Today I have gotten countless signs that at last the mood has changed, the American mood. That Israel miscalculated tragically, that American opinion is changing at last. The front page of today's Times, with 5 columns given to a horrifying photo– and the lead headline saying the Arab world is angry. A story about a friend who sat shiva for Israel on the last night of Hanukkah. Another friend whose mother has at last admitted doubts. Steve Clemons turns his blog over today to Mustafa Barghouti, for a post on Palestine's "Guernica."
Even while image after image of dead and mutilated women and
children flash across our televisions, Israel brazenly claims that
their munitions expertly struck only military installations. We know
this to be false as many other civilian sites have been hit by
airstrikes including a hospital and mosque.
In the most densely populated area on the planet, tons upon tons of
explosives have been dropped. The first estimates of injured are in the
thousands. Israel will claim that these are merely 'collateral damage'
or accidental deaths. The sheer ridiculousness and inhumanity of such a
claim should sicken the world community.
It's happening. America is finally turning. I said that it was high noon for the Israel lobby nearly 3 years ago when Walt and Mearsheimer came out, and I was wrong. It was just the dawn. Now comes the awakening. Post-Iraq Americans will get to decide: Is this the way for a country to handle a minority, destroying 350 of them in a heartbeat?
