Dear Editor,

Apparently the ownership of lands, such as the West Bank and the Gaza strip, located in the West Asia region, cannot be resolved by military might or economic superiority, otherwise the purpose of warfare would become redundant.

Military prowess and economic dominance have never been that firecracker you toss in the ring at two vicious dogs fighting over the bone of ancestral land ownership.

It’s true that territories cannot be bought or sold, it is even more so the case for human lives.

The tension and current conflict between Israel and Hamas is not about who would be the more deserving possessor based on a more progressive culture; instead, it is driven by an ancestral fervour, a bloodline and a decent, however skewed or twisted it may be.

The claim is that the lands belong to both sides’ generational trees, the result being a war of morality, a morality which becomes even bloodier as no side is willing to relinquish possession.

It’s the same kind of fighting “ova ded lef lan” that happens on a smaller scale between close neighbours. It is the assassination of the virtuous cause that you claim to be fighting for when murder becomes the basis of justice.

That’s why warfare destroys its own reason and any justice it professes to administer.

Homer Sylvester

h2sylvester@gmail.com