Gaza Update

What are the US ‘papers of record’ up to?
The Washington Post has offered balanced coverage:
Israelis Push to Edge of Gaza City
Move Could Signal A Long Urban Battle
But this WaPo essay is ridiculous–
Gaza’s True ‘Disproportion’
Carlos Alberto Montaner
Israelis are being accused of suffering too few casualties in their confrontation with the Hamas terrorists. Those who reason thus usually speak the words “disproportion” or “asymmetry” in an indignant tone. While at this writing close to a thousand Arab Palestinians have died or been wounded as a result of the bombings, the Israeli losses amount to just over a dozen. . .Tel Aviv’s critics — from whom an anti-Semitic stench often rises — do not say whether Israel should increase its quota of cadavers or if it must reduce the Arabs’ quota to achieve the reasonable proportion of blood that will soothe the peculiar itch for parity that afflicts them. . . .This demand for “proportionality” can only be called surprising. . .Israel has not the slightest interest in causing casualties.
The New York Times:
Israelis United on War as Censure Rises Abroad
JERUSALEM — To Israel’s critics abroad, the picture could not be clearer: Israel’s war in Gaza is a wildly disproportionate response to the rockets of Hamas, causing untold human suffering and bombing an already isolated and impoverished population into the Stone Age, and it must be stopped. Yet here in Israel very few, at least among the Jewish population, see it that way.
And this Op-Ed NY Times piece by Rashid Khalidi is good.
What You Don’t Know About Gaza
NEARLY everything you’ve been led to believe about Gaza is wrong. Below are a few essential points that seem to be missing from the conversation, much of which has taken place in the press, about Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.

13 thoughts on “Gaza Update”

  2. Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com has claimed for years that the US is an agent) of Israel, instead of the other way ’round, and I’ve disagreed with him. Now I’m not so sure.

  3. OSLO (AFP) — Israel is testing a new “extremely nasty” type of weapon in Gaza, two medics charged as they returned home to Norway Monday after spending 10 days working at a hospital in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
    “There’s a very strong suspicion I think that Gaza is now being used as a test laboratory for new weapons,” Mads Gilbert told reporters at Oslo’s Gardermoen airport, commenting on the kinds of injuries he and his colleague Erik Fosse had seen while working at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
    The two medics, who were sent into the war zone by the pro-Palestinian aid organisation NORWAC on December 31, said they had seen clear signs that Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME), an experimental kind of explosive, were being used in Gaza.
    “We have not seen the casualties affected directly by the bomb because they are normally torn to pieces and do not survive, but we have seen a number of very brutal amputations… without shrapnel injuries which we strongly suspect must have been caused by the DIME weapons,” he added.
    The weapon “causes the tissue to be torn from the flesh. It looks very different (from a shrapnel injury). I have seen and treated a lot of different injuries for the last 30 years in different war zones, and this looks completely different,” said Fosse, 58.

  4. Nepotism vs Nationalism , the followers of the latter are defined as extremists .
    Israel is a colonial power that enslave its citizens to execute the dirty work of the civilized nations.
    We stand in awe watching the horrific pictures filed with red and black, dismembered and charred bodies flashing on our computer screens more than our TV’s.
    The attempts to excuse Israel in Lebanon and in Gaza by the International community makes these government complicit in the war crimes that are committed both in Lebanon and now in Gaza by their proxy .
    The Jewish people have no more right to exist on this land than the native Palestinians .
    This war is a break or make for Israel . Israel’s objective is to wipe the defeat it suffered in 2006 at the hands of the resistance party in Lebanon, Hizbullah.
    Their cries, the Palestinian men and women are haunting me day and night, the children were silent .
    I pity a nation who still view itself aa a victim.

  5. I think the kety to understanding where brother Montaner is coming from is that he has jusrt returned from an all expenses paid junket in Israel.
    Themn again he might be aiming to please the Colombian audience for his “analysis.”
    On the other hand he could be just another creole Cuban who hates the poor.

  7. ‘Shocked’ Hamas ready to accept ceasefire, say Israelis, who delay all-out assault
    I’d rather thought Israel was hesitating. We’ve been hearing about the Israeli assault going into Gaza for two or three days now, and they’re always in the same place. Indeed we hear that the tanks withdraw at night (normal military practice, I think).
    Of course, we don’t have to believe the bullshit about Hamas being being ready to surrender.
    It looks to me like a dilemma is coming up. Push on, and they’ll still be at it on Inauguration Day. And then Israel Election Day. There’s always the risk that Israel could run into heavy casualties.
    Maybe they will end up thinking that it’s worth the risk. But right now they are hesitating.

  8. The Israeli murderous campaign in Gaza is unspeakable and those defending it are below contempt. Trying to divert attention to past palistinian deeds is Gobbelish (apologies to Dr Goebbels). Most Germans did not know of the Camps where 10 million died of which nearly 6 million were Jews but all were held guilty and punished collectively. All Jews to-day do know about the Gaza Holocaust. Anyone defending the murders is personally responsible for every broken baby . I have seen a video of a dying girl crying mama. The UN said no one fired from the UN school where the Israelis killed all the children. It was proven that the “Proof photos” they showed were a year old. Israelis killed UN helpers trying to stop children dying of their wounds.
    The Gazains just fired back a few rockets to stop their starvation and murder. What courage. Their spirit will live forever.
    The Army is Jewish. The State is Jewish. 90% of Israelis support the murder. It was just cowardly Israeli Jews who fired Tank Shells, used artillery, warships, Bombs, phosphorus.
    No one can stop the genocidal Arab Holocaust.
    The Jewish state will only respond to pressure from Jews. We see no effective Jewish anti-murder movement anywhere . We stand by helpless while people are murdered. But there is one way we can stop it if we want to
    Of course an “unfair” total boycott of the Israeli State and its defenders would be justifiable if it forced the stopping of their much more unfair mass murders.
    Until Israel returns to the 67 border , gets rid of its Nuclear weapons and its leaders are brought before the world court it should be boycotted . And all its blood stained defenders in services and business. They hope this will be forgotten like when they murdered 30,000 in Lebanon. Make this different. Boycott them. It is the great weapon you have. Be brave. Be effective. Use your power. Boycott now. You are involved as a boycotter or as a silent supporter
    Moshe Yaalon Israelli Chief of Staff in 2002 said “The palestinians must be forced to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated People”
    boindub

  9. One is reminded of PM Sharon’s insistent admonition that all Jews who do not make the Great Aliyah to Israel by 2020 are damned as they will “lose their Jewish souls.” One cannot help but wonder if the current crisis, planned for over a year, had not been initiated at a time when the US is economically unable to maintain its lavish support of the Israeli economy in order to force Diaspora Jews into an anti-Semitism driven flight to Israel. The outrageous “hasbarah” imposed on Western press, the suppression of opposition or negative reporting by Israel’s advocates abroad, and the current crashing of the White House site along with clogging of White House phone line with demands for release of Israeli spy Pollard, convicted to life in prison– all ordered from Israel– make one wonder what lies behind this insolent attempt to implicate the US into a Mideast crisis of Israel’s making at the very time when US focus is moving away from the Middle East and onto South Asia. What is Netanyahu doing campaigning in the US when his nation is in crisis? Who will engorge the American $$ placenta from which the fetal state of Israel draws sustenance? How will Israel recoup the WMDs it is so liberally dispensing on Gaza, making it all look like a repeat of the Warsaw Ghetto?
    Every period of military domination of Israeli policy is followed by a period referred to by Likudniks as “post-Zionism,” when land for peace becomes a national mantra. Given that the rabbis nixed FM Livni for the PM slot merely on grounds that she is a woman, it is clear that she initiated the current offensive to prove that she can be as violent as any man. PM Olmert seems to be seeking to regain some standing after his forced resignation for corruption by ordering the shooting of fish [Palestinians] in a barrel [Gaza]. No one seems to note that, in the US and EU media, stories censored to impose official Israeli hasbarah about the Gaza bloodbath are followed immediately, without even a commercial break, by stories about Madoff, the American investor charged with swindling $50 billions. At the same time, the story, just released by the NY Times and David Sanger in his book THE INHERITANCE, about how Israel tried to force the US to provide it materials and Iraq over flight permission to bomb Iran without any consideration for the consequences to American troops in Iraq, shows a level of disregard for the interests of the American $placenta from which Israel subsists, reminiscent of the story about killing of the goose that lays the golden eggs. We aware also informed on the CHARLIE ROSE SHOW by CBS 60 MINUTES producer David Simon that the two states solution is dead and that the only options are either one state or apartheid.
    The question of exploiting anti-Semitism by Zionists in the 1930s was made quite stark by Tom Segev, the Israeli historian, in his book THE SEVENTH MILLION. I do not believe that one could read his book without seeing a similar attempt to entangle involuntarily Diaspora Jews into the Zionist interests, repeating history, except that now a deliberate attempt to foment non-existent anti-Semitism seems underway. Two stories in the FORWARD are mind numbing: (1) a former Israeli intel head brags of his multiple passports, allowing him the privileges of safety in several states; (2) also in the FORWARD, is an article bragging that the Jewish power in Congress managed to “earmark” $178 millions for “Jewish interests” from the Financial Bailout Bill meant for US banks exclusively. Why are such inflammatory stories put forward at the very time when the risk of inflaming anti-Semitism is greatest?
    Diaspora Jews, in the main, consider Israel a nice place to visit but they have shown that they would not like to live there. Many cases of older Diaspora Jews retiring to Israel and returning after the Israeli tax system consumed their pensions are well known. Many young Israelis are unable to accept any longer that when they shave in the morning, they can’t be sure whether to put on a business suit in order to follow their careers or a uniform to serve an open ended mobilization as reservists; so upon finishing their excusive Israeli education, they migrate to the West for jobs. The alyiah is, it seems, has long been in reverse. So, is there now a desperate attempt to fan the flames of anti-Semitism through all of the above enumerated items– all presented at the very time that the US is plunging into economic depression? Is it deliberately done in the hope that Diaspora Jews will be forced to make the Great Aliyah in fear?
    All this comes at the very time when Israel’s prospects look brightest. A puny Iranian atomic bomb will drive all the Sunni Arab states to seek protection under Israel’s nuclear umbrella. Arab leaders are realizing that continuation of their banana republic one crop (oil) status is untenable. Israel is the only country they can turn to for leadership in escaping their current techno/sci backwardness. Yet, it seems, Israel takes this moment to polarize Arabs, to expand its settlements-. According to the US DeptState 78% are homes built at US taxpayers’ expense are empty because there are not enough “olims” to settle them; they are merely used as excuse to expel Palestinians and create hollow “facts on the ground” with which to make the case for Greater Israel.
    If Israel is indeed seeking to create a backfire of anti-Semitism in the Diaspora that forces Jews to stampede to Israel in fear, seizing their assets, it is making a fatal mistake. What Israel needs now is Palestinians who can serve as deal-makers for it with the Arabs. But the illegal use of anti-personnel weapons in Gaza is only– as did the Lebanon War– producing recruits for HAMAS who live to kill in revenge for Israel’s repeated massacre from the air. Diaspora Jews are first and foremost loyal to their nations of birth. The flight of East European Jews in the 1980s, coming to Israel to escape Communism, has been reversed after the downfall of Communism. This should be a cardinal sign of how hopeless is any attempt at a fear driven aliyah stampede.
    HAMAS is not Palestinian. It was made by Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood escapees whom Israel invited and supported in the hope that they would destroy Arafat and the PLO when the world was ready to accept the PLO as spokesman for the Palestinians. Now Israel’s goals have reversed because HAMAS won an election forced on the Palestinians by GW Bush so he could claim that he brought “democracy” (sic) to the Middle East. HAMAS is well aware of its tenuous hold on Palestinians, the most secular of Arabs, many are Christians. HAMAS leaders understand quite well that every massacre of Palestinians attempt by the IDF is followed by a long era of political dominance by the post-Zionist doves. The Israeli polity, no matter what weapons are used to create mass casualties, is extremely casualties averse– morally over both Palestinian and Israeli. There is no way to destroy HAMAS without accepting intolerable IDF and civilian Palestinian casualties. Consequently, Israel will lose lose its taste for massacre. So it is not too late for Israel to swallow its losses and propose a generous two-states-one-economy solution en route to demanding full diplomatic and economic recognition by the Sunni Arabs who will avail themselves of its nuclear umbrella and will follow its lead into a modernization revolution. Frivolous short term electoral tactics imposing mass casualties but lacking any strategic foresight leave Israel open to extinction. To date, as pointed out by a leading Israeli international law expert, Israel is a country but not a nation, for it is totally dependent on a foreign placenta, it’s economy is in shambles, its currency is based on a dollar backing of the shekel (a debt quietly “forgiven” by Congress periodically), not recognized by its neighbors and without set borders, expanding constantly. Up to now Israel has held on by the skin of its teeth, lavished by massive US aid. But now the US is going into economic depression and it is hard to imagine the $placenta not drying up.
    Israel must commit to a TOTAL first step solution as developed, not at Camp David, but at Taba– a productive step that the rise to power of Bush and Sharon made untenable. Well, now, eight years later, the US political process is reversed and a real effort which eliminates most of the settlements must become a reality. BUT FIRST AND FOREMOST, Israel must realize that its hasbara is not effective smoke but very transparent wind; and, no matter what Israel does to provoke Diaspora anti-Semitism, the Jews are first and foremost natives to their homelands of birth, not cattle to be stampeded in fear in Israel’s direction.
    Daniel E. Teodoru

  10. Don,
    I stumbled on this diary by a young girl in Gaza
    Safa Joudeh, excerpts from her face book in her diary:
    Last night the intense bombardment of nearby areas caused one of our windows to Break.
    ……Israel has employed some unnerving and terror-spreading tactics in the Gaza Strip that have caused Gazans to break down with helplessness.
    The IDF have infiltrated the air waves of local radio stations and TV channels. As we watch the news all of a sudden the screen goes black and an IDF message appears: “You will witness the unleashing of our wrath!!’. We turn off the TV and turn to the radio, moments later the broadcasting is interrupted and a harsh voice comes through the speakers: “Leave your area and gather in the center of your town! We are warning you for your own safety! This is the IDF”.
    Where are people supposed to go? Those in the center of the city such as my family are already being bombarded, and each home is already accommodating at least 1 or 2 families that have fled their areas. ……..Many people feel that it would be more merciful not to be warned of the imminent deaths.
    In other areas, Israel is throwing thousands of flyers from planes in the residential areas, threatening that more attack methods will be practiced against the population, and asking the residents to come forth with information about Hamas fighters, information which, obviously, civilians don’t have.

  11. The “Shoah” (Hebrew word for holocaust) that Matan Vilnai, an Israeli official, promised the Palestinians has been exposed even though many media sources have attempted to whitewash it.

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