Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Suspend Military Aid to Israel, Amnesty Urges Obama after Detailing US Weapons Used in Gaza
JERUSALEM - Detailed evidence has emerged of Israel's extensive use of US-made weaponry during its war in Gaza last month, including white phosphorus artillery shells, 500lb bombs and Hellfire missiles.
Relatives mourn a Palestinian man killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza, last month. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AP In a report released today, Amnesty International detailed the weapons used and called for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian armed groups. It called on the Obama administration to suspend military aid to Israel.
The human rights group said that those arming both sides in the conflict "will have been well aware of a pattern of repeated misuse of weapons by both parties and must therefore take responsibility for the violations perpetrated".
The US has long been the largest arms supplier to Israel; under a current 10-year agreement negotiated by the Bush administration the US will provide $30bn (£21bn) in military aid to Israel.
"As the major supplier of weapons to Israel, the USA has a particular obligation to stop any supply that contributes to gross violations of the laws of war and of human rights," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program director. "To a large extent, Israel's military offensive in Gaza was carried out with weapons, munitions and military equipment supplied by the USA and paid for with US taxpayers' money."
For their part, Palestinian militants in Gaza were arming themselves with "unsophisticated weapons" including rockets made in Russia, Iran and China and bought from "clandestine sources", it said. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed and more than 4,000 injured during the three-week conflict. On the Israeli side 13 were killed, including three civilians. Amnesty said Israel's armed forces carried out "direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects in Gaza, and attacks which were disproportionate or indiscriminate". The Israeli military declined to comment yesterday.
Palestinian militants also fired "indiscriminate rockets" at civilians, Amnesty said. It called for an independent investigation into violations of international humanitarian law by both sides.
Amnesty researchers in Gaza found several weapon fragments after the fighting. One came from a 500lb (227kg) Mark-82 fin guided bomb, which had markings indicating parts were made by the US company Raytheon. They also found fragments of US-made white phosphorus artillery shells, marked M825 A1.
On 15 January, several white phosphorus shells fired by the Israeli military hit the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza City, destroying medicine, food and aid. One fragment found at the scene had markings indicating it was made by the Pine Bluff Arsenal, based in Arkansas, in October 1991.
The human rights group said the Israeli military had used white phosphorus in densely populated civilian areas, which it said was an indiscriminate form of attack and a war crime. Its researchers found white phosphorus still burning in residential areas days after the ceasefire.
At the scene of an Israeli attack that killed three Palestinian paramedics and a boy in Gaza City on 4 January, Amnesty found fragments of an AGM114 Hellfire missile, made by Hellfire Systems of Orlando, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The missile is often fired from Apache helicopters.
Amnesty said it also found evidence of a new type of missile, apparently fired from unmanned drones, which exploded into many pieces of shrapnel that were "tiny sharp-edged metal cubes, each between 2 and 4mm square in size".
"They appear designed to cause maximum injury," Amnesty said. Many civilians were killed by this weapon, including several children, it said.
Rockets fired by Palestinian militants were either 122mm Grad missiles or short-range Qassam rockets, a locally made, improvised artillery weapon. Warheads were either smuggled in or made from fertilizer.
The arsenal of weapons was on a "very small scale compared to Israel", it said, adding that the scale of rocket arsenal deployed by Hizbullah in the 2006 Lebanese war was "beyond the reach of Palestinian militant groups".
Armed for war
Israelis Missiles launched from helicopters and unmanned drones, including 20mm cannon and Hellfire missiles. Larger laser-guided and other bombs dropped by F-16 warplanes. Extensive use of US-made 155mm white phosphorus artillery shells and Israeli-made 155mm illuminating shells that eject phosphorus canisters by parachute. Several deaths caused by flechettes, 4cm-long metal darts packed into 120mm tank shells, and fragments of US-made 120mm tank shells.
Palestinians Militants fired rockets into southern Israel including 122mm Grad rockets of either Russian, Chinese or Iranian manufacture, and smaller, improvised Qassam rockets often made inside Gaza and usually holding 5kg of explosives and shrapnel.
- Posted in
77 Comments so far
Show AllStop selling arms to Israel? And lose all those weapons contracts? Won't that affect the stimulus plan?
Amnesty International is right to ask, but the powers that be love money more.
International law no longer exists.
With Obama helping to shield the Bush administration from its eight years of crimes the U.S. is formally declaring exception from all treaties.
Laws are now exclusively for serfs.
Thus the acceleration of the collapse of civilization and peace continues.
Along with banning sales of weapons, we need also to stop monetary support of Israel. Having said that, the reality is AIPAC advises our government, and Rohm Emanuel advises our President. And, as mentioned above, our economy would collapse without the arms industry. If, in fact, there was a legitimate move to bring real peace to the world, perhaps the arms industry could retool their factories to produce agricultural equipment, irrigation and clean water production equipment. Perhaps we could bring desalinating equipment to the coasts of Africa and to the arid regions of the Mid East. If we began to feed and clothe our enemies, maybe they would see us differently. Of course, they would have to forgive all the death and destruction we have brought to their families. With all the money left over from our defence budget savings, maybe we could do the same with America. More of our money is being used to overrun the world than is used to build up America.
odoco
John - wonderful ideas, full of humanity and sustainability. Can our present populace even conceive of such generosity and true charity? That is why we must fight to change the mindset of all. If we don't, the whole world loses.
Well said, both odoco and john!
Logical, sensible, rational, and humane, so that's probably why it will be a three foot snowstorm in Death Valley before we see it happen.
Here's a way for America to change the ill will of the world to good will for generations.
There are about 1 billion people in this world without clean water. The human cost of this is staggering because of disease, misery, & early death. The financial costs are equally unacceptable.
For $10 per person it has been estimated all of these billion souls could have clean water.
That's only $10 billion folks. Sure it's still a lot of money, but how much are we spending bailing out greedy Wall Street & bankers again??? Hmmm...
Think of it; for a relatively small amount we could re-gain the respect of the world we used to have after WWII.
Isn't this a perfect candidate for the expression "No-brainer"?
How can these people live with themselves?
Our justification for selling arms to Israel is that they are a key ally and hold a stratigic position in the Middle East. Israel is concerned that all Arab nations are potentially their enemy and their goal is with the help of the US to destroy the power of every potential enemy. If one examines this goal carefully, it becomes apparent that it will very soon end in establishing another cold war with Russia together with an arms race in the reagion and if Israel continues with their beligerent unrelenting assalts against the Palestinian and neighoring people and continues to stall for a meaningful peace plan, it will result in a horrible war of enormous magnitude. I wonder if we have already gone too far to stop this direction.
Good points people.
Imagine this scenario:
Israel comes to the US, kicks everyone out of say...Indiana. Then they start aggressively expanding into Illinois.
Would all the surrounding states try to fight them? Hell yes!
Would all the surrounding states try to "Wipe them off the face of the Earth"? Hell yes!
How is this any different from what Israel has done? There were people living in Indiana who had lived there several hundred years. They weren't the original occupants, maybe, but still had a legitimate claim to the land, yet were pushed off by claim jumpers whose only rational of ownership is a highly suspect document (The Bible) of suspect authorship.
If I were a former resident of Indiana I would never never ever stop fighting until I got my land back, would you?
This might seem a bit abstract, but I believe the only way there will be peace in the middle east is:
1) When the US finally has publically funded elections,
2) When all the oil runs out in the mid-east,
3) When the monopolies on our media are broken up for good,
4) The peaceful majority in Israel regains control of their government,
5) Or when Israel gets nuked.
Choose wisely people
This thread will devolve into an Obama crucifixion platform. And as leader of an Evil Empire, he is culpable. But he is a rather benevolent ruler relative to the blood-soaked killer we just 86'd, and his would-be successor.
The problem in Israeli/U.S. relations is deeper than the POTUS and is relatively immune from him.
It's all the congressman and senators and lobbyists and columnists and news-anchors and newspaper owners and editorial writers and program directors that swing into action if Israel does not get "it's way." ANYONE impeding the 4th Reich's desires is instantly subjected to blistering attacks in the media and in the halls of congress.
I wish BO could just immolate this structure. But instead he is imprisoned within it.
Go ahead, BO is attacked here a lot, but defying Israel is impossible. It is as easy as defying Congress and the Media. Telling them both to go to Hell.
Won't work. Period.
My President's country is somewhat 'controlled' by Israel, at least the media and congress.
That is a LOT of power. More than the President wields. If you control thought, you control all.
Joseph.
Well said. "Never again" has turned many Jews worldwide into paranoid, reactionary, blind, mindless supporters of Zionism, a mental illness related to the Stockholm Syndrome.
They developed a traumatic bond with their Nazi torturers and have become them. Like junkies need their fix, Zionists need weapons for their insatiable paranoia and our arms pushers are only too happy to sell them more.
I thought our country was in an economic crisis? 30 BILLION in aid to these war criminals!
Obama/Biden are not only fiscally irresponsible, they're making all Americans valid targets for those who choose to courageously fight against "empire."
zorex-NO! That is $30,000,000,000 in free military aid alone in ten years, (although the number if FAR greater than that.*)
PLUS another $35,000,000,000 in Straight Cash over those same ten years.
About $60,500,000,000!!! dollars magically turned into shekels in a decade. Yeah, Magic.
*Israeli "Americans" and other Zionists in the DOD routinely mark F-16's etc with dirty windshield as surplus and sell them to the Terrorist State for Fifty Cents a throw to further their war on children.
The average Jewish Israeli family income is around 35k annually plus socialized medical benefits. All free. Wish my kids had free health care. Wish I did. But they need MORE of my money, more of your money, more gelt, oy freakin' vey.
Why do I owe Israeli Jews Money? I have been sending it to them for a long time. To help them have a better standard of living than I do? And murder?
Joe.
Between 1950 and !997, Israel received 140 BILLION DOLLARS (WRMEU website).
This for a nation of 5.5 million Jews.
Sorry - that should have been WRMEA
http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm
chet 380, Yeah, and check this trick out,
Israel then takes Billions and Billions of those dollars to do what?
Lobby for and Receive more money! And they then what? Take a now greater amount of our money to Lobby for a GREATER amount of our money,
And all the while buying media, being Larry Kings, Fox News, permeating like plague the MSM and ever insuring an anti-Arab pro poor Israel our only Ally...spin, on and on for decades now.
While all the while using U.S. tax dollars to lobby for and recieve EVER MORE U.S. tax dollars.
A scam. Illegal and ugly. But for our Chosen Friends only it is Institutionalized.
Joe.
(Note, Tel Aviv, sorry my check is late this month, my kid's and I had to go give blood to get your money out of our arms and the line was long.)
zackly...thanks
Sad but true... even with good intentions the more Obama ignores the call for Justice in this world in order to appease the other party and those who went along, Obama will find he is just in effect covering up the crimes that he will be forced to continue because he thought appeasing the other side without justice being served would solve anything. Justice denied is not looking forward!
Israel is setting a military world wide example of the New Nazis... Thugs in War who kill because God Gave them their Land or were chosen or the Arabs and "anti-Semites" hate them or whatever reason they want.
Israel has proved to the world that War Crimes are committed daily in the name of "Self Defense".
They are not the only ones who do this but their overt thuggery has earned them the top public enemy number one Terrorist State prize. Boycott Israel!
If Obama continues to supply Israel with the military aid it is using for War crimes then Obama will be a War Criminal as well.
Time is running out for him to decide. Supplying War criminals must end.
Israel's infamy deserves to be the new example.
Go Amnesty International and lets free American political prisoner, Sami.
Great post, my friend, our minds meet again!
Wait a minute. Isn't that one of the three things Osama bin Laden wanted? He wanted our bases out of Saudi Arabia, he wanted us to stop supporting the Israeli military, and some third thing I can't remember. So does this mean that Amnesty International is siding with al Qaeda? Clearly so. And the money I donate to Amnesty (and have now increased) goes to support a terrorist agenda. How mortifying.
hello voxclamantis.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912
another link that is a must view (in my humble opinion) in regards to educating ones self about the history of our country abroad and at home, and how the ruling establishment would have NEVER have elected Obama if they thought he truly would bring CHANGE around. Instead it was interlaced with the word "HOPE" and given to the uneducated masses like some type of drug to keep them from knowing what was really going on.
how it relates to your posting? Guess what? There is no such organization as al Qaeda. That is a falsehood that has been spread by the CIA and the U.S. Government so they can keep fighting, supplying Israel and other countries with nukes etc, and i'm sorry to say, keep you scared at night.
Check out the video at the 49 min. mark exactly. you'll see what i mean.
knowledge is power. get strong!
Thanks, Neat video... Puts it all together.
Israel is a terrorist country, we should not support them.
azjoe's right. I suspect Obama--who cedes rhetorical allegiance to AIPAC (the day following his nomination, in fact, but who has dined with Edward Said, doesn't, I suspect, much care for these ongoing massacres. But with Rahm Imanuel at his side, and William Lynne of Raytheon at Deputy Defense, he's going to be caught up in that perfect storm of right-wing Israel lobby and weapons contractors.
The Israelis sure make it hard to sympathize. You really try to be fair, you understand that Hamas and Hezbollah are no one's idea of civil rights advocates themselves--that these aren't marxist popular fronts, that they are guilty of every form of military and political stupidity imaginable, you try to convince yourself that both parties are equally culpable and intranisgent, ... and then you come up against the numbers.
Unfortunately Americans are inured to the connections between their lives and the loves lost elsewhere. Americans tend to be cloistered altogether. The connection between the dye-injected packaged meats and the cow is practically metaphysical to mosty Americans; the connection between the folks who go to work at the plants in Pine Bluff and Orlando and the fruits of the labors in Gaza neighborhood is equally obscure, as is the connection between the federal income tax item of our pay stubs and that shrapnel, ""tiny sharp-edged metal cubes, each between 2 and 4mm square in size," embedded in the flesh of people who've never done a damn thing to hurt us. Or anyone else for that matter.
Nor do they want to know. Your average American, liberal as well as conservatives, wonders, with Barbara Bush, why he or should should trouble their beautiful minds with tragedy, especially if there's any faint suggestion it might involve culpability on their part. You can lead a horse to water, sure....
m horan
http://www.nosuppertonight.com
nosuppertonite. Nice Web-Site.
Yeah, Hynotism is an Alluring Horse
And the Will not to Know a Willing Rider.
But after slaving over Miracle Gro & Hot Pockets,
At least we can wheel the old Telly near
And feel the warmth, yes.
I 'note' this. Music fostered by counter-insurgency, the blues-REBELLION music-parented Rock&Roll emboldening leftist youth narcotics use and causing what? Well, now we see that Wall Street has rotted from the inside, Homes are in foreclosure, the U.S. is in recession-depression quicksand and we are mired in foreign wars.
It's obvious that
Castles in the sand (U.S. imperialism, domestic oppression & class warfare)
will melt into the sea, (That's violent revolution B******'s)
eventually. (As soon as the middle class gets hungry)
And on that flat 3rd, 5th or 7th note, this Bong-Hit's for you.
Joe.
I find it very, very difficult to deal wth the range of some of the "bad faith" being exercised on Obama's behalf in some of these comments. Sure, he'd like to withhold U.S. arms from Israel but he can't do it because of the big bad Israel lobby, Rahm Emanuel, Dennis Ross etc. and the big bad mainstream press, the big bad military/industrial complex that "runs" this country, and even the jackals of assassination who await any deviation from the war agenda. These argumments are really obscenely misguided. Last I heard Obama was elected President by over 50% of eligible voters who actually voted and if that isn't a "mandate" for the President to do the "right thing" rather than the bad things that this big bad cabal demands of him, where is the power of the people; where is the democracy that we are supposed to be? If the people don't demand that their elected representatives actually represent them, what's the point of even having elections in which people will exercise their own "bad faith" by saying that they "had to" vote for one of the corporacratic parties because our big bad "two-party system" gives us no other choice? As Sartre, Camus and the other existentists tell us, we (citizens and Presidents) are "doomed to freedom" from which we cannot escape by the "bad faith" of complaining we cannot exercise that freedom because of the "forces" constraining us. In a word, President Obama, you are a human being with human freeman and you have no other choice that than to act like a human and not a "victim of circumsances"): you have the power to forbid arms shipments to Israel, exercise it!
Good for Amnesty for telling Obama to stop showering Israel with all our new and sophisticated death-toys, but do they really have to keep up this 'both sides' charade? If there was any chance of serious reprisal from the Palestinian side, you can be sure that Israel would not have gone to town as they did in Gaza. Let's blame the blameworthy and be done with it. Hamas and the Palestinians already have the unanimous blame of all the mainstream press.
as long as AIPAC formerly known as AMERICAN ZIONIST COUNCIL, JINSA, and other zionist organizations have power in america this will not end. how many dual citizens have been in every administration. dennis ross wrote obama's speech for aipac, everyone here knows all the players. this is the tail wagging the dog.
Too one sided to be called a "War."
Genocide is a controversial yet more accurate descriptive term for for the Zionists' "Operation Cast Lead."
Slaughterhouse rules applied.
"They appear designed to cause maximum injury," Amnesty said.
**I cant believe that in a war they have weapons designed to cause as much damage as possible!
It's as if they actually want to injure and kill!
I always thought war was about noble ideals, defense and freedom.
Silly of me.
Next I'll find out that slaughterhouses are places full of misery and death.
What should Americans expect when our government is infected and infested with Israelis?
How many 'dual citizens' run the Pentagram? Talk about reversable jackets and turncoats!
It's high time to toss our AIPAC government out - both political wings - Democrats and Republicans.
When the CCCP dissolved, the cold war was ended. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; except for the MIC. Think about it. They could retool and make refrigerators, for instance. A family buys a refrigerator and uses it for ten or fifteen years. Same for a stove or other appliance.
On the other hand, you develop a weapon for a few billion, then build one to beat it, making it obsolete so you make a few billion more producing the new one, ad infinitum. Someone buys a bomb, uses it once and he has to buy another! Great growth industry.
Amnesty International may well stimulate a new "investigation," which will require junkets to other countries, much examination of files, etc., not to correct anything, but to investigate the charges Amnesty has made, to spend a few years investigating whether there is any truth to the charges, and then much debate as to what to do about it.
This is the same process used to let BushCo walk away with their ill gotten gains.
All this while, the scheduled payments of $3.1 billion per year will continue in high tech weaponry and bribes and the killing will go on. Remember, in the Security Council we have VETO POWER! Nothing can be done on the international scene unless we agree to it. Historically, anything that in any way restricts Israel from its excesses is routinely vetoed by the United States.
I fear the only change in the US government will be Obama's underwear. Everything else is locked in place by the establishment, i.e., the MIC and beneficiaries.
Few people have been able to read through the 432 pages of fine print in the new bailout (excuse me, stimulus) bill, but those who have have found billions going to coal, the nuclear industry, and more nuclear weapons research. And, of course, to cover the big bankers and Wall Street speculators' losses yet again.
"Amnesty to O'Bama"??????
Common Dreams, we have no idea what these objects Amnesty and O'Bama are. Are they characters you cooked up for the theater? We're not looking for amusements. We guess that you're engaged in theater production of the type that drove the USA off the cliff to its demise over the past eight years. We guess that Amnesty is probably one of those "interest groups" popular in the old theater of doom. And we guess that O'Bama is the deity-king type of character, the "protagonist" who everyone is supposed to admire with his infinite power, finger on the "destroy all" button. This is truly pathetic if it's true. Can we stop distracting the people from the task of building a better society? How about some articles on the very task at hand: The people building a better society. THE PEOPLE. Do you see the difference between THE PEOPLE and these surrogate objects? These surrogates are mere distractions, are they not? We are questioning the whole idea of organizations and leaders. We're opening a debate. Do we need organizations and leaders? Prove it. Or at least try to argue it. Let's see if the argument holds water.
How does the strong but small Jewish Population in the USA ,Canada ,UK and Australia have such power and influence.????
USA 6.5 Mil. -- Canada 370K -- UK 300K Australia 100K
Q : Why is Canada ,the USA , Australia and the UK so Pro Israel ????
Ans : The "older opinion" is pro-Israel for sentimental and historical reasons which means the WWII JEWISH HOLOCAUST !!!
Therefore to get Middle East and World peace there "MUST" be a Truth and Reconciliation on the WWII Jewish Holocaust !!!!
Canadian journalist Eric Alterman writes, Canada is ‘dominated by people who cannot imagine criticising Israel’. He lists 61 ‘columnists and commentators who can be counted on to support Israel reflexively and without qualification’ and just five pundits who consistently criticise Israeli actions.
Jewish communities in all countries World wide are very well-organized, extremely politically active, and they get their message out to top politicians and bureaucrats in ways many other cultural, ethnic and religious groups just can't hope to match.
One of the leading Jewish organizations is the Canada-Israel Committee, which was formed in the late 1960s to promote "increased understanding" between the peoples of Canada and Israel. CIC's operations really expanded in 1973, in response to the Yom Kippur war. It has since become one of the largest foreign policy lobby groups in the country and has a permanent staff in Ottawa.
Of all the free trips Canadian MPs accepted last year, Israel outnumbered other destinations by nearly two to one—even outpacing Taiwan, which was the top destination for freebies in 2007. According to Canada's ethics commissioner, the Canada-Israel Committee spent more than $200,000 to send 23 federal politicians and their spouses to the Middle East.
Ever heard of the Hasbra kids ???
http://tinyurl.com/cwdpzo
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mea...06/ mear01_.html
Shame on the USA ,Israel/Jews and the World.
Bring America Back !!!! Thanks Harvey for the educational stats and fact based analysis from where Israel gets its backing in the World !
***Harvey is absolutely correct when he states that since the Jewish Nation suffered the Nazi Holocaust, then Israel must be forgiven without question, or second thought, for it's over-reactionary butchery, slaughters, attacks, Genocides and spying on just about every other Nation. There is that prevalent line of thinking which has consumated the US and it's Government !!
***FBI Agents are on record acknowledging that if they uncover Israeli crimes during their investigative work, better not report on it if they value their careers as Fed Agents. Lest they find themselves re-assigned to tracking wayward Elvs at the NOrth Pole.
***It has been 65 years now since WWII, and Harvey's facts are testimony that our Guys who died conquering Germany did not intend their sacrifices to produce the kind of Zionist retributions we see in the Mid East.
WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!
Yes thankyou, Harvey, but there are two factors you failed to mention, and both regard financial clout of a very small Zionist minority over the vast majority.
Google some about gold & you will find Zionists control or own 40% of the gold in the entire world. Control of international banking is a natural corollary (Members of the Rothschild family, or their approved associates, own or control the central banks in 190 of the worlds 195 countries).
Through this financial clout Zionist have bought our media & a large percentage of congress (our election/selection system is thoroughly corrupted by bribes AKA 'campaign contributions', and if any person in congress dares to speak out against Israeli tyranny they get excluded, smeared, threatened, or even done away with by other means). Two hundred high ranking officials in the Bush administration held dual US/Israeli citizenship, including Michael Chertoff, laughably head of DHS (isn't this an obvious conflict of interest for people supposedly looking out for American interests before all others?) Even in the Obama administration many of these people are still entrenched in our government.
Just do a little research on who controls/owns the majority of the US media, and you will find why the news is always slanted toward Israel.
Get over it, Israel, the only Holocaust remaining is the one you create. Inflicting feelings of guilt will only carry you so far when your dirty deeds are found to be the same as the Nazis. What is the difference between you trying to take land from the Palestinians, and the Nazis taking Poland or Czechoslavakia?
Bring America Back !!!! Thanks to The Guardian for the article.
*Amnesty International asks the US to stop military shipments to Israel !!
*That is like asking our left hand not to scratch our right hand !!!
US and Israel are inextricably linked in the Mid East.
*Amnesty needs to put it's evidence and findings from GAZA into a Brief for
an International Court of War Crimes !!! Name the USA and Israel as co=conspirators in the deaths of the 1500 and the thousands more homeless and badly injured !!
*The US Army Corps of Engineers constructed a Mock Gaza Village in Israel and trained the IDF on all the best ways to attack Gaza City. No Hamas rockets were needed as justification==this was a pre=planned attack by both countries on a defenseless people. It was Genocide of the worst kind !
*Of the 1500 dead, 300 to 400 were children, innocent of anything except being the victims of Zionist madness and butchery. All Obama could say was He 'would do the same thing as Israel if rockets were coming at his daughters'!
Thus Obama justified the savage killing and Israel's fighting sticks and stones with US laser missiles, phosphorous bombs, on and on.
*Surely those 400 dead kids were somebodys' daughters, sons, grandchildren, cousins, neices, nephews !!!! what more needs said ?????????
*Consider also the IDF withdrew from Gaza exactly on the US Inauguration Day, now is not that something to comprehend?? Further evidence that Israel plays its mid east military might right into the American political scene.
*Only this time we all know at those Balls, they were dancing on the graves of innocent Palestinians, that is if they were fortunate enough to have graves in Gaza !!! WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!!!!!
Obama said he will cut or eliminate spending on programs that are not working. This, like our aid programs to Colombia, Egypt, Jordan, etc. is not working for the benefit of humanity.
Look, how is America going to trial all these new weapons if Israel doesn't? I mean, let's be fair.
America goes to all the trouble to invent these hideous munitions and then you want to stop them trialing them. America wouldn't do it themselves because the finger would be pointed at them but if Israel does it then no one cares!
Spare a thought for the poor designers of these weapons and the manufacturers. There's only so much frustration they can handle. (Satire ends!)
The designers and manufacturers should be jointly liable for
all the deaths and injuries and destruction these weapons have caused.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Both sides have legitimate grievances. The Palestinians and their supporters must aknowledge Israel's right to exist, if only because the UN said so a long time ago; the israelis must withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, if only because of the UN resolutions.
It is a reflection of AIPAC's influence on US politicians that only one of the two quarreling brothers gets all of the US military aid. To keep a neutral attitude, none should get any. But the US, as self appointed peace keeper to the world, should do more than that.
This is one of those cases where we will see the limitations of a president elected throught the current electoral process. Although seeing the door of Bush's helicopter close for one last time was the occassion for a collective sigh of relief, and nothing is perfect, this lopsided carnage is unacceptable and grievous. Yet Obama will talk his way out of not stopping the flow of weapons of massive destruction to Israel; let's hope he does something substantial on the road to peace.
Jarhead
Why in the hell does the good old U.S.A instigate Israel to war on Garza. The U.S. gives (not sell) the weapons to them to rip up the Garza Strip then the U.S. takes the american tax dollar and rebuild it. Let Israel pay for their war crimes. Why should we? Just before Bushnik and Cheneyski left office they made sure they would get their last kick at the Garza Strip.
It is time to get serious, even if we could afford to continue to support israel at the expense of the Palestinians, their "experiment" has failed.
It is morally, ethically and logically insane to keep funding this racist state.
There was no war between Hamas & IDF, there was a Palestinian civilian massacre and it is sickening to hear this slaughter being defended as self defense.
WRMEA is accepting donations of blankets for Gazans, the reason they're asking for blankets is because it is all the Israelis will allow.
Paul Siemering
well I think it's worth a try. Let's shut down all weapons to Israel tomorrow and see if the entire economy crashes. I'm guessing it won't.
there is no doubt it will take lots of courage for Obama to do this. But i also believe that is in his job description.
I'm sorry but I don't think they will stop-funding Israel, supplying weapons, big,bad, horrible,obliterating weapons. The whole of their actions-pentagon... is heart rending. THere is no justification in this universe for this activity. I read an article hear a week or two ago that made a symbolic reference of the tunnel situation in Palestine. The commentor described another situation of Israel having a tunnel that would fit planes, tanks and what have you. Compare this to the tunnels used for food and what... maybe a few guns... by the Palestinians. Good comparison.
I am so sick of all this insidious hatred towards Israel in the progressive community. It makes no sense.
Israel is a free democracy. Hamas is a repressive terrorist organization that's run by religious extremists. Supporting Hamas is not progressive.
Israel wants peace. Hamas wants to destroy Israel. Sorry, but genocide is not progressive.
Teaching children to kill Jews is not progressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm8w7_P8wZ0
As a Jewish person, I can't help but take your support for Hamas as a personal attack against me and my People. Please, stop and reconsider your opposition to Israel's security.
Hey dumbarse,
Israel is NOT a free country. And it NOT a democracy. Have you seen the crap they teach at Jewish schools? I guess not....You are a bloody dupe that ISrael feeds on to get their free welfare check at YOUR expense.
total bullshit, pal --
i'm jewish too ...and my family was intimately involved with the politics
that led to u.s. support when israel was created --
you are the victim of the greatest propaganda war in the history of our planet
as for the democracy part ...the nazis were also elected --
the type of horrible damages sustained by innocent people living in gaza
is a disgrace to every person living in israel ---
it's based on sheer racism --- read the extensive documentation of abuse
via the occupation ---
it dates back decades --
there are many independent sources --
right now...people are starving, dying, in gaza
dubs, Hi,
Thanks for speaking up. Every Jewish, every Israeli voice that speaks out for peace has particular import, emphasis and effect.
If 100,000 Israeli Jews demonstrated in the streets in unison policy would change.
If 100,000 U.S Jews demonstated in the streets in unison policy would change.
And if these two hypothetical groups acted concurrently Gaza would be freed, the theft of the West Bank would cease/be reversed, and a Palestine would raise from these ashes like the Phoenix so Close. Close, saying you too can live again.
Joseph.
Israel is apartheid, like SA used to be. It has right to exist, but not like this.
Right on Joehope. I'm with ya brother. There is nothing progressive with these hate-filled attacks on Israel and the Jewish people. I'm Jewish, and I am proud to say that I will stand with Israel as she defends herself against the arab terrorists such as hamas, hezbollah, islamic jihad, al queda, and those in this blog that support those terrorists. I too am deeply saddened when I see any innocent person harmed. The reality is that the hamas bastards use their fellow arab brothers, sisters, mothers, children as human shields. These hamas scum hide themselves in homes of non-hamas members, in mosques, in schools thinking that they will not be attacked. And, these terrorists fire their rockets from these same locations into the homes and businesses of Israeli citizens. As I have commented in the past, if terrorists were launching rockets into your homes, wouldn't you fight back? Of course you would. And, that is precisely what Israel has done. She has defended herself. The solution, as I have also noted, is to remove the cancer in the region; remove the terrorists.