Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Sleepless in Gaza

It is sometimes hard to believe in early resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

An Israeli mattress factory in Sderot has been closed, and the operations moved elsewhere. The boss blames the closure on rocket attacks from Gaza. [Source: Jerusalem Post, Jan 18th 2008] Meanwhile, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are experiencing a severe shortage of mattresses, and are crossing into Egypt to look for them. [Source: BBC, February 2nd 2008]

Why are mattresses important? Because they enable marriage and childbirth. Therefore deliberate attacks on an enemy's mattress supply can be regarded as a tactic to limit its population growth. Surely that would only make sense to people who thought the conflict would last for decades yet. Is that what is happening here?

1 comment:

  1. That's one of the most ingenious interpretations of current events I've ever seen. I suspect that you had your tongue lodged firmly in your cheek as you were writing it - yet who's to say that there isn't a kernel of truth in your analysis?

    ReplyDelete