peace anymore than you can say that by getting rid of Republicans we would have a more ethical country.

There will never not be fighting in the region until the West Bank and Gaza are free of Israeli occupation and they have their own country that is governed by international law, with the United States putting their thumb on the Palestinians and saying, “Welcome to the international world. If you fuck up, we the United States of America will be here to fuck you up.”

Follow Rob Black on Twitter @RealRobBlack Email: [email protected]