Why?
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gS5v_75qBNk3V3Ua2K7XLVTUiW_A
snip
GAZA CITY — A Gaza fisherman was killed on Thursday by a shell fired by Israel's navy, Palestinian medics said.
Mohammed Attar, 25, was hit by shrapnel, according to Muawiha Hassanein, who heads the territory's emergency medical services. He had apparently been in his boat just off northern Gaza's shore when he was hit.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Navy vessels enforcing Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory regularly fire at Palestinian fishermen to prevent them from venturing more than a few kilometers (miles) from shore.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=221967
Gaza – Ma’an – A Palestinian man was killed on Thursday when the Israeli navy shelled a fishing boat just off the coast of the northern Gaza Strip.The director of Emergency Services and Ambulances Dr Mu’awiyah Hassanein said that Israeli shells took 25-year-old Muhammad Nady Al-Attar’s life when his head was severed from his body. One other fisherman was injured in the attack, which occurred while they were fishing. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.Al-Attar was buried later on Thursday after a funeral procession in his home town of Beit Lahiya.
If you do a news search for articles, you'll notice something interesting. Often the Jewish news reporters bundle in the same article the killing of this fisherman with other "bad" Palestinian activities, such as a recent shelling or tunnel digging, to make it look like killing this fisherman was "justified," even before the Israeli military responds with their, um, investigation!
How familiar and sad this sounds. Always a "reason" for the inexplicable.
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Diplomacy case study: political parties
I want to use the occasion of President Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton (congratulations by the way!) meeting with career diplomats at the State Department to offer another, hopefully helpful, case study. This case study, I think, is essential to speedy and fruitful progress in the Middle East, especially regarding Israel and Palestine, but also the Taliban in Afghanistan and all the groups, including Al Qaida, in Pakistan.
By the way, I remember watching George Mitchell’s great work as diplomatic envoy during The Troubles in Ireland and am glad to see him, and Richard Holbrook, back in the saddle again!
This case study is to help you to have clearer and more productive vision, and thus dialogue, with civilian populations who support radical organizations who regularly or occasionally engage in terrorism.
When an organization, such as Hamas, engages in terrorist activities, such as shooting rockets into civilian parts of Israel, it is natural that a certain skewing of viewpoint takes place by even the most seasoned diplomats. However, this skewing has become entirely too unconscious and routine and thus brings an error into the logical and the feelings that are brought to the diplomatic table. This case study is to help you to eliminate the skewing in perception that takes place when one contemplates or dialogues with an organization that is civilian based but conducts some or many terrorist activities. When you eliminate that skewing of perception, which is based on error, you can make greater progress in your objectives, including the halting of the terroristic component of their activities.
Let’s use some silly examples first. Suppose you are speaking to someone who is just wonderful but has bad breath. Doesn’t the bad breath totally mess up your encounter with them, and doesn’t it ruin your appreciation of their finer qualities? The person with the bad breath could be a beauty queen, or a young Einstein, or the holiest person you know, but you can’t appreciate any of those qualities so long as you are suffering from their bad breath!
This is what a civilian population who supports an organization with a terroristic component is like. Just because they have bad breath in their encounter, this does not mean they are not worthy and wonderful people. Thus, the people of Gaza, by having elected Hamas, are being treated as if they are nothing but gas bags of bad breath. That is unjust, incorrect and unfair.
Let us return to the bad breath example. Coffee, a wonderful beverage, is the cause of much bad breath. So there is an example of a great gift to humanity-coffee-having an unfortunate and often unconscious side effect in many, bad breath. I could not stand the breath of my ex- after he had drunk coffee; it was actually worse than how he smelled after smoking cigarettes. But that does not mean that he was no longer an intelligent person, or one who could look nice, or one that could be kind. He was all of those things, but with bad breath after drinking coffee. So coffee, a genuine gift to humanity and a beneficial thing, can, if not monitored, have an unpleasant side effect that masks all the other good, for those moments, in the person. We can also list other foods like this, such as onions and garlic, feta cheese and so forth.
However, bad breath can also be a warning sign of a health problem. Every mindful and caring parent of a small child knows this. When your child suddenly has bad breath, they are not doing it to annoy you or to be “dirty.” A child with bad breath usually has a nasal drip or an allergy, thus a respiratory health matter. Bad breath is a sign that is supposed to be helpful, to alert someone to a problematic health condition. So you don’t want to be angry at the small infant with bad breath, or just “cover it up,” but look as to why they have the bad breath so that the health matter can be attended to.
Thus the Gaza people with Hamas can be viewed as being like a person with bad breath, and one must see if it is an unconscious side effect of a good thing (coffee) or the sign of a health problem (respiratory distress). By the way, I am not saying Hamas is the bad breath, LOL! I am saying their terroristic actions are the bad breath. Separate from the terroristic acts Hamas members are the same as Gaza civilians, the good that is being masked by the bad breath.
So the first job of the diplomat is to recognize that the terroristic acts that one observes, whether by Hamas or any other group, is like “bad breath.” It has a disproportionate effect of masking the vast majority of normalcy and goodness, with common aspirations, of the people “underneath” the bad breath. Too often diplomats, to say nothing of the reactionary governments, not only just focus on the bad breath but they seem to have entire conversations (mostly threats) with the bad breath (the acts of terrorism) rather than the lips, mouths, brains and hearts of the people behind the terrorism bad breath. I’m faintly amazed that I have to explain this to so many people who think they are otherwise so intelligent.
This is one of the things that the diplomats of, in particular the British Empire, for all their faults well understood. These foreign servants lived among the local people so much that many were accused of “going native” or “going bush,” which is that they embrace the local culture. Thus they were not reactionary when there were “bad breath” incidents, because they maintained their 80 percent to 20 percent understanding of the people who are behind the bad breath and the bad breath acts itself. This was one of the great attributes of the golden age of diplomacy, this ability to maintain vision on not only the “bad breath,” but keep the majority of one’s understanding on the people and the underlying reasons for the bad breath acts.
Now, here is another analogy to help you to understand. There are certain things that the Republican party tends to do that makes me just vomit in disgust, just as there are certain things that the Democrat party does that also makes me vomit. But I do not reduce all the millions of people who agree in each party with those particular positions into thinking of them as just barf making sub-humans, LOL. I know that behind the party platforms and individual heinous viewpoints are, in general, a bunch of individual people who share aspirations and are trying to do the best that they can.
Here is a related analogy. Let’s look at the political party affiliation of the ten Presidents after our first, George Washington.
John Adams: Federalist
Thomas Jefferson: Democratic-Republican
James Madison: Democratic-Republican
James Monroe: Democratic-Republican
John Quincy Adams: Federalist until 1808, Democratic-Republican until 1825, National Republican (Whig) thereafter
Andrew Jackson: Democratic
Martin Van Buren: Democratic (during Presidency); Free Soil (from 1848)
William Henry Harrison: Whig
John Tyler: Whig
James Knox Polk: Democratic
Now, from this list you can observe without reading a “too long” dissertation that political parties came into being and evolved at a rapid rate. Democratic-Republican used to be one party, and they evolved and split. Federalists were the party of our country’s founding, yet even though they were the “original” they did not maintain a mandate once the country was well established. Other parties such as “Free Soil” sprang up in response to current conditions, yet they are forgotten today. Political parties and affiliations are a living and vibrant thing. Likewise people like the Palestinians have an evolving attempt to organize around “parties,” for lack of a better word, that reflect their aspirations and their current reality. Yet countries such as the United States and Israel act like they should be frozen in time.
It is a diplomatic error to think that, “Well, the Palestinians had the PLO, which we denounced since they were terrorists, but they gave up terrorism to become Fatah and thus they are ‘OK’ and we will ‘allow’ the Palestinians to ‘have’ Fatah and Fatah alone.” Huh? What if the United States was forced to only have the Federalist party, one party, the “first and only” alone? After all, the USA was formed by the Federalists. Shouldn’t the USA be forced to have only one party, the Federalists? Are not the Democratic and Republican parties invalid?
When Gaza people voted Hamas into power they were doing so because they were frustrated with the shortcomings, including financial corruption, of Fatah. Yet to this day western diplomats are mouthing off that Hamas is not “legitimate?” Well, I don’t think that any USA political party since the Federalists is valid. I’m not joking. If you are going to tell me that people halfway around the world do not live like the rest of us, having evolving needs and evolving responses in affiliation (and yes, some of them have some bad breath) then I think we should live by the same “rules,” else we are shameless hypocrites. So I am quite serious that I believe that all political parties since the Federalist Party are invalid.
If a diplomat cannot look at a people, such as the Palestinians in Gaza, and have the most fundamental understanding that despite the terroristic actions that are the bad breath of the party in power that this is part of normal democracy and the urges of the people, then one can neither achieve peace nor even have correct vision of the problems, challenges and opportunities. You are punishing the Gaza people for trying to self correct what they thought was a problem with the ruling party, Fatah. You are enabling Israel, by focusing only on the bad breath terrorism, to bomb the hell out of people to punish them for trying to “kick the bums out of office and elect new people,” which was just what they did. It is one of the democratic hypocrisies of the century, in my opinion.
So to wrap up this case study, the point I am trying to make is that politicians, most especially diplomats, must learn to recognize normal democratic process in the natural form that it takes place in other countries and cultures, such as the forming and electing of new parties. Second one must recognize if the bad breath of terrorism of those parties are due to systemic health problems which must be addressed, rather than punching the teeth and gums of innocent men, women and children out of their mouths to “cure the bad breath” and then blame them for it to boot. Third, one must look at the diplomatic challenge and see the parallels in our own history (the British thought we were terrorists, by the way) and respond with a resonance and firm guidance in more fruitful channels rather than denial. Fourth, we need to invest in people’s political interest and participation, not discourage it when we don’t like the results. Fifth we must not have dialogue with the bad breath acts and, instead, go back to having dialogue with the people, friend and foe alike. Sixth, just as the USA would resent being told we must go back to Federalist party alone, so too we must not expect people to have “one size fit all” political parties that meet our (or Israel’s) approval.
I hope that you have found this helpful. I have a lot more to say about how to get going in productive diplomacy but I don't want to make this "tl/dr" (too long; didn't read).
By the way, I remember watching George Mitchell’s great work as diplomatic envoy during The Troubles in Ireland and am glad to see him, and Richard Holbrook, back in the saddle again!
This case study is to help you to have clearer and more productive vision, and thus dialogue, with civilian populations who support radical organizations who regularly or occasionally engage in terrorism.
When an organization, such as Hamas, engages in terrorist activities, such as shooting rockets into civilian parts of Israel, it is natural that a certain skewing of viewpoint takes place by even the most seasoned diplomats. However, this skewing has become entirely too unconscious and routine and thus brings an error into the logical and the feelings that are brought to the diplomatic table. This case study is to help you to eliminate the skewing in perception that takes place when one contemplates or dialogues with an organization that is civilian based but conducts some or many terrorist activities. When you eliminate that skewing of perception, which is based on error, you can make greater progress in your objectives, including the halting of the terroristic component of their activities.
Let’s use some silly examples first. Suppose you are speaking to someone who is just wonderful but has bad breath. Doesn’t the bad breath totally mess up your encounter with them, and doesn’t it ruin your appreciation of their finer qualities? The person with the bad breath could be a beauty queen, or a young Einstein, or the holiest person you know, but you can’t appreciate any of those qualities so long as you are suffering from their bad breath!
This is what a civilian population who supports an organization with a terroristic component is like. Just because they have bad breath in their encounter, this does not mean they are not worthy and wonderful people. Thus, the people of Gaza, by having elected Hamas, are being treated as if they are nothing but gas bags of bad breath. That is unjust, incorrect and unfair.
Let us return to the bad breath example. Coffee, a wonderful beverage, is the cause of much bad breath. So there is an example of a great gift to humanity-coffee-having an unfortunate and often unconscious side effect in many, bad breath. I could not stand the breath of my ex- after he had drunk coffee; it was actually worse than how he smelled after smoking cigarettes. But that does not mean that he was no longer an intelligent person, or one who could look nice, or one that could be kind. He was all of those things, but with bad breath after drinking coffee. So coffee, a genuine gift to humanity and a beneficial thing, can, if not monitored, have an unpleasant side effect that masks all the other good, for those moments, in the person. We can also list other foods like this, such as onions and garlic, feta cheese and so forth.
However, bad breath can also be a warning sign of a health problem. Every mindful and caring parent of a small child knows this. When your child suddenly has bad breath, they are not doing it to annoy you or to be “dirty.” A child with bad breath usually has a nasal drip or an allergy, thus a respiratory health matter. Bad breath is a sign that is supposed to be helpful, to alert someone to a problematic health condition. So you don’t want to be angry at the small infant with bad breath, or just “cover it up,” but look as to why they have the bad breath so that the health matter can be attended to.
Thus the Gaza people with Hamas can be viewed as being like a person with bad breath, and one must see if it is an unconscious side effect of a good thing (coffee) or the sign of a health problem (respiratory distress). By the way, I am not saying Hamas is the bad breath, LOL! I am saying their terroristic actions are the bad breath. Separate from the terroristic acts Hamas members are the same as Gaza civilians, the good that is being masked by the bad breath.
So the first job of the diplomat is to recognize that the terroristic acts that one observes, whether by Hamas or any other group, is like “bad breath.” It has a disproportionate effect of masking the vast majority of normalcy and goodness, with common aspirations, of the people “underneath” the bad breath. Too often diplomats, to say nothing of the reactionary governments, not only just focus on the bad breath but they seem to have entire conversations (mostly threats) with the bad breath (the acts of terrorism) rather than the lips, mouths, brains and hearts of the people behind the terrorism bad breath. I’m faintly amazed that I have to explain this to so many people who think they are otherwise so intelligent.
This is one of the things that the diplomats of, in particular the British Empire, for all their faults well understood. These foreign servants lived among the local people so much that many were accused of “going native” or “going bush,” which is that they embrace the local culture. Thus they were not reactionary when there were “bad breath” incidents, because they maintained their 80 percent to 20 percent understanding of the people who are behind the bad breath and the bad breath acts itself. This was one of the great attributes of the golden age of diplomacy, this ability to maintain vision on not only the “bad breath,” but keep the majority of one’s understanding on the people and the underlying reasons for the bad breath acts.
Now, here is another analogy to help you to understand. There are certain things that the Republican party tends to do that makes me just vomit in disgust, just as there are certain things that the Democrat party does that also makes me vomit. But I do not reduce all the millions of people who agree in each party with those particular positions into thinking of them as just barf making sub-humans, LOL. I know that behind the party platforms and individual heinous viewpoints are, in general, a bunch of individual people who share aspirations and are trying to do the best that they can.
Here is a related analogy. Let’s look at the political party affiliation of the ten Presidents after our first, George Washington.
John Adams: Federalist
Thomas Jefferson: Democratic-Republican
James Madison: Democratic-Republican
James Monroe: Democratic-Republican
John Quincy Adams: Federalist until 1808, Democratic-Republican until 1825, National Republican (Whig) thereafter
Andrew Jackson: Democratic
Martin Van Buren: Democratic (during Presidency); Free Soil (from 1848)
William Henry Harrison: Whig
John Tyler: Whig
James Knox Polk: Democratic
Now, from this list you can observe without reading a “too long” dissertation that political parties came into being and evolved at a rapid rate. Democratic-Republican used to be one party, and they evolved and split. Federalists were the party of our country’s founding, yet even though they were the “original” they did not maintain a mandate once the country was well established. Other parties such as “Free Soil” sprang up in response to current conditions, yet they are forgotten today. Political parties and affiliations are a living and vibrant thing. Likewise people like the Palestinians have an evolving attempt to organize around “parties,” for lack of a better word, that reflect their aspirations and their current reality. Yet countries such as the United States and Israel act like they should be frozen in time.
It is a diplomatic error to think that, “Well, the Palestinians had the PLO, which we denounced since they were terrorists, but they gave up terrorism to become Fatah and thus they are ‘OK’ and we will ‘allow’ the Palestinians to ‘have’ Fatah and Fatah alone.” Huh? What if the United States was forced to only have the Federalist party, one party, the “first and only” alone? After all, the USA was formed by the Federalists. Shouldn’t the USA be forced to have only one party, the Federalists? Are not the Democratic and Republican parties invalid?
When Gaza people voted Hamas into power they were doing so because they were frustrated with the shortcomings, including financial corruption, of Fatah. Yet to this day western diplomats are mouthing off that Hamas is not “legitimate?” Well, I don’t think that any USA political party since the Federalists is valid. I’m not joking. If you are going to tell me that people halfway around the world do not live like the rest of us, having evolving needs and evolving responses in affiliation (and yes, some of them have some bad breath) then I think we should live by the same “rules,” else we are shameless hypocrites. So I am quite serious that I believe that all political parties since the Federalist Party are invalid.
If a diplomat cannot look at a people, such as the Palestinians in Gaza, and have the most fundamental understanding that despite the terroristic actions that are the bad breath of the party in power that this is part of normal democracy and the urges of the people, then one can neither achieve peace nor even have correct vision of the problems, challenges and opportunities. You are punishing the Gaza people for trying to self correct what they thought was a problem with the ruling party, Fatah. You are enabling Israel, by focusing only on the bad breath terrorism, to bomb the hell out of people to punish them for trying to “kick the bums out of office and elect new people,” which was just what they did. It is one of the democratic hypocrisies of the century, in my opinion.
So to wrap up this case study, the point I am trying to make is that politicians, most especially diplomats, must learn to recognize normal democratic process in the natural form that it takes place in other countries and cultures, such as the forming and electing of new parties. Second one must recognize if the bad breath of terrorism of those parties are due to systemic health problems which must be addressed, rather than punching the teeth and gums of innocent men, women and children out of their mouths to “cure the bad breath” and then blame them for it to boot. Third, one must look at the diplomatic challenge and see the parallels in our own history (the British thought we were terrorists, by the way) and respond with a resonance and firm guidance in more fruitful channels rather than denial. Fourth, we need to invest in people’s political interest and participation, not discourage it when we don’t like the results. Fifth we must not have dialogue with the bad breath acts and, instead, go back to having dialogue with the people, friend and foe alike. Sixth, just as the USA would resent being told we must go back to Federalist party alone, so too we must not expect people to have “one size fit all” political parties that meet our (or Israel’s) approval.
I hope that you have found this helpful. I have a lot more to say about how to get going in productive diplomacy but I don't want to make this "tl/dr" (too long; didn't read).
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Gaza death toll makes me retch
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/world/middleeast/19gaza.html
snip
More than 20 of them were from the Samouni family, whose younger members were digging with shovels and hands for relatives stuck in rooms inside. Faris Samouni, 59, sat alone, watching them. He had lost his wife, daughter-in-law, grandson and nephew, and he was heartbroken.
“Twenty-one are down there,” he said, starting to cry. “One is my wife. Her name is Rizka.”
snip
“They killed the elders, the children, the women, the animals, the chickens,” said Subhi, 55, Rizka’s brother. “It’s a nightmare. I never thought I would lose all of them.”
snip
The house had a special meaning. The family had lived for generations in a refugee camp, and six years ago had saved enough money to build it. This morning they came to find it in shambles, a crushing discovery.
“It was my dream and now it is erased,” said Hadija Saker, 55, who ticked off the evidence, as she saw it, of Israel’s unjust actions. She said Hamas lacked influence in the area. A teacher at a United Nations school lived on one side. A journalist on the other. Most painful, she said, were her lemon trees, which she had nurtured for years and now lay crushed under the sandy soil crisscrossed with the marks of tank treads.
snip
More than 20 of them were from the Samouni family, whose younger members were digging with shovels and hands for relatives stuck in rooms inside. Faris Samouni, 59, sat alone, watching them. He had lost his wife, daughter-in-law, grandson and nephew, and he was heartbroken.
“Twenty-one are down there,” he said, starting to cry. “One is my wife. Her name is Rizka.”
snip
“They killed the elders, the children, the women, the animals, the chickens,” said Subhi, 55, Rizka’s brother. “It’s a nightmare. I never thought I would lose all of them.”
snip
The house had a special meaning. The family had lived for generations in a refugee camp, and six years ago had saved enough money to build it. This morning they came to find it in shambles, a crushing discovery.
“It was my dream and now it is erased,” said Hadija Saker, 55, who ticked off the evidence, as she saw it, of Israel’s unjust actions. She said Hamas lacked influence in the area. A teacher at a United Nations school lived on one side. A journalist on the other. Most painful, she said, were her lemon trees, which she had nurtured for years and now lay crushed under the sandy soil crisscrossed with the marks of tank treads.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Gaza doctor's three daughters killed
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50F6ML20090116
snip
The deaths of more than 1,150 Palestinians, some 700 of them civilians by one independent count, have left the Israeli public largely unmoved.
snip
The deaths of more than 1,150 Palestinians, some 700 of them civilians by one independent count, have left the Israeli public largely unmoved.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Israel bombs Gaza Catholic med clinic, no surprise
Is anyone surprised by anything that is coming out of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza? I'm not, anymore.
I have to admit, the pregnant woman being shot on her way to the clinic to give birth is kind of a unique low that raises an eyebrow or two. As you can read in the article, mother and baby are dead. But then again, a "military operation" that nods and winks at 900+ dead with a third of them children and women just keeps "delighting" us with how low they can go "But we cannot allow those missiles!"
And then there is the burning phosphorous, but that's in other news coverage.
How can the Israeli government and military sleep at night? I honestly wonder how they could have such hard hearts.
http://www.zenit.org/article-24760?l=english
snip
Israeli Bomb Destroys Caritas Medical Clinic
Aid Group Launches $2M Appeal
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, JAN. 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Caritas Internationalis is launching an emergency appeal for the suffering people of Gaza after a bomb on Friday destroyed one of the aid organization's medical clinics.
The clinic, in the Al Maghazi district of Central Gaza, was completely destroyed in a bombing that also flattened four homes. At least another 20 homes sustained heavy damage in the blast. Families had already fled the area, so Caritas reported no injuries.
The aid organization has five other medical clinics in Gaza. With their appeal, they are hoping to raise more than $2 million for a seven-month program.
Close to 900 Palestinians have died after two weeks of fighting, and U.N. officials say that 40% of the dead are women and children.
Meanwhile, the priest of Gaza's Catholic parish, Father Manuel Musallam, spoke of the "extreme fear" of the Gazans.
He told Caritas by telephone from Beit Hanoun in Gaza today, "There is extreme fear everywhere here. The bombs the Israelis are dropping are literally cutting through people and through homes. Night and day the sound of children crying is everywhere. The people here don't sleep. They have lost everything.
"70,000 people are living in schools and they are very cold. The ones who haven't gone to schools are living in their bathrooms or stairwells because they are afraid of being injured by shattering glass from bombs. There is no water here. We are almost out of diesel for our generator that we have allowed people to come and cook from. When the diesel runs out, we will have nothing. [...]
"There are dead bodies lying on the streets. The clinics are carrying out operations on the floor.
Women have no place to give birth. One pregnant woman was shot on her way to a clinic to give birth. They tried to save the baby but he, too, was dead.
"Life and death for people in Gaza is the same."
I have to admit, the pregnant woman being shot on her way to the clinic to give birth is kind of a unique low that raises an eyebrow or two. As you can read in the article, mother and baby are dead. But then again, a "military operation" that nods and winks at 900+ dead with a third of them children and women just keeps "delighting" us with how low they can go "But we cannot allow those missiles!"
And then there is the burning phosphorous, but that's in other news coverage.
How can the Israeli government and military sleep at night? I honestly wonder how they could have such hard hearts.
http://www.zenit.org/article-24760?l=english
snip
Israeli Bomb Destroys Caritas Medical Clinic
Aid Group Launches $2M Appeal
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, JAN. 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Caritas Internationalis is launching an emergency appeal for the suffering people of Gaza after a bomb on Friday destroyed one of the aid organization's medical clinics.
The clinic, in the Al Maghazi district of Central Gaza, was completely destroyed in a bombing that also flattened four homes. At least another 20 homes sustained heavy damage in the blast. Families had already fled the area, so Caritas reported no injuries.
The aid organization has five other medical clinics in Gaza. With their appeal, they are hoping to raise more than $2 million for a seven-month program.
Close to 900 Palestinians have died after two weeks of fighting, and U.N. officials say that 40% of the dead are women and children.
Meanwhile, the priest of Gaza's Catholic parish, Father Manuel Musallam, spoke of the "extreme fear" of the Gazans.
He told Caritas by telephone from Beit Hanoun in Gaza today, "There is extreme fear everywhere here. The bombs the Israelis are dropping are literally cutting through people and through homes. Night and day the sound of children crying is everywhere. The people here don't sleep. They have lost everything.
"70,000 people are living in schools and they are very cold. The ones who haven't gone to schools are living in their bathrooms or stairwells because they are afraid of being injured by shattering glass from bombs. There is no water here. We are almost out of diesel for our generator that we have allowed people to come and cook from. When the diesel runs out, we will have nothing. [...]
"There are dead bodies lying on the streets. The clinics are carrying out operations on the floor.
Women have no place to give birth. One pregnant woman was shot on her way to a clinic to give birth. They tried to save the baby but he, too, was dead.
"Life and death for people in Gaza is the same."
Friday, January 9, 2009
Maybe a new political party in Israel?
Maybe Mr Mubarak and Ms Rice are planning to run together in Israel's upcoming elections.
Just a thought based on their mind boggling lack of conscience regarding Gaza.
((((((((((((((((((What would they call their new party, I wonder?)))))))))))))))))))))))
PUCG? (Party United to Crush Gazans?)
HNH? (Ham Not Hamas?)
SIG (Silence Is Golden?)
DONJ? (Decades Of No Justice?)
NMNRNP? (No Mercy: No Rockets, No Problem?)
Just a thought based on their mind boggling lack of conscience regarding Gaza.
((((((((((((((((((What would they call their new party, I wonder?)))))))))))))))))))))))
PUCG? (Party United to Crush Gazans?)
HNH? (Ham Not Hamas?)
SIG (Silence Is Golden?)
DONJ? (Decades Of No Justice?)
NMNRNP? (No Mercy: No Rockets, No Problem?)
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Reflections on my father's prophesy re: Israel
I want to tell you about the one and only time that my father prophesied. First of all, do understand that prophesying is not “fortune telling” or being a “psychic,” and it is not the use of human extra-sensory perception (ESP). To prophesy means that one is uttering a truth that is provided to you directly by God. Thus the prophets were speaking something on behalf of God, not on behalf of their own wisdom or from supposed arcane sources.
To prophesy only once is not unusual. Most of the Biblical prophets lived years of average pious lives and then receive their calling from God, and sometimes it is only once that they are called upon to prophesy. Prophets do not, in other words, establish themselves in the “prophecy” business. People who needed consistent guidance did not go to prophets, who only spoke on God’s behest, but they went to what the Bible calls “wise” men or women. Among the Israelites wise men or women were pious and steeped in the faith; they were not “smart” due to arcane or secular studies.
Anyway, my dad was a totally average guy of his times, though he was what some might call “deep.” My cousin said that my dad had a genius IQ, but in keeping with his times he dropped out of school in the eighth grade in order to work and help support the family (this would be when he was thirteen years old and would have been in the early part of the 1900’s). So even though he had a smart mind and a keen interest in the world, and fought in the American army in World War II (where he met the woman who would become my mother) the one time he prophesied really stands out. My mother and I were reminiscing about this a few years ago while we watched the news one evening.
Around sixty years ago when the UN made their determination to partition Palestine and establish the state of Israel, my father turned to my mother (who as a war refugee was still learning English and was not much on politics). He pointed out to her what was going on and said to her, “Do you see what is happening? Remember this day. What is happening is going to be a great sorrow and how they are doing this is a great mistake. In the future remember what I said.”
My mother says how after my dad died in the 1960’s, she has watched what has happened and marveled how he prophesied this, telling her to think on that day, just as he said. And so a few years ago we watched the news and she recalled once again what he had said.
My father who has enormous street credibility as he put his life on the line-and was wounded-fighting the Nazis he was certainly not being anti-Jewish. He prophesied the disaster that would come from the approach that was taken sixty years ago and how it would only create woe and destroy the peace. This is one reason I am so angry and irate about what is going on in Gaza. My family, through my dad’s prophesy, has seen this coming for sixty years and I cannot believe that rather than thoughtful re-examining of what has worked well with Israel and Palestine and what obviously has not worked, there is only greater hardening of hearts and narrow mindedness. There are people who have been refugees now for as long as it has been since my father prophesied. It’s like there has been a competition about who can care less about the millions, both Jewish and Palestinian, who have suffered. Yet there has been a mind blowing resistance toward contemplating even the most minor of errors that have been made, particularly by Israel. I have never seen a group of people who deny ever making any sort of error as the Israeli institutions. This has now translated into a petty tyrant cruelty that is truly shameful.
Anyway, I thought that I’d share this perspective that has been understood in my family for sixty years now, as we’ve just watched the continual dismal countdown to fulfillment of my father’s prophecy. Cultists have been so nosy and weird about my father that I figured I might as well blog, since it’s certainly not a secret, what is true about my father and what is not. He was just an interesting and average guy with intriguing hidden depths, but the only “supernatural” claim that anyone can make about him is that he uttered that one prophecy regarding the continual sorrow of Palestine and Israel due to errors made in its creation sixty years ago. Ah well.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Lowest of King David's soldiers would be ashamed
If we told the lowest of the foot soldiers in the army of King David about how their descendants are conducting themselves, they would be in disbelief and in shame.
It's not like they would have dropped a bomb or a shell on a gathering place of frightened refugees at a school even if there were enemy firing on them from behind. I guess the only place that honorable hand to hand combat exists is in your filthy video games.
The lowest of the lowest soldier of King David or Solomon's time would spit on all of you today.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Cultural diplomacy and friendship
Cultural diplomacy and “friendship”
Of course the vast majority of diplomacy is routine and takes place among friendly or at least neutral nations. Yet all nations have a circle of fellow nations who they consider friends. Despite what I said about the USA being biased on behalf of Israel and against the Palestinians, and thus not valid in terms of calling themselves diplomatic peace makers, there is nothing wrong with friendly nations and the taking of sides. But there is a big caution that must be realized that among nations, even as among individuals, there are two types of friends.
Listening to the political talk shows today I heard various American politicians be referred to as “friends of Israel.” My children, it is not difficult to be a ‘friend’ to Israel if you are of the one type of friend and not the other type of friend. Here is an analogy.
Suppose that you are a woman who has a dear friend who is a drug addict. You love him very much and what do you do to ‘keep’ his friendship? You buy him drugs. That is what American diplomats who are ‘friends’ with Israel are like.
Here is the type of friend that Israel needs. Israel needs a woman who loves Israel very much, but tells Israel “You cannot keep taking drugs. It is destroying your soul and it puts blinders on you so that you only see one ‘answer’ to every problem.”
What will happen to that true friend? She will be called an old, stupid, ugly fat bitch, and a whore. She will be dragged through the mud and Israel will tell everyone that she is a Nazi, a Jew hater, an anti-Semite and an ignorant cow. Just to teach that true friend ‘a lesson’ Israel will take even more drugs, and parade around posing for photographs with Israel’s ‘best friend friends’ who supply the drugs that you refuse to do.
Well, gosh, who would want to go through that? No one really wants to go through that, and so American diplomats have all chosen to be the enabling first type of ‘friend.’ If one even questions the drug use of Israel one has seen how the wrath of people who cannot agree about anything except how much they now hate you fall upon you like an anvil. And so when you see what happens to genuine friends who even raise an eyebrow of questioning toward Israel, you keep your mouth shut and you ask Israel, “How much do you want and when do you want it?” You then also join with them in bashing the bad Palestinians who “drive Israel to drugs” and who “make us the way we are.”
Yes, it sure is not difficult to be an enabling friend of Israel, one who does not care about its health or soul. It sure is difficult and, thus far, impossible to be a genuine friend of Israel.
Of course the vast majority of diplomacy is routine and takes place among friendly or at least neutral nations. Yet all nations have a circle of fellow nations who they consider friends. Despite what I said about the USA being biased on behalf of Israel and against the Palestinians, and thus not valid in terms of calling themselves diplomatic peace makers, there is nothing wrong with friendly nations and the taking of sides. But there is a big caution that must be realized that among nations, even as among individuals, there are two types of friends.
Listening to the political talk shows today I heard various American politicians be referred to as “friends of Israel.” My children, it is not difficult to be a ‘friend’ to Israel if you are of the one type of friend and not the other type of friend. Here is an analogy.
Suppose that you are a woman who has a dear friend who is a drug addict. You love him very much and what do you do to ‘keep’ his friendship? You buy him drugs. That is what American diplomats who are ‘friends’ with Israel are like.
Here is the type of friend that Israel needs. Israel needs a woman who loves Israel very much, but tells Israel “You cannot keep taking drugs. It is destroying your soul and it puts blinders on you so that you only see one ‘answer’ to every problem.”
What will happen to that true friend? She will be called an old, stupid, ugly fat bitch, and a whore. She will be dragged through the mud and Israel will tell everyone that she is a Nazi, a Jew hater, an anti-Semite and an ignorant cow. Just to teach that true friend ‘a lesson’ Israel will take even more drugs, and parade around posing for photographs with Israel’s ‘best friend friends’ who supply the drugs that you refuse to do.
Well, gosh, who would want to go through that? No one really wants to go through that, and so American diplomats have all chosen to be the enabling first type of ‘friend.’ If one even questions the drug use of Israel one has seen how the wrath of people who cannot agree about anything except how much they now hate you fall upon you like an anvil. And so when you see what happens to genuine friends who even raise an eyebrow of questioning toward Israel, you keep your mouth shut and you ask Israel, “How much do you want and when do you want it?” You then also join with them in bashing the bad Palestinians who “drive Israel to drugs” and who “make us the way we are.”
Yes, it sure is not difficult to be an enabling friend of Israel, one who does not care about its health or soul. It sure is difficult and, thus far, impossible to be a genuine friend of Israel.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Cultural diplomacy tutorial and RANT
This is another in my series regarding how to understand and achieve successful cultural diplomacy. Here I will explain to you things you must understand about how resistance, subversive and even “terroristic” organizations arise and important characteristics to keep in mind to achieve peace. I have Hamas in the Gaza strip in my mind as the specific case study, but will reference the wide range of groups in history who have been in a revolutionary or uprising role. The only group I want to reserve for separate consideration because they are totally unique is Al Qaeda.
The main point of this tutorial and case study will be to refute the modern assumptions by many, especially those in the western world, that a resistance, subversive or terrorist organization is a separate entity from the civilian population. All resistance, subversive and terrorist organizations arise from the populace; they are not “imposed” on an unwilling population nor are they “side by side” with the populace. Thus Israel and the United States are being deliberately dishonest to imply that Hamas is an organization that can be “rooted out” of the populace, like weeds being pulled from among good corn. Think of Hamas as corn with guns. The same is true of Hezbollah in Lebanon and of course the PLO, now Fatah, the legitimate government, before Fatah lost credibility. One would be more accurate to understand such organizations, with the exception of Al Qaeda, as being violent political parties that non-violent people also support or they would not be on the “ballot” of public opinion.
Look at the two historical examples of the American Revolution and the overthrow of the Czars by the Communists. It’s not like a bunch of people in what would become the United States imposed their will to revolt against England on top of the citizen populace. The delegates to the Congress from the states and then the men who fought in the armies all were drawn from and empowered by the people. Imagine if England thought that the Revolutionaries were a distinct group that they could “kill off” and then the desire for freedom would just die out in America. That would have been a huge military error one that, obviously, they did not make. The English understood very well that the civilian populace fueled and supported the revolution and were part of it, not a separate entity. Those of the civilians who disagreed with the Revolution either remained in place silently and accepted the tide of change, or left for England or Canada. Likewise in the former USSR, one must understand that the populace was behind and part of the Communists who overthrew the monarchy. The problem is that they didn’t know what they were bargaining for, how ruinous Communism would be for body and soul. But the excesses of the monarchy and their ignoring of the extreme and dire poverty of the people allowed the Bolsheviks to arise from among the populace, not as a superimposed force.
Another example is “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, the conflict between paramilitary Protestant Irish and paramilitary Catholic Irish. Again, right or wrong, it’s not like these groups fell out of the sky and imposed their will on the people. They were members of the populace who felt the need for resistance (Catholic minorities) and counter resistance (the ruling Protestants). That is why one simply could not “go in” and “jail or kill” every paramilitary IRA member, for example, without at the same time pursuing genuine diplomacy. Because these extremist organizations arise from and belong to the populace, one cannot EVER pursue a “sequential” process where “step one” is “stop the violence” and then step two as the “reward” is the diplomacy.
The United States is guilty of naïve and even stupid beliefs such as that. I cannot remember the last time we had “diplomats” who were actually even adequate in understanding the principles of diplomacy and the origins of revolutionary, subversive or terrorist movements. Israel knows darn well the difference but they have made a cultural decision to have a “backs against the wall” stance that insists on total “peace” before social injustice is addressed. Thus Israel is delighted at the naiveté of the past several generations of US “diplomats” who they view as public relations mouthpieces and “defensive” weapons suppliers. I mean, give me a break. Any diplomat worth his or her salt realizes that one cannot “wait” for a total “cease fire” before diplomacy while at the same time one side is turning up the heat of the social injustice that, genuine or perceived, is the result of the valid or invalid violence. It is like expecting a pit bull to stop biting while you are still hitting it with a stick. Israel knows full well that they have tightened the screws on the Palestinians to make their day to day economic life a misery and, in fact, a gulag and thus they continue to poke the pit bull while loudly screaming with feigned senses of grievance that “total peace” is needed before “diplomacy can begin.”
President Bush and his “expert on Russia,” Condoleezza Rice, have not earned one penny of their paychecks regarding the Middle East. What an embarrassment they have been.
Notice I have mixed examples of what people could say are “justifiable” revolution, subversion and while terrorism is never justified one must acknowledge that obviously someone thinks it is or they’d be home planting grape vines, with examples that obviously came to very unhappy fruition, such as the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Communism to power. You don’t “agree” with the people you are engaging in diplomacy with, for cripes sake. Golda Meir (the last Israeli leader that I think understood diplomacy) herself said that you negotiate with your enemies, not your friends. Diplomats should not be “step and fetch its” for one side in the diplomatic endeavor.
I mean, think about this slowly and carefully. In resolving a dispute, how reasonable and fair can that diplomat be if they are supplying one side with the weaponry? The idea of the USA being a diplomat in the Middle East problem is a joke and always has been. All the USA does is supply Israel with weapons and pats on the back. That’s fine if that is the foreign policy stance of the USA but what nerve they have to call themselves “partners in a peace process” and “diplomats.”
Europeans used to be very savvy about diplomacy, having centuries of genuine experience, and they used to laugh at Americans being clods and naïve. In turn, in fairness, Americans spotted the mote in the Europeans’ own diplomatic eye with their soft stance toward the grave and mortal dangers of Communism. But because the Americans were right about Communism, the Europeans shut up and just let it slide as the Americans make a mess of the Middle East. In turn the Americans think that they are foreign policy geniuses (for recognizing that Communism is bad, duh) and as a result have missed cultivating at least three generations of genuine diplomats.
There is another cultural problem with Americans. Because they have experienced over the past forty years the freakish forming of cults and criminal individuals or groups that are terrorists, they have done an unconscious and totally invalid pattern matching in their minds. Thus when America had domestic terrorists such as the SLA (the folks who kidnapped Patty Hearst back in the 60's) who are a few nuts who united for havoc, the lack of diplomatic savvy in the government resulted in Americans just assuming that all terrorists throughout the world are a loose coalition of "nuts" "imposing” terrorism on the populace. In other words, Americans have become so simplistic that they have only two models of understanding of armed resistance: a group of criminal nuts like the SLA from the 60's, or Al Qaeda from 2001. Americans seem to understand absolutely nothing in between which is where all the conflicts in the world actually reside, in that space in between.
Therefore, to summarize my points:
The main point of this tutorial and case study will be to refute the modern assumptions by many, especially those in the western world, that a resistance, subversive or terrorist organization is a separate entity from the civilian population. All resistance, subversive and terrorist organizations arise from the populace; they are not “imposed” on an unwilling population nor are they “side by side” with the populace. Thus Israel and the United States are being deliberately dishonest to imply that Hamas is an organization that can be “rooted out” of the populace, like weeds being pulled from among good corn. Think of Hamas as corn with guns. The same is true of Hezbollah in Lebanon and of course the PLO, now Fatah, the legitimate government, before Fatah lost credibility. One would be more accurate to understand such organizations, with the exception of Al Qaeda, as being violent political parties that non-violent people also support or they would not be on the “ballot” of public opinion.
Look at the two historical examples of the American Revolution and the overthrow of the Czars by the Communists. It’s not like a bunch of people in what would become the United States imposed their will to revolt against England on top of the citizen populace. The delegates to the Congress from the states and then the men who fought in the armies all were drawn from and empowered by the people. Imagine if England thought that the Revolutionaries were a distinct group that they could “kill off” and then the desire for freedom would just die out in America. That would have been a huge military error one that, obviously, they did not make. The English understood very well that the civilian populace fueled and supported the revolution and were part of it, not a separate entity. Those of the civilians who disagreed with the Revolution either remained in place silently and accepted the tide of change, or left for England or Canada. Likewise in the former USSR, one must understand that the populace was behind and part of the Communists who overthrew the monarchy. The problem is that they didn’t know what they were bargaining for, how ruinous Communism would be for body and soul. But the excesses of the monarchy and their ignoring of the extreme and dire poverty of the people allowed the Bolsheviks to arise from among the populace, not as a superimposed force.
Another example is “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland, the conflict between paramilitary Protestant Irish and paramilitary Catholic Irish. Again, right or wrong, it’s not like these groups fell out of the sky and imposed their will on the people. They were members of the populace who felt the need for resistance (Catholic minorities) and counter resistance (the ruling Protestants). That is why one simply could not “go in” and “jail or kill” every paramilitary IRA member, for example, without at the same time pursuing genuine diplomacy. Because these extremist organizations arise from and belong to the populace, one cannot EVER pursue a “sequential” process where “step one” is “stop the violence” and then step two as the “reward” is the diplomacy.
The United States is guilty of naïve and even stupid beliefs such as that. I cannot remember the last time we had “diplomats” who were actually even adequate in understanding the principles of diplomacy and the origins of revolutionary, subversive or terrorist movements. Israel knows darn well the difference but they have made a cultural decision to have a “backs against the wall” stance that insists on total “peace” before social injustice is addressed. Thus Israel is delighted at the naiveté of the past several generations of US “diplomats” who they view as public relations mouthpieces and “defensive” weapons suppliers. I mean, give me a break. Any diplomat worth his or her salt realizes that one cannot “wait” for a total “cease fire” before diplomacy while at the same time one side is turning up the heat of the social injustice that, genuine or perceived, is the result of the valid or invalid violence. It is like expecting a pit bull to stop biting while you are still hitting it with a stick. Israel knows full well that they have tightened the screws on the Palestinians to make their day to day economic life a misery and, in fact, a gulag and thus they continue to poke the pit bull while loudly screaming with feigned senses of grievance that “total peace” is needed before “diplomacy can begin.”
President Bush and his “expert on Russia,” Condoleezza Rice, have not earned one penny of their paychecks regarding the Middle East. What an embarrassment they have been.
Notice I have mixed examples of what people could say are “justifiable” revolution, subversion and while terrorism is never justified one must acknowledge that obviously someone thinks it is or they’d be home planting grape vines, with examples that obviously came to very unhappy fruition, such as the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Communism to power. You don’t “agree” with the people you are engaging in diplomacy with, for cripes sake. Golda Meir (the last Israeli leader that I think understood diplomacy) herself said that you negotiate with your enemies, not your friends. Diplomats should not be “step and fetch its” for one side in the diplomatic endeavor.
I mean, think about this slowly and carefully. In resolving a dispute, how reasonable and fair can that diplomat be if they are supplying one side with the weaponry? The idea of the USA being a diplomat in the Middle East problem is a joke and always has been. All the USA does is supply Israel with weapons and pats on the back. That’s fine if that is the foreign policy stance of the USA but what nerve they have to call themselves “partners in a peace process” and “diplomats.”
Europeans used to be very savvy about diplomacy, having centuries of genuine experience, and they used to laugh at Americans being clods and naïve. In turn, in fairness, Americans spotted the mote in the Europeans’ own diplomatic eye with their soft stance toward the grave and mortal dangers of Communism. But because the Americans were right about Communism, the Europeans shut up and just let it slide as the Americans make a mess of the Middle East. In turn the Americans think that they are foreign policy geniuses (for recognizing that Communism is bad, duh) and as a result have missed cultivating at least three generations of genuine diplomats.
There is another cultural problem with Americans. Because they have experienced over the past forty years the freakish forming of cults and criminal individuals or groups that are terrorists, they have done an unconscious and totally invalid pattern matching in their minds. Thus when America had domestic terrorists such as the SLA (the folks who kidnapped Patty Hearst back in the 60's) who are a few nuts who united for havoc, the lack of diplomatic savvy in the government resulted in Americans just assuming that all terrorists throughout the world are a loose coalition of "nuts" "imposing” terrorism on the populace. In other words, Americans have become so simplistic that they have only two models of understanding of armed resistance: a group of criminal nuts like the SLA from the 60's, or Al Qaeda from 2001. Americans seem to understand absolutely nothing in between which is where all the conflicts in the world actually reside, in that space in between.
Therefore, to summarize my points:
1) You cannot have a valid diplomatic role if you are supplying weaponry to one side, period. I mean, duh, how difficult is that to understand? Step aside and let real genuine neutral diplomats take over your "role."
2) We need genuine diplomats who understand cultural and historical contexts and who understand the actual diplomatic process and are not just “advocates with agendas for one side.”
3) All enduring organizations that are based on armed resistance are not separate from the populace and cannot be extracted from the populace.
4) There is no example of diplomacy where negotiation “waits” until “after” violence has “completely stopped,” particularly if the aggrieved side experiences continual pressure and provocation.
5) Do not say you are for “democracy” and “free elections” and then declare the winners “terrorists.” Hamas was elected into office, deal with it, not whine and try to kill them off while calling yourselves "pillars of democracy."
The diplomatic ignorance and willful collusion of the Americans in injustice in many forums around the world has been a source of excruciating embarrassment for me for decades now. We don’t have diplomats; we have empty suits with big egos who fly around like celebrities. It’s embarrassing.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Read this editorial about Israel Gaza crisis
I agree with every word of it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/27/israelandthepalestinians-terrorism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/27/israelandthepalestinians-terrorism
Israeli government/military have lost their minds
Pray for them. They have completely lost their way.
I would thought that had been obvious after Lebanon, but the defensive killing mentality just keeps rolling on, aided and abetted by deliberately unseeing Western governments.
Logic, decency, justice and humanitarianism is not working with the Israelis.
Only God can change their hearts.
Pray, pray, pray.
I would thought that had been obvious after Lebanon, but the defensive killing mentality just keeps rolling on, aided and abetted by deliberately unseeing Western governments.
Logic, decency, justice and humanitarianism is not working with the Israelis.
Only God can change their hearts.
How has Israel gotten to this point where those in the government who still believe in God at all think that God approves a mindless, vengeful killing machine?
Pray, pray, pray.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Kirkpatrick, Albright, and Rice
None of these "women politicians" ever saw an Israeli policy they didn't like.
Nothing like bringing that "woman's touch" to "diplomacy" "govenment" and "politics."
UGH! and that's not an anagram for "hug."
And remember, Hilary scorned "staying home and baking cookies." Guess she wasn't tapping Bill's shoulder to get flour, rice and oil into impoverished Palestinian communities.
When will a prominant woman speak up for the Palestinians who live in degrading conditions that worsen instead of improve from rock bottom?
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/06/gaza.crisis/?iref=hpmostpop
Nothing like bringing that "woman's touch" to "diplomacy" "govenment" and "politics."
UGH! and that's not an anagram for "hug."
And remember, Hilary scorned "staying home and baking cookies." Guess she wasn't tapping Bill's shoulder to get flour, rice and oil into impoverished Palestinian communities.
When will a prominant woman speak up for the Palestinians who live in degrading conditions that worsen instead of improve from rock bottom?
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/06/gaza.crisis/?iref=hpmostpop
Humanitarian orgs ID Israel destoying Gaza people
Read this dose of reality.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/06/gaza.crisis/?iref=hpmostpop
(Jesus will be asking evangelical Christians who pour money into Israel so that Israel can be the new old Russia of the gulags, why did you do that? Why did you let families be destroyed, children go hungry, and sewage run in the street? And worse, do it in my name? There will be no good answer to that question. I suggest certain people close their wallets until Israel stops being a moral cesspool).
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/06/gaza.crisis/?iref=hpmostpop
(Jesus will be asking evangelical Christians who pour money into Israel so that Israel can be the new old Russia of the gulags, why did you do that? Why did you let families be destroyed, children go hungry, and sewage run in the street? And worse, do it in my name? There will be no good answer to that question. I suggest certain people close their wallets until Israel stops being a moral cesspool).
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Israel over-reacts again, worst kill since 1980s
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2868601720080302
GAZA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using "excessive" force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s.
Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gaza's Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.
snip
Areas from which Hamas has launched rockets that have killed three Israelis in the past year saw heavy clashes on the ground on Saturday and air strikes continued to pound buildings and homes that Israel said were used by militants. In some of these attacks, children as young as six months have been killed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/02/wmid102.xml
snip
At least three women and nine children, ranging in age from 13 months to 17 years, were reported to be among the dead. In Gaza's main Shifa hospital, a toddler screamed as doctors tried to treat her for burns. "Uncle, I don't want to die. I want my dad," she cried. The girl was injured after Israel attacked a house which the army claimed had been used to store and make weapons.
A mother preparing breakfast for her children was killed when she was hit by gunfire, relatives and medical workers said. Four more civilians died when a missile struck a crowd of Palestinians. Hospital officials said that two dead children remain unidentified in hospital.
Among those killed were a 16-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother, who died after artillery attacks on Jabaliya camp. Another 16-year-old girl was killed and her baby brother was seriously injured while watching television, and two sisters died when their kitchen roof collapsed.
Abu Alaa, 40, a resident of Jabaliya, said: "We are in the middle of a total war. We hear the rockets and the explosions everywhere. We cannot leave our homes. They're shooting at everything that moves."
Sami Ali Oush, 25, a student who lives in Jabaliya, said: "We have many injured, but the ambulances cannot reach them because the Israeli soldiers are everywhere."
http://www.jordantimes.com/
[with photo of wounded toddler being carried into hospital]
Jordan demands immediate halt to Israeli aggression
HIS MAJESTY KING Abdullah on Saturday condemned the Israeli aggression and massacres committed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. In a telephone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah described Israeli military escalations as “dangerous and a violation to all international covenants”.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=107394&d=2&m=3&y=2008
[This will test if the reader can truly be open minded on the subject of Israel]
snip
Warsaw Ghetto and Gaza: Disturbing Parallels
Steve Hutcheson, Arab News
I saw a photo last week of a father holding his 6-month-old baby son. The father’s face was devoid of expression; the child in his arms was dead. The boy’s name was Mohammed Al-Borai; he along with several others had been killed in a blast fired indiscriminately by an Israeli cannon into the densely populated areas of Gaza.
There were more photos, one of a group of young boys holding flowers standing around the battered and bloodstained body of the baby boy. That struck me as the most poignant. I had been having a discussion about the cause of suicide bombers among Palestinians and it will be this image more than any other that will concern me more than most. In their minds the young dead boy will have more impact on their future than anything any one might tell them.
It was then that I started to contemplate perhaps more fully the plight of the Palestinians today and the parallels in the history of the Jews that led to their mass exodus from their own countries to immigrate to the land that was at the time known as Palestine.
The Warsaw Ghetto during the Jewish Holocaust holds special significance to the European Jews. It was a place of oppression and the pathway to the ultimate death of thousands of their population that has become symbolic with their struggle for recognition. Yet what they are failing to acknowledge as their descendants press forward with their own brand of Jewish and Zionist idealism is the parallel set of conditions that they are now imposing on the Arab people of Palestine.
The Nazis rounded up the Jews of Poland and quartered them in a small area of Warsaw, building a barricade around the perimeter to prevent them leaving. So too have the Israelis through conflict and force pushed many of the Arab inhabitants out of Israel into an enclave that now has a population density of 4,200 people per sq. km which is 14 times that of the surrounding area of Israel which has 360 people per sq. km.
The Nazis deprived the ghetto inhabitants of food and essential supplies. So too has the Israeli government stopped the flow of goods to the 1.4 million inhabitants of Gaza by limiting the convoys of supplies to a mere trickle.
The Nazis reduced the average calorie intake of the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto to 241 calories per day. So too have the Israelis reduced the calorie intake of the Palestinians in Gaza. According to a UN report, it is presently at 61 percent of the average daily requirements.
***
For years now Israel has become like some crazed berserker killer bees. Their reaction to every provocation is berserker mentality. When will Washington tire of it? Instead of throwing Rice at it?
GAZA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using "excessive" force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s.
Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gaza's Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.
snip
Areas from which Hamas has launched rockets that have killed three Israelis in the past year saw heavy clashes on the ground on Saturday and air strikes continued to pound buildings and homes that Israel said were used by militants. In some of these attacks, children as young as six months have been killed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/02/wmid102.xml
snip
At least three women and nine children, ranging in age from 13 months to 17 years, were reported to be among the dead. In Gaza's main Shifa hospital, a toddler screamed as doctors tried to treat her for burns. "Uncle, I don't want to die. I want my dad," she cried. The girl was injured after Israel attacked a house which the army claimed had been used to store and make weapons.
A mother preparing breakfast for her children was killed when she was hit by gunfire, relatives and medical workers said. Four more civilians died when a missile struck a crowd of Palestinians. Hospital officials said that two dead children remain unidentified in hospital.
Among those killed were a 16-year-old girl and her 14-year-old brother, who died after artillery attacks on Jabaliya camp. Another 16-year-old girl was killed and her baby brother was seriously injured while watching television, and two sisters died when their kitchen roof collapsed.
Abu Alaa, 40, a resident of Jabaliya, said: "We are in the middle of a total war. We hear the rockets and the explosions everywhere. We cannot leave our homes. They're shooting at everything that moves."
Sami Ali Oush, 25, a student who lives in Jabaliya, said: "We have many injured, but the ambulances cannot reach them because the Israeli soldiers are everywhere."
http://www.jordantimes.com/
[with photo of wounded toddler being carried into hospital]
Jordan demands immediate halt to Israeli aggression
HIS MAJESTY KING Abdullah on Saturday condemned the Israeli aggression and massacres committed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. In a telephone call with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah described Israeli military escalations as “dangerous and a violation to all international covenants”.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=107394&d=2&m=3&y=2008
[This will test if the reader can truly be open minded on the subject of Israel]
snip
Warsaw Ghetto and Gaza: Disturbing Parallels
Steve Hutcheson, Arab News
I saw a photo last week of a father holding his 6-month-old baby son. The father’s face was devoid of expression; the child in his arms was dead. The boy’s name was Mohammed Al-Borai; he along with several others had been killed in a blast fired indiscriminately by an Israeli cannon into the densely populated areas of Gaza.
There were more photos, one of a group of young boys holding flowers standing around the battered and bloodstained body of the baby boy. That struck me as the most poignant. I had been having a discussion about the cause of suicide bombers among Palestinians and it will be this image more than any other that will concern me more than most. In their minds the young dead boy will have more impact on their future than anything any one might tell them.
It was then that I started to contemplate perhaps more fully the plight of the Palestinians today and the parallels in the history of the Jews that led to their mass exodus from their own countries to immigrate to the land that was at the time known as Palestine.
The Warsaw Ghetto during the Jewish Holocaust holds special significance to the European Jews. It was a place of oppression and the pathway to the ultimate death of thousands of their population that has become symbolic with their struggle for recognition. Yet what they are failing to acknowledge as their descendants press forward with their own brand of Jewish and Zionist idealism is the parallel set of conditions that they are now imposing on the Arab people of Palestine.
The Nazis rounded up the Jews of Poland and quartered them in a small area of Warsaw, building a barricade around the perimeter to prevent them leaving. So too have the Israelis through conflict and force pushed many of the Arab inhabitants out of Israel into an enclave that now has a population density of 4,200 people per sq. km which is 14 times that of the surrounding area of Israel which has 360 people per sq. km.
The Nazis deprived the ghetto inhabitants of food and essential supplies. So too has the Israeli government stopped the flow of goods to the 1.4 million inhabitants of Gaza by limiting the convoys of supplies to a mere trickle.
The Nazis reduced the average calorie intake of the Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto to 241 calories per day. So too have the Israelis reduced the calorie intake of the Palestinians in Gaza. According to a UN report, it is presently at 61 percent of the average daily requirements.
***
For years now Israel has become like some crazed berserker killer bees. Their reaction to every provocation is berserker mentality. When will Washington tire of it? Instead of throwing Rice at it?
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Open the Gaza border already
For crying out loud, it's a million plus people, not sock puppets. People in the West are always complaining that the Palestinians don't pursue prosperity and capitalism and so forth, yet these critics sit around like dummies while a million people who are trying to feed their families and go to work - regardless of which government is in charge - are sealed off. If Abbas and Israel can't figure out a way to open the border for exports right away, we are supposed to have confidence that they can solve, oh, like you know, difficult problems?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/world/middleeast/18cnd-mideast.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
JERUSALEM, July 18 – Gaza’s already weak economy could collapse unless the main commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel is reopened, Gaza businessmen and United Nation officials said today.
The Karni crossing has been shut since June 12 because the Fatah -affiliated Palestinians who operated it fled after Hamas took over Gaza in bloody fighting. But both Israel and the Fatah leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, have been in no hurry to help Hamas by working to regularize Gaza’s economic life.
Karen AbuZayd, who is the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which deals with Palestinian refugees, said in an interview: “Without Karni the Gaza economy will collapse unless it is opened for exports and not just for imports, so we don’t punish this whole people.”
snip
Some commercial goods for grocery stores are now being imported through deals between Israeli suppliers and Gazan merchants. But imports of building materials like concrete for construction and raw materials for factories have been held up, throwing Gazans out of work.
More than 68,000 workers have lost their jobs since mid-June, which represents more than 80 percent of the private sector employment, said Nasser al-Hilou, a prominent Gazan businessman. U.N.R.W.A. halted $93 million worth of construction projects for lack of building materials, and put workers on leave.
More importantly, perhaps, even if factories can produce, they cannot export. Gaza is full of vegetables and flowers grown for export markets that are being sold cheaply or are rotting.
“There is no starvation in Gaza, but there is no prosperity or life in Gaza either,” Mr. Hilou said. “Gaza needs trade, not aid.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/world/middleeast/18cnd-mideast.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
JERUSALEM, July 18 – Gaza’s already weak economy could collapse unless the main commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel is reopened, Gaza businessmen and United Nation officials said today.
The Karni crossing has been shut since June 12 because the Fatah -affiliated Palestinians who operated it fled after Hamas took over Gaza in bloody fighting. But both Israel and the Fatah leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, have been in no hurry to help Hamas by working to regularize Gaza’s economic life.
Karen AbuZayd, who is the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which deals with Palestinian refugees, said in an interview: “Without Karni the Gaza economy will collapse unless it is opened for exports and not just for imports, so we don’t punish this whole people.”
snip
Some commercial goods for grocery stores are now being imported through deals between Israeli suppliers and Gazan merchants. But imports of building materials like concrete for construction and raw materials for factories have been held up, throwing Gazans out of work.
More than 68,000 workers have lost their jobs since mid-June, which represents more than 80 percent of the private sector employment, said Nasser al-Hilou, a prominent Gazan businessman. U.N.R.W.A. halted $93 million worth of construction projects for lack of building materials, and put workers on leave.
More importantly, perhaps, even if factories can produce, they cannot export. Gaza is full of vegetables and flowers grown for export markets that are being sold cheaply or are rotting.
“There is no starvation in Gaza, but there is no prosperity or life in Gaza either,” Mr. Hilou said. “Gaza needs trade, not aid.”
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