Netanyahu has started another war against the Gaza Strip. It doesn’t seem like people have really noticed or even care. Why is this being done? What are war aims? What are the chances for success?
I suppose we could debate these things but it seems more like just the beating of the rain. In the Middle East, people are killing each other and it has become so routine that it no longer seems pertinent to ask for details.
Can we make it stop? Evidently not.
I assume most here are familiar with Timothy Snyder’s book Bloodlands, which deals with the organized killing of millions of civilians by Hitler and Stalin in eastern Europe from 1933-45. Today’s Bloodlands appear to be the ME, albeit smaller in scope.
What’s to stop this latest Israeli military attack/offensive which will likely kill mostly civilians—justified as a reprisal to a Hamas reprisal, etc. etc., ad infinitum? Well, the UN security council was set up to impede these sort of colonial wars of aggression, which is what this conflict is at bottom–Israel wants to seize and colonize more land it doesn’t own and has absolutely no legal claim to. But since we would veto any attempt to sanction these sort of “reprisal” attacks by Israel, the UN is toothless. I suppose that doesn’t stop some other sec council member from bringing a resolution and having it debated, which probably needs to happen, but won’t.
One thing is certain, the world’s ignoring of this will not make it stop. Israel obviously has no particular interest in stopping the beat…since their “reprisals” will always be more deadly than Hamas’s “reprisals”.
Did you read Obama’s front page op-ed in Haaretz today?
He doesn’t mean it though. You can tell.
The Middle East is a place to go if you want to see constant bloodshed. Their cultures are filled with hate for each other. They practice what could be called blood feuds. That are reminiscent of the old Hatfield and McCoy feud of the USA.
Point stay out of the Middle East and watch them kill each other from a safe distance. It is ingrained in their culture and will never stop.
One would think that the recent loss by both sides of innocent teenagers would give things at least a moment’s pause, but apparently not.
The ME doesn’t have an exclusive on “people are killing each other.” Here’s the top ten for murder. And here’s the List of ongoing armed conflicts. 2013 was another deadly year for Iraq; although 2013 deaths in Iraq and other countries paled in comparison to those in Syria (a conflict the US supported).
Israel is a Terrorist State. The Mother of All Terrorist States. An utterly foreign occupier perpetrating an “American” taxpayer conceived, financed and morally sanctioned genocide upon the indigenous descendants of the “biblical hebrew”. It has no “right” to exist and this world will never know Peace until it does not.
Sixteen dead “Americans” in fourteen years. One young woman run over, backed up over and run over again with a bulldozer. The most recent forced to drink the gasoline poured upon him before being lit on fire and exploding. Anyone who can defend that kind of behavior is a hairless ape. Is less than sufficiently evolved. Less than human. Of course, an entire ethnicity predicated upon their ancestors having interbred with aliens…
The barbarians are control the gates.
I have been commenting on pro Israeli blogs, defending left leaning blogs from charges of anti-Israeli bias. I have repeatedly said that right leaning blogs care not one whit for Israel, the right only cares about money for the rich. Then I come to this blog and see not only bigoted, anti-Israeli comments, but out and out anti-semitism. Bigotry is making a decision based on pre-formed ideas, not on evidence as it comes in. Israel has gone out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, while the Palestinians target civilians. The comments, and the post itself, demonstrate a total refusal to examine all the facts. Here is a little thought experiment for you, give a better defense of Israel than is posted in any of the pro-Israel blogs. If you can’t find the pro-Israel blogs, you could start with elderofziyon.blogspot.com
Yawn
Israel can defend itself. We see it all the time, like when it kills Palestinian refugees in the c̶o̶n̶c̶e̶n̶t̶r̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶c̶a̶m̶p̶s̶ Gaza strip.
I try to be very balanced in my views on Israel-Palestine but let’s not pretend this is anything more than collective punishment of Palestinians in order to satisfy bloodlust. The Palestinian civilian dead will far outnumber the Israeli dead when this outbreak of violence ends.
Then I come to this blog and see not only bigoted, anti-Israeli comments, but out and out anti-semitism
Can you name one example of anti-semitism? I’m not sure if you are referring to anything in this thread, but if you are I can see people critical of Israel, but where is the anti-semitism?
Israel has gone out of its way to avoid civilian casualties, while the Palestinians target civilians.
That’s not really the case, although it is the official Israeli line. I mean, in each of its last few incursions into Gaza, Israel has used White Phosphorus in Gaza, a gas that disburses across a wide area and burns of the flesh off of the people it comes into contact with. They have used it in Gaza City, one of the most densely populated places in the world. That’s not “going out of its way to avoid civilian casualties” that’s acting as if it does not care about civilian casualties, at the same time that it was telling the world that it is going out of its way to avoid harming civilians. The problem is the medical statistics simply contradict the Israeli account. In operation cast lead, hundreds of children were killed in Gaza. More children were killed than Israelis of all ages. If that is “going out of their way” I’m not sure what not going out of their way would look like.
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Welcome joe5348 to the pond.
Clearly someone educated in Gerald Steinberg’s school of hasbara. These bs comments about ‘anti-semitism’ will fall on deaf ears in this community. Enjoy your short stay. Thanks for listing your creed.
○ IDF’s New Media – War Propaganda Through Social Media
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Anti-semitism? How about this “Of course, an entire ethnicity predicated upon their ancestors having interbred with aliens…” And self defense, in the face of over 200 rockets fired at one’s cities, is not collective punishment.
I read that “blog” you posted. It’s racist garbage.
Can you give an example of racist garbage? No doubt you would say the same of yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com.
Leaving aside that Zionism is racism, the blog is nothing but pure hasbara. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was the unofficial spokesman of the IDF.
The second one isn’t as bad, but yes it is still racist: denies apartheid exists, and even goes on to compare the Oregon territories becoming states in a recent post to the present Israeli Occpation. In many ways, that post alone seems to deny an occupation even exists, and settlements should be encouraged because “America”.
That line of thinking also won’t get you far with me, when if I had my way reparations through huge amounts of wealth transfer would be occurring to those tribes. Especially when I see the end game of Israel’s conquest: territories and reservations for the Palestinians, same as we did with Native Americans.
Joe,
your anti-semitism example holds up. I must have missed it when I posted my above comment last night.
And self defense, in the face of over 200 rockets fired at one’s cities, is not collective punishment.
Can’t it be both? I realize that Israel views its strike as self-defense and that it’s attack on Gaza is only in response to the current round of missiles (meanwhile the other side claims that the missiles are in retaliation for the heavy crackdown on Hamas which resulted in at least five deaths and hundreds injured and detained when those three teens went missing–the lovely thing about this conflict is that no matter what awful thing one side does, it can always point to some awful thing the other side did before that and claim that justifies their awful actions). But it is using big bombs on a densely populated area-effectively punishing all Gazans for the actions of the few who launch rockets. How is that not also collective punishment? for that matter, how is the 5 year long blockade of Gaza not collective punishment too? The only reason that Gazans do not have bomb shelters (unlike their Israeli counterparts) is because Israel blocks the import of concrete and other construction supplies into Gaza. As a result, lots and lots of children die when Israel does this kind of action because they have no where to run (even when they get one of those famous warning calls that the Israelis like to trumpet to the world media)