Israeli aircraft sent two missiles into the offices of recently elected Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh in the wee hours of this morning (Sunday).
That report, by the AP’s Ravi Nessman, includes this:
- After the airstrike on his office, Haniyeh met [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas for an hour, his office said, discussing the Israeli attacks and efforts to keep the government functioning despite the arrests. Haniyeh issued a statement calling for foreign intervention to stop the Israeli offensive.
“The international community must shoulder its responsibility,” he said.
Now, at a time when the Palestinian communities, their governmental institutions, and their vital infrastructure are being directly targeted by the Israeli forces is quite patently a time for national unity. And both these men seem to understand this.
It’s important to note, too, that the latest escalation in lethal violence– for most of which the Israeli government is reponsible– came in the immediate wake of Haniyeh’s Hamas and Abbas’s Fateh reaching a significant political agreement.
It’s true that militants on the Palestinian side also played a small part (along with the government of Israel) in fueling the current escalation, when they went ahead with the plan to attack Israeli soldiers by using the Gaza tunnel, and when others of them kidnaped and murdered a young settler in Gaza.
But why did the Israelis and their friends in the Bush administration “respond” to those incidents so massively?
Seemingly– and I believe this is more true of the Bushites than for the Israeli government– because they wanted to use this opportunity to try to take down the Haniyeh government.
Haaretz’s usually very well informed defense correspondent Aluf Benn has a piece in the paper today saying:
- The United States government has laid down three rules for the current Israel Defense Forces operation in the Gaza Strip, according to senior sources in Jerusalem: No harming Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas; no harming civilians and avoid damaging infrastructure.
If this is indeed the case, then there is a notable omission from that list: It includes President Abbas (elected in January 2005) but does not include either PM Haniyeh (elected January 2006) or any other members of his team.
In other words– Washington is saying it’s okay to go after the Hamas people.
The rest of Benn’s piece is also interesting:
- Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will brief the cabinet on the international situation. Livni has been providing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with daily updates and is in touch with the UN secretary-general, the coordinator of foreign policy in the European Union and the foreign ministers of Italy, Spain and Qatar.
Foreign Ministry officials expressed satisfaction over the weekend with the results of their efforts to obtain international legitimacy for Israel’s operations.
…Overall, there is understanding for Israeli actions. The fact that Israel waited for some time after the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit before responding militarily and the fact that no Palestinian civilians have been killed in the operations have also helped.
Israel’s “public diplomacy” efforts, aimed at getting the Western media to support the IDF operations have also borne fruit.
The American newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post have published editorials that placed responsibility for the crisis on Hamas.
But at the end of the day, this isn’t “about” the WaPo or the NYT, is it? It’s about Israelis and Palestinians and how they can live together in some way in the land to which they both lay claim, in a way that is safe and supportive for all of them… For that to happen, you have to have an authoritative, politically legitimate leadership within each national community that is prepared to negotiate a fair final peace agreement with the leaders of the “other” side.
In the political agreement Hamas and Fateh reached last week, they came close to producing such a leadership on the Palestinian side.
But now, the Bushies want to torpedo that agreement by inciting Israel to go against Hamas?
Of course, it won’t work in the way that some of them seem to hope. Indeed, for the Bushites even to suggest, to anyone, that they favor the “protection” of Abbas’s life but not that of the elected Hamas leaders will act yet again within Palestinian public opinion to undercut whatever political legitimacy Abbas might still have left.
(Echoes of the story about the big financial help from the US government in the lead-up to the January election.)
But meanwhile, the Israeli government seems significantly more ready than the Bushites to use negotiations– as well as force– in their dealings with the Palestinians…
This is bizarrely reckless behavior by Washington. Especially at a time when 130,000 US troops are perched in very vulnerable positions, at the end of very vulnerable supply lines, within the frequently hostile environment of Iraq, for Washington even to consider that an escalation between Israelis and Palestinians might be in its interest is callous in the extreme. And not just to the Palestinians (whose infrastructure is indeed being hit on a continuing basis, despite the bleats of protest from Washington, and causing loss and serious degradation of the lives of civilians) but also to the US soldiers stationed in Iraq whose lives, unlike those of the family members of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc, are directly in harm’s way.
Helena, you say that the Israeli government is significantly more ready to use negotiations? Is there any way to enable these pro-negotiation factions in the government to prevail over the pro-force people?
Also, I thought Hamas entered that agreement very reluctantly, because it was an effective recognition of Israel’s right to exist. Was that agreement then flawed in that Hamas supporters would see it as a sell out?
I think you are right that this attack is meant to bring the Hamas government down, just as Haniyeh said on Friday. But I think there is another major reason for the attack. I think the Israelis are trying to punish the Palestinians for voting for Hamas in the first place. At the same time, they are trying to tell Fatah something like, “See, this is what will happen to you if you decide to defy us. You are our slaves. Unless you continue to kiss our feet, you will become the next Hamas.” I think it is just another part of the strategy they used when they decided to provide Fatah with weapons, a true divide-and-conquer strategy And that “national unity” that you talked about will be over in no time. In fact, if we can believe it, I think this Jerusalem Post article is proof that it is working. And i assume that the usual Fatah players like Dahlan will come out blaming Hamas for Palestinian suffering as soon as the worst of the violence seems to be over…
Good questions, Inkan.
I believe that there will nearly always be, on both “sides” of this conflict, a small number of extremists, hard to win over, and prepared to do almost anything to torpedo the chances of an agreement. The challenge therefore is to create enough momentum, enough hopefulness, and large enough real stakes on the pro-peace side that those extremists can be marginalized and rendered politically irrelevant.
Back in the mid-1990s, Hamas was strongly against the Oslo accords (for many reasons, not all bad ones.) But because there was (relatoive to today) much more momentum and hopefulness in the pro-peace camp it took the “Rejectionists” of both sides, back then, quite a lot of time and effort before they were able– between them– finally to torpedo the post-Oslo regime.
Now, there is not just no momentum and no hopefulness in the peace process– there is no peace process at all! Therefore, the rejectionists (who probably have support from a trend within Hamas as well as within Fateh, and in other much smaller groups) are probably much more politically significant than if there were… What they are “rejecting” these days is the Haniyeh-Abbas political agreement, based on the prisoners’ document.
In the absence of any live peace process or any political leadership on this issue from Washington, I guess we must rely on pro-peace leadership from elsewhere in the international community– or from inside the Israeli and Palestinian communities themselves. But amidst the present tensions, hard to see how pro-peace people can organize and gain a foothold amongst the Palestinians these days.
The United States government has laid down three rules for the current Israel Defense Forces operation in the Gaza Strip, according to senior sources in Jerusalem: No harming Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas; no harming civilians and avoid damaging infrastructure.
Avoid damaging infrastructure? Israel started its attack by blowing up bridges and a power plant. So I doubt that in this case Aluf Benn was well informed.
You write that the Bushist policy “is callous in the extreme. And not just to the Palestinians…but also to the US soldiers stationed in Iraq….”
I do agree. Yet I have to feel that it makes sense in the most cynical of ways: they seem to know that their power and “success” stems from 9/11 (they sure sprinkle it in their rhetoric all the time) and really seem to be working overtime to do everthing in their power to encourage the conditions for another 9/11. I’m reminded of Sharon’s success in using the horror of suicide bombings within Israel to keep consolidating and expanding his hawkish/colonialist policies.
There is a simple way for Hamas to call the alleged Israeli bluff. Release the kidnapped soldier and see if the attack stops. Until then Helena’s grandiose analysis is just the usual intelectual onanism.
Dig a tunnel, penetrate your neighbor’s space, kill and abduct. Is that an act or war or not? Yes or No. Without onanism, please.
Davis, actually it was an act of war, an attack on a legitimate military target for a change. That change from civilian attacks should’ve been noted. That soldier then is a prisoner of war. Therefore Israel should’ve conducted negotiations for a P.O.W. release, instead of this endangerment of the civilian populace.
Helena
It is very instructive to see the professional military standing up to the sillier ideas of the President and Vice President.
Unfortunately it seems they can bypass this advice by interfering in the Israeli situation.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060710fa_fact
Davis
Is that an act or war or not? Yes or No. Without onanism, please.
Posted on Foreign Policy (FP) Blog on 6/30/2006 under pen name Clarifier
“The Palestinians waited for the world’s conscience to correct the wrong that was done to them in violation of every international law from a period before 1948 until 1968 to no avail. I guess their best teachers of memory are the terrorist organizations of Hagana and Urgon (Sp.), whom some of their leaders transformed from terrorists of their time to Prime Ministers and other leaders of the State of Israelthat were and are welcomed to some of the most powerful capitols of the world spewing their political wisdom; God help us or shall deduce that being a terrorist pays sometimes!”
“Then came the speeches. There was less discussion about politics or revenge than I’d thought there might be. I heard the phrase “God will avenge you” only twice in an hour of speeches. The only overtly political statement I heard was that “our army is a wonderful army, a good army, who tried to protect Eliyahu and did everything they could. But we have a government who does not understand what is important, or who the enemy really is.” There was also a prayer by one of the rabbis that God should “protect the people of Itamar, both from their enemies and also from their brothers.”
When the speakers mentioned the circumstances of Eliyahu’s death, it was mostly in the context of “how sad that these barbarians people cut short such a beautiful life. When these murderers took Eliyahu from us, they took a special person.””
“Like the sun setting in the afternoon”
Helena, you said: . . . the Bushist policy “is callous in the extreme. And not just to the Palestinians…but also to the US soldiers stationed in Iraq….”
I beg to disagree. Well, I agree that it’s callous, but I think if their intent is to bring down Hamas, this is a risk well worth taking. Why? Time and again they have pushed the Palestinians and the Arab Street if you will, to the limit and what happened? Nothing. They just took the abuse. No talk of oil embargoes, no withdrawal of ambassadors, nothing. They think their righteous indignation would work in their favor. It doesn’t.
Davis,
Nice tricky statement.
“Dig a tunnel, penetrate your neighbor’s space, kill and abduct. Is that an act or war or not? Yes or No. Without onanism, please.”
Lets try and look at it more honestly. Israel is not a benign neighbor. Its a brutal and oppressive neighbor. The militants dug a tunnel to penetrate the “space” of those who are suffocating them in a giant prison camp.
Is it an act of war? Silly question. Its no more an act of war than what Israel has done for 30 years.
The glaring fault with Zionist propaganda is that it assumes the Palestinians are the natural subjects of the Israelis and any attempt by Palestinians to fight back is somehow offensive.
على الطريق
جندي إسرائيلي واحد
مقابل شعب، أمة، العالم!
One Israeli Solder in front of Nation, Arab, and the world
”
لكن جندياً إسرائيلياً واحداً وقع في الأسر كشف أن العرب جميعاً في الأسر، بملوكهم وسلاطينهم ورؤسائهم والأمراء والقادة الأفذاذ…
ومن حق هؤلاء العضاريط الصناديد أن يعتبوا على المغامرين الفلسطينيين أنهم أفسدوا عليهم متعة المونديال، واستحقوا اللعنة والعقاب اللذين تقرّرهما إسرائيل على مفسدي اللذات… لا سيما الملكية والرئاسية منها!
http://www.assafir.com/iso/today/front/398.html
There is no trick there Observer, just the frank admission that there is a state of war between the parties. I do not expect the soldier to be returned alive. All previous others were killed, and a handful of soldiers remains exchanged usually for hundred of live Palestinian prisoners. What is the point of Palestinians crying foul or Israelis negotiating. What is the point of the US asking Israel to conduct its busines of war without claiming lives or damaging infrastructure? A Disneyland war, shoot to miss missiles to see if you scare somebody, buzz the Syrians, so what?
An act of war naturally causes another act of war, and if war and martyrdom is your choice don’t bitch if to get it.
I think both parties think in short term of this crises not long term strategy for the solutions of the problem.
As for Israelis they did not committed to be a peace loving side for years with Palestinians, as for Palestinians the recent talk with Abbass Hamas leaders which lead to acceptance of two state solution although their protocol still not recognising Israel, but its forward step, and they thought this operation its legitimate because they targeting Israelis military personal in time most of the world accusing them that they targeting and killing civilians. All this all wiped off by this clash.
Europeans tax payers I think they not happy to pay more money for Palestinians as most of infestrtures was destroyed by Israelis for no excuses just to humiliate 1.4millions Pelastaion also to benefits form the crises later by selling electricity to them and nay other benefits.
Helena
The Swiss have decried the Israeli action.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5145654.stm
I am not qualified in international law yet, but does this condemnation of collective punishment make the perpetrators war criminals?
The Swiss have decried the Israeli action.
God help us all.
“Yona Metzger says during Moscow meeting of international religious leaders ‘how has this young man (Shalit) sinned that his kidnappers want to kill him after last week they murdered an 18-year-old (Eliyahu Asheri) just because he was Jewish?’
Neta Sela Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger called during a meeting of international religious leaders in Moscow for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.”
I think there is misinterpretation here the cause it’s not because of his believe as such, but he is a military member of the invaded army…
you dealt with the incident of hitting of the office of Haniya from the point of view of the wider goals of the Israeli ( and probably the goals of the Bush administration ) operation on Gaza. You also indicated that the Israeli FM Tzipi Livni is busy and mentioned that foreign ministry officials expressed satisfaction with the results of their efforts to obtain international legitimacy for Israel’s operations.
In light of this, I was surprised to read in the BBC that a statement was issued from the Swiss FM about the Israeli operations in Gaza. The statement discusses the incidents you dealt with in your piece from the perspective of the international law.
I think that it is really a remarkable statement from a European FM. At last, a European FM is not afraid to say the truth and in strong unambiguous words.
For example :
“As the occupying power, it demands that Israel respect international humanitarian law in its military efforts to liberate a captured soldier”
“ ….. violence has reached a new peak with the destruction of the offices of the Palestinian prime minister “
“ ……… have violated the principle of proportionality and are to be seen as forms of collective punishment, which is forbidden “
“ … For the DFA, there is no doubt that Israel has not taken the precautions required of it in international law to protect the civilian population and infrastructure.
The destruction of a power station,
the attack on the offices of the Palestinian Prime Minister,
the arbitrary arrests of a large number of democratically elected representatives of the people and ministers,
as well as the withdrawal of the residence permits of three members of parliament and a minister in East Jerusalem
cannot be justified. Attacks on civilian property are forbidden by international law. “
The BBC piece is here :
Switzerland decries Gaza campaign
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5145654.stm
The statement of the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs is here:
http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/e/home/singlem.html?id=5978
FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Near East: Switzerland calls on Israel to uphold international humanitarian law
03.07.2006
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is deeply concerned about the recent escalation in violence in the Near East and its humanitarian consequences. As the occupying power, it demands that Israel respect international humanitarian law in its military efforts to liberate a captured soldier. The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), which is part of the DFA, has earmarked an additional one million Swiss francs for essential medical supplies for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip
The recent escalation in violence has reached a new peak with the destruction of the offices of the Palestinian prime minister. The DFA is deeply concerned about this development and has renewed its appeal to Israel, as the occupying power, to respect international humanitarian law in the measures it undertakes to liberate the captured soldier. It appeals to the soldier’s captors to treat him humanly.
A number of actions by the Israeli Defence Forces in their offensive against the Gaza Strip have violated the principle of proportionality and are to be seen as forms of collective punishment, which is forbidden. For the DFA, there is no doubt that Israel has not taken the precautions required of it in international law to protect the civilian population and infrastructure. The destruction of a power station, the attack on the offices of the Palestinian Prime Minister, the arbitrary arrests of a large number of democratically elected representatives of the people and ministers, as well as the withdrawal of the residence permits of three members of parliament and a minister in East Jerusalem cannot be justified. Attacks on civilian property are forbidden by international law. The DFA demands that Israel forgo any further attacks on civilian property, ensure the protection of the civilian population, and release the detained representatives insofar as no concrete grounds in individual cases exist that fully justify their lawful arrest.
Humanitarian consequences
The power station that was destroyed by the Israeli forces on 28 June, provided 43 per cent of the electricity supply to the Gaza Strip. 700,000 people have been affected by power cuts. Water supplies have also been badly hit since not all pumps can continue to function, and in addition there is a lack of petrol and other fuels. It will take quite some time to repair the power station and only then if the necessary parts can be delivered to the Gaza Strip. The situation is also worrying in the hospitals and health centres, which are lacking water and where there is no longer enough fuel for their generators. The transportation of goods and persons is hardly possible, causing a general lack of fresh produce, meat and diary products, which are left rotting in warehouses. The opening of the checkpoint at Karni, which is important for goods handling, is essential for resuming food supplies.
Already in June 2006, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation approved one million francs for the purchase of medicines. A second million has now been earmarked for supplying the civilian population with essential goods. An expert has been deployed to the crisis zone to ensure the smooth running of the humanitarian operations.
Last week, the DFA received representatives of both sides to demand compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law. It also called for the rapid release of the captured Israeli soldier as an important step towards calming the current situation.
Chaps
Off topic but BBC report North Koreans test fired a misile towards japan and havent been Nuked yet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5148648.stm
The Swiss have just opined on a point issue that is a week old. Except for the Saudi accounts in Swiss banks they have no horse in this race. More important is what Blair just said, because he has a horse in the race, and because it is a chronic issue that drives violence in Madrid, London, Gaza, Bali, or wherever there is a mosque with some misfits in attendance.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060704/ap_on_re_eu/britain_blair
LONDON – Britain cannot defeat terrorism unless moderate Muslims do more to confront militancy in their own communities, Prime Minister
Tony Blair said Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
Blair said the vast majority of Muslims abhorred terrorism and wanted to defeat it, but said they had to do more to counter what he described as the extremists’ misplaced anger and grievances.
Moderates, he said, must “stand up against the ideas of these people, not just their methods.”
“If you want to defeat this extremism, you’ve got to defeat its ideas and you’ve got to defeat in part a completely false sense of grievance against the West”
no horse in this race? Didn’t the Swiss set an enviable standard for moral probity (think banks) and humanitarianism (think refuge) when confronted with the Hitler menace in WWII? Shouldn’t this give them a horse in this race?
Davis,
it is a chronic issue that drives violence in Madrid, London, Gaza, Bali, or wherever there is a mosque with some misfits in attendance.
So in your mind Muslims like to kill.
The Israelis Only Defend Themselves.
See, Israelis don’t cut peoples heads off.
Israelis, don’t INTENTIONALY kill children and blow up busses and pizza parlors.
Israelis do violence when someone hurts them INTENTIONALY. This abduction is just to get prisoners released. Not happening. Now the kidnappers have to face explosive justice.
The Israelis are fighting an enemy that will NEVER stop till they are all dead.
The only choice you have when someone wants to kill you is to kill them first.
You don’t have to make yourself a human bomb if you have F16’s, warships, tanks, fully equipped troops and nculer weapons. Not to mention murdering kids who throw stones at you.
http://www.abbc.net/talmud/index.htm ..have stated they wanted the Palestinians as their slaves
http://www.cactus48.com/verses.html…And right before the eyes of the world they are exercizing their belief that THEY are the master race…
http://100777.com/node/603/ …. Their history of terror http://www.deiryassin.org and atrocities against the Palestinians is a LONG one…
http://www.deathmasters.com … Like when they ethnically cleansed OVER 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, businesses, treasures and lands…
http://www.robincimller.com/pales2.htm …even STEALING ALL their bank accounts… Then TOTALLY wiping 530 Arab towns and villages from the face of the earth …
http://www.palestineremembered.com … Rhet CONTINUE to practice their RACISM against the Palestinian people whom they consider to be NON-humans …[ along with ALL other NON-jEWS ] http:/www.whatreallyhappened.com/palestinians.html ….
“Destroying critical civilian infrastructure, targeting facilities for the deaf, pitching hospitals and charities into the dark, creating a massive refugee situation—it is all in a day’s work for the neocons and their Likudite masters, from Gaza and the West Bank to the whole of Iraq.
“I take personal responsibility for what is happening in Gaza. I want no one to sleep at night in Gaza,” declared Olmert, who should also take responsibility for the fact Palestinians on life support and other critical health care systems will now die; he should take responsibility for all the miscarriages and mental problems caused by sonic boom warfare; he should take responsibility for terrorizing hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians, the vast majority who have nothing to do with the capture of IOF soldier Shalit, who is a prisoner of war.
Ehud Olmert, claiming responsibility for crimes against humanity, should face a tribunal immediately.
But then, as Olmert’s predecessor, the scurrilous terrorist leader (of Irgun) Menachem Begin, told Israel’s mafia, otherwise known as the Knesset, the Palestinians “are beasts walking on two legs.”
As such, according to the Israelis and their neocon co-conspirators, the Palestinians do not deserve hospitals, charities, clean water (or any water at all, as there is no electricity to drive well pumps), food, or even a night’s rest. The Fourth Geneva Convention applies to humans, not beasts on two legs.
Obviously, as well, the New York Times believes the Palestinians are beasts, although as “liberals,” they would not state such outright, as the leader of the terrorist Irgun Zvai Leumi, Menachem Begin did.”
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=443
abbc.net?
Salah, how on earth do you come by these links?
I’m amazed that Helena lets you continue to post such bigoted and offensive material here. For all her weird notions about Zionist mind control, she seems to have limits. Are you deliberately trying to have JWN classified as a hate site?
http://www.abbc.net/islam/english/toread/frnklin.htm
Absolutely disgusting.
Davis would, of course, be only too happy to have Switzerland weigh in on any issue concering Israel whether it “had a horse in the race” or not – as long as it approved of what Israel did, and/or criticized Israel’s enemies.
http://www.checkpoint-online.ch/CheckPoint/Images/N-HamasDrapeauSuisse.jpg
The Swiss govt should choose its ‘partners’ a bit more carefully. I’d steer clear of groups advocating ethnic cleansing and suicide terrorism.
Shirin, with your mind reading skills, why aren’t you in Vegas making a killing at the poker tables?
Vadim, it has nothing to do with reading minds. You Israel-firsters are boringly predictable, that’s all.
no horse in this race? Didn’t the Swiss set an enviable standard for moral probity (think banks) and humanitarianism (think refuge) when confronted with the Hitler menace in WWII? Shouldn’t this give them a horse in this race?
No Truesdell, they didn’t. The Swiss banks stole the deposits of WWII victims. They hid under secrecy laws and stonewalled the heirs claims by asking for death certificates when they knew all too well that the gas chambers did not supply death certificates.
Only in the late eighties after an internal whistle blower that witnessed document shredding and US court suits took place somehow accounts started to appear. I checked their website in 2001 and it read like a telephone book of Germany and Poland. Shameful. The whistleblower had to leave Switzerland. The Swiss made his life miserable after he did the right thing.
They also stole from other powerful people as soon as they fell in disgrace, like Juan Peron. Plus the Swiss did collaborate in the financing the Nazi war machine. I’d be happy to supply pointers if you want to do some homework on the Swiss moral spine.
Davis, I think truesdell was pulling your leg.
Shirin, I’m sorry we “Israel uber alles”-types are so predictable. Team “Abolish Israel” is full of surprises, like Salah’s earlier link to the holocaust denier Ahmed Rami (“Radio Islam”). Enlighten us, are this man’s ravings representative of mainstream “Arab opinion?” (practicing here with the scare quotes, bear with me…) Or is Salah an ADL-sponsored agent saboteur, plotting with the Zionists to discredit Helena by planting neo-nazi propaganda on her website?
As for HAMAS, their charter calls for the ethnic cleansing of Israel entire, and they sponsor suicide terrorism without apology. I’m sorry you see them as worthy participants in any peace process. That’s totally unsurprising, and sad.
I am sorry I misinterpreted sarcasm. Daily doses of magic reality from the Islam-can-do-no-wrong crowd has numbed me to the use of sarcasm. My apologies.
“The new Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council has passed a resolution deploring Israel’s military operations in the Palestinian territories.
Although a Swiss bid to name Palestinians militants in the text failed, Swiss diplomats at the UN said their proposals had helped produce a more balanced wording.”
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/front/detail/Swiss_satisfied_with_UN_resolution_on_Israel.html?siteSect=105&sid=6875054&cKey=1152199252000
KEY FACTS
* In the first special session since its creation, the UN Human Rights Council has deplored Israel’s military operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as breaching international humanitarian law.
* The vote was 29 to 11, with five abstentions (including Switzerland).
* Israel called the session “a planned an premeditated” attack on his country, and said it continued the anti-Israeli bias set by the discredited UN Human Rights Commission.
“Switzerland, one of the five countries that abstained in the vote, had proposed amendments saying armed Palestinian groups should also be called to account in the resolution.”
So the fact is, Swiss playing a balanced position in all of this what some think it’s against Israel, more toward Hamas its not as you think.
The vote was 29 to 11, with five abstentions (including Switzerland)
The HRC should know a thing or two about human rights violations. It’s stocked with experts: China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Cuba. Those guys know human rights.
OT but Billmon on Frum’s latest suppuration is a must read. If he’s not careful that little creep is going to give Muslim-baiting and war lust and Molochism and war-profiteering and dual loyalty a bad name.
“suppuration”?…hey, I’m impressed!
“The answer isn’t as complicated as many suggest. Hamas and Fatah are terrorist organizations and they must be treated as terrorists, and crushed with all means necessary. They are no more entitled to violence than al Qaeda. Foreign Ministers from London, Washington, and Cairo have bleated that diplomacy must be given a chance, but President Bush has inveighed repeatedly against negotiating with terrorists.
And what of the Palestinian people? Let us remember, they elected Hamas. Perhaps next time they will choose more wisely. We can help them by immediately ending fruitless efforts to appeal to “moderates” like Abbas (who was useless in his long stewardship of the PA), wholeheartedly support Israeli actions to eliminate terrorists, and throw our political and financial support behind the idea of new Palestinian political leaders more interested in serving the needs of their people than they are in killing and kidnapping.”
Danielle Pletka is vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at AEI.
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.24607/pub_detail.asp
Oh yah, Where is the democracy and democratic process and freedom Danielle? Americans elected GWB Perhaps next time they will choose more wisely, isn’t Danielle?
The Swiss is cheap talk, just like Britain had plenty of cheap talk until last July 7th. When you face the music of radical islam it is hard to keep your white gloves attitude.
BTW, the July 7 bomber video was just posted in Al Jazeera. Where are the clowns of this board that argued it was just an isolated incident done by some confused losers? Time to eat hat big time. At least have the cojones to admit you were dead wrong.
Here is the BBC link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5154714.stm
Davis,
an isolated incident done by some confused losers?
Yah, exactly right same like those criminals from Abu Graib Just ” Some Bad Apples” yeahh….