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Israel's Free Ride Ends
As Israel pulverises Gaza, questions and doubts about Israeli policy are becoming more prominent in the American media
It's a common, almost clichéd observation that the American media is less critical of Israeli policy than the Israeli media. In mainstream American depictions of the ceaseless misery of the Middle East, Israeli righteousness and Arab violence are routinely emphasised. The reality of Israeli settlements and Palestinian suffering have been, at best, a footnote.
Conservatives often complain that the news isn't even more biased toward the Jewish state - or the most hawkish elements within it - but such carping both obscures and reinforces the real distortion in American Middle East coverage, serving as a pre-emptive warning to any outlet that might show too much sympathy for the Palestinians. (The crudeness of Israel's most vociferous detractors on the far left doesn't help, since it further marginalises criticism of Israel as the preserve of cranks who can't see a difference between Dachau and Jenin.)
Slowly, though, something is changing. As Israel pulverises Gaza, questions and doubts about Israeli policy are becoming more prominent in the American media. The failure of the war in Iraq and the attendant discrediting of neoconservatism has opened up new space in the American conversation. With the American right dejected and weakened, there's less pressure on the press to display the kind of boorish one-sidedness that self-congratulatory conservatives like to call "moral clarity". Israel's disproportionate retaliation in Gaza is increasingly recognised as both brutal and, in all likelihood, ultimately futile. In destroying Gaza, Israel is also destroying the American taboo that has ensured the country such unstintingly favourable media coverage.
On December 31, CNN took on the contentious question of whether Israel or Hamas broke the ceasefire, precipitating the current fighting. First, the network aired a clip of the liberal Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti saying: "The world press community or media community is overwhelmed with the Israeli narrative, which is incorrect. The Israeli spokespersons have been spreading lies all over. The reality and the truth is that the side that broke this truce and this ceasefire was Israel. Two months before it ended, Israel started attacking Rafah, started attacking Hamas and never lifted the blockade on Gaza." Ordinarily, TV journalists would follow such a clip - if they even aired it in the first place - with one of Israel making its case, and would stop at that, leaving an audience already predisposed against the Palestinians to sort out the truth. Instead, anchor Rick Sanchez did something that should be commonplace, but sadly is not: he endeavoured to find out who was right.
"And you know what we did? I've checked with some of the folks here at our international desk, and I went to them and asked: 'What was he talking about, and do we have any information on that?'" said Sanchez. And he reported that his sources confirmed that Barghouti was right.
Since then, questioning and outright condemning Israeli actions have become increasingly common in the establishment press. On January 8, the op-ed page of the New York Times ran three opinion pieces critical of Israel. "When it is shelled by its neighbour, Israel has to do something," wrote columnist Nick Kristof. "But Israel's right to do something doesn't mean it has the right to do anything." Last week, a new issue of Time magazine appeared, its cover showing a star of David behind rows of barbed wire and the headline "Why Israel can't win". The extremely conservative Wall Street Journal opinion page ran a piece by George Bisharat with the headline "Israel is committing war crimes". "Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defence," it began. "Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. ... Hamas fighters have also violated the laws of warfare, but their misdeeds do not justify Israel's acts."
No doubt, some of Israel's most aggressive partisans are going to be alarmed by this sudden shift in the American discourse. They're used to dismissing the world's criticism of Israel as the mutterings of antisemites and bien-pensant third-worldists. The US has been a cocoon that protects Israel and its advocates from facing harsh judgments. But Israel has been ill served by America's endless indulgence. What is happening in Gaza endangers, first and foremost, the benighted people who live there and who are dying by the hundreds. It also endangers Israel itself, pushing already elusive prospects for peace ever more out of reach.
An American media that turned a blind eye to Israeli expansionism and human rights abuses ultimately made the Jewish state less, not more, secure. Without the US putting pressure on Israel to dismantle the settlements and loosen the blockade in Gaza, leaders there had neither the incentive nor the political cover to do so. Now that the American press is displaying a bit of courage in facing an unfolding catastrophe abetted by American leadership, perhaps our politicians will have room to do the same.
115 Comments so far
Show AllBlowing people and their children up never makes you any friends. It just perpetuates hatred and continues the cycle of retribution. And the powerful nations who are adept at blowing others up demand that that they join the "civilized community of nations". What an example they are setting. It's the 21st century and only the scope of the weapons we use against each has changed. The mindset has not.
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." Albert Einstein.
"The crudeness of Israel's most vociferous detractors on the far left doesn't help, since it further marginalises criticism of Israel as the preserve of cranks who can't see a difference between Dachau and Jenin."
Wonder what Ms Goldberg would've thought of the American Jews protesting outside the Israeli consulate who drew the same conclusion? The footage was on Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" last night--that preserve of Leftist cranks.
Propaganda 101:
If you can't attack the truth, attack those who tell the truth...
Right. And I have a problem with people who calibrate evil based on numbers. Evil is evil.
Vern: The problem with any criticism of Israel from the discussions I have seen at various boards is that it is too easy for Israel supporters to pull out the "anti semite" card and cry foul. The next step usually is a straw man tactic, any criticism of Israel using cluster bombs and over half of the 900 casualties in Gaza being children is some broad statement that all liberal left wingnuts are for Hamas. That is not what most people are saying, but it works to rally support to their side.
My own view for example. In concept, formation of a Jewish nation after the Holocaust is something I support. I do not support how we followed through on this idea. Too much of the follow through looked like the same old, same old British Empire colonialism, and it has resulted in the same type of longterm problems.
Israel had a right to respond to the missiles being fired into civilian areas of Israel. I support them on that one issue only, to do what they can to stop the missiles. But I don't think pulverizing Gaza will do that. You have to look at the bigger picture, which is Iraq supplying Hezbollah from the Lebannon side with missiles, and supply Hamas on the Gaza side.
I do not support pounding civilian areas with artillery and I do not support the use of cluster bombs. There are still hundreds of unexploded cluster bombs in Lebannon. The children that are tending sheep and goats or just playing around are the ones that find these bombs. They look like a big bright yellow toy. However, they are an equivalent of a gigantic shot gun shell. Photos of the children that are killed or maimed for life from picking up these bombs are horrific.
When you get a report from a non involved third party that you have killed 900 people in Gaza and over half are children, it is time to change tactics.
So I will not give Israel a pass on these issues. Does that mean I support Hamas? No. It would be the equivalent of my creating a strawman and calling all Israel supporters "baby killers."
Sioux Rose
Mountain Mike: Good post. It's pretty much how I feel, too.
*You have to look at the bigger picture, which is Iraq supplying Hezbollah from the Lebannon side with missiles, and supply Hamas on the Gaza side.*
I suppose you meant "Iran". But why do the Palestinians even want to have the rockets? Remember the first intafada where Israel killed over 2000 stone throwing youths over a few years...stones that killed NO-ONE. And yet zionist sites only recognise less than 200 were killed. Only later the Palestinians got some weapons and bombs that actually hurt. Even then, at the time of the suicide bombers, some 4 times more Palestinians were killed by Israel, than Israelis were killed by the suicide bombers.
Hezbollah represents the Shiite people of Southern Lebanon and was originally created to resist the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Hezbollah fired rockets AFTER they were invaded again and again by Israel. The Shiites of Lebanon were there far longer than the Jews who settled Palestine...that is the real bigger picture.
Hamas was successfully elected because the corrupt Fatah run Palesinian Authority was taken for a ride by the overly hard bargaining Israel. Most of their rockets were homemade...why blame Iran because some elements there have helped Hamas improve their rockets range a small degree. Why not blame U.S. ally Egypt because it allowed the rockets to be infiltrated into Gaza through tunnels from Egypt. The reason Iran is blamed and not Egypt, is because the U.S. has an aggenda against Iran but not Egypt which is controlled by the U.S. puppet, the dictator Mubarak. Elections in Iran are freer than in Egypt. But the U.S. and Israel only believe in elections if they elect who they want. That is the real bigger picture here.
hear hear!
You know what? I am not going to sugarcoat and step carefully to coddle Israel.
If anyone really cared about Israel--and by extention, the Jews, they would see the writing on the wall. Already you see the US vs Israel jockeying and that is a really interesting development- which means they have lost control of the perception battle. Rifts are starting to form and despite the undeniable NeoCon domination, when it comes down to it--Israel will take the fall. The US has no moral authority left to lose and the rest of the world already recognizes Israel for what it is and does not mince words. Years ago, you couldn't discuss the I/P conflict--it was a taboo subject and now the damn is starting to break.
We did not give the Good Germans a break--why should Israel not be held to the same accountability just because they cry wolf by pulling the anti-semitism card to silence the outrage? I do not fear them--because, history will repeat itself when it is necessary to find a scapegoat and people are falling on hard times (like they were in Germany) and their children died in a senseless ME war--For who? And Israel starts to swagger in arrogance and the rest of the world hates us and the truth about the lies and the censorship of the press and the control of the government by a small minority with undue influence and money... There will be hell to pay. You don't have to see the future--you just have to be able to read the writing on the wall and remember history. It always has a twist--Jews were persecuted in the past, now for being the persecutor, they jeopardize everything.
"Israel had a right to respond to the missiles being fired into civilian areas of Israel."
I support that contention, though I am MOST adamant that a military response is immoral and ineffective. I have long maintained here at CD and elsewhere that any realistic response to terrorism must be from the police, not the military. The Israel Police Force, with close assistance from MOSSAD, are best positioned for targeting and arresting terrorists.
This of course would work best in a One-State solution, where Israelis and Palestinians live and work side-by-side.
Terrorism is a crime, and must be prosecuted as such.
Regarding the rockets.
This can't be considered in isolation without recognizing the Occupation and the blocade that "more and more has Gaza resembling the biggest concentration camp in the world" (Quote provided by the Vactican).
People often wonder why the Jews in the camps didn't fight back more than they did--and now we wonder why the people of Gaza do?
"The Israel Police Force, with close assistance from MOSSAD, are best positioned for targeting and arresting terrorists.
...
"Terrorism is a crime, and must be prosecuted as such."
This reminds me of a piece on The History Channel on 'Cities of The underground'. In israel's infancy they weren't allowed weapons. The piece showed an underground site that was used by the israelis to make illegal bullets. The show left you with the impression of how clever they were to get away with this crime.
So why isn't Hamas equally clever at making their weapons? It just further shows that one persons 'freedom fighter' is anothers 'terrorist'.
I just don't get it. Well, I do, but I don't.
Could you post a reference on Israel not being allowed weapons?
My understanding is that the day Israel declared independence (May 14, 1948), Israel embarked on a war with the Arabs, expelling 50,000 Arabs from Ramla and Lydda at gunpoint (with tanks, no less), so clearly Israel had weapons from it's very first day of existence.
During WWII, Jews in the region were heavily armed by the allies, to fight the vichy government in Lebanon. Weapons would not have been hard to come by immediately post-WWII.
Finally, Gazans find it extremely hard to make weapons because of the blockade.
It is useful to review the history. There were three months during the recent truce when Hamas fired no more than 3 rockets. Yet, Israel broke the truce time and time again with its "targeted" killings. I've heard numbers quoted of between 22 and 35 Palestinians killed -- this is during the supposed truce.
Israel breaks the truce by killing Palestinians and keeping Gaza under a state of siege (itself an act of war).
Palestinians did eventually respond with rockets.
But let's not forgot that Israel is the occupier here. Israel could have chosen to open negotiations. Instead the Israeli gov't chose to kill and to block food, medicine, food.
Now it uses white phosphorus (with its napalm-like effects) over civilian areas.
From my perspective (as an American Jew), I see Israel's actions (let us not forget the bombing of a UN school, shelling many civilian houses sometimes from very close range, killing UN aid workers... the list goes on) as causing a shocking loss of life and engendering greater violence and hatred, making peace that much difficult to achieve.
Good points. But as for whether you or I "support" Hamas, it is totally irrelevant. They are the fairly and democratically elected representative of the Palestinians. I don't support the government of Israel, but there again, it's not my business, it's the Israelis'. And I should add that support for the slaughter in Israel is about 90%.
"But Israel has been ill served by America's endless indulgence".
All those US vetoes in the U.N. Security Council saving Israel from any consequences for their breaking U.N. resolutions in the past years, the U.S. eagerness to proclaim Hezbollah and Hamas "Terrorist", the U.S. failure to recognise the legitimacy of the Hamas election, the U.S. nod and wink to the ever increasing settlements on Westbank, and many other bad U.S. policies and practices, have resulted in a very spoilt child, Israel.
It may be too late now as the hatred against this spoilt child is unprecedented. The U.S. media may finally be acknowledging the world wide reaction against Israel's behaviour, fearing the U.S. may be held responsible for the despicable behaviour of its spoilt child, Israel. The U.S., the parent who "spared the rod and spoilt the child", could well be blamed for the child's outrageous tantrums and selfishness. Only Obama reversing most existing U.S. policies on Israel could give everyone a chance for a new start, if it isn't too late already. We need to push for such changes.
"Only Obama reversing most existing U.S. policies on Israel could give everyone a chance for a new start, if it isn't too late already."
Yeah, maybe Obama will have Rahm Emanuel announce the reversal of U.S. policy on Israel.
Or, if not Israeli citizen and son of an Irgun terrorist and one-time IDF soldier Rahm Emmanuel, perhaps self-declared Zionist Joe Biden.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
We already were blamed, what do you think 911 was about?
Bernice The US Congress has apparently not read the above article or seen the relevant news programs. They will be shocked, shocked and dismayed and surprised I tell you, to learn that bin Laden has called for a jihad against Israel which, I assume, he issued after watching our new Secretary of State and every member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee repeat the "Israel has a right to defend itself" mantra and at least tacitly blamed Gaza for Israel's non-stop attack.
I heard no one at Secretary-designee Clinton's confirmation hearing consider for five seconds the rights to sovereignty and to live in peace, to food and medical care, clean water and electricity, to move about freely, to import and export goods and to otherwise build a sustainable economy -- and I am sure much more, that Israel has denied Gaza with its illegal and brutal blockade and the violence that never stops in so-called "cease fires."
Olmert has given a speech in Israel where he claims that he Called GW Bush while GW was giving a speech somewhere in the USA and insisted GW leave that speech to talk to him.
He boasts that he ordered GW Bush to have Condi Rice abstain from the recent UN Security Council resolution regarding a ceasefire .
Condi rice was initially to vote yea until she got the phone call from GW who had just been pulled out of a speech to relay Olmerts wishes.
This is something more then just an Indulgence.
As Greenwald points out. US Foreign policy is run by AIPAC and Israel for all intents and purposes.
Which is now being categorically denied by the US.
the author writes:
"Now that the American press is displaying a bit of courage in facing an unfolding catastrophe abetted by American leadership, perhaps our politicians will have room to do the same."
please - americans are fat assed illiterate war mongers who have as much courage as a turd flowing down a puss filled sewer
american politicians specifically are in the pocket of the jews and their media fantasy universe - the parallel reality whereby the jews did not steal palestine and they are not oozing out like flesh eating disease throughout the whole of pleastine
again i point out - it was not the fault of the palestinians that the jews couldn't get along with the europeans
in fact, there only fault was allowing them to stay in the country for the last couple of hundred years
so much for trying to get along with the lying, cheating, sniveling shylock state of israel
cheers, b
You and blutodog should date, you are both bigoted assholes, you'd be perfect for each other.
braynD states: "...it was not the fault of the palestinians that the jews couldn't get along with the europeans..." and "...shylock state of israel"
Horribly ignorant and indignant comment like these render the rest of your points irrelevant. What place do racial slurs have in any rational argument?
it is our duty to direct others to the truth. for starters, i direct to Common Dreams & Democracy Now. Counterpunch & ZNet have been great, too. As more people in the US become aware of the full historical context of the atrocity, Congress and USan MSM will be standing in deeper isolation with their knee-jerk responses, and, hopefully, will change accordingly.
"An American media that turned a blind eye to Israeli expansionism" Really? Israel has withdrawn from Gaza , So. Lebanon and 99% of the West bank. These areas are as you JEW haters would say Juden Rein ( JEW FREE). The Israelis ethnically cleansed them of JEWS not Arabs! But, in a War where Hamas the PLO and 99% of the Arab/Muslim world has never and will never accept Israel as a legitimate State on Earth the only acceptable solution for most of you or them is the FINAL SOLUTION. That Israel fights back when it's realizes this shouldn't be a surprise. In the past people where saying if Israel withdrawals from these areas a Pal state will be established the two sides will live in Peace. Hamas and Hezbollah and their patron Iran has made it very clear this is not going to happen, that the only acceptable solution is a One State solution called The Islamic Republic of Palestine. All the rest is just a side show. War is ugly and it's usually disproportionate.
All this whining over how Israel is fighting this war is just your sides propaganda. Fine but let's be honest about this, that's all it is.
If Israel was truly as you try to tell the world an expansionist power like say the US or the old Soviet Union or the English in their Imperial period then right now Beirut, Damascus and Cairo would have the Star of David flying over them and the Arabs living there would be mostly dead or driven to other places or whatever. But the opposite is true. Israel is trying to live within it's post 48' War boundaries but that isn't good enough. Nothing is good enough for those determined to see NO such state as Israel period,
It is a lie.
Israel still controls everything.
It is also a lie that Hamas won't accept the existence of Israel. They have on numerous occasions--you simply ignore it and continue on with your recited talking points.
Another big talking point is the human shields charge, trying to portray the Arab as the denom terrorist, but I can't tell you hown many times I have posted links to accounts of IDF soldiers using Palestinian children as human shields and NEVER EVER one response--NEVER EVER even one acknowlegement.
You see, people are catching on to the lies--and you really don't want to cultivate that perception, do you?
Your response is laughable and indefensible. Comparing Israeli expansionist policy with US and former-USSR imperial expansionist policies is just plain stupid.
Israel demonstrates daily that it is unable to live within its post-1967 borders. Where did you read the right-wing propaganda rubbish about living within it's 1948 borders?
OK blutodog,
You say "All this whining over how Israel is fighting this war is just your sides propaganda. Fine but let's be honest about this, that's all it is."
Israel kills a hundred Palestinians for every single Israeli in this never ending war.
At this rate any Arab would want to drive Israel into the Sea...At this rate Israel does not have the right to exist as it is existing.
We are seeing the damage from the USA/Israel refusal to recognize Hamas and make a peace deal with them.
Hamas will survive and the militants will grow stonger from this carnage and war crimes of Israel.
Israel will be forced to get honest and make a comprehensive peace agreement with all the Arab nations if it wants to survive.
The Jews of the world see now more than ever that the Zionists Don't care about the new wave of hatred of the Jews they are now causing and the whole world is watching. So lets get honest: The Left was right and the Right was wrong and the media is beginning to see the light because the truth has its own power and when things fall apart like the world's war economy, the truth is all we got.... so yes, Lets be Honest..OK?
Shalom
This just doesn't fit with the fact that there is a wall being constructed to protect settlements deep in the west bank. That wall is NOT following the pre-1967 borders except at some very brief points.
You can look up the wall's construction and proposed route and I seem to remember it eats up something like a quarter of the land in the West bank.
But it's not even just a contiguous chunk of land, it's specifically designed to make cohesion in the WEst bank impossible.
This is just one of the facts that put paid to the many many lies and inaccuracies you spout off here. And I'm really tired of lies.
We have had to deal with an inordinate number ever since Bush took office and I'm just so damm tired of the parade of lies and propaganda with obvious commercial and military support.
When I was young and even more ignorant than I am now I used to have respect for Israel. The more facts I learn the more I support the Arab cause in that region.
Believe me blutodog...when guys like me start making statements like that the group is ultimately doomed and WILL be forced to change.
So you'd better get used to the idea!
Blutodog states: "Israel has withdrawn from Gaza..."
Do you really believe Israel called for the Gaza settlers to relocate as a solely altruistic act towards the Palestinians? Do you not realize this was done to isolate Palestinians in Gaza so Israeli imposed blockades would not harm Jewish Israelis? Do you think the IDF would be likely to use cluster bombs and white phosphorous to quell rocket attacks if Jewish settlers were still mixed in with the Palestinian population?
It's time for everyone to take a step back and start looking at these events objectively.
Yawn.
AIPAC is like an American made car whose odometer has just passed 40,000 miles. Now is when the smooth running falters and the trouble starts.
Too bad America still is in "smooth" ride as long as it can borrow from China. The trouble will start and end with a total crash when China's had enough and shuts off the borrowing spigot.
Israel's "free ride" ain't over yet as long as the US government keeps them afloating.
The US has money for fiascos in Iraq, bailing out mis-managed companise, playing the world cop and bankrolling Israel. It isn't a bottomless pit however.
The record is clear. You can find it on the Israeli website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. Israel broke the ceasefire by going into the Gaza and killing six or seven Palestinian militants. At that point—and now I’m quoting the official Israeli website—Hamas, in retaliation for the Israeli attack, then launched the missiles.
As to the reason why, the record is fairly clear as well. According to Ha’aretz, Defense Minister Barak began plans for this invasion before the ceasefire even began. In fact, according to yesterday’s Ha’aretz, the plans for the invasion began in March. And the main reasons for the invasion are two-fold. Number one; to enhance what Israel calls its deterrence capacity, which in layman’s language basically means Israel’s capacity to terrorize the region into submission. After their defeat in July 2006 in Lebanon, they felt it important to transmit the message that Israel is still a fighting force, still capable of terrorizing those who dare defy its word.
And the second main reason for the attack is because Hamas was signaling that it wanted a diplomatic settlement of the conflict along the June 1967 border. That is to say, Hamas was signaling they had joined the international consensus, they had joined most of the international community, overwhelmingly the international community, in seeking a diplomatic settlement. And at that point, Israel was faced with what Israelis call a Palestinian peace offensive. And in order to defeat the peace offensive, they sought to dismantle Hamas. The main objective is to continue settling Palestinian territories to expand the state of Israel for Jews.
"We must expel Arabs and take their places."
-- David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.
"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country."
-- David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.
And then statements about the Palestinian people by Golda Meir:
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist."
-- Golda Meir, statement to The Sunday Times, 15 June, 1969.
"How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to."
-- Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.
"Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen."
-- Golda Meir, 1961, in a speech to the Knesset, reported in Ner, October 1961.
"This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy."
-- Golda Meir, Le Monde, 15 October 1971.
And of particular note, the following statement about the Palestinians by Yitzhak Rabin:
"[Israel will] create in the course of the next 10 or 20 years conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration of the refugees from the Gaza Strip and the west Bank to Jordan. To achieve this we have to come to agreement with King Hussein and not with Yasser Arafat."
-- Yitzhak Rabin (a "Prince of Peace" by Clinton's standards), explaining his method of ethnically cleansing the occupied land without stirring a world outcry. (Quoted in David Shipler in the New York Times, 04/04/1983 citing Meir Cohen's remarks to the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee on March 16.)
And then statements about the Palestinian people by Menachem Begin:
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."
-- Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the 'Beasts,"' New Statesman, June 25, 1982.
"The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it -- And for Ever."
-- Menachem Begin, the day after the U.N. vote to partition Palestine.
And then statements about the Palestinians by Yitzhak Shamir:
The settlement of the Land of Israel is the essence of Zionism. Without settlement, we will not fulfill Zionism. It's that simple."
-- Yitzhak Shamir, Maariv, 02/21/1997.
"(The Palestinians) would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls."
-- Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) Yitzhak Shamir in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988
And then Benyamin Netanyahu (perhaps this hardliner Zionist will be elected in 2009 once again?) on the repression of the Palestinian people:
"Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories."
-- Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, speaking to students at Bar Ilan University, from the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.
"The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more"....
-- Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000.
"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...."
-- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000. And then statements by Ehud Barak about the Palestinian people:
"I would have joined a terrorist organization."
-- Ehud Barak's response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Ha'aretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.
Thanks for the facts Nancy,
Now we know who the self hating Jews really are... the Zionists!
Actually not a silly response, Jim Glover. The Zionists have done more to spur a resurgence of anti-Semitism world wide than anyone else.
Ray Berthiaume
Excellent documentaion. We'll never read his in the MSM.
I just used your post as a basis for a letter to the editor of the Harrisburg Patriot-News, a letter that will never be published, of course.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
This article is pathetic. First of all, there doesn't have to be a quantitative parallel in order to compare Dachau and Jenin; they are utterly comparable, because in both cases the killers were simply doing as much as they thought they could get away with.
Second, there is no such thing as "Israel's disproportionate retaliation in Gaza" - it's not a retaliation at all, it is an initial aggression. The latest ceasefire was broken by Israel, as she goes on to point out. And as most previous ceasefires have been broken by Israel.
Lastly, and most insidious, is the implication that the GOP is the culprit behind the Israel bias. The democratic party has been the single-biggest enabler of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and they will come to regret it, and soon.
I agree that the article is pathetic because of the inaccuracies that you just cited. On the other hand, the part about CNN contradicts the initial part of the article and clearly points out that 'even CNN' was forced to admit, when they actually bothered to look, that Hamas is NOT the aggressor and has, in fact, a legitimate right to defend the Gaza strip against what amounts to a direct violation of a peace agreement. (actually several violations, any one of which is really justification for armed response under international law...a blockade is, after all, recognized as an act of war)
Perhaps those initial inaccuracies are designed to get the two groups you point out, the conservatives and the democratic Jewish supporters, to actually start reading the article in the first place.
After all, one thing I notice is this willfull ignorance exhibited by so many. A complete unwillingness to dig any deeper than pre-conceived notions to find the truth as close as it can be determined. But the first step in that long and painful process is the odd article like this one that sows the seeds of doubt.
Doubt is a Very Good Thing.
And for way too long Americans have lacked this important ingredient to thoughtfulness, and following on the absence of doubt is the absence of curiosity, then debate, and finally complete ignorance follows.
So I'm not going to be overly harsh on the beginning details of this article because it has the potential to actually get some people reading who would otherwise utterly dismiss this subject matter in favor of the IDF talking points.
And that, I believe, is also a Good Thing.
posted in wrong position
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
Bingo, revo
lets see!
Hamas sends rockets into israel for years and israel now and then pops off and kills a hamas terrorist. ok....... then Hamas gets a feeling like they are now a big boy and start shooting rockets all over the place, and israel kicks their collective butts,,, you screm NAZIS!! ZIONAZIS. GENOCIDE!!
where the hell were the screams while terrorists attacked israel? where were your scrams when some ak walks into a pizza parlor and takes the freight elivator to allah along with 30 kids?
now the question is this, if the guy next door swore on all he calls holy to kill you , kill your family and even eat your dog would you open the gates and let him in?
those that do just found the cure for stupid!
Yes, and Israel has attacked innocents in Gaza for years too.
I seem to remember a family on a beach being subjected to a shelling by an Israeli cruiser just before their war with Lebanon in 2006.
For every single hardly effective rocket that Hamas has launched is a highly deadly attack from Israel.
I consider BOTH these acts wrong. The deliberate attack of civilians is WRONG. Get IT!
So your whole argument, which centers around the "They done it to us..." principle, falls apart and holds no weight with me whatsoever.
Israel can bomb UN schools, Hosptials, TV presenters and press agents, people's homes, and yes, even occasionally and it seems very rarely, kill the odd Hamas fighter.
But what they are doing is still very very WRONG.
Anyone with any kind of moral compass, even a highly impaired one. Can see that.
So, how many Israelis were killed by these homemade rockets in the last 10 or more years that were fired out of the world's biggest concentration camp? 10? 15? Do you know the ratio of Israeli to Palestinian deaths overall-- 25-1? 50-1? a fact that Israel would rather us not know of course- in their efforts to paint themselves as the eternal victim. And why they do the brutalizing they complain about the ones they are brutalizing trying to kill them.
And if the Jews had fired some rockets out of their ghettos--that would've made them terrorists?
It is Israel imposing itself on the Palestinians here--so don't try to sleaze by the elephant in the room.
It is so dishonest and people who echo the lies are either shameless or ignorant.