Annie sent along this video from Nakba Day protests at the Erez Crossing in Gaza on May 15, it’s pretty horrifying. Israeli snipers start shooting into the defenseless crowd of protesters at 7:00 or so (with Ken O’Keefe’s vigorous interpolations) and you see wounded young men being carried away. An American flag is shredded. But I would direct you to the flagcarriers at 11:50 or so–
Two young men climb a pylon to stick up Palestinian flags. One of them appears to be shot as he climbs and falls inside the pylon. The second youth continues to climb the pylon to stick his flag up high. Could you do that? I sure couldn’t!
Last night on Eliot Spitzer’s CNN show Jamie Rubin formerly of the State Department and now of Bloomberg News and Anne-Marie Slaughter formerly of the State Department and now Princeton both praised the bravery of the Syrian demonstrators. “We’re seeing people with incredible bravery” –Slaughter. Rubin– “These are very very brave people.”
And Spitzer chimed in that Bashar Assad is as bad as Qaddafi. A comparison that surely reflects Spitzer’s unreconstructed view of Israel as a beacon.
Have these folks even considered the bravery of the Palestinian protesters? Have they noticed how uncannily similar are the optics of this people rebelling against occupation and the optics of the Syrian demos? Really what is the difference? The Israeli regime has no legitimacy for the youth of Gaza, even less so that Israel’s snipers pick off defenseless boys, and the Syrian regime no legitimacy for the Syrian people…. Something’s got to give.
