You Don’t Need to Speak Hebrew to Understand This

Hamas musat have been launching missiles from his back yard. Yeah, right.

“War is Hell.” It always has been and always will be.

This is a real shame. Unfortunately, we opened the door for this kind of stuff in 2003 in Iraq. Hopefully, this type of thing will put pressure on Isreal to take a breather.

I’m just sick of the killing of innocents.
Just think of this as it happening to YOU.
You just lost three innocent daughters.

The slaughtering must end NOW.

BBC gets a reporter inside Gaza

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7834419.stm

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k5dptjc3LY

On 9/11, innocent civilians were slaughtered in this country. All one needs to do is remember the horror of that day to imagine what it is like to see your loved ones slaughtered. I will never forget it.

In this case, Israel has slaughtered more than 350 children, and approximately 1200 adults, maiming about 5000 victims altogether, with weapons that shred entire bodies, cause cancer in those who survive, and burn people’s skin off their bodies–and and devastated an entire infrastructure for 1.5 million people.

Enough!

Someone Must Stop Israel’s Rampant Madness in Gaza

By Gideon Levy

The streets of Gaza Thursday looked like killing fields in the midst of the “third stage” and worse. Israel is arrogantly ignoring the Security Council’s resolution calling for a cease-fire and is shelling the UN compound in Gaza, as if to show its real feeling toward that institution.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21782.htm

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Amira Hass: Is Israel using illegal weapons in its offensive on Gaza?:

Clouds of choking smoke, explosions like a fireworks display, bombs bursting into all-consuming flames that cannot be extinguished with water, mushroom clouds of pinkish-red smoke, suffocating gas, harsh burns on the skin, extraordinary maimed live and dead bodies.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055927.html

F Y I

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/16/palestinian_father_in_us_recounts_how

1/16/09

Palestinian Astrophysicist in US Recounts How His 11-Year-Old Son Died When Israeli Warplanes Bombed His Family’s House

EXCERPT:

“As the Palestinian death toll in Israel’s assault on Gaza climbs above 1,100, we take a look behind the statistics.

Suleiman Baraka is a Palestinian astrophysicist working at Virgnia Tech with NASA.

His eleven-year-old son Ibrahim was killed in an Israeli air strike on his house.

His wife and three other children are now homeless in Gaza, along with seventeen members of his family.

In his first broadcast interview in the US, Suleiman Baraka tells his story. We also speak with Suleiman’s brother, Sayed, who arrived at the house seconds after it was bombed. “

It should be interesting to what we as Hillary supporters will hear from her on Jan 21′st regarding this situation. More over what will Barack say about it in the State of the Union.

I wonder what the Doctor’s demeanor will be regarding Israel after his daughters have been killed. I can’t imagine myself being passive.

Thomas-
Thank you for link-
powerful words to live by…

What a tragic, heart-rending story.
I extend my sympathies, although there is no way for them to be received.
The AP reported yesterday that the UN compound, sheltering 700 civilians was hit 6 times over a two hour period.
Again the unplausible explanation was rocket fire from inside the compound.
The UN is providing refuge for people, and has no security personel who see rockets being launched? Really?

As long as one side views this as “the Promised Land” and the other side views this as “Allah’s will” these abominations will continue ad infinitum. Most of lost sight of the origin of this travesty which began over 60 years ago and continues unabated today.

The continuation of the building of settlements in disputed territories, along with the mischief and interference of Iran, is not the road to peace. Both sides have a vested interest in the obliteration of the other and innocent lives will be lost while this tug of war is maintained.

There are no winners in this struggle, merely the loss of life where body counts are considered as successful.

A pox on both houses. Neither side deserves praise or support. There is too much blood on both sides.

January 17, 2009

Hezbollah plots bloody vengeance

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5533205.ece

Thank you, Thomas, for that link. How I wish Dr. King had lived out his full life!
We need more of his wisdom and compassion–something that seems to be in short supply among the so-called leaders in the world.

Israel must stop slaughtering innocent people.
The silence is deafening.

Condemn war and war’s perpetrators. The essay below was written by a pro-Israel person; moral equivalency is hard to come by and “proportional
response” is a myth.(gg):

Why We Choose Us

When rockets fall on Israeli towns, the press doesn’t run over to describe the carnage in loving detail or splatter photographs of gore across the evening news. The International Red Cross makes no condemnations, the UN has nothing to say, and the usual suspects who cry out against war crimes when we defend ourselves– are silent as stones.

That is why we choose us. Because no one else will. The lesson we have learned is that if we do not care for our children, no one else will. If we do not protect them, no one else will lift a hand to do it for us.

The grandfathers and fathers of the “People of Gaza” twice invaded us together with the armies of several Arab nations to wipe us off the face of the earth. They failed. Today their children are trying to help Iran finish the job they started. The world once again chooses them. The world wails over their suffering. The world demands that we let our children die, so that theirs may live to kills us. We refuse. We choose us.

It is the right of every nation to defend itself against enemies at home and abroad. That right of self-defense will not be abridged because the left has decided that Israel has less right to exist than an Iranian backed theocracy that just brought back crucifixion. When Al Queda attacked America, the left chose the Taliban. When Hamas bombed Israel, the left chose Hamas. So be it. We are under no obligation to bow our heads to the moral judgment of the ideological grandchildren of Marx, Lenin and Noam Chomsky. To hell with them and to hell with all their progeny. We choose us.

It is the right of every people to refuse to be slaughtered, to care about their own first, and to defend their own first. You may call this selfish, we call it survival. A nation exists because it chooses not to be conquered, instead choosing the deaths of the enemy over slavery and genocide. A family exists because a man chooses to protect his family from all those who would harm them. All morality must have a base. Yours is in class warfare, ours is in the family. We choose our family, we choose their lives over the intruders who would slaughter us in the name of greed and the maddened fanaticism that turned the once thriving Middle East, cradle of the world’s civilizations, into dusty deserts, hovels and torture chambers. We choose us.

We did not force Hamas to barrage our towns and villages with rockets. We did not force them to begin this war, but we are nonetheless determined to end it in the way that all wars end, with the destruction of the aggressor.

We regret that Hamas has chosen to fight a war in the streets of their own cities. But that is their choice. And if their civilian population is devastated for it, it stems from their choice of terrain, not ours. If you begin a war in your own kitchen, you should expect to have it blown up. If you hide behind the bodies of your children, do not be surprised when you have to bury them. And do not expect us to mourn or stay our hand, because our enemy has demonstrated such ruthlessness that he is willing to use his own children to fight their battles. Such tactics did not save Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. They will not save Hamas.

We will not let our children die, because the enemy uses his own as a shield in a war he has started. If it comes to that, we again choose us. The world may roar in protest, and we acknowledge that it is justified so long as when their cities and towns are shelled, that they will seek futile ceasefire after ceasefire, rather than fight back. And if indeed they do so, that form of suicide is their choice. Not ours. We choose to live. We choose to fight. We choose us.

We choose to live. We choose not to put our hopes in illusion or let a billion screeching voices dissuade us from doing our duty toward our own kith and kin. We chose to build a nation out of dust and rebuild generations lost in fields of ash and dirt. We built towns and cities out of swamps, we raised crops, we raised children, we built a future. And we will protect that future whatever else others may say. This is our land we will fight for it because it is our land, the land of our fathers and the land of our children. As our ancestors chose to lift the sword and the bow, rather than to bow before the Greek idol, we choose the rifle and the knife, rather than to bend our knees to the totems of liberalism. We will fight and we will prevail, because we choose to do it, unambigiously and unapologetically. We choose our future. We choose us.

26 comments • Permaink • Email Post • (Backlinks)
Links to this post:
Soli Deo Gloria: An Ode to Israel’s Right to Self Defense
I read this beautiful article on a blog by a man who goes by the name of Sultan Knish. I have added him to my list of blogs to follow.

About a month ago, I read that the first likely rift between the State Department and the incoming administration will be Iran.
Additionally, Larry’s friend seemed dubious about the selection of Dennis Ross.
I really hope for some movement toward an even-handed resolution, and SOON!

FU war is hell – apologist, gets you and them off the hook though doesn’t it.

Take your kids over there and try to keep them safe and when you can’t and some die, tell me what you think of me sitting here saying “Ho hum – war is hell, always will be”.

Get off your ass and do something. They can’t stop this blood shed – we can. We are there only hope.

Let me know what Pigpen says in his state of the union address. I can’t listen to that freak long enough to get any info.

I sure hope he doesn’t say something like, “the state of our union is strong” because if I recall correctly, McCain said the fundamentals of our economy are strong and everybody jumped down his throat for it. I suppose Mr. Truth, honesty and Justice (right) Odrama will say how Weak America is and send a strong message to the world, especially terrorists.

War is hell?
FUCK YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!!!
Son of a bitch, war is hell, thats all?
FUCK YOU!!

Spoken like someone whose never been to war.

I’m just so grateful Israel never thought Hamas was hiding in the WTC, or the basement of the Pentagon — I mean, to quote Little Walter:”boom boom, out go the lights.” .

I would say the Israelis have been written off, truth be told.

This isn’t how you fight a terrorist war, and how can the world support genocide, under the guise of “terrorist war?”

I forgot to add (sic).

Sorry.

Hm.

If they were smart, they’d let Israel finish it’s suicide.

I mean, isn’t Israel supposed to the adult, here?

Well, that ship has sailed, these people are innocent.

Does Israel think it controls the US satellites, too?

Does Israeli think it’s military is supereme to the US, and the British, and the US approves of it’s actions, is helpless to do anything, is uninfomred, doesnt have a LOCK on the IDF?

HOW stupid can any one general be, who runs their wars, fercryingoutloud?

That the great grandfathers and the grandfathers of Gaza choose to fight you is no great surprise. It is completely disengenious of you to imagine that the people whose lands you have stolen, and those millions that you have dispossessed have chosen to defy your perfidy. Get real–JUST FOR ONCE. Spare me your patriotic fervor and lets get to the core of all of this. You stole Palestine from the Palestinians with the connivance of the United Nations in 1948, and evoke pious umbrage that you are being attacked. It is your responsibility to try to make good on 60 years of genocide perpetrated by your government on the rightful owners of the land you are squatting on.

In any military conflict civilians deaths are a terrible tragedy. It is hard at the present to come to grips with senseless death, as I’m sure it was during WWII to pick up a newspaper in New York and read of 50,000 dead civilians overnight in some far away city. There was no video back then to show us the agony of the survivors.
Just like in WWII, in a conflict that attempts to end violence against civilians it is wrong to conflate the accidental killing of civilians with deliberate killing. For those that claim this was in any way purposeful or deliberate – you are living in a fantasy world of your own making. For those that think that they have a right to demand that Israel act in a way that puts its own citizens at risk before others, then you better be prepared to ask the same of all nations, at all times. Lets hope at the end of the Gaza conflict civilian lives on both sides are held in higher regard.

Actaully, though, the circumstances here are different, a bit more complex.

Right?

I’m very sorry, but this comes off as sophism, very shallow PR, incapable of understanding the issues, and the people arguing them.

The problem, though, in this conflict, is a lack of equality in regard to firepower — Hamas is NOT as well armed as Israel.

This stopped being about equal opponenets a long time ago, esp with the Paelestinians crated, as they are, in Gaza.

Is this, perhaps, also an Israeli land grab, a way to eradicate the problems in Gaza?

And that’s not OK.

I keep thinking of the book “Charlie Wilson’s WAr,” abnd Wilson’s reaction to the Israeli massacre at the Christian camps in Lebanon –initially he had been an admirer of the IDF, after that incident, to which he was a witness, he said he felt ill, rather revolted by Israel.

there are no palestinians only raghead … [ADMINISTRATOR: The rest of this comment is deleted and "bruce" is banned permanently from this site. We will not put up with any racist, ugly language against any group of people. Go to freerepublic.com -- that's where people who think like you will feel right at home. But you are NOT welcome here in any way.]

Oh, Bruce! Lighten up! Quit trying so hard to be controversial. It makes you seem like you don’t have the intelligence to post on the internet.

Well, I see BO’s plan has worked. (And when I say BO’s plan, I mean BO and everyone else who worked in concert with him to carry out this plan.) When he first announced his candidacy for POTUS, I researched his foreign policy advisers, figuring they would hold key posts in his administration. That’s how I learned Samantha Power had recommended the U.S. government should unilaterally impose a Palestinian state on Israel; otherwise, powerful interests in this country would never allow such an outcome.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people2/Power/power-con0.html
Of course, before the American people would allow the government to get away with sending in troops to forcibly establish a Palestinian state, they would have to agree, Israel is the devil.

Enough said. Let the NQ media role in the demonization of Israel campaign continue…

I have watched this video several times. The feeling transmitted between the reporter and his friend on the other end is absolutely heart breaking (and needless to say, the Dr.’s pain is horrifying). It is the bleakest illustration of two sides both tragically powerless about the havoc their governments are wreaking. Is there really such a deep disconnect between government decision makers and citizens?

Great credit is due to the TV station for allowing the broadcast. They all looked shell-shocked.

Thank you for bringing this to us.

I don’t know how anyone can watch that video without crying. I am pro-Israel but no one wants to see innocent people on either side killed. The Israeli reporter was obviously distraught and had to walk away from his desk after the call. It shows you that there are real people on both sides who see each other as human beings, not like how their government sees things. I usually don’t see anything that comes of war other than more hate on both sides for innocents killed. I hope the violence ends soon but I also understand Israel’s desire to eradicate Hamas, though this can’t be the best way to win over support.

Good thing footage like that doesn’t appear on our news or Obama might have to make another “if it were my daughters” statement.

No one is forcing Israel to use a gun — this victim thing is tiresome.

And life in the real world is brutal –Israel has a right to pound people, yet when they fight back, intelligently, Israel then LOSING as a matter of it’s OWN choices, Israel whines?

You’re kidding, right?

What do you think the US has to deal with, on a daily basis?

John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, condemned the attack on Beit Lahiya that killed the two boys _ the latest in a series of Israeli shellings that have struck U.N. installations.

“The question that has to be asked is for all those children and all those innocent people who have been killed in this conflict. Were they war crimes? Were they war crimes that resulted in the deaths of the innocents during this conflict? That question has to be answered,” he said.

The Israeli army said it was launching a high-level investigation into the shelling, as well as four other attacks that hit civilian targets, including the U.N. headquarters in Gaza. The army investigation also includes the shelling of a hospital, a media center and the home of a well-known doctor.

——–
From the WAPO

A few too many of these, and a pattern emerges.

And who knows what US intelligence has on Israel, said in confidence between it’s leaders, and generals?

If it turns out Israeli deliberately planned a Palestinian genocide for a land grab, CRATING the Palestinians, part of it’s overall strategy in conjunction with the American neocons for control of the Middle East, (PNAC, and all that) it will simply DESTROY the US, internationally.

And I hope Obama, and Clinton, are able to handle it.

Oh, wait, that’s right, it’s simply to fight Hamas, so no more rockets attack Israeli children.

My bad.

msnbc.com BREAKING NEWS: Prime minister says Israel will unilaterally halt Gaza offensive

Larry, below is one of the last comments made on an article you wrote on January 15. Did you see it. I hope so. I think that you have a real problem with Israel. You seem to look for problems with Israel.

Larry should carry out some basic research before he makes inane comments. The BBC report he is talking about was compiled by 3 Arabs and a female journalist called Heather Sharp who obviously favours Hamas.(she is a BBC left winger)So much for impartial reporting. Have a look at the following site:
http://www.justjournalism.com/media-analysis/p1999_articleid/163 – “Just journalism” is an unbiased organisation that analyses what is being reported in the media. Here is what they said about a report of hers relating to Gaza for the BBC on August 11 2008: SHORTCOMINGS: LACK OF CONTEXT BY EXCLUSION OF RELEVANT INFORMATION AND FACTS – I think that says it all about Ms Sharp. Larry old chap, take note and do try and do your homework before posting anything

The US doesnt fight it’s terrosit wars this way, don’t you wonder why?

Why didn’t we crate a ghetto in Iraq, and then start shooting?

Keep her off the streets and promise not do your mother anymore.

And who did you?

Good Lord, someone must have…

You’re welcome. There is no other answer.

The solution sounds so simple. So, why is it so elusive?

Since we are celebrating Dr. King’s birthday this weekend perhaps someone at NQ will embed this video.

Moral Jews speak out against this slaughter of 1200 people, 350 of them children and the maiming of 5,000 others. It’s unconscionable. Why should anyone support Israel? Israel is a rogue state, a militarist government of thugs committing war crimes. More and more people in this world are learning the truth, the history of Israeli crimes. It’s not that people support Hamas; it’s that people do not support wanton slaughter of innocent people. Maybe not for you, and bigots like you, but for most of the world, Arabs/Palestinians are people.

More of a neighborhood than a country

By Doron Rosenblum

We have simply come to terms with the fact that the next round of warfare, and the one following it, are only a question of time. And not only because of the enemy, but because of the Olmert in every one of us: If the next war is successful – we’ll feel like having another one; if it fails – we’ll want another one that will make amends for it and “learn its lessons,” and so on until the end of days.

We simply have no other vision. And this acceptance of our fate as a martial-state is also evident in the conduct of the present campaign: instead of causing the collapse of the government of Hamas leaders using cunning and creativity, we deliberately embarked on a destructive all-out attack involving a huge cost in civilian lives and causing perhaps irreversible damage to Israel’s image among the nations. That is the modus operandi of a country that has not only despaired already of the chance of reconciliation with the neighbors alongside whom it has lived for generations, but that no longer cares about how it looks from the outside, and about the way in which it is getting world Jewry into trouble along with it.

So it’s not only Olmert. The increasingly frequent wars, and mainly the way in which we don’t know how to end them, to translate them into political achievements and to speak the language of diplomacy – testify to Israel’s failure to behave like a normal country, with the priorities, the reactions, and the judgment of a nation.

http://www.haaretz.com:80/hasen/spages/1055980.html

The (my) point was! War sucks! No one could see my point! Then I was attacked..as in “War.” Betty, Opie and everyone else jumped me! War=death and destruction. My idea of war is copious amounts of Wine & Weed….then afterwards no one remembers what the fuss was all about, or at best…a little more soulfulness. Maybe innocent people wouldn’t die? War is Hell…does anyone/no one get that!?

Califiefly. For starters, why don’t you learn the difference between a war and a massacre?

As I have written repeadedly, since Yizsah (sp) Rabin’s administration, the Israeli people have not wisely chosen their leaders. Americans finally had to come to the same conclusion about Bush. The country in my opinion made another mistake in choosing Obama as the new leader.

with all due respect to the doctor. He knew there was a war
going on, and he didn’t think to move his family to a safe area?

are you sure Hamas didn’t blow up his house to prove a point?
This is exactly how this organization operates.

I would normally not agree with Gerald Kaufman, but his speech on Isael in the House of Commons should make everyone think. The best line; “Israel are more than just War Criminals. They are fools,”. He is a Jewish, Labour Party MP, absolutely committted to Israel. He was personal friends with every single Israeli Prime Minister and helped to found the Country. When he calls Israel War Criminals, it means something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGuYjt6CP8

Pardon my asking; but does this sound reasonable?

Let’s see, a rocket has just hit your house. You have just had three daughters killed and another child is on the way to the hosptial in critical condition. You are a doctor, but instead of taking care of your family, you call a TV station?

I’m not saying the report is not correct. I’m just saying that if my home had just sustained a rocket attack and killed three of my kids, talking to the press would be the last thing on my mind.

Yes, your question is unreasonable…There are no ambulances and no help made available in the occupied territories..Because the doctor has connections with the media as indicated in the story, they could respond to his plea for help. If the Israeli did not block and impose embargo and limit the movements of Palestinians… None of these unnecessary killings would have ever happened..

So in your mind, do you suggest the doctor call the Israeli military to give him safe passage.. The Israeli is ordered to shoot and kill all Palestinians in sight.. Too bad, the doctors family was in the way and it is their fault and not the indiscriminate killings launched by the Israeli military…

Perhaps you could suggest an address in Gaza that is safe. He still has several children left. I’m sure he will get right on it. A better suggestion would be for Israel to stop the bombing.

The thought of losing my children is a nightmare.I don’t think I would surive it.That siad, this War has been going on from the beginning of time. It will only end if Mothers and Fathers say enough is enough on both sides and honor their children and lay down their weapons. Unfortunately we continue to see children wrapped in dynamite. I can not get my mind to wrap it around that kind of thinking. I never will.

i have been looking for some comments regaring the israeli ceasefire, and the fact aht hamas has said they’ll keep on fighting. commnents about that? i am sure that is israel’s fault too. never let be said that hamas is a terrorist organization by some posters. i fault israel also for their bad decisions but i am also aware of what hamas is which is something i find many ignore on here along with the ceasefire by israel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh_F0p8Jcrc

That was horrible. That woman has no soul. That man lost his children and his brother and two nephews and all she can say is he deserved it? If Israelis keep that kind of crap up, they will lose any whatever support they have left. Sickening.

stodgie,
I am not sure what to make of this article (see link) in relation to your question above.
Why the Israeli ceasefire? Why has Hamas said they will keep on fighting?

So much being written. What is the truth?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11680

War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields

by Michel Chossudovsky

EXCERPT:

“The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves.

This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.

British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families, were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25 year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority.

The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent). (Haaretz, October 21, 2007).

The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.(Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).

The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine. “

Read the rest of this article by following the link.

What about “One of the surviving girls brought to the Israeli hospital” did you not understand?

I agree. War is supposed to be hell so people do not engage in it willy-nilly. Sanitized wars like Iraq I and II, where there is lots of shock and awe but no real casualties anywhere to be seen only make war more easily engaged in. Casualties are out of sight and out of mind.

When the Israelis and Palestinians get sick of the bloodshed, they’ll stop. The UN, the US, and other outside parties will not stop the violence and may only make it worse. In reality, only the combatants can stop it. Will they? I do not know. Should they? An emphatic yes.

have you ever heard of miscommunication?
do you think that the israelis are un-human to the state of trying to intentionally killing innocents?
have you ever heard the saying war is hell?
well then miscommunication happens.
in the second lebanon war dozens of IDF soldiers died of miscomunication and misplace artillary fire so try to rethink the circumstances.