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TechnoratiIDF in Gaza: Killing Civilians, Vandalism, and Lax Rules of Engagement
During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers who fought in the offensive.
![[IDF soldiers crossing back into Israel on January 18, after operating in the Gaza Strip as part of Operation Cast Lead. (Reuters)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/idfsoldiers.jpg "idfsoldiers.jpg")
The soldiers are graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic College in Tivon. Some of their statements made on Feb. 13 will appear Thursday and Friday in Haaretz. Dozens of graduates of the course who took part in the discussion fought in the Gaza operation.
The speakers included combat pilots and infantry soldiers. Their testimony runs counter to the Israel Defense Forces' claims that Israeli troops observed a high level of moral behavior during the operation. The session's transcript was published this week in the newsletter for the course's graduates.
The testimonies include a description by an infantry squad leader of an incident where an IDF sharpshooter mistakenly shot a Palestinian mother and her two children. "There was a house with a family inside .... We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof," the soldier said.
"The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One mother and her two children didn't understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was okay, and he should hold his fire and he ... he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders."
According to the squad leader: "The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight away. In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them.
"I don't think he felt too bad about it, because after all, as far as he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders he was given. And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to ... I don't know how to describe it .... The lives of Palestinians, let's say, is something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned they can justify it that way," he said.
Another squad leader from the same brigade told of an incident where the company commander ordered that an elderly Palestinian woman be shot and killed; she was walking on a road about 100 meters from a house the company had commandeered.
The squad leader said he argued with his commander over the permissive rules of engagement that allowed the clearing out of houses by shooting without warning the residents beforehand. After the orders were changed, the squad leader's soldiers complained that "we should kill everyone there [in the center of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist."
The squad leader said: "You do not get the impression from the officers that there is any logic to it, but they won't say anything. To write 'death to the Arabs' on the walls, to take family pictures and spit on them, just because you can. I think this is the main thing: To understand how much the IDF has fallen in the realm of ethics, really. It's what I'll remember the most."
57 Comments so far
Show AllWhat these zionists and Israelis are so terrified of is:
they will have to give back what they stole.
they will be stopped from stealing more.
Their prison industry will be bankrupted.
Their nuclear weapons will have to be disarmed.
They couldn't make it in Europe.
They aren't making it in the middle east.
there is no place left for them to exploit.
They will have to stop murdering and live by the law the rest of us follow.
They aren't chosen, they aren't special, they are as ordinary as any ordinary
murdering theif can be.
Now deal with it. (and I'm tired of them trying to take over every g.d. movement,
like the world would just stop if this dastardly tribe isn't involved & running the
show.)
The axis of evil, invade and kill, Israel, in the land of the Palestinians, Bush and Blair, in Iraq. Will Obama, and the new leader of Britain, continue on with Israel, and continue the insanity,-- proceed to Iran, because that is what Israel wants. What is the control that Israel seem to have over Britain, and the US?
In the US it's called AIPAC.
In the UK it's called "Friends" of Israel. All three major political parties have them (Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and Labour) and each and every leader (Brown Cameron and Clegg) is a member - scary isn't it?
The vice chair of Labour friends of Israel is even Chair of the Joint Parliamentary Commmittee for Human rights. Now there's irony for you
Message from the UK
re boycott
Have a look at
http://www.bigcampaign.org/
It may give you some ideas - surely there must be a similar organisation in the US
as regards the "stuff" for the West Bank very little of it is produced by Palestinians except by those forced to work for the Israeli settlers for very low wages because they have no other source of income.
Have a look on the palestine Solidarity campaign web site too (http://www.palestinecampaign.org)
Since Gaza membership has increased by 30% and many of the members are Jews.
We have two main organistations here Jews for justice for Palestinians (www.jfjfp.org) and ICaD - Israeli committee against house demolitions (www.icahduk.org). Then there're the frummers from Stamford Hill who go on all the demostrations in support of the Palestinian cause.
Don't talk DO SOMETHING, even if it means that you lose some so-called friends
Don't just write on blogs get out on the street, talk to everyone, argue with them , tell the truth about what's going on!!!!
aljoe it is just on 1450 people murdered.
It is illegal to support Hamas. Only Hamas is designated terrorist like only Hizbullah......!
That was the key to this latest slaughtering spree.
Only traumatised civilians on a drip to-day in Gaza. Its going to kill this summer without water. Slow long genocidal colonialists' plans. Bribe, corrupt coerce and call it diplomacy. US governments bear most responsibility for war crimes. They are not alone. Occcupation under perverted Zionist ideology must be resisted for Palestinians sake and for Justice. The present situation must be exposed and confronted without compromise. To organise, educate and fight for all we are worth to try and make amends should become our resistance. And co-ordination with and in many organisations in various world capitals would be most effective too.
What astonishes me is that everything has been lies. All along its history it has been lies. The Israeli's with connections pour into the USA and most settlers in The West Bank are Americans. So, do you all resist now?
And to think that our elected officials went far beyond the call of duty to assure that this pre-planned atrocity was carried out.
Perhaps the IDF will stuff 30 pieces of silver in their mouths just before the trap doors open.
For those of us who have Israel-supporting friends (and we all have them, don't we?) . . . finally some words straight from the horse's mouth . . . although I am also willing to concede they may have come from the other end of the horse instead.
Should we ask our friends if they think these soldiers' stories are also Palestinian propaganda?
I agree with many posts here . . . it is time to stop feeding the Israel machine.
alwaysamazed There seems to be a growing consensus among conscientious journalists, scientists,activists,scholars that the most strategic action is to keep spreading the truth and expose the machinations of AIPAC which has been orchestrating pro-zionist foreign policy under republicans and democrats alike...and now, even Obama/Biden/Clinton. Most exemplary are the majority non-zionist Jews who are courageously speaking out in every venue...finally breaking the disinformation deadlock by using clear, accurate, non-inflammatory language and scholarship. The more coalitions that can be formed, able to learn and use an authentic language of peace...devoid of military and other manipulative euphemisms-- transcending stereotypes, fear, violence, self-righteousness,"superiority-striving"-- the more it could become possible for the "higher" conscientiousness of human intelligence to overcome inherent and learned selfishness. If enough of us could just overcome our denial, panic, depression, cynicism and anguish to co-create a beautiful and inspiring language of universal, ethical empathy and peace (in word,music, film, poetry, prose, conversation and yes, slogans and sound bites) we may yet have a chance! Definitely stop arguing whether the solution is religious, political, personal, cultural, psychological...it is all of the above, purely conscientious and ethical. I have toyed with the idea of coming up with a "dictionary of peace", but time to write is too much of a luxury for those of us under- and un-employed with rent. (Plus I'm not that talented!) I'll leave it up to you professionals who toil in good conscience and good faith. Maybe we could start with replacing "God" with "Good".? "God" and "Allah" with "All Good"?
samanthabadra, all is good, is the name of the primal energy, the primal buddha in the higher levels of tibetan buddhism.
Gaza is the Future ----Look at Gaza and see the future ---then go out and do something about it ----like BOYCOTT !!!!
If your Doctor , Dentist , Plastic surgeon etc etc is Jewish ask them if they support Israel bombing Gaza.
If your Doctor , Dentist , Plastic surgeon etc etc is NOT Jewish ask them if they support Israel bombing Gaza
If they do --- take your business elsewhere IMMEDIATELY !!!!!!
Boycott ---Dell computers -----Starbucks Amazon Mcdonalds ---coca cola --- estee lauder and more !!!!
Any MORE names to boycott for Gaza ???
http://tinyurl.com/hb6rx
Don't forget your banker, TV network owner, or deli/bagel shop owner!
t_g
I wonder how long can we trade on our WWII experience? As sad as it was, it doesn't give us carte blanche to treat other people like dirt - Untermenschen, if you wish.
I personally hate being labelled a victim, hate it, when I see people's reaction to me being Jewish. It happens in the US mainly: the lowered and slightly tilted head, the blinking and averting of the gaze, it all accompanied by a little cry of oohhh and maybe a pat on the hands... I hate it and don't need it!!! I'm also quite sure of not being chosen or anything special.
My son went to public school, he was not brought up religious, although in his 30s he has become a Buddhist and a Greenie. He was and still is a very decent man. A cousin, who lives in Haifa has 7 (seven!!!!) kids, all in the bloody IDF. He is decent enough, but his kids, even the girls are wicked. Just don't understand how this young generation in Israel has become the evil spawn of people who actually did suffer. And don't even start me on the new arrivals, especially from the ex-Soviet Union. All Avigdor Lieberman clones!
I really dislike Zionazis....I have no sympathy for them anymore.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
During WW II special units roamed the countryside of the occupied eastern territories, 'taking care' of the Jewish population there. With a mentality shown by some of the Israelis, they would have done a splendid job along with the Aryan Nazis. But what is the difference between Übermensche or Chosen People anyway? I don't belong to any of these groups of 'superior' beings, so what do I know about treating inferior human beings?
They are taught to treat non-jews as animals in primary schools. It is no surprise then, that when given a machine-gun and a priori innocence..they would gleefully murder the women and children in the concentration camp of Gaza. the Talmud says it's "o.k."
American tax dollars at work around the globe, keeping the world safe from the threat of peace.
The BBC has a story on it.
It seemed rather damning.They may change it though.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7952603.stm
Soldiers are glamorized, joining the military should be a shame.
It isnt a noble profession.
Anyone who says that soldiers are there to defend are forgetting the soldiers on the other side who also claim they are there to defend.
Rabbis were telling them they had to stop the gentiles.
Chosen people.
Human supremacy.
"All humans are created equal, but some humans are more equal than others."
It was clear throughout the Gaza events that the IDF was engaged in Total War tactics, coupled with a sophisticated public relations campaign. Some of the incidents mentioned in this article were reported at the time and were aggressively denied by the IDF, Israeli politicians and international supporters, and thousands of people appearing on comments pages across the internet.
Militaries around the world have invested a lot of time and effort in researching training regimens designed to overcome natural human aversions to killing. In the case of Gaza, it appears that the IDF accentuated the training with "pep talks" as the soldiers moved to their operations. It does not seem too much of a stretch to call the Gaza campaign a deliberate bloodletting, or slaughter, as no military or political objectives were achieved.
The Second World War was fought using Total War tactics, and at the end of it a horrified world established the United Nations. The key UN provisions were establishing international criminal sanctions against these types of aggressions.
Sadly, Western governments defended Israel in this case, and the West in general has been moving away from international law as enshrined in the UN Charter, usually under the rubric of "preventive", "pre-emptive", or "humanitarian" concerns. Those words can sound good, but they usually mask the old dictum - war is politics by other means. The end result of these politics is sometimes that woman and her two kids who went one way when they should have gone another, and so very matter-of-factly took a few bullets to the head and are dead.
The are known throughout the world as the International Death Force. They are backed by the USA
Pots of urine, feces on the walls - how IDF troops vandalized Gaza homes
By Amira Hass
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068989.html
Someone previously suggested mailing anonymous bags of feces to Israel in an "I give a shit!" campaign...
Since the US gov't subsidizes the Israeli war machine to the tune of $15 billion(?) annually, any boycott campaign would also need to target the military contractors that make the bulldozers (catepillar) and fighter jets (Boeing/LockheedMartin/mcDonaldDouglass)...
Since these products are not consumer items, but already purchased in our name with our money, everyone here needs to stop paying taxes that to to the MIC if you want to end the Israeli Blitzkreig...
Anyone want to bet this story does not make the 5 o'clock MSM new?
But I could be wrong - I just wish I was!
The criminals here aren't the impressionable 19 year old kids who think that it's O.K. to murder someone just because you are told to, is a good idea. They are the people who use war as an economic tool to enrichen themselves.This is as old as war itself. First you must gain emotional and moral control of a population, religion has worked well over the ages for this and was probably a tool constructed specifically for this purpose. You can't question the old invisible magical man in the sky, right! Next you have to have to convince a dumbed down population that they are threatened by the people who have what you want. That's pretty easy if you tell them it's what the magic man wants, you know the guy who will burn them in hell if they question him, but of course he loves them. If that doesn't work then knock down a couple of really nice buildings and blame it on them. Next you have to dehumanize the people who have what you want. You call them nips, gooks, rag heads, terrorists etc. The important thing is that you have take their humanity away in the eyes of the 19 years olds that are sent to kill them for you. That's why so many stand-off weapons are used. If it's a video game you can't really see the murder that you are committing. It's really important that the 19 year old doesn't realize that the human being he is murdering is just like him. The moment he does it's over, he won't murder for you any more. The real criminals are the soulless creatures who are licking their chops over beach front property in Gaza that they plan to pick up at a "steal" and the new factory farms in the West Bank that are coming on the market a little bit at a time.
Fred in Boston
Oh, so true, unfortunately.
good post
Fred, You've pretty much summed up the way in which goverments convince young people to go out and murder for them -- so-called war. Religion and dehumanization of the "enemy" are huge tools w/which they carry this out. You often hear people say when conversing about war that "well, it's just human nature." If it is just "human nature" to want to go out and kill people then why do governments go to such lengths to propagandize their populations through the use of fear and all you mention thereby crushing all genuine human feelings such as solidarity, compassion and love for one another which I suggest are at the true human core.
Dave from Fall River -- just south of Boston
Memory of the Warsaw ghetto uprising now serves another purpose in Israel. The well-known Israeli daily Ma'ariv quoted an Israeli officer who recommended "lessons" of the Nazis to his men:
If our job is to seize a densely packed refugee camp or take over the Nablus Casbah, and if this job is to be given to an Israeli officer to carry out without casualties he must before all else analyse and bring together the lessons of past battles, even—shocking though this might appear—to analyse how the German Army operated in the Warsaw Ghetto.
www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1908/19080100.htm
m156 says "If our mission is to sieze a densly packed refugee camp," then Israel has to study Nazi tactics to complete this "Mission," (OOhhh sounds dangerous)
Well, m156 I point this out, the Gaza "refugee camp" Concentration camp was already as seized as it could get.
Call it like it is. The IDF, in cold blood, Murdered 1300 people penned behind barbed wire.
But I appreciate you saying the Israeli's are Nazi's. Right out of a horse's mouth I guess. Thank you for your honesty. Obviously you are not offended that Israel is frequently called a Nazi Country. Since here you brag about it.
Thank You for your scary honesty, Joe.
This horror has to stop. AIPAC needs to be grabbed by the scruff of their necks and have their asses booted out of Washington permanently. Israel needs to be held accountabile for her offenses. If we cannot secure justice for the Palestinians, then justice is in jeopardy everywhere. If there is no justice, then US citizens should give their legislators no peace. We need to continue to call, email, and petition. We need to continue to agitate. No justice means no peace.
"No justice means no peace."
could you elaborate on that, please?
How about "Peace through Justice".
No need to explain!
According to the squad leader: "The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight away. In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them.
"I don't think he felt too bad about it, because after all, as far as he was concerned, he did his job according to the orders he was given. And the atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to ... I don't know how to describe it .... The lives of Palestinians, let's say, is something very, very less important than the lives of our soldiers. So as far as they are concerned they can justify it that way," he said.
How can any FEELING human being, with ANY sense of HUMANITY, shoot a group of a woman and children (that in itself is horrendous), and then feel no remorse; writing it off to "just following orders". Didn't the Jews hear enough of that at Neurmburg? If I were a soldier in battle, I might be compelled to shoot an armed, or even seemingly unarmed man, if I felt endangered, but a sharpshooter shooting a woman and children?......NO EXCUSE!!!....WAR CRIMINAL!!!
The same philosophy of acceptance of murder occurred in Vietnam. Remember, General Wesmorland when he was quoted in the film "Hearts and Minds" stating "the Vietnamese just don't care about life the way we Westerners do." The irony of that statement really gets to me. I have witnessed at least two outright executions on Youtube committed by IDF soldiers against unarmed Palestinians from a few feet away.
"Didn't the Jews hear enough of that at Neurmburg (sic)?"
The current generation of young Israelis are so far removed from the Holocaust that its lessons have clearly been lost.
q
The current policies of the State of Israel gives Jews a bad name!
The majority of Israeli citizens don't care and the minority who do are as helpless as are the people of the US who also care. Our own government is allowing and backing the policies of Israeli nuclear weapons, racism and government approved mass murder.
It is just one more example of how failed our basic system/government has become here in America!
We have a two faced/hypocrite world policy on just about every topic of importance...the Republicans embrace it and see nothing wrong with it while the Democrats want to just tweek it... as a Green I want to replace the whole damed thing! ASAP
Until ecology and earth science are as taught AND are as popular as sports in public schools and in major media of the US, the old mid-20th century ideas and values that create the current conflicts will continue to be the standard rule of measure in what is left of our country.
Thus leaving new ways and ideas as being on "the fringe"
These genocidal atrocities were aided and abeted by our American government.
Congress approved and applauded while the citizens of Gaza were murdered and maimed.
These war crimes are really bad Karma for both Israel and the United States.
You are quite correct. The US always stands behind Israel, acting as the Godfather much in the same way the mafia operate. The US supplies the weaponry w/which they carry out their murderous crimes. Therefore, the US is as much if not more, culpable than the Israeli state itself.
Nothing will ever happen to Israel! They won't even get a slap on the hand by the US. As always it will get swept under the rug and ignored. All the US leaders are in love with Israel! They quake in fear of the big Jewish lobby in this country that can and will sink any one of them who comes down on Israel. So Israel can commit any atrocity they wish and get away with it. And everyone wonders why the Arab world hates us so much. They are right we give Israel preferential treatment. Because in the Christian religion they are supposedly 'God's chosen people'! And in this country the Christian religion rules the country. Most American's buy into that nonsense and ignore the crimes these people do. But, they wouldn't if it was an Arab doing it.
You are so right on Tumblewind!
t_g
What a terrible story. I wonder if there'll be any major echo in the West? Would it be possible for us Jews living in the diaspora to voice our disgust? Where? How? Any suggestions?
Davethered's response to your question provides good information on Jewish individuals who have the compassion, sense and courage to tell the truth about the State of Israel; Amy Goodman's television, radio and internet show, Democracy Now, is another good source of information. Amy Goodman is Jewish also.
Though the corporate media pretty much never mention them, there are Jewish organizations doing good things. In the USA you might wish to connect with the New Israel Fund or Rabbis for Human Rights. In Israel, you might wish to connect with B'Tselem, the Israel Information Center for Human Rights. These organizations can connect you with others, depending on your interests.
This is indeed, a "terrible story." There are however, plenty of jews who currently and have for yrs. voiced their opposition to the Zionist State of Terror. People like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein come to mind, to name but two voices of opposition. There are a great deal more. Naomi wrote a very good article for the Nation back in January just after the massacre in Gaza had ended calling for a total boycott of Israel much in the same way boycotts were used against the South African regime. You can check this article out at her website "shockdoctrine.com"
Regarding (Jews) who voice their opposition to the Zionist state, I mentioned two (Chomsky and Klein). However, I forgot to mention one Jewish scholar who has voiced opposition and come under an enormous campaign of lies and half-truths and that is Prof. Norm Finkelstein. Prof. Alan Dershowitz has waged a major campaign against Finkelstein that has gone on for quite sometime and has prevented him (Finkelstein) from getting tenure at his university. He (Dershowitz) has also lied repeatedly about Chomsky who was supposed to speak at a high school here in MA last spring but had to cancel it due to protest from the community. Dershowitz has stated that Chomsky is a holocaust denier and a spreader of hatred and therefore should not be allowed to speak. Unfortunatley, the community where this high school is located swallowed this bullshit hook, line, and sinker. I've read almost all of Chomsky's work re/US foreign policy (nearly 100 books) and never once has he claimed that the holocaust was a fiction. Whether or not he'll begin attacking Naomi Klein in this same fashion remains to be seen. Let's hope not!
Call your Pimp in Congress or the Pimp in the White House, and tell them how you feel about the Zionists/Nazi murder machine, and guess what, they don't give a shit. You want change? Then vote these scum bags out.
The Doctor. How? Vote the GOP in? I assume you believe a 3rd party would provide the change we lack.
Well, this is March '09. Maybe 40 months to campaign for the next POTUS. It would take an affort that was already underway, concerted and focused......I have not heard of any such thing. Rather, I predict Nader will not campaign at all. Then, about a year b4 the next election, he will announce his candidacy. He got less than a million votes with this formulae last time.
So Dr. Dr, Mr M.D.,
Tell me tell me tell me
How you gonna fix what's
Ailing me? And America? By voting "these scumbags out," you say, how? For WHO? When NO 3rd party alternative is stepping up to the plate early, organizing, or in time....
Nader? He got less than a million votes. So who Dr? And more, HOW? Because I don't see anything but criticism of Obama and insults, fine, but with NO viable alternative? Unless maybe you can articulate one? In specific?
Joe.
You seem to be searching for some leader who will rescue us. You say you "don't see anything but critism of Obama... with no viable alternative." You quite correctly state that "no third party candidate is stepping up to the plate... organizing." My suggestion is that we all "organize" in the interests of the majority who don't want these wars, huge bail-outs for the plutocratic capitalist class, support for the brutal thug regimes such as Israel abroad etc. Change is not going to come by throwing your weight behind one or another member of the US Business Party and hoping that they -- be he Obama or someone else -- will save us. We have to organize in our own interests and force these thugs to respond to our needs. It can be done -- it certainly is not going to be easy in the face of such overwhelming opposition from capitalist rulers and their media spokespeople but through constant struggle we can win genuine change. The people in Latin and South America who have faced far greater opposition than anything we have experienced are winning changes that benefit the majority who reside in these countries. We can win change as well but only through our own organizing in our own interests. It reminds me of an old Bob Dylan tune SUBTERANEAN HOMSICK BLUES where he sings "don't follow leaders-watch the parking meters."
Dave,
Nice post, and I agree Americans can learn a LOT about true democracy from the people of Central and South America.
Wow davetethered, what a Great Post. I just plain agree with every word you wrote.
If a movement began I'd join, if I could help I would. I feel utterly disempowered. Possibly the duopoly will just straight never allow a 3rd party candidate to gain power. There are so many ways to sabotage a politician. From financing the opposition, to co-opting with $$ to the Cessna going down.
But, here if I may, one small example of a positive step by BO-I grow and smoke medical marijuana. Obama is laying off 'my kind', it's announced in an article here on CD right now. Relative to the fascist emasculation of our country's soul and our liberties by the GOP, this is great.
But not enough. I so agree.
Thanks for your erudite post...these questions are hard,
because the answers my friend,
are blowing in the wind,
The answers are blowing in the wind.
But we can feel them. And may find them as well, Joe.
Here we go again, round and round. Sometimes they say "it is too close to the election" to support what you believe in. Here we have someone saying that it is not possible after the vote either.
As an imformed voter in a functioning democracy, I can tell you it is quite simple (even Americans could do it if they tried).
Vote for, and support those who say and do what is in your best interest, whether they are one percent in the polls or 99 percent. You won't win every time (your current strategy 'lesser evilism' isn't winning for sure), but in time if you are on the right side, you will get the representation you deserve.
It is never too early or too late to do the right thing.
jlocke123 says: "As an imformed voter in a functioning democracy, I can tell you it is quite simple (even Americans could do it if they tried)."
I got news, jlocke123. This is not a functioning democracy. It is a bought and paid for scam, with undercurrents of corporate fascism and just plain old fascism all over the place.
When the media is bought and paid for and speak only convenient truth, the kind riddled with lies and omissions; when politicians are lobbied constantly and acquiesce to the "suggestions" of the lobbyists in exchange for perks and $$$$$ for personal use and to get re-elected, despite a mild crack-down by Obama; when our elected representatives most of the time don't read the legislation pending or are not given time to do so or have time for meaningful debate and discussion: "Hurry up. We've got to have a grand give-away of 750 billion dollars of tax-payer monies immediately to save our economy," and then big chunks of it are handed over with no oversight, following which the money goes down a dark hole with the banking establishments and other financial organizations saying, "Sorry, we don't have to tell you a thing about where the money went"; when a private [despite the name FEDERAL Reserve] group of bankers control our money and the printing of our money with each dollar given having an interest charge to our Government on it, all in violation of The Constitution; when administrations lie and lie and lie and the media parrots what they are told to make war or hide whatever else unpleasant is oing on; when peaceful protesters gather with peace signs and get tasered or their homes are broken into without a warrant; when well-attended [in the high thousands] protests are given just a sound byte or not covered at all; when our Bill of Rights is shredded and The Constitution is not followed, but made mockery of; when third-party candidates or two-party, so-called dark-horse candidates are blocked in their presentations or cannot participate in debates because it all was sort of decided ahead of time; when we are tied at the hip to a foreign power called ISRAEL who is getting away with MURDER and MAYHEM [Hitler had a point I'm beginning to think, and that's terrible for me to even have that thought] and the government is supplying BILLIONS of dollars, and planes, and guns, and ILLEGAL poisons and skin-peeling, limb-slicing weapons such as WHITE PHOSPHORUS on a helpless population, 50 per cent chilren and young people [those home-made rockets of HAMAS look like tin cans; 8 to 10 Israeli's allegedly died in two years from those rockets]; when the winning party/faction of a squeaky clean, insisted-upon-by-the- U.S.A., Democratic election in Israel is not recognized, but dissed for the kiss-ass annointed ones, who really were supposed to win, WE DO NOT HAVE A FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY [nor does Israel]; WE HAVE IDIOCY; IMMORALITY; CHEATING, LYING, IRRESPONSIBILITY, PSYCHOPATHOLOGY, and certainly not a government OF, FOR, and BY THE PEOPLE ANYMORE!!!!
TRANSPARENCY? MY ASS! The United States government is pock-marked with festering sores and boils because the last gang were criminals who committed TREASON, but HO-HUM that's in the past.
So already by ignoring the plight of the Gazans, the war crimes of the Israeli government and our own because we're continuing to help exterminate a people, cheered on by dual-citizened Zionist politicians in our own government, with reasons increasingly trumped-up to attack Iran as a potential nuclear-threat/terrorist state [and Israel wants to nuke 'em]; by not re-investigating what needs to be investigated and re-investigated ... 9-11, Wall Street shenanigans, even bogus elections that started the ball rolling toward our demise as a Nation, the laissez faire SHOCK DOCTRINE ethic we have had since 1972 which allows for assassinating or getting rid of other countries' leaders because it might hurt the wallets of the richest and most corrupt among us, and raping every third world country we go into of their resources; killing more innocent Afghan and Pakistani civilians with unmanned drone planes and their lethal missile strikes; by having the rare distinction of being the world's largest penal colony with 1 out of every 30 people in the U.S. doing some jail time, and also poor souls still getting tortured and still living in cages, and more, and all these things mean WE DO NOT HAVE A FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY and a GOVERNMENT OF, FOR, and BY THE PEOPLE.
The U.S. had its Golden Age starting in the 1940's and peaking in the late 1950's, with a good try in the early 1960's with Camelot and a President who in his last aborted year spoke as a visionary for World Peace, International Justice, the end of hunger and disease globally ... [read his last speeches] ... and it's been downhill from there.
I was there in those years and even before. I do not mean, however, that the "good old days" did not have lots of facets that were not good, but over-all there seemed to be sanity in how problems were addressed, and I do believe that we citizens truly felt that we counted and those who governed us, even if we disagreed with them, were decent people. Now as I read and read and read on many sites, the word that keeps coming to my mind is INSANITY, absolute INSANITY. Never have I experienced, felt or thought, as I do now, that so much is out of control, so much is in denial, and so much is disconnected from reality. With some rare exceptions, our leadership is frightening with its collective lack of vision and twisted entanglements, and our over-all population is so shallow, both intellectually and emotionally, so apathetic, uninformed and sometimes just plain crazy and rigidly short-sighted.
What a mess. What an "inconvenient truth" it is that WE DO NOT HAVE A FUNCTIONING DEMOCRACY, not even close anymore to the way it's s'posed to be and used to be in the best of times.
Most of us on this site and others make suggestions, including those that say prepare to take care of yourself and your family, and there are movements like Transition Towns where citizens together are preparing for possible/imminent nightmares.
Nothing stays the same ... Perhaps, depending on those possible nightmares, we shall morph to other forms of governance because the old ways just don't cut it anymore.
peace - /cm
thank you for articulately expressing THE TRUTH -
...peace...
I humbly concur iowablackbird. Cee Miracles, passionate, poignant post.
In Our Lifetimes.
You will find a way... keep standing for those who are suffering the most.
Personally, If I see an ad or product from Israel that is not about making peace, I won't buy it.
Shalom
Good for you Jim. As I was just stating Naomi Klein (as have many others) have called for a total boycott of Israel in much the same way boycotts were used against the murderous South African regime 2 decades ago.
1. Have you any idea what we import from Israel?
2. How much stuff "from Israel" is actually produced by Palestinians on the West Bank and Ghaza?
Rainborowe
I wonder if it would be possible to get a copy of the transcript of the discussions and try to get it reprinted here in the US news.