A lot of hand-wringing has been going on lately about the horrid state of affairs in the Gaza strip. Since we, as liberals, naturally look first at the needs and conditions of the downtrodden we focus on the miserable little people who's lives amount to nothing in the wasteland between the Israel they scorn and the Arab world that scorns them. Unfortunately they are discovering a fact that we understand all too well because of our own experiences right here in the USA.
To paraphrase a popular headline from 2004:
HOW COULD 1,376,289 PEOPLE BE SO STUPID?
... the population of Gaza knew who they voted for when they elected Hamas to run their government. They knew the avowed destruction of their border nation was Hamas' reason for existance. When they went to the polls they exercised one of humanities most valuable "rights", the right to vote for a democratically elected goverment. One person, one vote. When you own your vote your also own accountability. Now Gaza Palastinians are finding out just how much a "right" costs.
The cost for the "right" to lob rockets across your border into a neighboring country is very high. The "right" to kidnap a neighboring country's soldier and hold him indefinitly under the presumed threat of death is very costly. The "right" to abduct and murder civilians of a neighboring country comes at a tremendous price.
If the Palastinians of Gaza are truly so proud of these "rights" to attack, kidnapped and murder, they should also wear their poverty and anarchy with pride. Self flagellation is so de rigeur in Arab society that the self flagellation of Gaza on such a grand scale should be a cause for celebration not pity.
No, I can muster no pity for the citizens of Gaza, only the children who they continue to brainwash in this incubator of hatred and ignorance stuck between the Israel they scorn and the Arab world that scorns them.