It's not a typical fall day in Gaza
Thought for the day
It’s a typical fall day. I plan to pay a few bills, shop for groceries and watch college football. It also is the day a million residents of Gaza are expected to evacuate the north and move south by any means possible. If the same order to evacuate ever was issued in Laguna Beach, I'm guessing there would be complete and total panic in town.
Imagine food, water and electricity being cut off for days before receiving the news: You have 24 hours to pack up and leave. Because Crown Valley is closed, as is coast highway in both directions, the only way to escape is via Laguna Canyon Road.
Here's where it gets tricky. First, much of the canyon road is impassable due to bombing, so the only way to evacuate is by foot; and second, if you do manage to reach Irvine or Lake Forest, for example, neither city will allow you to stay. What would you do? Where would you go? Will there be food and water somewhere else? Will you be safe?
I imagine these are the same questions a million mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and grandparents are asking themselves in Gaza now.
Don't get me wrong. I believe Israel's hunt for the Hamas killers hiding in Gaza is totally justified. After all, these cowards killed innocent babies and anyone else they could find. What concerns me is the humanitarian crisis the evacuation currently is causing and will continue to cause long after the fighting ends. As one young physician put it, "We are living in a cage, and there isn't a way out." If this isn't a nightmare scenario, then I don't know what is.
Yes, fall is a time for change. I just never thought it would be this kind of change.
-DF
My hope is that the general response is: Enough is enough. Stop supporting either side and any entity that does. Hamas, Hezbolla, Iran, Russia, Israel, Egypt, the U.S. -and more- all have culpability here. There has been constant war in the Middle East and North Africa for the last 50+ years, ever since a Jewish homeland was carved out of other nations' land in 1947 and the OPEC was formed and weaponized oil.
I don't have an answer beyond reducing oil dependence worldwide and supporting any country that moves to eliminate terrorist organizations. But that would at least be a start.
I totally agree with you. And I have thought about the very same thing. We are so spoiled here in America.