http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/195773.php

The surrounding counties do nothing to help either side. Except for the “habitrail for humanity” (tunnels to smuggle bombs into Gaza).

Photographic evidence has emerged that proves that Israel has been using controversial white phosphorus shells during its offensive in Gaza, despite official denials by the Israel Defence Forces.

There is also evidence that the rounds have injured Palestinian civilians, causing severe burns. The use of white phosphorus against civilians is prohibited under international law.

The Times has identified stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells from high-resolution images taken of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) artillery units on the Israeli-Gaza border this week. The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made WP munition. The shell is an improved version with a more limited dispersion of the phosphorus, which ignites on contact with oxygen, and is being used by the Israeli gunners to create a smoke screen on the ground.

Michael Evans and Sheera Frenkel
London Times
Thursday, Jan 8, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5470047.ece

No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Geneva Convention, Section 11, Article 33

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21668.htm

UN Says No Hamas Fighters Were in Bombed Gaza School:

United Nations investigators say they have uncovered no evidence to support a claim by the Israeli military that Hamas fighters were holed up in a Gaza school, prompting a deadly attack by Israeli forces that killed 40 civilians, many of them children.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870087,00.html

UN: Israel admits rocket fire was not from within school

Israel told foreign diplomats Wednesday that Palestinian militants had not fired rockets from within a United Nations’ school, a UN official said. Israeli military officials said on Tuesday that militants had fired rockets from within the school, and that attack provoked Israeli artillery fire which landed near the school and killed more than 40 Palestinians in the Jabalia refugee camp, many of whom were seeking refuge from fighting.
http://tinyurl.com/8lgn93

Violence begets violence.

Only when the ‘people’ of Palistine and Israel stand up to Hamas and barbaric behavior, will anything change. Only when retribution stops will the killing stop. Some of these people seem to actually thrive on horror and gore.

The outside world cannot change a culture and mindset. It must change itself from within.

And we have more in common that not.

I don’t view criticizing the government of Israel for things as being anti-Israel. I criticize my own government, federal, state, and local all the time. I’m a very familiar voice to about 10 congressional numbers from years of my activist work.

I’ll never be anti-Jew, and I consider anti-Arab to be no different a form of anti-Semitism as as those who are anti-Jewish. Because, Semite comes from Sēm; a greek variation to refer to those who came from Shem, the son of Noah.

This will seem off topic, but not for but a sec. My main criticism of William Ayers came from the fact he resorted to violence when the SDC were protesting. He decided to break his own principles about violence and engaged in it. This was the lazy man’s way out.

This is what I feel any time violence becomes the answer unless it happens in a clear moment of self defense. I’ve been training in wuyi for almost 20 years and long ago learned what the fine line between self-defense and over correction and revenge (aka justice in my perverted morality as a youth) were. Self-Defense is a vital part of living. But in some cases it goes from being self-defense to offense because there isn’t as much danger as the reaction details.

Case in point:
I was about 19 or 20 at a pool hall I used to visit quite regularly when a bully tough guy decided to beat up my friend who had snookered him out of some money. Clearly my friend wasn’t going to fight and the guy butted through my crowd of friends to get him. I whipped the shit out of him and it was wrong. Why? Because I wanted it too. Once he stepped up and got in Glen’s face I had all I needed to launch my own pent up shit on him.

In that same model, I hear rhetoric from all sorts of groups who claim the moral high ground in their causes. They are always the victims no matter what. And it is because many of them telegraph their intentions that I have to question whether it is really self-defense or…as I coined it in my life, bully baiting.

Now, Hamas is bully baiting clearly.
Israel is not bully baiting.

But, I am in agreement with Larry J on the grounds that tactically, any action must be completely mindful of long term consequences and volatility.

In a different scenario just a few years ago, I chose to avoid a conflict that may have appeared to an ignorant person as backing down to a bully on my block. But I didn’t do that. I realized that he and I would be in perpetual conflict if I chose to engage him that day. And I chose to see long term. Eventually I couldn’t just ignore him so I took the opportunity to engage him with what I considered at the time, “perfect courage”. What is that? The ability to deal with things without fear of consequences including and up to bodily injury. And he…didn’t know what to do.

Without me being all hostile right back, he didn’t have much to chew on. Without my masculine bullshit challenging his masculine bullshit, he didn’t have his usual scenario.

Now this method won’t always work, and sometimes it’s pretty fucking immoral to not engage in physical resistance to violent men (or women).

But the greater point would be, I considered longer term wiser options that considered my neighbors and kids. Then it considered that he was miserable. I found out his father died of aids, his brother was in prison, he had been in prison, and his mother had been deported.

Well blow me down…..He was a hurting human.

Now, I don’t think groups like Hamas deserve negotiations in the least. But reality dictates something entirely different because like it or not, they have established power there.

So, if I attack them, I have to think of my consequences.

1. I can go full force and risk alienating potential popular support when finished (the way we did in Iraq by disbanding the police, displacing Baathists, and not being able to distinguish between shia and sunni.
If you can’t figure out who your friends and enemies are, you’re lost. But if you create more enemies because of your action, when other options were available, you’re a fool.
2. I can apply the appropriate solution to the problem, (aka calculated response) and make sure that I don’t give an enemy the opportunity to continue attacking or to gain sympathetic support.
3. I can ignore the threat and see if it passes because no response was given (not an option in some cases like rockets firing into Sderot)

And the list can go on.

But any way I choose, I have to make sure I really consider much more than my immediate gratification, the high-five of my peers, and the power trip a potential victory can give.

I have a very diverse family that has no arabs in it, not in at least 34 generations plus I’ve charted. However, I’m descended from Zorn, Straud, Klauberg, Leiber, and Millers.

Equally I’m descended from Bohemians who fought off the Romans and were from the first country invaded by the little Austrian prick named Adolph. Nobody stopped him from seizing one of my homelands. Nobody stopped his aggression on the Czech over his fabrications of “terrorists” after the Reichstag.

Even in this last week when I expressed my grave concerns about the level Israel would take in retaliation, I went absolutely apeshit when a now former friend said, “well look, you gotta understand Jews” and proceeded to engage in just blatant anti-Jewish nonsense based on how his boss acts, or his company owners, and all sorts of people who fit his stereotype of jews.

There was no appealing to him to make distinctions between assholes of every background, and his determination that Jews were just generally bad. I was stunned. We’ve never crossed this bridge. But when we did…I burned it on the way out. I can’t think of being friends with someone who would say such a thing.

Yet, when I come here and express my disgust for the same ignorant treatment of Palestinians, I’m branded anti-Semite or proHamas, when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Granted, my anger got me and I started popping back, and then we all have to get into ego battles. Mea Culpa, my bad, please…forgive me. But I’m passionate about human life. I value human life in Gaza and Tel Aviv equally, no conditions.

I will tell you clearly that there are only a few types of people whose lives I have no worth in. Rapists, molesters, Dick Cheney, and Tom Cruise (just joking..about TC, but he’s weird).

I mostly don’t value murderers, but…having known 3 people on death row who really converted their hearts before death, I have hope for some. Frankie Parker is such an example if you ever look him up.

OIAF, I’m with you in being Anti-Hamas. I might be pretty close to you about Fatah as well, though I see them as more moderate, though arrogant. But I’m not anti-Palestinian, and I’m not anti-Israeli or anti-Jew.

You’ve done a great job at earning my respect. It isn’t given lightly either. You earned it. You fought your fight, but then opened the door when you saw I wanted the same thing. This…is a great sign for progress on such issue, I believe.

The thread is now longer than the Mahabharata, but..you and the others here are worth it.

Let’s see if we can get more out of the dialectic than our snarks.

Thanks for your conversation, and all the other NQ here.

In a recent couples spat, a good friend of mine was going over how his wife did something earlier in the year that seemed to undermine him. He was stuck in the past. So when she went to deal with it, I believe with sincerity, he wouldn’t let her solve it. So she went to the past too, because she too had a few times he undermined her. Suddenly, and almost without notice…he wanted to say, “yeah, but that’s yesterday!”

WOW
How did he suddenly decide the past didn’t matter? Because he lost his case when it was Past V Past. And both of them might have done well to simply let present be present.

http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com/2009/01/hamas-forcing-palestinians-at-gunpoint.html

And that Fox reported it was Hezbollah was an assumption based on it coming out of Lebanon, but CNN accurately pointed out, there were 4 rockets, and unlike Hamas, Hezbollah has 1000s. It is a much more heavily armed entity.

Either way, the last thing we need right now, is another front to this violence.