Unarmed protesters scramble to rescue the wounded at fence in the occupied Golan

by on June 5, 2011 62
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Thanks to Ali Abunimah for posting this amazing video (and Kate for grabbing it):

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel/Palestine

{ 62 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. seafoid says:
    June 5, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    The Progressive has been covering the situation in Wisconsin in its May issue and 2 contributors make the point that the authorities are powerless if 100,000 people make a stand and they all ask to be arrested and tried.
    Israel is very vulnerable to people power.

    • MeHaas says:
      June 5, 2011 at 7:16 pm

      “Israel is very vulnerable to people power.”

      Yes, ofcourse. That is the only reason they invest so much in their Hasbara project.
      They are not fighting the world, they are fighting us common people (who should be the directors of our democracies).

    • Chaos4700 says:
      June 5, 2011 at 10:26 pm

      The problem is Israel has absolutely no compunction about leaving 10,000 dead bodies in the aftermath of a 100,000 strong protest.

      And then they will send soldiers, tanks and planes after the protestors’ families.

      • GuiltyFeat says:
        June 6, 2011 at 7:24 am

        “The problem is Israel has absolutely no compunction about leaving 10,000 dead bodies in the aftermath of a 100,000 strong protest.”

        This has never happened.

        “And then they will send soldiers, tanks and planes after the protestors’ families.”

        This has never happened.

        Why not just write that Israel will brutally rape the maiden aunts of all protesters? Or that Israel has no compunction about sexually assaulting the domestic pets of the protesters? Anyone can make stuff up. How is this an argument?

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          June 6, 2011 at 9:15 am

          “This has never happened.”

          He didn’t write what had happened, he wrote about Israel’s attitude; its compunction. And it is interesting that you can’t (or chose not to)argue that Israel wouldn’t do these things. Telling.

        • patm says:
          June 6, 2011 at 9:27 am

          Go away, guilty, and please don’t give the idf and settlers any ideas about new atrocities they might care to perpetrate.

        • Mooser says:
          June 6, 2011 at 2:49 pm

          “How is this an argument?”

          I don’t want to shock you, Guilty Feat, but there is no law in the world which says everybody must be in a permanent state of indecision about Israel, subject to Zionist-approved “arguments”.
          I know, making up your mind about Israel is a form of anti-Semitism.
          But you just keep writing in and telling us who is a bigot, and which “arguments” are valid and which not. I’m sure Phil will turn the keys to the blog over to you in a short time, as soon as he recognises your complete fairness and disinterestedness.

          And whatever you do, don’t ever ask yourself why people have made up their minds to think about Israel in this fashion. That would be an admission that other people are as valid as you, and well, there’s no need to stray into the completely ludicrous, huh?

    • patm says:
      June 6, 2011 at 11:08 am

      “Israel is very vulnerable to people power.”

      Check this great video out:

      Portland BDS Coalition Flash Mobs ‘New Seasons’ supermarket: May 29, 2011

      link to youtube.com

  2. Citizen says:
    June 5, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    J Post says Israel warned the dumb Arabs that they would shoot them if they came across the Israeli-declared NoManLand to nonviolently protest Israeli predatory conduct: link to jpost.com

  3. Citizen says:
    June 5, 2011 at 7:16 pm

    And meanwhile, thousands march in support of Palestinians in Tel Aviv today, as usual not mentioned in the US press/TV news media: link to peacenow.org

    • kalithea says:
      June 5, 2011 at 9:14 pm

      Yes, but I’d like to know how many of those thousands are Palestinian Israelis and how many are Jews. Should I guess at the ratio? 100 to 1.

      Although I commend Jews who actually demonstrate sympathy for Palestinians; they’re miniscule compared to those who don’t give a damn or would like to see Palestinians wiped off the map as we witnessed in the “whiteshirts” rallies.

      • GuiltyFeat says:
        June 6, 2011 at 1:54 am

        “Yes, but I’d like to know how many of those thousands are Palestinian Israelis and how many are Jews. Should I guess at the ratio? 100 to 1.”

        An ignorant and counter-productive comment when a simple Google search would show you the truth.

        link to ynetnews.com
        “Among the groups which took part in the protest were Peace Now, Meretz, Hadash, the Labor party and even representatives from Kadima. ”

        link to news.yahoo.com
        “The predominantly Jewish crowd marched through the centre of Tel Aviv calling for the creation of a “Palestinian state in the interests of Israel” along the borders prior to the Six-Day War, which began on June 5, 1967.”

        link to youtube.com
        This is the video that Mondoweissers won’t watch as it may screw with their idea of what living in a democracy means.

        • Walid says:
          June 6, 2011 at 4:33 am

          Guilty, compared to third world countries, Israel’s may be ahead of the pack but when compared to first world countries such as the ones Israel thinks it’s part of, its democracy is the pits and probably a few notches better than Zimbabwe’s.

          To get back to the discussion, I think most if not all of the 10,000 demonstrating in TA were Jews; contrary to what most Israelis keep showing us, especially the ones at Mondo, we all know that there are good Jews in Israel. If only a fraction of that number would have demonstrated for Palestinian statehood in an Arab capital. In 1982 after Sharon and his Lebanese scum pals did their number on the women and children of Sabra and Shatilla, 200,000 Jews demonstrated in TA.

        • talknic says:
          June 6, 2011 at 4:50 am

          GuiltyFeat

          Uh? Israel a ‘democracy’? Since when?

          There is nothing in the Declaration for the Establishment of the State of Israel about democracy.

          Israel has never even had a legally elected Government according to it’s own declaration…under a constitution. The notion that Israel is a democracy is a blatant lie perpetuated on it’s own citizen, manipulating it’s own population in order to bring about Greater Israel, through ignorance and propaganda that even the Nazi’s would have been amazed by.

        • Avi says:
          June 6, 2011 at 5:06 am

          Stinky Feat is an English Jew who took advantage of a racist law that privileges any Jewish person in the world over Palestinians who were born on their own land in Palestine. He currently enjoys the privileges bestowed upon him by virtue of his being a pasty-white Jew, an Ashkenazi. And yet he has the audacity to lecture others that he KNOWS better what it is like to be a non-Jew, a Palestinian refugee with no voice or recourse.

          How does that saying go? You can’t fix stupid.

        • GuiltyFeat says:
          June 6, 2011 at 6:35 am

          Blah blah blah. talknic, please provide evidence that Great Britain is a democracy. Show me the line from the British Constitution that defines its democratic process. Oh… wait, there isn’t one. Also, you might want to look into the correct use of the possessive apostrophe to avoid looking like an illiterate troll.

          Israel is a democracy because each and every one of its citizens is invited to vote in parliamentary elections which take place at least every 5 years (although usually more often).

          By the way, you do win a chutzpah prize for linking to your own blog as proof of your point. That was priceless.

          @Walid, I am more than happy to compare my country’s democracy to that of the US or the UK where governments have lied to their electorate to take their armies into illegal wars against the will of the UN.

          I believe the democracy of Israel compares very favorably with US democracy (hanging chads anyone?) where there is no mainstream alternative to the two parties. Where is the American Communist party? Where is the American Labour Party? I’ll take my messed up version of a parliamentary democracy over theirs every day of the week.

        • es1982 says:
          June 6, 2011 at 6:47 am

          Israel has never even had a legally elected Government according to it’s own declaration…under a constitution.

          That’s an odd argument. The Declaration of Independence may be our founding document, but it isn’t the source of all legitimacy. The fact that we never followed through on the promise to write a constitution doesn’t make all governments and Knessets illegitimate and undemocratic.

          Israel has free and fair elections, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, (imperfect) freedom of religion, impartial courts, etc. – those are the things that make us democratic.

        • talknic says:
          June 6, 2011 at 8:50 am

          GuiltyFeat

          Uh? I haven’t made any claims about GB and Iraq under Hussein each and every one of its citizens was invited to vote.

          By the way, there is nothing on my blog that is not substantiated. In this instance the Israeli Declaration.

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          June 6, 2011 at 9:18 am

          “Israel is a democracy because each and every one of its citizens is invited to vote in parliamentary elections which take place at least every 5 years (although usually more often).”

          Israel is not a real democracy (and is bigoted, to boot) because it has controlled the lives of a population equal in size to that of it citizenry for two generations and have not given them any say in the government which controls their lives simply because they aren’t Jews.

        • talknic says:
          June 6, 2011 at 9:20 am

          es1982

          “That’s an odd argument. “

          It’s a factual argument. Which I know must be odd for you and your kind.

          Israel was declared according to the conditions set out in UNGA Res 181, which is still enshrined in the Declaration. Although the choice to accept UNGA Res 181 was not binding (no one can force independence on anyone, it’s against the basic notion of independence) the conditions it contained were based on Customary International Law, which is binding. Israel accepted the conditions.

          “The fact that we never followed through on the promise to write a constitution doesn’t make all governments and Knessets illegitimate and undemocratic”

          It makes them all illegitimate according to the Declaration itself.

          “Israel has free and fair elections, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, (imperfect) freedom of religion, impartial courts, etc. – those are the things that make us democratic”

          1/3rd of the territory where Israeli elections are held and Israeli civil law is illegally instituted, are not even in Israel. Israel is there against the will of dispossessed and rightfull citizens of territory acquired by war, territory illegally annexed and occupied territory illegally settled. That’s a sign of impartial courts and democracy? WOW!!!

        • patm says:
          June 6, 2011 at 9:36 am

          “Israel has free and fair elections, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, (imperfect) freedom of religion, impartial courts, etc. – those are the things that make us democratic.”

          Gad, here’s another Israeli propagandist! No doubt bought and paid for by Hasbara Central.

          I think we’ll see all the trolls out today. They’ve got some work to do to explain away the events of this past weekend!

        • Citizen says:
          June 6, 2011 at 10:04 am

          GF, I agree with you that my country, the USA, is not a great standard reflecting true democracy due to such realities as you point out, hanging chads (corruption of the voting booth results) and the difficulty of third parties against the two-party machine. However, beyond problems with the US system that de facto makes many US votes useless, you forgot to mention the state of civil rights when comparing your country, Israel, with the USA. I invite everyone, including you, to take a gander here at the undisputed official conclusion of both the Israeli high court and US government that Israel is a state where ethnic discrimination is built into the system; making nonJewish citizens second class citizens as a matter of everyday reality that echoes the days of Jim Crow in the old USA and apartheid S Africa: link to en.wikipedia.org

          Also, you don’t mention the horrid situation of the Arabs under Israeli control in the occupied territories for decades now–are you saying America does that too?

        • GuiltyFeat says:
          June 6, 2011 at 11:04 am

          @Citizen

          I will not defend my country against claims of institutionalized racism, but I reject the comparison with Apartheid South Africa or pre-Rosa Parks USA.

          From the link you posted: link to en.wikipedia.org

          “Also, you don’t mention the horrid situation of the Arabs under Israeli control in the occupied territories for decades now–are you saying America does that too?”

          I have stated elsewhere that the Israeli occupation must end. I will not defend it. It is wrong. Nevertheless, I have always felt that America’s treatment of Native Americans with their ancestral homelands divided into closed off bantustans is a nasty parallel. A simple Google search shows I’m not the first to have made this comparison:

          ” The 1993 Oslo Accord created nothing more than semi-autonomous Palestinian zones which are almost identical
          to our Native American reservations or to the bantustans created to divide and disrupt the Black majority in old South Africa.” link to palestineinformation.org

          “–are you saying America does that too?” Yes, I am, and I’m not the only one.

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          June 6, 2011 at 11:51 am

          “I have stated elsewhere that the Israeli occupation must end. I will not defend it. It is wrong. Nevertheless, I have always felt that America’s treatment of Native Americans with their ancestral homelands divided into closed off bantustans is a nasty parallel. ”

          The differences, and they are important ones — nah, dispostive ones — is that these Native Americans can, if they so choose, move anywhere the USA is soverign, any city, any neighborhood, and town, at any time and for any reason. If they want to live in Hawaii or Alaska or New York or DC or even some blinking-light dead-end in Arkansas or South Carolina, they are free to do that at their leisure. AND, no matter where they live, they have a say and a vote in the government that is soverign over them.

          The Palestinians can’t. Because of their ethnicity.

          That is why the apartheid analogy is apt.

        • Citizen says:
          June 6, 2011 at 11:52 am

          GF, no Palestinians died of smallpox by blankets far removed from Israeli hands. Their fate has been more intentionally derived. Further, why are you talking about the 19th Century and before? Israel has done all it has done AFTER Germans and Japanese were hung for doing similar things. And AFTER, the international community followed up the Nuremberg Trials with international law, the subsequent Geneva progeny. Quit borrowing from Goering’s defense at Nuremberg to justify Israeli conduct, or if you insist, than just tell us outright you believe in Darwinian survival, the survival of the fittest, might make right.

        • GuiltyFeat says:
          June 6, 2011 at 12:14 pm

          @citizen. You’ve lost me I’m afraid. I told you I oppose the occupation and support equal rights for Palestinians in a sovereign state. In what way am I doing similar things to Germans and Japanese? What have I defended? You asked me if I believed America behaves as badly as Israel. I believe it does.

          I believe both are wrong. I am not using the bad behavior of your country to justify the bad behavior of mine. I am simply pointing out parallels. Why do you find those parallels so uncomfortable? I vote against the injustices perpetrated by my government, what are you doing to right the injustices perpetrated by yours?

          @Woody. So the Native Americans are free because they can go anywhere they like even though their families have lived in the same place for generations? Interesting, but not terribly convincing as an opposing argument.

        • Citizen says:
          June 6, 2011 at 1:08 pm

          GF, I gave you some information to show how America is not behaving as bad as Israel. You’ve ignored everything I said. I also gave you no sign at all I was uncomfortable with the bad behaviour of my own county, the USA. I agree with your assessment but pointed out how the comparison gets weaker–I gave you Wiki on Israel’s civil rights situation, which in turn gave you the Israeli Supreme Court’s assessment, and the US government’s assessment.
          You don’t address those, which make your comparison very misleading. I am doing all I can to right the injustices of my government. I constantly contact my government reps about what I don’t like. I give my hard earned money at times to those politicians I think are on the right track. I vote in the primaries, hoping to give the best candidate the edge; I vote in the finals, between tweedledee and tweedledum, parsing to find the one with the most semblence of
          getting to the root problems of my country. I’ve also written books about what’s wrong with American culture. I constantly try to find the data my government keeps away from me, and I email about it to anyone who will listen, and even to those who won’t. What else do you suggest I do? And, as to your response to Woody, what you say does not detract from the reality of what he says. I worked in the steel mills of South Chicago and met many native Americans there. They had the highest-paying jobs; they were the high iron walkers, risky but well paid. A native American has a high priority for college aid, more so than any white American. Compare that to the information in the Wiki url I gave you, which points out how Israeli government funds go far more to Jewish citizens than to Arab citizens. They can go anywhere they want in the USA. Some choose to do so, some do not. I always support government programs to help them, of which there are many. I don’t shy from the fact that colonial white settlers did them a tremendous wrong. So what’s up with your lame response?

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          June 6, 2011 at 1:20 pm

          GF, they are free because they can go wherever they want, and because, if they choose to stay where they are, they are not not limited in their economic and human rights based on their ethnicity AND BECAUSE HAVE A SAY IN THIER GOVERNMENT. Those are the differences between the fact that the Americans have attempted (albeing insufficiently in my opinion) to make amends for the evil they’ve done while the Israelis still wallow in their evil.

          And, of course it’s not terribly convincing to you. You’re an apologist for an evil regime following an evil ideology. I don’t expect someone who thinks that the Jews have a right to Palestine over the Palestinians to be convinced.

        • justicewillprevail says:
          June 6, 2011 at 2:48 pm

          If everyone in Israel is entitled to a vote, then you will be able to confidently tell us where it’s borders are.

        • Mooser says:
          June 6, 2011 at 2:59 pm

          “Also, you might want to look into the correct use of the possessive apostrophe to avoid looking like an illiterate troll.”

          Wait a minute, you are arguing for Israel? Oy, may Israel always be blessed with such advocates as you. A regular Dale Carnagiestein!

        • GuiltyFeat says:
          June 6, 2011 at 5:28 pm

          @Citizen

          “I gave you Wiki on Israel’s civil rights situation, which in turn gave you the Israeli Supreme Court’s assessment, and the US government’s assessment.
          You don’t address those, which make your comparison very misleading.”

          You’re right. I apologize. I will attempt a less lame response.

          I am ashamed of my country’s (and therefore my own) treatment of its citizens. I acknowledge the dreadful things written about in your link as well as the positive aspects in the part within the whole article that I linked to. As a citizen of Israel and as a parent to three teenage Israelis, I am committed to improving on the current deficiencies in my society and working towards one where all citizens are treated equally, not just under the law, but in practice too.

        • Light says:
          June 6, 2011 at 7:38 pm

          “Israel is a democracy because each and every one of its citizens is invited to vote in parliamentary elections which take place at least every 5 years (although usually more often).”

          That’s exactly the problem because a lot of people are not citizens. There are approximately 4 million Palestinians living under Israeli military rule who are not represented by the Israeli government.

        • Woody Tanaka says:
          June 7, 2011 at 9:43 am

          “You’re right. I apologize. I will attempt a less lame response.”

          GF, I noticed how your lamentations only go so far as Israel’s treatement of its “citizens,” completely bypassing the evils in the occupation. Any reason for that? Or don’t you care about the evil done in your name there?

        • Mooser says:
          June 7, 2011 at 12:54 pm

          “I am committed to improving on the current deficiencies in my society”

          And therefore, Israel is now perfect!

      • patm says:
        June 6, 2011 at 9:58 am

        kalithea, the numbers of Israeli supporters of Palestinians are not large, it is true. But they do exist. Here is the website of one group of Israeli activists who protest each Friday in Sheik Jarrah, the Jerusalem neighbourhood where the whiteshirt thugs marched.

        I’ve been told that at these Friday protests each Israeli activist teams up with and sticks very close to a Palestinian. This is done because the security forces are reluctant to shoot Israelis. (Bad press optics)

        link to en.justjlm.org

  4. ToivoS says:
    June 5, 2011 at 10:12 pm

    In the opening days of WWI the Germans (note: this was Kaiser’s Germany) clearly warned the Belgium people to not interfere with their troops. Stay out of the way and they would not be harmed. But if any Belgium interfered they would be dealt with brutally. And if too many interfered, as they in fact did do, retribution would be carried out against the population. This all came to pass. The results so enraged the people of the US that this led us to war against Germany.

    I have never liked the comparison of Israel to the Nazis, but I do believe the comparison to Prussian Army practices is very apt. I suspect that the Zionists that who established IDF military doctrine used the Prussian model for suppressing popular resistance.

  5. Richard Witty says:
    June 5, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    With peace appearing impossible with the current Israeli government, and no real alternative parties in Israel mobilizing in any coherent way, there is not much to say on this issue for me these days.

    The work is still electoral, and mass movements that contain any threat to Israel (as the storming of the borders does) are counter-productive to my mind.

    The reason that I say counter-productive, is that they give no room for choice. Israelis cannot accept the no borders thesis, however the term used in the press irritates you.

    A psychological rush, but 22 deaths.

    • James North says:
      June 5, 2011 at 11:29 pm

      Richard Witty said: ‘Time for me to blame the victims again. Israel shot dead 22 unarmed human beings. I have no words of condemnation for that. But I’ll shift the blame to the dead for “storming the borders,” and I’ll imply that “solidarity” and “dissent” urge the protesters on because it gives them “a psychological rush.”
      ‘I hope noone (sic) notices my dishonest double standard. Jews are more important to me than Palestinians.’

      • ToivoS says:
        June 6, 2011 at 1:31 am

        Very good summary James North. I think this is the Prussian model: do not defy our domination. If you do expect to be crushed by our superior military. Do not blame us for the outcome. As Witty wants us to accept:

        and mass movements that contain any threat to Israel (as the storming of the borders does) are counter-productive to my mind.

        And any good Prussian would have to agree with you dear Witty. As they would say: do not oppose our domination, if you do we will crush you with over whelming military force. That is now translated into modern Zionism.

    • Chaos4700 says:
      June 6, 2011 at 12:11 am

      Not much to say, but enough words to spare to blame the victims yet again, right? I’d like to think you’ll shut the hell up at least when Israel starts having outright concentration camps.

      • Sumud says:
        June 6, 2011 at 8:34 am

        I’d like to think you’ll shut the hell up at least when Israel starts having outright concentration camps.

        Well who knows Chaos?

        If it ever gets to that, I expect RW will continue talking but will sound peculiar because he’ll be holding his nose, as he stated he likely would have been doing during the massacres and ethnic cleansing of Al Nakba in 1947/48/49. Not trying to stop it, just “holding his nose”.

        Heavens-to-Betsy, if Israel opens concentration camps for Palestinians he may even be forced to avert his gaze.

        - – - – -

        With peace appearing impossible with the current Israeli government, and no real alternative parties in Israel mobilizing in any coherent way, there is not much to say on this issue for me these days.

        Richard Witty ~ aren’t you bothered that by failing to take suitable action to end the Israel/Palestine conflict, Israel is effectively dealing itself out of the game? Events will overtake the situation, and finally Israel will have no say in the outcome, leading inexorably to a single state. Thomas Friedman is now regularly using the word apartheid to describe Israel (in the future tense, but that’s hardly relevant), and once he uses it, the term will enter mainstream media coverage in the US. It’s already happening, check this clip picked up by Antony Loewenstein (long, but a worthwhile watch):

        Thomas Friedman on Israeli “apartheid” and how it’s here to stay

        I’m asking if you’re bothered by this because you’ve expended enormous energy here at Mondoweiss criticising us, and little to none criticising Israelis or mapping out any alternate paths for them. Now, you are able to acknowledge that Israel is at a dead end street, and you appear to have run out of steam. I’m confounded as to why. Isn’t this make or break time for the two-state solution?

        Is it that the problem seems too large to tackle? Is it that you’re in your comfort zone at Mondoweiss and don’t know what else to do? If there can be no Erez Israel, do you lose interest altogether? If Israel is at a dead end, then are you also? Is it time to imagine some alternative futures?

        These are serious and genuine questions. I actually believe you could make a significant contribution to a progressive jewish movement in Israel (or the US), if you chose to do so. Not for some time, but I have actually read a few posts on your blog. You seem like a much nicer guy when you aren’t running interference for Israel. I’ve given you a lot of ‘shit’ over the last few years and maintain much of it has been justified. Yet, I believe there’s a better person in you than what you’ve presented here at Mondoweiss – one that doesn’t have to make excuses for behaviour you know deep down to contradict with your core ethics and values. Is that true liberal there after all?

        • eljay says:
          June 6, 2011 at 8:59 am

          >>> If it ever gets to that, I expect RW will continue talking but will sound peculiar because he’ll be holding his nose, as he stated he likely would have been doing during the massacres and ethnic cleansing of Al Nakba in 1947/48/49. Not trying to stop it, just “holding his nose”.

          Yes, it’s likely that as long as he deems it to be “necessary”, he will “hold his nose” while his more robust co-collectivists do the dirty work. Because, as he might put it: “I cannot consistently say that ‘concentration camps are never necessary’.”

        • Citizen says:
          June 6, 2011 at 12:07 pm

          Yeah, there were plenty of Nazis who held their nose too, and/or looked away, etc; all the while they kept their eye on the career prize–an obvious example is none other than Himmler, who called his SS camp guard troops to duty in a speech before them, telling them the work they were called upon to do was dirty and could not be told to the world, even the pure German world, but that’s why they were the best Germany had to offer to the world, for the sake of the [non-Jewish] world. And there’s no doubt the SS was courageous, as courageous as any Arab or Japanese suicide bomber (especially if you are talking about the Waffen SS–as even Phil M pointed out [& paid a temporary price]).

          Witty fits right in with Himmler’s thinking in the sense that sometimes you just have to hold your nose and allow your troops to do the dirty business. BTW, that’s also the US government’s vision of its special OPS teams like the Navy Seals.

    • Citizen says:
      June 6, 2011 at 6:16 am

      True, Witty, I’m sure those Israeli murderers got a psychological rush; 22
      times getting their rocks off by shooting nonviolent protesters intent on showing the world that the border is a shameless croc.

    • Woody Tanaka says:
      June 6, 2011 at 9:21 am

      “The reason that I say counter-productive, is that they give no room for choice. Israelis cannot accept the no borders thesis, however the term used in the press irritates you.”

      What evil dribble. Israel could have fortified the troops they had stationed there, and seized anyone who breached the line (not a border, as this all occurred inside Syria.). There was a room for choice, and the Israelis chose blood, as they always do.

    • libra says:
      June 6, 2011 at 11:23 am

      RW: “A psychological rush, but 22 deaths.”

      Richard, by an odd coincidence, these 22 deaths exactly equal the number of Israelis killed by Kassam rockets since 2000. Deaths you have long condemned as a war crime.

    • Mooser says:
      June 6, 2011 at 2:55 pm

      Shorter Richard Witty: ‘Make one move, and the Palestinian gets it in the neck!”

      “A psychological rush, but 22 deaths.”

      Richard, if you want to argue that the 22 deaths were a “psychological rush” for the IDF soldiers who shot them, you will get no back-talk from me. You should know, and I trust you.

  6. kalithea says:
    June 5, 2011 at 11:47 pm

    Here is the latest spin direct from the Hasbara factory:

    link to ref­ormsyria.o­rg

    I thought this link being posted by Hasbara on another site was “odd” and a few hours later someone cleared it all up for me by posting this:

    “A little background on Farid N. Ghadry, co-founder and current president of the Reform Party of Syria.

    “discredit­ed businessma­n from Virginia” who is “Syria’s version of Ahmad Chalabi” by Robert Dreyfuss..­.

    “This man knows nothing about Syria beside what he hears second-han­d. Everyone knows that he is not part of the Syrian society in DC.”"

    Lots more here:
    link to www­.sourcewat­ch.org

    So now there’s a Syrian Chalabi with AIPAC connections!

    “Ghadry is a member of AIPAC. [5] On May 15, 2003, Eli J. Lake wrote in The National Review: “His organization is only now getting off the ground,” and “a Syrian who belongs to one of Israel’s main lobbying groups is not exactly a strong political candidate in a country that remains one of the most rabidly anti-Israel in the region. As Ghadry himself admits, ‘The Syrians are not ready for someone who wants to make peace with Israel.’”

    Looks like there are Israeli stooges with Aipac connections lined up for Iran AND Syria.

  7. mig says:
    June 6, 2011 at 1:38 am

    Tells the true story of nature of a state when it shoots civilians. No matter is it arab state or Israel like in this case. Unarmed civilians are no threat to anybody. They should be treated with police, not by army.

  8. justicewillprevail says:
    June 6, 2011 at 3:45 am

    From Juan Cole:

    “Israeli troops have a lot of experience with crowd control and have tear gas and other non-lethal measures at their disposal, argues UN special envoy Richard Falk, and one can only therefore conclude that they were deliberately ordered to kill protesters with live ammunition as a lesson to anyone who wanted to try to stage such demonstrations in the future. That is, these shootings and woundings of unarmed protesters are a crime against humanity.”

    link to juancole.com

  9. Emma says:
    June 6, 2011 at 5:45 am

    This lousy story in the Guardian is claiming the protesters at Majd al-Shamsa threw molotov cocktails at the poor troops! On the “Syrian border with Israel.” No mention of the illegal occupation of the Golan Heights by the Israeli military. The protests were organized by the Syrian regime, propagandizes the Guardian.

    link to guardian.co.uk

    • justicewillprevail says:
      June 6, 2011 at 9:21 am

      This is the line the Israeli peddlers of propaganda were promoting. Deadly molotov cocktails eh? Really? so deadly that no-one else saw them. Must be those stealth cocktails that the IDF are so terrified of. Shoot to kill is the policy, so-called justification comes afterwards and is always so preposterous that Glenn Beck is about the only one who swallows it. Israel is good at murder and rubbish at lying.

  10. Bumblebye says:
    June 6, 2011 at 9:37 am

    Statement from Bassem Tammimi at the military court persecuting him for organizing peaceful resistance to Occupation:
    link to 972mag.com
    Powerful.

  11. wondering jew says:
    June 6, 2011 at 9:53 am

    A number of comments:

    1. The use of lethal means to stop unarmed civilians when Israel is equipped with nonlethal means to stop them puts the deaths in the category of avoidable and therefore seems to indicate a political decision to kill rather than to not kill.

    2. I do not accept the annexation of the Golan and thus the “border” that these “protestors” are crossing is not a border, but rather a cease fire line. It is a cease fire line that was negotiated after the bloody 1973 Yom Kippur War and has existed for over 37 years. A cease fire line is less “holy” than a border, but violations of cease fire lines are not a game or if a game, then certainly a dangerous game.

    3. I have not studied the maps from 1920 or 1948, but unlike the offer made by Ehud Barak to Yasir Arafat at Camp David in 2000 (which is generally recognized as a nongenerous offer), the offer made by Barak a few months earlier to Hafez el Assad, father of the current ruler of Syria, was generally considered to be a fair offer and was rejected by Assad Senior because he was not interested in peace. Whether Barak’s successors, Sharon, Olmert and Netanyahu were willing to repeat Barak’s offer is certainly open to question, but to pretend that no Israeli leader ever offered to resolve the occupation of the Golan is patently false.

    4. There’s no question that Assad junior is under pressure and is using these “protestors” to divert attention from the pressure that he is under.

    • Woody Tanaka says:
      June 6, 2011 at 1:43 pm

      “the offer made by Barak a few months earlier to Hafez el Assad, father of the current ruler of Syria, was generally considered to be a fair offer…”

      It wasn’t a return to the 1967 lines, and it permitted Israel to control the water resources. Not so fair.

    • Avi says:
      June 6, 2011 at 2:59 pm

      3. I have not studied the maps from 1920 or 1948, but unlike the offer made by Ehud Barak to Yasir Arafat at Camp David in 2000 (which is generally recognized as a nongenerous offer), the offer made by Barak a few months earlier to Hafez el Assad, father of the current ruler of Syria, was generally considered to be a fair offer and was rejected by Assad Senior because he was not interested in peace. Whether Barak’s successors, Sharon, Olmert and Netanyahu were willing to repeat Barak’s offer is certainly open to question, but to pretend that no Israeli leader ever offered to resolve the occupation of the Golan is patently false.

      What you wrote is, in fact, false. Your claim is false and is not based on any facts whatsoever.

      Israel never offered to withdraw from the occupied Golan in exchange for peace with Syria. Certainly not to the extent that Israel would return the water sources which it has been abusing for 40 years. Much like the colonies of the West Bank — which Israel and many Israelis consider to be legitimate facts on the ground — Israel refuses to evacuate and dismantle the colonies in the occupied Golan Heights.

      To pretend otherwise is to fabricate the historical record. And maps from the 1920s are irrelevant. Perhaps what you need to do is get yourself an Am Im Ha-Golan sticker.

      Assad wasn’t interested in peace.

      Sure. He was a rejectionist bastard like the Palestinians. Right.

      Nice Hasbara job, opening with the truth, only to tack on lies and propaganda toward the end.

      4. There’s no question that Assad junior is under pressure and is using these “protestors” to divert attention from the pressure that he is under.

      Sure. There is no question because ‘analysts’ on Israel TV told you so. Aren’t you the bright one.

      • wondering jew says:
        June 6, 2011 at 5:24 pm

        Avi- Leaving aside your snark vis a vis point #4, your comments regarding the Barak proposal of 2000 are certainly unknown to most of the people who read this blog and it would be of use if you could refer us/them to some link that delineates what Israel wished to keep and what Syria demanded they return.

  12. talknic says:
    June 7, 2011 at 8:49 am

    wondering jew

    Why maps from irrelevant periods?

    According to the Provisional Israeli Government, ( which, according to the Declaration, was the only legitimate government Israel has ever had), on May 15th 1948 Israel was “…proclaimed as an independent republic within frontiers approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its Resolution of November 29, 1947….”

    It’s the only map you need. Israel has never legally acquired or legally annexed any territory to it’s actual declared, recognized and confirmed, legal, sovereign extent (follow the links to the sources)

    According to Customary International Law and under UNSC Res 242 Israel is obliged to get the hell outta sovereign Syrian territory. (As Israel did under the Egypt / Israeli Peace Agreement, where Israel agreed to FIRST withdraw BEFORE peaceful relations resumed).

    It’s simple…..Get the hell out of other folks territory, then expect peace. Contrary to the bullsh*te we hear from the schmucks who attempt to justify Israel’s illegal activities, that’s the way it works. Quite simple actually.