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Killing Children is Never Legitimate
After spending time with our 2-year old daughter Rosie this morning, I turned on my computer and learned that scores of children in Gaza had been killed by an Israeli airstrike near a U.N. school. An AP photographer described the scene at a nearby hospital: “I saw women and men – parents – slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead. In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn’t enough space for the wounded.”
Since the invasion of Gaza began, more than 160 children have been killed according to Gaza medics, and hundreds more are seriously injured. Still more wounded children are suffering in homes lacking adequate food, heat and running water, with parents fearful that a trip to the hospital could be deadly. The organization Save the Children reports that 50,000 Gazan children were malnourished before the Israeli invasion, and that the crisis “endangers the lives of nearly every child in Gaza.”
“Conditions for parents and children in Gaza are dangerous and frightening,” said Maxwell Gaylard, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories. One Palestinian family lost five daughters. “We are scared that we can die at any moment” said 11 year old Mohammed Ayyad. Children who survive physically will suffer long lasting psychological trauma.
Living so far away from the Middle East, it’s easy to tune out the raging violence. Here in the U.S., there are thousands of distractions competing for our attention. But imagine, just for a moment, that you were in the shoes of a Gaza parent. How would you feel? What would you feel toward those who just fired the gun or dropped the bomb that killed your child?
Could you imagine a rationale that would somehow justify the killing of your child to achieve a political objective? Of course not. Yet at the end of the day, when the blaming, posturing, and justification stop, this is what war and terrorism produce: the wholesale death of innocent people, most tragically the most innocent of all – children.
It doesn’t take a PHD in military science to conclude that killing and maiming children and other innocents in the quest to stop the actions of the militant few is not only immoral, it is counter-productive. A Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, was quoted on Jan. 4 as saying that "The Zionists have legitimized the killing of their children by killing our children.” Such is the twisted, pathological psychology of war and terrorism. In this case the twisted rationale of revenge is used to justify the continued terrorizing of innocent Israelis with indiscriminately fired rockets, fueling the cycle of violence at the expense of the most vulnerable on both sides.
Two war crimes don’t make a right; and killing children is never legitimate, no matter what. Yet we the people of the United States have also been lured by the rationale of revenge into accepting with painful silence the bombing in our names of Afgan wedding parties and Iraqi neighborhoods that have enraged the local population and the Arab world. It is the rationale of the Mumbai terrorists, who left 2 year old Moshe Holtzberg wailing over the bodies of his slain Israeli parents, wounding hearts across the globe.
The words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who would have turned 80 this January 15, continue to speak to this madness: “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral….instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you murder the hater, but you can’t murder the hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate…returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars….hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
How much more productive an approach might it be for the U.S. and Israel to offer food and medicine rather than bombs and bullets to the Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan children who are hanging on to life on a thin thread? Would not such a pro-child approach win the enduring appreciation, rather than enmity, of the parents of those children, and the sympathies of the larger Arab world?
Waking from the dark night of war, terrorism and violence that destroys the lives of children won’t be easy. But if we start by demanding that all children be treated as if they were our own, things would have to change dramatically.
During
his campaign, President-elect Barack Obama told the Des Moines
Register, “When I read about children who are suffering in any part of
the world, I can put myself in the shoes of their parents and think
about those children in the way I think about my own children. Which is
why, for example, expanding our foreign aid and making sure that all
children have food, shelter, clothing and safety is so important to me.”
43 Comments so far
Show AllI think what's really criminal is how non humans are made to suffer for human conflicts.
There are dogs, cats, captive zoo animals. None are spared.
Palestinians have used donkeys to haul bombs, and I recall something about Israel using a German tactic of sewing bombs into the stomachs of dogs and letting them loose on a battle field.
They are the most innocent victims not children.
Children start to show vicious behavior by age 5 or 6. israeli children have written messages on bombs to drop on other countries.
Non humans are much more civilized and inhumane(which means compassionate--since all the most horrible things are done by humans, thus the word humane should reflect cruelty, being inhumane is something we should all aspire to be if we looked at it rationally).
Reason is also a hallmark of other species.
Humans just have it mixed up, Nature's clowns as they are.
Of course killing children is never legitimate, and the act of doing so in the course of war is a war crime. Indeed the killing of anyone who does not use a weapon constitutes the killing of an "innocent," and constitutes a war crime. Simply put, Israel is practicing genocide, the very crime the Zionists wail to the world they themselves suffered, but turning their grief into such blatant hatred represents a betrayal of those who suffered such persecution (the torah and the bible in their resplendent cynicism, hatred, and lack of humanity in calling for retribution be damned forever). Israeli leaders and its American proxies in AIPAC, Congress, academia, policy-formulating institutions, and the media are all complicit in the perpetration of the deaths of innocent civilians. All of the Zionist-abetting war criminals, including my 2 senators, Boxer and Feinstein, deserve the only punishment I can see fit for aiding and abetting international terrorism: hard labor behind walls and barbed wire for the rest of their lives, with their fortunes extracted in totality for reparation to the families of those innocent civilians.
Sioux Rose
SAND FLEA: You raise many legitimate points. Ego is so blind to what the heart and soul are capable of seeing. Israel today reminds me of the arrogant male driver who knows he's lost, but insists on continuing on the same route. I remember when author Gerald Jampolsky asked the telling question, "Do you want to be right or happy?" That's a powerful question, rhetorical or otherwise. Having grown up in a Jewish home I can tell you, it's difficult for many to admit to being wrong. Always a humbling thing, but to otherwise continue on such a dangerous track reminds me of the logic depicted in the film, "Thelma and Louise." There's this all or nothing, bet it all, consequences be damned.
Here is where the teaching of the Law of karma would prove so therapeutic as NO people is above the systematic workings of Divine Justice... the rendering of these subtle "verdicts" does not always appear in an instant enough form to be verifiable to skeptics.
Most of the so-called "pro-lifers" who are nothing but brown shirt NAZI supporters will argue relentlessly about the "life of the unborn" but once born, it's all death policies. These rightwing fundies are "happy" to see children getting destroyed. The same thing here in America. In the deep south, a lot of conservative whites will rail against abortion if the woman is white but will happily praise racists such as Bill Bennet and Pat Robertson who support aborting black and latino children.
Both Isrealis and USAns - and I mean a amjority of their citizens - seem to operate at a lavel of callousness that until a few years ago, I could never have possibly imagined.
It goes way beyond the ME wars.
Go to the SF Chronicle's news story on the guy who was beaten then shot in cold blood by a BART Transit cop. The number of reader comments on this news story who defend the killer cop and say the victim had it coming because he was at a new years party and not with his daughter at home, and may have been involved in a scuffle on the BART car. Of course fact that the victim was a working-class young black man has nothing to do with the cops actions, or the reader's the sympathy toward the killer cop, or the reader's callous attitudes toward the victim.
And the callousness toward the Palestinians has nothing to do with them being poor and olive-brown skinned, compared to the white Jews.
Fuck the racist USA. Fuck the racist Zionists.
---USAn---
The Islamists are racists too.
Humanity has issues and until we get over our nationalism, religio-political ideology, and ethno-racist crap we will never see peace on earth.
Actually if you studied Islam, you would know that hospitality and generosity to all and aid to the poor are their main commandments. I have heard that westerners cannot travel in much of the ME without getting invited for tea and a meal and even an overnight stay. The idea of judging a person by their appearance is foreign to them.
And recall the epiphany that Malcolm X experienced when he made his Haj to Mecca and found himself in completely racism-free environment for the first time in his life. He returned to the US a far more compassionate man.
In my activism (and love of middle eastern food), I have encountered many middle eastern muslims. While they may get get politely passionate about the injustice they see, I have never heard them ever say anything the least bit derogatory about any westerner or jew.
Which thinking about it, leads me to regret the last line I wrote above.
---USAn---
Sioux Rose
PDJ: Enlightening post. I loved that aspect of the film about Malcolm, and his realization about what the "white man's poisons" do to the human will. There are a number of opiates of the peoples distributed these days to mute the collective voice, power, and energy that might otherwise result in genuine revolution.
Islam is not racist.
Human children like Chimpanzee and other great ape children learn by example. And this is a horrible example.
Human beings are the worst species on earth. They are the only ones who will willfully kill anyone they choose based upon exteriors like skin color, ethnicity, or religion. What a woeful species we are.
Kitty Lady
Thank you, John!
What a valuable commentary!
This reflects a passion for protecting all children, and our future.
If my memory serves me right, you served as a 2003-04 Kucinich organizer in Iowa.
And you permitted me to introduce Dennis when he visited Dubuque on June 13, 2003. Yes, it was a highlight of my life!
"Imagine having a foreign policy driven by the well-being of all children. Then take action to make it so, starting with an immediate cease-fire in Gaza."
That's a Common Dream.
HOW INFLAMMATORY!
Of course, it's wrong to kill children. No one will disagree with that.
But in war, it happens.
What you are suggesting is that Auschwitz should never have been liberated because the liberation might have harmed German children. But what of the children at Auschwitz? Should they have been left to die?
War is horrible. In war, civilian deaths are unavoidable. But no one can argue that you can't save lives by fighting a just war.
There is a huge difference between Israel accidentally killing civilians and Hamas deliberately targeting them.
Do you even have a clue what is going on in Israel? Your example of Auschwitz is specious in the extreme.
Hamas has no weapons that can actually "target" children, they have primitive point and shoot rockets that, about 99.9% of the time, hit nothing. The Israeli's however, hit what they're shooting at about 99.9% of the time, with smart weapons that are capable of actually targeting children, and anyone else they want to kill. Ever seen the infamous photo (from the recent war in Lebanon) of the Red Cross ambulance with the hole punched right in the middle of the Red Cross on the roof? An Israeli F-16 put a missile into that ambulance, using the Red Cross as a target! Just one small example of Israel's capabilities in this regard. Israeli's kill who they intend to kill, while Hamas attempts to kill, but rarely is successful (thank god) because of their extremely limited, and relatively primitive, rocketry.
Israel's advanced weaponry (provided in many instances by kindly "benefactors" in the United States) identifies the target in visible light and infra-red, and then hits it with pinpoint accuracy. Now tell me again that Hamas is targeting children and Israel is "accidentally" killing civilians. That is delusional. You've simply got it twisted around backwards to defend the indefensible.
I find it disgusting when Zionists pound their chests about how accurate their weapons are, how their weaponry "saves" lives, until they kill children, then it's an accident. Psychopathic bastards.
And clearly, the point of the article went way over your head, so there's really little point in attempting to discuss this.
Trying to reason with joehope is like trying to teach a pig to sing. He's just a fat lazy loser sitting in his parent's basement watching Limbaugh and Hannity with delusions of grandeur.
JWVerez,
First of all, I think Limbaugh and Hannity are pigs who have been trained to sing. They are Republican scum.
Secondly, is this all you can do? Insult me?
I mean, come one. I'm "fat"? You have ascertained that through the internet?
I'll bet their are some large people in this forum who find your "fat" slur just as offensive as "n*****". Are you bigoted against people of size? Why do you think insulting me like that is acceptable behavior? Do you think large people don't have to deal with these kinds of insults every day of their lives?
Full disclosure: five years ago I lost 150 lbs. through surgery. So this issue is very personal with me.
I know you think you can bully everyone in this forum into silence. But it won't shut us up.
It happens? Sunspots happen. PEOPLE decide to do things that are likely to kill children.
Joe
"PEOPLE decide to do things that are likely to kill children."
Like hiding at a school and sending rockets at Israel?
The wisdom of Solomon passed into the ages long ago...as evidenced by what has become of the Jewish people under the madness of Zionism. Israel could use some wisdom...namely learning the virtues of peace and kindness, rather than war and rigid adherence to brutality. Israel has been in a virtual state of war since the formation of Israel (and actually, long before that as Zionist terrorists in Trans-Jordan) and yet they never have learned that violence, and especially violence against children, only fuels more hatred and violence, and only brings on more war. I think a good clinical description of insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over, and each time expecting different results. This is the spiral of insanity that has engulfed Israel...doing this sort of thing again and again, and never learning that it simply does not work.
Pray for the children...even if, like me, you are not religious. We might be wrong...there might be someone (or some thing) listening, and if there is, the prayers may do some good. God knows, children are the light of the world, and our only hope of escaping our history as savages in the jungle.
Israel is the "poster child" for Jews World wide and has for years blatantly committed War crimes and flaunted the Geneva Convention and ignored UN Resolutions etc etc.
Just who in the World can think Jews/Israel who compose 0.02% of the World's population can kill Muslims at will as in Gaza and Lebanon and anywhere when Islam is 23% of the World's population without expecting a huge wave of Anti Semitism and Anti Americanism "Blow Back" violence ?
Over the last 2 years Palestinians in Gaza have been reduced to eating grass to survive !!!
Hamas is the Democratic --freely elected - Government of the Palestinian people but the USA who called for the free elections has refused to recognize the result and continues to support the over 60 years of brutal treatment and occupation and theft of Palestinian land by Israel !!!!
Nowhere do we hear the Palestinian side only a ----Zieg Heil! Israel Uber Alles .
Gaza compared to the "Warsaw Ghetto"(WWII)is a disgrace to Jews,Israel and the USA.
Is it time to boycott? http://www.google.cl/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=boycott+jews+l&btnG=Google+Search
http://www.georgegalloway.com/
http://wake-up-america.net/
We never hear the truth anymore on our 'Murdochized' propaganda network.
It became so insultingly bad that I have unpluged my telly for more that a year now and I hope
that the Thought Police don't find out untel next month when it will be completely useless.
My prayers for the victims and inmates of the world's largest concentration camp, Gaza.
Meanwhile I shall shop carefully at http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel.php
Humbaba's opinion
Occupied America
"Over the last 2 years Palestinians in Gaza have been reduced to eating grass to survive !!!
To quote the late great Bob Goldthwaite concerning the starving africans, "move to where the food is".
That advice goes to the palestinians too. Instead of sitting in their own pity they could go to other arab countries and prosper. Oh that's right the other arabs don't want them except as cannon fodder against the Israelis.
May I assume you haven't noticed that Palestinians are not free to come and go as they please. They are quite literally prisoners. So, may I assume you are recommending a prison break? Only problem is, if they try to escape, the Israeli's will kill them, and if they stay, the Israeli's will kill them. They are caught between a rock and a meat grinder.
Got a snappy retort there sparky?
Oh...and by the way, Bob Goldthwait isn't late, he's still alive and kicking.
"Oh...and by the way, Bob Goldthwait isn't late, he's still alive and kicking."
Sorry my mistake I meant the Late Sam Kinison. I don't think the Israelis would mind if the palestinians left gaza to go to other arab countries they just don't want them in Israel. And I don't blame them for that.
Real world? That's an oxymoron (emphasis on the root word "moron").
Realworld your comments are a bit frustrating. I wish you could approach your comments from a more compassionate viewpoint. No matter what side we might be tempted to take on this issue, no matter what your ill-informed conclusion may be, all of the people involved in this are victims of war and violence. They are all rendered ill and mentally insane by the horrific violence that they have witnessed and taken part in. Just like our troops that have rained hellstorms down onto the heads of innocent people ,and who have watched innocent people and friends die in war, and are now suffering the psychological trauma associated with such insanity. No matter what has happened in the past, today will bring death to more children that were the future of the rebuilding of a culture in that area of the world. Why can't people stop blaming, and start looking at the world in a more maternal, compassionate context? Love is not conditional to behavior, all people need to love and be loved. You or I are in no position to judge anyone.
Here's something worth noting.
Last night, while watching liberal (unless it involves Israel) Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, a commercial came on imploring us to send aid to — wait for it — the people of Israel!!!!
Yes, that's right. Some asshole stood there, with images of bombs (probably missiles hitting Palestinian hospitals) and a hang dog look only Elie Weisel could muster and told us how terrified the Israelis were and how much they are suffering. We must send aid now! The Palestinians are about to "drive them into the sea!"
I have seen narcissism before. I have experienced irony. I have been subjected to propaganda, supremacism and amorality. But for the rest of my life, these terms will define Zionists.
opeluboy,
What would you have Israel do?
In your view, Israel is an aggressor. Suppose they did nothing.
Hamas won't stop. Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. It's right there in their founding charter.
So what would you have Israel do?
Withdraw it's forces and let Hamas rain down rockets on Israeli schools?
What would you have Obama do?
Tell Israel not to respond the exact way we would if we were being attacked?
Please go away.
Beautifully written, John. And right on the money. Rosie is indeed fortunate to have such wise and enlightened parents.
If ONLY the nations of the world would have the decency to conclude their 'irresolvable' issues NOT by waging war - but by holding their elected officials personally responsible. Failure of diplomacy? Well then: the elected leaders of the world would have to put their own lives on the line. One wonders how quick another Bush would invade a sovereign nation, or another Olmert would launch an attack on a UN facility or any other bully would flagrantly kill the children of a presumed 'enemy' nation.
Better yet: if ONLY the human animal had a collective learning process. An evolutionary intellect. Instead, we seem destined to repeat mistakes made even within recent memory, rather than attaining any sort of humanist enlightenment reached by reflecting upon the stupidity staring us right in the face.
"Give me liberty or at least two shoes to hurl"
Poor, fat Joehope. He tries to defend the indefenseable. Your zionist talking points don't work here hoperah. ooops, I couldn't resist, seeing that you (joe) and Oprah are so consumed by your appetites.
At least Oprah tries to tell the truth as she knows it, JOe, Israel isn't pounding the Gazans into dust because of a few homemade rockets, this was planned since the end of the Lebanese debacle.
Israel is the bully. Gazans are the victims.
Israel is fat on stolen land & murdered lives, Gaza has been on a restricted diet since they voted for what they figured were the lesser of 2 evils.
So I guess we must deduce fat=evil
skinny+brown skin = target practice for zionazis.
People are becoming impatient with the lies, deceptions, propaganda and serial killing all done in the name of Israeli security.
rubyinthedust,
Look, insult me if you must. But please would you leave the issue of size out of it. I'm asking you politely. Please. I specifically mentioned that is a sensitive subject for me, and yet you used the information I shared to deliberately hurt my feelings. Are you some kind of sadist? Do get off making people feel bad? What gives you the right? My surgery nearly killed me. I suffered an infection and was in intensive care for almost two weeks. I am still paying off the medical bills.
Do think it's funny to be cruel? If so, you need help.
Also, I know it may seem minor. But what's the point in bringing Oprah into this? Don't tell you are so cynical you have a problem Oprah? Being cynical about politics is one thing. But Oprah has done more good in this world than almost any woman alive. I happen to have great respect for her. Oprah just gave $365,000 to an inner city school in Chicago. What have you done recently?
So much hate being expressed towards Israel in the comment section of Common Dreams!!!!
And this is hate from people thousands of miles away from the actual crimes and light years away from the pain and grief.....
Can you just imagine the Hate created in the humans on the receiving end of this constant brutality?????
Kind of makes you wonder how many of these folks are going to sign up for flight training when this is over...... You know, not learning how to take off and land-"just teach me how to fly this fucker straight and level......"
Have a nice day America 'cause I'm afraid our nice days are numbered. (:
I'll play my violin. Poor little persecuted Israel. Now go away.
turfbill, in Informed Comment yesterday, Juan Cole details Muhammed Atta's rage, where it came from-Israel. He signed his will (to die) the day of the Qana Massacre where Israel again killed refugees (102) in a U.N. building. So 9-11 was a bit of a gift. This well Detailed on Informed Comment 1/7/09, yesterday.
If the palestinian a-holes would stay away from children, mosques, schools and hospitals and lob their rockets from the desert there would be no collateral damages.
I only have a high school education and I can figure that out. You educated "progressives" should be able to figure it out too!
Did your education include history of the area around the east end of the Mediterranean Sea from the late 1800's to the present, the area now referred to as Egypt, Israel, Gaza, The West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, etc.? If it did, maybe you should review your studies.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
What does that have to do with palestinian a-holes hiding among women and children in schools and hospitals? I hold those palestinians totally responsible for all collateral damage to civilians.
You're sick.
I'm sick? I would like to hear what you think of those palestinian a-holes intentionally drawing fire into places crowded with innocent children.
When did you graduate from high school?
realworld, the reason your comments generate so much anger from other members is that you are not correctly informed regarding the situation. It is not hard to be confused by the constant misinformation. I would suggest that you take some time to read about this issue, and study it a little bit before blaming the Palestinians for the death of civilians, because they ARE really the civilians in this case, as it turns out. They have been invaded, and are being bombed and killed at an alarming rate, because Israel wants the land that they live on. Haven't you heard this story yet? Yeah. It's a war that has been going on for a long time now, and it's coming to a real violent head at this point. Study a little bit, okay? Then you will have a little more to offer to the discussion.
I count five sides to this conflict. There's the Israeli government, and Hamas, and the kids, and the kids, and the people around the world watching the kids die. And I'll add assorted civilians to the kids' side.