It is impossible to imagine a more nightmarish story than the story Adam Horowitz put on this blog last night about Dr. Ezz-El-Din Abu El-Aish (at left) crying on his cell phone, in Hebrew, on a live Israeli news broadcast not long after his three daughters were slaughtered by Israel. This is a signature moment of the war (i.e., it's on cable), and of the Israeli soul. It is an anti-Exodus moment. Thanks in good measure to the Israeli broadcaster, Shlomi Eldar.
Trying to understand this nightmare, Richard Silverstein emailed his friend Assaf Oron, a dailykos contributor and an Israeli living in Seattle, to translate the Arabic. Oron wrote back. Emphases mine:
It seems that the original way in which it was presented on walla.co.il - killing happening in the middle of interview - was not exactly how it happened.
Dr. Abu El-Aish was interviewed by Channel 10 before, and had been in regular contact with them. However, he was *not* on live broadcast when the shell hit. There is a youtube clip of the conversation now, though without subtitles: link to www.youtube.com
What we see is a regular news bulletin, being interrupted by reporter Shlomi Eldar who's on the phone with Dr. Abu El-Aish. This is shortly after the shelling. It is unclear who called who; could have been the doctor calling the station. Anyway this is secondary, as they were in regular contact. What happened was that hundreds of thousands of Israelis heard the agony of a Palestinian family right after being slaughtered by the IDF on live broadcast, and it was a family they knew and respected.
The reporter Eldar himself said words to that effect when interviewed on the matter: "through one example via phone, Israelis became aware of the magnitude of the horror visited upon the Gaza Strip. I am saying horror, because there are more than a thousand dead, a large part of them civilians, and I am sorry that it takes a phone conversation like this, and the tragedy of a Hebrew-speaking man, to transmit it."
This is from a Walla follow-up story: link to news.walla.co.il. They say Eldar has known Dr. Abu El-Aish for 3 years. A few months ago the doctor's wife died of cancer, and Channel 10 helped arrange his passage to Jordan (guess she was hospitalized there?).
I don't remember Eldar ever expressing "leftie" views so it may be that this personal connection has brought this war and its true meaning home to him. In the current climate of Israel, it was an act of journalistic courage to broadcast this live today, and in the way he did it. The story has now made the mainstream American news. MSNBC even has the doctor's picture: link to www.msnbc.msn.comthough their version diverges a bit from the Israeli news version.
By the way, Dr. Abu El-Aish talks in Hebrew throughout the conversation, except for his calls to God - so there is no real need for Arabic translation, I think.
This story has totally taken over my day today.
The accurate language for Israel's efforts is desparate.
The same term applies to Hamas.
Both willing to harm in order to control for a melange of private and communal opportunism.
The left is similarly feeling desparate. "How do we get them to do what we want them to do?"
Lets force them.
You can't force both sides with assholes like Ross et al in the pilot seat.
It takes guys like Breszinski etc. to force both sides. People who support neither Arabs nor Jews, but US interest first and formost.
THEY need to run US foreign policy, or nothing will change.
"You can't force both sides with assholes like Ross et al in the pilot seat."
I suggest that Mr. Ross is not the problem. I haven't heard whether he has been officially appointed regional envoy, but if he has, he still serves at the pleasure of the president and can be fired. The problem is Zionist leadership in Congress, i.e, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Feinstein, and others. Their genuine support will be necessary for P-E Obama to make any progress towards a stable final-status agreement in the I/P conflict, and I would be stunned if they gave it. If they fight him openly on Israel, he could call their bluff and make it explicitly an American national security issue, and elicit a call to the colors. Then they would have to submit or be exposed as America-seconders. This would cause enormous turmoil in the Democratic party, and the country. I will be shocked if P-E Obama takes it that far. I think he will back down in the end, if he hasn't already, and the Lobby will continue to undermine American interests.
However, I see such a confrontation as absolutely inevitable, even if it takes 20 years. The unknown variable is how long it will take to happen. The sooner it happens the less time the Lobby will have to damage America, with a commensurate reduction in the amount of American anger at awakening. If there is not a change to more moderate leadership in the national Zionist establishment, they will play chicken to the end and it will be ugly. It is in everyone's best interest, including Israel's, that this be avoided. I am guardedly optimistic that it will.
Shlomi Eldar, I salute you.
Gaza Doctor Receives Angry Reception at Press Conference
"Why is he engaging in propaganda? He's talking against Israel at the Sheba hospital. You should all be ashamed."
I don't want to debate anything on this particular thread. My heart goes out to Dr. Abu El-Aish. I don't know what else to say right now.
Hello? None of you sick conspiracy theorists (or maybe just plain anti-Semites) realized what was implicit in what the doctor said. He said that he's been bringing Gazans into Israeli hospitals for years, and he hoped that they would go back to Gaza and spread the word of peace. But now, what can he tell them?
So we glean from this that Israel actually HELPS Palestinians? Yes, hello, wake up. Do you know that wounded terrorists are treated in Israeli hospitals? The reverse never happens.
So what happened? Did those Palestinians go home and spread the word of peace? Well, they crowned Hamas, so it seems not.
The doctor's tragedy is terrible, but either there was shooting from his house, or it was hit by accident. War is hell. But in every war, innocents die, and counting tragedies does not prove who is right and who is wrong.
Hey David, how do you know that it happened due to shooting from his house or by accident? Were you there at the time? Your Zionist slip is showing.
Let's not air dirty laundry in front of the goys.
Also, David, good PR to save a few selected Pals, same as allowing in a few trucks so you can blare that info to the world, omitting the downward-curving graph showing humanitarian aid trucks over the last 16 months, which underscores the reality of the blockade of Gaza, a war-crime in itself–so what's new, eh? 1967, 2008-9, what's to discuss?
Oh Rosenbaum, the deep compassion you show for those three little girls reveals exactly the human decency of Israel and its supporters.
Why DO they hate ?
War is hell – it is known to everyone except the moronic peace loving leftist degenerates who live in utopian lands of peace and harmony.
How many Germans, Italians, Japanese(including civilians)lost their lives before WWII ended. How many people lost their lives in Napoleonic wars. War is not selective and is not pretty, it is not a one hour entertainment show you see in the movie theater while stuffing yourself with loads of popcorn and coca-cola.
When bullets and missiles fly, real people get killed – and many of those people are innocent people mothers, fathers, brothers. What does an Israeli mother feel when she has to send her own child to war? And most of the time there is no uplifting Hollywood happy ending in life.
When you start a fight, don't cry like a chld when you get your teeth kicked out. Hamas has in it's charter to destroy Israel. Not just the IDF, not a particular person; all of the Jews. What do you want Israel to do? Cuddle and hug them after hundreds of rockets land in their cities? Are the rockets Hamas sends are destined toward military targets???