One achievement of the Goldstone Mission report to the UN Human Rights Council that my country and Israel are battling is that it singles out the thunderclap that started the Gaza onslaught on the morning of December 27, 2008: when Israel hit a graduation ceremony at the Gaza police academy, killing scores of young police cadets. That attack played a significant part in turning the world against the slaughter. When I visited Gaza in May-June, I heard the Gazans calling this "our ground zero." I’m a terrible photographer, but look at my foto above, a billboard of some of the police dead, outside the central police station in Gaza City one night.
Reader, we had those very same billboards and remembrances all around New York after 9/11.
Goldstone went right after the police killings. The mission reports that 99 policemen and 9 civilians were killed in the first minutes of the slaughter. Overall, 240 policemen were killed during the war– a sixth of the Gaza casualties. Police were "deliberately" targeted. And on what basis? Well, Israel regards the police institutionally– or in large part individually– as part of the Gazan military.
The mission analyzed the history of the Gaza police since the Hamas takeover in 2007. While policemen were recruited from Hamas followers, Goldstone found that the police are a "civilian law-enforcement agency" and that the police targets of Dec. 27 were none of them taking part in hostilities and had not lost their "civilian immunity." Yes "individual" policemen were surely members of armed groups and can be considered combatants. But the Israeli attacks failed to strike an acceptable balance, between anticipated military advantage of destruction and civilian damage. The great majority of these policemen were civilians. So the mission concludes,This was a violation of international humanitarian law.
Under Goldstone’s legalistic words, I read anguish and passion. Who was not moved by the wanton murders of 400 of New York’s finest on 9/11–out of a city of 7 million? And who cannot be moved by the wanton murders of 240 of Gaza’s finest? The UN was.
Now think of the justice that America demanded for its Ground Zero: our long arm going into Afghanistan (in a war the world approved) and then Iraq. Meantime we fight even recognition of the atrocities at Gaza’s Ground Zero, let alone any motion of justice.
Name calling. Wow.
ed fracas, lol…
make that with a double ss at the end, lol…
Goldstone is confirming that he is fair and focuses on the law.
But our MSM’s basic silence about this report confirms the ongoing hypocrisy and double standards in our media , congress and public in regard to other slaughters when it does not involve Americans or Israeli’s.
Pathetic.
Thanks for all you are doing Phillip and team
please push the ‘report abuse” choice. Out of line way out of line
I suggest anyone who still believes Israel’s is “the most moral army in the world” read paragraphs 38 through 75 of this report. In fact, I suggest everyone read (at least) paragraphs 38 through 75.
It’s quite clear that in addition to “collective punishment” and probable “crimes against humanity,” the report details in those paragraphs, Israel was using Gaza as an experiment for the utilization of advanced weaponry in crowded civilian zones, and even on civilians.
“The Israeli armed forces possess very advanced hardware and are also a market leader in the production of some of the most advanced pieces of military technology available, including UAVs. They have a very significant capacity for precision strikes by a variety of methods, including aerial and ground launches. Taking into account the ability to plan, the means to execute plans with the most developed technology available, and statements by the Israeli military that almost no errors occurred, the Mission finds that the incidents and patterns of events considered in the report are the result of deliberate planning and policy decisions.”
In other words, most of Israel’s actions were not merely incidental to cleaning out “terrorists,” but rather premeditated collective punishment and probable crimes against humanity that deliberately targeted civilians — and with a long-term profit motive, no less.
The were essentially conducting military experiments on civilians in the service of their military industry.
The were essentially conducting military experiments on civilians in the service of their military industry.
Gazans are the rats in an Israeli lab, an experiment, as Phil’s friend Mond said to him during his time in Gaza this summer.
“When I said that I was witnessing bondage out of the Bible, a friend I made in Gaza, Mond Mishal, a would-be graduate student, shook his head.
‘Don’t talk about the bible, or an old story. You must find a new metaphor. We are being experimented on. This is a human experiment,’” he said.
link to mondoweiss.net
Phil, great analogy to FDNY. That made me so ill to see them dead in the street, and the way the news failed to report it spoke volumes. Ugh…
But, you know they had it coming, these reformist Muslim Hamas terrorists. You can’t take the terrorist out of these Palestinians, who can’t recognize that Jewish life is more valuable. Once they lay down their arms, and start becoming the servant class the Israel, then peace can be had.
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So, Richard Witty – what good would branding Israel for war crimes do? Ever consider it might save the life of a policeman, or a child, or a teacher…
Accountability is necessary for rsolution – and not just in Gaza.
Actually that is false. What will save the lives of a policeman, a child, a teacher is reform.
Reform of Israel certainly, but also reform of Hamas.
That is the significance of Obama’s approach. Not judgement and punishment, but improvement.
Really? And how has Israel changed thus far with Obama’s “turn my head and ignore what Israel is doing” strategy? Last time I checked, US-mediated negotiations are failing faster than John McCain’s candidacy in an economic crisis.
I don’t know. How will you be able to tell one way or another?
Well if you have absolutely no clue, why are you even saying anything?
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RE: “Who was not moved by the wanton murders of 400 of New York’s finest on 9/11–out of a city of 7 million?”
MY COMMENT: Yes, indeed! And this reminds me of what might very well be yet another “inconvenient truth”.
On a television (PBS, I think – possibly a 2 hour ‘Frontline’special) documentary about “why the Twin Towers collased”, the project architect for the buildings (admittedly not impartial) stated that the Twin Towers were designed to survive the type of airplane impacts and accompanying fires that occured on 9/11. He attributed the catastrophic failure of the buildings to the fact that there was a problem with the fireproofing that had been applied to the structural steel beams during the initial construction. This fireproofing was intended to ensure that in the event of a fire, the steel would not get hot enough to lose so much of it’s tensile strenth as to no longer remain rigid under the weight it supported. Unfortunately, this fireproofing material (much of it was apparently asbestos*) had begun flaking off the steel beams, leaving them exposed in varying degrees to the full heat of a potential fire. According to him, the ‘Port Authority’ (of NY & NJ, owner** of the Twin Towers) was aware of this problem and had “plans” to begin repairng/replacing the fireproofing but had not yet gotten around to it. Although he did not directly state so, I GOT THE DISTINCT IMPRESSION (CORRECTLY OR NOT) THAT HE CONSIDERED THE ‘PORT AUTHORITY’ DERELICT IN NOT HAVING DEALT WITH THE FIREPROOFING ISSUE IN A MORE TIMELY MANNER.
*the involvement of asbestos would make the task or repairng/replacing the fireproofing a real nightmare because of the tremendous expense involved with asbestos removal. I have read (but have no independent knowledge) that the cost of such a project would have exceeded the value of the Twin Towers in good shape (absent fireproofing/asbestos issues).
**subject to a 99 year lease executed a few months before 9/11, AS I UNDERSTAND IT)
‘WORLD TRADE CENTRE’ ASBESTOS AD – link to images.google.com
BETTER LINK:
‘WORLD TRADE CENTRE’ ASBESTOS AD – link to joecrubaugh.com
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