Several postings on the subject of the Gaza war are uninformed, even hateful (See http://www.dailykos.com/... http://www.dailykos.com/... I therefore wanted to be a bit more informative here.
Disclaimer: I was born in Israel near Sderot, and moved to the US more than 20 years ago. My only relations in the area are 70 year old Hebrew teachers.
I keep strong relationships with many amazing Muslim, Christian and Jewish Arabs. Some are refugees from that same region.
I truly believe both sides are quick to anger and very illogical, which is why we should help them! However, the main culprit in this conflict has always been outside forces taking advantage of those weak democracies.
We have to look at the train of events influenced by outside empires, unfortunate for both sides. Any outside intervention should be done by truly honest brokers. I pray it will be Obama.
Gaza was home to 60,000 Palestinians in 1947. It was supposed to be part of Palestine according to the November 1947 decision in the UN.
The 1948 war was at least in part due to British "Divide and Rule" games started in World War I, upon the discovery of Oil in the region. Read for example: "Palestine: A Twice Promised Land?" By Friedman.
During this war attacks on Jewish communities by the Egyptian army that was advised by sympathetic British generals were launched from Gaza. Israel was helped first by the Soviet Union and then by the US. The result: 160,000 additional displaced Palestinian refugees settling in this strip of 350 square km (130 square miles). It came under Egyptian military rule after the armistice in 1949.
Egypt after independence from Britain and while moving under the influence of the Soviet Union encouraged and organized Guerilla attacks across the border in 1952-1956 and Israel responded with military raids in 1955 and 1956 (the Sinai Campaign). Again, the civilians on both sides suffered, Palestinian refugees on the Gaza side and Jewish refugees from Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, and Europe that escaped these countries and settled in that area in the 1950s.
From 1956-1967 Gaza was demilitarized with the UN keeping score. These were relatively quiet years, but in 1967 Egypt removed the UN troops from Sinai and Gaza. We now know that the Soviet Union encouraged this effort to try and see if they can release pressure on North Vietnam.
On the eve of the 1967 war the Israeli side was shelled daily. Then the Israelis won the war, with the help of French weapons.
After the war the Soviet Union and the Arab states supported the PLO that started a revolt in Gaza. I 1970-1971 that revolt took many lives of locals from both sides. This revolt slowly died out in the early 1970's.
In 1967-1972 Israel worked on improving the lives of Gaza refugees under occupation, but in the 1970's and 1980's there was obvious neglect from Israelis and carelessness from nearby Arab states.
In 1987 the first Intifada, popular uprising, broke. Frustrated Palestinians used rocks, knives, and some guns in their fight against Israel. The Hamas, a tiny movement left over from a Fascist faction of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1940's and kept by stupid Israeli Intelligence officers as a counter force to the PLO, grew to an enormous size in the first Intifada.
The uprising died down in 1993 when Rabin started the Peace Process with the PLO, at least in part as a response to the growing Hamas power. As the Soviet Union disappeared Israel and the West believed that the PLO could no longer be a strategic risk to the Western presence.
Unfortunately from the moment the PLO landed in Gaza corruption took over. The present president of the Palestinian Authority was one of the first corrupt officials to settle in a huge flashy compound in the middle of an impoverished region. That's how Hamas got even stronger here. PLO was in control of most of the Gaza area from 1994-2006, probably the 12 worse years for refugees there.
In the second Intifada Gaza PLO used Hamas as a proxy to launch rocket attacks and suicide bombings of nearby Israeli towns with relatively little consequences (as compared to the West Bank). This time the Israeli neighbors got the brunt of the attacks.
In 2005 Israel retreated completely from Gaza. This was despite the Bush administration objections.
In 2006 Hamas won the elections in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel did not want Hamas to be in the election, but the US pressured in Israel because the Bush strategy was that democracy should be encouraged, and the Iraq experiment failed - so Israel had to pay. With the presidency remaining in PLO hands, Hamas started a coup later and took over Gaza.
Hamas initially ruled Gaza better than most - but they made a strategic decision that would come back to bite them: They sided with Iran in the 2006 war between Israel and the Iran - Hizzbulah axis. The Iranians are pressuring Hamas to act because they want the pressure of the international community off their back regarding their Nuclear Arms program.
Again, outside forces determined to mess things up for locals.
The rocket attacks of the last few weeks are the work of Iran, emboldened by help from Russia that is revenging our support for Georgia by providing Iran with defensive missiles. It is also the result of the Bush administration push on the Israeli government to help prop up the corrupt PLO government that is a joke, so that they don't leave office with negative achievements in the region - so they support the destruction of Hamas.
In 1882 my great great great grandfather came to Israel and worked for an Arab landlord near Jaffa. The Arab said to him: Welcome home. Until 1917 that was the sentiment amongst Arabs and Jews.
In 1993 Israelis welcomed many Palestinians that came back from the west to live and invest in the new Palestine, and most Israelis were willing to give compensation in return for compensation to displaced Arab-Jews. Even resettlement and map changes were considered so that a majority of refugees can return home.
I truly believe that the lack of honest brokers throughout the years is the main reason for this senseless conflict that uses these areas as pawns in a global chess game. Don't use it as a reason to kick Palestinians off that land, or throw the Jews to the sea!