The below article was published in an Israeli newspaper:
The neighborhood bully strikes again
By Gideon Levy
Tags: gaza strike, israel news 
Israel embarked yesterday on yet another unnecessary, ill-fated war. On July 16, 2006, four days after the start of the Second Lebanon War, I wrote: “Every neighborhood has one, a loud-mouthed bully who shouldn’t be provoked into anger… Not that the bully’s not right – someone did harm him. But the reaction, what a reaction!”
Two and a half years later, these words repeat themselves, to our horror, with chilling precision. Within the span of a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, the IDF sowed death and destruction on a scale that the Qassam rockets never approached in all their years, and Operation “Cast Lead” is only in its infancy.
Once again, Israel’s violent responses, even if there is justification for them, exceed all proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international law and wisdom.
What began yesterday in Gaza is a war crime and the foolishness of a country. History’s bitter irony: A government that went to a futile war two months after its establishment – today nearly everyone acknowledges as much – embarks on another doomed war two months before the end of its term.
In the interim, the loftiness of peace was on the tip of the tongue of Ehud Olmert, a man who uttered some of the most courageous words ever said by a prime minister. The loftiness of peace on the tip of his tongue, and two fruitless wars in his sheath. Joining him is his defense minister, Ehud Barak, the leader of the so-called left-wing party, who plays the role of senior accomplice to the crime.
Israel did not exhaust the diplomatic processes before embarking yesterday on another dreadful campaign of killing and ruin. The Qassams that rained down on the communities near Gaza turned intolerable, even though they did not sow death. But the response to them needs to be fundamentally different: diplomatic efforts to restore the cease-fire – the same one that was initially breached, one should remember, by Israel when it unnecessarily bombed a tunnel – and then, if those efforts fail, a measured, gradual military response.
But no. It’s all or nothing. The IDF launched a war yesterday whose end, as usual, is hoping someone watches over us.
Blood will now flow like water. Besieged and impoverished Gaza, the city of refugees, will pay the main price. But blood will also be unnecessarily spilled on our side. In its foolishness, Hamas brought this on itself and on its people, but this does not excuse Israel’s overreaction.
The history of the Middle East is repeating itself with despairing precision. Just the frequency is increasing. If we enjoyed nine years of quiet between the Yom Kippur War and the First Lebanon War, now we launch wars every two years. As such, Israel proves that there is no connection between its public relations talking points that speak of peace, and its belligerent conduct.
Israel also proves that it has not internalized the lessons of the previous war. Once again, this war was preceded by a frighteningly uniform public dialogue in which only one voice was heard – that which called for striking, destroying, starving and killing, that which incited and prodded for the commission of war crimes.
Once again the commentators sat in television studios yesterday and hailed the combat jets that bombed police stations, where officers responsible for maintaining order on the streets work. Once again, they urged against letting up and in favor of continuing the assault. Once again, the journalists described the pictures of the damaged house in Netivot as “a difficult scene.” Once again, we had the nerve to complain about how the world was transmitting images from Gaza. And once again we need to wait a few more days until an alternative voice finally rises from the darkness, the voice of wisdom and morality.
In another week or two, those same pundits who called for blows and more blows will compete among themselves in leveling criticism at this war. And once again this will be gravely late.
The pictures that flooded television screens around the world yesterday showed a parade of corpses and wounded being loaded into and unloaded from the trunks of private cars that transported them to the only hospital in Gaza worthy of being called a hospital. Perhaps we once again need to remember that we are dealing with a wretched, battered strip of land, most of whose population consists of the children of refugees who have endured inhumane tribulations.
For two and a half years, they have been caged and ostracized by the whole world. The line of thinking that states that through war we will gain new allies in the Strip; that abusing the population and killing its sons will sear this into their consciousness; and that a military operation would suffice in toppling an entrenched regime and thus replace it with another one friendlier to us is no more than lunacy.
Hezbollah was not weakened as a result of the Second Lebanon War; to the contrary. Hamas will not be weakened due to the Gaza war; to the contrary. In a short time, after the parade of corpses and wounded ends, we will arrive at a fresh cease-fire, as occurred after Lebanon, exactly like the one that could have been forged without this superfluous war.
In the meantime, let us now let the IDF win, as they say. A hero against the weak, it bombed dozens of targets from the air yesterday, and the pictures of blood and fire are designed to show Israelis, Arabs and the entire world that the neighborhood bully’s strength has yet to wane. When the bully is on a rampage, nobody can stop him.
Cathleen,
The Bully is Killing Arabs Again?
As usual, there are two sides to this issue. Your empathy for the Palestinian peoples notwithstanding, there is plenty of blame to go around:
The whole article is worth reading. It provides the counterpoint you overlook.
Cheers,
If security was the reason for Israel’s closing the Gaza check points why has Israel not allowed food, medical supplies, energy, etc, into Gaza? Why has Israel not allowed Gaza fisherman to fish beyond 6 miles off the coast of Gaza, why did Israel not allow cash into Gaza to pay the 8000 UN workers in Gaza?
The reason is clearly, as I was told by Jews in Israel, to get rid of the Arabs so Jews can have all the land. Don’t be fooled by media propaganda.
[Don't be fooled by media propaganda.]
Who? Me?
Here’s something you won’t see on CNN…
However many sides of the story there is, the US gives over 30 billion in aide to Israel every year so they can buy bombs, tanks and arms.
The Palestinians are very much like our Forfathers that fought for their Freedom from the British and also deemed “terrorist” by such koolaid drinkiers that read the read the main-stream rags of lies which promote that idea.
As to Hama’s rocket attacks, Anyone with a brain can see that these are pea-shooters compared to the 1,000+ pound bombs being dropped on their police offices and hostpitals. The kill ratio of 1:100+ should prove to anyone that Israel is, and has been in the wrong.
you wont see this in the WSJ
Updated: 2:46 p.m. December 30, 2008
McKinney relief boat hit by Israeli ship
Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, standing beside a damaged yacht in the Lebanese seaport of Tyre, Tuesday accused the Israeli navy of ramming the vessel to halt the delivery of medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip.
“Our mission was a peaceful mission,” McKinney told CNN. The recent Green Party candidate for U.S. president and frequent center of controversy is the most prominent political figure to join the relief voyages sponsored by the Free Gaza Movement.
Nice piece of propaganda video there Mitch. You must be visiting the ADL website. Interestingly though, this brings up a good point. The Palestinian girl blames Hamas for Israel’s bombardment, the same as I blame my government’s actions and policies for the death of thousands of our citizens on 9/11. So if Israel is punishing Gazan civilians for the actions and policies of their government, then Israel is no different than the 9/11 terrorists who were doing just that. Ergo, if you support Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, you must be a big fan of the 9/11 atrocity.
Cathleen – your logic is curious. If the Jews wanted to “take all the land,” why did they pull out of Gaza and cede it to the Palestinians in the first place? I guess you speculate they were trying to mirror some kind of trick play in football.
The simple truth is that nobody wants Gaza. The Israelis can’t control it. The Egyptians could care less about it. Even the Palestinians don’t seem to want to build a nation in it. If they did, why did they elect a terrorist government?
As far as the reason for the current Israeli counterattack – it’s clear that this war is no different from every other war that’s been fought throughout history. Every General knows that the purpose of war is not to win a battle. The purpose is to effect a political change. Ultimately, the Israelis need to prove to the Palestinians that a terrorist government will not represent their interests as a peaceful people. Once the Palestinians kick Hamas and it’s blood thirsty leaders out and broker for a peace in good faith, you won’t see any more Israeli incursions into Gaza.
Finally, if my neighbor were attacking my home with rockets, I wouldn’t give a good God-damn about whether he could fish where he wanted, whether his energy or medical needs were met, or whether he could have access to my property. Neither would you.
Best for 2009,
Jerry
those “rockets” are mere pea-shooters compared to the 30 billion dollar budget we give the Jews every year for 1,000+ pound bombs that kill 100+ to 1 vs the Palestinians.
think of it like this.
What if California gave me and my family 30 billion a year to come invade your neighborhood and squeeze all of you on your street into just your house and crawl space.
We then steel all your and your neighbors stuff, cut off your water so you only get the water from your rain gutters, only let you eat the grass and bark from your trees. We build walls to keep you in and dont let you come out, but only to do slave work for me and my family every once in a while. And anytime someone from the outside tries to help you or your family with food or medicine we kill or stop them. And when some of you “slaves” come out to do my work you throw rocks at my tanks and so we kill you and your children.
And then when you go to the Denver papers for Justice and help they all phoo phoo you and tell you to suck it up.
so, I dont feel one bit sorry for the Jews here, in fact they are the evil ones who get the worlds ear….and cash.
Maybe not the “Jews” as a whole are to blame, but their government is, just as some of you blame the Palestinians for the actions of Hamas.
the Grad-model Katyusha rockets that were fired into Beersheba on Wednesday were manufactured in China and smuggled into Gaza after the Sinai border wall was blown up by Hamas in January, defense officials said.
The Chinese rockets have a range of 40 kilometers. They are very similar to the 122 mm Soviet-made Katyusha that was used extensively by Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War and are slightly more sophisticated than an Iranian-made Grad-model Katyusha that is also in Hamas’s arsenal.
The four rockets that hit Beersheba this week were filled with metal balls that can scatter up to 100 meters from the impact site, officials said. These rockets have also been fired into Ashkelon and Ashdod.
Israel tries to minimize civilian casualties, Hamas tries to maximize them
Israel targets an apartment building where weapons are being stored. The Israelis warn people to leave. Hamas tries to get people to stay and act as human shields — and if they had succeeded in this, of course, they would have trumpeted to the world the deaths of more innocents at the hands of the bloodthirsty Zionists.
As Muhammad said, “War is deceit.”
Does the mainstream media not know it is being had, or does it just not care?
“Death toll rises as Israel continues Gaza assault,” by Dion Nissenbaum and Ahmed Abu Hamda for the McClatchy Newspapers, December 29 (thanks to JCB):
[...] Over the weekend, Kannan’s mother received a recorded call on her cell phone from the Israeli military. When she heard who was calling, she hung up. Minutes later, the same call came to the landline in her apartment warning her to leave if she was storing weapons.
In an apartment building across the street from Kannan and her family live four brothers who are Hamas militants. Israeli intelligence called the Hamas members to warn them that they were targets, Kannan said.
Leaders at the local mosque urged neighbors to converge on the apartment building and act as human shields, she added. No one heeded the call, however, so the Hamas militants fled. [...]
Could you give one valid reason for Hamas why are they firing missiles at Israel. How can they fight with israel when 6 countries together tried to do in 1967 war they were crushed in 6days.why they want to try now at cost of poor gazan’s when israel has reached it height in techo warfare. Best way is to learn from past & think of young arab generation to grow them as doctor or scientist and not terrorist. This way you are making world think that arabs/mulsims are burden in this world.
YASIN MOHAMMED , UK, LONDON
Hamas claims the goal of its rocket attacks is merely to force Israel to ease its strict travel restrictions into and out of Gaza. But those restrictions are intended to prevent suicide bombers from blowing up Israeli citizens in cafes as they did during the intifadah earlier this decade. If Hamas wants its people to have freer movement, it can stop sponsoring terror killings.
[Could you give one valid reason for Hamas why are they firing missiles at Israel.]
I’ll say it again here, like I did in the letters to the editor today…
I’d like to think that if Jews in WWII concentration camps had somehow managed to smuggle in some rockets, they would’ve thought better of firing them into German neighborhoods, for fear of bringing the wrath of the German government down on the innocent women and children occupying the camp.
But I can’t be sure that after years of abuse, starvation, and deprivation at the hands of the German army, with the German people standing by idly, the angry beleaguered prisoners might not have felt justified in defending, if not their lives, at least their honor.
Proud zionist, of course you are right. What could Hamas be thinking? They can’t possibly win a war against powerful Israel with their puny pea shooters, so winning is not their objective.
Perhaps their objective is exactly what they achieved; to provoke Israel into over-reacting and get the world’s attention. Maybe they think sacrificing some of their citizens’ lives is worth it if they can get the world to focus on the bigger problem; the OCCUPATION!
Yes, Gaza is still occupied by Israel, at least it is listed as such in the UN’s directory of nations. Even the U.S. considers Gaza still officially occupied. It’s not occupied by civilian settlers, but a military blockade and complete control of the area by Israel’s government means it is technically occupied.
Jerry, why did the Israelis pull out of Gaza? Well it’s easier to slaughter your enemy when your own people aren’t in the way. With the Israeli settlers in Gaza, Israel wouldn’t have been able to pull the rug out from under the Palestinians with blockades and bombings. Israel has known all along that if they put enough pressure on Gaza, Hamas will do something stupid and give them a reason to go in and wipe out the entire infrastructure and government, so crippling the Gazans that Israel will have no choice but to re-occupy the territory, this time for good. I believe this was Sharon’e strategy all along, just a bit delayed by his unexpected health crisis. But now is actually the perfect time to pull it off, between American presidents so to speak.
I think I’ve come up with the perfect peace plan though. You can read it here…
http://gsuzanne.blogspot.com/
Israel – Founded By
And Living On Terror
By Rev. Ted Pike
3-25-8
Zionist-dominated mainstream media vividly portrays Israel as a tiny embattled nation seeking peace in a sea of Arab hostility. 1 Arabs, we are told, commit acts of terror while Israel only resorts to violence out of self-protection. The facts of history paint a very different picture.
Far from deploring terror, Israel has sanctioned terror to seize and expand its territory since its beginnings. In 1944, Zionist leaders in Israel faced two alternatives. They could continue to allow the British and Arabs to occupy Palestine, who would continue to pressure Israel to concede a Palestinian state. Or they could drive both British and Arabs out. Israelis chose the latter.
Members of the Zionist ruling elite and their clandestine terrorist enforcers–the Jewish Agency, Hagana, Irgun and the Stern Gang–began to exert every possible terrorist means to dominate Palestine. Their strategy was simple: the more respectable Zionist establishment would take the “high road” and officially disavow terrorism. Meanwhile, Zionist terrorists would commit any crime needed to disrupt British occupation and to panic Arabs into flight. The Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem, available in most university libraries, documents from British records more than five hundred violent or terrorist incidents against Palestinians and the British occupation between 1939 and 1948. These included bombings, booby traps and landmines, kidnappings and torture of prisoners, bank robberies, murders of Arabs, and assassinations of police and British officials. 2
Chief terrorists were David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and later, Ariel Sharon. Begin headed Irgun, and Shamir led the Stern Gang. They cooperated intimately with the highest political body of the Zionist establishment, the Jewish Agency, and the popular Zionist resistance army, Hagana. Ben-Gurion headed Hagana and later the Jewish Agency. 3
After 1944–when Ben-Gurion formally rejected the British plan for partition of Palestine into Jewish/Arab states–most Israelis, particularly the young, favored expulsion of British and Arabs.
Here is the short list of Zionist atrocities from 1944 to the present:
· Assassination of Lord Moyne on November 6, 1944. Under orders from Yitzhak Shamir, terrorists of the Stern Gang shot Lord Moyne, British resident minister. Purpose: To drive the British from Palestine.
· The King David massacre, July 22, 1946. Begin’s Irgun terrorists, with encouragement from Ben-Gurion’s Hagana, blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, murdering 92. Purpose: Destroy British records that proved the highest members of the Zionist government backed anti-British terrorism. 4
· British sergeants hanged, July 12, 1947. Begin, Shamir, and Haganah authorized kidnapping and hanging of two British sergeants, booby trapping their bodies and mining the area. During this time, Shamir sent many letters and package bombs to British officials. 1947 also included multiple cases of kidnappings (including brutal floggings of British soldiers) by Jewish terrorists.
· The Semiramis Hotel massacre, January 5, 1948. Jewish Agency leader David Ben-Gurion and Haganah leaders blew up the Seramis Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 20 and wounding 17. Purpose: Terrorize Arabs into fleeing Israel. 5
· Deir Yassin massacre, April 9, 1948. Begin’s Irgun soldiers killed 250 sleeping Arab villagers at Deir Yassin, a suburb of Jerusalem. “25 pregnant women were bayoneted in their abdomens while still alive. 52 children were maimed under the eyes of their mothers and then were slain and their heads cut off.” 6 “Menachem Begin, the leader of the Irgun gang, himself admitted on December 28, 1950 in a press interview in New York, that the Deir Yassin incident had been carried out in accordance with an agreement between the Irgun and the Jewish Agency and Haganah.” 7 Begin was always proud of what he had done, considering Deir Yassin a legitimate military target. Irgun trucks drove throughout Judea, announcing by loudspeaker to hundreds of thousands of Arabs that unless they fled Israel they would meet the same fate. Deir Yassin and subsequent terrorist acts precipitated flight of more than 800,000 Arabs from Palestine. In town after town Zionist soldiers drove Palestinians out, usually killing any person who delayed or attempted to take any possessions with them. Arab towns were bulldozed, replaced with Jewish communities. 8 Begin comments on the level of Palestinian terror generated by Irgun’s massacre at Deir Yassin. “Out of evil, however, good came. This Arab propaganda spread a legend of terror amongst Arabs and Arab troops, who were seized with panic at the mention of Irgun soldiers. The legend was worth a dozen battalions to the forces of Israel.” 9 Israel exiled these unfortunates to concentration camps in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza, refusing to allow them repossession of their land and property or adequate compensation. 10 This is the seminal cause of international Arab terrorism and the Mid-East conflict that rages today.
· Assassination of UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte, September 17, 1948. This killing by the Stern Gang was on orders of Shamir. Purpose: To sabotage UN efforts to create a Palestinian state.
· Massacre at Dawayma, October 29, 1948. Israeli soldiers killed between 80 and 100 men, women, and children in Dawayma, a suburb of Haifa. Purpose: Intensify terror generated by Deir Yassin and compel the remaining Palestinians to leave Israel. 11
· Massacre at Kibya, October 14, 1953. In an atrocity condoned by the highest levels of the Israeli government and military, Ariel Sharon led 700 crack paratroopers to attack the Jordanian town of Kibya. They slaughtered 75 innocent men, women, and children primarily by locking families in their homes and blowing them up. 12 Purpose: Collective punishment to avenge the alleged killing of a single Jewish family.
· Massacre of Kafr Kassim, October 29, 1956. 51 men, women, and children were murdered by Israeli troops as they returned to their villages in the evening after work. 13 more were severely wounded by the gunfire. Purpose: Terrorize Palestinians into not siding with Egypt in case of war. 13
· Massacre of USS Liberty, June 8, 1967. Israel’s jet fighters and torpedo boats repeatedly attempted to sink US intelligence monitoring vessel USS Liberty during the 1967 Israel/Egypt war. They killed 34 and wounded 171 American sailors. Purpose: Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan ordered the attack ostensibly to protect Israel’s intelligence communications, even though the war was virtually over. 14
· Libyan airliner massacre, February 21, 1973. Straying over Israeli-controlled Sinai air space, a Libyan 727 commercial airliner was intercepted by Israeli fighters and, despite the clearest identification, shot down, killing 106. Purpose: Flexing Zionist power against Libya. 15
· Massacre in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, Beirut, Lebanon, September 23, 1982. Gen. Ariel Sharon and Yitshak Shamir, in cooperation with “Christian” Phalangist forces sealed all exits and provided aerial flares, illuminating the slaughter of up to 2750 men, women, and children, according to a body count by the committee of the Red Cross. Purpose: collective punishment of Palestinians. 16
What About Arab Terrorism?
It was inevitable that Zionism’s threatened and actual expulsion of Arabs from land the Arabs occupied from the seventh century should incur hostility even terrorism. Jews of Hebron were massacred by Arabs in 1929. The Arab revolt in Palestine beginning in 1936 resulted in acts of violence against many Jews, followed by anti-Jewish mistreatment during the 1948 war. Suicide bombings and rocket attacks continue against Israel in recent years.
Who is most at fault? Consider this: If someone, claiming divine right to occupy your house and land, drives you from them, condemning you and your children to a distant, arid concentration camp for generations, would you resort to violence?
There is only one word that describes the one who displaced you. Aggressor. The Palestinians, fanatical and terrorist as many have become, are nevertheless defenders of ancient rights and territories that have been horrifically violated. They are victims hitting back.
Becoming “Civilized” Terrorists?
During the past 40 years, Israel’s continuing atrocities are justified as “collective punishment” of the Palestinian people. Israel’s attack on Lebanon in 1982, described by Israel as such punishment, killed over 19,000 innocent men, women and children. Under Sharon’s invasion of the West Bank under Sharon in 2002, whole villages were attacked with Hellfire missiles from Apache helicopters, with occupied homes shelled by tanks or bulldozed over. 4,185 Palestinian men were seized, beaten, jailed. The number of dead is still uncertain since Sharon would not allow western observers to document the aftermath. 17 Israel’s present policies in the West Bank and Gaza, routinely killing large numbers of innocent men, women and children, remain full of atrocities.
I have also written about one of the greatest atrocities Israel still indulges in: the systematic and fiendish torture of many thousands of Palestinian prisoners, incarcerated, most without trial, in Israeli prisons. 18
After leaders of the Third Reich committed atrocities against the Jews during World War II, they were tried, hanged and buried, both physically and under the contempt of humanity. The opposite happened to the bloody and arrogant terrorists of Israel. Ben-Gurion, Begin, Shamir, and Sharon were all elected to leadership of the nation. This reflected the anti-Palestinian, terrorism-friendly mentality of many Israeli voters. 19 The Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem documents, from United Nations records, more than 650 attacks by Jewish settlers and the Israeli military against Arabs between 1948 and 1998. 20
Shamefully, evangelical Christians have given uninterrupted support to Israel’s terrorist leaders. Evangelicals believe God brought to birth the state of Israel by divine assistance at every stage. Actually, statehood (i.e. expulsion of the British and Arabs) was made possible by massacre starting at Deir Yassin. Yet there has never been an atrocity in Israel searing enough to alienate Christian idealism, or even prompt criticism from major evangelical leaders. Dr. Jerry Falwell said Begin was a “man of God.” George Bush described Sharon as a “man of peace.”
What kind of a god would establish a nation on terror? A god who is as evil as the devil.
On Dec. 27, Israel began “Operation Cast Lead” to stop Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza from continuing its years-long campaign of attacking Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets, missiles and mortars. Following are facts and figures to help journalists cover Israel’s defensive efforts in Gaza:
Iran-backed Hamas Rocket, Mortar Attacks and Nuclear Developments
9,400+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2003. [1]
3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [2]
6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [3]
543+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [4]
28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire ended, Iran-backed Palestinian groups in Gaza fired rockets and mortars that killed an Israeli-Arab construction worker and a mother of four who was seeking shelter in a bus station as a rocket warning siren sounded. [5]
1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire, 44 Israelis have been injured and 200 have been treated for shock. [6]
20,000 Hamas troops Israel is targeting as part of “Operation Cast Lead.” [7]
750,000 number of Israeli civilians Hamas is targeting and can reach. [8]
15 seconds Israelis have to get to a bomb shelter once a warning siren has sounded. [9]
8 years that Israel has been hit by rockets and mortars from Gaza [10]
3 mosques in Gaza used as weapons, ammunitions and explosives depots that were struck by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the operation in Gaza. [11]
4 UN Security Council resolutions passed since 2006 to try to stop Iran from enriching uranium. [12]
5,000+ number of centrifuges operating in Iran to enrich uranium, the material used to produce a nuclear weapon. [13]
Israel’s Humanitarian Aid to Gaza
179 truckloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered through Israeli crossings into Gaza since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, including basic food commodities, medication, medical supplies, donations of governments and blood units.
106 additional truckloads of humanitarian expected to arrive in Gaza on Jan. 31 [14]
6,500 tons of aid transported into Gaza at the request of international organizations, the Palestinian Authority and various governments since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead. The World Food Program informed Israel that it will cease shipment of food to Gaza because warehouses are at full capacity, with enough food to last two weeks. [15]
What Israel Gave Up in Hopes of Peace – Gaza Withdrawal Aug. 2005
100% proportion of the Gaza Strip evacuated and handed over to the
Palestinians. [16]
300 square miles of the West Bank evacuated. [17]
21 Israeli settlements uprooted in the Gaza Strip. [18]
4 Israeli settlements uprooted in the West Bank. [19]
48 graves uprooted in Gaza’s former Gush Katif Cemetery, including six graves of area residents murdered by terrorists. [20]
9,000 approximate number of Israelis, including 1,700 families, who lived in Gaza and the northern West Bank. All of them were moved out as part of the withdrawal. [21]
38 synagogues dismantled in the Gaza Strip. [22]
5,000 school-age children who had to find new schools. [23]
42 daycare centers that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [24]
36 kindergartens that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [25]
7 elementary schools that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [26]
3 high schools that were closed in the Gaza Strip. [27]
320 mobile homes, ordered by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, to serve as temporary housing for settlers. [28]
45,000 Israeli soldiers and policemen who participated in the Gaza withdrawal. [29]
$1.7 billion the approximate cost to the Israeli government for the withdrawal initiative. [30]
166 Israeli farmers who were moved out of Gaza. [31]
800 cows, which comprised the second largest dairy farm in Israel, moved out of Gaza’s Gush Katif community. [32]
$120 million value of flowers and produce exported annually from Gush Katif and lost following the evacuation. [33]
1 zoo, the “Katifari,” that housed hundreds of animals and was moved. [34]
10,000 people who were employed in agriculture and related industries in Gush Katif, including 5,000 Palestinians. [35]
60% proportion of Israel’s cherry tomato exports that came from the Gaza Strip. Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza extinguished this economic resource. [36]
3.5 million square meters (almost 1,000 acres) of greenhouses abandoned in Gaza. [37]
70 percentage of Israel’s organic produce grown in Gaza – another economic resource lost in the evacuation. [38]
60 percentage of herbs exported from Israel that came from Gush Katif. [39]
15 percentage of Israel agricultural exports that originated in Gaza – exports lost following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. [40]
$360,000 expected average compensation amount Israel expected to pay to relocate each family. [41]
$870 million approximate cost for Israel to facilitate the resettlement of former West Bank and Gaza residents elsewhere in the country. [42]
$500 million amount of money Israel’s security establishment spent to relocate Israel Defense Forces bases outside the Gaza Strip and build new border crossing facilities. [43]
After Israel’s evacuation from Gaza…
430,000 West Bank Palestinians able to move freely within and between Palestinian-controlled areas. [44]
1 Israeli remaining in Gaza. Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit was abducted from Israel on June 25, 2006 by Hamas in a bloody cross-border raid in which the terrorists also killed two IDF soldiers and wounded four others. [45]
1.2 million Arabs who remained full and legal citizens of Israel. All Israeli citizens – Christians, Muslims, and Jews – have freedom of speech, religion, press, and the right to vote. [46]
1.3 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip many of them in Palestinian Authority-controlled refugee camps, who live under their own leaders. [47]
820,000 Jewish refugees forced to flee without their belongings from Arab countries between 1947 and 1949, and who have never been compensated by Arab governments for their losses. [48]
650,000 Arab refugees who left Israel from 1947-1949 and still need Palestinian leaders who will end terrorism and the culture of hate. [49]
Israel’s withdrawal from four northern West Bank settlements created an area more than twice the size of Gaza’s 140 square miles under Palestinian control and devoid of any Israeli presence. [50]
here’s why there is no peace! terror before the 1967 war(NO OCCUPATION)reasons for the occupation by the brutal martyrs of hate!!!!!
Jan 01, 1952 – Seven armed terrorists attacked and killed a nineteen year-old girl in her home, in the neighborhood of Beit Yisrael, in Jerusalem.
Apr 14, 1953 – Terrorists tried for the first time to infiltrate Israel by sea, but were unsuccessful. One boat was intercepted and the other escaped.
Jun 07, 1953 – A youngster was killed and three others were wounded, in shooting attacks on residential areas in southern Jerusalem.
Jun 09, 1953 – Terrorists attacked a farming community near Lod, and killed one of the residents. The terrorists threw hand grenades and sprayed gunfire in all directions. On the same night, another group of terrorists attacked a house in the town of Hadera. This occurred a day after Israel and Jordan signed an agreement, with UN mediation, in which Jordan undertook to prevent terrorists from crossing into Israel from Jordanian territory.
Jun 10, 1953 – Terrorists infiltrating from Jordan destroyed a house in the farming village of Mishmar Ayalon.
Jun 11, 1953 – Terrorists attacked a young couple in their home in Kfar Hess, and shot them to death.
Sep 02, 1953 – Terrorists infiltrated from Jordan, and reached the neighborhood of Katamon, in the heart of Jerusalem. They threw hand grenades in all directions. Miraculously, no one was hurt.
Mar 17, 1954 – Terrorists ambushed a bus traveling from Eilat to Tel Aviv, and opened fire at short range when the bus reached the area of Maale Akrabim in the northern Negev. In the initial ambush, the terrorists killed the driver and wounded most of the passengers. The terrorists then boarded the bus, and shot each passenger, one by one. Eleven passengers were murdered. Survivors recounted how the murderers spat on the bodies and abused them. The terrorists could clearly be traced back to the Jordanian border, some 20 km from the site of the terrorist attack.
Jan 02, 1955 – Terrorists killed two hikers in the Judean Desert.
Mar 24, 1955 – Terrorists threw hand grenades and opened fire on a crowd at a wedding in the farming community of Patish, in the Negev. A young woman was killed, and eighteen people were wounded in the attack.
Apr 07, 1956 – A resident of Ashkelon was killed in her home, when terrorists threw three hand grenades into her house. Two members of Kibbutz Givat Chaim were killed, when terrorists opened fire on their car, on the road from Plugot Junction to Mishmar Hanegev. There were further hand grenade and shooting attacks on homes and cars, in areas such as Nitzanim and Ketziot. One person was killed and three others wounded.
Apr 11, 1956 – Terrorists opened fire on a synagogue full of children and teenagers, in the farming community of Shafrir. Three children and a youth worker were killed on the spot, and five were wounded, including three seriously.
Apr 29, 1956 – Egyptians killed Roi Rotenberg, 21 years of age, from Nahal Oz.
Sep 12, 1956 – Terrorists killed three Druze guards at Ein Ofarim, in the Arava region.
Sep 23, 1956 – Terrorists opened fire from a Jordanian position, and killed four archaeologists, and wounded sixteen others, near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel.
Sep 24, 1956 – Terrorists killed a girl in the fields of the farming community of Aminadav, near Jerusalem.
Oct 04, 1956 – Terrorists killed five Israeli workers in Sdom.
Oct 09, 1956 – Two workers were killed by terrorists in an orchard of the youth village, Neve Hadassah, in the Sharon region.
Nov 08, 1956 – Terrorists opened fire on a train, attacked cars and blew up wells, in the North and Center of Israel. Six Israelis were wounded.
Feb 18, 1957 – Two civilians were killed by terrorist landmines, next to Nir Yitzhak, on the southern border of the Gaza Strip.
Mar 08, 1957 – A shepherd from Kibbutz Beit Govrin was killed by terrorists in a field near the Kibbutz.
Apr 16, 1957 – Terrorists infiltrated from Jordan, and killed two guards at Kibbutz Mesilot.
May 20, 1957 – A terrorist opened fire on a truck in the Arava region, killing a worker.
May 29, 1957 – A tractor driver was killed and two others wounded, when the vehicle struck a terrorist landmine, next to Kibbutz Kisufim.
Jun 23, 1957 – Israelis were wounded by terrorist landmines, close to the Gaza Strip.
Aug 23, 1957 – Two guards of the Israeli Mekorot water company were killed by terrorists near Kibbutz Beit Govrin.
Dec 21, 1957 – A member of Kibbutz Gadot was killed by terrorists in the Kibbutz fields.
Feb 11, 1958 – Terrorists killed a resident of Moshav Yanov who was on his way to Kfar Yona, in the Sharon area.
Apr 05, 1958 – Terrorists lying in ambush shot and killed two people near Tel Lachish.
Apr 22, 1958 – Jordanian terrorists shot and killed two fishermen near Aqaba.
May 26, 1958 – Four Israeli police officers were killed in a Jordanian terrorist attack on Mt. Scopus, in Jerusalem.
Nov 17, 1958 – Syrian terrorists killed the wife of the British air attache in Israel, who was staying at the guesthouse of the Italian Convent on the Mt. of the Beatitudes.
Dec 03, 1958 – A shepherd was killed at Kibbutz Gonen. In the artillery attack by terrorists that followed, 31 civilians were wounded.
Jan 23, 1959 – A shepherd from Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan was killed by terrorists.
Feb 01, 1959 – Three civilians were killed by a terrorist landmine near Moshav Zavdiel.
Apr 15, 1959 – A guard was killed by terrorists at Kibbutz Ramat Rahel.
Apr 27, 1959 – Two hikers were shot at close range by terrorists and killed near Massada.
Sep 06, 1959 – Bedouin terrorists killed a paratroop reconnaissance officer near Nitzana.
Sep 08, 1959 – Bedouins terrorists opened fire on an army bivouac in the Negev, killing an IDF officer, Captain Yair Peled.
Oct 03, 1959 – A shepherd from Kibbutz Heftziba was killed by terrorists near Kibbutz Yad Hana.
Apr 26, 1960 – Terrorists killed a resident of Ashkelon south of the city.
Apr 12, 1962 – Terrorists fired on an Egged bus on the way to Eilat; one passenger was wounded.
Sep 30, 1962 – Two terrorists attacked an Egged bus on the way to Eilat. No one was wounded.
Jan 01, 1965 – Palestinian terrorists attempted to bomb the National Water Carrier. This was the first attack carried out by the PLO’s Fatah faction.
May 31, 1965 – Jordanian terrorists fired on the neighborhood of Musrara in Jerusalem, killing two civilians and wounding four.
Jun 01, 1965 – Terrorists attack a house in Kibbutz Yiftach.
Jul 05, 1965 – A Fatah terrorism cell planted explosives at Mitzpe Massua, near Beit Guvrin; and on the railroad tracks to Jerusalem near Kafr Battir.
Aug 26, 1965 – A waterline was sabotaged by terrorists at Kibbutz Manara, in the Upper Galilee.
Sep 29, 1965 – A terrorist was killed as he attempted to attack Moshav Amatzia.
Nov 7, 1965 – A Fatah terrorist cell that infiltrated from Jordan blew up a house in Moshav Givat Yeshayahu, south of Beit Shemesh. The house was destroyed, but the inhabitants were miraculously unhurt.
Apr 25, 1966 – Explosions placed by terrorists wounded two civilians and damaged three houses in Moshav Beit Yosef, in the Beit Shean Valley.
May 16, 1966 – Two Israelis were killed when their jeep hit a terrorist landmine, north of the Sea of Galilee and south of Almagor. Tracks led into Syria.
Jul 13, 1966 – Two soldiers and a civilian were killed near Almagor, when their truck struck a terrorist landmine.
Jul 14, 1966 – Terrorists attacked a house in Kfar Yuval, in the North.
Jul 19, 1966 – Terrorists infiltrated into Moshav Margaliot on the northern border and planted nine explosive charges.
Oct 27, 1966 – A civilian was wounded by a terrorist bomb on the railroad tracks to Jerusalem.
Jan 14, 1967 – Terrorists laid a land mine that at a soccer game, which exploded killing 1 and injuring 2.
here’s why there is no peace! terror before the 1967 war(NO OCCUPATION)reasons for the occupation by the brutal martyrs of hate!!!!!
Jan 01, 1952 – Seven armed terrorists attacked and killed a nineteen year-old girl in her home, in the neighborhood of Beit Yisrael, in Jerusalem.
Apr 14, 1953 – Terrorists tried for the first time to infiltrate Israel by sea, but were unsuccessful. One boat was intercepted and the other escaped.
Jun 07, 1953 – A youngster was killed and three others were wounded, in shooting attacks on residential areas in southern Jerusalem.
Jun 09, 1953 – Terrorists attacked a farming community near Lod, and killed one of the residents. The terrorists threw hand grenades and sprayed gunfire in all directions. On the same night, another group of terrorists attacked a house in the town of Hadera. This occurred a day after Israel and Jordan signed an agreement, with UN mediation, in which Jordan undertook to prevent terrorists from crossing into Israel from Jordanian territory.
Jun 10, 1953 – Terrorists infiltrating from Jordan destroyed a house in the farming village of Mishmar Ayalon.
Jun 11, 1953 – Terrorists attacked a young couple in their home in Kfar Hess, and shot them to death.
Sep 02, 1953 – Terrorists infiltrated from Jordan, and reached the neighborhood of Katamon, in the heart of Jerusalem. They threw hand grenades in all directions. Miraculously, no one was hurt.
Mar 17, 1954 – Terrorists ambushed a bus traveling from Eilat to Tel Aviv, and opened fire at short range when the bus reached the area of Maale Akrabim in the northern Negev. In the initial ambush, the terrorists killed the driver and wounded most of the passengers. The terrorists then boarded the bus, and shot each passenger, one by one. Eleven passengers were murdered. Survivors recounted how the murderers spat on the bodies and abused them. The terrorists could clearly be traced back to the Jordanian border, some 20 km from the site of the terrorist attack.
Jan 02, 1955 – Terrorists killed two hikers in the Judean Desert.
Mar 24, 1955 – Terrorists threw hand grenades and opened fire on a crowd at a wedding in the farming community of Patish, in the Negev. A young woman was killed, and eighteen people were wounded in the attack.
Apr 07, 1956 – A resident of Ashkelon was killed in her home, when terrorists threw three hand grenades into her house. Two members of Kibbutz Givat Chaim were killed, when terrorists opened fire on their car, on the road from Plugot Junction to Mishmar Hanegev. There were further hand grenade and shooting attacks on homes and cars, in areas such as Nitzanim and Ketziot. One person was killed and three others wounded.
Apr 11, 1956 – Terrorists opened fire on a synagogue full of children and teenagers, in the farming community of Shafrir. Three children and a youth worker were killed on the spot, and five were wounded, including three seriously.
Apr 29, 1956 – Egyptians killed Roi Rotenberg, 21 years of age, from Nahal Oz.
Sep 12, 1956 – Terrorists killed three Druze guards at Ein Ofarim, in the Arava region.
Sep 23, 1956 – Terrorists opened fire from a Jordanian position, and killed four archaeologists, and wounded sixteen others, near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel.
Sep 24, 1956 – Terrorists killed a girl in the fields of the farming community of Aminadav, near Jerusalem.
Oct 04, 1956 – Terrorists killed five Israeli workers in Sdom.
Oct 09, 1956 – Two workers were killed by terrorists in an orchard of the youth village, Neve Hadassah, in the Sharon region.
Nov 08, 1956 – Terrorists opened fire on a train, attacked cars and blew up wells, in the North and Center of Israel. Six Israelis were wounded.
Feb 18, 1957 – Two civilians were killed by terrorist landmines, next to Nir Yitzhak, on the southern border of the Gaza Strip.
Mar 08, 1957 – A shepherd from Kibbutz Beit Govrin was killed by terrorists in a field near the Kibbutz.
Apr 16, 1957 – Terrorists infiltrated from Jordan, and killed two guards at Kibbutz Mesilot.
May 20, 1957 – A terrorist opened fire on a truck in the Arava region, killing a worker.
May 29, 1957 – A tractor driver was killed and two others wounded, when the vehicle struck a terrorist landmine, next to Kibbutz Kisufim.
Jun 23, 1957 – Israelis were wounded by terrorist landmines, close to the Gaza Strip.
Aug 23, 1957 – Two guards of the Israeli Mekorot water company were killed by terrorists near Kibbutz Beit Govrin.
Dec 21, 1957 – A member of Kibbutz Gadot was killed by terrorists in the Kibbutz fields.
Feb 11, 1958 – Terrorists killed a resident of Moshav Yanov who was on his way to Kfar Yona, in the Sharon area.
Apr 05, 1958 – Terrorists lying in ambush shot and killed two people near Tel Lachish.
Apr 22, 1958 – Jordanian terrorists shot and killed two fishermen near Aqaba.
May 26, 1958 – Four Israeli police officers were killed in a Jordanian terrorist attack on Mt. Scopus, in Jerusalem.
Nov 17, 1958 – Syrian terrorists killed the wife of the British air attache in Israel, who was staying at the guesthouse of the Italian Convent on the Mt. of the Beatitudes.
Dec 03, 1958 – A shepherd was killed at Kibbutz Gonen. In the artillery attack by terrorists that followed, 31 civilians were wounded.
Jan 23, 1959 – A shepherd from Kibbutz Lehavot Habashan was killed by terrorists.
Feb 01, 1959 – Three civilians were killed by a terrorist landmine near Moshav Zavdiel.
Apr 15, 1959 – A guard was killed by terrorists at Kibbutz Ramat Rahel.
Apr 27, 1959 – Two hikers were shot at close range by terrorists and killed near Massada.
Sep 06, 1959 – Bedouin terrorists killed a paratroop reconnaissance officer near Nitzana.
Sep 08, 1959 – Bedouins terrorists opened fire on an army bivouac in the Negev, killing an IDF officer, Captain Yair Peled.
Oct 03, 1959 – A shepherd from Kibbutz Heftziba was killed by terrorists near Kibbutz Yad Hana.
Apr 26, 1960 – Terrorists killed a resident of Ashkelon south of the city.
Apr 12, 1962 – Terrorists fired on an Egged bus on the way to Eilat; one passenger was wounded.
Sep 30, 1962 – Two terrorists attacked an Egged bus on the way to Eilat. No one was wounded.
Jan 01, 1965 – Palestinian terrorists attempted to bomb the National Water Carrier. This was the first attack carried out by the PLO’s Fatah faction.
May 31, 1965 – Jordanian terrorists fired on the neighborhood of Musrara in Jerusalem, killing two civilians and wounding four.
Jun 01, 1965 – Terrorists attack a house in Kibbutz Yiftach.
Jul 05, 1965 – A Fatah terrorism cell planted explosives at Mitzpe Massua, near Beit Guvrin; and on the railroad tracks to Jerusalem near Kafr Battir.
Aug 26, 1965 – A waterline was sabotaged by terrorists at Kibbutz Manara, in the Upper Galilee.
Sep 29, 1965 – A terrorist was killed as he attempted to attack Moshav Amatzia.
Nov 7, 1965 – A Fatah terrorist cell that infiltrated from Jordan blew up a house in Moshav Givat Yeshayahu, south of Beit Shemesh. The house was destroyed, but the inhabitants were miraculously unhurt.
Apr 25, 1966 – Explosions placed by terrorists wounded two civilians and damaged three houses in Moshav Beit Yosef, in the Beit Shean Valley.
May 16, 1966 – Two Israelis were killed when their jeep hit a terrorist landmine, north of the Sea of Galilee and south of Almagor. Tracks led into Syria.
Jul 13, 1966 – Two soldiers and a civilian were killed near Almagor, when their truck struck a terrorist landmine.
Jul 14, 1966 – Terrorists attacked a house in Kfar Yuval, in the North.
Jul 19, 1966 – Terrorists infiltrated into Moshav Margaliot on the northern border and planted nine explosive charges.
Oct 27, 1966 – A civilian was wounded by a terrorist bomb on the railroad tracks to Jerusalem.
Jan 14, 1967 – Terrorists laid a land mine that at a soccer game, which exploded killing 1 and injuring 2.
Cathleen Krahe-Historical sciolistic knowledge is worst than total ignorance.
Israel was not only re-established in 1948 under UN’s Unanimous approval and “blessings”. Israel IS the Oldest Nation in the area it presently re-occupies.
If you were able to use an unbiased, unblinkered and objectively humane mind, you would be able to read that the kingdom of Israel was firstly established 11 centuries BCE. That is more than 16 Centuries before the founding of Islam and about 17 centuries BEFORE the first Muslim Arabs moved to the regions of Judea-Samaria (mid 7th century CE), from the South. The Jews have historical, linguistic, ethnic and religious affiliation and continuity for over 3,000 years with the lands of their ancestors. The Arab Muslim have absolutely no religious, no historical, and definitely no linguistic cohesion with any ancient civilisation or ethnic religious group in the areas of Judea-Samaria.
it’s been fun goodbye forever to all you one-side anti-semite hypocrites! I know you’ll miss me.
One mans terrorist is anothers Freedom Fighter.
They want the Jews off their land….
Its just that simple.
So by the same token, America belongs to the Indians and we should give it back to them? The Indians have historical, linguistic, ethnic and religious affiliation and continuity for over 3,000 years with the lands of their ancestors. The Euro-Americans have absolutely no religious, no historical, and definitely no linguistic cohesion with any ancient civilisation or ethnic religious group in the areas of the Americas.
Jerome, you’re a Jew, why don’t you go live in Israel if it’s so great there? Have you read my peace plan yet? It certainly pertains to you.
Goodbye, have a nice life in Israel, I hope you don’t get blown up by one of those evil Arabs that you hate so much.
ohhhhh noooo, not the S word! I bet your next stunt is gonna be bringing up the Holocaust.
As far as your terrorist go,
“By Way Of Deception Thou Shalt Do War.”
- the official motto of Mossad
This picture was a press release from Israeli sources purported to show Palestian terrorists. However one of the suspected terrorists forgot to take off his star of David before being photographed.
http://www.nogw.com/mossad.html
If Mr. Proud Zionist will recall, I took his Jewish wife to lunch shortly after she moved to the area as she did not have many friends. As I have for over 25 years, I spent Christmas Day with 2 Jewish friends last week. So stop with the anti Semitism.
Dr. Bovino’s comments on Israel’s attacks being an attempt to remove Hamas, seems to fit the definition of terrorism. Terrorism is using violence to achieve a political goal. Whether it is Hamas or Israel, terrorism is wrong and usually ineffectivel. Hamas became popular because it provided: healthcare, food, education and various social services. That is what got them elected.
Some British Parliamentarians have signed a document calling for ending the slaughter in Gaza. Maybe this will encourage the British government to call for sanctions on Israel, and maybe other governments will follow. Israel will only be brought to stop the carnage by outside pressure, such as sanctions.
“Had Israel wanted merely to protect its citizens, all it had to do was to stop the siege and to allow Gazans freedom of movement and commerce, in short to allow the people of Gaza to live like human being. Hamas has repeatedly said that it would stop shooting missiles if Israel would stop the siege.”
Israel is demanding Hamas recognize Israel as a Jewish state something Israel knows Hamas will not do. Had someone stolen your home, would you demanded that they recognize your sole ownership? Most likely not.
Israel doesn’t care about its citizens welfare. It wants to rid Palestine of Palestinians. Had Hamas not governed Gaza, Israel would have stirred up an argument with whomever else was in control, or found some other reason to get rid of as many Gazans as possible. All that Israel has to do now is to encourage Egypt to open its border. Very likely that under present impossible conditions a large portion of Gazans would leave. Or maybe not.
Cathleen has it right, more…..
First Published 2009-01-01
This Is Not About Rockets
There are no rockets coming out of the West Bank. Yet the illegal Israeli occupation there continues and so does the ethnic cleansing, the land theft, the illegal settlements, the colonization, notes Stuart Littlewood.
Keep your eye on the ball
What if Hamas dumped all their rockets in the sea tomorrow? Would Gazans enjoy the same freedoms as other nations? Would they be able to open their sea port to foreign ships and rebuild and operate their airport? Would they be able to import and export and carry on trade and develop their economy and prosper like other countries?
Would they be allowed to exploit and develop their offshore gas field? Would their fishermen be allowed to fish in unpolluted waters? Would their young people be able to come and go and take up places at foreign universities?
Would Israel clear out of Gazan airspace permanently? Would the Israeli navy cease its piracy and stay out of Palestinian territorial waters? Would you and I be able to visit Gaza direct?
Fat chance. None of this would suit Israel. So Gazans would be no better off. Their tormented half-existence would continue.
There are no rockets coming out of the West Bank. Yet the illegal Israeli occupation there continues and so does the ethnic cleansing, the land theft, the illegal settlements, the colonization, the demolition of Palestinian homes, the throttling of the economy, the abduction and ‘administrative detention’ of civilians and the massive interference with freedom of movement. Nothing has changed for West Bank Palestinians who DO NOT fire rockets. There is no sign of an end to their misery.
The bloody assault on Gaza therefore has much more to do with Israel’s ambition to expand racial dominance in the Holy Land than crude and erratic rocket-fire. Hamas and the Palestinians holed up in Gaza are simply in the way of the Grand Plan and have to be removed or totally subdued.
The international community needs to keep their eye on the ball – the big issue – which is the ending of the occupation and Israel’s withdrawal to recognized pre-67 borders as required by international law. In short, they need to stop wringing their hands and start delivering justice, which is long overdue.
Palestinians in Gaza will hardly wish to give up armed resistance until they receive copper-bottomed guarantees of a normal life unmolested by Israel… and see concrete evidence of it.
Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation.
It’s no more incongruous than anything else that’s been written here:
[Jerry, why did the Israelis pull out of Gaza? Well it's easier to slaughter your enemy when your own people aren't in the way. With the Israeli settlers in Gaza, Israel wouldn't have been able to pull the rug out from under the Palestinians with blockades and bombings. Israel has known all along that if they put enough pressure on Gaza, Hamas will do something stupid and give them a reason to go in and wipe out the entire infrastructure and government, so crippling the Gazans that Israel will have no choice but to re-occupy the territory, this time for good. I believe this was Sharon'e strategy all along, just a bit delayed by his unexpected health crisis. But now is actually the perfect time to pull it off, between American presidents so to speak.]
Sue:
The logic of this escapes me.
You’re saying Israel withdraws from Gaza so it can “slaughter” the Palestinians. Any evidence of that theory? Remember you’re accusing the Israelis of “slaughter,” which is worse than the randomness of terrorism.
Certainly the Israelis would have anticipated more trouble from Gaza, but they seem as shocked as anyone when Hamas won the election and tossed out Fatah. The U.S. was even more shocked.
I fear you have veered into conspiracy theory here, Sue. To make your case you have resorted to unsubstantiated accusastion that the Israelis ended their occupation so they could occupy again.
You need to back that up or back down.
Best, Michael!
PS Telling a Jew to go to Israel, as you did with Jerry, is not an argument, but the absence of an argument.
argument? how about speculation, not everything in your world needs to be an argument esp. here, cuzz most bloggers here refuse to open their eyes.
Hey Mr. Conniff, why not go to the next level with this blogg and have Mr. Proud Zionist on your show, and then have Mr. Pike
tedpike@truthtellers.org
Mail:
P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR 97015
Phone:
Ted Pike
503-631-3808
[Telling a Jew to go to Israel, as you did with Jerry, is not an argument, but the absence of an argument.]
I didn’t tell Jerry to go to Israel, I told Jerome Marks aka proud zionist to go to Israel. OK it’s the absence of an argument…so? There’s no arguing with an Arab hating, Jewish extremist. All you’re going to get are lies, propaganda, and accusations of anti-Semitism. I notice you didn’t call proud zionists comments “the absence of an argument.”
BTW have you read my Peace Plan yet? Maybe my remark about going to Israel would make more sense if you did.
[you're accusing the Israelis of "slaughter," which is worse than the randomness of terrorism.]
The definition of slaughter is: “the brutal killing of a person or large numbers of people.” You don’t call killing over 400 Palestinians and injuring thousands more, slaughter? You don’t call murdering whole families in their homes slaughter? You don’t call crushing infants in their cribs under tons of concrete slaughter? If so, then you must not consider the Palestinians to be people. But then, slaughter can refer to animals too, so that word should still apply regardless of whether you think the Palestinians are human or not.
Remember there were NO Israelis killed by Palestinian rockets before Israel attacked Gaza. NO Israelis killed before Israel went in and slaughtered hundreds of Palestinian civilians, for no other reason than they elected the “wrong” government.
How is this any different from the slaughter we incurred on 9/11?
[You need to back that up or back down.]
I don’t need to back anything up, or back down. What do you think this is, the New York Times? Part of blogging is speculating on the possible causes and outcomes of world events. It’s called OPINION. I happen to know a lot more about Middle East policies, historical events, and current conditions in Israel/Palestine than the average blogger on Aspen Post, so my opinion is backed up by knowledge of facts.
My speculation that Israel is implementing a strategy to possess Gaza is an educated guess based on the history of Israel’s military incursions against the Palestinians and stated goals of Israeli leaders including Ariel Sharon whose idea it was to pull the settlers out of Gaza. Ariel Sharon was a brilliant military strategist as well as an admitted land-grabbing Zionist. Put those two together and you can certainly speculate that he had a strategy to reconquer Gaza.
Any student of military history knows the pattern of conquest:
1.blockade – deprive the victims of basic human needs like food, medicine and commerce. This weakens their body, will and defenses.
2.bombard – destroy government and civilian infrastructure. This renders the victim even more defenseless and strikes terror into the civilian populace.
3.invade – send in tanks and troops to subdue the victim, then set up military control, otherwise known as OCCUPATION.
This is exactly what the U.S. did to Iraq and it’s exactly what Israel is doing to Gaza. You watch, the ground invasion will begin soon, and then occupation will follow. Israel will have no choice but to reoccupy Gaza, because Gaza’s infrastructure and government have been destroyed. The Gazans now cannot govern themselves or rebuild without the help of Israel. How convenient for the Zionists.
Speaking of Zionists Michael, I notice you didn’t chastise proud zionist for his accusations of “one-sided anti-Semite hypocrites.” You didn’t tell him to back that up or back down. I guess there’s no doubt which side you’re on.
[I didn’t tell Jerry to go to Israel, I told Jerome Marks aka proud zionist to go to Israel. OK it’s the absence of an argument…so?]
So then you admit you have no argument. It’s like saying to an African-American to go back to Africa in an argument on race.
[I don’t need to back anything up, or back down.]
Not unless you actually want to persuade people. Sure, you can say almost anything you want here on Aspen Post, but if you don’t back it up it’s just blather. Opinion based on actual fact is 100 percent more persuasive that merely expressing your right to free speech.
[You don’t call murdering whole families in their homes slaughter? You don’t call crushing infants in their cribs under tons of concrete slaughter? If so, then you must not consider the Palestinians to be people.]
What would you call people who use civilians as human shields? Who embed weaponry amidst civilians to prevent attack? Who shot thousands of rockets at civilian targets in Israel? Who believe suicide bombing is justified in large part because it kills civilians?
Passion alone is not persuasive.
Best, Michael!
well Michael you best change the name of this site to Bull Crap Blather cuzz thats all I see.
best, cheers and…….
oh, and dont forget the censorship.
Bull Crap Blather and Censorship.
Kind of sounds like some lawyers.
Me and others here have had our posts, edited, modified, shortened, deleated, and some never accepted, personal attacks aside. (I said you were pathetic and you removed my posts) this has happened more than 6 times with myself and others.
I know you have said this happened when you were on vacation, but it has also happened when you were not on vacation.
best, better, cheers and cheeze….
[What would you call people who use civilians as human shields? Who embed weaponry amidst civilians to prevent attack? Who shot thousands of rockets at civilian targets in Israel? Who believe suicide bombing is justified in large part because it kills civilians?]
I call them desperate human beings struggling under a brutal forty year occupation. Do the Palestinians have an army to defend themselves? Do they have military bases where they can store their weapons? Do they have any chance of winning their freedom against the fourth most powerful military in the world?
You accuse Palestinians of brutality and terrorism because they kill civilians. Hamas rockets have killed 4 Israeli civilians. FOUR! Meanwhile Israel has killed HUNDREDS.
So what do you call what Israel is doing to Palestinian men, women, and children? These people call it slaughter…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7808005.stm
This women was injured when the Interior Ministry was bombed. Shame on those Palestinians for locating the Interior Ministry next door to this woman’s home!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7807537.stm
In my book, anyone who justifies Israel’s disproportionate use of force against a civilian population is the equivalent of someone who gloats over bashing puppies heads in.
I am still stuck on the idea of wars coming from the political necessity to have distractions, so the great leaders can maintain power behind at least one of the cloaks of nationalism, religion, ideology, ethnicty, racism and any other sheep following social constructs humans feel the need to be led to and coalesce into. Surely, they could have had each other assassinated long ago. Arafat died a natural death.
Israel knows how the media functions better. Day after day month after month, rockets land getting attention and even killing a few people – horrible and those people get their brief obits, because there is enough time to go over them in the media the U.S. gets to swill.
In contrast the horrific numbers the Israelis are running up in such a short time, DO NOT ALLOW ANY REAL PERSONAL OBITS, BECAUSE THERE ARE SIMPLY TOO MANY IN THE TIME SPAN TO DO IT!!! Almost all news stories are edited this way. We know more about Blanning the bomber than we do about victims in a plane crash. There appears to be less sympathy for those you don’t get a chance to understand. Who are their loved ones, their friends what was their occupation? A
The tragedies exist for the families and those left behind, the job undone by the dead unable to do it and missed by their coworkers. Our media does not go into this. That is why 20 Israelis dying over a year gets more media attention than hundreds of Palestinians in a few days.
The leaders indulge themselves on the slaughter of their peoples, be it from terror, reprisal, or sanctified war — murder by different names.
Hi Sue,
I think you inadvertently hit on a very important point. I agree with you that the Palestinians in Gaza may think that it’s ok to sacrifice some of their own citizens to highlight their political concerns. In contrast, the Israelis would never knowingly sacrifice even ONE of their citizens for any political statement. The Hamas led Palestinians think it’s some kind of great honor to die for their cause and become a martyr. The Israelis would rather keep their citizens alive. In Israel, life is precious. Sadly, in many of the Muslim countries, life is cheap.
I will let the American readers of this blog decide if they would strap a bomb to their own children to make a point. The Jewish mothers certainly wouldn’t.
To pursue your analogy, how many German concentration camp mothers strapped bombs to their sons to prove a point to the Nazis? It’s a ridiculous premise to those of us in the Western world who cherish life. Furthermore, the religious Palestinian zealots who strap bombs to their children do not do it out of desperation. There are plenty of desperate people in Darfur, Zimbabwe and India, and they aren’t blowing up their kids to make a point.
Hugs and bagels,
Jerry
Jerry,
Thanks for the hugs and bagels, I’d love some of both right now; especially bagels. If you know a good bagel place in the valley, do tell. We’ve been having them shipped from a deli in California.
Now on to the serious matter at hand…
Palestinians do not “strap bombs to their children.” The children choose to strap bombs to themselves, much to the dismay of their parents who generally have no prior knowledge of the child’s intentions, and are devastated by the death of their child. Those children have grown up entirely under occupation, facing daily harassment and humiliation, sometimes actual physical harm by their captors. They have no future and they know it. Just as in the U.S. when children are bullied and humiliated and full of despair and hopelessness, they sometimes take revenge on those they deem responsible, taking innocent victims along with them, as in the Columbine incident.
Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, former Hamas Gaza leader, made this observation, “Israel is offering us two choices, either to die a meek lamb’s death at the slaughter house or as martyr-bombers.”
Jerry, you don’t understand the reality, because you’ve bought into the myths. Palestinians have had sixty years of oppression and forty years of brutal occupation – plenty of time to think up ways to take revenge on the enemy that drove them from their lands, penned them in like animals, starved and deprived them of their livelihoods and their dignity. Under those circumstances, suicide bombs were invented. Palestinians have no army, no tanks, no grenades, no rifles, no aircraft. Nothing but rocks and homemade bombs and a few measly ineffectual rockets with which to fight for their honor, their lives and their freedom.
Perhaps if the Jews of Europe had remained under German occupation in concentration camps for forty years, they might have resorted to suicide bombings.
Perhaps if our own children experienced the suffering of their families and friends the way the Palestinians are, they would resort to suicide bombings. Life is only precious if it’s worth living, and for many Palestinians living under occupation, it simply is not.
Maybe for the Palestinians it is as a long ago patriot, living under military occupation said, “Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry, March 23rd 1775
Hi Sue,
I admire your tenacity. You are like Schwartzenneger in Terminator I. Do you remember when his legs were cut off, but the steel arms kept coming?
Your analogy to concentration camps is interesting, but to my mind not really valid. The Palestinians have their own country, their own government, their own leaders. If they devoted 1/10th of the amount of time to building a country instead of trying to destroy Israel, we would have two neighbors living side by side in harmony. After all, the Palestinian strategy of terrorism has failed now for 60 years. Isn’t the definition of insanity “doing the same thing over time and again but expecting a different result?
Although I suspect that a rational person could attribute some of the Palestinian’s current problems to Israeli policies, the preponderance of the Palestinian Arab’s miseries stem from one single thing. Before blame is established, I wish that every citizen in Gaza could listen to the Michael Jackson song “it’s the man in the mirror.”
You are right that it’s impossible to get a decent bagel in the valley. I assume they never heard of a bialy either. I guess that’s why NYC still retains it’s charm.
Happy New Year,
Jerry
The thing that bothers me most is that my tax dollars are funding this insanity by supporting Israel to the tune of $85M per day, every day, on average, for the last 30 years.
We pay and pay and Israel tells us what we want to hear and does just as it pleases. And we pay some more. I’m tired of it and I think most of America is. George Bush and the religious right blindly support everything, “God’s chosen people” do. The rest of the civilized world is outraged by Israel’s moral vacuum and by our support of it.
Obama promised change. It will be years before the US stops paying Israel’s tab. But, I am hoping, and I know many millions of Americans are as well, that the new administration will serve notice to Israel that Amerrica will no longer tolerate their enslavement of generations of palestinians, while the Israeli economy is underwritten by America’s tax dollars.
Note: This past week the Bush administration, in light of the financial crisis in America, renewed its pledge of funding for Israel for next year at the FULL AMOUNT WITH NO CUTBACKS, while America suffers budget cuts in every city and town.
Infowars seems frustrated by the financial aid we provide to Israel. I can empathize with him to a certain extent. I am frustrated by almost all of the financial aid we give around the world to multiple countries who don’t even like us and don’t align with our interests.
At least Israel represents the only Democracy in the region and provides us with valuable intelligence and staging against the radical Islamists who want to attack and destroy America and the Western values we cherish. I assume infowars understands that the Israellis, by proxy, fight many of these battles for us. I am not anixous to send more aid to any country at all, but I am less anxious to send Americans to fight in the middle east or any place else. I suspect infowars feels the same way. If not, I suggest he pay a visit to his (her?) local Army recruitment office.
Infowars:
I am on vacation. Have you been censored? Or have you been allowed to quote Rev. Ted Pike, a favorite of David Duke, the white supremacist who calls him: “Zionist Watchdog and Freedom Activist Extraordinaire” — a direct quote.
Go see for yourself: http://www.davidduke.com/page/3?s=ted+pike
How do you explain away that connection?
Not censoring you speaks for itself.
Best, Michael!
have David on and ask him yourself
By mail: The Duke Report, PO Box 188, Mandeville, LA 70470
By phone: (985) 626-7714
youve had Rabbis and zionists on,
be fair Mr. Conniff
Since Mr. Conniff wont ask David Duke or the Rev Ted Pike on his radio show (everyone knew that)
This is what Mr. Conniffs interview with Dr. David Duke would sound like, complete with all of Conniffs red herrings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGH9L80NVYA
Jerry,
You appear to be laboring under the same impression as Michael Conniff, that the Middle East conflict is all about “Muslims hating Jews.” If that were truly the case, someone like me or like Cathleen would indeed seem to be absolutely crazy for defending Palestinians.
For if an ancient tribal hatred is at the core of these issues, then what would be the point of our advocating peace and justice for Israel and Palestine? What would be the point of the thousands of protestors who are neither Jewish nor Muslim assembling all over the world to protest Israel’s attack on Gaza? If the security of Israeli civilians against Palestinian terrorists were the reality, then the activism and protests would simply be absurd.
So what if it’s not how you think it is? What if it’s not about “Muslims hating Jews?” What if Israel really has been carrying out a brutal oppression which has been the cause of the animosity and violence? What if Hamas isn’t simply a terrorist organization, but a resistance movement against the occupation; a people’s freedom movement? What if ending the occupation and allowing a Palestinian state to be created put a stop to the violence against Israeli civilians? Would you be in favor of that?
Maybe what you think you know about the Palestinians and the Israelis is just flat out wrong, and Jimmy Carter, Desmond Tutu, thousands of international aid workers, and Cathleen and I are right. If that were the case, what would your position be on the mighty government of Israel sending their warcraft to slaughter the people of Gaza in order to crush a people’s resistance movement against oppression and apartheid?
If it were happening anywhere else in the world, what would your position be?
Please, for the sake of both Israeli and Palestinian victims of this conflict, think about it. And have a very happy new year.
Sue
Jerry,
One more thing. You wrote, “The Palestinians have their own country, their own government, their own leaders.”
That is not exactly true. Palestine, encompassing both Gaza and the West Bank, is not an official country. They are occupied territories under almost complete control of Israel.
In a free and fair election the Palestinian people chose Hamas to lead them because Hamas has been in active resitance to the occupation and has also provided humanitarian relief to the Palestinian people for decades. The people saw Hamas as their best chance of breaking the occupation and getting a Palestinain state created.
The Palestinian Authority which was rejected by the majority of Palestinians because of their complicity with the Israeli policy and practice of annexing Palestinian land, have very little actual territory to control.
Under PA control, Israel has been allowed to take even more territory in the West bank for Jewish only neighborhoods and roads. Look at the map of Palestine in year 2000 here;
http://www.aspenpost.net/2008/12/12/why-muslim-countries-dislike-us-government-policies/
Nine years later there is even less Palestinian land than this map shows. Notice that the Palestinian land is not even contiguous, but broken up into what South Africans termed Bantustans. This is the apartheid that Jimmy Carter referred to in the title of his book.
When apartheid was ended in South Africa, the violence ended too. Peace and justice were established between two different segments of the population that had formerly been bitter enemies. This is what I believe is the solution to Israeli civilian security also. End the apartheid, end the occupation and you will end the violence.
From http://www.FreeGaza.org,
Human Rights Defenders from Lebanon, the UK, Poland, Canada, Spain, Italy and Australia are present in Gaza and are witnessing and documenting the current Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Due to Israel’s policy of denying access to international media, human rights defenders and aid agencies to the Occupied Gaza Strip, many of these Human Rights Defenders arrived in Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement’s boats. FREE GAZA boats have broken Israel’s siege of Gaza five times in the past four months.
“At the time of the attacks I was on Omar Mukhtar street and witnessed a last rocket hit the street 150 meters away where crowds had already gathered to try to extract the dead bodies. Ambulances, trucks, cars – anything that can move is bringing injured to the hospitals. Hospitals have had to evacuate sick patients to make room for the injured. I have been told that there is not enough room in the morgues for the bodies and that there is a great lack of blood in the blood banks. I have just learned that among the civilians killed today was the mother of my good friends in Jabalya camp.”
- Eva Bartlett (Canada) International Solidarity Movement
“Israeli missles tore through a children’s playground and busy market in Diere Balah, we saw the aftermath – many were injured and some reportedly killed. Every Hospital in the Gaza strip is already overwhelmed with injured people and does not have the medicine or the capacity to treat them. Israel is committing crimes against humanity, it is violating international and human rights law, ignoring the United Nations and planning even bigger attacks. The world must act now and intensify the calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel; governments need to move beyond words of condemnation into an active and immediate restraint of Israel and a lifting of the siege of Gaza.”
- Ewa Jasiewicz (Polish and British) Free Gaza Movement
“The morgue at the Shifa hospital has no more room for dead bodies, so bodies and body parts are strewn all over the hospital.”
- Dr. Haidar Eid, (Palestinian, South African) Professor of Social and Cultural Studies, Al Aqsa University Gaza
“The bombs began to fall just as the children were on the streets walking back from school. I went out onto the stairs and a terrified 5 year old girl ran sobbing into my arms.”
- Sharon Lock (Australian) International Solidarity Movement
“This is incredibly sad. This massacre is not going to bring security for the State of Israel or allow it to be part of the Middle East. Now calls of revenge are everywhere.”
- Dr. Eyad Sarraj – President of the Gaza Community Mental Health Centre
“As I speak they have just hit a building 200 metres away. There is smoke everywhere. This morning I went to the building close to where I live in Rafah that had been hit. Two bulldozers were immediately attempting to clear the rubble. They thought they had found all the bodies. As we arrived one more was found.”
- Jenny Linnel (British) International Solidarity Movement
“The home I am staying in is across from the preventive security compound. All the glass of the house shattered. The home has been severely damaged. Due to the siege there is no glass or building materials to repair this damage. One little boy in our house fainted. An eight year little boy was trembling on the ground for an hour. In front of our house we found the bodies of two little girls under a car, completely burnt. They were coming home from school. This is more than just collective punishment. We are being treated like laboratory animals. I have lived through the Israeli bombardment of Beirut and the Israel’s message is the same in Gaza as it was in Beirut- The killing of civilians. There was just another explosion outside!”
- Natalie Abu Eid (Lebanon) International Solidarity Movement
Anyone who thinks that the Palestinians govern, the West Bank have not spent time there. It is run by the Israeli military. Even the zones that are suppose to be run by the Palestinian police, when night falls the Israeli military patrol the streets. Israeli soldiers harass tourist as they did my group. They man the over 600 check points in the West Bank plus numerous roving check points. Many are between West Bank towns. They are not for security, they are just for harasment.
For those who think that Jews are treated wonderfully by the Israeli government, read about the brave Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel who stand in front of Palestinian homes to prevent them from being demolished, accompanying Palestinains to harvest their crops so they are not be attacked by Jews, etc. They are treated poorly for standing up against unjust Israeli government policies.
While in Israel, I met 2 Jewish women from New Profiles (a Jewish Israeli group that wants to end the Israeli draft). They do not want their children to die for a 60 year failed policy of occupation of the West Bank.
Below is from Dorothy, a New Profile member and may give you an idea of how Palestinians are treated from a Jewish perspective:
“I drove a young Palestinian child (I think that he is 7), suffering from cancer, and his mother who accompanied him, to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem. I met them at Kief el-Haris, and drove the long way around so as to not chance being refused entry at the checkpoint on Road 5. The checkpoint there and many other checkpoints at the ‘border’ between the West Bank and Israel have been streamlined to not allow Palestinians to cross at these checkpoints so as to allow Israeli colonists (known incorrectly as mere settlers) to enter and exit the OPT speedily. Rather than chance being denied entry into Israel because I had Palestinians in the car, which would have anyhow forced me not only to go the roundabout way, but also to travel miles back to it, I straight off took the longer way.
I was not surprised at the checkpoint to be asked where I am from (I always hand my blue Israeli ID card to the soldiers). But was surprised to be told that I could go through but my charges couldn’t. This was by a young woman soldier intent on sending mom and child to a checkpoint quite a distance from the one that we were at. I insisted that they had the right to go through the checkpoint that we were at, that I had been taking my passengers through this checkpoint for years. Finally she agreed to let us through, but then ordered the mother—a petite, delicate, loving and lovely woman—to get out of the car for inspection. This infuriated me. How, I insisted, would she like it if someone harassed her mother or sister in this way? We finally were allowed to proceed, but only after the mother got out of the car for inspection. Next time that I’m asked where I’m from by a soldier at a checkpoint, I’m going to respond that I’m from Tira or Qalansua (two Arab towns in Israel), then let the soldiers do their special treatment on me for Arabs, that is, check the baggage compartment and car. Then after they go through it all, will tell them that I’m from Herzliah. Am not sure what I’ll achieve. But it will give me a good feeling to be able to point out afterwards that any soldier who does this just because someone is an Arab is racist.”
The problem is, the US funds these Israel wars. We give them billions and billions to buy our weapons that kill innocent people in the Middle East.
If some of you cant grasp the fact that the Zionists our insane and out of control, killing at will and stealing others homeland, than at least come to terms that this country just cant afford the evils of the neo-cons (bush and empire building) and spending the citizens tax money on Israel committing war crimes.
The Real Cost Of US Support
For Israel – $3 Trillion
By Christopher Bollyn
9-19-3
While it is commonly reported that Israel officially receives some $3 billion every year in the form of economic aid from the U.S. government, this figure is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many billions of dollars more in hidden costs and economic losses lurking beneath the surface. A recently published economic analysis has concluded that U.S. support for the state of Israel has cost American taxpayers nearly $3 trillion ($3 million millions) in 2002 dollars.
“The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillion” is a summary of economic research done by Thomas R. Stauffer. Stauffer’s summary of the research was published in the June 2003 issue of The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
Stauffer is a Washington, D.C.-based engineer and economist who writes and teaches about the economics of energy and the Middle East. Stauffer has taught at Harvard University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Stauffer’s findings were first presented at an October 2002 conference sponsored by the U.S. Army College and the University of Maine.
Stauffer’s analysis is “an estimate of the total cost to the U.S. alone of instability and conflict in the region – which emanates from the core Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
“Total identifiable costs come to almost $3 trillion,” Stauffer says. “About 60 percent, well over half, of those costs – about $1.7 trillion – arose from the U.S. defense of Israel, where most of that amount has been incurred since 1973.”
“Support for Israel comes to $1.8 trillion, including special trade advantages, preferential contracts, or aid buried in other accounts. In addition to the financial outlay, U.S. aid to Israel costs some 275,000 American jobs each year.” The trade-aid imbalance alone with Israel of between $6-10 billion costs about 125,000 American jobs every year, Stauffer says.
The largest single element in the costs has been the series of oil-supply crises that have accompanied the Israeli-Arab wars and the construction of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. â?To date these have cost the U.S. $1.5 trillion (2002 dollars), excluding the additional costs incurred since 2001,â? Stauffer wrote.
The cost of supporting Israel increased drastically after the 1973 Israeli-Arab war. U.S. support for Israel during that war resulted in additional costs for the American taxpayer of between $750 billion and $1 trillion, Stauffer says.
When Israel was losing the war, President Richard Nixon stepped in to supply the Jewish state with U.S. weapons. Nixon’s intervention triggered the Arab oil embargo which Stauffer estimates cost the U.S. as much as $600 billion in lost GDP and another $450 in higher oil import costs.
“The 1973 oil crisis, all in all, cost the U.S. economy no less than $900 billion, and probably as much as $1,200 billion,” he says.
As a result of the oil embargo the United States created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to “insulate Israel and the U.S. against the wielding of a future Arab ‘oil weapon’.” The billion-barrel SPR has cost U.S. taxpayers $134 billion to date. According to an Oil Supply Guarantee, which former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger provided Israel in 1975, Israel gets ‘first call’ on any oil available to the U.S. if Israel’s oil supply is stopped.
Stauffer’s $3 trillion figure is conservative as it does not include the increased costs incurred during the year-long buildup to the recent war against Iraq in which Israel played a significant, albeit covert, role. The higher oil prices that occurred as a result of the Anglo-American campaign against Iraq were absorbed by the consumers. The increase in oil prices provided a huge bonus for the leading oil companies such as British Petroleum and Shell, who are major oil producers as well as retailers. The major international oil companies recorded record profits for the first quarter of 2003.
The Washington Report seeks to “provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states.” The monthly journal is known for keeping close tabs on the amount of U.S. taxpayer money that goes to Israel and how much pro-Israel money flows back to Members of Congress in the form of campaign aid.
The journal’s website, http://www.wrmea.com, has an up-to-date counter at the top that indicates how much official aid flows to Israel. While the counter currently stands at $88.2 billion, it only reflects the minimum, as it does not include the many hidden costs.
“The distinction is important, because the indirect or consequential losses suffered by the U.S. as a result of its blind support for Israel exceed by many times the substantial amount of direct aid to Israel,” Shirl McArthur wrote in the May 2003 issue of Washington Report.
McArthur’s article, “A Conservative Tally of Total Direct U.S. Aid to Israel: $97.5 Billion – and Counting” tallies the hidden costs, such as interest lost due to the early disbursement of aid to Israel and funds hidden in other accounts. For example, Israel received $5.45 billion in Defense Department funding of Israeli weapons projects through 2002, McArthur says.
Loans made to Israel by the U.S. government, like the recently awarded $9 billion, invariably wind up being paid by the American taxpayer. A recent Congressional Research Service report indicates that Israel has received $42 billion in waived loans. “Therefore, it is reasonable to consider all government loans to Israel the same as grants,” McArthur says.
Support for Israel has cost America dearly – well over than $10,000 per American – however the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been extremely costly for the entire world. According to Stauffer, the total bill for supporting Israel is two to four times higher than that for the U.S. alone – costing the global community an estimated $6 to $12 trillion.
infowars,
I know you believe that 9/11 was perpetrated by our own government, but for those of us who believe it was done by pissed off Arabs who hate us not for our freedom but for our policies, especially supporting corrupt brutal regimes like Israel (but also the Saudis and Saddam), imagine our horror when the UNITED STATES VETOED A U.N. CEASE-FIRE PROPOSAL!
That just sealed the deal on another horriffic terrorist attack on U.S. soil. FOR CHRIST SAKE PEOPLE, GET A CLUE!
I type here, mouth agape, like a mental patient transfixed by a light bulb, at the thought that anyone would give a UN proposal more credence than it’s weight in used toilet paper.
Cheers!
Mitch,
You’re not listening as usual.
I know as well as anyone that the U.N. is an ineffectual body. That fact is proved by Israel still being able to get away with murder after dozens of UN Resolutions have been levied against them.
My POINT is, unconditional support of Israel by the U.S. as was DEMONSTRATED by the UN veto of a ceasefire that would stop the carnage of Arab people, will be used as a recruiting tool by Islamic jihadists for another 9/11 type event.
Oh, that’s right. You don’t believe we were attacked on 9/11 because of our policies. You think they hate us for our freedom and they hate Jews, because they’re Jews.
Never mind. Go back to staring at that light bulb. And don’t forget to take your meds.
Maybe this will make it through that thick fog;
AP report: On Monday, the mastermind of Hamas’ takeover of Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, exhorted Palestinians to “crush” Israeli forces and to target Israeli civilians. “The Zionists have legitimized the killing of their children by killing our children. They have legitimized the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people,” Zahar said in a grainy video broadcast on Hamas TV. “Crush your enemy,” he urged.
Israel’s massacre of Muslim children has not made Israelis safer, in fact it’s endagered Jews all over the world. Violence begets violence. Hate begets hate.
What was that about Israel being a beacon of light in the Middle East?
Below is a link to a video of UN Human Rights representative Falk on the treatment of Palestinians by Israel. For his views Israel threw him out of the country.
Is that democracy?
I am pro justice, not pro Palestinian.
Israel Attacks Gaza, Silence from Mainstream Media about Israeli Violations of International Law
http://tinyurl.com/8qgf4b
Now in your daily media! The Prince starring as Big Brother in 1984, continuing a long run on the world theatre. See the show, the drama, intrigue. Witness the skulduggery, plots and mysteries unfold before your shocked unbelieving eyes. Experience the pablum puking swill that the mutton headed sheeple will swill and intoxicate themselves on. Watch as the sheeple transform themselves into mouth foaming patriotic werewolves of doom for the invading barbarians.
Just for a second it seemed so real! But, as a sidebar to this discussion, does anyone remember that Fatah is the recognized negotiating organization “representing” the non- sovereign territories of “Palestine.” Hamas seized control of the Gazan people from Fatah, but not sovereignty — that is retained by Israel.
I believe the Palestinian people, West Bank and Gazan want sovereignty. I stopped believing that Palestinian “leadership” whether Hamas or Fatah wanted sovereignty when Arafat made a long twisting refusal for sovereign nationhood offered by Ehud Barak and did nothing with Rabin before. Were there defects and deficiencies in the offer? Yes (the shoreline, the refugees etc), but as with anything those deficiencies and defects could have been negotiated for, in a series of stages, while the Palestinian government built schools, hospitals, roads, ports, airports and even bureaucratic administrative infrastructure such as courts, prisons and healthcare.
All that would imply a desire to demonstrate the ability to build a nation, instead of wallowing in shortsighted Machiavellian schemes and scams of endless intifada conflated with jihad, to retain simple power over a propaganda cultured people.
Israel has been playing the 1984 game, constant war against the brutish aggressor, and their indiscriminate rocket attacks that have to be heroically repelled with a defensive invasion. The whole situation for Israel is like a daily 9-11. They don’t have to engage in an active conspiracy to get provocateurs to fire rockets into their territory (there is no need for flying saucer schemes of multi-dimensional conspiracy). A true believer of the propaganda as pablum emanating from the Palestinian ‘leadership,’ would unwittingly and gladly fire the rockets. The morally bankrupt Israeli policy allows the Palestinian leadership the ability to engage in extreme manipulation of the populace. This gift allows both the Israeli government and Palestinian “leadership” to stay in power? If I am wrong why are there so few enemy assassinations. A Palestinian did not kill Rabin, a born in America Israeli did. A Jew did not Kill Sadat, the Muslim Brotherhood (or those aligned with them) did. Arafat, life long archenemy of Israel, denounced as a terrorist, murderer and many other things died a natural death, as will Sharon and Netanyahu unless killed by fellow Jews.
9-11 was our first experience with this exact situation. True believers carrying out the aims of their manipulators who simply want power. The Israeli government, as did Bush, wants to retain power and takes advantage of this situation; deliberate provocation. Thus the perpetual retention of power by the leaders of either entity and their erstwhile “enemy” is preserved.
If Bush could have been elected again, I believe it is very likly that he would have generated some terrifying spectre of death and destruction, or allowed something else to happen (another 9-11) and we would be triumphantly parading in Tehran.
Look for elections in Israel. Freedom, Judea, Samaria and those damnable “settlements,” will all get their bells rung.
[does anyone remember that Fatah is the recognized negotiating organization "representing" the non- sovereign territories of "Palestine." Hamas seized control of the Gazan people from Fatah, but not sovereignty -- that is retained by Israel.]
Correction; Hamas is the duly elected government of ALL Palestine. After the election of Hamas, with Israel and the U.S.’ help, Fatah took control, but Hamas was able to wrest that control from them in Gaza.
[I stopped believing that Palestinian "leadership" whether Hamas or Fatah wanted sovereignty when Arafat made a long twisting refusal for sovereign nationhood offered by Ehud Barak and did nothing with Rabin before.]
To his credit, Arafat rejected the so-called “peace proposal” because it gave away 90% of the West Bank to Israel. But the Palestinian people ultimately rejected Fatah because its leaders have been complicit in keeping Palestine under the control of Israel and allowing Jewish settlements to be created and expanded in the West Bank. Hamas at least makes a show of fighting the occupation and trying to force the creation of a Palestinian state, even if their efforts are in vain.
[…while the Palestinian government built schools, hospitals, roads, ports, airports and even bureaucratic administrative infrastructure such as courts, prisons and healthcare. All that would imply a desire to demonstrate the ability to build a nation,]
As long as Palestine is occupied, the Palestinian government has no power to do any of that. Israel controls the issue of building permits and militarily occupies the majority of the West Bank territory. Palestine is not allowed to build ports and airports. Because of closures, curfews, checkpoints and blockades, the Palestinian economy cannot support growth. Under ever expanding apartheid conditions imposed by Israel, it’s impossible for the Palestinians to create any semblance of a normal society.
[The morally bankrupt Israeli policy allows the Palestinian leadership the ability to engage in extreme manipulation of the populace. This gift allows both the Israeli government and Palestinian "leadership" to stay in power?]
Ed, the struggle of Hamas is not for the purposes of obtaining raw power. The struggle is of a peasant class to retain their right to remain on their land and govern themselves in a free and sovereign country. They just want the occupation and apartheid to end so they can build their schools, hospitals, roads, etc.
In all of the news reports so far I haven’t read any statements by Hamas declaring their hatred of Jews as the cause for the rocket attacks. Every statement has been centered on the idea of fighting for freedom, human rights, and justice.
Yet the myth of religious hatred is always cited in the media as the underlying cause of this conflict, so the occupation remains conveniently hidden from public view.
Rabbis speak out about zionism
You want the truth,? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLsJ0cWWpaA
Amazing truth speaking !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W99Y78k5EaY
The media is giving us a biased view of Israel as a victim. I have met with a number of right wing Israelis, such as the Hebron Jewish community leader David Wilder who believes all Arabs should leave Israel and the Palestinian Territories and go to Arab countries as well as an elected member of Hamas.
I went to the area to see both sides.
“The media fails with its reporting of the June-mid December cease-fire agreement by not crediting it for reducing violence– rocket fire into Israel dropped significantly and no Israeli lives were lost during the truce. Prior to that, since the August 2005 Israel withdrawal from Gaza rocket attacks had killed around 10 Israelis.
“After the cease-fire expired, rocket attacks increased, though no Israelis were killed until after the Israeli attacks were launched” (Agence France-Presse, 1/6/09).
The media fails to report that Hamas was mostly successful in curtailing rocket fire into Israel. Hamas even imprisoned some of those who were firing rockets. “Israeli and United Nations figures show that while more than 300 rockets were fired into Israel in May, 10 to 20 were fired in July, depending on who was counting and whether mortar rounds were included. In August, 10 to 30 were fired, and in September, 5 to 10.”
In return Hamas expected an increase in shipments of goods and fuel and more opening of the crossings out of Gaza. Though goods shipments were up about 25 to 30 percent , they did not meet Hamas’s expectations of around 600 truckloads instead they got around 90 from around 70.
Though I do not agree with the Islamic ideology of Hamas, the elected official I spoke to was open to negotiation. Only a small percent of Palestinians agree with Hamas’s ideology, they support them for the social and welfare services they supply.
We get a misleading impression that Israelis are doing most of the suffering when the deaths and suffering are overwhelmingly on the Palestinian side.
Thanks Sue, I think I had a premature senior moment regarding the Gazan takeover. I still do not trust any of the leaders in the M.E. and think they subscribe to anything that keeps them in power or brings power to them. Of course, I don’t trust leaders in general.
Arafat should have accepted the offer and used that as a base for future negotiations.
I do think that Hamas is misrepresented in the clever quip quoting media in a manner that is similar to how the Black Panther Party was in the late sixties. Both supplied or in the case of Hamas do supply needed goods and healthcare. However the BPP was truly neighborhood self defense, not venturing into suburbs and randomly killing “white” people. The opening of the Cointelpro files shows that to be the case. However, there is considerable evidence that Hamas on the other hand does fire missiles and goes after noncombatants in Israel. That is wrong.
[However, there is considerable evidence that Hamas on the other hand does fire missiles and goes after noncombatants in Israel. That is wrong.]
I agree. Violence against civilians is always wrong and especially when used as a political tool to effect change, which it never does. It only allows the enemy to frame the argument in a way that justifies retaliation. Violence begets more violence, it doesn’t end violence.
Hamas is trying to fight a brutal occupation with firepower. That will never work. Thay need to take a page from Gandhi. When the people of India tried to fight the British occupation with violence, it only brought tighter controls and more violence. This is what the Palestinians are doing wrong. When Gandhi told everyone to resist occupation passively, what happened? The British soldiers lost their motivation to crack down on the resistance. They couldn’t stomach killing innocent civilians who weren’t fighting back.
I’m not sure if that would work with the Israelis, as they seem intent on taking over ALL of Palestine, and don’t appear to mind brutalizing and killing innocent unarmed civilians either in Gaza or the West Bank.
There’s something that’s been bothering me about the way this whole thing is being presented in the media. Israel claims, as do our leaders that Israel has a right to protect their innocent civilians against rockets, which hadn’t killed anyone. So really, they were AFRAID that Israeli civilians would be killed. Then the attack on Gaza wasn’t retaliatory, it was a pre-emptive strike. Fine, we set the precedent for that.
But how is it ok with our leaders and the people in our media, for Israel to take the lives of innocent civilians to save the lives of innocent civilians? It doesn’t make sense, unless the civilians lives have different value.
The unspoken message that we’re sending to the Arab world is, your lives don’t count as much as Israeli lives. That is a dangerous position to take and I don’t doubt that on that point alone, terrorist attacks will take place against us.
After all, if their lives don’t matter to us, why should ours matter to them?
I also object to the use of violence on both sides. On Fridays, in the West Bank many Palestinian residents, joined by Israelis and internationals, peacefully protest Israel’s military occupation and the separation wall that keeps towns from their farmland. They are met with bullets, teargas, sound grenades from Israeli Defense Force soldiers. I have seen protesters being attacked by soldiers and become sick from the tear gas. These peaceful protest don’t seem to make US newspaper and have not produced change.
True, Americans never get to see anything except what Israel and the powerful American Jewish lobby WANTS us to see. The blackout on information is so complete that when you and I write about the reality in Palestine, people think we’re either crazy or lying.
So you’re probably right, the Gandhi method might not work. Part of what made his peaceful protest so successful is that the British media were reporting it to their public. If the Palestinians went on total strike, it might get a couple of seconds in our news or not.
As it is, our media never reports the brutality of the Jewish settlers against Palestinian women and children, or the inhumane treatment they receive at checkpoints, or as you said; the many peaceful protests by Palestinians that are met with violence from Israeli soldiers. So would we even notice if the Palestinians pulled a Gandhi maneuver?
Oh well, for what it’s worth…
The Young Turks – Who’s wrong – Israel or the Palestinians?
I suggest http://www.realjewnews.com
infowars,
This isn’t about Jews. It’s stunts like that which get people like Cathleen and I (and apparantly Michael Conniff) labeled anti-Semitic. And it’s no wonder he censors you sometimes. If it were up to me, I’d take that link down.
I mention the Jewish lobby (AIPAC) only because they are actively involved in the whitewashing of Israel’s crimes. Other than that, I blame Zionism; a racist ideology that has virtually nothing to do with Judaism, and the policies of Israel’s leadership which follows much the same line as the U.S.
Now repeat these phrases over and over until you get it;
Jews are not trying to take over the world.
Jews are not responsible for 9/11.
Jews are not the cause of the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Lets be an adult here Sue, http://www.realjewnews.com and http://www.truthtellers.org are websites that I do think contain accurate information about the topic we are discussing esp. zionism.
Do I believe in all of it? Of course not,
Are you thinking about calling me anti-semitic?
Now we are really going all over the place and grasping at straws.
WHAT IS ANTI-SEMITISM?
By Rev. Ted Pike
28 Dec 06
Anti-Semitism is the racist belief that Jews are genetically evil and subversive and should be persecuted. This is what Hitler believed.
Today, the term “anti-Semitism” has been broadly misdefined for use as a political weapon, to silence any criticism of Israel, Judaism, or liberal Jewish activism. Those who make the simplest statements of unflattering truth about Israeli or Jewish actions are smeared as anti-Semites.
Webster’s New 20th Century Dictionary fuels such confusion; it misdefines anti-Semitism as “prejudice against Jews; dislike or fear of Jews or Jewish things (emphasis mine).” This broad definition makes it anti-Semitic to dislike or fear such venerable “Jewish things” as the Talmud and Kabbalah. No one disliked these twisted teachings of the ancient Pharisees more than Jesus Christ. Webster would make Him one of the world’s worst anti-Semites!
This is far from the truth. The Bible teaches that it is loving, not persecutive, to reprove any sinner or group of sinners (2 Tim. 4:2). The Bible also forbids racial favoritism in the giving of such truth (James 2:1). The prophets, and Christ Himself, vehemently criticized the Jewish people and their leaders for sin.
Their concern was motivated by the love that St. Paul expressed for the Jews when he wrote, “My heart’s desire and my prayer for them is for their salvation.” (Rom. 10:1) All these loving truthtellers keenly anticipated the day when a remnant of Israel will repent and be restored to Christ at His second coming.
Yet, today, any leader who criticizes Israel or Jewish activists is in danger of being ruined by the charge of anti-Semitism. While Christian leaders and the secular media openly criticize Islam, they carefully protect the dark side of Judaic ethics and Zionist history from exposure. This enables the government of Israel to act without substantive moral oversight. Such favoritism also empowers liberal Jewish activists to pursue their anti-Christian agenda hidden from public view.
Concerned and careful thinkers should object to irresponsible charges of anti-Semitism and define this term correctly. Clarity is vitally important because the same Jewish leadership that Christ attacked is still in the world, deceiving a majority of both the Jewish people and Christian evangelicals.
Last year, Rabbi Daniel Lapin warned that “secular Judaism” is “in relentless attack on evangelical Christians.” Most assaults against Christian symbols and values come from Jewish activists or Jewish-led “civil liberties” groups like the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the ACLU, People for the American Way, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (See, ACLU Top Heavy with Jews, Correction: Speech at Air Force Academy Not Free, Who’s Behind NBC’s ‘Book of Daniel’?, The Jews Behind Da Vinci Code).
ADL/B’nai B’rith has destroyed freedom of speech in more than a dozen countries through the “anti-hate” laws they designed. As a result of liberal Jewish activism, many unjustly blame “the Jews” in general for widespread anti-Christianity and attacks on freedom. Such resentment, especially in Europe, could result in anti-Semitic violence in the years ahead. Anti-Semitism is also fueled by Israeli policies which go uncriticized out of fear of the “anti-Semite” slur.
Considering Jewish activism’s threat to Christianity, freedom, and Jewish welfare, how would Christ and the prophets respond to evil Jewish leaders and activists today? They would surely follow the Bible’s commands for godly and loving reproof of sin. Such reproof creates the possibility that Jews may spend eternity in heaven and be spared much grief in this life as well.
What could be a greater blessing?
Lets be adult here infowars, realjewnews is a right-wing extremist website that promotes Christianity and demonizes Judaism, NOT just Zionism, but Jews, ALL Jews, just for being Jewish. That my friend is the DEFINITION of anti-Semitism AS defined by the dictionary.
Yes, the website contains some articles pertinent to the topic at hand, but they are included only to bolster the main position of the website, which is “Jews are controlling everything and ruining everything, and Christians are God’s chosen people not Jews.” That is a racist ideology that epitomizes anti-Semitism. It’s the ideology of Hitler, and we know where that led.
Infowars, I won’t go so far as to label you an anti-Semite, but this is very serious business. The word anti-Semitism has been stretched to include those who criticize Israel, when in my opinion it should be reserved for the very real and dangerous prejudice against all Jews, otherwise it loses its meaning and its potency.
Please don’t contribute to blurring the line between Cathleen and I taking a stand for justice against a racist apartheid state with those who espouse a racist apartheid ideology.
Sue, you said, Yes, the website contains some articles pertinent to the topic at hand, but they are included only to bolster the main position of the website, which is “Jews are controlling everything and ruining everything, That is a racist ideology that epitomizes anti-Semitism. It’s the ideology of Hitler, and we know where that led.
and then in #56 you said Americans never get to see anything except what Israel and the powerful American Jewish lobby WANTS us to see.
Sounds like you agree with Brother Nathanael Kapner more than you disagree with him. I dont think you spent anytime on that site and only cherry picked what you think is anti-Jewish ideas. In other words you only saw what you wanted to see rather then his only objective, that of stopping zionism.
Here is his mission statement, but maybe were getting side tracked off the original topic.
Welcome To “REAL JEW NEWS!”
realjews.jpg
My Name Is Brother Nathanael Kapner.
I Am A “Street Evangelist.”
I Grew Up As A Jew.
I Am Now An Orthodox Christian.
I Wish To Warn How Zionist Jews
Are Destroying Christianity Throughout The World And Stop The Zionist War For World Domination
Again, I don’t believe there is any “Zionist war for world domination” and I don’t believe that “Zionist Jews are destroying Christianity.” I certainly would not throw my hat in with Christians as in my book, they can be just as fanatical and extremist as Jews and Muslims. In fact, I can’t think of anyone worse than a former Jew turned Christian to represent the struggle of the Palestinians against Israel’s oppression.
This is NOT ABOUT RELIGION; Jewish, Christian, Muslim or otherwise.
Well if its not about religion youd better remind the Jews that.
[This is NOT ABOUT RELIGION]
About this, I disagree. What if I’m right and you’re wrong?
Cheers!
I just returned from vacation and read through the rest of the comments. Although this discussion is becoming a bit long in the tooth, one of Sue’s comments caught my attention and deserves a reply.
Sue..you asked an excellent question. “What if ending the occupation and allowing a Palestinian state to be created would put a stop to the violence? Would you be in favor of that?”
The answer is of course I would be in favor of it as would the majority of Israelis. The problem is that Hamas is an organization that doesn’t recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist, and calls for it’s total destruction. That’s a bit different than “can’t we be friends and neighbors and work and play well together for the next 1000 years? ” Don’t you think?
I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to accept that the reason we haven’t been able to forge a truce between Palestinians and Israelis is that the Palestinians have consistently chosen a leadership that doesn’t really want peace. In the meetings held in America to try to fashion a solution, the Israelis offered Arafat 98 percent of everything you just said. They offered an independent Palestinian State on the West Bank, as long as the security concerns were addressed. (There is no reason for the Israelis to give “land for peace” if they don’t actually get peace, so it seems logical that they should get some security assurances.) Guess what,?Arafat turned it down.
Do you know why? His constituents still want the destruction of the State of Israel. Hence, we find ourselves where we are today.
Just a quick comment for infowars.
It IS about religion, but certainly not from the Jewish side. Jews don’t seek converts. Israelis allow all religions to practice freely in their country including Christianity, Buddhish, Taoism, Hinduism and Islam. In contrast, many Arab nations have expelled both Jews and Christians because Islam is intolerant of any other religions. Do know that it’s a crime in some Arab countries to even want to practice any religion other than Islam?
Israel has freedom of the press, freedom of speech (even for Arab Muslims who have their own representatives in the Knesset) and freedom of thought. In most Arab nations, you have “none of the above.”
[“This is NOT ABOUT RELIGION” About this, I disagree. What if I'm right and you're wrong?]
Then we’re all screwed. If the majority of Palestinians are motivated by a religious hatred of Jews, then there can never be a solution other than killing every last one of them. If any are left alive, their hatred would only be increased and they would teach their children that hatred and the problem would never go away.
No one ever wants to entertain the possibility that religious hatred is not the source of the conflict. It’s just automatically assumed without a shred of proof ever being offered.
That’s why you didn’t answer my question, and never have. What if I’m right, and the conflict is over land? What if the Palestinians do want peace? What if the rockets by Hamas did not stem from religious hatred, but were a response to Israel’s siege? What if Hamas is willing to make peace, accept Israel, and accept a two-state solution for a Palestinian state? What if allowing the Palestinians to form a state and govern themselves free of occupation and Jewish settlements impeding their movement and access, would calm the situation, diffuse the anger and hatred accumulated over 40 years of occupation and abuse? What if that’s all true? Wouldn’t you feel kind of bad for the Palestinians? Kind of guilty for backing a powerful oppressor against freedom and justice for an innocent and peace-desiring indigenous civilian population?
Jerry, you claim the Palestinians or at least Hamas don’t want peace with Israel and that’s why there can be no Palestinian state. Please back up that claim. It’s easy to demonize the enemy by claiming they’re the sole source of the problem. That allows you to corral them like animals, kill them without impunity, and take their land. Israel has been using this tactic since 1967, and it’s very effective. No one can argue with exterminating a people who are racist and hateful and choose violence over peace.
That argument has been so persuasive that the majority of Americans believe it to be true, even the otherwise intelligent and compassionate Mitch Mulhall. No other argument would make people like Mitch and Jerry condone the illegal occupation of an indigenous people’s land, the brutal siege of Gaza, and the excessive use of force against a civilian population.
But what if you’re wrong?
For the sake of argument, let’s say that we agree that the issue is the occupation and not religious hatred (if it were religious hatred, any discussion of land for peace would be moot).
[In the meetings held in America to try to fashion a solution, the Israelis offered Arafat 98 percent of everything you just said.]
This is just flat out wrong. Israel offered the Palestinians less than 40% of the land that was designated by the UN for a Palestinian state. It allowed 90% of the illegal settlements in the West Bank to remain in place. It allowed Israel to retain control of the most arable land in the West Bank along the Jordan River, giving Israel control of the main water source. It allowed the annexation of Arab East Jerusalem to Israel along with Israeli control over Islam’s third holiest site. Unacceptable conditions to the Palestinians.
[They offered an independent Palestinian State on the West Bank, as long as the security concerns were addressed.]
That’s a chicken and egg situation if ever there was one. The security problem comes from an angry, desperate occupied people wanting to take revenge on their occupiers for imposing such a miserable condition on their people. Remove the occupation and you remove the incentive of Palestinians to attack Israelis.
[There is no reason for the Israelis to give "land for peace" if they don't actually get peace, so it seems logical that they should get some security assurances.]
You can’t ask for total security BEFORE you give the land up. You have to give them the land so they’ll have no REASON to resort to violence. Violent resistance organizations do not spring out of nowhere. They are a reaction to oppression. Many of the suicide bombers didn’t even come from an organization. They were just people who were fed up with the abuse and couldn’t take it any more. Much the same as we have desperate, deranged individuals in our society who go on shooting rampages. Can our government prevent that from happening? No. Then how can the Palestinian Authority guarantee that none of their civilians are going to go off the deep end? This is a convenient condition for Israel that they KNOW can never be attained.
[Guess what,?Arafat turned it down. Do you know why? His constituents still want the destruction of the State of Israel. Hence, we find ourselves where we are today.]
Another outright lie. The fact is that Israel reneged on all of the obligations they had agreed to in the Oslo accords. The interim steps that Israel was to take; dismantling settlements and decreasing the military forces in the West Bank, never happened. Instead of giving land back, they took more. This made the Palestinians reluctant to engage in further negotiations at Camp David, and even more reluctant to make further agreements that Israel would simply ignore.
Do you know why there was never any written proposal of terms at Camp David? Because Barak refused to let anything be put in writing for fear he would be held to it. Everything at Camp David was verbal. Barak also put forth the condition that Arafat had to accept an all-or-nothing proposal. No negotiation of Israel’s terms would be allowed. Is it any wonder there was no agreement? But of course the fault has been laid entirely at Arafat’s feet, and the myth that “Palestinians don’t want peace” was born.
Look, there is no dispute that Israel is occupying Palestine. Israel has all of the power and the Palestinians have none. If the occupation is creating conflict and violence, then the burden is on the occupier, not the occupied to amend the situation. Now if occupation is NOT the major contention and it’s all about religion, then what in the world have all of the peace negotiations been about? Why would Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton be negotiating peace between Israel and Palestine, if Palestine’s only goal was to destroy Israel? That makes no sense.
Your making a lot of good points and truth. But its not the culture of Israel that has stolen the land, it is the religion of Israel that has stolen the land, and its not the race that the US is giving billions of dollars too, it is the religion, that is the Jews. And its not the ethnic group that become soldiers to kill and steal land, it is the religion.
That 6 pointed flag means only 1 thing. It represents the religon, not the culture, not the race, not the traditions, not the ethnic group but the religion of the Jews. And just because there is a handful of people who arent Jewish in Israel dont make the case that the actions of Israel arent driven by their Jewishness.
Im not so sure it really matters because you bring up so many other good points, but your foolish to leave out the religious aspect of the Middle East.
And all let others bring up the religious aspects of the Moslems, but I think thats really not the point, they have had their land stolen, religion aside, they want their land back. And if you look at it all the other Moslem countrys around Gaza havent been jumping in there to help out.
err…maybe not yet
and as to Jerrys comment here
The problem is that Hamas is an organization that doesn’t recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist, and calls for it’s total destruction. That’s a bit different than “can’t we be friends and neighbors and work and play well together for the next 1000 years? ” Don’t you think?
Why would Hamas or any of the Palestinains want anything to do with those that steal their land, put them in concentration camps and kill them?
It is about justice in my opinion and I have spoken to extremists on both sides. Take a look at Friday, 1/9//09, Aspen Times – the maps under the Gran Torino movie review, and see what you think.
Palestine’s right to exist was destroyed 61 years ago with the expulsion and killing of the indigenous people by Jews so Israel could exist. The Jewish army destroyed the Palestinian towns of Deir Yassin, al-Dawayima, Eilaboun, Jish, Ramle,etc. This policy of expelling the Palestinians continues today by making life unbearable.
When they resist, they are called terrorists.
See Friday’s Aspen Times.
Jerry,
The adage that Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and is committed to Israel’s destruction is obsolete. Yes the original Hamas Charter contains those statements, but that was back in 1988. Since then, Hamas has moderated its position, especially since they were elected in 2006:
January 2006
The Washington Post newspaper, on its website, quoted Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as saying in an interview: “If Israel declares that it will give the Palestinian people a state and give them back all their rights, then we are ready to recognize them….We do not have any feelings of animosity towards Jews. We do not wish to throw them into the sea. All we seek is to be given our land back, not to harm anybody,” he told the Washington Post.
June 22, 2006
Hamas has made a major political climbdown by agreeing to sections of a document that recognise Israel’s right to exist and a negotiated two-state solution, according to Palestinian leaders… Hamas had agreed to sections which call for a negotiated and final agreement with Israel to establish a Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem.
April 2008
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Former US president Jimmy Carter said on Monday the Islamist Hamas movement told him it would recognise Israel’s right to live in peace if a deal is reached and approved by a Palestinian vote…“They said that they would accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians and that they would accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbour, next door, in peace,” Carter told the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations think-tank. Hamas would agree to such a peace deal, yet to be negotiated, provided it is “submitted to Palestinians for their overall approval even though Hamas might disagree with some terms of the agreement,” Carter said in Jerusalem.
It would certainly be tragic if millions of Palestinians are being held hostage under a brutal inhumane occupation based on a false claim that Hamas refuses to recognize Israel. Don’t you agree?
The elected Hamas official we met with in Bethlehem last spring was open to recognizing Israel and talking with Israel. The Palestinian man who was translating for him was a Christian as are many Palestinians/Arabs. Some are also Jewish.
Hey Jerry, in previous posts you called yourself “proud zionist” when we are talking about the destruction and killings in the Middle East.
Can you tell me what “proud zionist” means in that context.
And on an interesting note, most of Bush’s sidekicks were not only neo-cons but were staunch zionists as well. I would label them evil war-mongers for money, but thats another thread. And Obama’s picks as well as his VP are zionists too (looks like the zionists do try to run the world.) Its sad that this country cant take care of its own as our forefathers layed the path, without duel citizens and zionists in our government.
Infowars: Point of clarification. I am not “proud zionist.” That’s a different Jerry.
I blog under my own name.
Best…..
Jerry Bovino