Well those pesky Israelis are at it again! Can't stand to have any negative press, so what do they do? Well, most of us already know - they intimidate, slur, lie and pressure anyone speaking out against their disgusting behaviour with respect to those they occupy.
Earlier this month, Breaking the Silence issued a report put together from soldiers' testimonies during the brutal assault on Gaza. It recieved a little attention here in North America, well it at least was put up on some mainstream news sources, of course always with the 'unconfirmed' add on. Now, of course Israel being the self conscious monster she is, hating when her crimes are aired, has sent her Ambassador to Holland to see the country's foreign minister to ask that any and all funding of the group be stopped!
Well, of course when Israel says 'jump' these toadies do what they say!!
Israel pushes Dutch to freeze funds for group exposing 'IDF crimes in Gaza'
According to sources familiar with the situation, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen - considered one of Israel's staunchest supporters in the European Union - did not know that the embassy in Tel Aviv was funding Breaking the Silence.
Well, read it and weep - the mantra remains the same: YOU are not allowed to criticise us!! We are beyond the Law - we MAKE it and YOU follow it.
In a way, all this gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair by the Israeli administrations speaks greater volumes about their clear guilt. Rest assured, the world is watching, the world does know, even if her 'leaders' are jumping like toads on hot coals to accomodate the spoilt brat called Israel.
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Hedy Epstein Interview: When Remembering isn't Enough
In light of a few other events, I thought I'd post this up. Hedy is a brave and honourable woman - a rare bird and hero. The fanatic who assaulted this woman for her beliefs and her will to stand up to evil does more harm to his precious zionist Israel than Hedy could ever do.
I think they are getting desperate, which is of course a double edged sword. While is exposes the ugliest side of the extremists on both sides of the issue of the Occupation, a desperate animal, one backed into a corner can be a very dangerous one. Things are certainly heating up, nearing the boiling point. The current situation cannot maintain itself for much longer - all Hell will break loose and it won't be won by a simple PR barrage.
Kudos to the Free Gaza Movement, and best of luck to Hedy on her return in August!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Canada Bans Galloway
It seems that my country is slipping faster and faster into the realm of Zionist controlled fascism. I certainly knew of the bias, and have been writing about it and commenting for years now. Still, I am surprised that our government would ban an elected MP, from entering Canada solely because the Jewish Defence League and her partners in suppression B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress told them too. That of course, speaks volumes in and of itself.
Canada sadly is complicit in the current crimes against Humanity occuring in besieged Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. Our leaders, lacking anything resembling a spine, have caved to the Lobby's pressures.
Truly I am disgusted. I will write my reps, but of course I am old enough to know that a response will NOT be forthcoming, as my own MP is firmly in thier pocket. So much so that he darn near ran away from me during the last campaign (his wife certainly pulled a vapourisation act, while his sons stood a few meters away looking embarrassed and giggling).
Here's an interview, of course it's NOT Canadian:
Now, considering the Jewish Defence League itself has been branded a 'terrorist' organisation in the past is this not rather ironic?
Why are we listening to this Mr. Weinstein's threats? Pray tell what does Hitler and the bloody Holocaust have to do with the slaughter in Gaza? The slaughter in Lebanon? The sabre rattling against Iran? Outside of being a diversion, to evoke some kind of misplaced sympathy for Israel and to stop all REAL debate, there is NO reason to mention it. It's old, it's tired and it's really HOLLOW.
I would much prefer if Mr. Weinstein packed his bloody bags and made aliyah already. We don't need him here.
Canada sadly is complicit in the current crimes against Humanity occuring in besieged Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. Our leaders, lacking anything resembling a spine, have caved to the Lobby's pressures.
Truly I am disgusted. I will write my reps, but of course I am old enough to know that a response will NOT be forthcoming, as my own MP is firmly in thier pocket. So much so that he darn near ran away from me during the last campaign (his wife certainly pulled a vapourisation act, while his sons stood a few meters away looking embarrassed and giggling).
Here's an interview, of course it's NOT Canadian:
Now, considering the Jewish Defence League itself has been branded a 'terrorist' organisation in the past is this not rather ironic?
Why are we listening to this Mr. Weinstein's threats? Pray tell what does Hitler and the bloody Holocaust have to do with the slaughter in Gaza? The slaughter in Lebanon? The sabre rattling against Iran? Outside of being a diversion, to evoke some kind of misplaced sympathy for Israel and to stop all REAL debate, there is NO reason to mention it. It's old, it's tired and it's really HOLLOW.
I would much prefer if Mr. Weinstein packed his bloody bags and made aliyah already. We don't need him here.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Horray for the Law!!
Well, it's been a while.
And things are, of course, no different. The wagon is still careening off the cliff and no one seems to have packed parachutes.
I finally decided to meander through the many posts that didn't make it.
I found this one and thought of the soldiers now coming forward and telling of the atrocities they did commit while invading and occupying Gaza for a month. They, themselves are coming forth - and now it's in the news, now it's being listened to - it sure didn't when it was happening.
Is this thier out? Is this the 'legal' way to conclude, given the outright testimonies of both solider and civilian, that war crimes were never committed?
It could well be.
Hence, I'm throwing this up out of the memory hole:
(Yes it's the full piece - because this is exactly the kind of stuff that gets flushed).
Consent and Advice
On the first day of Operation Cast Lead, the air force bombed the graduation ceremony of a police course, killing dozens of policemen. Months earlier, an operational and legal controversy was already swirling around the planned attack. According to a military source who was involved in the planning, bombing the site of the ceremony was authorized with no difficulty,but questions were raised about the intent to strike at the graduates of the course. Military Intelligence, convinced the attack was justified, pressed for its implementation. Representatives of the international law division (ILD) in the Military Advocate General's Office at first objected, fearing a possible violation of international law.
"This was a very large group of people who at that moment were ostensibly civilians and the next day would become legitimate military targets," says an operational source. "You take these dozens of policemen and put them in your gunsights. That certainly came up in all the discussions and soul-searching."
Over the course of several months, the operational echelons, particularly Military Intelligence, kept up the pressure on the army's legal staff. In the end, ILD authorized the air strike as it was carried out. The "incrimination" of the policemen (that is, justifying an attack on them) was based on their categorization as a resistance force in the event of an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip; not on information about any of them as individuals.
"Underlying our rationale was the way Hamas used the security forces," says a senior ILD figure. "Actually, one can look at the totality as the equivalent of the enemy's armed force, so they were not perceived as police. In our eyes, all the armed forces of Hamas are the equivalent of the army, just as in the face of the enemy's army every soldier is a legitimate target."
Experts in international law term the justification for the bombing raid problematic. "In a properly run state, attacking policemen as though they are soldiers is prohibited," says Prof. Yuval Shany, who teaches public international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "When we are dealing with a government like Hamas, in which the boundaries between the different forces are not clear, the police force may have a combat role. But if you follow that line, there is not much that differentiates them from [Israeli] reservists or even from 16-year-olds who will be drafted in two years. You have to draw the line and restrict attacks to those in active service. This is not the only case in which the IDF offered a flexible interpretation of the law. The army attacked the infrastructure of the Hamas government and hit ministries. But unless you can show that there was military equipment in those offices, an attack on structures that do not serve a military purpose is a violation of the rules of war. The buildings are civilian sites and must not be attacked."
However, after entertaining initial doubts, ILD authorized the bombing of Hamas governmental targets. "As we understand it," says a senior figure in ILD, "the way Hamas operates is to use the entire governmental infrastructure for the organization's terrorist purposes, so that the distinctions are a bit different. We adjust the targets to the case of a terrorist regime."
Civilian on the roof
The ILD is based in a neglected building in the Kirya, the defense establishment compound in Tel Aviv. The unit consists of about 20 officers who hold a legal education. The department has existed in its present form and name since the start of the 1990s. Until then the unit was known as the International Law Branch, or 'Debil' in the Hebrew acronym, a word that means imbecile, until a senior officer in the unit demanded a change of name.
ILD takes pride in the influence its officers exerted on the character of the war in Gaza. For example, the unit induced the IDF to warn people before their homes were bombed by means of a procedure known as 'knock on the roof'; echoing the 'knock on the door campaign' in Israel in which funds are raised to fight cancer; in which munitions are fired harmlessly at roof corners. Sources in the unit say they tried to draw lessons from the warnings that were given in the Second Lebanon War. According to human rights organizations, the civilians in Lebanon were not told which places were safe and the roads on which they fled were bombed and became death traps. Once a warning is issued, say senior ILD officers, a strike against civilians who are bodily defending a structure can be validated as though they were combatants. Other legal experts dispute this. Among them is Colonel (res.) Daniel Reisner, who headed ILD until about five years ago. In his view, as he told Haaretz after Operation Cast Lead, such civilians retain their civilian status. I don't think you can incriminate someone who is standing on a roof just because he is there," Reisner said. "Possibly the attack on him will be considered legitimate -collateral damage," but he will not be a target."
A senior ILD figure explains: "The people who go into a house despite a warning do not have to be taken into account in terms of injury to civilians, because they are voluntary human shields. From the legal point of view, I do not have to show consideration for them. In the case of people who return to their home in order to protect it, they are taking part in the fighting."
What about a civilian who positions himself in front of a tank?
"If someone stands in front of a tank in order to block its progress, he is participating in warfare." But he says that in practice, the IDF does not attack civilians in such cases.
ILD's permissive posture comes as no surprise to jurists who monitor the unit's legal opinions. According to one of them, the unit is considered -more militant than any other legal body in Israel, and is ready to adopt the most flexible interpretations of the law in order to justify IDF operations." Pressure from operational elements and an understanding of their considerations on the part of ILD appear to affect the unit's legal opinions. "The army knows what it wants. For the operational echelon things are very clear," says an IDF operational source. "When the legal advisers thought something was objectionable or problematic, they definitely came under pressure to produce a positive bottom line."
"Our goal is not to fetter the army, but to give it the tools to win in a lawful manner," says an ILD officer. Reisner, the unit's former commander, says he understands why it has acquired a reputation for permissiveness: "We defended policy that is on the edge: the "neighbor procedure" [making a neighbor knock on the door of a potentially dangerous house], house demolitions, deportation, targeted assassination; we defended all the magic formulas for dealing with terrorism. In that sense, ILD is a body that restrains action, but does not stop it. The army says, "Here is a magic formula, is it within the bounds of what is possible? To which I will reply, I am ready to try to defend it, but I am not sure I will succeed. If it's white I will allow it, if it's black I will prohibit it, but in cases of gray I will be part of the dilemma: I do not stop at gray."
The dilemma of the gray areas and ILD's attempts to discover untapped potential in international law may perhaps explain the unit's great enthusiasm for providing legal advice to the army and the glint in advisers' eyes when certain terms roll off their tongue: 'proportional equilibrium,' 'legitimate military target,' 'illegal combatants.' 'What we are seeing now is a revision of international law,' Reisner says. 'If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it. The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries. If the same process occurred in private law, the legal speed limit would be 115 kilometers an hour and we would pay income tax of 4 percent. So there is no connection between the question 'Will it be sanctioned?' and the act's legality. After we bombed the reactor in Iraq, the Security Council condemned Israel and claimed the attack was a violation of international law. The atmosphere was that Israel had committed a crime. Today everyone says it was preventive self-defense. International law progresses through violations. We invented the targeted assassination thesis and we had to push it. At first there were protrusions that made it hard to insert easily into the legal moulds. Eight years later it is in the center of the bounds of legitimacy."
Did the attacks of September 11 influence your legal situation?
"Absolutely. When we started to define the confrontation with the Palestinians as an armed confrontation, it was a dramatic switch, and we started to defend that position before the Supreme Court. In April 2001 I met the American envoy George Mitchell and explained that above a certain level, fighting terrorism is armed combat and not law enforcement. His committee [which examined the circumstances of the confrontation in the territories] rejected that approach. Its report called on the Israeli government to abandon the armed confrontation definition and revert to the concept of law enforcement. It took four months and four planes to change the opinion of the United States, and had it not been for those four planes I am not sure we would have been able to develop the thesis of the war against terrorism on the present scale."
Individual approach
One of the core reasons for ILD's permissive approach may be its desire to preserve a modicum of relevance and influence in periods when the atmosphere in the General Staff and the territorial commands is particularly militant. A former senior commander notes that in the period when Daniel Reisner; an articulate, charismatic officer; headed the unit, its staff, and above all Reisner himself, acquired a respected status within the IDF officer corps. By the same token, the influence of the current staff, under the command of Colonel Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, is not self-evident. Sources involved in the work of Southern Command note that the commanding general, Yoav Gallant, is quite suspicious of the advisers and is known as a 'wild man,' a 'cowboy' or a 'sheriff' in terms of the importance; meaning lack of importance; he attaches to legal advice. The legal adviser to Southern Command was not invited to the situation appraisal ahead of the Gaza offensive and was excluded from smaller planning forums. Yet it was actually Operation Cast Lead that led to something of an improvement in relations between ILD and Gallant.
****
Ahh well, read it and weep. This is their out.
Twist and shout!
And things are, of course, no different. The wagon is still careening off the cliff and no one seems to have packed parachutes.
I finally decided to meander through the many posts that didn't make it.
I found this one and thought of the soldiers now coming forward and telling of the atrocities they did commit while invading and occupying Gaza for a month. They, themselves are coming forth - and now it's in the news, now it's being listened to - it sure didn't when it was happening.
Is this thier out? Is this the 'legal' way to conclude, given the outright testimonies of both solider and civilian, that war crimes were never committed?
It could well be.
Hence, I'm throwing this up out of the memory hole:
(Yes it's the full piece - because this is exactly the kind of stuff that gets flushed).
Consent and Advice
On the first day of Operation Cast Lead, the air force bombed the graduation ceremony of a police course, killing dozens of policemen. Months earlier, an operational and legal controversy was already swirling around the planned attack. According to a military source who was involved in the planning, bombing the site of the ceremony was authorized with no difficulty,but questions were raised about the intent to strike at the graduates of the course. Military Intelligence, convinced the attack was justified, pressed for its implementation. Representatives of the international law division (ILD) in the Military Advocate General's Office at first objected, fearing a possible violation of international law.
"This was a very large group of people who at that moment were ostensibly civilians and the next day would become legitimate military targets," says an operational source. "You take these dozens of policemen and put them in your gunsights. That certainly came up in all the discussions and soul-searching."
Over the course of several months, the operational echelons, particularly Military Intelligence, kept up the pressure on the army's legal staff. In the end, ILD authorized the air strike as it was carried out. The "incrimination" of the policemen (that is, justifying an attack on them) was based on their categorization as a resistance force in the event of an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip; not on information about any of them as individuals.
"Underlying our rationale was the way Hamas used the security forces," says a senior ILD figure. "Actually, one can look at the totality as the equivalent of the enemy's armed force, so they were not perceived as police. In our eyes, all the armed forces of Hamas are the equivalent of the army, just as in the face of the enemy's army every soldier is a legitimate target."
Experts in international law term the justification for the bombing raid problematic. "In a properly run state, attacking policemen as though they are soldiers is prohibited," says Prof. Yuval Shany, who teaches public international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "When we are dealing with a government like Hamas, in which the boundaries between the different forces are not clear, the police force may have a combat role. But if you follow that line, there is not much that differentiates them from [Israeli] reservists or even from 16-year-olds who will be drafted in two years. You have to draw the line and restrict attacks to those in active service. This is not the only case in which the IDF offered a flexible interpretation of the law. The army attacked the infrastructure of the Hamas government and hit ministries. But unless you can show that there was military equipment in those offices, an attack on structures that do not serve a military purpose is a violation of the rules of war. The buildings are civilian sites and must not be attacked."
However, after entertaining initial doubts, ILD authorized the bombing of Hamas governmental targets. "As we understand it," says a senior figure in ILD, "the way Hamas operates is to use the entire governmental infrastructure for the organization's terrorist purposes, so that the distinctions are a bit different. We adjust the targets to the case of a terrorist regime."
Civilian on the roof
The ILD is based in a neglected building in the Kirya, the defense establishment compound in Tel Aviv. The unit consists of about 20 officers who hold a legal education. The department has existed in its present form and name since the start of the 1990s. Until then the unit was known as the International Law Branch, or 'Debil' in the Hebrew acronym, a word that means imbecile, until a senior officer in the unit demanded a change of name.
ILD takes pride in the influence its officers exerted on the character of the war in Gaza. For example, the unit induced the IDF to warn people before their homes were bombed by means of a procedure known as 'knock on the roof'; echoing the 'knock on the door campaign' in Israel in which funds are raised to fight cancer; in which munitions are fired harmlessly at roof corners. Sources in the unit say they tried to draw lessons from the warnings that were given in the Second Lebanon War. According to human rights organizations, the civilians in Lebanon were not told which places were safe and the roads on which they fled were bombed and became death traps. Once a warning is issued, say senior ILD officers, a strike against civilians who are bodily defending a structure can be validated as though they were combatants. Other legal experts dispute this. Among them is Colonel (res.) Daniel Reisner, who headed ILD until about five years ago. In his view, as he told Haaretz after Operation Cast Lead, such civilians retain their civilian status. I don't think you can incriminate someone who is standing on a roof just because he is there," Reisner said. "Possibly the attack on him will be considered legitimate -collateral damage," but he will not be a target."
A senior ILD figure explains: "The people who go into a house despite a warning do not have to be taken into account in terms of injury to civilians, because they are voluntary human shields. From the legal point of view, I do not have to show consideration for them. In the case of people who return to their home in order to protect it, they are taking part in the fighting."
What about a civilian who positions himself in front of a tank?
"If someone stands in front of a tank in order to block its progress, he is participating in warfare." But he says that in practice, the IDF does not attack civilians in such cases.
ILD's permissive posture comes as no surprise to jurists who monitor the unit's legal opinions. According to one of them, the unit is considered -more militant than any other legal body in Israel, and is ready to adopt the most flexible interpretations of the law in order to justify IDF operations." Pressure from operational elements and an understanding of their considerations on the part of ILD appear to affect the unit's legal opinions. "The army knows what it wants. For the operational echelon things are very clear," says an IDF operational source. "When the legal advisers thought something was objectionable or problematic, they definitely came under pressure to produce a positive bottom line."
"Our goal is not to fetter the army, but to give it the tools to win in a lawful manner," says an ILD officer. Reisner, the unit's former commander, says he understands why it has acquired a reputation for permissiveness: "We defended policy that is on the edge: the "neighbor procedure" [making a neighbor knock on the door of a potentially dangerous house], house demolitions, deportation, targeted assassination; we defended all the magic formulas for dealing with terrorism. In that sense, ILD is a body that restrains action, but does not stop it. The army says, "Here is a magic formula, is it within the bounds of what is possible? To which I will reply, I am ready to try to defend it, but I am not sure I will succeed. If it's white I will allow it, if it's black I will prohibit it, but in cases of gray I will be part of the dilemma: I do not stop at gray."
The dilemma of the gray areas and ILD's attempts to discover untapped potential in international law may perhaps explain the unit's great enthusiasm for providing legal advice to the army and the glint in advisers' eyes when certain terms roll off their tongue: 'proportional equilibrium,' 'legitimate military target,' 'illegal combatants.' 'What we are seeing now is a revision of international law,' Reisner says. 'If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it. The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries. If the same process occurred in private law, the legal speed limit would be 115 kilometers an hour and we would pay income tax of 4 percent. So there is no connection between the question 'Will it be sanctioned?' and the act's legality. After we bombed the reactor in Iraq, the Security Council condemned Israel and claimed the attack was a violation of international law. The atmosphere was that Israel had committed a crime. Today everyone says it was preventive self-defense. International law progresses through violations. We invented the targeted assassination thesis and we had to push it. At first there were protrusions that made it hard to insert easily into the legal moulds. Eight years later it is in the center of the bounds of legitimacy."
Did the attacks of September 11 influence your legal situation?
"Absolutely. When we started to define the confrontation with the Palestinians as an armed confrontation, it was a dramatic switch, and we started to defend that position before the Supreme Court. In April 2001 I met the American envoy George Mitchell and explained that above a certain level, fighting terrorism is armed combat and not law enforcement. His committee [which examined the circumstances of the confrontation in the territories] rejected that approach. Its report called on the Israeli government to abandon the armed confrontation definition and revert to the concept of law enforcement. It took four months and four planes to change the opinion of the United States, and had it not been for those four planes I am not sure we would have been able to develop the thesis of the war against terrorism on the present scale."
Individual approach
One of the core reasons for ILD's permissive approach may be its desire to preserve a modicum of relevance and influence in periods when the atmosphere in the General Staff and the territorial commands is particularly militant. A former senior commander notes that in the period when Daniel Reisner; an articulate, charismatic officer; headed the unit, its staff, and above all Reisner himself, acquired a respected status within the IDF officer corps. By the same token, the influence of the current staff, under the command of Colonel Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, is not self-evident. Sources involved in the work of Southern Command note that the commanding general, Yoav Gallant, is quite suspicious of the advisers and is known as a 'wild man,' a 'cowboy' or a 'sheriff' in terms of the importance; meaning lack of importance; he attaches to legal advice. The legal adviser to Southern Command was not invited to the situation appraisal ahead of the Gaza offensive and was excluded from smaller planning forums. Yet it was actually Operation Cast Lead that led to something of an improvement in relations between ILD and Gallant.
****
Ahh well, read it and weep. This is their out.
Twist and shout!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
The Shit hits the Walls
Amira Hass has written a disturbing piece in Haaretz. None of the 'news' in it is of course, new. I recall seeing a similar scene in John Pilger's Palestine is Still the Issue, where he is visiting a recently attacked cultural building in Palestine, where Israeli troops had smeared shit everywhere.
Aside from the horror of being bombed into oblivion, watching as family members are shot, dismembered and torn to pieces, this may seem small, yet it adds another dimension to some of the depravity rampant within the troops (can we call them that?) of the Israeli Defence Forces.
Pots of urine, feces on the Walls, how IDF troops vandalised Gaza Homes
In the midst of all of this were plastic bottles of urine and many closed bags - in some houses, olive-colored ones - of excrement. People assumed that the commanders stayed there. There are houses where excrement was smeared on the walls, or where dry piles of it were found in corners. In many cases, the smells indicated that soldiers had urinated on piles of clothing or inside a washing machine. In all the houses the toilets were overflowing and clogged, and there was filth all around. When the Abu Eidas returned to house No. 5 in Jabalya, they discovered pots of urine and excrement in the refrigerator.
There is something wrong with anyone who would do this. Seriously mentally wrong. Of course we are talking about the 'most moral army in the world' whatever that means, so I guess it can all be forgiven. And of course - this is NOT reported here in North America, as spinning this would be just too much work. Reading the comments section on this story opens eyes even further, as I find reading comments on most news sites does. How anyone could defend such disgusting practice is beyond me. The soldiers themselves should be forced back and made to clean it up, without gloves and using their own toothbrushes.
And one other thing - what it is with the fascination with feces? Really?
**
Edited to add: I had a chat with my dear old Dad on this. He fought in the second World War, he saw many horrid things. I asked him whether or not when they took over areas of Germany, he saw any soldiers doing these sorts of things in the homes of these peoples, or whether he heard of anything of the sort. His emphatic answer was no. For some idea of what my father felt of allied behaviour, he has always condemned the Brits and the Americans for wanton bombing runs serving no purpose other than to terrorise the local populace. He has no problem being critical of the actions of the allies, and he was a career military man.
So where does this sort of behaviour come from?
Aside from the horror of being bombed into oblivion, watching as family members are shot, dismembered and torn to pieces, this may seem small, yet it adds another dimension to some of the depravity rampant within the troops (can we call them that?) of the Israeli Defence Forces.
Pots of urine, feces on the Walls, how IDF troops vandalised Gaza Homes
In the midst of all of this were plastic bottles of urine and many closed bags - in some houses, olive-colored ones - of excrement. People assumed that the commanders stayed there. There are houses where excrement was smeared on the walls, or where dry piles of it were found in corners. In many cases, the smells indicated that soldiers had urinated on piles of clothing or inside a washing machine. In all the houses the toilets were overflowing and clogged, and there was filth all around. When the Abu Eidas returned to house No. 5 in Jabalya, they discovered pots of urine and excrement in the refrigerator.
There is something wrong with anyone who would do this. Seriously mentally wrong. Of course we are talking about the 'most moral army in the world' whatever that means, so I guess it can all be forgiven. And of course - this is NOT reported here in North America, as spinning this would be just too much work. Reading the comments section on this story opens eyes even further, as I find reading comments on most news sites does. How anyone could defend such disgusting practice is beyond me. The soldiers themselves should be forced back and made to clean it up, without gloves and using their own toothbrushes.
And one other thing - what it is with the fascination with feces? Really?
**
Edited to add: I had a chat with my dear old Dad on this. He fought in the second World War, he saw many horrid things. I asked him whether or not when they took over areas of Germany, he saw any soldiers doing these sorts of things in the homes of these peoples, or whether he heard of anything of the sort. His emphatic answer was no. For some idea of what my father felt of allied behaviour, he has always condemned the Brits and the Americans for wanton bombing runs serving no purpose other than to terrorise the local populace. He has no problem being critical of the actions of the allies, and he was a career military man.
So where does this sort of behaviour come from?
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Norman Finkelstein at U of T Mississauga
This is Part 1 of Norman's lecture at the University of Toronto, Mississauga campus.
You can listen to the rest here
Thanks Norman!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Who is Lee Kaplan?
I saw this on Rivero's Whatreallyhappened site, followed the link and was shocked, truly shocked.
Stop the ISM
Needless to say it gives Muslims Against Sharia a run for their money!!
These guys offer a $25,000 reward to the locations of humanitarian workers with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Gaza - so the IDF can KILL them!! One of the men on their 'hit' list is the Italian, VITTORIO ARRIGONI, who is also involved in the Free Gaza group.
So, I wondered - this Kaplan fellow - who is he? Could he be just some complete and utter freak, with little influence? Seems not:
Kaplan writes for Front Page Magazine, which is certainly not considered to be out in the 'fringes'. No, it's considered a respectable Jewish Rag. From the link above, you can see Mr. Kaplan's bio and enjoy the fact that not only does this man order 'hits' on folks, but he also writes for the Israeli National News, and hold on now.... The Canada Free Press!! That's right folks. I had thought the name sounded familiar.
Here's the bio from the site (in case you can't bring yourself to click on FPM:
Lee Kaplan
Lee Kaplan is an undercover investigative journalist and a contributor to Front Page Magazine. He is also a regular columnist for the Israel National News and Canada Free Press and a senior intelligence analyst and communications director for the Northeast Intelligence Network. He heads the organizations Defending America for Knowledge and Action (DAFKA) and Stop the ISM. He has been interviewed on over one hundred nationally and internationally syndicated radio shows and been a guest on Fox Cable TV’s Dayside with Linda Vester and Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor. He is a guest every Tuesday on the Jim Kirkwood Show on Utah's K-Talk Radio am630. He is currently working on a book about America's colleges in the War on Terror and the International Solidarity Movement.
Okay - isn't this against the law? I would imagine that putting up a reward for the murder of someone is illegal? Perhaps not in some lands, but certainly it must be in the US and Canada? Where is the ADL in all of this? Why aren't the screaming from the rooftops? How is this different than the 'price on Rushdie's head'? Answer: it isn't.
So, this man is interviewed in the MAINSTREAM MEDIA! If this doesn't show the bias of these talking heads and their puppet masters I don't know what does.
Shame on Canada Free Press to ever allow this instigator air time - without at least letting readers know from what radical stance this man is advocating.
Here's just a little taste of what you can find at this site operated by Mr. Kaplan (shame on him):
ALERT THE IDF MILITARY TO TARGET ISM
Number to call if you can pinpoint the locations of Hamas with their ISM members with them. From the US call 011-972-2-5839749. From other countries drop the 011. Help us neutralize the ISM that is now definitely a part of Hamas since the war began.
Hmmm since two can play at the 'victim' game why not alert the CHRC to this dude? Let's get this ALL out in the air. Mind you, I don't want him silenced - in fact I'd like everyone to know what kind of disgusting behaviour this Lee Kaplan is involved in - that way when the sleeping public sees him they know what he REALLY is.
And he ain't an Honest Broker.
Stop the ISM
Needless to say it gives Muslims Against Sharia a run for their money!!
These guys offer a $25,000 reward to the locations of humanitarian workers with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Gaza - so the IDF can KILL them!! One of the men on their 'hit' list is the Italian, VITTORIO ARRIGONI, who is also involved in the Free Gaza group.
So, I wondered - this Kaplan fellow - who is he? Could he be just some complete and utter freak, with little influence? Seems not:
Kaplan writes for Front Page Magazine, which is certainly not considered to be out in the 'fringes'. No, it's considered a respectable Jewish Rag. From the link above, you can see Mr. Kaplan's bio and enjoy the fact that not only does this man order 'hits' on folks, but he also writes for the Israeli National News, and hold on now.... The Canada Free Press!! That's right folks. I had thought the name sounded familiar.
Here's the bio from the site (in case you can't bring yourself to click on FPM:
Lee Kaplan
Lee Kaplan is an undercover investigative journalist and a contributor to Front Page Magazine. He is also a regular columnist for the Israel National News and Canada Free Press and a senior intelligence analyst and communications director for the Northeast Intelligence Network. He heads the organizations Defending America for Knowledge and Action (DAFKA) and Stop the ISM. He has been interviewed on over one hundred nationally and internationally syndicated radio shows and been a guest on Fox Cable TV’s Dayside with Linda Vester and Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor. He is a guest every Tuesday on the Jim Kirkwood Show on Utah's K-Talk Radio am630. He is currently working on a book about America's colleges in the War on Terror and the International Solidarity Movement.
Okay - isn't this against the law? I would imagine that putting up a reward for the murder of someone is illegal? Perhaps not in some lands, but certainly it must be in the US and Canada? Where is the ADL in all of this? Why aren't the screaming from the rooftops? How is this different than the 'price on Rushdie's head'? Answer: it isn't.
So, this man is interviewed in the MAINSTREAM MEDIA! If this doesn't show the bias of these talking heads and their puppet masters I don't know what does.
Shame on Canada Free Press to ever allow this instigator air time - without at least letting readers know from what radical stance this man is advocating.
Here's just a little taste of what you can find at this site operated by Mr. Kaplan (shame on him):
ALERT THE IDF MILITARY TO TARGET ISM
Number to call if you can pinpoint the locations of Hamas with their ISM members with them. From the US call 011-972-2-5839749. From other countries drop the 011. Help us neutralize the ISM that is now definitely a part of Hamas since the war began.
Hmmm since two can play at the 'victim' game why not alert the CHRC to this dude? Let's get this ALL out in the air. Mind you, I don't want him silenced - in fact I'd like everyone to know what kind of disgusting behaviour this Lee Kaplan is involved in - that way when the sleeping public sees him they know what he REALLY is.
And he ain't an Honest Broker.
Media Bias and the Israeli Slaughter
I've been hanging about on the CBC forums, which for the most part until yesterday were not too bad. They allowed comments from all sides of the issue and Israel was being taken to task for her atrocious behaviour in the last 20 odd days.
Something happened yesterday, around lunchtime. First I couldn't access the site - it was very slow. After that it seemed only comments which extolled Israel's virtues were allowed. The number of posts supporting the inhumane actions on the part of the Israeli admin went through the roof. None of my submitted posts were printed. Also, the time lag increased - where before it was usually a few minutes before a rash of new posts appeared, it began to become more like 20 minutes, or 30 minutes before a small number of posts - all supporting the bloodshed and indeed some cheering it on - showed up on screen.
So... I'm thinking there was a 'phonecall' from some 'people' telling the CBC to get back in line and tow the status quo. I wonder - who did the threaten? What did they threaten? We know already the CJC and her ilk want to shut down all protests, all debate and only show the lies supporting Israel's murder spree.
Anyway, I'm going to pen a letter to the editor and ask straight out why this was allowed. I'm not holding my breath for an answer.
Something happened yesterday, around lunchtime. First I couldn't access the site - it was very slow. After that it seemed only comments which extolled Israel's virtues were allowed. The number of posts supporting the inhumane actions on the part of the Israeli admin went through the roof. None of my submitted posts were printed. Also, the time lag increased - where before it was usually a few minutes before a rash of new posts appeared, it began to become more like 20 minutes, or 30 minutes before a small number of posts - all supporting the bloodshed and indeed some cheering it on - showed up on screen.
So... I'm thinking there was a 'phonecall' from some 'people' telling the CBC to get back in line and tow the status quo. I wonder - who did the threaten? What did they threaten? We know already the CJC and her ilk want to shut down all protests, all debate and only show the lies supporting Israel's murder spree.
Anyway, I'm going to pen a letter to the editor and ask straight out why this was allowed. I'm not holding my breath for an answer.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Memory Hole:Gaza residents: IDF troops posing as Hamas men
I just wanted to stick this here as it has been memoryholed:
Gaza residents: IDF troops posing as Hamas men
Amira Hass, Haaretz 11 01 2009
The testimonies of Gaza Strip residents are revealing new details about the Israel Defense Forces' mode of operation there. In the past two days, Beit Lahia residents forced from their homes said soldiers were posing as members of Hamas' armed wing while advancing on the ground.
The daily pauses in bombing allow Gazans to meet with the displaced - most of whom are housed in an UNRWA school - and hear their stories.
Gaza resident S. told Haaretz he heard several people say they saw armed men wearing the uniforms and symbols of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who "called out to each other in Arabic, as if they had caught a collaborator, and then, with the element of surprise, went into the houses."
A Gaza radio station warned that troops posing as locals were driving a vehicle normally used by paramedics. Residents said the radio broadcaster listed the vehicle's license plate number and color.
Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054461.html
****
As one can see by following the above link - the story NO LONGER exists.
Anyway, I found it again via democratic underground, and pasted it here for history's sake.
Gaza residents: IDF troops posing as Hamas men
Amira Hass, Haaretz 11 01 2009
The testimonies of Gaza Strip residents are revealing new details about the Israel Defense Forces' mode of operation there. In the past two days, Beit Lahia residents forced from their homes said soldiers were posing as members of Hamas' armed wing while advancing on the ground.
The daily pauses in bombing allow Gazans to meet with the displaced - most of whom are housed in an UNRWA school - and hear their stories.
Gaza resident S. told Haaretz he heard several people say they saw armed men wearing the uniforms and symbols of the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, who "called out to each other in Arabic, as if they had caught a collaborator, and then, with the element of surprise, went into the houses."
A Gaza radio station warned that troops posing as locals were driving a vehicle normally used by paramedics. Residents said the radio broadcaster listed the vehicle's license plate number and color.
Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054461.html
****
As one can see by following the above link - the story NO LONGER exists.
Anyway, I found it again via democratic underground, and pasted it here for history's sake.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Peace, Propoganda and Promised Land
I know I have this linked already, but I thought I'd embedd it here - if you haven't seen this you should.
Independent Jewish Voices
And thank goodness for them!! It is so important that at this juncture, Jews in the Diaspora speak out against the massacre occuring in Gaza:
Please view the video at this link.
Emails of support are welcome. Let these brave people know they have support.
Please view the video at this link.
Emails of support are welcome. Let these brave people know they have support.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
How much worse can it get?
I'll wager that it will continue to get alot worse.
What is clear now, and should always have been, is that Israel has never intended to truly withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Yes, yes they did pull out all their illegal settlers, nicely paid for by the US taxpayer (and probably Canada's too), but why? Was it an act of altruism? Highly doubtful, as Israel is not known for her altruistic nature. So, why remove them? Oh, because Israel was trying to show her 'good faith'. Nah... I just don't believe it. They moved them out, in my opinion, to keep them out of harms' way when they finally got around to a real invasion.
According to this article, the Israelis have been training for 18 months in a mock up of Gaza City erected in the Israeli desert. Okay, so 18 months huh? That's when they began training. It must have taken some time to construct an entire mock up of the city - let's say another six months, add another six months for planning and for someone to hatch the idea in the first place and we've got, conservatively speaking, two and a half years ago, so sometime in 2006. Likely, the plan was on the drawing table long before that, but those pesky settlers had to be removed first, goodness forbid that these folks accidentally get bombed when the offensive against the 'terrorists' was launched.
In other words, this invasion has been a long time coming and was the plan all along.
The isolation of the Gaza Strip, forlorn and cut off from the remainder of Occupied Palestine, was the intention from day one. Random squatting and establishment of illegal settlements within the Gaza corridor wasn't working as well as the West Bank due to the fact that the coastal zone was already far too densely populated with refugees already tossed from their ancestral homes in what is now the Israeli State.
So, what to do? What option did Israel have to take the lands of Gaza and all her resources, including the natural gas fields off her coast?
An excuse was needed, one in which Israel could portray herself, once again as always, as the eternal victim.
Enter Hamas.
She had to radicalise those in Gaza, divide her from the West Bank in more than just a geographical nature. By controlling all flow of goods and people in and out of the Strip, she essentially turned the area into one large prison camp. The corruption of Palestinian political figures helped to do the rest, no doubt egged along by Israel herself. The election of Hamas was a dream come true for the landgrabbers in the Administration as it allowed for further reduction in economic aid, greater restrictions on borders, and increase in poverty and despair for those unfortunate enough to be stuck there. The tightening of the noose after the 2006 attacks guaranteed a further polarisation within the Palestinian political scene. Divide and Conquer played out crisply.
And finally, the time was ripe. After enduring a siege for over a year and a half, watching as her people were picked off in a slow bleed, a few here and a few there, the population weakened to a breaking point - Israel has moved in for the kill. Propped up globally by her massive public relations teams and her puppet agents in almost all governments of the West, she is free to massacre as she sees fit. In her mind she has done nothing wrong, she is still the victim in perpetuity.
What is clear now, and should always have been, is that Israel has never intended to truly withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Yes, yes they did pull out all their illegal settlers, nicely paid for by the US taxpayer (and probably Canada's too), but why? Was it an act of altruism? Highly doubtful, as Israel is not known for her altruistic nature. So, why remove them? Oh, because Israel was trying to show her 'good faith'. Nah... I just don't believe it. They moved them out, in my opinion, to keep them out of harms' way when they finally got around to a real invasion.
According to this article, the Israelis have been training for 18 months in a mock up of Gaza City erected in the Israeli desert. Okay, so 18 months huh? That's when they began training. It must have taken some time to construct an entire mock up of the city - let's say another six months, add another six months for planning and for someone to hatch the idea in the first place and we've got, conservatively speaking, two and a half years ago, so sometime in 2006. Likely, the plan was on the drawing table long before that, but those pesky settlers had to be removed first, goodness forbid that these folks accidentally get bombed when the offensive against the 'terrorists' was launched.
In other words, this invasion has been a long time coming and was the plan all along.
The isolation of the Gaza Strip, forlorn and cut off from the remainder of Occupied Palestine, was the intention from day one. Random squatting and establishment of illegal settlements within the Gaza corridor wasn't working as well as the West Bank due to the fact that the coastal zone was already far too densely populated with refugees already tossed from their ancestral homes in what is now the Israeli State.
So, what to do? What option did Israel have to take the lands of Gaza and all her resources, including the natural gas fields off her coast?
An excuse was needed, one in which Israel could portray herself, once again as always, as the eternal victim.
Enter Hamas.
She had to radicalise those in Gaza, divide her from the West Bank in more than just a geographical nature. By controlling all flow of goods and people in and out of the Strip, she essentially turned the area into one large prison camp. The corruption of Palestinian political figures helped to do the rest, no doubt egged along by Israel herself. The election of Hamas was a dream come true for the landgrabbers in the Administration as it allowed for further reduction in economic aid, greater restrictions on borders, and increase in poverty and despair for those unfortunate enough to be stuck there. The tightening of the noose after the 2006 attacks guaranteed a further polarisation within the Palestinian political scene. Divide and Conquer played out crisply.
And finally, the time was ripe. After enduring a siege for over a year and a half, watching as her people were picked off in a slow bleed, a few here and a few there, the population weakened to a breaking point - Israel has moved in for the kill. Propped up globally by her massive public relations teams and her puppet agents in almost all governments of the West, she is free to massacre as she sees fit. In her mind she has done nothing wrong, she is still the victim in perpetuity.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Cynthia McKinney on CNN
Way to go Cynthia don't let that x-muchmusic idiot talk over you!
Cythinia was on the Dignity, the boat the Israeli navy rammed and damaged in international waters.
Israel's Genocidal Provocations
I've been pondering just what Israel could be thinking, as it pounds the life out of the people in Gaza. Could this disgusting act be a provocation to ignite the Arab and Muslim world to call for retaliation against her? In many ways, this might be what Israel wants.
Consider this: No matter how Israel and her apologists try to frame this latest operation it is still a PR nightmare. However, one thing it does do is inflame the already negative attitudes held by most of the Arab and Muslim world with respect to Israel herself, thus Israel is setting herself up again as the perpetual victim.
Already we are seeing signs of this, with the typical Israeli response of "Everyone hates us and they're all anti-semites!" Consider that they have been hitting the war drums for an attack against Iran, but the US has shyed away from a full out support of such action. Even the EU isn't hot and bothered enough to agree with Israeli demands that we all get together and nuke Persia. What to do?
Here's the scenario: Bomb the crap out of Gaza, kill as many people and destroy as much infrastucture as possible and when the rest of the world reacts, blame Iran and start the big fight.
This is not as far-fetched as it may seem, right now the leading article in Canada's Globe and Mail world section, shows a 'hard-line' Iranian claiming they will start suicide bombings against Israel. Again the msm lurches forward carrying out the plans of her master. Notice too that throughout all of this NO comments have been allowed at the G&M - typical of their oh-so-biased editorial staff.
We've been down this road before, the lies which led the Americans and thier cohorts into destroying and occupying Iraq, the excuses given for the invasion of Afghanistan, the list is really endless: Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Central and South America, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea ad infinitum.
This latest atrocity - Gaza - has all the hallmarks of provacation. They want someone to say enough is enough, perhaps Hezbolla, for that will give them the excuse to let loose on anyone they perceive as their enemies (read: the REST of the PLANET). And Israel DOES have nukes!
Let us NOT be fooled again, let us not be complacent. Get off your couch, write your representatives, phone them, hound them and spread the word: We won't be fooled again into fighting Israel's wars.
Enough is enough.
Consider this: No matter how Israel and her apologists try to frame this latest operation it is still a PR nightmare. However, one thing it does do is inflame the already negative attitudes held by most of the Arab and Muslim world with respect to Israel herself, thus Israel is setting herself up again as the perpetual victim.
Already we are seeing signs of this, with the typical Israeli response of "Everyone hates us and they're all anti-semites!" Consider that they have been hitting the war drums for an attack against Iran, but the US has shyed away from a full out support of such action. Even the EU isn't hot and bothered enough to agree with Israeli demands that we all get together and nuke Persia. What to do?
Here's the scenario: Bomb the crap out of Gaza, kill as many people and destroy as much infrastucture as possible and when the rest of the world reacts, blame Iran and start the big fight.
This is not as far-fetched as it may seem, right now the leading article in Canada's Globe and Mail world section, shows a 'hard-line' Iranian claiming they will start suicide bombings against Israel. Again the msm lurches forward carrying out the plans of her master. Notice too that throughout all of this NO comments have been allowed at the G&M - typical of their oh-so-biased editorial staff.
We've been down this road before, the lies which led the Americans and thier cohorts into destroying and occupying Iraq, the excuses given for the invasion of Afghanistan, the list is really endless: Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Central and South America, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea ad infinitum.
This latest atrocity - Gaza - has all the hallmarks of provacation. They want someone to say enough is enough, perhaps Hezbolla, for that will give them the excuse to let loose on anyone they perceive as their enemies (read: the REST of the PLANET). And Israel DOES have nukes!
Let us NOT be fooled again, let us not be complacent. Get off your couch, write your representatives, phone them, hound them and spread the word: We won't be fooled again into fighting Israel's wars.
Enough is enough.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Summing it up
Thanks to Stuart Littlewood, whose piece you can read here
For example......
"Israeli citizens have been under the threat of daily attack from Gaza for years."
Palestinians have been under harsh Israeli occupation for 60 years.
"Only this week hundreds of missiles and mortars shells were fired at Israeli civilian communities."
Only one in 500 Qassam rockets causes a fatality. How many thousands of Israeli bombs, missiles, rockets, grenades and tank-shells have been blasted into the crowded city and towns of the Gaza Strip by Israel’s high-tech weaponry?
"Until now we have shown restraint. But today there is no other option than a military operation."
The only legitimate option for Israel is to end the occupation and withdraw behind its 1967 border, as required under international law and UN resolution. Israel has been killing Palestinians at the rate of 8 to 1 since 2000, and children at the rate of nearly 12 to 1 (B’Tselem figures). This is somebody’s idea of restraint?
Just so ya know....
Israel has rammed and damaged the Dignity, a vessel carrying aid and food to the Gaza Strip. The Israeli navy fired shots and caused severe damage to her hull. Thankfully, the Dignity has limped into harbour in Tyre, Lebanon.
Just one more disgusting act on the part of that SLC.
Free Gaza
Note that among the participants on this voyage was Cynthia McKinney, a brave soul and honourable American.
Just one more disgusting act on the part of that SLC.
Free Gaza
Note that among the participants on this voyage was Cynthia McKinney, a brave soul and honourable American.
Israel, I weep for thee
Oh Israel, my head shakes and my heart aches for you. It really does. The dreams you held so dear have turned into nightmares for those around you, all the time seducing you deeper into the pits of Hell. You have become what you hated, what you ran from, what you wanted to escape from. You have taken the sympathy of the world and squeezed it for all it's worth, you have whored yourself to the alter of the Wargods and lost your soul in the process. You have exploited your own to serve a vile end. You have nailed yourself shut in your own self made coffins, not listening to the voice screaming in you ears to stop, think, respond in a manner akin to humanity. Woe be you.
The line has been crossed again, as you shoot fish in a barrel of you own making, desperately trying to justify your genocidal actions. Still crying for sympathy to the world who is seeing you for the ghoul you really are. Still you cling, craven and vile to the mistaken belief you are right, righteous and pure in your motives. You stir the pot, all the while poisoning your own wells. Your own actions will lead to your end.
And what of the Jews of the Diaspora? How will your actions reverberate on them? Will it be as it has been, time and time before? Will those who awaken to the crimes of Israel be able to distinguish between the honest Jew and the Warmongering Whore who calls herself Israel? Your actions endanger all Jews, by your tying of Judaism to the State of Israel you diminish the voices of peace amongst her sheep. You paint all with one brush, and will scream when all are percieved to the the same. You are the worst enemy of the Jews yourself, as you sow division and lies throughout the lands, never considering that it is your own actions which justify the lies of the classic anti-semite. You breed hatred, you foster ill will and you will be the author of your own demise.
The sympathy well is empty. You have gone too far. You have taken whatever was good in you and sold it for blood - the blood of Gaza, the blood of your own. Only when your people rise up and call an end to the massacres, and end to the Hell which you govern will any understanding for you return, if it does, if it can. For now, your moral closet stands empty, devoid of any empathy, devoid of rememberance of what was done to you, and how you now to this to others.
Israel, I weep for thee.
The line has been crossed again, as you shoot fish in a barrel of you own making, desperately trying to justify your genocidal actions. Still crying for sympathy to the world who is seeing you for the ghoul you really are. Still you cling, craven and vile to the mistaken belief you are right, righteous and pure in your motives. You stir the pot, all the while poisoning your own wells. Your own actions will lead to your end.
And what of the Jews of the Diaspora? How will your actions reverberate on them? Will it be as it has been, time and time before? Will those who awaken to the crimes of Israel be able to distinguish between the honest Jew and the Warmongering Whore who calls herself Israel? Your actions endanger all Jews, by your tying of Judaism to the State of Israel you diminish the voices of peace amongst her sheep. You paint all with one brush, and will scream when all are percieved to the the same. You are the worst enemy of the Jews yourself, as you sow division and lies throughout the lands, never considering that it is your own actions which justify the lies of the classic anti-semite. You breed hatred, you foster ill will and you will be the author of your own demise.
The sympathy well is empty. You have gone too far. You have taken whatever was good in you and sold it for blood - the blood of Gaza, the blood of your own. Only when your people rise up and call an end to the massacres, and end to the Hell which you govern will any understanding for you return, if it does, if it can. For now, your moral closet stands empty, devoid of any empathy, devoid of rememberance of what was done to you, and how you now to this to others.
Israel, I weep for thee.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Updates on Gaza
Since my initial post Saturday, the death toll has now risen to over 300, with the wounded numbering over 800. That is well over 1000 people killed or maimed. Add to this the family members of the deceased and wounded and this latest assault effects thousands.
Israel says she must now launch an aggressive 'PR' campaign, once again portraying herself as the perpetual victim, always in the 'right' to 'defending' herself from the horrors of the 'Arab terrorists'. Well, it is certainly clear which lands on this planet think for themselves and who just follows the Israeli Dog: The US of course, blames Hamas and supports the brave Israeli response to the rocket fire which has perhaps killed only one Israeli, Australia too threw her support behind the Israeli's 'measured response' to the 'terror of the rockets'. Canada, as far as I can tell has said nothing, but of course will tow the line - especially under our dear leader Harper, who assisted in this mess by cutting off all foreign aid to the Gaza strip back in 2006, thus helping to turn this slip of land into the largest concentration camp in the world.
Shame, shame and more shame.
Everyone seems to start off mentioning that Hamas has been firing rockets at the nearby Israeli villages. Strangley, many of these rockets, I'll wager a good 98% of them, never hit anything. With all things being equal one should expect that at least 50% of these things should hit a target. Oddly - they don't. I'll let you all in on a personal secret: I cannot throw a snowball for the life of me (or any ball for that matter, really!) However, even on my worst day I will usually be able to get on or very close to my target about four times out of ten. Which, to me begs a few questions: Are the 'jihadists' who are presumably firing these things really such bad shooters? Since the firing of these rockets is what has enabled Israel to launch this 'offensive' how does it actually benefit Hamas or the people of Gaza? Who really benefits from these qassams? In short, it is Israel who benefits most, and keeping in mind the motto of Mossad: By way of Deception we shall make war, then who is really firing these things? Something to ponder for sure, especially since Hamas itself had stopped all rocket fire during the ceasefire - which was violated first by Israel back in November. Not unlike the constant violations by Israel of another 'ceasefire' which she had agreed to with Lebanon's Hezbolla.
It is not as if Israel had no other choices either. She could have lifted the year and a half siege on Gaza, allowed her to trade, to maintain her economy, allowed her people to move freely - but no that is not in Israel's interest is it? How could Israel ever survive without being in a state of constant war and oppression of others? How could Israel justify the massive amounts of US aid yearly if she doesn't have anyone 'attacking' her? More questions which beg answers, cynical for certain yet nevertheless poignent to the issue. Better get on with the show then!
Israel says she must now launch an aggressive 'PR' campaign, once again portraying herself as the perpetual victim, always in the 'right' to 'defending' herself from the horrors of the 'Arab terrorists'. Well, it is certainly clear which lands on this planet think for themselves and who just follows the Israeli Dog: The US of course, blames Hamas and supports the brave Israeli response to the rocket fire which has perhaps killed only one Israeli, Australia too threw her support behind the Israeli's 'measured response' to the 'terror of the rockets'. Canada, as far as I can tell has said nothing, but of course will tow the line - especially under our dear leader Harper, who assisted in this mess by cutting off all foreign aid to the Gaza strip back in 2006, thus helping to turn this slip of land into the largest concentration camp in the world.
Shame, shame and more shame.
Everyone seems to start off mentioning that Hamas has been firing rockets at the nearby Israeli villages. Strangley, many of these rockets, I'll wager a good 98% of them, never hit anything. With all things being equal one should expect that at least 50% of these things should hit a target. Oddly - they don't. I'll let you all in on a personal secret: I cannot throw a snowball for the life of me (or any ball for that matter, really!) However, even on my worst day I will usually be able to get on or very close to my target about four times out of ten. Which, to me begs a few questions: Are the 'jihadists' who are presumably firing these things really such bad shooters? Since the firing of these rockets is what has enabled Israel to launch this 'offensive' how does it actually benefit Hamas or the people of Gaza? Who really benefits from these qassams? In short, it is Israel who benefits most, and keeping in mind the motto of Mossad: By way of Deception we shall make war, then who is really firing these things? Something to ponder for sure, especially since Hamas itself had stopped all rocket fire during the ceasefire - which was violated first by Israel back in November. Not unlike the constant violations by Israel of another 'ceasefire' which she had agreed to with Lebanon's Hezbolla.
It is not as if Israel had no other choices either. She could have lifted the year and a half siege on Gaza, allowed her to trade, to maintain her economy, allowed her people to move freely - but no that is not in Israel's interest is it? How could Israel ever survive without being in a state of constant war and oppression of others? How could Israel justify the massive amounts of US aid yearly if she doesn't have anyone 'attacking' her? More questions which beg answers, cynical for certain yet nevertheless poignent to the issue. Better get on with the show then!
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