Both Hamas and the Israeli government bear some of the blame, but the Israeli slaughter of civilians far exceeds that inflicted by the ragtag rockets fired from Gaza.
The craven response by the American political class to the use of American planes and weapons to slaughter civilians is what any reasonable cynic should have expected. Obama is maintaining his silence – perhaps because there is little hay to be made from victims outside of Darfur.
This conflict may be even more ludicrous than the typical Mideast carnage. The New York Times, in a front page story headlined, “Israel Reminds Foe It Has Teeth,†noted, “Israel’s military operation in Gaza aims to expunge the ghost of its flawed 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and re-establish Israeli deterrence.â€
“Teeth�
Blasting the hell out of an overcrowded prison-like slab of land that has no anti-aircraft defenses? This is the New Macho??
Whom does Israel think that this will deter? Other groups of hungry and discontent convicts throughout Eurasia?
For Israel to “flaunt its strength†by using airstrikes against Gaza would be like the Bush administration seeking to regain its military swagger after Iraq by having the U.S. Air Force blast the hell out of a few Indian reservations in Arizona.
Omce again we are told the intel was wrong about the strength of the enemy. Israel has the best intel in the Middle East. They positively knew what the real Hamas threat was.
Their mission is to send the Palestinians into oblivion. Must be something they missed reading in the Torah.
Don’t get the Torah mixed up in this situation. Many of the original Zionists were secular. The Israeli government is secular, though it pays lip service to the Torah. There are actually orthodox Jews who have opposed Zionism from the beginning.
http://www.jewsagainstzionism.com
Yes, I firmly believe, that Zionism is the end of Jewish tradition (including Torah) as it existed for centuries. Which is sad, since that tradition and culture had given a lot to combined human civilization. Yet Another Police State of a Nazi following is not that much of an interest – or even original.
Many Zoinists were totaly Athiests,marxists,Agnositics,and anti-religion excpet Judaism.
Why must Hamas shoulder some of the blame?
Hamas observed a cease-fire – Israel broke it, going into Gaza and killing 6 Palestinians.
Israel was also supposed to ease restrictions at the borders, as it was required by the cease-fire agreement – Israel increased them; resulting in the preventable deaths of scores of Palestinians.
Hamas sends some token resistance while 1.5 million people are starved to death – and this requires a full-stop, indiscriminate bombing attack?
Antiwar.com is getting as bad as the zionist owned American press if it’s going to tout the tired line that a battered and oppressed people brought this on themselves. Nonsense.
Some facts should be in order.The westren media and the US ,in particular,repeats what the Israeli feeds them without any critical outlook.They are told the Palestnians ,or Hamas broke the so called cease fire,so it must be so.This same media has never bothered to report how Israel even during the cease fire was attacking and killing Palestnians on a daily basis,blockading and starving the people of Gaza.Why not much covrage about the Palestnians who died because lack of medicine,or who were prevented from getting the needed medical care ,or who died waiting long times to be allowed to cross borders.
Killing flies with shotguns. How satanic.
Zionists are a repulsive fascist lot.
What comes around goes around. Israel will eventually get their share, we just have to be patient and wait. It will come.
I give Israel – as we know it – 10 years. Remember by word. I was right on the USSR in 1979, I remember people laughing at me.
We hear a lot about the rockets being launched from Gaza – this is supposed to justify the annihilation of the Palestinians. Of course, you will never hear anything that puts it all into perspective. First, the only rockets being built/launched in Gaza are Qassam rockets which are iron pipes fueled with mostly fertilizer and armed with a few pounds of fertilizer and TNT. These have a range up to about 6 miles (usually more like 2 or 3 miles) have absolutely no accuracy. What the Zionist press talks about are Katushin rockets, which Hezbollah used. These have ranges of about 13 miles and larger payloads. These rockets are beyond the manufacturing capabilities of the muffler shops of Gaza; these would have to be brought into Gaza through an Israeli seige. The American media (with their noses extended deeply into Israeli propaganda) would have us believe that Israel faces extinction from flying iron pipes with ranges that extend only to Sderot, a town seemingly purposely situated close enough to the border as to draw fire and justify a destruction of Gaza.
I can see it now. AP Headline:
Hamas acquires dreaded Potato Gun
And part of the article:
The Palestinian Militant group Hamas has demonstrated for the first time a “Potato Gun” capable of launching half burnt vegetables into Israeli territory. “I live in terror that a burnt tapu׳ax will crash into my house”, said Ramira Ishem local Kibbutz owner and ironically a potato farmer. The daily bombardment of vegetables has forced people to hide in their bomb shelters expecting the “big one” – a record winning potato grown in Gaza during the summer.
Bill, Have you ever been hit by a hot potato, freak’in hurts…
“Both Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres said back in the 1990s that they wished Gaza would just go away, drop into the sea, and you can see why. The existence of Gaza is a permanent reminder of those hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who lost their homes to Israel, who fled or were driven out through fear or Israeli ethnic cleansing 60 years ago, when tidal waves of refugees had washed over Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War and when a bunch of Arabs kicked out of their property didn’t worry the world”
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-why-bombing-ashkelon-is-the-most-tragic-irony-1216228.html
This is an extermination. nothing less. Even to a person who cant do math, 2+2 is still 4. Unfortunately, the Israeli propoanda machine is far reaching and unrepentive. Pure evil if you ask me
Barack Obama himself, when he visited Israel, said that if some lunatic were fire rockets at his home, trying to kill his two daugthers, he would do everything in his power to stop them. But I guess Israel should just sit by and do NOTHING right?
I am not happy with the loss if innocent palestinian civilians, in fact it is heart breaking and tragic. And I think Israel (and every nation) should bend over backwards to do everything in their power to minimize loss of life to innocent civilians. But who is really to blame? I say blame HAMAS who instigated this whole thing. Why is Israel held to this double standard? If terrorists in Canada were firing rockets over the border into Niagra Falls or Buffalo New York, and the Canadian gov’t did not do anything to stop it, do you think the United States would stand for it? Do you think the United States would sit by and do nothing? But yet you all expect Israel too?
Land for PEACE? Whatever happend to that? I say it is land for PIECES.
Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. Land for Peace? Instead Gaza became the major stronghold for HAMAS and Israel gets thousands of rockets as HAMAS says thank you for the land for peace.
Israel totally pulled out of Southern Lebannon (AS CERTIFIED BY THE UNITED NATIONS) and what do they get? Rockets, border incursions and their soldiers taken hostage) Another thank you from the Radical Muslims. I guess that is their notion of land for peace.
Look, we know where Hamas is coming from, but please, not the standard “look what you made me do” apology of the terrorist, and the “right to self-defense” reasoning, seasoned with a cheap “heartbreak” sauce. Apparently you are of the opinion that Israel has two options: “do nothing” (which would not be bad sometimes) or behave in a most appalling way, which is, bomb the concentration camp that it created in the first place with overwhelming force. All this in response to a trickle of Qassams. So police and targeted operations are no longer enough? I thought Israeli intel was so good? Ah, but we are living in the 21st century, where Luftwaffe Justice is an acceptable political instrument, especially shortly before elections.
Tim, you always continue to amaze me. Pulling out of territory (Gaza) or a country (Lebanon) that you have already invaded is not “peace”, nor is it trading land for peace.
Israel invaded Gaza? Oh that is intersting, and here I was thinking that Nasser started a war with Israel in 1967, promising to drive Israel into the sea. Here I was thinking Nassar instituted a naval blockade against Israel ( an act of war under international law). Here I was thinking Nasser kicked out all the UN peacekeepers from the Sinai and massed his troops on Israel’s border. And all this time, it was Israel who was the bad guy in that war. Hmmm. Thanks for setting me straight.
Tim, you are wrong on just about everything. Israel planned for and welcomed the war in 1967. Who gained from that war Tim? Tell me who came out of that war controlling more land, territory and resources then it had coming in Tim? You ever hear about the ship called LIBERTY Tim? It wasn’t attacked by any Arabs Tim. In any case the U.S. should never have gotten mixed up in any of this. The USA cannot be an honest broker here.
Timmy
If the US Military seized Ontario and regularly bombed Toronto you should EXPECT retaliation from Canadians.
People don’t like being treated like animals in their own country.
And I swear to god, I have heard this “Canada firing rockets into US” nonsense maybe 20 times. Do you guys work in shifts or something?
Ilan Pappe: Israeli Jewish myths and the prospect of American war
http://www.bestcyrano.org/israeliMythsPappe.htm
Who knew that Barack Obama could be as moronic as Bush? As others have pointed out, Obama could as well have put himself and his family into the Palestinian situation and answered that the Palestinians were justified. What a dope. But nothing can make us Americans question our most sacred cows, or practice the slightest empathy with the oppressed.
By the way, Tim R.OLL, keep up the good work. I doubt you believe everything you say, but you know you’ll get a reaction every time you say it. You’re better than Whack-a-mole, because you always pop up out of the same hole.
Was the 1967 war one of choice?
http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2007/06/05/was-the-1967-war-one-of-choice/
Tim R,
What if Barack Obama said that if some cruel individuals surrounded his land, kept out fuel, food and medicine starving him and his family, stole his tax money for their own use and sent periodic killer drones over him to periodically try to kill him, he might try to defend himself? What would you say then?
Yes, Israel left Gaza in 2005, but it wasn’t a peace gesture. It was because there were too many Arabs there (1.5 million vs 8,000 Jews). Israel pulled out destroying everything behind them in their typical hatefulness. The Jews in Gaza were making a living raising flowers for international trade. When the Palestinians in Gaza tried doing that, the Israelis stopped the Palestinian raised flowers at the border and laughed as they rotted. Every time, Israel goes into Gaza, they destroy water treatment facilities, power plants, schools etc. Can you deny that?
Anyway, Israel was about to deploy an anti-rocket defense system called “Iron Dome” which would make the Palestinian rockets totally ineffective. I am also quite sure that Israel deploys the U S Army “Firefinder” anti-mortar defensive system. I fail to see any threat to Israel that couldn’t be managed defensively. So what is the need to go into Gaza to “punish” the Arabs? I think this whole deal is political; to make sure that the new Obama Administration doesn’t get any bright ideas about seeking justice for Palestine. I think we on this site know Israel’s notion of peace and justice.
“When it became clear those Palestinians would not welcome becoming a minority in somebody else’s country, darker plans were drawn up. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, wrote in 1937: “The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.””
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361593_hari04.html
Just found this blog. Great work.
The Jews have learned well from Germany…systematic annihillation of a race at all costs. After all, what they are trying to do is the same thing, isn’t it? How we forget the past.
Just imagine in a couple of years a well known Palestinian artist could be selling a painting of people suffering from a bombing raid called “Gaza”(like “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso) for Millions of Dollars.
The so called truce that existed between Hamas and Israel we know was violated numerous times by both sides. What we fail to recognize is that Israel never honored the spirit of the truce. Sure, they limited their military firepower but instead replaced it with economic warfare. The blockade of Gaza inflicted more suffering on all the Palestinian civilians than any previous incursion. Malnutrition in children, shortages of food, blackout due to lack of fuel, sky-rocketting unemployment and deaths associated with restricted access to medical treatment.
The blockade was a form of warfare. It violated International Law. It collectively punished an entire civilian population with the aim of making life so unbearable that the Israeli’s hoped the civilians would overthrow their own government. They were wrong. Hamas gathered more support for its resistance.
So much for intelligent or moral self righteousness by Israeli officials.
Sincere efforts to attain peace is in their security interests. Wake up Israel!
http://sydwalker.info/blog/2008/12/17/israel-starving-gaza-for-christmas/
Tim R.
You should bring your fatuous half truths to the mainstream media where it will be treated with reverence for your “not being happy” with the Gaza carnage. How humanitarian of you! A Zionist who loves his enemies! Gosh, peace must be just around the corner in Gaza if their side has big-hearted slobs like you.
“For Israel to “flaunt its strength†by using airstrikes against Gaza would be like the Bush administration seeking to regain its military swagger after Iraq by having the U.S. Air Force blast the hell out of a few Indian reservations in Arizona.”
Holy smokes, Jim, don’t give the Retard-in-Chief any more ideas!
Let’s face it: the Qassams have provided a perfect pretext for Israel to do horrendous acts. Hamas can justify it, and so can we as resistance to a brutal blockade of Gaza. Is it helpful to their cause? Possibly. Is there any other form of militancy they can resort to? Not much. Unfortunately, the West is continuing to allay idiotic rules for Palestinian resistance. “Israel is meant to just do nothing?” Is the inverse more appropriate? Israel continues to pummel its neighbours and Hamas/Hezbollah are meant to just “do nothing”? Like it or not, Israel had to concede and withdraw from Lebanon through force. Hamas could aim to do the same and gain some more concessions. Israel observed a shaky ceasefire. Why not again?
Stupid. Losing more lives only for another ceasefire to be proposed. There is nothing for Israel to gain here.
Why not? If they can wipe out a significant number of Palestinians they may think they have “gained” something. It’s not like they want any Palestinians living on what they claim is their territory based on the some invented passages in the Bible.
When you actually have influence over the Governments of many Major World Powers you can get away with ethnic cleansing and genocide.
I wonder if some time in the future several million people will be “gathered up” by religion,politics or culture and slaughtered like sheep because at one time in the past they stood by,nay even encouraged such crimes against other human beings?
Interesting thing this journey of life that is ours and the seeming inability of some of us to learn and or evolve as humans despite the centuries…………….
The popular use of ‘righteous violence’ is as old as civilization. The question is, will we evolve fast enough that civilization can continue, given the weapon technology our ‘advanced’ society has developed and stockpiled in vast quantities?
The Dispensationalists may very well get their Armageddon, but whether any God would accept (and gladly rapture) these people praying for mankind’s genocide is another question.
I wonder whether the Neocons are closet Dispensationalists?
OK, here is mid term prediction for Israel – the Jerusalem to be occupied by Russian Army in 10 years.
How? Why? Firstly, let’s keep in mind that 1/2 of Israel so called “Jewish” population is in fact Russian – simply by birth – Russian citizenship is not revocable. The law and constitution are quite clear – one that was born in Russia would always be treated as the citizen of Russia.
Therefore, after the extermination of Palestine, with actually MILLIONS of Arabs killed by current Zionist regime, Israel would get into a war against whole Islamic world. Given the economic crisis, US dollar default, Israel on it’s own will not be able to maintain itself both economically, as well as military. Facing the takeover of Israel by Islamic forces, Russian Govt. will be forced to send peace keeping forces there, since in fact, none of the Western armies would be able to mediate and prevent humanitarian catastrophe and 2nd mass termination of so called “Jews” if you wish.
Thus – in 10 years – “Russian tanks in Jerusalem”
Was not that also predicted in the Bible?
I think you mean “tourists” not Tanks. Recent events indicate a large stream of Russian tourists regularly visits the northern shore of the Red Sea in Israel.
Israeli “Retaliation” and Double Standards
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook06262006.html
Denying the Israeli past
“Behind the turbulent news from Israel, a struggle for historical truth has passed almost unnoticed outside academic circles; yet its wider significance is epic. In May 1948, more than 200 Palestinians were killed by the advancing Jewish militia in the coastal village of Tantura, south of Haifa. According to the recorded testimony of 40 witnesses, both Arab and Jewish, half the civilians were shot in a “rampage”. The rest were marched to the beach, where the men were separated from the women and children. They were taken to a wall near the mosque where they were shot in the back of the head. ”
http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=338
Thanks to the British treachery,western indefference,and the US government presure Millions lost their homes,land,and families,and many died.For sixty years,millions are still refugees,opperessed,prescuted ,hunted,humilated,deprived of what others take for granted,exploited,expeled,killed with imunity.And as usuall,the strong and powerful keep cryin wolf while his foot firmly on the neck of his victim.
http://www.godbabyclub.com/the-goodbaby-boy-walke…
Eventually these walkers have undergone numerous changes to accommodate it with changing technology and needs. These Baby Walkers are made up of hard plastic frames which are mounted atop wheels and there is a padded and suspended fabric in between with two holes to place the baby.