The 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza, which dropped over 400 tons of bombs in the first week alone and killed over 130 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians and nearly half women and children, was presented to the world as an act of self-defense. But as this unflinching analysis reveals, the real motivations behind the bombardment have far more to do with natural gas, territorial control, and political power than with the murder of three Israeli teenagers that served as the official justification.
The Real Reason Behind the Assault
Gaza’s coastline sits atop massive natural gas reserves estimated at over one trillion cubic feet by British Gas. After the death of Yasser Arafat under questionable circumstances, Israel took control of these fields. The unity government formed between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority threatened that control, and Israel moved to destroy it. The pattern is the same as every war throughout history: resources, territory, and power, dressed up in whatever justification will satisfy an uncritical public.
Israel’s official justification was the murder of three teenagers, but they never produced a single piece of evidence implicating Hamas. The evidence actually indicated the murderers were Israeli. The real motive is natural gas, territory, and power. It always is.
The Double Standard Exposed
- Palestinian rockets, fired in desperation, had not killed a single Israeli at the time of the report, while Israeli bombs killed hundreds of civilians
- The “right of return” is applied selectively: Israel claims ancestral rights from 1,500 years ago while denying Palestinians the right to return to homes lost within their own lifetimes
- Bombing heavily populated residential areas is a war crime under international law, and the US government funds it with over $3 billion in annual foreign aid to Israel
- Mainstream media coverage focused almost exclusively on Palestinian rockets while ignoring the massive disparity in civilian casualties
What kind of psychopath thinks that the murder of three teenagers gives a country the right to kill over a hundred people who had nothing to do with it? We are talking about little kids. If you would defend what Israel is doing without having the courage to look at the pictures of the consequences, you should be ashamed.
Silence in the face of oppression is to take the side of the oppressor. Whether you are a person of faith or no faith at all, the bombardment of civilian populations is indefensible. The maps showing the systematic seizure of Palestinian land over decades do not lie, and no amount of media spin can erase the images of children who paid the price for geopolitical greed. Standing for justice is not about religion or politics; it is about basic human decency, and every person of conscience has a responsibility to speak up.
