I am truly amazed at the local, national and international attention that the Gaza issue gets, from media, activists and politicians. An alien coming from another planet could be forgiven to think this was the worst humanitarian disaster to strike our planet in the last 100 years. But reality is so different. The IRC estimates that in the Congo 5 million people have died there in the last 10 years with 45,000 a month dead in 2008. A decade of war and infidata between the Palestinians and Israel have accounted for somewhere around 5,000 Palestinians killed (Number of civilians vs insurgents is disputed)
Let’s also look at the record of Islamic countries and how they treat minorities or other groups within their region. Syria is estimated to have killed between 7,000-40,000 people in the city of Hama alone in 1982 when attempting to destroy Hard line Islamists. Saddam gassed his own Kurdish minority in the town of Halabja killing approx 5,000 and injuring another 11,000. All the Sunni states harass their shiite minorities. Turkey, Iran and Iraq actively try to prevent Kurds from creating their own state. Saudi is building a 560mile long border fence which will prevent nomadic tribes from crossing into their historical grazing lands. This is a small taste of the volition of human rights by states that routinely criticize Israel. Yet I never hear about the other side of the coin. As for the locals here who love to bash Israel, how many are willing to give up their property that the First Nations have never relinquished claim to? We certainly are the pot calling the kettle black!
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