China and Hong Kong: Views on Gaza Conflicts · Global Voices
Winglok Hung

After the first intense air strikes in the Gaza Strip at the end of 2008, Israel continues the attacks on the densely populated Gaza in 2009 and it is expected to cost more Palestinian lives. While there are mass demonstrations against Israel’s military actions in London, Paris, Berlin, Athens and several Muslim countries, what are the reactions in Hong Kong and China to this humanitarian crisis?
Will peace come?
Jackhomme, a Hong Kong blogger is rather cynical towards the situation and believes that we can do nothing to stop the current Gaza conflicts.
戰爭不是今天的事,沒人能保證有天會和平,我們安坐在千里之外很多事可以選擇,選擇早上吃什麼早餐,放工後去不去看場戲,約朋友去那間酒館飲酒,而在戰爭中的平民連生存的權利都沒有,連人最基本尊嚴都失去,選擇是多麼奢侈,生命就是如此輕渺,我們只好在外旁觀,看新聞把死亡當做娛樂,把戰事寫在blog上扮高深,我們沒有能力停止改變事實,一少人把世界搞亂卻要全人類陪葬.
CodeBlue, another Hong Kong blogger, also feels that it is too naive to believe that the conflicts between Israel and Palestine can come to an end.
外人無論怎樣做和事佬, 也不能完全了解他們之間的死結, 更何況又有誰能百分百可以預計以巴何時有永久停止衝突的一天呢? 世界和平? 這種想法是否過於天真?
Anti war protests and petitions
Nevertheless, some disagree to stand aside and watch. Hoidick started translating reports on the situation in Gaza at inmediahk.net and stirred up some discussions, in which fc said:
A lot of people feel that the Middle East is so far away that it's not relevant. The fact is everything in this world is related. Think of it this way: For every person killed in this Gaza attack, probably 100 terrorists were born. The net result is that the whole world (including Israel itself) has become more unstable, and there's a much increased risk of another 9/11. What the current Israeli and American administrations refuse to accept is that military force simply DOESN'T WORK.
In the facebook, a Hong Kong resident, Hong Wilson, creates a group to campaign against war in the Gaza strips on and there are 426 members up to 6 Jan 2009. They are planning to collect online petition to the Consulate General of Israel in Hong Kong and Macau. Members of the group suggested other means to express anger towards the Israeli military actions, including hanging a Palestinian scarf outside the window and deleting all the Israeli friends on their facebook accounts.  Cheuck Hang suggests to demonstrate at the Consulate General of Israel in Hong Kong.
我認為香港人至少應該要到以色列的領事館示威, 以前在youtube看過梁國雄有到海富中心示威,可惜人數很少,希望能不斷發起示威,引起香港人注視這個問題
Apart from joint signature petitions against the war in Taiwan and Hong Kong, a number of demonstrations against the war have happened this week at the Israeli Consulate General in Hong Kong and more to come in the weekend.
Tibet and Gaza, China and Israel scenario
While many in Hong Kong and Taiwan condemn Israel for invading Gaza and killing of civilians, the position and opinions in Mainland China are rather ambivalent. Most of the articles are speculations on the reason behind the military action.
Mengshaosan criticizes Western government's double standard in the Israel military action:
只有美国和英国与国际社会作出了大相径庭的反映，都拒绝了呼吁以色列停止对加沙地带的武力行动，那个自以为是世界之王的“萨狗屎”（萨科奇）和那些所谓的人权斗士也都闭上了他们的狗嘴。哈哈，想想真是好笑，想当初，在3月14日的西藏骚乱事件之后，那些所谓的斗士们纷纷张开那张狗嘴，对中国政府的正当行为强加谴责，给中国军人强加戴上了“镇压”的帽子。一时间，在西方人的眼中，中国成了一个十恶不赦的国家。然而，好笑的是，在今天，犹太人空袭了加沙，短短的三天内，三百多名无辜的平民成了战乱中的亡魂。但是那几张狗嘴却闭上了，而且，还闭得那么的严实。
Chenglong also co-relates the Israel attacks on Gaza with the Tibet issue in China by examining the Chinese government moderate position towards the military action:
中国对以色列空袭哈马斯采取冷眼旁观的态度，实际上是在暗示美国及其他国家（尤其是印度），如果境外的藏独势力（包括疆独势力）对中国进行恐怖袭击，中国将有权效仿以色列采取一切可能的行动。
Compensation on life
However, a blogpost titled as “Israel is a good nation” occupies the highest rank in the Chinese blogoshpere (via google search), in which Zhengkoupinghei  believes Israel is a good nation because of its monetary compensation on life:
我就當前以色列和巴勒斯坦沖突談談個人看法，我的第一個觀點是，在信息不對稱的情況下，不要輕易下自己的結論；第二，我個人的知識和經歷告訴我，以色列是個好國家。
The blogger's impression comes from a story told by a senior governmental officer in Fujian province.
福建省政府的高官講了這麼一個故事︰
幾年前，耶路撒路發生了一起公交車爆炸的恐怖襲擊，炸死了十來個人，其中包括兩名中國人，此兩人系偷渡客，屬于非法入境。[…]後來，以色列政府專門開了一個會，會議認為，在以色列國土上無辜死亡的人，政府都有責任對其負責，至于這個人偷渡與否，那是另外一回事。會議最後決定，對兩名死難的中國人一視同仁地按照國民待遇善後。[…]一個這樣對待它國和自己死去國民的國家，不管你怎麼說，我都堅信，這是個好國家。