Of course Hillary Clinton didn't talk about it, nor did the Senate, but Haaretz is–the growing awareness throughout the world that Israel has turned a corner, revealing itself in a different and monstrous light. An amazing piece, from a newspaper in the midst of a war-fevered country:
"The international organizations in Gaza are talking
about 200 dead children," [the unnamed European ambassador] said…."Your action is brutal and you don't realize how much damage this is
causing you in the world. This is not only short term. It's damage for
years. Is this the Israel you want to be?"
A similar message also came across in a conversation that President Shimon Peres had with the delegation of European foreign ministers who came to Jerusalem a week ago. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union Commissioner responsible for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, said to Peres: "You have the right to self-defense, but what is happening in Gaza is beyond all proportion. I am telling you, Mr. President, Israel's image in the world has been destroyed."
Even though the issue is not being accorded much attention in Israel, in Europe, the Arab countries and even the United States, the main story regarding Gaza is the many civilians hurt in the fighting. According to United Nations reports, approximately 300 civilians were among the more than 900 Palestinians killed. People are seeing images from Gaza of a sort that were not broadcast in previous wars, such as Kosovo or Afghanistan. Incidentally, these pictures are hardly being broadcast at all in the Israeli media.
Related posts:
- The war in Gaza: ‘the first ever war crime broadcast live on TV with the whole world watching’
- Hamdillah! Huffpo features a completely sympathetic and even slightly modish Arab as lead image
- Bill Clinton Is Eloquent on America’s Image in Africa
- ‘Palestinian Civilization Is Being Destroyed in Gaza’–Ireland’s Former President
- Israel strives to re-brand its image (yet again)
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And like with Bush, the MSM will continue to trumpet their wonderfulness.
Pity the poor, misunderstood warriors.
What's a hundred years to people that celebrate their bondage of three thousand years ago?
What's a hundred years for people that celebrate their bondage of three thousand years ago?
Forget what the world leaders or journos are saying. Ask in US offices and the local bars. The disgust is quiet. That's the deadliest kind.
"Is this the Israel you want to be?"
Israeli leaders feared that P-E Obama would pressure them more strongly to negotiate than any previous administration, which of course merely means that we might ask politely once (or twice, if we are feeling a little ornery) that our interests be considered, before buckling to the Lobby. Even the chance of this modest change in our traditional song and dance was too much for them to abide.
Israeli leadership does not want peace until after they have finished ethnically cleansing, by means creeping or punctuated, all of the land that they want. How much land do they want? I do not know. I think that contentious question is one of two that define variation among extremist Zionists, the other being methods and time scales of ethnic cleansing. (I am currently thinking through this abstraction.) But I do think that most Israeli leaders will not voluntarily stop until they have it.
What is the easiest way to ensure that you don't have to negotiate? Murder, torture, debase, and humiliate your victims so much that they will refuse to even consider sitting in the same room with you. Then you can pretend to tear your hair out in frustration:
We have no partner with whom to negotiate!
They hate us!
They will never make peace with us!
See how barbaric and primitive they are!
Do you see now what we have to put up with?
Do you see now why they should be your enemies as well?
"Is this the Israel you want to be?" Sadly, for very many Israelis and American Zionists, yes, yes it is. We must stop the extremists from taking advantage of us, and we must strive to build bridges to the rest.
Another factor is the perception of Israel prior to this assualt: the blockade and all the periodic barbararism inflicted on individual Palestinians. . . . . . . Also the role of Israelis abroad. Although to a tee, the Israelis can be seen to behave in a respectful manner, there is probably a perception of being deceived. So there is also Pent up anger. And the likes of Madoff and Rohm contribute. The world is sick of Israeli policies, from before this assualt.
This sort of moment seems to happen to every generation.
For myself, I'd been neutral leaning slightly to pro Israeli until I saw the behaviour of the IDF in the invasion of the Lebanon in 1982. The massacres in the refugee camps were merely the climax of a campagin marked by brutality and immense overkill, using sophisticated U.S weapons.
Since 1982, I've not been surprised by the aggression, lawlessness and particularly irritating "why us, we're the victims?!?" mentality of Israel.
My main fear is that one day there will be the most horrifying reaping for what has been sown over the decades.
Israel's image has been destroyed (only partially in states that actually have the responsibility to protect their civilians from opportunist militant guerillas).
And, Hamas' image has been confirmed. (Bifurcated between sober service to their community, and raging hotheads.)
israel is like a rabbid dog….the zionist brain of that dog is infected.
phil, you must be so proud to be a jew.
never again.
The 300 figure is way off. The vast majority (around 90%, I have read) of the now 992 deaths and 4500 injuries are civilians. Hamas has not been sending their dead/injured to the hospitals.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=14060
Now that the greatest strategic disaster in American military history is an accomplished fact, its architects are distancing themselves from their handiwork. For the past year or two, we have been treated to the spectacle of what might be called neoconservative panic syndrome – the cabal that lied us into war is frightened to death of being held responsible for the catastrophe. Their catastrophe.
And who can blame them? After all, the consequences could include prosecution for all sorts of crimes, running the gamut from torture to deliberately misleading Congress to violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. In a halfway rational world, these people would be tarred and feathered, at the very least, before the law had a chance to nab them. Instead, these war birds are still pontificating from their protected perches on the op-ed pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post, albeit to a shrinking and increasingly skeptical audience.
The shameless Perle is unfazed by the almost universal opprobrium he and his neoconservative confreres have evoked on all sides of the conventional political spectrum. A formerly rarefied distaste and suspicion, largely confined to this Web site and the neocons' critics on the Right, is today well nigh universal. Perle denies everything, admits nothing. He even denies the neoconservatives had anything to do with the war, either its conception or its execution. A trail of evidence several hundred leagues-long tells us otherwise. Confronted with reality, Perle feints and dodges, claiming that he's been misquoted, perhaps deliberately.
http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/eradicating-hamas_1.aspx
So far, over 900 Palestinians have been killed and 3,500 seriously wounded. Three Israeli civilians are dead. The psychic wounds inflicted on 1.5 million cowering civilians subjected to 1,000 and 2,000 lb bombs, 155mm artillery shells, cluster munitions, heavy mortar fire, air to ground missiles, white phosphorus, and high power tank shells cannot be described.
Gaza has very few basements. Its people cower in apartments and buildings, never knowing when a bomb will crash through the roof or a tank shell through the wall. According to the UN, before the latest crisis, 70% of Palestinian children in Gaza suffered from emotional disorders as well as malnutrition.
Where is Witty to blame Hamas and Israel equally while at the same time quoting hacks like Tom Friedman and Douche Goldberg as authorities on the subject?
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