Thanks to Haaretz for its coverage, and to B'tselem for giving video cameras to Palestinians, we learn about an Israeli soldier shooting a rubber bullet at close range at a bound Palestinian youth. The youth had been arrested for protesting the separation wall in the town of Na'alin. He is said to be OK. B'tselem has called for an investigation of the incident.
In whose name is that soldier acting? The Jews? The Zionists? Who will that Palestinian man hate? What does Obama think? Who paid for that gun? Who paid for that wall? Are American taxpayers' dollars at work? What if that had been a Chinese soldier shooting a rubber bullet at a bound Tibetan? B'tselem wants an investigation. Do you want one?
Front page in Haaretz will get investigated.
Haaretz reported that the incident was already under investigation.
Also in Haaretz
Yossi Sarid: Obama has already changed things for the better
Why Obama?
By Yossi Sarid
Tags: obama
When the candidate lands here tomorrow, a fog of ambiguity will still hover over his position: It remains unclear whether Jerusalem, the focus of his brief trip, will be a united city under Israeli sovereignty or the capital of two states. Barack Obama doesn't have a clear idea himself, and he has been straddling the fence – he has no idea if the hands he will be shaking during his trip to Israel will be the same ones he'll be shaking in the future.
Official Jerusalem has gotten used to the idea that Obama will be the next American president. At first, Israelis didn't think he would be able to beat Queen Hillary, and they were proven wrong, as usual. Indeed, there will be less enthusiasm for his visit than in Europe or among American soldiers, but the reality of the situation will be enough to spur Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to glad-hand Obama, even though the premier is a friend of U.S. President George W. Bush and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and to compel Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to whisper a secret in the leading Democrat's ear.
Even if Obama is not elected president, his candidacy has already left a deep impression. It has changed the path of American policy. Bush has agreed to negotiate with Iran and discuss a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Even a blinded president is beginning to understand that there is no choice but to speak with the axis of evil and, even more so, with allies. Just as the Bible decreed it is not good for man to be alone, so, too, it is not good for America to be alone, taking action in the world as it would at home.
Who is responsible for America's foreign policy incompetence? Neo-conservative advisors?
Or, the decision-makers themselves?!?
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, then republican Congress?
I watched this shooting on BBC news last evening. THIS WAS TOTALLY UNPROVOKED. The palestinian youth's hands were bound, he was blindfolded, he WAS NOT PROTESTING being hauled into the van. WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR SHOOTING? Is shooting unarmed civilians a pastime sport for these guys? I am OUTRAGED.
Benny Morris ups the ante in the NY Times–
$100 reward to anyone who spots any coverage of the IDF shooting on American TV!
"This is like one of those hostage dramas in which a mad gunman grabs someone and uses them as a human shield, braying his demands to horrified onlookers."
Yes, that captures it. Odd mixture of threat and appeal from "child" number three to "big brother" number one. A kingdom for a time machine right into his head at the time of writing.
The Samson Option Scenario? Is that what it is created for? (to allude to in times like this?)
Richard, you aren't good at expressing feelings, are you? It almost felt as if there was a huge degree of empathy for a friend palpably shaking with anger. …
'Security threat' turns Blair back from Gaza
I don't watch torture.
That it was shown is important. It does touch the question of "how are we willing to treat other human beings? How are we asking those in our name to treat other human beings?"
That question has to go around widely, made important, universally.
From the BBC (PARTIALLY)news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/middle_east/7517406.stmA spokeswoman for rights group B'Tselem, Sarit Michaeli, said the girl had accidentally stopped filming when she was startled by the gunshot and continued as soon as she became aware she had pressed the stop button. The group also said the footage appeared to contradict a statement by the soldier's commander, who was present at the scene. The Israeli military originally said that the lieutenant colonel had been unaware of the incident and that the door of his patrol vehicle had blocked his line of sight. However, the footage appears to show him holding the Palestinian detainee's arm when the shot is fired. The Jerusalem Post also reports that the commander told the soldier: "Shoot him, shoot him."
If it is true that Btselem released the video. Then that means it passed military censors, because otherwise one would be risking severe punishment.Which means it was 'officially' sanctioned, and it means the military is already well aware of all the details.It was filmed a coule of weeks ago.
Soldier arrested for Naalin incident says he was ordered to shoot
"Military Defense Counsel enraged by soldier's arrest while commanding officer not held accountable. Soldier claims he was not rebuked by his commanders following incident. MK Sarsur: Incident proof occupation corrupts. Defense Minister Barak says incident 'not indicative of IDF norms'"
During Shrub's term, our government has adopted the implemented Israeli government's stance on torture and, e.g., viewing dissenters as "time bombs" which need to be stopped, one by one. Our government has also adopted the Israeli governments implemented stance on domestic spying.
I don't think Israel or BushCo learned anything from the history of ghettos, especially the Jewish experience pre-1948. Unless Hitler, Goering and Goebbels were their teachers.
Further, the history of pre-20th Century ghettos reveals that they were as much a product of Jewish choice as Gentile host; in relative comparison, the Palestinian ghetto is one-sided in origin.
"Further, the history of pre-20th Century ghettos reveals that they were as much a product of Jewish choice as Gentile host"
Bullshit.
Jews were prohibited by law from residing in the same neighborhoods as "good Christians" in most of Eastern Europe, and much of Western Europe, North Africa and Asia.
There is a DIFFERENCE between community and ghetto.
Shooting of unarmed protesters is no new tactic for the IDF. On YouTube, one can find any number of videos where Palestinians and Israelis have been shot, specially at Bilin during peaceful protests against the wall e.g.
Israeli Army Uses Live Rounds on Peaceful Protest
link to youtube.com
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and the protester was injured critically ( probably his artery in the thigh was hit ).
Even Australian media gives coverage of yesterday's incident
link to abc.net.au
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but there is total silence in USA.
A grim exchange illustrates a key difference
By Mitch Albom
link to
| It seemed such a ghastly trade, flesh and blood for two boxes of bones. Many criticized it. Some could not bear to watch it. But if anything showed the difference between Israel and Hezbollah in last week's exchange of two dead Israeli soldiers for five live prisoners and 199 corpses, it was not the trade itself.
It was the reaction.
In Israel, where the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev arrived in black coffins, the mood was, according to reports, somber and mournful. Candles were lit. Prayers were recited. These two young soldiers, both students and reservists at the time, were captured in a cross-border raid two years ago by Hezbollah guerrillas, setting off a small war that ultimately left 160 Israelis and 1000 Lebanese dead.
Because the Israeli military vows to never leave a soldier on the battlefield, negotiations were held to get the two men back, even though most believed they were dead. Hezbollah, which captured the two men to use them as bargaining chips, held firm to its demand that Israel free several prisoners, including one named Samir Kuntar.
Not Kuntar, many Israelis said. He was serving life sentences for murdering three people in 1979: a police officer, a civilian named Danny Haran, and Haran's four year-old daughter, whose head Kuntar smashed on rocks and with his rifle butt. Haran's wife, hiding her other baby from Kuntar, covered her mouth to stop her whimpering. The child suffocated.
Kuntar's killings were regarded in Israel as the most brutal form of terrorism. The thought of freeing him went against every fiber of justice.
But last week, after almost 30 years behind bars, Kuntar was allowed to go by the Israeli authorities. And on Wednesday, he walked down a red carpet in Beirut and was kissed by the Hezbollah leader and cheered like a rock star.
"Samir! Samir!" the crowd reportedly yelled. This for a man convicted of smashing a child's head into pieces.
You can take whatever side you like in the Israeli-Palestinian debate. You can argue who is entitled to land and statehood and borders.
But you cannot defend the frenzied lovefest that took place for Kuntar in Lebanon, as if he were some long-lost statesmen, instead of a common murderer who did the worst thing you can do: take the life of a child. What religion condones that? What holy book says that is a good thing? A banner in Beirut, according to the New York Times, read "G-d's Achievement Through Our Hands."
What G-d would have a child's murder on anyone's hands? How do people celebrate such a killer?
Is it because the little girl was Israeli — and Israel is the enemy? Since when does a 4-year-old know of politics or war? Is it because Arab children get killed by Israelis? Yes, children undeniably die in bombings — on both sides. But an Israeli soldier who deliberately smashed a child's head on a rock would be tried as a criminal, not cheered like a hero.
The total disregard for life of anyone who does not believe what Hezbollah believes stands in stark contrast to the value of life — and even of its demise — that Israel demonstrated in bringing those two bodies back. The families of Goldwasser and Regev were able to put their sons in the ground, to say goodbye, to end the wondering. That small act meant something to the government, which voted on the exchange. In the midst of the never-ending conflict Israel faces, that says an awful lot.
Meanwhile, here is what Kuntar said to the cheering crowd: "I return from Palestine only to go back to Palestine. I promise families in Palestine that we are coming back, me and my brothers in the resistance."
You'll note he never says the word "Israel." To men like Kuntar, Israel does not exist and should never exist. He and the terrorist group that freed him (and you can install Hezbollah into all the government seats you want, a terrorist group is still a terrorist group) want a world in which Israel has no place. The Jews should be driven into the sea.
With a philosophy like that, it may be hard to expect remorse. But if you can justify Hezbollah calling a national holiday to cheer home a child murderer, there is no talking to you. There is only mourning — as there was over two coffins last week — for a world in which such things and such thinking can take place.
VIOLENCE and KILLING will NEVER bring resolution to the conflict. Israelis, Palestinians and Lebanese mourn alike when they lose their loved ones and very sadly traumatised people do not behave rationally. The only solution is a peaceful resolution to the conflict by ending this vicious circle of violence and revenge and with a dialogue which will take into consideration the needs of all sides.
amen brother!
And dont kid yourself phil, this is that same judaism that you are so proud of,cause you cant have it both ways.
The israeli zionist jews in israel commit these crimes and the jews of the rest of the world support and defend israels actions, then the elitist press takes it to another level and suppresses the news so that in the main the rest of your peeps as youre so proud of calling them do not see what it is that they are truly supporting. The jews of the world denigrade their name by associating themselves to israel.
so indeed what the hell is there to be so proud of in being jewish if this is the face of jewry behind the iron curtain of HOLOCAUSTIANITY.
make no mistake about it, what happens there is criminal and be sure that we do not see the half of it by far.
'I don't watch torture'
It's not a good idea to close your eyes when you already have your fingers in your ears. Something might run over you. A posse perhaps.
That incident ought to be shown on US TV, but what I would really like to see is the people who commit these acts interviewed as a matter of course. Maybe the UN could elect neutrals to do this for offenders from both sides.
If the incidents themselves aren't enough to shock Americans out of their ignorance, then perhaps the sight of SOG-style justifications from Israeli perps (IDF and settler) will do the trick. Especially when they realise they're paying for it.
@ SOB
The difference between the readers of this blog and you is that -I venture to guess- they feel empathy towards all victims, not exclusively those belonging to their groups, by the way a notion some have worked hard to destroy among the goyim.
You will find no one here condoning Kuntar's murders, especially the Israelis' version (the evil German or Pole or Ukrainian or whatever smashing children's heads is a favorite among Holocaust scenarists).
Since the 30 years this happened, how many children lives have been savagely smashed by the noble & gallant IDF?
Thousands, tens of thousands?
More?
PS
RE "the mood, somber and mournful".
Please.
Yes, SOG, the Palestinians could learn a thing or two about marketing matters from the Light Onto The Nations: