THE DEVIL'S FOOTSTEPS IN GAZA

Tim
As you probably know Hamas booby-trapped many houses in Gaza including apartments with people inside, and I am sure that an ice cream shop didn't prevent Hamas people to shoot on the Israeli army. So your sarcastic note that the Israeli army stopped for a Magnum is not in its place.
Don't blame the Israeli army – only the Hamas who took the civilian population as hostages after he bought them with money in the election.

Tim,
Can you please ask the Abu Halima family why did they allow Hamas soldiers to sire missiles on Israel for the last 8 years?

Most chances that the Abu Halima family choose Hamas in the last elections in Gaza and supporting them since than.
As you know and they know Hamas, as a proxy of Iran doesn't accept Israel in this region.
Probably they even sent their kids to summer camps to educate and train them how to eradicate Israel out of the map.
So after 8 years firing missiles on Israel what did they expect? That Israelis will return to gas cambers on their own will?
Why didn't they choose for peace with Israel and didn't demonstrate against Hamas, especially after Israel left Gaza and there is no occupation.

As you well know Tim, the United States and Britian do not warn people before they bomb them. Whether one would prefer to be burned by phosphorus, or naplam is a issue I prefer not to think about. The soldier writing on the woman's underwear is relatively mild to what American service men repeatedly do to American service women in Iraq. Rape is quite common among American soldiers. Hana Ashawri has told every possible lie she can about Israel, but never once has she accused an Israeli or raping a Palestinian. You were in Iraq Tim, how many civilians were killed in the first 20 days of the war??? How many Palestinians were killed in Black September ???

@ladak531,

I hope you don't think of yourself as a civilized person, because you are not. Not with thoughts such as the ones you just spewed for the world to see.

When is it ever OK to burn someone, anyone, with phosphorus, huh you monster? Never. No Israeli or Jew who thinks the way you think can call him/herself a civilized person. Hamas may have bombed Israel, but how does that justify the burning of civilians?

If you want your story to be heard, the first thing to do is be compassionate to the plight of Palestinian civilians. For that matter, Palestinians abroad should do the same for the Israeli civilians caught in a cross-fire. However, any time anyone says "Well, why didn't they leave?" or "They asked for it, because they participated in a DEMOCRATIC process" will incur the wrath of hell.

[...] horrific survivor’s tale in Gaza, who lost his family to white phosphorus. [...]

@ladak531,
Revenge does not justify human rights violations.

Peace will not come from bulldozing a population into the ground. Peace will not come from firing rockets across a border. Peace will come only when two sides learn to respect the position of the other side. Sadly, that is barely imaginable given the atrocities that are occurring.

Let me begin with a caveat. I am not pro-palestinian, or pro-israeli. I am anti-death. I find the conflict in the middle east during my life time to be a tragedy of such senseless proportions that i find myself at a loss for how to express my extreme frustration to supporters of either side.

That said, ladak531 needs to be disabused of several of the horrifically callus and psychopathic notions he has espoused.

This is not a tit-for-tat issue. Regardless of who started what, who is responsible for Hamas and/or rocket fire into Israel, ask yourself one question.

What justifies the use of White Phosphorous on civilian populations.

This BBC article does a good job of reporting on the nature of WP usage, and what is or is not a restricted usage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4442988.stm

And i will quote:

"If on the other hand the toxic properties of white phosphorus, the caustic properties, are specifically intended to be used as a weapon, that of course is prohibited, because the way the Convention is structured or the way it is in fact applied, any chemicals used against humans or animals that cause harm or death through the toxic properties of the chemical are considered chemical weapons."

Whether or not Gaza deserved an armed military response is not relevant. Unless Israel can justify a) why it was using White Phosphorous in the first place and b) why it's use was so careless as to kill so many civilians and burn down the UN HQ for the region and it's associated food store, they have committed war crimes. One banned by a treaty to which they are a signatory.

This can not be contextualized away, and it has nothing to do with prior provocation. Either it is a war crime or it isn't. Even if Israel were to level all of Gaza, justified or not, killing, wounding, or maiming other human beings, or even animals with chemical weapons is a horror beyond measure.

Nothing justifies chemical weapon usage.

So again, why was Israel using White Phosphorous?

Here's another article about the Abu Halima family: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/world/middleeast/22phosphorus.html

And the truly unfortunate part:

Ms. Abu Halima said that on Tuesday some relatives went to her home and found it destroyed. They then properly buried the dead.

She wept with fury, saying that as farmers she and her family had good relations with Israelis, selling them produce in past years. But now, she said, she wants to see Israel's leaders — she named the foreign minister and president — “burn like my children burned.”

“They should feel the pain we felt.”

No doubt that the western media has been biased in covering the catastrophy of Gaza. In which israelis has clearly demonstarted that their single life is worth 100 palestinians life. I clearly congratulate for bringing such an article into media to enlighten us of the catatrophe in Gaza.

I totally agree with what knowthwory says, if you want to sell fire to Palestinians then dont expect them to sell water to you.

If you look at some of the comments here, you can begin to understand why we are now at a dangerous impasse in the Middle East in terms of U.S. strategic interests. The most irrational perspectives--the utter demonizing of Hamas--even though Israel itself dealt with Hamas via Egypt--have monopolized discussion of Israel in the U.S. for far too long. For all I know, ladak351 is paid by the Israeli government to post comments like this, since we know that this is part of its war strategy. But even if he or she isn't, it points to the larger problem of how much U.S. policy has been hijacked by "pro-Israeli" interests in the U.S. to the point where even though Democrats in a Rasmussen public opinion poll were divided, Democratic senators lined up mindlessly to support Israel's offensive on a civilian population. 1400+ civilians died, and our political class wants to continue a policy that has not worked and is unconscionable--to blockade Gaza over the fact that Hamas "runs" it, even though Gaza is not a state, does not have any independence and can have its civilian infrastructure wiped off the map to try and "educate" Hamas. This, even though Israel was using white phosphorous bombs in a very densely populated very small geographic area. Our Senate brayed like donkeys supporting what are likely war crimes.

Until people in the U.S. can grasp that there will never be any security or peace for Israel without justice for the Palestinians on whose land the so-called Western enlightened community decided to allow Jews to finally become "European"--that is, only after they were killed off and out of Europe could Jews be "white" and culturally European.

the end of the above passage should read "we will continue to see escalating violence in not just Israel and the Occupied Territories but throughout the region."

Tim,
I feel empathy for you as you learn about these people's lives in what may very well be the pits of hell here on Earth. I'm sure it isn't easy on you as well. Unfortunately, it's a reality that Israel has hid from you and other journalists for too long. Thank you for making the brave trek into that territory to see it for yourself and for sharing it with us.
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Ladak531,
After 8 years of crude, rockets that carried no explosives and caused less deaths than Israel's own belligerence (friendly fire) has, Hamas expected Israel to lift only the blockade that was denying essential food, medicine, energy, supplies, etc. into Gaza, where the Palestinians were trapped into, after losing their homes via violent acts by Israel's founders. What do you expect the Gazans to do? Quiet down and live under the rule of a country who's leaders have declared that Israel is to be a Jew only state? A country who's analysts consistently compare the Palestinian birth rate to that of Israeli Jews, indicating clear intent and motive to carry out such evil acts as using cancer-causing weapons and other illegal weapons on civilian actions? No peoples on Earth can be expected to sit in silence while Israel commits genocide against them.
.
Now imagine if Hamas had phosphorous and put it in those rockets. Imagine an Israeli child being struck by the phosphorous. The white scorch burns through the child's flesh as she lets out a moan in distress and runs to her mother, who pours water and tries to stop the flames but cant until it burns the flesh of her child to the bone. Imagine the mother watching her child die in agony in her hands. Imagine her neighbors dying next. Her father. Her mother. Her loved ones.
.
Now ask that she doesn't support the only militia seeking to destroy the enemy that has destroyed her. Did you imagine that? Welcome to something called "perspective". You have all the answers to your questions. Put yourself in their shoes and don't come back here lying to us all about Israel's "innocence". That's for the fools on JPOST.

Good point, it is well publicized by even Western Media that Israel is not only recruiting, but paying, an army of bloggers to visit sites like these and insert propagandic comments like that of Ladak's. What a disgusting government that country has...

My message is simple that all the Muslims Nations should unite and get rid of this Capitalist/secular system in the Muslim World. Get rid of our Puppet leaders and make space for some honest and visionary leaders, so basically start from scratch!

Once again great courage shown by Tim. Thumbs-up!

I mean look at the pope's counterparts nowadays even they are saying that the holocaust was this century's most prevericated and wrongly commiserated story. In gas chambers there were only 300,000 (not even sure about that) not 6 Million jews. Talk about disparities of death in the Nazi era and in palestine. Please watch the video below;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDHNNtyjfts

This is part 1 and then you can follow it up on YouTube.

A heart rending piece. I'm amazed at the childishness of the responses to it.

Sorry, Monsignor McG. It deserved better.

[...] magazine reporter Tim McGirk writes for the magazine’s website with startling honesty about his experiences in [...]

The dehumanization and absolute disregard for Palestinians' humanity by Israel and their supporters is so sad considering their past history of injustice and discrimination.
Their justifications of all that Israel does even the burning of humans alive is reflective of their own sorrowful state of mind.
As Americans we bear responsibility for funding the Israeli military and providing them with weapons such as Phosphorous and Napalm bombs which they had also used in Lebanon.
We the tax payers must ask why is our government providing these weapons to Israel and under what pretext?

Check out the Global Pulse video on this, showing how different TV news around the world are covering the issue.

Watch it here: globalpulsetv.org

Running Time: 00:05:25

I'm an intern with Link TV, the nonprofit that produces Global Pulse. Interesting to see how the rest of the world is reporting on the news.

[...] The Devil’s Footsteps In Gaza - Tim McGuirk [...]

September 1970 is known as the Black September (Arabic: أيلول الأسود) in Arab history and sometimes is referred to as the "era of regrettable events." It was a month when Hashemite King Hussein of Jordan moved to quash the autonomy of Palestinian organizations and restore his monarchy's rule over the country.[2] The violence resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, the vast majority Palestinian.[1] Armed conflict lasted until July 1971 with the expulsion of the PLO and thousands of Palestinian fighters to Lebanon.