On Thanksgiving, not much to give thanks for in Gaza
IN Gaza, food's going fast.
Photo credit: MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images
As you sit down to a Thanksgiving feast, please spare a thought for the starving Palestinians of Gaza. There are 1.5 million of them, most of them living hand to mouth, or on UN handouts, because Israel has them under siege.
It's a vicious cycle, one that's being repeated every few months or so. The Islamic militants do something crazy, Israel strikes back, the militants fire missiles into southern Israel and then the entry points into Gaza slam shut. Food and the basic necessities of life are squeezed off to the barest minimum.
And who suffers? Not the militants, not Hamas nor Islamic Jihad. As usual, it's the people of Gaza who are dazed with hunger. My friend Azmi, who has diabetes, tells me he is running out of insulin, and he can't find any pharmacy or hospital that still has supplies.
Dialysis machines are breaking down in the hospital (the rare moments when there's electricity to run them) and there are no spare parts to replace them. Bakeries have run out of flour. “I've been to the Cairo zoo,” says Azmi, “and I swear those animals are treated better there than we humans are in Gaza.”
Many stories are written about the smugglers' tunnels that honeycomb Gaza's southern border with Egypt. We write about how the smugglers bring Viagra and tiger cubs through the tunnels, as though Gaza were some big exotic shopping mall, a Neiman Marcus on the Mediterranean. But the truth his, all the stuff coming through the tunnel is expensive because it is taxed by the smugglers, and beyond the reach of most Gazans.
In the Third Act of this sorry performance, the international community and the UN start complaining loudly, and Israel lets in a few dozen trucks of food, or turns the fuel spigot on for a few hours to reduce the international outcry and show what good guys they are. That's what happened today. The Israelis let in 40 trucks. It's hardly enough. At a minimum, says Chris Guness, an UNRWA spokesman, “We need to bring in 15 trucks a day, every day.” Adds UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian Territories Maxwell Gaylard, “This is an assault on human dignity with severe humanitarian implications.”
Then we have Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, obviously irritated by Gaza questions during his valedictory tour to Washington. He dismissed the near-famine in Gaza as nothing more than the whining of a few cry-babies, as if he expected them to make souffles out of sand, soups from stone.
Israel wants to draw a curtain around Gaza so nobody can see how it's punishing the Palestinians. That's why, for the past two weeks, they've barred the foreign press from entering Gaza. The reason, says the Israeli military, is that catch-all phrase “security”, and it is pronounced with arrogant solemnity as if to say ‘Take it from us, we have our very good reasons. Don't challenge us.”
Well, the foreign press did challenge the Israeli government. We took the matter to the high court, petitioned Olmert and got our editors to write letters of complaint. Some journalists talk of chartering a boat from Cyprus and trying to run the Israeli naval blockade. These are desperate tries, but this is a violation of the press's freedom, and the world's right to know. This is the sort of shameful attitude you might expect from Zimbabwe's Dictator Robert Mugabe, not Israel. Please.
Choking the life out of the Gazans isn't going to make them turn against their Hamas overlords. On the contrary, says my friend Azmi, “Everything that Israeli does isn't harming Hamas in Gaza. It's making them stronger.” Starving Palestinians and depriving them of medicine certainly isn't going to make them like Israelis, or their supporters in Washington, any better.
Happy Thanksgiving.
By Tim McGirk/Jerusalem
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"It's a vicious cycle, one that's being repeated every few months or so. The Islamic militants do something crazy, Israel strikes back, the militants fire missiles into southern Israel and then the entry points into Gaza slam shut. Food and the basic necessities of life are squeezed off to the barest minimum."
Wrong order of events. This cycle, like the several that preceded it, started with an Israeli attack on 11/5, inside Gaza, in violation of the cease-fire, killing six.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians-egypt
Report the facts, please. I realize the American/Israeli narrative is that Palestinians do something "crazy" and Israel responds, never vice versa, but, please, there is such a thing as the facts.
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Tim:
Have you been reading the news?
The annual Palestinian holiday "crisis", manufactured by Hamas and the Israel-hating press corps that puts food on your table - while paying you attempt to comedy writing (Jewish mother = Leona Helmsley? Evidence of why you're an underpaid hack in a dying industry) has been fabricated during a Thanksgiving when many Americans can't even put a T.V dinner on the table.
Do you think that while people's life savings are evaporating, they give a flying 401K what your Jew-hating friends at UNRWA have to say about anything?
Azmi will have to fend for himself.
Or worse, he'll be having dinner at your place.
He has my sympathy.
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It's amazing what is declared sane vs. normal. In Tim's eyes, the Palestinians are considered insane actors, or people with no ability to discern the rationality of their words and deeds. Truth of the matter is, its not the "militants" that are insane. Indeed, they run the show as HAMAS was first voted into power by the Palestinians themselves and then followed up with a street level power struggle against Fatah, on which it came out on top. HAMAS, which controls the entry and exit from several hundred to up to 1,000 tunnels (depending on which news service you read) has the power to provide goods, including pipelines for fuel. Of course this control makes Tim's claim that Palestniians are taxed too heavily by the smugglers all the more inane given that HAMAS has instituted regulatory control on these passageways.
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Rather than Tim's attempt to skew the view of what passes through, Foreign Policy magazine has a 12 photo slide presentation about the commerce that runs under the tunnels; here's the link: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4558
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And while Tim's concern for his friend Amzi is touching, he is ready and willing to ignore the threat and harm done by the rockets to Israels citizens. It's this unique ability of Tim to totally remove living and breathing Jews from the Palestinian / Israeli conflict.
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The fact is, the assault comes from HAMAS, who three years+ after Israel pulled every last Jew, living and dead, out of Gaza, HAMAS cannot reconcile with the idea of living next to an independent Jewish state. The demands on HAMAS are deminimus, stop its campaign of violence, recognize Israel, and adhere to previous agreements made by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
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But rather than go that route, HAMAS repeatedly has chosen war over peace, murder over caring for its own population.
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Of course, rather than face this reality, Tim presses Israel on its need and concern for "security" as if its a four-letter word and his high-horsed attitude of going to the Israeli court system to get some special dispensation as if the sanctity of press freedom were a right above all.
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However, Tim remains silent as to any valient effort to challenge HAMAS on its own excesses and pursuit of violence and hatred. No, far better to smear Israel with the latest monster brush, now Robert Mugabe, all the better to dehumanize them. Of course when mentioning dictators, Tim's all too willing to give HAMAS a pass, even in comparison form.
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One final thought to enter into this discussion is the realization that it is indeed HAMAS choice to continue its war with Israel that has led to this crisis. Go a mere 25 miles to the Palestinian Authority controlled West Bank, and we find an absence of both rocket fire, and any so-called humanitarian crisis.
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Concluding with an indidivual story to match Tim's entrance of Amzi, we could ask what of the world's right to know about Gilad Shalit, who remains a hostage of HAMAS for close to 900 days now. When it was one of their own, TIME's bloggers were at the forefront to complain about the kidnapping of the BBC's Alan Johnston. I guess humanitarian efforts go only so far in the Middle East. -
How about this, Tim: When the Palestinians get hungry enough, they can stop murdering Israelis, which will prompt the Israelis to stop blockading Gaza.
By spouting this nonsense, you're supporting the idea that Palestinians have every right to support and fill the ranks of murdering terrorist organizations without fear of consequence.
Frankly, if any country in the region other than Israel had an ethnic group under their control that wouldn't stop murdering their kin, that country would respond with ethnic cleansing. (See: Turks vs. Armenians, Iraqi Shia vs. Sunni, et al.)
I'll tell you what the Palestinians should be thankful for: They should be thankful that the Israelis are so moderate in their response to serial murder.
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It's very familiar with Nazi's treatment of Warsaw ghetto, collective punishment for all people to suppress resistance to domination by foreigners, I do not know any other religion or state which practice these kind of barbaric tactic during last 40 years and can get away with it, if there is a God and Moses, certainly Israelis leaders don't believe in them, at least there are good conscious reporters out there to speak what the rest of world knows but they're helpless to do anything about it!
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Instead of appealing to Israel's supreme court OR chartering a boat from Cyprus why not do something simpler?
Cross the border from Egypt. Yes, that's right, Gaza has a border with Egypt, not just with Israel. Even more astonishing? there are no Israeli soldiers at that border. The Egyptians (Mis)manage it.
While Tim is writing about the suffering of the "innocent" Gazans he might want to spare a moment to note that since the Gaza Withdrawal numerous Israelis operating the border crossing were killed and injured by the Gazans they were serving. He might consider whether he has any moral right to demand that israeli civilians risk THEIR lives because he can't take the time to take a bus to the Nitzana border crossing between Egypt and Israel and then enter through Rafah.
Better yet why not base himself in Rafah if he wants to cover Gaza? True, the nightlife is not as good and he might be kidnapped by Al-Qaeda but hey isn't that the price of journalism?
No, defining the Palestinians as "Crybabies" is not 100% just... But it hits the mark right on as far as the international journalists go.
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As far as closing the border crossings to Gaza:
1. Israel withdrew back to the internationally recognized 1967 border with Gaza three years ago. It left the border crossings open as part as an unfullfiled (on the Palestinian and Egyptian sides) agreement with the now defunct PA.
2. Israel's remaining legal obligations toward Gaza follwing the Hamas takeover and the scrapping of the Rafah accords:0.
3. Hamas's demand from Israel-die.
4. The Gaza palestinians elected Hamas to power AFTER the withdrawal.
5. Hamas is shooting rockets on Israeli civilians.
6. hamas has violated the ceasefire which Israel negotiated with it in spite of it's refusal to recognize or negotiate directly with israel.
7. The 1.5 million "Innocent" Palestinian civilians of Gaza are doing nothing to protest, let alone stop, the firing of rockets on Israeli civilians. Why? because they support it.Tim's conclusion: Israel should not only continue supplying gaza with Water and electricity (generated by a power station they are rocketing...) as well as refrain from any effective millitary activity Vs the Rocketeers...
Not even put it's citizens in danger by operating expensive border crossing points which continually come under fire in order to feed the enemy...
It should even waste resources and risk lives by babysitting Journalists who are too pampered to take a 2 Hr detour through nitzana and Rafah.
And Tim is comparing Olmert to Mugabe even while he is wasting my Tax-Shekels by placing ANOTHER spurious appeal on the overloaded Israeli supreme court...
The Chutzpa is simply unbelivable.
Just out of curiousity- Did any of the conceintious journalists even TRY to enter Gaza through Egypt? or do they just automatically choose to demand that a rocketed country bend over backwards to accomadate their petty careerist demands?
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It is appalling that the country that borders Gaza built a wall to prevent the Palestinians from entering, shoots anyone who attempts to breach the wall, won't allow the residents of Gaza to enter to work, to buy necessary goods and services, even for life and death emergencies. This wall is sealed shut denying the residents of Gaza fuel, food or medical supplies, creating a true gulag.
The country who built this wall is................Egypt.
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Tim,
thanks, it's so refreshing to read about the suffering of innocent Palestinians for a change.
And it's always so shocking how the world refuses to believe or even admit that there are kids suffering in Gaza, that they cannot eat, drink, or get adequate schooling. They will never get a chance as adults to amount to anything better than where they came from. All they know is militias, and they will follow in the path of fighting. Partly because they don't know anything, and partly because they believe it's the only way out of their oppression.
Bloodofpatriots-you think it's the hungry children who are murdering Israelis? Or you think the men are going to watch as Israeli tanks demolish their homes on top of their inhabitants and do nothing? The Israelis are not moderate, they never have been. Check 2006, check Op[eration az` -
I'm sorry for that. I was saying-check Operation Defensive Shield, check Operation Grapes of Wrath, check the wide distribution of cluster bombs, the Second Lebanese War. People leave carbon footprints, IDF leave blood prints.
I believe and strongly support the Israeli right to live and exist in peace, but that doesn't mean it is ok for them to crush any breaths in Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinians have a right to live in dignity.
And Yboxman, and everybody else, I don't understand why the public refuses to believe that Israel is causing suffering, or mistreating the Palestinians. You guys have your eyes shut so tight it's unbelievable! The world entirely decries the actions of Israel in the Occupied Territories and yet people like you want to support de-humanizing thousands of people. Hamas' terrorist attacks are not right, but that doesn't make Israel just in responding the way it does. the International community, the UN, even President Bush at times have tried to stop Israel, a lot of Israelis in Israel would agree that the treatment is unjust and violates human rights, and yet people like you want to attack the press over an attempt to report true inalienable facts of Gaza daily life..
Unbelievable, the selective intelligence, the filtering of news and the receptiveness of information. I'm shocked. The Palestinians are suffering whether you believe it or not, and they need help whether you like it or not, and as long as there are some reporters out there who are willing to tell that side of the story, the world is a slightly a better place. -
Hamas is not shooting rockets everyday. The siege is and has been going on for months.
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THANK You Tim!
...What do Zimbabwe, Burma, North Korea and Israel have in Common?
They are the ONLY states in the world that deny international media and humanitarian aid workers access.
...On November 18, 2008, I and forty seven international ecumenical Christians and other people of faith rolled out of bed before 5 AM to travel from Jerusalem to the Erez Crossing in the Gaza Strip.
...We went to stand up as a united people of conscience in NONVIOLENT Solidarity with the people of Gaza and in support of all the NGO's that have been denied access into the Gaza Strip for over two weeks.
...We went in love and for love of all of God's children;
...Be they the oppressed or the oppressors,
...Those imprisoned by walls and those who erect them,
...Those who are denied clean water and their deniers,
...Those whose fears rule their hearts and the heartbroken,
...Those whose ideology, greed, apathy, and power blind them to their culpability, responsibilities and obligations.
...We went with hope to arouse the consciences of the leaders of the world to seek peace through justice; equal human rights for all.
...Some media turned out for the NGO meeting we attended in the parking lot at Erez Crossing-but USA media was MIA...
...The word on the street in Jerusalem by that evening was that the Israeli OCCUPYING Forces tanks rolled back into Gaza shortly after we departed...
The next day 3 internationals and 15 Gaza fishermen were kidnapped while in international waters...
PLEASE USA LEARN MORE:
http://www.freegaza.org/...Israel and the USA both signed the Geneva Convention.
...That makes them BOTH legally, morally and ethically RESPONSIBLE for the 1.5 million open air prisoners of Gaza; 60% are children under the age of 18 years old!
...May God have mercy on those who do NOT know what they are doing -
BUT, NO DOUBT they KNOW perfectly well and that has got my Irish up and flaming...
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Bsaber,
"Hamas is not shooting rockets everyday. The siege is and has been going on for months."
The border crossings into Israel were largely open for goods during the three months of the now defunct ceasfire. They were closed when Hamas started relaunching rockets last week. They will reopen when Hamas STOPS shooting.
And I am not certain what you mean by seige. Would it be seige for the U.S to close it's borders to mexico if mexico declared war? Or for China to close it's borders with Mongolia? We withdrw to the 1967 borders Vs Gaza. By so doing the legal situaion has returned to the pre-1967 one- We did not supply Gaza with Water, food, electricity Etc then (they got it from Egypt) and we are not obligated to do so now. Certainly not when they attack the border crossings!
As for me "attacking the press for wanting to report the "inalienable facts" in Gaza" I have done nothing of the sort. I have instead suggested a way journalists can enter Gaza without risking the lives of Israelis, and wasting my Taxes, by having us operate border crossings which are attacked by the "sufferin Palestinians" they are so eager to report on.
I think that for a journalist to claim that he is furfilling a "moral duty" by reporting from Gaza while returning each night to a five star hotel in the country he is trashing is the height of Hypocrisy. Want to report on Gaza? While they are shooting at us? Go live in Egyptian Rafah. Or in Gaza itself. Or just take a two hour drive through Nitzana and Rafah to Gaza.
In your posts you completely ignored my point that Gaza has a border with Egypt. Why in the world should Israel run a transit service for Gaza 3 YEARS after we withdrew, while they attack the border crossings, when they can get everything they want from Egypt?
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The thing is that neither the journalists, the U.N, the Egypt, the Arab league or people like you are actually concerned about REAL Palestinians as human beings. You simply view support to them as an assortment of diverse ideological symbols (liberalism, humanism, anti-colonialism, pan-Arabism, Islamic revolution, "International law" or simple Israel hatred) or (in the case of Western governments) as a way of buying immunity from Islamic terror attacks ond oil-supply interruption.
If you were REALY concerned about human beings rather than ideology you would condition support to legitimate Palestinian goals (a state of their own, economic developement, free trade with the rest of the world) on giving up illegitimate goals (like murdering my family) and outrageous conduct (like shooting rockets on Israeli civilians out of the houses of their own civilians).
But by deciding that the palestinians deserve unconditional assistance regardless of what they do or say you give them no incentive to change and simply perpetuate the conflict- just as you've been doing for the last 60 years.
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Boxman,
Do not accuse me of what I never claimed. If you review my previous blogs you would know that my support for Palestinians is not unconditional. That I am not guilty of what you threw my way, and that I support the Israelis as equally as the Palestinians as people.Sadly for them, the Palestinians have it much, much worse. -
THANK YOU bsaber!
I am in solidarity with you! I also just returned to USA after my 6th trip to I-P...On Nov. 19, 2008 Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Laurette addressed approx. 300 internationals on closing day of Sabeel's [Arabic for THE WAY] 7th International Conference: THE NAKBA: MEMORY, REALITY AND BEYOND...
"There is great hope for peace in Israel/Palestine, as this is a political problem with a political solution and the Israeli Government and USA, by treating Palestinians on a Fair basis, and with real political will can help solve this historical conflict which has resulted in this inhumane occupation...In this the year of the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, in l948, when 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes.
.......Today, the occupation continues also with the wall annexation of more Palestinian land, and the building of an Apartheid Racist system by the Israeli Government.......
Another great injustice is currently being perpetrated upon the Palestinian people by the Israeli Government, with their blockade of Gaza. Recently, I went with the Free Gaza Movement by boat from Larnaca to Gaza to help break the siege of Gaza. This siege is a policy of collective punishment of one and a half million Gazans by Israel because they voted for a Hamas Government.......
Collective punishment of civilians is against the Geneva Convention. The people of Gaza have been closed off completely from the world for two and a half years now, and their community and infrastructure is slowly being destroyed. There is a shortage of medicines, food, electricity and the basic necessities of life. But perhaps the worst form of torture for any human being is being unable to hold and touch the people they love, and the people of Gaza are not allowed to go across the now closed borders to be with their families...Hundreds of wives are parted from husbands in the West Bank, over 700 students cannot get out to go abroad to take up their positions in Universities, Sick people cannot get out to get hospital treatment, over 8O% of the children are suffering from malnutrition, and they have no milk for the children...
Gaza is like a huge prison except the Israeli Occupiers' policy is depriving the inmates of sufficient food and medicines for survival, in this the worlds largest open-air prison.......The International community and UN, should resume economic assistance as they have a responsibility towards the civilian population of Gaza, which is not dependent on whether Hamas satisfies the political conditions set by Israel or whether ceasefires hold.......
In the face of all this injustice perpetrated upon the Palestinian community, The EU, European Governments and much of the world community, have not only remained silent but have connived with this injustice by cutting off financial aid necessary for the Palestinians' survival, and are thus complicit with these ongoing crimes against humanity.......The Rest of what Mairead said-and MORE: WAWA Blog November 26, 2008: THE Ongoing NAKBA and Vanunu... http://www.wearewideawake.org
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Boxman, I can only do and type so much. I cannot open your eyes for you- I can't open your mind, I can't give you a conscience. While I would love for you to see the way it is on the other side, and that thousands more Palestinians suffer than do Israelis, obviously you will never change your mind.
"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding"-Albert Einstein -
I fail to see why is it relevent who suffers more.
We are surrounded by 300 million people who live in poverty, non-functional governments and repressive societies. This will be the case no matter what we do.
The point is that the palestinians in Gaza were given the opportunity to manage or mismanage their affairs as they saw fit over the last 3 years with 0 israeli interference.
The international community poured billions of dollars to help them build an economy. We handed them over intact the infrastructure and greenhouses we built in Gaza free of charge. We also continued to supplu them with Water and Electrictiy and allow goods to enter Israel from Gaza and enter Gaza from Israel in spite of having NO legal obligation to do so after the pre-1967 situation was restored.
The result? The palestinians knowingly elected leaders dedicated to Israel's destruction and those leaders chose to carry out their stated Ideology and bomb Israeli cities. Last week they chose to resume the rockets rather than maintain a pragmatic cease-fire.
By insisting that Israel ignore the choices of the Gazans it is YOU who are guilty of dehumanizing them. Essentially you treat them as imbecile infants who are not responsible for their actions and are unable to rationally weigh the cost-benefit of their decisions.
Well, they do have a choice:
1. The elected Hamas leaders can choose to end attacks on israel and even (blasphemous thought!) make peace with Israel.
2. If they don't the population can elect new leaders who will.
3. Or they can wage war, as they are currently doing, and suffer the consequences. And if that is what they choose they SHOULD suffer.Since you are so filled with self-righteousness perhaps you can suggest an alternative way which WILL end the Hams attacks?
As I see it we can:
a. Attempt to deter them through the levers currently being excersised+ more severe economic sanctions.
b. Reoccupy Gaza like we did the West Bank- in which case you will no doubt accues us of "brutality" a "failed strategy" and Massive civilian casulties.
c. Simply Bulldoze Gaza flat and push them into Egypt- Which I am sure you would not approve of...I, and all other Israelis are open to any alternative suggestion that will WORK. But we won't accept rockets on our heads because the people firing them are "suffering".
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Mr. McGirk,
Thank you very much for writing this. I know that you expected to get a lot of bad comments about this, but you had the courage to write it anyway.
Simply put, using starvation as a form of warfare is just wrong, ALWAYS. It is amazing that the ones who are advocating it as okay, then play a moral high ground of saying it is wrong to attack Israeli civilians. Why can't they say both are wrong. The world would be a better place if people of goodwill stood up against all atrocities against civilians most particularly children.
The reason that the peace and justice movement tends to focus more on the Palestinians is because 90% of the time that a child is killed with a bullet over there, it is a Palestinian child killed by an Israeli. (see http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2008.html. Because of the way things are hyped, most people think I'm lying when I say that. But the humanitarian groups all know this.
If those above would condemn 100% rather than 2-5% of the killing, we would have a lot of people of goodwill that can change things for the better. Thanks again Mr. McGirk
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Hear, hear! Finally, someone from the mainstream media calls Israel the terrorist country that it is. What Israel is doing to the Gazans (and to the residents of the West Bank, to a lesser degree) is nothing short of collective punishment -- a violation of the 4th Geneva Conventions. Tim, I'd just point out that while some of the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad do indeed commit crazy, vicious acts, but so does the Israeli government -- without a lot less reason, if there can be one. Impose occupation and literal imprisonment on a people for too long, and you can't help but incite desperate, crazy behavior. Only this time, it's Israel committing the crimes on another people, rather than the other way around.
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I think the Israelis are stupid or retarted. It doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to understand this. Hey, get some police there and go and patrol the place, what wrong with this? You have all the weapons to shoot perpetrators and innoncent indiscriminately. Already a slow-motion genocide is ongoing. Get off your butts and goand do the job or pay the money to the Gazan police to take care of this problem. If you can't pay enough, you can't get what you want.. just because you can pay doesn't mean that the job can be done, it can cost a lot more.
It was a pathetic sight to see the Dir. of Chabad on CNN from Port
Washington NY today that he wants to talk about "love," gosh, where do these guys get off from? They think they are on the moon or a better planet while they commit a genocide on the Gazans which includes babies and the old and feeble, wonder what wrong they committed. Geez, give me a break, this guy is all bs. If the Mumbai carnage is not enough reaction, I guess these Israelis are as stupid as they can be, nothing short of morons. The world is watching and one day you will be like a Gazan, every dog has his day, watch out. Nothing can go on forever. The primary targets among the militant islamists are the Israelis and second the Americans. Is this too hard to understand? Go get a brain before its too late... maybe you already missed your opportunity. -
I think the Israelis are stupid or retarted. It doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to understand this. Hey, get some police there and go and patrol the place, what wrong with this?
I would ignore this except that this comment shows how divorced from reality and ignorant some of Israel's critics are. Every incursion into Gaza to arrest millitants is met by a hail of bullets, explosive devices, and house to house fighting- with gazan civilians both used as human shields and called upon to screen the fighters. And these civilans are eager to do exactly that.
Following Gilad Shalit's kidnapping the IDF entered northern Gaza and surrounded 50 Hamas fighters. The Nearby mosques called upon the women of the neighborhood to rescue them. And they did. A crowd of hundreds of women presented the IDF with the choice of shooting them down or allowing the terrorists to ecape-and escape they did.
"Get off your butts and goand do the job or pay the money to the Gazan police to take care of this problem."
The Gaza Hamas "police" are the people shooting the rockets dubmbass! These aren't uncontrolable "radicals" or "extremeists". These are the armed forces of the democratically elected government following the orders of the Palestinain prime minister!
"If the Mumbai carnage is not enough reaction, I guess these Israelis are as stupid as they can be, nothing short of morons."
Right. Indian Muslims murdered 141 Indian Hindus, Americans and British, as well as two Jews in protest over Gaza. AND they murdered over 2000 Indians over the Last year because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict....Wake up! Muslims are murdering non-Muslims and other Muslims all over the globe and it has nothing to do with israel. It has a LOT to do with Islam.
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"Simply put, using starvation as a form of warfare is just wrong, ALWAYS. It is amazing that the ones who are advocating it as okay, then play a moral high ground of saying it is wrong to attack Israeli civilians."
You know, during WWII the U.S did not supply Japan with food while the fighting was raging- on the contrary it used submarine warfae to starve the impost dependent Islands into submission. The Caloric intake of the average Japanese by 1944 was FAR lower, not to mention protein defecient, than the current Gazan one. I can't rcall "humanitarin aid" being given to North Korea, or North Vietnam either.
And more recently the U.S ceratainly did not supply humanitarian aid to Serbia during the Kosovo crisi- on the contrary it bombed the bridges and ports connecting Sebia to the outside world, pressured the Nato/EU candidate of Macedonia, Rumania and Hungary to close their borders and in general pressured the civilian population of Serbia into surrendering- which they did.
But this is irrelevent to Gaza since Israel, unlike the U.S, is not beseigning it's enemies- we are merely ending trade relations with them, largely because the border crossings used to conduct this trade come under constant attack and it is immoral to risk our citizens lives for the sake of those attacking them!
Not one of the people on this blog has made any come back to the fact that Gaza shares a border with Egypt, which nullifies any claims of "Seige". Not one of the critics acknowledged the murder of over a Dozen Israeli civilians operating the border crossings or the 50+ attacks made on them by Hamas Suicide bombers.
But hey, don't let the facts confuse you. It's not what you are interested in anyway, right?
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I'm no expert on UN internal procedures, I hope they can bypass the Security Council and therefore US veto's and directly ship or airlift aids to Gaza from Mediterranean sea and avoid blockade by US and her stooges which have closed all land/sea/air borders, journalist can help by reporting of daily fatality of civilians and children of Gaza in order to bring Gaza problem out of political concern to humanitarian concern, if we can hear few Israelis death in India for 24 hours a day constantly in US TV's and never know who were the other 200 poor souls, certainly we can handle half an hour of daily coverage of tens if not hundreds who are dying in Gaza because of malnutrition or lack of medicine let alone by bombs each day!
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Tim,
Your blogs reflect a man who is in touch with his reality. Kudos to you for braving this controversial subject. I wish for your voice to be ever more vocal amongst the pantheon of great TIME journalists.
The Israeli government has long been on a crusade of punishing and muting the Palestinians while crudely sweeping away any of the evidence vis a vis some sheisty tactics. Enough is enough. Journalism and justice runs hand in hand. It is the media's responsibility to rectify the truths. Not the propaganda I see echoed by your dissenters above.
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