RubySoho
Winston
Israel Fails to Show Restraint...Again
March 3rd 2008 23:54
In 1947, Harry S. Truman, the thirty third President of the United States and the self-described ‘Cyrus’ who helped create the State of Israel, said, in reference to the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, “put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist, he goes haywire”.
Truman was furious with Israel for, among other things, refusing to allow the re-entry of 700 000 displaced Palestinian refugees who had either fled or been evicted after the creation of the Jewish State in 1948.
And the underdog has done it again. The latest Israeli operation in Gaza, ostensibly designed to attack the militants firing rockets into the Israeli town of Ashkelon has resulted in the deaths of at least 112 Palestinians. Three Israelis have died in the same period- two soldiers and one civilian.
This is not a fair fight ladies and gentlemen. Whilst Israel claims to be defending herself against terrorists, it is Israel who is often the aggressor. The good folk over at ifamericansknew.org keep a tally of the number of children killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since September 2000. The results may shock you. 112 Israeli children killed by Palestinians. And the amount of Palestinian children killed by Israelis in the same time period? 982. Children. Furthermore, over 30 percent of Palestinian deaths are women and children, while less than 5 percent of the corresponding Israeli casualties fall into these categories. When Israeli civilians die at the hands of Palestinians they are the victims of militants who take the law into their own hands. That is why we call them ‘terrorists’. When Palestinian civilians die at the hands of Israelis they are the victims of the State of Israel, which is bound by, but repeatedly ignores, international humanitarian law.
Israel's recent actions in Gaza have dismayed the European Union who criticised Israel’s “disproportionate use of force”. Even the United States, which usually goes to extreme lengths to support its ultimate puppet State issued this statement “we're encouraging Israel to exercise caution to avoid the loss of innocent life." Pretty tame I know, but hey, at least the US is finally admitting that Israel is responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians- and that Israel’s actions are less than cautious.
What bemuses me is how Israel can call its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon a “grave failure” and then act in exactly the same manner in Gaza! Israel killed over 1200 civilians in that war, 30% of these were under the age of 13. I guess that’s what happens when you drop bombs on schools. 67 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died in that conflict.
With these statistics, I find it difficult to comprehend how Israel can still claim that is always the Arabs who are in the wrong in this conflict. Israel has more money, more weapons and the unwavering support of the United States. Israel drops bombs in civilian neighbourhoods. Israel regularly cuts off the power supply to the Occupied Territories and Gaza. Israel has “Jew- only” roads. Israel uses civilians as human shields. Israel refuses medical aid to injured and dying civilians.
This is no underdog.
Truman was furious with Israel for, among other things, refusing to allow the re-entry of 700 000 displaced Palestinian refugees who had either fled or been evicted after the creation of the Jewish State in 1948.
And the underdog has done it again. The latest Israeli operation in Gaza, ostensibly designed to attack the militants firing rockets into the Israeli town of Ashkelon has resulted in the deaths of at least 112 Palestinians. Three Israelis have died in the same period- two soldiers and one civilian.
This is not a fair fight ladies and gentlemen. Whilst Israel claims to be defending herself against terrorists, it is Israel who is often the aggressor. The good folk over at ifamericansknew.org keep a tally of the number of children killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since September 2000. The results may shock you. 112 Israeli children killed by Palestinians. And the amount of Palestinian children killed by Israelis in the same time period? 982. Children. Furthermore, over 30 percent of Palestinian deaths are women and children, while less than 5 percent of the corresponding Israeli casualties fall into these categories. When Israeli civilians die at the hands of Palestinians they are the victims of militants who take the law into their own hands. That is why we call them ‘terrorists’. When Palestinian civilians die at the hands of Israelis they are the victims of the State of Israel, which is bound by, but repeatedly ignores, international humanitarian law.
Israel's recent actions in Gaza have dismayed the European Union who criticised Israel’s “disproportionate use of force”. Even the United States, which usually goes to extreme lengths to support its ultimate puppet State issued this statement “we're encouraging Israel to exercise caution to avoid the loss of innocent life." Pretty tame I know, but hey, at least the US is finally admitting that Israel is responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians- and that Israel’s actions are less than cautious.
What bemuses me is how Israel can call its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon a “grave failure” and then act in exactly the same manner in Gaza! Israel killed over 1200 civilians in that war, 30% of these were under the age of 13. I guess that’s what happens when you drop bombs on schools. 67 Israelis, mostly soldiers, died in that conflict.
With these statistics, I find it difficult to comprehend how Israel can still claim that is always the Arabs who are in the wrong in this conflict. Israel has more money, more weapons and the unwavering support of the United States. Israel drops bombs in civilian neighbourhoods. Israel regularly cuts off the power supply to the Occupied Territories and Gaza. Israel has “Jew- only” roads. Israel uses civilians as human shields. Israel refuses medical aid to injured and dying civilians.
This is no underdog.
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Comment by tlcorbin
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Raven
Comment by RubySoho
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I have been to Israel twice. I spent time in new Jerusalem as well as the West Bank. So no, I don't always believe what I am told but I do believe what I have seen and experienced. I also dated a member of the Israeli Defence Force so I think that gives me an insight that many others don't have.
So yes, Raven, I have indeed been there and done that. Still want to do lunch?
I don't see how criticising Israel makes me anti-Semitic or pro-terrorist. I am critical of the actions of Israel towards the civilians of Palestine and Lebanon. The religion or race of the Israelis is of no concern to me. The majority of Israelis are staunch secularists at any rate.
What is it that you think I am uninformed about? The statistics? The reaction of the EU and the US? That's all true. Maybe it's you who needs to do a little research.
Comment by Onesnap
I have not been here in a while, so it is good to get caught up on your recent posts.
My grandmother has started asking that we donate to charity instead of giving her gifts for her B'day. My parents asked her what her preference was for this year. She asked them to send $$ to Israel. They of course refused.
Comment by tlcorbin
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Now then, let’s press on with this argument. How long did you stay in Israel on your two visits (which sound like some group sponsored vacation tours). While in Israel, did you visit Gaza? Did you visit the West Bank? Did you visit Lebanon? Did you meet and commune with any Palestinians for more than a brief moment? And Please, do show me on a map where exactly, ‘new Jerusalem’ is located. New Jerusalem reeks of Mormon pathos or new age mysticism.
Just what did you witness? Did you survive a random act of violence? Did you observe and witness an unwarranted assault by the Israeli’s upon innocents? Did you personally offer aid and comfort to the wounded and injured after such an attack?
The fact that you had a fling with a guy (your rancor suggests failed fling), who like most other Israeli’s, served in the Israeli Defense Force doesn’t make you an expert, knowledgeable or even more than barely conversant about the situation in the region.
The religion and race of the Israeli's must make a difference to you because you brought up the topic of race; and secular or not, you’ve haven’t the right or knowledge to pass such a broad based judgment upon the people of Israel who most certainly are not all Jewish. The two main groups of Israeli’s are Jews (66% in 2007) and Arabs(33% in 2007 and gaining by 3% per year): did you know the Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews are both called Palestinians? And, sic, Arabs and Jews residing throughout Israel are also referred to collectively as Israelis, and some Arabs, Druze (an Islamic sect) also serve in the Israeli Defense Force along side of conscripted Jews 18 and older, men and women.
Over 267,000 Israeli’s lived in the West Bank in 2004, and about 88,944 Israeli’s lived in Gaza in 2004. Now these figures have changed, but what makes you believe that with those kinds of demographics that the nation of Israel and its leaders are going to callously disregard the results of wanton destruction to a viable and important part of their own population. The collateral damage to civilians harms everyone. Is there a neat and tidy way to deal with malcontents?
The Palestinians Arabs remind me of children, where one of them beats up upon the other while crying foul and pummeling the snot out of his Arabic and Jewish siblings, with each blaming the other for starting the row. A solution is going to be slow in coming.
Look at Australia’s history, just when did your country quite their ethnic cleansing of aboriginals? Aren’t atrocities aimed in their direction still recurring? Where's your hue and cry about that?
Now, off you go. Play outside with your friends for a while, it’s almost time for your snack and nap. We’ll do some coloring when you wake up.
Raven
Comment by Harry
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Comment by RubySoho
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Concessions need to be made regarding the issue of Jerusalem. It's the only way.
Thanks Onesnap. Its nerve racking taking over another writers blog but I'm having a good response so far. And yeah, Israel gets so much money from the US it really didn't need anymore from your parents. No disrespect to your grandmother though, I'm sure she meant well.
Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
One of the chant leaders was Eitamar Ben-Gvir, a prominent right-wing activist from Hebron.
"The Government doesn't care about us. They take out Jews from their homes and give them to Arabs," he said. "America is helping the Arabs kill Jews. If America wasn't pressuring us to be gentle, we would kill them all."
But in Jerusalem, Mark Regev, spokesman for the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, said: "Tonight's massacre is a defining moment. The people [palestinians] celebrating have exposed themselves for what they really are: hateful extremists."
You're fueling the flames. Raven
Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
* International Community, consisting of all members of the United Nations with the exception of seven states, since 1967–present.
* International Court of Justice, since 1967–present.
* journalists, since 1967–present, to indicate lands where Arab Palestinians presently dwell, outside the Green Line, or the 1949 Armistice lines;
The term is often used interchangeably with the term Occupied territories although the latter refers to an inclusive set of both the "Palestinian territories" and the Golan Heights. The Golan is not settled by Palestinians nor claimed by them, but rather by Syria though the tiny Shebaa Farms area is also claimed by Lebanon. The confusion stems from the fact that all these territories were captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and are regarded by the United Nations as as being illegally occupied by Israel. A critique of the UN and another published paper.
The term "Occupied Palestinian Territories" is challenged by some Israelis because it may either disregard Israeli claims to the territories or possible border change after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Israeli right-wing politician Shmuel Katz, in a preliminary brief, whose arguments were analysed and dismissed later by the International Court of Justice to which it was directed, rejects the rulings of that Court and, with it, resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, asserting that the standard term in international law, "occupied Palestinian lands" is "the common language of Arab anti-Israel propaganda, a part of the Arabs' fictional history, which it has succeeded in disseminating throughout the whole wide world". Katz further claimed that "Impartial groups should not be blind to the fact that there are two sides to the dispute in Palestine and that Israel rejects absolutely the notion that it is illegally holding 'Palestinian lands'."[1] Similary, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has written: "It would be far more accurate to describe the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "disputed territories" to which both Israelis and Palestinians have claims."
I believe the links work, Ruby. Many of the issues cited are items of interest and alarm that affected my generation, issues that you weren't privy to and are not important to your generation in the same way they are to others.
Raven
Comment by RubySoho
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"Disputed Territories", very good. So tell me what are Israel's claims to these territories, apart from the ridiculous one that it is their God-given right? It is not their land. They have no right to be there. For peace to have a chance they must withdraw and give the Palestinians autonomy. Don't the Palestinians deserve their own country? Don't they deserve to be citizens? Why must they live in this perpetual limbo?
'The Arabs fictional history"? What does that mean exactly?
Comment by tlcorbin
Coffee Quip
The area was under British Authority, the local Arabs thought to many Jews were showing up in the land that they hoped to claim as their own; it didn't happen, it wasn't granted to them.
This pissed the Arabs off and they rebelled in 1938 or there abouts. They appealed to the UN, got shit and decided the UN didn't have authority over the matter until later when is was conveniently decided that oops, it did.
The Palestinians joined the enemies of Israel against Israel in a war in 1948, they lost.
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, also known by Israelis as the War of Independence and by Palestinians as al Nakba ("..the Catastrophe") was the first in a series of wars fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict. The war marked the establishment of the State of Israel, and the exodus ( exodus: Palestinians [voluntarily] left to escape the violence) of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from the territories that would become part of the new state.
The 1967 War saw the Arab Palestinians and Arab allies loose yet another war and the Israeli's occupied the land, gave some back and offered a joint use plan for the rest of the area. The Arab Palestinians nixed it, all or nothing. And things never got better. Because some folks founds it profitable to keep the region up in arms; and naive newbies get sucked up into it because they have been systematically dumbing your generation down since kindergarten.
So, back and forth they go, in a never ending dance of death, because some damn fool has to set off a rocket to make a point; even though the other side that they'd blow half of their world apart if they did that-trying to put an end to their self destruction crap.
And it is still going on, and frankly I don't care who is right or wrong any more. I say we should arm them all with atomics and let them turn the area and its oil fields into a glowing desert and glass beads
Then, while the rest of the world starts glowing and growing extra limbs from radiation poisoning, we will at least be free of the cancerous hate spawned in the area and can watch our evening news free from the self inflicted carnage espoused in the region.
So, I don't care if God granted anyone anything, I care that self righteous wankers are causing the deaths of innocents, and you with your all seeing attitude don't know the first thing about war, conflict and suffering. But if the region goes up inn flames, it won't matter any longer who is right or wrong, or whether or not God gave anything away, like e.g. your self proclaimed right to espouse your inane bullshit.
We'll all be entangled in a death waltz and even the coming ice age won't matter, because we're going to be starving and dying from green chicken flu viruses.
Peace Starts When the Rockets Stop ~ it means, someone has to begin the action. WTF does right or wrong matter when an uneasy peace accord will give everyone a chance to calm down.
Either they get a grip, or lets really arm them all and get it over with. Whoever wins will be God's chosen people and that's the end of it. Then I can view the news and hopefully view something that makes me smile.
Comment by RubySoho
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And yes, I do have a right to espouse my "inane bullshit". Last I heard, freedom of speech was alive and well...or has your President vetoed that too?