Did Obama really get awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
Amen brother, but what did we expect with aipac squeezing his and every president before him balls.
Ha! He sucks (and all of American Presidents/politicians suck)because of his AIPAC afiliation. Perfect!
As far as soldier being dead, I read in one of the news orgs. Was buried in the story as the Israeli government claimed the soldier identified by Hamas was dead and accounted for... Regardless, if he is dead or alive, it's the same game.
Hahahaha, yup, 44 presidents and all can't think for themselves. You would think by now one of them has their own policy or own ideas but nope, same shit, same policies, just out a R or D in front of his name. And if you dnt think aipac controls our government policies, then u know absolutely shit about politics. But plz, continue crying over 1 fucken dead soldier. Again, obvious, you take an Israeli life worth more then a Palestinian. Np, that's your right, just like it's MY right to call out the Israeli government and our very own.
Did Obama really get awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
Amen brother, but what did we expect with aipac squeezing his and every president before him balls.
Ha! He sucks (and all of American Presidents/politicians suck)because of his AIPAC afiliation. Perfect!
As far as soldier being dead, I read in one of the news orgs. Was buried in the story as the Israeli government claimed the soldier identified by Hamas was dead and accounted for... Regardless, if he is dead or alive, it's the same game.
Hahahaha, yup, 44 presidents and all can't think for themselves. You would think by now one of them has their own policy or own ideas but nope, same shit, same policies, just out a R or D in front of his name. And if you dnt think aipac controls our government policies, then u know absolutely shit about politics. But plz, continue crying over 1 fucken dead soldier. Again, obvious, you take an Israeli life worth more then a Palestinian. Np, that's your right, just like it's MY right to call out the Israeli government and our very own.
AIPAC controlling middles east policy. Certainly the strongest influence. As far as any other influence... No, I don't think so. Not sure of your point.
If Middle East policy is your judge of an American president, there is more wrong with you than I thought. Specifically, President Obama.
As far as me "crying" over a dead or alive soldier being held captive, hardly the case.
I made the point yesterday, in response to the ground war, that Hamas' play book was to capture a soldier to help their negotiation. That only took 24 hours. (If their claims are true, which I have no reason to believe they are not)
Now suddenly, Qatar and Kuwait are helping negotiate cease fire and Hamas is engaged in dialogue.
War is disgusting. No one should be cheering anything!
Did Obama really get awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
Amen brother, but what did we expect with aipac squeezing his and every president before him balls.
Ha! He sucks (and all of American Presidents/politicians suck)because of his AIPAC afiliation. Perfect!
As far as soldier being dead, I read in one of the news orgs. Was buried in the story as the Israeli government claimed the soldier identified by Hamas was dead and accounted for... Regardless, if he is dead or alive, it's the same game.
Hahahaha, yup, 44 presidents and all can't think for themselves. You would think by now one of them has their own policy or own ideas but nope, same shit, same policies, just out a R or D in front of his name. And if you dnt think aipac controls our government policies, then u know absolutely shit about politics. But plz, continue crying over 1 fucken dead soldier. Again, obvious, you take an Israeli life worth more then a Palestinian. Np, that's your right, just like it's MY right to call out the Israeli government and our very own.
AIPAC controlling middles east policy. Certainly the strongest influence. As far as any other influence... No, I don't think so. Not sure of your point.
If Middle East policy is your judge of an American president, there is more wrong with you than I thought. Specifically, President Obama.
As far as me "crying" over a dead or alive soldier being held captive, hardly the case.
I made the point yesterday, in response to the ground war, that Hamas' play book was to capture a soldier to help their negotiation. That only took 24 hours. (If their claims are true, which I have no reason to believe they are not)
Now suddenly, Qatar and Kuwait are helping negotiate cease fire and Hamas is engaged in dialogue.
War is disgusting. No one should be cheering anything!
And now you're gonna give me a lesson on presidents, cry me a fucken river man. Save it, I voted for Obama so dnt fucken tell me what I know or dnt know about presidents. Thinking that maybe, just maybe, he was gonna be different. Oh he's got his differences BUT, he's the same just like the rest of them. And I agree, yes war fucken sux, but that's about all I'll agree with with regards to you. But all good, it's what makes this shitty world to round and round.
Badbrains,serious question.As an American(Take your religious bias out of this equation)Do you not see the strategic reason why we as a country continue to support a pro western government in that region.You said you support the Palestinians,which is all good Nobody wants harm to innocent folks.You also said you don't support Hamas necessarily(If I am mis quoting my apologies,I thought you said that a couple weeks ago )And I definitely think both can be achieved simultaneously. The Reason I ask is you have Isis in Syria and Iraq.You have Hezbollah in Lebanon and you have other factions that don't want to achieve peace in the region with negotiation.Some of the more radical Muslim extremist groups who are hard line in beliefs and kill and threaten more moderate Muslims.And want total elimination of Jews and Christians in the Middle East.You have to see at some point the danger to peace and stability that a weakend area could cause.
Well, if Pearl Jam aren't gonna play in Israel, I suppose the next best form of entertainment would be watching Palestinian men, women, and children getting blown to pieces.
Israelis gather on hillsides to watch and cheer as military drops bombs on Gaza People drink, snack and pose for selfies against a background of explosions as Palestinian death toll mounts in ongoing offensive
Harriet Sherwood in Sderot The Guardian, Sunday 20 July 2014
Israelis watch bombings of Gaza from Sderot hillside
As the sun begins to sink over the Mediterranean, groups of Israelis gather each evening on hilltops close to the Gaza border to cheer, whoop and whistle as bombs rain down on people in a hellish warzone a few miles away.
Old sofas, garden chairs, battered car seats and upturned crates provide seating for the spectators. On one hilltop, a swing has been attached to the branches of a pine tree, allowing its occupant to sway gently in the breeze. Some bring bottles of beer or soft drinks and snacks.
On Saturday, a group of men huddle around a shisha pipe. Nearly all hold up smartphones to record the explosions or to pose grinning, perhaps with thumbs up, for selfies against a backdrop of black smoke.
Despite reports that millions of Israelis are living in terror of Hamas rockets, they don't deter these hilltop war watchers whose proximity to Gaza puts them within range of the most rudimentary missiles. Some bring their children.
In the border town of Sderot, which has been struck by countless missiles from the Gaza Strip in recent years, one family gathers on a top-floor balcony, draped with an Israeli flag and banner of the army's legendary Golani Brigade. A house with a war view may even command a premium price these days. Israeli watches Gaza bombing from hillside sofa Israeli man watches the bombardment as he sits on an old sofa left on a hillside in Sderot. Photograph: UPI/Landov/Barcroft Media
An atmosphere of anticipatory excitement grows as dusk falls, in the expectation that Hamas militants will increase rocket fire after breaking their Ramadan fast, and the Israeli military will respond with force.
The thud of shellfire, flash of an explosion and pall of smoke are greeted with exclamations of approval. "What a beauty," says one appreciative spectator.
Shimrit Peretz, 19, has come with her off-duty soldier boyfriend, Raz Sason, whose army-issue assault rifle is slung across his shoulders.
"We come to look at the bombing," Peretz says, adding that this is their fourth visit to the hilltop. They plan to stay several hours: "It's interesting." The pair have brought a backpack filled with bottles of water and bags of crisps.
Peretz says that she doesn't worry about the Palestinian civilians caught in the bombing; Sason disagrees. Despite his concern for the innocents caught in the assault, the young conscript soldier wishes he was with his comrades across the border in Gaza. "I'd like to be going in, to help my country and help the soldiers inside," he says.
Given the dramatic views, media crews are coming to the area to cover the fighting. On a nearby hilltop, an ugly scene develops as a group of Israeli men threaten a photographer, accusing him of being a "leftist". We are warned against asking for interviews, as another cheer goes up.
This is now one post with both Israeli and Palestinian hatred visible and linked. Both are acts which ought to stop if there's to be a peace in the region. The number of active participants doesn't matter, hatred is hatred, and it's a vile and contagious weapon.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
Voltaire
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."
I could care less who started what and when, but it's time for both sides to forget about the past and start over.
Hi Last-12-Exit, I have some major problems with the sentiment you've expressed here. Before I continue: Are you American? I will assume you are not from Palestine or the Middle East in this post. But I will ask you to try to understand what a Palestinian may think or feel with the sentiment expressed above.
Let us say you are a Palestinian living anywhere in the world: Perhaps you grew up in the West Bank yourself under a brutal occupation. Maybe you have a wife who lives behind the green line (in Israel) that you can never see because Israel does not allow to travel a few miles into their land because of where you were born. Maybe you have a job that takes you hours to get to every day, and to come home every day, because you have to pass through checkpoints. Or you have family that lives behind the illegal wall that Israel built through the West Bank that cuts off villages from each other. And you have to deal with illegal Jewish settlers who come burn your farm just because of the person you were born to be; Perhaps your family lived in what is now Israel during the 1947-1948 ethnic cleansing of the land, when over 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes due to the Zionists seeking to create a "Jewish state" - and you now live in a refugee camp because your family was unable to return to their homes. You have relatives who in the 1950s tried to walk back home and were shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Life in a refugee is all you know, and you pray for the day you can go back home; Maybe you are a child in Gaza - your family was also made refugees in 1947-48 and has gone to Gaza, as nearly 75% of the population living in the Strip are. Maybe you have dreams of going to another country for school, because you're a bright student and won a scholarship to go to Harvard. But you can't go because Israel (along with Egypt) has imposed a brutal land, air and sea siege that has essentially trapped you in one of the most densely populated pieces of land in the world, and you are stuck there. And you have to deal with constant bombardment from the air, land and sea by soldiers, and you know Palestinians personally who were shot for walking "too close" to the border, even though it's still within the limit that Israel has technically allowed for you.
Or maybe you even grew up in the West or elsewhere in the world, but have close family relatives dealing with this on a daily basis.
Would you not ask yourself, as a Palestinian, "why is this happening?" Would you not ask, "why did people do this to us?" Any decent history book has documented well what Zionists did to create the state of Israel, by expelling Palestinians, and what they have been doing since to maintain their control over the land, which includes separating large segments of Palestinian communities from the rest. Any decent history book has documented well the conditions the Palestinians have faced, all due to one basic fact: one dominant side, with one of the largest militaries in the world, will not give us rights that are equal to theirs, who will not allow us to simply return to our homes - all because they want a state that is exclusively theirs. All because it is not enough for all of us to have equal rights - they want the land for themselves.
I ask you, when you look at it through the eyes of the Palestinians, is it as simple as "forgetting who started what and when" - especially given that this "when" is still ongoing? Is it simple to just ignore the past given that Palestinians are still subjected to the same injustices they were subjected to in the past? To "start over", would you not agree, through the Palestinian perspective, they would need for the wrongs inflicted on them to be corrected?
Now, take yourself out of the Palestinian perspective. You're just another human being. Do you not see the humanity in these simple demands of the Palestinian people? To just be equal?
(P.S. We cannot compare the "Palestinian narrative" to the "Zionist narrative". We have to remember something: This is not a double-edged sword. This is a conflict with an oppressed, and an oppressor. We can't ignore the power dynamic between the two parties. We know all too well of many conflicts that included an oppressed and an oppressor. Let's drop the bullshit, and finally treat this issue as one, as it well deserves.)
fuck,i hear ya..but just one thing at your first paragraph,u decribe exactly what Turkey did at Cyprus only then,Muslims was the one who get into the land,burn the farms,killed and raped women,bomb the cities.create the Green and red line,people cant go a few miles and see their homes ,cut Nikosia ,the capital in 2 parts and so on...but the world dont give a flying fuck cos the island has bananas and oranges..and not like middle east where the oil is.. as for this Gaza thing.,its fuckin madness..and u know what,i dont believe shit that anyone want peace..noone..they want this thing goes forever. and some will continue selling guns..and some will continue kills eachother.. its fuckin sad
"...Dimitri...He talks to me...'.."The Ghost of Greece..".
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
I could care less who started what and when, but it's time for both sides to forget about the past and start over.
Hi Last-12-Exit, I have some major problems with the sentiment you've expressed here. Before I continue: Are you American? I will assume you are not from Palestine or the Middle East in this post. But I will ask you to try to understand what a Palestinian may think or feel with the sentiment expressed above.
Let us say you are a Palestinian living anywhere in the world: Perhaps you grew up in the West Bank yourself under a brutal occupation. Maybe you have a wife who lives behind the green line (in Israel) that you can never see because Israel does not allow to travel a few miles into their land because of where you were born. Maybe you have a job that takes you hours to get to every day, and to come home every day, because you have to pass through checkpoints. Or you have family that lives behind the illegal wall that Israel built through the West Bank that cuts off villages from each other. And you have to deal with illegal Jewish settlers who come burn your farm just because of the person you were born to be; Perhaps your family lived in what is now Israel during the 1947-1948 ethnic cleansing of the land, when over 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes due to the Zionists seeking to create a "Jewish state" - and you now live in a refugee camp because your family was unable to return to their homes. You have relatives who in the 1950s tried to walk back home and were shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Life in a refugee is all you know, and you pray for the day you can go back home; Maybe you are a child in Gaza - your family was also made refugees in 1947-48 and has gone to Gaza, as nearly 75% of the population living in the Strip are. Maybe you have dreams of going to another country for school, because you're a bright student and won a scholarship to go to Harvard. But you can't go because Israel (along with Egypt) has imposed a brutal land, air and sea siege that has essentially trapped you in one of the most densely populated pieces of land in the world, and you are stuck there. And you have to deal with constant bombardment from the air, land and sea by soldiers, and you know Palestinians personally who were shot for walking "too close" to the border, even though it's still within the limit that Israel has technically allowed for you.
Or maybe you even grew up in the West or elsewhere in the world, but have close family relatives dealing with this on a daily basis.
Would you not ask yourself, as a Palestinian, "why is this happening?" Would you not ask, "why did people do this to us?" Any decent history book has documented well what Zionists did to create the state of Israel, by expelling Palestinians, and what they have been doing since to maintain their control over the land, which includes separating large segments of Palestinian communities from the rest. Any decent history book has documented well the conditions the Palestinians have faced, all due to one basic fact: one dominant side, with one of the largest militaries in the world, will not give us rights that are equal to theirs, who will not allow us to simply return to our homes - all because they want a state that is exclusively theirs. All because it is not enough for all of us to have equal rights - they want the land for themselves.
I ask you, when you look at it through the eyes of the Palestinians, is it as simple as "forgetting who started what and when" - especially given that this "when" is still ongoing? Is it simple to just ignore the past given that Palestinians are still subjected to the same injustices they were subjected to in the past? To "start over", would you not agree, through the Palestinian perspective, they would need for the wrongs inflicted on them to be corrected?
Now, take yourself out of the Palestinian perspective. You're just another human being. Do you not see the humanity in these simple demands of the Palestinian people? To just be equal?
(P.S. We cannot compare the "Palestinian narrative" to the "Zionist narrative". We have to remember something: This is not a double-edged sword. This is a conflict with an oppressed, and an oppressor. We can't ignore the power dynamic between the two parties. We know all too well of many conflicts that included an oppressed and an oppressor. Let's drop the bullshit, and finally treat this issue as one, as it well deserves.)
fuck,i hear ya..but just one thing at your first paragraph,u decribe exactly what Turkey did at Cyprus only then,Muslims was the one who get into the land,burn the farms,killed and raped women,bomb the cities.create the Green and red line,people cant go a few miles and see their homes ,cut Nikosia ,the capital in 2 parts and so on...but the world dont give a flying fuck cos the island has bananas and oranges..and not like middle east where the oil is.. as for this Gaza thing.,its fuckin madness..and u know what,i dont believe shit that anyone want peace..noone..they want this thing goes forever. and some will continue selling guns..and some will continue kills eachother.. its fuckin sad
Dimitris,
People do want peace, I assure you. Are they the vocal ones? Maybe not. Are they the ones in power? Probably not. Thankfully, we live in the era of revolutions: where dictatorships can fall, Twitter and Facebook can bring change and not exclusively guns and rockets, and oppressors are taken out of power. Let's hope for a shift in powers in this region, and that the goals of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders can have PEACE as their primary goals, and not peace for one side, but peace for every human being in the region.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
I could care less who started what and when, but it's time for both sides to forget about the past and start over.
Hi Last-12-Exit, I have some major problems with the sentiment you've expressed here. Before I continue: Are you American? I will assume you are not from Palestine or the Middle East in this post. But I will ask you to try to understand what a Palestinian may think or feel with the sentiment expressed above.
Let us say you are a Palestinian living anywhere in the world: Perhaps you grew up in the West Bank yourself under a brutal occupation. Maybe you have a wife who lives behind the green line (in Israel) that you can never see because Israel does not allow to travel a few miles into their land because of where you were born. Maybe you have a job that takes you hours to get to every day, and to come home every day, because you have to pass through checkpoints. Or you have family that lives behind the illegal wall that Israel built through the West Bank that cuts off villages from each other. And you have to deal with illegal Jewish settlers who come burn your farm just because of the person you were born to be; Perhaps your family lived in what is now Israel during the 1947-1948 ethnic cleansing of the land, when over 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes due to the Zionists seeking to create a "Jewish state" - and you now live in a refugee camp because your family was unable to return to their homes. You have relatives who in the 1950s tried to walk back home and were shot dead by Israeli soldiers. Life in a refugee is all you know, and you pray for the day you can go back home; Maybe you are a child in Gaza - your family was also made refugees in 1947-48 and has gone to Gaza, as nearly 75% of the population living in the Strip are. Maybe you have dreams of going to another country for school, because you're a bright student and won a scholarship to go to Harvard. But you can't go because Israel (along with Egypt) has imposed a brutal land, air and sea siege that has essentially trapped you in one of the most densely populated pieces of land in the world, and you are stuck there. And you have to deal with constant bombardment from the air, land and sea by soldiers, and you know Palestinians personally who were shot for walking "too close" to the border, even though it's still within the limit that Israel has technically allowed for you.
Or maybe you even grew up in the West or elsewhere in the world, but have close family relatives dealing with this on a daily basis.
Would you not ask yourself, as a Palestinian, "why is this happening?" Would you not ask, "why did people do this to us?" Any decent history book has documented well what Zionists did to create the state of Israel, by expelling Palestinians, and what they have been doing since to maintain their control over the land, which includes separating large segments of Palestinian communities from the rest. Any decent history book has documented well the conditions the Palestinians have faced, all due to one basic fact: one dominant side, with one of the largest militaries in the world, will not give us rights that are equal to theirs, who will not allow us to simply return to our homes - all because they want a state that is exclusively theirs. All because it is not enough for all of us to have equal rights - they want the land for themselves.
I ask you, when you look at it through the eyes of the Palestinians, is it as simple as "forgetting who started what and when" - especially given that this "when" is still ongoing? Is it simple to just ignore the past given that Palestinians are still subjected to the same injustices they were subjected to in the past? To "start over", would you not agree, through the Palestinian perspective, they would need for the wrongs inflicted on them to be corrected?
Now, take yourself out of the Palestinian perspective. You're just another human being. Do you not see the humanity in these simple demands of the Palestinian people? To just be equal?
(P.S. We cannot compare the "Palestinian narrative" to the "Zionist narrative". We have to remember something: This is not a double-edged sword. This is a conflict with an oppressed, and an oppressor. We can't ignore the power dynamic between the two parties. We know all too well of many conflicts that included an oppressed and an oppressor. Let's drop the bullshit, and finally treat this issue as one, as it well deserves.)
fuck,i hear ya..but just one thing at your first paragraph,u decribe exactly what Turkey did at Cyprus only then,Muslims was the one who get into the land,burn the farms,killed and raped women,bomb the cities.create the Green and red line,people cant go a few miles and see their homes ,cut Nikosia ,the capital in 2 parts and so on...but the world dont give a flying fuck cos the island has bananas and oranges..and not like middle east where the oil is.. as for this Gaza thing.,its fuckin madness..and u know what,i dont believe shit that anyone want peace..noone..they want this thing goes forever. and some will continue selling guns..and some will continue kills eachother.. its fuckin sad
Dimitris,
People do want peace, I assure you. Are they the vocal ones? Maybe not. Are they the ones in power? Probably not. Thankfully, we live in the era of revolutions: where dictatorships can fall, Twitter and Facebook can bring change and not exclusively guns and rockets, and oppressors are taken out of power. Let's hope for a shift in powers in this region, and that the goals of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders can have PEACE as their primary goals, and not peace for one side, but peace for every human being in the region.
i hear ya my friend....the ones has the power dont want peace..
"...Dimitri...He talks to me...'.."The Ghost of Greece..".
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
Single family of 26, 18 of them children, killed in a single attack. And someone was crying over 1 soldier. I'll raise you ANOTHER 26. Shame on us as humans. What an embarrassment.
Single family of 26, 18 of them children, killed in a single attack. And someone was crying over 1 soldier. I'll raise you ANOTHER 26. Shame on us as humans. What an embarrassment.
Agreed. 27 deaths which ought to not have happened. Absolutely horrific.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Sorry I did not read through all this, but here is what gets me angry: Dozens of Palestinians killed, no big deal it seems, but when a few Israelis die then all hell breaks loose. That is what irritates me. The death of any human is tragic, especially normal citizens.
~Carter~
You can spend your time alone, redigesting past regrets, oh
or you can come to terms and realize
you're the only one who can't forgive yourself, oh
makes much more sense to live in the present tense - Present Tense
You have Hezbollah in Lebanon and you have other factions that don't want to achieve peace in the region with negotiation.Some of the more radical Muslim extremist groups who are hard line in beliefs and kill and threaten more moderate Muslims.And want total elimination of Jews and Christians in the Middle East.You have to see at some point the danger to peace and stability that a weakend area could cause.
Hezbollah in Lebanon - Lebanon being their home. And who are they threatening? No one. They were formed as a defence force against Israeli aggression.
But I see now where you're coming from. You believe the Fox news narrative that Muslims "want total elimination of Jews and Christians in the Middle East." And what do you mean by a weakened area? Are you suggesting that it's right for the Israeli's to continue their illegal occupation and land-grab? And if they begin abiding by international law and the will of the whole World - excluding the U.S - then is that a sign of weakness in your scheme of things?
Now I understand why you started frothing at the mouth when I criticized those two idiotic Bimbo's on Fox News. Are those two Barbie Dolls hero's of yours?
This is now one post with both Israeli and Palestinian hatred visible and linked. Both are acts which ought to stop if there's to be a peace in the region.
Both acts ought to stop? Palestinians cheering the news of a captured Israeli soldier. Yeah, that footage of somebody handing out sweets - it really made my stomach churn. I almost had to look away from my monitor. 550 Palestinian dead, mostly civilians, and you present a video clip of some Palestinians handing out sweets and describe it 'visible hatred'. The Palestinians are being massacred. They achieve a minor victory - a captured soldier - and you describe it as some sort of sickening evidence of hatred.
He's a soldier. His capture is perfectly legitimate. It's not as if they dragged an Israeli child off the streets and burned him alive and dumped his body in the bushes.
Now suddenly, Qatar and Kuwait are helping negotiate cease fire and Hamas is engaged in dialogue.
Still pretending to be knowledgeable on this issue? You didn't even know that a unity government had been formed between Fatah and Hamas until I told you about it.
Hamas was engaged in negotiating a ceasefire from before the latest massacre of Palestinian civilians. Why do you keep pretending otherwise?
Before the latest massacre even began they were pushing for the Israeli's to begin abiding by the terms of the 2012 ceasefire, which Israel has repeatedly violated.
"We are deeply concerned about the consequences of Israel's appropriate and legitimate effort to defend itself."- John kerry
In Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, al-Aqsa hospital became the third to be struck in the 14-day conflict when three shells slammed into the intensive care unit, surgical and administrative areas. Five people were killed and 70 wounded, including about 30 medics, according to Gaza health officials. Ambulances tried to evacuate patients but were forced to turn back by continued shelling.
Max Blumenthal: With "Hollow Diplomacy," U.S. Created Political Space for Israeli Assault on Gaza
MAX BLUMENTHAL: I don’t know if this [John Kerry's taped conversation on Fox News] was an accident. This may have been staged by Kerry to save face for his bungled act of hollow diplomacy, which was actually a ruse to legitimize Netanyahu’s ground operation and create political space for the kind of massacres that we’ve been witnessing on this very broadcast. It was Kerry who helped draw up the sham ceasefire proposal, which was introduced by the coup regime of Egypt and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has jailed thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members who are political counterparts of Hamas, who hates Hamas, and who never presented this proposal to Hamas. Tony Blair served as the emissary between Sisi and Netanyahu. And the ceasefire was introduced to paint Hamas as rejectionists. Netanyahu openly declared that this ceasefire and Hamas’s rejection of it gave him all the political legitimacy he needed for the ground invasion.
And now Kerry is criticizing the outcome of the ceasefire proposal that he introduced—the inevitable outcome—and now claiming that he wants to be flown back to the Middle East to negotiate a new ceasefire on the taxpayers’ dime. I call on John Kerry to refund the American taxpayers for all the jet fuel he’s wasted. He can dip into the Heinz family fortune if he needs to do that. This is an absolute failure of U.S. diplomacy and an abdication of leadership by Barack Obama, who says that he’s heartbroken by these images that he’s witnessing from the Gaza Strip as he oversees and authorizes the shipment of the very weapons that are used to bombard hospitals. In Deir al-Balah, the al-Aqsa Hospital was just attacked, and five are dead. Four were in surgery when they were killed.
AARON MATÉ: Max, earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will never give up security control of the West Bank. Of course, the Israeli raids on the West Bank, that helped spark this crisis, followed the unity government between Hamas and Fatah. In agreeing to the government, Hamas obviously was moderating its position somewhat, tacitly endorsing negotiations. How much of this whole operation do you see as an Israeli attempt to cement the occupation, the settlements in the occupied West Bank?
MAX BLUMENTHAL:This is absolutely about cementing the occupation. And Netanyahu and his defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, have openly declared that their goal is to maintain the occupation perpetually, with full U.S. support. So what we saw after the kidnapping and killing of the three Israeli teens, when Israeli intelligence knew who the suspects were within 24 hours and within 24 hours knew that the teens were dead, was a cover-up. The entire Israeli media was placed under gag, and the Israeli public was convinced that the Israeli military, as it rampaged through the West Bank, was on a rescue operation. The point of this operation was to crush any resistance to the perpetuation of the occupation and to the government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has basically accepted the occupation as the head of the bantustan authority and accepted his role as a subcontractor of the occupation—
'...all previous peace initiatives have got nowhere for a reason that neither Bush nor the EU has had the political courage to acknowledge. That reason is the consensus reached long ago by Israel’s decision-making elites that Israel will never allow the emergence of a Palestinian state which denies it effective military and economic control of the West Bank. To be sure, Israel would allow – indeed, it would insist on – the creation of a number of isolated enclaves that Palestinians could call a state, but only in order to prevent the creation of a binational state in which Palestinians would be the majority.'- Henry Siegman http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n16/henry-siegman/the-great-middle-east-peace-process-scam
'This is absolutely about cementing the occupation. And Netanyahu and his defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, have openly declared that their goal is to maintain the occupation perpetually, with full U.S. support.' - Max Blumenthal
"We don't have a solution, and you will continue living like dogs, and whoever wants will go, and we will see how this procedure will work out. For now, it works out."- Moshe Dayan (Former Israeli Chief of Defence)
Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, former UN special rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, and author of the forthcoming book Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope:
Professor Falk, here we go again: Israel, one of the world's mightiest military powers, has launched yet another ground offensive into the Gaza Strip on the rather bogus proposition that Hamas provoked Israel to attack Gaza. What is Israel's real purpose in attacking Gaza this time around?
Richard Falk: I believe that Israel periodically "mows the grass" in Gaza as one right-wing Israeli advisor to Sharon distastefully expressed the goal of Israel policy toward Gaza several years ago. There were factors present in the context of this Israeli attack that help explain why now. The main two factors in my view were the unwelcome establishment of an interim "unity government" on June 2 by the leadership of Fatah and Hamas, which undermined the Israeli approach of keeping the governing authorities in the West Bank and Gaza as divided as possible. The second element was Israel's strong incentive to weaken Hamas in the West Bank so that Israel could justify its moves in April to end direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and move ever closer to incorporating the West Bank, or most of it into Israel, and fulfill the expansionist Zionist dream to move beyond the 1967 borders.
The June 12 kidnapping incident involving the three teenage settler children from the Gush Etzion settlement near Jerusalem provided the Netanyahu government with the pretext it needed to mount an anti-Hamas campaign that started as a supposed hunt for the perpetrators, detaining up to 500 suspected of a Hamas connection and generally imposing a variety of oppressive measures, including house demolition, lockdowns of Palestinian towns, and random violence that led to six Palestinian deaths. As has been shown, the incident was manipulated in a most cynical fashion by the government pretending to search for the kidnapped youth, while knowing that they were already dead, using public anxiety and anger to incite the Israeli citizenry to justify the oppressive tactics of the government and to create an atmosphere of vigilante vengeance.
Having denied any involvement in the kidnapping incident, it is hardly surprising that in retaliation for Israel's provocations that Hamas in retaliation began firing rockets at Israeli towns. Israel used its formidable propaganda machine to tell the world that its third major military assault on defenseless Gaza in the last five years (2008-09, 2012, 2014) was a defensive response to unprovoked rocket attacks. With mock innocence, Netanyahu told the world that Israel needed to act to protect its citizens from the rockets, without any mention, of course, of the prior anti-Hamas rampage that included ugly Israeli racist slurs directed at the Palestinians and revenge attacks on Palestinian children.
Why did the ceasefire negotiations in Cairo fail?
The ceasefire failed for several reasons. Hamas was excluded from the process leading up to the proposed ceasefire, and was informed only by the public media. Beyond this, the previously announced Hamas conditions for agreeing to a ceasefire were ignored: release of Palestinians who had been part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange three years ago (in which a single captured IDF soldier was released in exchange for the agreed Israeli release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners) and were rearrested in recent weeks as part of the crackdown on Hamas; lifting the blockade and opening the crossings; cease interference with the unity government; restore the 2012 ceasefire. Also, Sisi's Egypt is hardly a suitable or trustworthy intermediary from Hamas' perspective. Not far in the background is the brutal repression of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and related hostility to Hamas, which is regarded by the Sisi government as an offshoot.
With 1.8 million people trapped in an overcrowded war zone, it should be obvious that the Israeli jets' attacks constitute a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. Yet, once again, Israel is allowed to get away with murder because it enjoys US diplomatic backing as well as US military and financial support. As such, doesn't this make the United States just as complicit in crimes against humanity as Israel itself?
...What is clear is that the continuing and unconditional diplomatic support given by the US to Israel, including shielding Israel from formal censure at the UN, and the failure to discourage war crimes being committed, results in much blood on American hands. Activist opponents of this American policy are now more committed to calling upon churches and universities to divest from corporations doing business with the settlements or facilitating Israeli militarism, and there are increasing national and international calls for an arms embargo on Israel, which would be of mainly symbolic force, given Israel's robust arms industry, which is supplying weapons to many countries, with the grotesque selling point that they have been "field-tested," that is, used, in Gaza.
And yet I'm still surprised by some of the comments from Americans right here on this message board? On the one hand you're told by a couple of Bimbo's on Fox News that Hamas is trying to take over the World, and that this latest massacre of Palestinians is an attempt to protect the U.S, and on the other hand you're told that Palestinians are 'others'.
Byrnie,Whats happening to the Innocent people of the region is horrible.Anytime those not making the decisions are the one hurt my heart goes out to them.Seeing mothers of ALL victims of this grieve is painfull.Your cause for equality,freedoms and a better way of life is one that does need to be addressed.Im sure some of this latest violence will at the very least shed more light on it.So understand I can separate the human side of things from the political.I in no way condone violence against the innocent many by the few who govern. That being said your steadfast support of groups like Hamas,And your innocently blowing off and supporting Hezbolleh as just a innocent group who lives in Lebanon to hold back the israeli aggression,and you Never,Ever,Ever condone ANY action from a pro Palestinian side against the others is dangerous.Yes you will post 10 articles to make your point,Yes you argue about decades of stolen land and occupation ,but you don't ever comment on any wrong doing or the thousand of innocent lives that have also been lost in terror attacks against western interests,innocent Israelis and others in the name of a free Palestine.You do not get to glaze over those acts and preach about the one being leveled at you.You cannot justify violence and cry about it on other end. Sugar coat Hamas,Hezbollah and the other factions in the region all you want but the people who are outraged on this forum need to also remember the terrorist attacks at the hands of these orginazations as well. and just because your situation is getting some much needed exposure in the world stage now(Which I truly hope helps the people who need it) it does not erase terror no matter what it's underlying political goal is.I am directing this at you,not an IDF apologist because you are the one yelling the loudest. Those who follow this thread should be careful not to blindly rush to judgement about the horror they see now before them and excuse the horrors of the past.These groups don't sell Girl Scout cookies and although they may have some benevolence to the people the say they speak for they are big time terror orginazations who are very dangerous and want also a western free,Jewish free and non Muslim free world and Middle East.(not all but many) I can feel for Palestinians Byrnzie without excepting the terrorist government they blindly follow.I as a American have felt the loss of our sons and daughters fighting global terror,which these groups like other extremists groups are part of.And it would be wrong and pissing on the memory of my country men who lost life and limb fighting terror.These groups DO NOT get a pass.No way,No how.The sooner you can admit that your people need to get out from under this refime the better. Please don't turn this around about Israeli occupation.I know that is also at issue here but I'm addressing your side of this.And save the postings of articles.I can find hundreds to back my POV as well.
you Never,Ever,Ever condone ANY action from a pro Palestinian side against the others is dangerous.Yes you will post 10 articles to make your point,Yes you argue about decades of stolen land and occupation ,but you don't ever comment on any wrong doing or the thousand of innocent lives that have also been lost in terror attacks against western interests,innocent Israelis and others in the name of a free Palestine.
Maybe because they have fuck all to do with the root cause of the problems - the illegal occupation and land-grab.
These groups don't sell Girl Scout cookies and although they may have some benevolence to the people the say they speak for they are big time terror orginazations who are very dangerous and want also a western free,Jewish free and non Muslim free world and Middle East.(not all but many) These groups DO NOT get a pass.No way,No how.The sooner you can admit that your people need to get out from under this refime the better.
You're simply reading from the Fox News script. Why are you trying to pretend that the only acts of terrorism have come from the Palestinians? You're just trying to turn reality on it's head. I've already explained and documented the history of the so-called 'peace process' and how the Israeli's have proven time and time again that they have zero interest in a peaceful settlement in accordance with international law. But I can see that you don't give a fuck about that because it doesn't fit your cozy little narrative which paints the Palestinians as evil, bloodthisty bogeymen, and the Israeli's as reasonable, civilized, and virtuous.
Please don't turn this around about Israeli occupation.I know that is also at issue here but I'm addressing your side of this.
No, it's THE issue here. And trying to deflect attention from the illegal occupation and the daily oppression and terrorizing of an entire people won't work.
Now suddenly, Qatar and Kuwait are helping negotiate cease fire and Hamas is engaged in dialogue.
Still pretending to be knowledgeable on this issue? You didn't even know that a unity government had been formed between Fatah and Hamas until I told you about it.
Hamas was engaged in negotiating a ceasefire from before the latest massacre of Palestinian civilians. Why do you keep pretending otherwise?
Before the latest massacre even began they were pushing for the Israeli's to begin abiding by the terms of the 2012 ceasefire, which Israel has repeatedly violated.
I was mocking you... You actually still think that "unity" government means anything!
This is now one post with both Israeli and Palestinian hatred visible and linked. Both are acts which ought to stop if there's to be a peace in the region.
Both acts ought to stop? Palestinians cheering the news of a captured Israeli soldier. Yeah, that footage of somebody handing out sweets - it really made my stomach churn. I almost had to look away from my monitor. 550 Palestinian dead, mostly civilians, and you present a video clip of some Palestinians handing out sweets and describe it 'visible hatred'. The Palestinians are being massacred. They achieve a minor victory - a captured soldier - and you describe it as some sort of sickening evidence of hatred.
He's a soldier. His capture is perfectly legitimate. It's not as if they dragged an Israeli child off the streets and burned him alive and dumped his body in the bushes.
Missing the point. "Handing out sweets"? They were doing the same thing as the people of Sderot. Citizens celebrating the war. It's all gross.
2. Minimizing the significance of a POW in this conflict is laughable. It's a strategic priority to capture soldiers used by Hamas.
Comments
If Middle East policy is your judge of an American president, there is more wrong with you than I thought. Specifically, President Obama.
As far as me "crying" over a dead or alive soldier being held captive, hardly the case.
I made the point yesterday, in response to the ground war, that Hamas' play book was to capture a soldier to help their negotiation. That only took 24 hours. (If their claims are true, which I have no reason to believe they are not)
Now suddenly, Qatar and Kuwait are helping negotiate cease fire and Hamas is engaged in dialogue.
War is disgusting. No one should be cheering anything!
2013- Brooklyn2, Philly1, Philly2, NOLA
The Reason I ask is you have Isis in Syria and Iraq.You have Hezbollah in Lebanon and you have other factions that don't want to achieve peace in the region with negotiation.Some of the more radical Muslim extremist groups who are hard line in beliefs and kill and threaten more moderate Muslims.And want total elimination of Jews and Christians in the Middle East.You have to see at some point the danger to peace and stability that a weakend area could cause.
This is now one post with both Israeli and Palestinian hatred visible and linked. Both are acts which ought to stop if there's to be a peace in the region. The number of active participants doesn't matter, hatred is hatred, and it's a vile and contagious weapon.
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Voltaire
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."
Marcus Tullius Cicero
only then,Muslims was the one who get into the land,burn the farms,killed and raped women,bomb the cities.create the Green and red line,people cant go a few miles and see their homes ,cut Nikosia ,the capital in 2 parts and so on...but the world dont give a flying fuck cos the island has bananas and oranges..and not like middle east where the oil is..
as for this Gaza thing.,its fuckin madness..and u know what,i dont believe shit that anyone want peace..noone..they want this thing goes forever.
and some will continue selling guns..and some will continue kills eachother..
its fuckin sad
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
People do want peace, I assure you. Are they the vocal ones? Maybe not. Are they the ones in power? Probably not. Thankfully, we live in the era of revolutions: where dictatorships can fall, Twitter and Facebook can bring change and not exclusively guns and rockets, and oppressors are taken out of power. Let's hope for a shift in powers in this region, and that the goals of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders can have PEACE as their primary goals, and not peace for one side, but peace for every human being in the region.
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
Single family of 26, 18 of them children, killed in a single attack. And someone was crying over 1 soldier. I'll raise you ANOTHER 26. Shame on us as humans. What an embarrassment.
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Dozens of Palestinians killed, no big deal it seems, but when a few Israelis die then all hell breaks loose. That is what irritates me. The death of any human is tragic, especially normal citizens.
You can spend your time alone, redigesting past regrets, oh
or you can come to terms and realize
you're the only one who can't forgive yourself, oh
makes much more sense to live in the present tense - Present Tense
But I see now where you're coming from. You believe the Fox news narrative that Muslims "want total elimination of Jews and Christians in the Middle East."
And what do you mean by a weakened area? Are you suggesting that it's right for the Israeli's to continue their illegal occupation and land-grab? And if they begin abiding by international law and the will of the whole World - excluding the U.S - then is that a sign of weakness in your scheme of things?
Now I understand why you started frothing at the mouth when I criticized those two idiotic Bimbo's on Fox News. Are those two Barbie Dolls hero's of yours?
550 Palestinian dead, mostly civilians, and you present a video clip of some Palestinians handing out sweets and describe it 'visible hatred'.
The Palestinians are being massacred. They achieve a minor victory - a captured soldier - and you describe it as some sort of sickening evidence of hatred.
He's a soldier. His capture is perfectly legitimate. It's not as if they dragged an Israeli child off the streets and burned him alive and dumped his body in the bushes.
Hamas was engaged in negotiating a ceasefire from before the latest massacre of Palestinian civilians. Why do you keep pretending otherwise?
Before the latest massacre even began they were pushing for the Israeli's to begin abiding by the terms of the 2012 ceasefire, which Israel has repeatedly violated.
In Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, al-Aqsa hospital became the third to be struck in the 14-day conflict when three shells slammed into the intensive care unit, surgical and administrative areas. Five people were killed and 70 wounded, including about 30 medics, according to Gaza health officials. Ambulances tried to evacuate patients but were forced to turn back by continued shelling.
Max Blumenthal: With "Hollow Diplomacy," U.S. Created Political Space for Israeli Assault on Gaza
MAX BLUMENTHAL: I don’t know if this [John Kerry's taped conversation on Fox News] was an accident. This may have been staged by Kerry to save face for his bungled act of hollow diplomacy, which was actually a ruse to legitimize Netanyahu’s ground operation and create political space for the kind of massacres that we’ve been witnessing on this very broadcast. It was Kerry who helped draw up the sham ceasefire proposal, which was introduced by the coup regime of Egypt and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has jailed thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members who are political counterparts of Hamas, who hates Hamas, and who never presented this proposal to Hamas. Tony Blair served as the emissary between Sisi and Netanyahu. And the ceasefire was introduced to paint Hamas as rejectionists. Netanyahu openly declared that this ceasefire and Hamas’s rejection of it gave him all the political legitimacy he needed for the ground invasion.
And now Kerry is criticizing the outcome of the ceasefire proposal that he introduced—the inevitable outcome—and now claiming that he wants to be flown back to the Middle East to negotiate a new ceasefire on the taxpayers’ dime. I call on John Kerry to refund the American taxpayers for all the jet fuel he’s wasted. He can dip into the Heinz family fortune if he needs to do that. This is an absolute failure of U.S. diplomacy and an abdication of leadership by Barack Obama, who says that he’s heartbroken by these images that he’s witnessing from the Gaza Strip as he oversees and authorizes the shipment of the very weapons that are used to bombard hospitals. In Deir al-Balah, the al-Aqsa Hospital was just attacked, and five are dead. Four were in surgery when they were killed.
AARON MATÉ: Max, earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will never give up security control of the West Bank. Of course, the Israeli raids on the West Bank, that helped spark this crisis, followed the unity government between Hamas and Fatah. In agreeing to the government, Hamas obviously was moderating its position somewhat, tacitly endorsing negotiations. How much of this whole operation do you see as an Israeli attempt to cement the occupation, the settlements in the occupied West Bank?
MAX BLUMENTHAL: This is absolutely about cementing the occupation. And Netanyahu and his defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, have openly declared that their goal is to maintain the occupation perpetually, with full U.S. support. So what we saw after the kidnapping and killing of the three Israeli teens, when Israeli intelligence knew who the suspects were within 24 hours and within 24 hours knew that the teens were dead, was a cover-up. The entire Israeli media was placed under gag, and the Israeli public was convinced that the Israeli military, as it rampaged through the West Bank, was on a rescue operation. The point of this operation was to crush any resistance to the perpetuation of the occupation and to the government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has basically accepted the occupation as the head of the bantustan authority and accepted his role as a subcontractor of the occupation—
'...all previous peace initiatives have got nowhere for a reason that neither Bush nor the EU has had the political courage to acknowledge. That reason is the consensus reached long ago by Israel’s decision-making elites that Israel will never allow the emergence of a Palestinian state which denies it effective military and economic control of the West Bank. To be sure, Israel would allow – indeed, it would insist on – the creation of a number of isolated enclaves that Palestinians could call a state, but only in order to prevent the creation of a binational state in which Palestinians would be the majority.' - Henry Siegman http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n16/henry-siegman/the-great-middle-east-peace-process-scam
'This is absolutely about cementing the occupation. And Netanyahu and his defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, have openly declared that their goal is to maintain the occupation perpetually, with full U.S. support.' - Max Blumenthal
"We don't have a solution, and you will continue living like dogs, and whoever wants will go, and we will see how this procedure will work out. For now, it works out." - Moshe Dayan (Former Israeli Chief of Defence)
Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, former UN special rapporteur for Occupied Palestine, and author of the forthcoming book Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope:
Professor Falk, here we go again: Israel, one of the world's mightiest military powers, has launched yet another ground offensive into the Gaza Strip on the rather bogus proposition that Hamas provoked Israel to attack Gaza. What is Israel's real purpose in attacking Gaza this time around?
Richard Falk: I believe that Israel periodically "mows the grass" in Gaza as one right-wing Israeli advisor to Sharon distastefully expressed the goal of Israel policy toward Gaza several years ago. There were factors present in the context of this Israeli attack that help explain why now. The main two factors in my view were the unwelcome establishment of an interim "unity government" on June 2 by the leadership of Fatah and Hamas, which undermined the Israeli approach of keeping the governing authorities in the West Bank and Gaza as divided as possible. The second element was Israel's strong incentive to weaken Hamas in the West Bank so that Israel could justify its moves in April to end direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority and move ever closer to incorporating the West Bank, or most of it into Israel, and fulfill the expansionist Zionist dream to move beyond the 1967 borders.
The June 12 kidnapping incident involving the three teenage settler children from the Gush Etzion settlement near Jerusalem provided the Netanyahu government with the pretext it needed to mount an anti-Hamas campaign that started as a supposed hunt for the perpetrators, detaining up to 500 suspected of a Hamas connection and generally imposing a variety of oppressive measures, including house demolition, lockdowns of Palestinian towns, and random violence that led to six Palestinian deaths. As has been shown, the incident was manipulated in a most cynical fashion by the government pretending to search for the kidnapped youth, while knowing that they were already dead, using public anxiety and anger to incite the Israeli citizenry to justify the oppressive tactics of the government and to create an atmosphere of vigilante vengeance.
Having denied any involvement in the kidnapping incident, it is hardly surprising that in retaliation for Israel's provocations that Hamas in retaliation began firing rockets at Israeli towns. Israel used its formidable propaganda machine to tell the world that its third major military assault on defenseless Gaza in the last five years (2008-09, 2012, 2014) was a defensive response to unprovoked rocket attacks. With mock innocence, Netanyahu told the world that Israel needed to act to protect its citizens from the rockets, without any mention, of course, of the prior anti-Hamas rampage that included ugly Israeli racist slurs directed at the Palestinians and revenge attacks on Palestinian children.
Why did the ceasefire negotiations in Cairo fail?
The ceasefire failed for several reasons. Hamas was excluded from the process leading up to the proposed ceasefire, and was informed only by the public media. Beyond this, the previously announced Hamas conditions for agreeing to a ceasefire were ignored: release of Palestinians who had been part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange three years ago (in which a single captured IDF soldier was released in exchange for the agreed Israeli release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners) and were rearrested in recent weeks as part of the crackdown on Hamas; lifting the blockade and opening the crossings; cease interference with the unity government; restore the 2012 ceasefire. Also, Sisi's Egypt is hardly a suitable or trustworthy intermediary from Hamas' perspective. Not far in the background is the brutal repression of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and related hostility to Hamas, which is regarded by the Sisi government as an offshoot.
With 1.8 million people trapped in an overcrowded war zone, it should be obvious that the Israeli jets' attacks constitute a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. Yet, once again, Israel is allowed to get away with murder because it enjoys US diplomatic backing as well as US military and financial support. As such, doesn't this make the United States just as complicit in crimes against humanity as Israel itself?
...What is clear is that the continuing and unconditional diplomatic support given by the US to Israel, including shielding Israel from formal censure at the UN, and the failure to discourage war crimes being committed, results in much blood on American hands. Activist opponents of this American policy are now more committed to calling upon churches and universities to divest from corporations doing business with the settlements or facilitating Israeli militarism, and there are increasing national and international calls for an arms embargo on Israel, which would be of mainly symbolic force, given Israel's robust arms industry, which is supplying weapons to many countries, with the grotesque selling point that they have been "field-tested," that is, used, in Gaza.
"70 others killed"
Yes, Palestinians are now 'others'.
And yet I'm still surprised by some of the comments from Americans right here on this message board? On the one hand you're told by a couple of Bimbo's on Fox News that Hamas is trying to take over the World, and that this latest massacre of Palestinians is an attempt to protect the U.S, and on the other hand you're told that Palestinians are 'others'.
It's all beginning to make sense now.
That being said your steadfast support of groups like Hamas,And your innocently blowing off and supporting Hezbolleh as just a innocent group who lives in Lebanon to hold back the israeli aggression,and you Never,Ever,Ever condone ANY action from a pro Palestinian side against the others is dangerous.Yes you will post 10 articles to make your point,Yes you argue about decades of stolen land and occupation ,but you don't ever comment on any wrong doing or the thousand of innocent lives that have also been lost in terror attacks against western interests,innocent Israelis and others in the name of a free Palestine.You do not get to glaze over those acts and preach about the one being leveled at you.You cannot justify violence and cry about it on other end.
Sugar coat Hamas,Hezbollah and the other factions in the region all you want but the people who are outraged on this forum need to also remember the terrorist attacks at the hands of these orginazations as well. and just because your situation is getting some much needed exposure in the world stage now(Which I truly hope helps the people who need it) it does not erase terror no matter what it's underlying political goal is.I am directing this at you,not an IDF apologist because you are the one yelling the loudest.
Those who follow this thread should be careful not to blindly rush to judgement about the horror they see now before them and excuse the horrors of the past.These groups don't sell Girl Scout cookies and although they may have some benevolence to the people the say they speak for they are big time terror orginazations who are very dangerous and want also a western free,Jewish free and non Muslim free world and Middle East.(not all but many)
I can feel for Palestinians Byrnzie without excepting the terrorist government they blindly follow.I as a American have felt the loss of our sons and daughters fighting global terror,which these groups like other extremists groups are part of.And it would be wrong and pissing on the memory of my country men who lost life and limb fighting terror.These groups DO NOT get a pass.No way,No how.The sooner you can admit that your people need to get out from under this refime the better.
Please don't turn this around about Israeli occupation.I know that is also at issue here but I'm addressing your side of this.And save the postings of articles.I can find hundreds to back my POV as well.
I've already explained and documented the history of the so-called 'peace process' and how the Israeli's have proven time and time again that they have zero interest in a peaceful settlement in accordance with international law. But I can see that you don't give a fuck about that because it doesn't fit your cozy little narrative which paints the Palestinians as evil, bloodthisty bogeymen, and the Israeli's as reasonable, civilized, and virtuous.
No, it's THE issue here. And trying to deflect attention from the illegal occupation and the daily oppression and terrorizing of an entire people won't work.
2013- Brooklyn2, Philly1, Philly2, NOLA
2. Minimizing the significance of a POW in this conflict is laughable. It's a strategic priority to capture soldiers used by Hamas.
2013- Brooklyn2, Philly1, Philly2, NOLA