I have great news tonight: Gaza is exciting the world's sympathy.
Consider the picture above. We never could have imagined such a thing just weeks ago. Consider the heartrending headline and lead of an AP story prominent on Yahoo's main page tonight:
"Gazans Unsure Where to Flee Violence"
In four days of Israeli airstrikes, Rasha Khaldeh has already fled twice.
Note that the AP byline reflects the global village we live in: Diaa Hadid and Ibrahim Barzak. Today on CNN, Rick Sanchez, a Cuban-American, seemed shocked by the Gaza footage.
"The Israelis have to answer for this… it's tough to watch… as people all over the world look at these pictures… [it's] civilians essentially cowering and running for their lives." Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli gov't, responded with the bland smug newspeak that we've come to expect from Israelis, the same tone you'll see here at Israel's "citizen news conference" today, conducted via twitter–
[Israel] Israel does not target civilians the way Hamas does. We mourn every casualty, Palestinian and Israeli.
Do they really mourn every casualty? Please. That's a lie. Seeing this story feelingly, as Gloucester says in Lear, I get a strong feeling from Sanchez and AP and everything else: Israel looks awful. You can't kill nearly 400 Palestinians in two days and smile like a Cheshire cat. Steve Walt said earlier today that the MSM is not seeing thru it, and he's right, it's not– in America. But pictures don't lie, and globalism seems at last to be overcoming the strength of the U.S. Israel lobby. Israel is just getting clobbered on the p.r. I'm telling you, the jig is up.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/opinion/31grossman.html?_r=1&hp
Fight Fire With a Cease-Fire
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By DAVID GROSSMAN
Published: December 30, 2008
Jerusalem
NOW, after the heavy blow that Israel has dealt to the Gaza Strip, we would do best to halt, turn to the leaders of Hamas and tell them: Until last Saturday, we restrained ourselves in responding to the thousands of Qassam rockets fired at us. Now you know how severe the retaliation can be. So as not to add to the death and destruction that has already taken place, we intend, unilaterally and absolutely, to hold our fire for the next 48 hours.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/opinion/30tue1.html
War Over Gaza
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Published: December 29, 2008
Israel must defend itself. And Hamas must bear responsibility for ending a six-month cease-fire this month with a barrage of rocket attacks into Israeli territory. Still we fear that Israel’s response — devastating airstrikes that represent the largest military operation in Gaza since 1967 — is unlikely to weaken the militant Palestinian group substantially or move things any closer to what all Israelis and all Palestinians need: a durable peace agreement and a two-state solution.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html?hp
Amid a Buildup of Its Forces, Israel Ponders a Cease-Fire
By ETHAN BRONNER and TAGHREED EL-KHODARY
Published: December 30, 2008
JERUSALEM — With its punishing air attacks on Gaza about to enter a fifth day, its gunboats gathering near the Gaza port and its ground forces poised for imminent action, Israel said Tuesday that it was considering a 48-hour cease-fire that would also require Hamas to stop its rocket fire.
IF Israel undertakes these suggestions, then it will be Hamas that entirely loses control of the drama.
Hamas will be seen as utterly IMPOTENT to make either war or peace, especially if those within Hamas that prefer the permanent cease-fire to permanent war are not able to convince cooler heads to prevail.
IF Hamas had voluntarily continued the cease-fire, then it would have been on very public record as such, and a basis of trust would have emerged.
That it instead felt like an alchoholic that successfully ceases their alchohol intake for six months, but feels "free" to resume after that point, is an enormous tragedy for all in the world.
If they're getting clobbered in PR, its surprising I don't see this in the news
June 20
- Israeli army troops near the border east of the southern Gaza town of Rafah opened fire towards Palestinian farmers working in al-Amoor, according to U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
- Israeli troops east of el-Maghazi camp opened fire towards Palestinian farmers, according to U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
- Israeli marine vessels fired towards Palestinian fishermen west of Beit Lahiya, according U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
June 21
- Israeli marine vessels opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats west of Beit Lahiya, according to U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
- Israeli troops at the border north east of the el-Maghazi camp opened fire towards Palestinian farmers, according to U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
June 23
- Palestinians fired a mortar shell into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli army. No one hurt.
- Israeli troops near the border north-west of Beit Lahiya opened fire at a group of people collecting wood, seriously wounding a 70-year-old man, according to U.N. sources.
June 24
- Islamic Jihad militants fired rockets into southern Israel, the militant group and the Israeli army said. No casualties. The rocket fire followed Israel's killing of two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, an area not covered by the ceasefire.
June 25
- Israeli troops east of Rafah opened fire toward farmers, according U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
June 25
- Israeli troops stationed near Khan Younis opened fire towards Palestinian farmers. An 82-year-old farmer was seriously injured, according to U.N. sources.
June 26
- Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group belonging to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, fired one rocket into southern Israel, the group and the Israeli army said. (Reporting by Adam Entous; edited by Richard Meares)
Richard Witty laments that cooler heads fail to prevail in Gaza, and suggests that "a record of trust" would have been established if they had extended the truce, despite almost daily Israeli provocations, including land seizures, imposition of deliberate famine on 1.5 million people, home demolitions, mass imprisonment, military overflights, assassinations, endless Israeli chatter about the feasability of ethnic cleansing, official "jokes" about a "shoah" against Palestinians, and all the rest.
Ali Abunimah's recent observation is not hyperbole and is all I can offer in response to this utter nonsense:
"What is Israel's idea of a truce? It is very simple: Palestinians have the right to remain silent while Israel starves them, kills them and continues to violently colonise their land."
As the United Nations Human Rights Commission notes this evening: "Israel has …ignored recent Hamas' diplomatic initiatives to reestablish the truce or ceasefire since its expiration on 26 December."
Witty, witty,
Spinning the bullshit as usual.
Quoting articles from the New York Times written by Jews who say "we would do best to halt…". No wonder Americans aren't getting their news from that rag anymore.
We Americans have not been dealing the death and destruction to the Palestinians, you Israelis have. I'm totally ashamed that they are using equipment supplied by my country, but I'm hopeful, as it seems that the everyday man on the street in the USA is getting fed up with it. I say "We Americans would do best to sever our ties to that brutal, fucked-up state called Israel." I know that it won't happen, not without violence rendered against the supporters of these war crimes. When they come for you, Witty, I won't stand up for you. Maybe you and soggy Bill can share a flat and wait.
You don't seem to understand that Kadima hasn't killed enough Palestinians to win the election yet. Barak hasn't shown himself as being tough enough yet. Bibi still leading in the polls. Kill to earn votes. What a pitiful state!!!
By the way, Israel violated the cease-fire first, when are you going to admit it??
Keep spinning, Witty, and the pendulum will swing back even sooner.
PM
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051235.html
Gaza rocket strikes school in Be'er Sheva
By Yanir Yagna, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Staff and News Agencies
Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Israel news
A Grad rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza directly struck an empty schoolhouse in Be'er Sheva on Wednesday morning. Earlier, two rockets exploded in open fields near the Negev city. No injuries or damage was reported.
Hamas took responsibility for Wednesday's strike on Be'er Sheva.
Paul,
Don't be ignorant.
BOTH Israeli officials AND Hamas are conducting political campaigns, both on the basis of their "backbone".
As are you, and as is Phil.
The best objective of EVERY party, Palestine, Israeli, dissent, is to stop the violence on civilians, and hopefully to stop all the violence.
I suggest that analysis be oriented to reducing the pendulum swinging, in a word *peace*. You suggest that "you'll get yours" is the same as justice.
Paul, It's sensible to skip the Witty's witless comments. I may glance at every 10th one, and partially at that. The mindless Hasbara Handbook kneejerk gang is always out there.
". . . globalism seems at last to be overcoming the strength of the U.S. Israel lobby." Good news. Though I'd never imagined that I'd be rooting rooting for globalism.
By the way, there was a protest yesterday at the Israel Embassy in Tokyo, which I and about 200 Japanese, including several prominent journalists, attended.
Here's the news coverage of it.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=04MtCqK0n6A
Follow the money!
Can Israel win the 'soft power' war in Gaza:
The government's decision to launch a political and media offensive before beginning the major military operation in Gaza was an important and necessary step. The moral case for using force to protect citizens against aggression is clear – the most basic human right is the right to life, and this point needs to be highlighted in every venue. In contrast, there is no moral justification for Hamas's terror and missile attacks, or for remaining silent in the face of the use of human shields in Gaza to protect terrorists from counterattack.
200 Japs! How many are there in that country anyway?
sorry, picked the wrong part:
THE PROPAGANDA war in Gaza began more than a year ago, with a steady flow of UN, media and NGO campaigns falsely accusing Israel of "collective punishment," starving the innocent population and preventing Fulbright students from leaving Gaza. In these attacks, the human rights of Israelis are usually ignored. The Hamas leadership provided images of "candlelight vigils" and hungry children, although there was always sufficient electricity and food. On this basis, the NGO "reports," press releases and pseudo-legal claims are repeated verbatim by the media, and then echoed by the UN and diplomats with a strong anti-Israel bias.
Still at it with the lies about Hamas breaking the cease-fire I see, Witty.
Read this. This should help
The operative word being "should". If you were a normal, thinking human being.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/print/roy_01_.html
This might also help with your understanding(lack of) of Hamas.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5420584.ece
And some more. Courtesy JSF.
http://occupiedlove.blogspot.com/2008/11/israel-breaches-gaza-ceasefire-invades.html
How Relevant are the Lessons of the 2006 war to the current Israeli Assault on Gaza?
"From a "real" fighting force, the IDF has gradually transformed itself into a "punitive" forces whose main capability is to shoot, kill, maim and otherwise terrorize and humiliate Palestinian civilians. Then there is the deeply ingrained Israeli racism which makes them believe that the Palestinians are somehow "inferior" to them. In contrast, while the Russians definitely hated the Wahabi Chechen leaders for the innumerable atrocities these terrorists were guilty of, the Russians never felt that the Chechen people were somehow "inferior". Most Russians, in fact, knew that the Chechens are formidable and courageous fighters and they respected them for that."
How did you post a working link, ZiR?
Good link, too…..
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