The current war in Gaza (2008- ) started a few weeks ago on December 27th 2008 when Israel began to bomb Gaza. It seemed they were softening up Gaza for a land war, which now in fact has begun. Israel has cut Gaza in half and has sent its army into Gaza City.
Israel says Gaza has been sending rockets into Israel to kill people. It has. But not counting soldiers it had killed only 2 Israelis in 2008 before the war. Meanwhile Israel had killed over 80 Gazans in addition to Hamas fighters.
So, based on that threat, Israel made war on Gaza.
Both sides knew this war was long in coming. Israel tried to do it in 2006 but soon found its north bombed by Hezbollah of Lebanon. That quickly became a war against Lebanon, not Gaza.
Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas, the party that has ruled Gaza since 2007. That is what it says. What it is doing is destroying Gaza itself: most of the dead are not Hamas fighters. In fact up to 40% of them are women and children. Whole apartment blocks have been flattened. Israel has hit government buildings, police stations, schools, mosques and a university. In these days of Google Maps and GPS, it knows just what it is doing. It has even destroyed a United Nations school, killing at least 30, mostly children. It hit a clearly marked United Nations truck.
Before the war Israel, with American help, had pretty much cut off Gaza from the outside world. So Gaza is running out of medicine, oil and spare parts. There are long lines for bread. Most have no power or have it only for a short time every day; half have no running water.
What does Barack Obama say about all this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And what about President Bush? That Israel has the right to defend itself .
Defend itself from what? From home-made rockets with one of the top military machines in the world? A military that thinks one Jewish eye is worth a hundred Arab eyes?
Meanwhile America gives Israel billions of dollars every year while Israel fights its wars with American arms. Everyone in the Middle East sees this and everyone knows it.
Americans wonder “Why do they hate us?” This is why – part of it. This is why 3000 Americans died on 9/11 – part of it. The other part is that America supports evil governments in the Arab world, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The war in Iraq does not help either.
Some say that Arabs and Jews have been fighting each other since forever, that it is too hard to understand.
No, it is not.
Where did the people in Gaza come from? From Israel. They are Arabs who were pushed off their land by the Jews. And now the little bit of the world they still have left – three and a half times the size of Disney World in a place the Bible calls Gath – is being destroyed too.
- news and views about Gaza:
- @ Al Jazeera
- @ the BBC
- @ Ramattan (Gaza City)
- @ Buzzomatic
- blogs in English coming from Gaza:
- Read the long backstory at The Economist
- Israel
- Arab world
- 9/11
- United Nations
Here is a blog post with a list of charities that are helping Gazans.
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Being so far removed from the situation highlights (at least to me) the importance of having access to both sides of the story. That Israel refuses to allow forein media into Gaza is a pathetic move of manipulation. It, obviously, prevents people from hearing both sides of the story, and it enables Israel to claim that the news that is coming out of Gaza (from Palestinians) is unreliable and biased. This leads me to question what Israel is afraid of letting the world know, and makes me increasingly skeptical of their attack on Gaza.
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Yet another event to add to my “No no this is all wrong” list that grows each time we take a step backwards…Russia and Georgia started it. it makes my heart ache.
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By Thomas Sowell –
No phrase represents more of a triumph of hope over experience than the phrase “Middle East peace process.” A close second might be the once-fashionable notion that Israel should “trade land for peace.”
Since everybody seems to be criticizing Israel for its military response to the rockets being fired into their country from the Gaza strip, let me add my criticisms as well. The Israelis traded land for peace, but they have never gotten the peace, so they should take back the land.
Maybe a couple of generations of Palestinians in Gaza living in peace under Israeli occupation and a couple of generations of the occupation troops squelching the terrorists– “militants” for those of you who are squeamish– would set up conditions where the Palestinians would be free to vote on whether they would like to remain occupied or to have their own state– minus terrorists and their rockets.
Casualty totals alone should be enough to show that the Palestinian people are the biggest losers from the current situation, where the terrorists among them, firing rockets into Israel, can bring devastating retaliatory strikes.
Why don’t the Palestinians vote for some representatives who would make a lasting peace with Israel? Because any such candidates would be killed by the terrorists long before election day, so nobody volunteers for that dangerous role.
We don’t know what the Palestinians really want– and won’t know as long as they are ruled by Hamas, Hezbollah and the like.
Whatever the benefits of peace for the Palestinian population, what are the terrorists going to do in peacetime? Become librarians and furniture salesmen?
So-called “world opinion” has been a largely negative factor in this situation. Nothing is easier than for people living in peace and safety in Paris or Rome to call for a “cease fire” after the Israelis retaliate against people who are firing rockets into their country.
The time to cease fire was before the rockets were fired.
What do calls for “cease fire” and “negotiations” do? They lower the price of launching attacks. This is true not only in the Middle East but in other parts of the world as well.
During the Vietnam war, when American clergymen were crying out “Stop the bombing!” they paid little attention to the fact that bombing pauses made it easier for North Vietnam to move more ammunition into South Vietnam to kill both South Vietnamese and Americans.
After Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, if British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had heeded calls for a “cease fire,” that would have simply lowered the price to be paid by the Argentine government for their invasion.
Go back a hundred years– before there was a United Nations and before “world opinion” was taken into account.
An Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands at that time would have risked not only a British counter-attack to retake the islands but also British attacks on Argentina itself.
Anywhere in the world, attacks such as those on Israel today would not only have risked retaliation but invasion and annihilation of the government that launched those attacks.
Today, so-called “world opinion” not only limits the price to be paid for aggression or terrorism, it has even led to the self-indulgence of third parties talking pretty talk about limiting the response of those who are attacked to what is “proportionate.”
By this reasoning, we should not have declared war on Japan for bombing Pearl Harbor. We should have gone over to Japan, bombed one of their harbors– and let it go at that.
Does anyone imagine that this would have led to Japan’s becoming as peaceful today as it has become after Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Or is the real agenda to engage in moral preening from a safe distance and at somebody else’s expense?
Those who think “negotiations” are a magic answer seem not to understand that when A wants to annihilate B, this is not an “issue” that can be resolved amicably around a conference table.
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Thomas Sowell on the right of bullies to defend themselves. Touching.
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Israel is shutting out the Western press, but in the age of the Internet that is so 1985.
Not that Israel has all that much to fear from at least the American and British press:
In the British press there seems to be this debate about whether this is a just war. That must be a sick joke, right? The better and more important debate is whether this counts as genocide.
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Davida, this is not comparable with Pearl Harbor. That was an unprovoked attack. The rockets have been provoked by sixty years iof ethnic cleansing, exile, poverty and human rights’ abuses. Even the few Arabs still allowed to live in Israel face discrimination very similar to the segreation of blacks in America (their children go to separate, underfunded, schools from Jewish children; the are routinely harrassed by police; they face severe employment and housing discrimination). I suggest you read “The Other Side of Israel” by Susan Nathan and “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by Ilan Pappe.
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I didnt say that I agree with all Thomas Sowell said – but foud his article interesting…note – those are Thomas’s comparisons – not mine.
I think the issue in the middle east is much more complex to sum up in this comment box and i have varied and often conflicting opinions on it. I just like to play devils advocate when a post appears to have only comments that agree. One’s belief or opinion either becomes stronger or crumbles when buffeted against a different belief or opinion.
I do have a hazy memory of an a book I read where there was an agreement worked out for the creation of isreal to give the jews a homeland…a country carved out of the surrounding countries. And I may be totally wrong (as I read this book about five years ago) but the palestinans were triabal nomadic people pushed into the newly formed Isreal from those same surrounding countries and Isreal has been fighting for its homeland since. I would love to find an unbiased…raw facts of the history. Non political.
I would point out that the jewish people have their own horrible ethnic cleansing past at the hands of muslims and white supremisties, history of slavery and racism. They believe they are fighting for a homeland.
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The only knowledge I have of this situation is what comes from the news media here. Which is usually pro-Isreal. My opinion is much the same as Abagond and sanabituranima. I don’t know if the intent was always marginalization & racial cleansing, but it’s been looking like that’s the intent for a while.
Thanks for the post Abagond. sanabituranima, I’ll look for the books you’ve suggested.
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BTW, Davida, I think you playing devils advocate keeps the conversations lively.
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I expect Thomas Sowell to be on the right side of most issues. He did not disappoint.
The Israelis are no more “bullies” in this conflict than the Czechs were against Sudetenland.
The “genocide” libel is echoed by neo-nazis, paleocons, and “far-whites” in this country. Funny thing about political allies, eh?
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The Israelis traded land for peace, but they have never gotten the peace, so they should take back the land.
Precisely. Trading land for “peace” is an inherently losing proposition. The Jewish National Home has been doing that from its very inception, with the entirely predictable result of hardly any land and no peace at all.
Peace can only rest on the foundation of strength, especially in that part of the world. Israel has allowed her deterrence to erode, and is reaping the consequences.
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If my little brother picks on me I have the right to defend myself, but I do not have the right to beat the living daylights out of him.
In the law of the jungle Israel has the right of an eye for an eye – probably even five eyes with a view towards deterrence. But it does not have the right to a hundred eyes for an eye.
What Israel is doing goes way beyond revenge and way beyond even deterrence. It cannot act like a monster and then expect to live at peace with its neighbours.
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nonserviam said,
Peace can only rest on the foundation of strength, especially in that part of the world.
Peace based on fear is not true peace.
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nonservian said,
The “genocide” libel is echoed by neo-nazis, paleocons, and “far-whites” in this country. Funny thing about political allies, eh?
I do not keep up with what neo-Nazis say about Israel, but even they can be right on occasion.
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Davida said,
I would point out that the jewish people have their own horrible ethnic cleansing past at the hands of muslims and white supremisties, history of slavery and racism. They believe they are fighting for a homeland.
All the more reason they should know better.
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Davida said,
I would love to find an unbiased…raw facts of the history. Non political.
Same here. It is so hard to get good information on this. Any telling of history or events is going to be political, but I know what you mean.
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sanabituranima said:
I suggest you read “The Other Side of Israel” by Susan Nathan and “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” by Ilan Pappe.
Thanks for the recommendations!
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nonserviam and sanabituranima:
Hey, two commenters with Latin phrases for their names!
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Peace based on fear is not true peace.
Somehow, love and the word of honor just don’t seem to work with the Arabs. Give fear a chance.
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All the more reason they should know better.
I hope they do: better hated and alive, then sainted and dead.
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Let me re-state that: better hated and alive, than sainted and dead.
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Speaking of bullies, I have a perfect song for the occasion:
Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run He’s the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he could apologize
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Well, the chances are against it, and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
‘Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a licence to kill him is given out to every maniac
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Well, he got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully.
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He’s the neighborhood bully.
What’s anybody indebted to him for ?
Nothing, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He’s the neighborhood bully.
What has he done to wear so many scars ?
Does he change the course of rivers ? Does he pollute the moon and stars ?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully.
(Bob Dylan, Infidels)
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A very cool comment, thanks. I am not a fan of Dylan’s music, but I do like his lyrics.
What Dylan leaves out of his song is what the Jews have done to the Arabs and that is the point.
The way you seem to talk about Arabs I find a bit unsettling – as if they were animals who only understand force and nothing else. As if they were not people like the rest of us.
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The Arabs lost a series of wars, which they themselves had started. Israel cannot afford to lose a war, because then there will be no Israel.
Like Golda Meir reportedly said, peace will come when Arabs love their children more than they hate the Jews.
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The way you seem to talk about Arabs I find a bit unsettling – as if they were animals who only understand force and nothing else. As if they were not people like the rest of us.
There are plenty of people who understand nothing but force. They are called sociopaths. And there are entire cultures that fit the description.
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Sanabituranima:
Fully one-fifth of Israeli residents are Arabs (Jews must really suck at genocide). They are citizens with full political rights, and indeed are “more equal” than most Israeli Jews, being exempt from military service and benefitting from various “affirmative-action” type programs (admittedly, not as extensive as those covering select non-white populations in the US). To all that, they respond with naked irredentism and outright treason.
Susan Nathan and Ilan Pappe are far-left Israel-haters. Sadly, those types are hardly unheard of, even among Israelis and Jews themselves.
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nonserviam: So are you saying that Arab culture is sociopathic?
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nonserviam: from your comments Arabs sound all-too irrational and Israeli Jews all-too innocent.
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Wars like these will never end. There’s too much history involved. Most of the current borders in the Middle East today were created by Imperial Colonial Powers. Both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering from past mistakes.
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What’s going on in Gaza is tragic. Gazans and Hamas have a practice of using civilians — women and children in particular — as “human shields.” Women volunteer for this duty, and it is the reason they die when Israel raids Gaza (which it is doing in retaliation of rockets being launched into Israel — we would do the same thing or more if it were us). It is a similar mindset to suicide bombing. They would rather die than live, and they are proud to do it.
To think Israel wishes to commit genocide is simply inane. Please remove your heads from your assholes.
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nonserviam: So are you saying that Arab culture is sociopathic?
By and large, yes. Islamic much more so than Christian, of course. Until fairly recently, some Christian Arabs were Israel’s allies. Sadly, no more, except for a few courageous individuals living in the West.
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Chris said,
To think Israel wishes to commit genocide is simply inane. Please remove your heads from your assholes.
When most of the people Israel kills are civilians it is hardly an inane question.
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“Most”? How do you know, as there’s no verifiable way to distinguish active Hamas fighters from “civilians” (i.e. mere aiders and abetters)?
The Arab population of the disputed territories has more than tripled since they came under Israel’s control. That must be the least competent genocide in history.
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You bend over backwards to see Israelis as innocent.
By genocide I was thinking of the last three weeks, not the last 40 some years.
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Not “innocent”. Merely in the right.
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Do you seriously believe that?
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Of course.
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Innocence is a highly praised commodity in a lamb led to the slaughter. Thanks, but no thanks.
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No one is probably reading this comment section nowadays, considering that i’m at least a year too late. But i’d like to put in my 2 cents here:
Nonserviam wrote:
“Peace can only rest on the foundation of strength, especially in that part of the world. Israel has allowed her deterrence to erode, and is reaping the consequences.”
Since the 60’s possible even the War of Independance at 47-48, Israel has maintained a clear superiority of arms in comparison to the Arab countries. It was true in 67, as it was in 2006 (the second Lebanon War) and still true back in 2009. When you also claimed that the Arabs only understood the language of force (typical line from Official “pro-Israel” supporters), why then didn’t the wars stop? One cannot help but get the impression that it’s not the Arabs that understand only the language of force, but its the IDF that seems to speak only that language.
If the Arabs are sociopaths and not the Israelis, then why are there numerous stories of abuse of the Palestinians in the West Bank done by the settlers and the IDF, not only by Arab sources, but also Western sources AND EVEN ISRAELI SOURCES? I’m talking about the context of 2009 up to now. There hasn’t been any suicide bombings there, no rockets, but the Israeli government still maintains it’s oppressive policies there.
More and more people, even Jews within and without Israel, are coming to realise this, in spite of Israel trying to maintain a good PR front (i.e. that “least competent genocide” that was mentioned above). And the debate is certainly opening up on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So hopefully this’ll help put pressure on the US government to be more even handed in its dealings with both the Israelis and Palestinians.
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I completely agree with your posts. I feel like the U.S is becoming more and more self serving towards Israel and Jewish people. Because there are a lot of powerful Jewish rich people in America. There are also Jewish senators and representatives that support Israel strongly. Jewish people went through a holocaust and then committed a holocaust towards the Palestinians. They are hypocrites. Period. I always wanted to know why Nazi germany killed them all. No one ever asked for Nazi germany’s side of the story. People always assume they did what they did because they are Nazis. I’m not trying to say that every Jewish person deserved to be in the holocaust but I want to know what the bad apples did that made the germans so angry. There had to be a politcal/social reason why the germans became racist towards Jews. Many it’s because of the same kind of reasons they do with the united states. The Jews are stealing billions of dollars from the u.s to give it to Israel which is making us more and more bankrupt.
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@ Saad
There does not have to be something wrong with the Jews.
Abusive people blame their anger and misdeeds on their victims. What do battered wives do to “deserve” being beaten? Nothing. It is the beater, not the battered, who has something wrong with them.
What did Native Americans do to “deserve” getting wiped out and have their land taken from them? Nothing. What did Africans do to “deserve” being taken at gunpoint and have their freedom taken from them? Nothing.
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