By Julianna Parker
For most Americans, the fighting in Gaza over the past two weeks has been something they've watched from afar, with glimpes of another place flashed on the evening news.
But for University of Oklahoma student Yonathan Reches, the conflict has hit much closer to home.
Reches grew up in Israel, living there for 10 years including during the Intifada. For the past two weeks, he's been monitoring the conflict online and hoping his friends and family in Israel are all right.
"It really gives you a sense of complete helplessness," he said. "You can't -- there's really very little that I can do to help Israel right now."
The violence in Gaza which stretched into its 13th day Thursday has made headlines throughout the world. Israel's war against Hamas has injured more civilians than other skirmishes between the entities.
The death toll reportedly reached 765 Thursday with some news agencies reporting about half of those victims are women and children.
The high number of civilian deaths has caused an outcry from countries around the world, said Joshua Landis, co-director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
The United States Senate came out this week with a resolution supporting Israel's actions, but Landis said the U.S. can only give Israel so much time before it has to give in to world opinion.
In Israel's 2006 war against Lebanon, the U.S. supported Israel's actions for a time but eventually international condemnation of the war won out after a few weeks.
Several international cease-fire proposals have been set forth this week, and Landis said it won't take too much longer for Israel to agree to one.
"I think it has to happen sometime soon," he said. Israel is getting pressure from other countries, and Hamas is becoming increasingly desperate, he said.
"Hamas has been pulverized," Landis said.
The question will be whether Israel will get everything it wants in a cease-fire agreement, he said. Israel's goal is to get Hamas to recognize Israel, disavow violence and destroy the tunnels into Egypt that allow Palestinians to get supplies apart from Israel.
Hamas, on the other hand, wants Israel to lift the barricade that controls everything going into Gaza, Landis said.
The war has decimated the infrastructure in Gaza, which was already impoverished, and food and medical supplies are scarce, Landis said.
"In that sense, what I think we're going to get is a more radical Palestinian population," Landis said. Palestinians growing up in Gaza don't have proper nutrition or education and wars like this from Israel only cement their anger toward Israel, he said. Historically, he said, each generation of Palestinian leadership has become more radical, angrier and less educated.
"It's the caged rat routine," Landis said. "Israel has created a more and more desperate enemy."
But while the war continues, more people are dying and Gaza becomes more devastated. Most Americans are not aware of the extent of the damage to lives and property, Landis said. The war is mentioned in a brief spot on the evening news and bloody photos are excluded, he said.
Much of the rest of the world, however, is more tuned in.
"Middle Easterners care a lot and Al Jazeera and the Arab channels are covering it 24 hours a day," Landis said. "... And Arab viewers are furious."
The conflict has attracted the attention of some Americans.
"It's a humanitarian crisis in that so many civilians are being killed by a military," said Bekah Stone, president of the OU student group Sooners for Peace in Palestine. The situation in Gaza, even before the war, is something that everyone should care about, she said.
"I just hope that people see this as not just a political conflict," Stone said. "I think it goes way beyond religious, ethnic ties. ... It's an issue that everyone needs to be involved in and everyone interested in social justice and freedom should speak up for the Palestinians in Gaza."
The loss of civilian life is something Reches can't even fathom, despite his experience growing up in Israel.
"I have tremendous sympathy for what the Palestinians are going through and I can't imagine what it's like," he said.
Violence in Israel and Palestine isn't new, but that doesn't make it any easier.
"It happens all the time," Reches said. "But you never get used to it."
Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com
