COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, July 24, 2014

The Appalling Rogue Israeli Army Shells Another School Filled With Civilians, Kills 15 And Wounds 200







Gaza City (CNN) -- A strike on a UN shelter in Gaza on Thursday has killed and injured multiple people, a United Nations spokesman said Thursday.
The coordinates of the school, which was serving a shelter for families in Gaza, had been given to the Israeli military, said the spokesman, Chris Gunness.
He tweeted that coordinates of the shelter in Beit Hanoun had been provided to the Israeli army before the strike as a precaution, an effort to prevent a strike on it. The shelter is in an area in northern Gaza that has been the scene of tremendous violence recently.
The UN tried twice to coordinate with Israelis to evacuate the shelter ahead of the strike, he said.Gunness posted: "Precise co-ordinates of the UNRWA shelter in Beit Hanoun had been formally given to the Israeli army RT" and then minutes later tweeted: "Over the course of the day UNRWA tried 2 coodinate with the Israeli Army a window for civilians 2 leave & it was never granted RT."

156 comments:

  1. http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-150-hamas-terrorists-surrender-to-idf-1000957726
    150 Hamas terrorists surrender to IDF



    Whoa! Girlfriend,

    Israeli Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni tells the U.N. Human Rights Council to, "Get lost."

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/23/hezbollah-warring-in-syria-could-join-fight-agains/?page=2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Once again the emotion leads the news reports.

      There is no proof that it was an israeli shell, reports from Israel are that hamas rockets were landing in the area aimed at israeli ground forces

      Hmmm

      Another tragedy.

      It's been proven that friendly fire does happen and a full13% of all hamas rockets are landing in palestinian controlled areas..

      Delete
    2. The Hamas war heads max out at 30kg.

      Th size of the explosion and the damage done is proof enough

      Delete
    3. The IDF Spokesperson's Office said on Thursday night that an initial investigation into the shelling of a UN-run school in Gaza – which left at least fifteen dead, and dozens wounded – found that terrorists had opened fire from the vicinity of the school, and that the army returned fire.

      At the same time, Hamas fired in the general direction of the school, the army said. Civilians in the school were asked to vacate the area, but refused, the army added.

      Well the intel is in.. Israel fired on the school but what holy batman, the Hamas were firing from the area of the school, drawing fire…

      LOL

      I guess that will teach those palestinian kids a lesson, when Israel says get out, listen..

      When the Hamas says STAY, GET OUT..

      I am surprised there is not more civilians simply shooting the Hamas terrorists in the back of the head

      Delete
  2. Growing number of Turkish universities boycotting Israel
    By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON

    Turkish municipalities across Turkey announce boycott of Israeli products and companies linked to the Jewish state.

    A growing number of Turkish universities have decided to cut off relations with Israeli universities, with the number rising to 111 in three days.


    Turkey purchased $5 billion in products from Israel in 2013.
    "O"rdure will retort ...
    "It don't mean nothin' "

    But it does.

    Aces & Eights

    Hickock thought he had a winning hand, too.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Economic relations[edit]
      In 1996, Turkey and Israel signed a free-trade agreement. In 1997, a double-taxation prevention treaty went into effect. A bilateral investment treaty was signed in 1998.[82]

      Israeli-Turkish trade rose 26% to $2 billion in first half of 2011 from $1.59 billion in the first half of 2010. According to the Israeli Chamber of Commerce, Israeli exports to Turkey rose 39% to $950 million, and imports from Turkey rose 16% to $1.05 billion.[83] Turkey is Israel's sixth-largest export destination. Chemicals and oil distillates are the primary exports.[84] Turkey purchases high-tech defense equipment from Israel, whereas Turkey supplies Israel with military boots and uniforms.[85] Israeli import of Turkish vegetable products has remained steady since 2007, and imports of prepared foodstuffs, beverages and tobacco doubled from 2007 to 2011.[82]


      Turkey can KEEP it's tobacco and boots, and Israel can keep it's hiTECH, drones and assorted other military wares…

      LOL

      Delete
    2. One can only hope that Turkey will cut off it's nose to spite it's face.

      I hear tell the KURDS are looking to purchase Israeli drones and other hi-tech goodies..

      Delete
    3. Relations have also improved between the Turkish government and Iraqi Kurdish leadership, who have clamped down on the PKK, not allowed them to stage attacks from their territory, and pushed for a peaceful settlement of the Kurdish issue in Turkey, Bahcheli, said.

      Meanwhile, Turkey has also invested heavily in Iraq’s Kurdish region, and relies on its oil and natural gas, which it gets for cheaper prices than Russia and Iran.


      Wonder how Kurdish oil gets to market, if if does not flow through Turkey.
      So who will the Kurds be more beholding to ...

      Electronics, the Indians and Chinese sell that commodity.

      The Israeli are salivating because their "Yinon Plan" is maturing, but there are always unforeseen consequences, as the plan comes together.

      “It takes real planning to organize this kind of chaos.”
      ― Mel Odom

      Delete
  3. There was talk of a new movie being produced about Israel,
    starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.

    Deadman Walking

    ReplyDelete
  4. How an independent Kurdish state in Iraq would impact the region

    We're going to see more violence, more bloodshed and consequently more waste of resources, including human beings."

    Of course the usual subjects cheer the prospect


    Hassan-Yari said the mixed messages coming from the Turkish government reveal that they are not leaning toward supporting independence.

    "That's why you don't get a very clear position from the Turkish government. At some point they said they can live with the situation and then they say they can't live with it," he said.

    Hassan-Yari also believes independence would also make life difficult of the Kurdish minorities in other countries who would be seen as potential subversives by the respective governments, and consequently treated more badly then before.

    "This situation is going to impact other countries in the region.
    We're going to see more violence, more bloodshed and consequently more waste of resources, including human beings."


    http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/how-an-independent-kurdish-state-in-iraq-would-impact-the-region-1.2696831

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Israel's "Yinon Plan, in a nutshell ...

      We're going to see more violence, more bloodshed and consequently more waste of resources, including human beings.

      Delete
    2. RT
      - Google+
      Sunni militants from the Islamic State have ordered all girls and women aged 11 to 46 in and around the city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation, the UN reported. The potential number of victims is estimated at 4 million.


      Israel prefers al-Qeada

      Delete
    3. “... we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.”

      Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
      “We understand that they are pretty bad guys,” Oren said in the interview.


      http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328

      Delete

  5. Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Thursday resigned in a shock move in protest at the disbanding of the ruling parliamentary coalition, plunging the strife-torn nation into political uncertainty.

    Any bets Mr Yatsenyuk learned the truth about who downed MH17?

    ReplyDelete
  6. VOA News

    Last updated on: July 24, 2014 1:30 PM

    International concern is mounting after a series of explosions hit the United Nations-run school in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more.

    U.N. and Gaza health officials confirmed the school at Beit Hanoun was shelled, but they could not confirm the number of casualties. The school served as a shelter for hundreds of Palestinians fleeing the Israeli military’s Gaza offensive.


    Gaza police said the school was hit by an Israeli shelling.

    The United Nations Relief and Works agency spokesman serving the Palestinian territories, Chris Gunness, said via Twitter that his agency had given the Israeli army "precise coordinates" of the shelter.

    The Israeli Defense Forces released a statement saying "the Hamas terrorists in the area of Beit Hanoun" were "using civilian infrastructure and international symbols as human shields."

    State Department concern

    U.S. State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said, "We are deeply saddened and concerned about the tragic incident at the UN Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] school and about the rising civilian death toll in Gaza. We convey our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and injured in this incident, as well as the UN staff. We again urge all parties to redouble their efforts to protect civilians.

    "This also underscores the need to end the violence and to achieve a sustainable ceasefire and enduring resolution to the crisis in Gaza as soon as possible.

    UN facilities in Gaza are sheltering more than 140,000 Palestinians, including many innocent children, and must remain safe, neutral sanctuaries for fleeing civilians. We call on all parties to protect these facilities from the conflict and we have condemn those responsible for hiding weapons in United Nations facilities in Gaza. We urge all parties to respect civilian life and comply with international humanitarian law."

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have to remember that if I am ever fired upon by someone using a .22 not to use my .357 or .45, much less a .308.

    When a hospital or school is used as a bunker it becomes a military facility and subject to attack.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have you any evidence this school was used as a military facility? From what I've read the IDF were given the schools co-ordinates and the school was being evacuated (as urged by the IDF) when the shells hit.

      Delete
    2. Bunkers don't fire .22s

      Where is the evidence that the hospital WAS being used as a bunker, that SPECIFIC hospital.

      I'd use bold letters, but that seems to make you feel inferior.

      Delete
    3. School, not hospital, this time.

      Since you won't reply, who cares if you're inferior

      Delete
  8. "The Gaza war has done terrible things to Israeli society
    Lisa Goldman
    Contributed to The Globe and Mail
    Published Thursday, Jul. 24 2014, 10:59 AM EDT

    Earlier this month, one of Israel’s most famous writers announced in his weekly newspaper column that he was packing up his family and moving to the United States – permanently. Sayed Kashua, an Arab-Palestinian citizen of Israel who resides in Jerusalem, is the author of critically acclaimed novels and a popular television series, all written in Hebrew with wit and insight into the complex, conflicted society of Arabs and Jews living uneasily side-by-side. But after more than two decades of believing that ultimately Arabs and Jews would find a way to co-exist as equals, he wrote, something inside him “had broken.” He no longer believed in a better future.

    Mr. Kashua’s decision to emigrate came in response to a series of events that were marked by violence and incitement against the Arab population, from the government to the street. One member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, called for a war against the Palestinian people on her Facebook page. Another called an Arab legislator a “terrorist” during a parliamentary committee session, while still another, the leader of an ostensibly centrist party, submitted a proposal to ban an established Arab nationalist party with sitting members of the Knesset. The editor of a right-wing newspaper suggested that now was the time to transfer the Arab population out of the occupied West Bank. In Jerusalem, mobs of hyper nationalist youth rampaged through the cafe-lined downtown streets chanting “death to Arabs,” assaulting random passersby because they looked or sounded Palestinian. Most horrifically of all, a 17 year-old Palestinian boy from East Jerusalem was abducted from the street by six young Jewish men, three of them minors. The police found Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s corpse in the nearby Jerusalem Forest shortly after CCTV cameras recorded some young men forcing him into a car. He had been doused with gasoline and burned alive. Three of the six boys confessed to the crime and re-enacted it for the police.

    This orgy of internecine violence was sparked by the mid-June abduction of three Jewish teenage boys – Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer and and Eyal Yifrah – who were hitchhiking in the West Bank. The army carried out a massive three-week manhunt for the boys, that included pre-dawn raids and dozens of arrests; it ended with the discovery of three corpses buried in a field near Hebron. And while the men who committed the crime were almost certainly Palestinian, Hamas has vociferously denied involvement even as the Israeli government continues to accuse them of masterminding the abduction and murder as an act of terrorism.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After the nationally televised funerals for the boys, with moving eulogies delivered by their mothers, the country seemed to explode. Ultra nationalists openly organized anti-Arab demonstrations via Facebook groups. In response to the murder of Abu Khdeir, the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem demonstrated violently against even more violent paramilitary police, three of whom were filmed beating a handccuffed and unconscious Palestinian-American boy named Tariq Abu Khdeir. And then the rage spread to the Galilee, where Palestinian-Arabs (sometimes called “Arab Israelis”) came out onto the streets to demonstrate; they were met by paramilitary police who used violent crowd control methods usually reserved for the occupied territories – rubber bullets, tear gas and brutal beatings. According to Adalah, a local NGO that monitors minority civil rights in Israel, the police arrested more than 400 Arab citizens for protesting.

      And then the Israeli military announced its third military assault on Gaza in less than six years. The purpose of the operation, announced the government, was to destroy Hamas’s military capacity, stop its military wing from launching rockets at civilian population centers, which was occurring more frequently since the army arrested Hamas members in the West Bank, and “restore peace” to the areas of Israel that border Gaza. The vast majority of Israeli Jews support the military operation, called Protective Edge, but leftist Jews and the Arab minority organized anti-war protests, primarily in liberal Tel Aviv and then in Haifa, a mixed Arab-Jewish city.

      There’s nothing new in seeing a minority of Israelis protest a popular war. It is not unprecedented for that minority to be met by counter-protestors who wrap themselves in the flag and call out insults like “traitor.” But this time something new and worrying happened: Peaceful, unarmed demonstrators in Israel’s two most liberal cities were physically attacked by ultra-nationalists wielding stones and bottles. In Haifa, nationalist thugs assaulted the Arab deputy mayor, slamming the middle-aged man down on the pavement. In Tel Aviv, they chased anti-war protestors into a cafe and smashed a chair over the head of one of them, even as municipal sirens wailed to announce an incoming rocket from Gaza. The police were ineffective in stopping the violence. Later, it emerged that the ultra-nationalist attackers had organized via a Facebook group managed by a well-known rap artist – a tattooed, muscular fellow who goes by the name The Shadow.

      Something has broken down in Israeli society. Friends who always said they would never leave because they were too deeply rooted in the place, its language and their families are deeply worried and even despairing over the radical rightward shift of the mainstream political discourse. Several have said they were looking for opportunities abroad because they couldn’t see themselves raising their children in a country where dissent was slowly but surely being suppressed even as the national discourse hardened rightward.

      Israel has always been a flawed democracy with many festering internal divisions. Its policies toward the Arab minority reflect the unresolved tension of a conflicted identity: Should Israel aspire to be a liberal democracy or a democracy for Jews? But in the five years since Benjamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister and formed a governing coalition composed of far-right, racist and anti-democratic parties, something very fundamental has changed in Israeli society. It feels as though the majority is willing to suspend essential elements of democracy in favor of Jewish nationalism. There doesn’t seem to be a place for dissent anymore."

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-gaza-war-has-done-terrible-things-to-israeli-society/article19737911/#dashboard/alerts

      Delete
    2. The Zionists score another victory, Ash.
      They get a 'Two fer', with Mr Sayed Kashua leaving.
      He being an Arab and Christian, the Zionists will be celebrating his moving out.

      One less copy of the New Testament they have to burn, two fewer Palestinian children to kill.
      The Zionist will be happy to save the bullets.
      Although they have started burning Palestinian children, while still alive.To save the bullet, one assumes.

      Delete
  9. WaPo editorial: Why is the world ignoring Hamas’ depravity?

    posted at 10:01 am on July 24, 2014 by Ed Morrissey



    Why indeed? The LA Times leads today with a huge headline wondering whether the embargo on Gaza because of Hamas’ terrorist activities is justification for, y’know, Hamas’ terrorist activities. Joel Pollak is aghast:

    latimes-gaza

    The authors, Alexandra Zavis and Batsheva Sobelman, accept that Hamas started the war–and even suggest that most Palestinians in Gaza support it, though there is nothing beyond anecdotal evidence to prove that claim. They also describe Hamas’s smuggling tunnels to Egypt–which have been used to import deadly weapons–in positive terms, lamenting their supposed closure: “Residents are left to struggle just to get by.”

    Nowhere–not once–in the entire article do Zavis or Sobelman note the terror tunnels that Hamas has spent the past several years building to attack Israel, diverting humanitarian aid and building materials for that purpose. Nowhere do they mention the fact that Hamas is using Palestinians as human shields, or that Israel has offered many ceasefires, or that the rockets fired from Gaza are intended to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible.

    The article presents “war” or “embargo” as a false choice for Palestinians, utterly ignoring the fact that Gazans could choose peace instead of either of those options. The authors faithfully report the skepticism of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal towards a ceasefire, as if he is a reliable source and his reservations are justified.

    The embargo didn’t precede the terrorism, either. When Israel pulled out of Gaza, they kept control of the border (as did Egypt on the Sinai border), but the embargo didn’t get imposed until Hamas took control and the rockets began raining down indiscriminately on Israeli civilians. Without Hamas and the rockets, there still wouldn’t be an embargo, and the Gaza experience is one reason why Israel is so determined to keep security control over the West Bank no matter what kind of two-state solution emerges. The Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas as their government, and so far haven’t chosen to remove them despite the wars and the embargo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Washington Post editorial board’s essay today could have easily taken the form of an open letter to the LA Times. It responds directly to this assumption that the embargo was the origin of the conflict, and focuses especially on Hamas’ “depravity” in targeting civilians:

      Hamas’s offensive tunnels should not be confused with the burrows it has dug under Gaza’s border with Egypt to smuggle money, consumer goods and military equipment. The newly discovered structures have only one conceivable purpose: to launch attacks inside Israel. Three times in recent days, Hamas fighters emerged from the tunnels in the vicinity of Israeli civilian communities, which they clearly aimed to attack. The ­concrete-lined structures are stocked with materials, such as handcuffs and tranquilizers, that could be used on hostages. Other tunnels in northern Gaza are designed for the storage and firing of missiles at Israeli cities.

      The resources devoted by Hamas to this project are staggering, particularly in view of Gaza’s extreme poverty. By one Israeli account, the typical tunnel cost $1 million to build over the course of several years, using tons of concrete desperately needed for civilian housing. By design, many of the tunnels have entrances in the heavily populated Shijaiyah district, where the Israeli offensive has been concentrated. One was found underneath al-Wafa hospital, where Hamas also located a command post and stored weapons, according to Israeli officials.

      The depravity of Hamas’s strategy seems lost on much of the outside world, which — following the terrorists’ script — blames Israel for the civilian casualties it inflicts while attempting to destroy the tunnels. While children die in strikes against the military infrastructure that Hamas’s leaders deliberately placed in and among homes, those leaders remain safe in their own tunnels. There they continue to reject cease-fire proposals, instead outlining a long list of unacceptable demands.

      The end to the embargo is one of those demands, but that’s not going to happen. How exactly does launching rockets at Israel — a practice that has gone on for years and happens constantly — make the argument that Israel should not control what comes in and out of Gaza? It’d be akin to having al-Qaeda demand we disband TSA as the condition of a truce.

      Mark Regev, the spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu, offered a similar rebuke to Madeline Albright last night on CNN:

      “What would your country do?” We invaded Afghanistan and are still fighting there nearly 13 years later on the basis of one day’s attacks on Washington DC and New York City. Hamas may not have killed 3,000 Israelis, but they’ve launched more than 2100 missiles just since the Gaza war began this month, so it’s not for lack of trying. And finally, Israel keeps accepting the terms of cease-fire proposals from Egypt, the only other country that shares a border with Gaza, and Hamas keeps rejecting them in favor of more attacks on Israel.

      To answer the LA Times, the question isn’t “war or blockade” for Gazans, but “Hamas or peace.” They chose Hamas as their representatives, and their representatives got them a blockade and then provoked a war that will hurt them the most. When the Gazans are ready to get rid of Hamas, Israel will be happy to help.

      Delete
    2. http://hotair.com/archives/2014/07/24/wapo-editorial-why-is-the-world-ignoring-hamas-depravity/


      Why does the management of The Elephant Bar insist on ignoring the depravity of Hamas?

      I honestly don't know.

      Delete
  10. ...probability...savages...

    The UN has already been caught twice with munitions in schools. Israel soldiers are dying playing this game. Someone may have sent a message.

    By the way, my comment had nothing to do with any specific incident. It is a provable fact that Hamas has and does use civilian institutions and civilians as cover...that whole brave Arab warrior routine...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, as of this AM, about 150 of these savages chose surrender rather than paradise. Hmm...

      Delete
    2. "...fierce fighting was going on in the streets outside..." This is the sort of stuff that happens in war. What was Hamas doing fighting around a school to begin with?

      Delete
    3. Hamas should have used another mosque, instead.

      Delete
  11. In Vietnam, we had Free Fire Zones, defoliated entire jungles, carpet bombed Hanoi.........

    The Israelis are Buddhist monks by comparison.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Look what Pooty did to Chechnya.

      The Israelis are Jains in comparison

      Delete
    2. The Russians do not get subsidized by the US.
      Nor does Zimbabwe or North Korea, so they do not receive the same level of scrutiny.

      The Russians don't tell the world that they are genetically superior, are culturally the light of the world.

      Delete
    3. The Israeli could return the 2014 aid money, decline to take any more.
      That would ease a lot of their travails in so far as their bad karma with many in the US is concerned.

      Delete
    4. Aaaaah, that explains it then.

      What insight.

      Delete
    5. Better than no sight at all.

      I do think that you have been blinded by the light, Robert Peterson.

      Delete
  12. Rufus, who certainly would object to the ladies of Clan Rufus having their clits monkeyed with, nevertheless seems het up to fight, if only in imagination, for the Hamas in Gaza.

    He should know that the clit monkeying folk of ISIS are already in Gaza.

    Perhaps Rufus should rethink his outlook?

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4392/isis-gaza

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bob, I asked you earlier how YOU delineated between culture and race and you babbled on about Muslims and Hamas charters and William James. You didn't come close to trying to answer the question. I think it is because you don't delineate between the two and that is why you are a racist.

      Tell me, oh smart Bob, about American Culture. There is just one, right?

      Delete
    2. Israel prefers al-Qeada, Robert Peterson, the Israeli Ambassador to the US said so, he was telling the truth.

      Israel supported ISIS, ran air ops against their common foe. The Israeli "Yinon Plan" is unfolding, the responsibility for ISIS is theirs as much as anyone's.

      Delete
  13. No Ash, there is not just one culture in the United States.

    There are many.

    The farming culture out this way is entirely different than the high rise culture in NYC, or the culture in the black neighborhoods of Philly.

    Why do you torment your elders with such inane stupid questions, noble young man?

    I was just about to take a nap.

    By the way, I hope you don't think a woman's clit should be monkeyed with, do you Ash?

    The clit monkey men from ISIS are in Gaza.........

    Now, please, leave me be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Very good bob. Now you should apply that insight regarding culture to other cultures from your own - i.e. Mexican culture, or, *gasp* Islamic culture.

      Delete
  14. http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-150-hamas-terrorists-surrender-to-idf-1000957726


    allen, just think of the intel…

    LOL

    every tunnel, leader, friend, every training exercise -

    a virtual treasure.

    Just like the tunnels were vastly under estimated, but NOW the facts are clear, this will be the biggest GIFT to Israel so far

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is extraordinary how Israel gets these warriors to sing like fairies. Israel still needs to find and kill the queen's cell. These gentlemen may offer some useful information to that end.

      Delete
  15. I haven't seen any connection between Hamas, and ISIS.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just rewatch the video of the celebrating palestinians BEFORE the ground invasion, may a time you could see the black flag of isis being waved.

      Delete
  16. BTW a better and more accurate title for the thread should be:

    The Appalling Terrorists called Hamas used human shields again, drawing Israeli return fire that hit a School Filled With Civilians, Killing 15 And Wounds 200, a war crime committed again, by Hamas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You ought to put that up on your blog, "O"rdure.

      But then no one would see it, would they?

      Delete
  17. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

    Is Israel the enemy of Palestine?

    Oh yes, let me count the ways.

    If I had an enemy, that did to me and my family, my home, my community, my freedom, my human dignity, my economic welfare, my public health that which Israel does on a daily basis to Palestine, I would make a pact with the devil to put the maximum hurt on my sworn and demonstrated enemy and tormentor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Israel prefers al-Qeada


      The Zionists live and breathe by that mantra.

      They attacked a ship of the US Navy, on the high seas under that pretext.
      Flags don't mean diddly to the Zionist, unless they need them for propaganda.

      They supply no evidence of who was waving that black banner.
      Could have been one of their agents, waving a false flag, just for that reason.

      To get the image.
      The Zionists killed 252 Jewish refugees, for propaganda purposes.
      What objection would they possibly have to one of their paid agents waving a false flag at a Hamas rally?

      Delete
    2. Deuce ☂Thu Jul 24, 06:17:00 PM EDT
      The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

      Is Israel the enemy of Palestine?

      Oh yes, let me count the ways.

      If I had an enemy, that did to me and my family, my home, my community, my freedom, my human dignity, my economic welfare, my public health that which Israel does on a daily basis to Palestine, I would make a pact with the devil to put the maximum hurt on my sworn and demonstrated enemy and tormentor.



      When the arabs of the lands of "palestine" were working with Hitler to cause a genocide for all jews we learned of the evil the arabs were capable us.

      A thousand years living under the brutal oppression of arabs, their rape, their murder, their theft? ALL did not prepare us for how low they could stoop.

      Delete
    3. And yet we didn't cause genocide to the arabs.

      We accepted a 2 state solution.

      We didn't do the hijackings, the pizza and bus bombings..

      the way you look at history is quite amazing.

      Maybe if the Jews were more like the arabs? We would have treated them like they treated us and now they'd only number in the tiniest amount...

      After all there are MORE arabs living as free citizens INSIDE israel today than existed in the entire region just 66 years ago..

      Delete
  18. Re: I would make a pact with the devil to put the maximum hurt on my sworn and demonstrated enemy and tormentor.

    ...no doubt and with the same result...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You and Wio both talk about your carrying propensities and the wahtifs should anyone come down on you or yours. What makes you different from other men?

      Delete
    2. ...nothing...

      This blog and you would not live out a day in Gaza. The first time you said something offensive, you would be dragged into the street, shot, and hanged for viewing.

      http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Report-Alleged-Israeli-strike-on-Sudanese-weapons-arsenal-364664
      Report: Alleged Israeli strike on Sudanese weapons arsenal

      Delete
    3. What an absurd comment. Why would I want to live in Gaza? I don’t belong in Gaza and neither do the settlers.

      Delete
    4. But you claim that Israel does not have a right to be.

      And yet you live in Philadelphia squatting on someone else's land.

      Delete
  19. I am sure the comments by the affirmed friends of Israel, posted here daily, represent a substantial majority of the tormentors of the Palestinians. What human being would stand for that kind of indignation?

    I have no idea how any Israeli with a working brain and claims to have the history of hundreds of generations of indignation, repression and murder against them, would expect any other human being to accept from them what they say will never happen again.

    It is bizarre. It is not a case of if the Arabs will take revenge. It is only a question of when.

    That is not a wish. It is an observation from a man that has no dog in the hunt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. It is bizarre. It is not a case of if the Arabs will take revenge. It is only a question of when.

      The arabs have NEVER stopped taking revenge.

      But your lack of history shows.

      The arabs are STILL pissed daddy loved us more...

      Ishmael? was the offspring of the maid. NOT the wife. The arabs are still pissed.

      and they have butchered us, stolen our lands, raped, enslaved us for THOUSANDS of years.

      It's only been the last 66 that we finally can tell them NOPE you are not going to beat us anymore..

      and they don't LIKE it..

      They really think all the land is theirs, just as you do. A squatter on Indian lands in America.

      Delete
  20. The arabs have attacked Israel from the git go. That is how Israel became involved in Gaza in the first place, through victory in a defensive war.

    If the Gazans would ever just stand down and quit with the bullshit peace would be at hand. Then maybe trust. Then even cooperation.

    Disarm Gaza.

    That's the starting place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The starting place is that the Palestinians didn’t go to Poland or Russia to fuck with the Jews. The Poles and Russians went to them. 600,000 Russians alone since 1967 went because it was a no brainer a US financed low interest home in the sun or another miserable endless gray winter in some shit hole in Russia.

      Delete
    2. Disarm Gaza? You really are delusional.

      Delete
    3. My my Deuce you always forget the 850,000 Jews from the arab occupied world.

      And there always was a Jewish presence in Israel. Even after the brutal arab mass killings...

      You cannot deny OUR connection with our land..

      Well you can, but then you just prove you have no depth.

      Delete
    4. The 850,00 Jews from the Arab world were not Palestinians.

      Delete
    5. You have no more connection to your land thn anyone else on the planet. Get this through your head. You are not special.

      Delete
  21. You can "Trust" in one thing, for sure; yesterday, just like every day before it, Israel kicked some poor Palestinian out of his West Bank home, and installed a Jewish "settler."

    How's That for "Trust?"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's fiction.

      But a fake indian like you should know better.

      Delete
  22. Actually, I take that back. The US Conga Line and the US media ties me and every other American to the disreputable behavior of our most indispensable ally, asset, and fraternal eternal God made me do it alliance. I do hold out for hope that some US politician will just say no, no, no.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I remember that this blog was not the least bit "anti-Israel" during the last Lebanon dust-up, because it was obvious as to who was the aggressor. This time, however, some of us can't help but look at the Palestinians as the "freedom-fighters," and the Israelis as the tyrants.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't wait for someone to start dropping bombs on your cowardly ass, blowing up your kids schools and see how you'd react..

      pussy.

      Delete
    2. Freedom fighters who refused to accept a state when offered 4 times.

      Delete
  24. And, if we are just "Jew-haters," why weren't we "Jew haters," then?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You really need to review the postings from 2006.

      Delete
    2. Rufus, you have been a jew hater since the 1st day I read your writings, Back then you used to say no not me..

      but the mask has dropped and you now feel ok with being the anti-Semitic POS you are..

      congrats on finally admitting you're a racist.

      Delete
  25. I was proud watching US airman painting out the stars and stripes from new Phantoms in 1967 and watching them fly from RAF Bentwaters, flown out to Israel, never to return to a US base again. I was shocked by the later attack on the USS Liberty, but gave Israel the benefit of the doubt, because of the aggression against Israel. I was fairly ignorant of the history of the State of Israel but deeply affected by what happened to the European Jews.

    I was sympathetic to the white settlers in both Rhodesia and South Africa because of the fact that they were born and bred in those countries. I did not appreciate the damage done by European colonialism.

    I bought Israeli bonds while stationed in Greece.

    The Jews I knew from Philadelphia and New York were regular guys. None of them seemed to give a fuck about their religion and neither did I.

    Things changed. Israel changed. Israel has taken advantage of the good will honest people had for them.

    The settler game that Israel has played has been cynical, planned and is wrong. The bullshit by AIPAC is wrong but I don’t blame anyone for that other than our rulers and masters for putting up with it.

    Today, I am no friend of Israel and I am not an enemy. I am a bystander, calling it as I see it and Israel is wrong and in the long run will have to accommodate to the reality and the consequences of bad decisions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bullshit Deuce, you are an enemy of the Jews and Israel.

      OWN IT

      Delete
    2. .

      I have to agree, Deuce.

      When I came to the bar, I knew little about Israel, or Jews for that matter, except from the book Exodus, from US politicians, from its description as a democracy, and from media reports on the '67 war; and as a result I had a generally positive view of it. Of course, I argued with Allen on general principle but back then, other than WiO, who didn't?

      Then the comments started coming from the WiO and Allen Alternate History of the Universe with statements at odds with what I always understood about history. And every time I spent the time to investigate, my views regarding Israel changed and most of the time not for the better.

      .

      Delete
    3. Quirk, trust me you still know little.

      However your absorption of anti-israel nonsense is quite complete.

      Delete
    4. Oh yea, the magic words, the sacred skins, get the fuck over yourselves will you? Please, you are nothing special, just another delusional killer ape.

      Delete
    5. Yep you are the genius that lectures us hourly on the evils of the zionist settler colonial project that has to be erased for peace to break out..

      Delete
    6. When the US took the airport in Lebanon back in the early '80's I asked why. I have followed the region ever since and read as much as I could. I continue to do so.

      The Liberty incident never interested me and still doesn't. I remember early on doubting the Israeli line. I read Palestinian stuff. It was awful. I read Ariel Sharon's auto biography more than once. He's a literate guy. However, as much as I sympathize with the Israelis they ate still, on balance, in the wrong and they are the architects of their own destruction. They are not acting well.

      I have observed, on numerous occasions, Rat, Deuce, and others, once they examine the history, despite the.Palestinian bad behavior, still condemn Israeli behavior.

      rat, years ago, was a 'might makes right' kinda guy who sided with Israel. Not anymore!

      you guys, Allen in particular, who prides himself on ethics and the power of intelligence, really should step back and re-examine your motives and conclusions!

      Delete
  26. If you watch some of the YouTube videos, there are more than a few Jews who denounce the Zionists as "Jew Haters".

    Fellows that must be "Real" Jews, they interview on FOX News. So the Jewish bonafines must be legitimate. The fellas that post here, Ms T told us at least one was bogus, a fraud, a false flag flier. His positions are Zionist, not Jewish, per se.

    Who really knows, but it was his rants and raves that made me investigate the situation. Went from being a unknowing, knee jerk supporter of the Israeli, to becoming educated to the realities of the 21st century.

    When we started here, at the EB, Deuce has a headline that stated, to paraphrase, "The Problem is Islam".
    Now that may not be exact, but it is close.

    So, in eight years, the tide has turned for two of us, how many more will be convinced by our fellow contributors to investigate, to follow the links, to educate themselves to the realities of the 21st century, leaving the 20th behind us.

    Don't really know, but one will be sufficient.
    I know that the rants, raves and cries of sexual perversion that emanate from our Zionists, will convince no one of their righteousness.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Does Hamas believe that a raid into Israel from its tunnels would not bring down it the wrath of G-d (figuratively)? This notion is insane. At most, it would get a score or two of men into Israel before it came under fire. Then what? What? That's right.

    Hamas has used an estimated 600,000 tons of cement to build tunnels to oblivion. This, while its people live in squalor and its top leadership lives in luxury abroad. Donkeys crap on unpaved streets and cruise ships pass in the night. This is what a foreign policy based on Islam and hatred gets you.

    A generation of Israelis is growing into leadership positions. They have witnessed suicide bombings and rocket attacks since birth. They are cold, indifferent, and methodical. Hamas will not always have Livni and Netanyahu to rely upon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who put them is squalor? They can be as cold and as methodical as a herrscher. You are on the wrong side of history.

      Delete
    2. Themselves.

      The arabs do not lack for cash

      Delete
    3. The Palestinians do lack for cash, the Zionists have killed their access to markets.

      The blockade, an act of war, has seen to that

      Delete
    4. Hamas says Gaza blockade must end before ceasefire
      BBC News-Jul 23, 2014

      The leader of Islamist militant group Hamas has said there can be no ceasefire to ease the conflict in Gaza without an end to Israel's blockade.

      Delete
    5. Christian Post-

      "They (Hamas) want a meaningful ceasefire to end the seven years of blockade and travel restrictions that make Gaza one large prison.

      Delete
  28. I do not believe it would be possible, in a lifetime, to spend less energy contemplating "Jews, and Judaism" than I have.

    But, they have totally screwed this "Palestinian" deal up. And, they seem dead set on making it worse.

    Somebody over there needs to "wake up and smell the coffee."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember I set Matusela, (I think that's how he spelled it) off with the statement that George Marshall threatened Harry Truman with resignation over the signing off on support for the creation of Israel. However, it was a statement of fact, not enmity. Marshall said it would lead to fifty (or, maybe a hundred) years of war, and turmoil, and I allowed as to how he was right. And, of course, he Was right.

      But, again, it was Not a statement of disdain, or hatred, of the Jews; it was just a fact.

      And, actually, even the Liberty incident was not enough to turn me absolutely anti-Israel. I've been in "war," and I know that some weird shit can get ordered in the course of conflict. In fact, as I learned about the Liberty mess, I was too outraged at Johnson, and our own assholes, to have all that much left to spare for Tel Aviv.

      And, I do not, today, "hate" Jews. To me, they're just "people." BUT, those asshole running that show over there are fucking up. And, they're fucking up, Bad. I really hate to see the United States, as fucked up as We are, sometimes, tied at the hip to that bunch. They are just another self-inflicted wound that we don't need.

      Delete
    2. It is the government of the Israel, the policies they pursue and the support that they derive from US that is at issue.

      It is their problem, the results of the policies they pursue, but they reflect negatively upon US.
      So the US should terminate the support to that government.

      The arguments of the supporters of tha government are consistently ad hominem. They never wish to discuss the issues.

      They constantly wish to conflate the government with Judaism.
      Claiming that any disagreement on the policies is tantamount to supporting the Holocaust.
      That voicing displeasure at the waste of US taxpayer monies in support of these fruitless military escapades is the same as supporting those being impacted by the US funded weaponry.

      Complete foolishness on the part of the Zionists.

      They deny the history of their own ideology and their own supposed religion.
      They claim genetic superiority over the oppressed peoples they have conquered.
      And over the people that fund their military adventures.

      Really quite strange, but the facts have been laid out here. Their behavior patterns well documented.
      From advocating a nuclear attack on Mecca to cheering the dropping hundreds of tons of munitions on the hapless inhabitants of Gaza.

      The US should "Cut Them Loose" and they should do what they wish, without involving US.
      But until that day comes, the actions of their government will be fair game for complaint and criticism.

      As for the USS Liberty, if the Israeli had spoken the truth about their actions, as even the North Koreans have, as did Colonel Q of Libya, that would be one thing. Forgivable even, but instead they lie and dissemble, attempting o blame victim of the aggression, as is their wont.



      Delete
    3. As for the USS Liberty, if the Israeli had spoken the truth about their actions,

      They apologized immediately and paid reparations.

      Delete
    4. As their representative, here, "O"rdure you have poisond the waters.

      You have spoken, representing Israel and claimed any variety of reasons for the attack and any number of justifications for it.
      You have done your country a disservice. That's on you, "O"rdure.

      That die is cast. There is no apology, no reparation that will suffice, now.
      Never Forget.

      The Germans have paid reparations, they have apologized, but the Zionist won't let them go.
      Welcome to the "Equivalency Standard", "O"rdure.

      Same standard the Zionists use on others, will be used on them.

      Delete
    5. Christian Post-6 hours ago
      "They (Hamas) want a meaningful ceasefire to end the seven years of blockade and travel restrictions that make Gaza one large prison.

      Delete
    6. Jack HawkinsThu Jul 24, 08:58:00 PM EDT
      As their representative, here, "O"rdure you have poisond the waters.

      You a self confessed killer of civilians, you who have harassed and threatened myself and bob at the blog to a point we reported you for death threats.. You have zero credibility other than being a cyber bully and all around shit of a human..

      Dont lecture me about "my" country. My country? Conquered the Indians and put in a transatlantic rail system, a man on the moon and drops atom bombs on the Japs.

      My Country? Refused jews fleeing from the death camps and sent them back to die.

      My Country? created assholes like you to go and murder children.

      My Country? Has had it's moments. Good and bad,

      Delete
    7. Your country is Israel "O"rdure and it has nothing to do with the US

      If there is a confession, post it.

      Delete
    8. Like all Zionists fraud, fabrications and fantasies, that is all "O"rdure has to offer.

      Comical, if not so tragic for the Palestinians.

      Delete
    9. What is "Occupation"Thu Jul 24, 09:24:00 PM EDT
      ...
      My Country? Refused jews fleeing from the death camps and sent them back to die.


      No, "O"rdure, your Zionists killed them, all 252 of them, off the shores of Palestine, in 1940.
      Killed them DEAD

      Your country, your Zionist forebears killed them.
      Get it right Israeli!

      Do not deny YOUR own history.

      Delete
  29. It is spreading and like the East Germans the Israelis think they can hold it down with state police and guns. It is too late for that.

    Israeli security forces have shot dead two Palestinians during a massive protest in the West Bank, according to medical officials.

    The victims were among an estimated 10,000 people who clashed with soldiers and border police at a checkpoint in Qalandiya, between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

    The protest came hours after 15 people were killed and more than 200 injured when a UN school in the city of Beit Hanoun was hit by an artillery shell.

    At least 90 people were injured in the checkpoint clashes, with some reports that live fire was being used.

    An Israeli army spokeswoman told the AFP news agency soldiers were using "riot disposal means" to control the protest

    ReplyDelete
  30. I love the smell of tyranny unravelling.

    ReplyDelete
  31. AL AMARI REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — Maher al-Naden, a street cleaner, said he had stopped buying Tapuzina, a popular Israeli orange-flavored drink, and Israeli dairy products.

    “This is the least we can do,” he said this week, expressing frustration as a West Bank Palestinian who is essentially a spectator of the war in Gaza. Across the alley from where he stood, in this teeming refugee camp abutting Ramallah, a small Internet cafe called Facebook bore a new-looking sign with a silhouette of a masked, armed fighter.

    More than two weeks into the deadly fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, here in the realm of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, daily life has continued more or less as normal, punctuated by nighttime clashes at friction points around the West Bank between stone-throwing youths and Israeli forces.

    On Thursday night, thousands of Palestinians marched from Al Amari to the Qalandia checkpoint that separates Ramallah from Jerusalem, many carrying Palestinian flags and wearing black T-shirts with the slogan, “We are all Gaza.” Some middle-class families came with children; in the front lines, dozens of masked young men hurled stones and firecrackers and clashed with Israeli security forces, roaring,

    “With our soul and blood, we will redeem Gaza.”

    ReplyDelete
  32. The problem with the Israelis is that they really don’t know how to fight. They have no street smarts at all. You can tell that by the ragtag look of their army. Knowing how to kill is not knowing how to fight. A good fighter knows the limits of the game. You never want an opponent that wants to kill you if he loses. That fight never ends. The Israelis don’t know how to win. They humiliate their enemy. The people in the Gaza Strip think they have nothing to lose. They can fight a war of attrition and Israel can’t. They know it and Hamas knows it. A good fighter never should fight someone under his class, because he can never really win. Netanyahu surprised me that he got sucked into this.

    ReplyDelete
  33. The Obituary

    The End of Israel
    by Gilad Atzmon / July 21st, 2014

    In his speech to the nation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged yesterday that the war on Gaza is a battle for the existence of the Jewish State. Netanyahu is correct. And Israel cannot win this battle; it cannot even define what a victory might entail. Surely the battle is not about the tunnels or the militants’ underground operation, the tunnels are just weapons of resistance rather than the resistance itself. The Hamas and Gaza militants lured Israel into a battle zone in which it could never succeed and Hamas set the conditions, chose the ground and has written the terms required to conclude this cycle of violence.

    For ten days Netanyahu did all he could to prevent an IDF ground operation. He was facing the reality that Israel lacks a military answer to Palestinian resistance. Netanyahu knew that a defeat on the ground would eradicate the little that remains of IDF’s power of deterrence.

    Five days ago, Israel, at least in the eyes of its supporters, held the upper ground. It saw it citizens subject to an endless barrage of rockets, yet it showed relative restraint, killing Palestinian civilians only from afar, which served to convey an imaginary image of strength. But that has changed rapidly since Israel launched its ground operation. Israel is now, once again, involved in colossal war crimes against a civilian population and worse, at least strategically, its elite infantry commandos are being eradicated in a face-to-face street battle in Gaza. In spite of clear Israeli technological superiority and firepower, the Palestinian militants are winning the battle on the ground and they have even managed to move the battle to Israeli territory. In addition, the barrage of rockets on Tel Aviv doesn’t seem to stop.

    IDF’s defeat in Gaza leaves the Jewish State with no hope. The moral is simple. If you insist on living on someone else’s land, military might is an essential ingredient to discourage the dispossessed from acting to reclaim their rights. The level of IDF casualties and the number of bodies of Israeli elite soldiers returning home in coffins send a clear message to both Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli military superiority belongs to the past. There is no future for the Jews-only-State in Palestine; they may have to try somewhere else.

    Gilad Atzmon, now living in London, was born in Israel and served in the Israeli military. He is the author of The Wandering Who and one of the most accomplished jazz saxophonists in Europe. He can be reached at: atz@onetel.net.uk. Read other articles by Gilad, or visit Gilad’s website.

    ReplyDelete
  34. A Rat leaving the sinking ship ...

    Peres steps down as Israeli president

    (Reuters) - Israel's elder statesman Shimon Peres bowed out of active political life on Thursday with an ardent defence of the war in Gaza against Hamas militants and a defiant prediction that peace will "one day" come to the ...

    ReplyDelete
  35. As a Sakharov laureate and a mother, I call on the EU to help save Palestinians – and Israel
    By contributors | Jul. 24, 2014 |

    By Nurit Peled-Elhanan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Via The Conversation

    Times are very rough for both Israeli and Palestinian families. The death toll in Gaza currently stands at around 620, 74 of whom are children. The death toll in Israel stands at 30, two of whom were civilians. Three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered in the West Bank. A Palestinian youth from Jerusalem was burned alive by Jewish extremists.

    Dangerous and violent racism against Arab Israeli citizens encouraged by Israeli ministers and parliament members leads to riots in the streets, breeds aggression and severe discrimination against Palestinians, along with a new aggression against peace activists.
    Israel is currently suffering from an unprecedented social and economic crisis. The single source for this crisis is Israel’s destructive occupation. The occupation has raised two generations of Palestinians as prisoners jailed between military checkpoints and walls.

    The two generations of Israelis who believe that they are the lords of the land are nurtured by the illusion that the oppression of 4.5m Palestinians gives them security and peace, and that such an oppressive society is capable of raising compassionate children. Therefore they are shocked when their boys become ruthless killers, as is revealed by current events.

    Illegal settlements

    One of the most dominant and disastrous expressions of the occupation is the settlement project in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which is illegal under international law. The settlements allow Israel to take control of Palestinians’ natural resources in violation of international law, to strengthen its presence in the territories, and to make the occupation irreversible.
    Despite agreements, international resolutions and Israeli promises, the settlements are expanding. All the while, Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and so-called “Area C” (61% of the West Bank, under full Israeli control) are constantly destroyed.
    While water flows in the settlements without limitation, Palestinian villages live under a cruel water regime, as was recently pointed out by the president of the European parliament, Martin Schultz, during a speech he made before the Israeli Parliament. Many roads are closed to Palestinians and the restriction of movement is unbearable.

    ReplyDelete
  36. World must do more

    To this day, the international community has not done enough to stop Israeli settlements. European countries have profoundly criticised them while continuing to co-operate fully with Israel, economically, politically and militarily. As a result, Israel does not pay any price for seriously violating international law. On the contrary, Europe also pays for much of the humanitarian damage of the occupation, making it even easier for Israel to maintain.

    A year ago, the EU made a small step in the right direction: guidelines were issued prohibiting EU institutions to fund or to finance research organisations and activities in the settlements. Twenty European countries have published formal warnings to their citizens and companies regarding trade and financial relations with the settlements.

    And yet, these measures do not seriously challenge Israeli policy in occupied Palestine. Europe could do much better as illustrated by its response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. It took the EU a few weeks – not years – to make its stance against Russian actions crystal clear. Just this week the EU has taken a further bold step in suspending the funding of new public-sector projects in Russia by the EU’s lending institution, the European Investment Bank.

    This is in addition to the previous decision to ban the import of Crimean goods, and to impose targeted sanctions on both Russian and Ukrainian officials and on business firms operating in Crimea. This all occurred, of course, well before the Malaysian jet was shot down just this week.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Israel fostering apartheid

    Israel controls millions of Palestinians under an ongoing military occupation, claiming that this situation is “temporary”. However, a military occupation of 47 years, which includes the establishment of settlements, cannot be described as “temporary”.

    As an Israeli longing for peace and justice, I believe Europe has to contain the settlement policy with greater determination and more concrete measures.

    The world increasingly understands the threat that the settlements pose to peace and stability in the region.

    Over time, neither Palestinians nor Israelis can survive without freedom and independence for the Palestinians. Already, the undemocratic character of the state of Israel is increasingly transforming it into an apartheid state.

    For the two nations living in this region, there is a joint and real interest in ending the Israeli occupation as a precondition for peace. We, the citizens of Israel and the stateless people of Palestine, cannot bring this about on our own. We need the help of the international community at large and of the EU in particular.

    As a laureate of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Human Rights, and as a mother and a human being, I call on the EU to use all the diplomatic and economic tools at its disposal to help save my country from the abyss of eternal occupation and injustice.

    The Conversation

    Nurit Peled-Elhanan is a Lecturer in the School of Education at Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    This article was originally published on The Conversation.

    ReplyDelete
  38. LONDON: In a stern stand, Britain said on Thursday that the west is becoming less sympathetic to Israel’s cause.

    Britain's new foreign secretary Philip Hammond told Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu that Britain was "gravely concerned" by the number of civilian casualties suffered in Gaza over the course of the past two and a half weeks.

    Last week, Hammond urged Israel to act "in a way that is proportionate" and do all it can to "prevent unnecessary loss of civilian life".

    With the death toll on both sides having risen to 750, Hammond said, "Britain has been very clear that Israel has the right to defend itself and its citizens but we are gravely concerned by the ongoing heavy level of civilian casualties. We want to see a ceasefire quickly agreed".

    Visiting Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories on July 23 and 24, Hammond met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.

    The foreign secretary said, "The conflict in Gaza is taking a terrible toll. With more than 700 Palestinians killed, including more than 150 children, as well as the loss of more than 30 Israeli lives, it is beyond time to bring an end to this conflict and stop the bloodshed".

    "I stressed to all those I saw my deep concern at the high numbers of civilian casualties and the humanitarian impact of the conflict. I underlined the need for all concerned to exert every effort to secure an immediate ceasefire to end the violence. With President Abbas, I expressed my concern for the heavy loss of civilian lives in Gaza, including many women and children. I reiterated the UK's strong support for his leadership and thanked him for his own efforts to achieve a ceasefire. I stressed that, once a ceasefire is secured, there is an urgent need for a long term plan for Gaza"

    ReplyDelete

  39. Unless Israel lifts its blockade of Gaza, no ceasefire can work

    Freedom, jobs and a future for Palestinians in Gaza are the best insurance policy Israel can have

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Israeli officials claim that they offered “quiet for quiet”. A ceasefire for Israelis equals a normal life. But that's not the case Palestinians, for whom the seven-year blockade is a daily aggression. For ordinary Palestinian citizens, the blockade means being unable to fish beyond three nautical miles off the shore of Gaza. They cannot travel and trade freely, meaning that 70 per cent of the population is aid dependent, a figure that has surely risen over the last three weeks. Palestinians briefly had an airport, only to see it bombed. They were even promised a port under Oslo, but nothing materialised.

      The key Palestinian demand is that they escape becoming what David Cameron in 2010 referred to “a giant open prison in Gaza."
      As one Palestinian from Gaza said to me:
      “We are all prisoners, including women and children. Our kids are born in captivity. What would Americans do it they were born in Alcatraz? Would they just sit back and wait to be released?”


      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/10988692/Unless-Israel-lifts-its-blockade-of-Gaza-no-ceasefire-can-work.html

      Delete
    2. Talk to your brother arabs in egypt,,,

      Delete
  40. WiO,

    Don't you feel terrible? I know I do. Why, we have made all these fine fellows anti-Semites! We have done to them what the Jews did to the Germans, Austrians, Greeks, Ukrainians, Poles, Rumanians, French, Italians, Croatians, Russians, Danes, etc.

    I probably won't catch a wink of sleep. To pass the time, I will try to work out the mystery of the "Holy Trinity".

    Meanwhile, Americans still support Israel, the EU Foreign Ministers have demanded the disarming of Hamas, Arab warriors are surrendering in batches, and John Kerry is sleeping on a lumpy mattress in Cairo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love the reports of the death of the State of Israel.

      Of course, not one of these so called experts has ever been there.

      They just are clue-less.

      Watching the riots on the west bank are pure theater.

      The real story? Is what Egypt is doing to squash the Hamas, what Syria is doing to the Palestinans, what Lebanon has done and is doing to the palestinians. OF course the Kuwaitis threw out 55,000 palestinians after the palestinians worked with Saddam when he invaded....

      Hamas and the Palestinians are losing. There is no "peace partner" because the Palestinians don't want peace, they want to win.

      To liken what is happening in Gaza and now the West Bank to genocide and slaughter? Devalues the terms.

      But like the boy who cried wolf? No one in the world really gives a shit anymore. they KNOW the crap, the murder, the bombings, the kidnappings.

      EVERY where the Palestinians go? They cause death and destruction.

      ISIS are the blood cousins of the Hamas. And it shows.

      Delete
    2. And Hamas is losing and has lost almost all of it's supporters..

      Hezbollah basically said you are one your own. Iran promised cash to rebuild, (thanks to obama they will get 2 + billion for doing nothing) Egypt has turned, Tunisia has turned.

      Only Yemen, Sudan, Turkey, Iran and Qatar are standing for them...

      Israel is winning the real war, not the press war, not the social media war, not the british stiff upper lip tea party war, not the angry leftist anarchist war...

      But you notice, there is no real protests? The world is concerned about Russia and China. High prices and devaluing of currencies and inflation.

      Americans? Are broke. and in the end they see that the palestinians shooting thousands of rockets at civilians on purpose see the truth, they understand what islamic terrorists are.. and they don't like them...

      Delete
  41. Deuce ☂Thu Jul 24, 08:34:00 PM EDT
    Who put them is squalor? They can be as cold and as methodical as a herrscher. You are on the wrong side of history.

    :-) Dream on. We are history.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Allen Deuce doesn't understand real history.

      He has made it clear. He believes the ONLY way to have peace? Is the dismantling of the "zionist settler colonial enterprise" and that the Jews should live as a minority in a majority arab state called palestine.

      Or as I like to call it suicide.

      Delete
    2. That is the position your forebears put you in, "O"rdure.
      What is so sad, for you and yours, they knew they were doing it.

      Ben-Gurion declared ...
      "Why should the Arabs make peace?
      If I were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel.

      That is natural: we have taken their country.
      "

      There has been antisemitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault?

      They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country.
      Why should they accept that?
      They may perhaps forget in one or two generations' time, but for the moment there is no chance.
      So, it's simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army.
      Our whole policy is there. Otherwise the Arabs will wipe us out.


      But the Arabs will never forget, never cede their ancestral birthright to a bunch of European colonialists.
      And the Zionists cannot sustain themselves without US.


      Delete
    3. .

      Allen Deuce doesn't understand real history.

      You should send him an autographed copy of the WiO and Allen's Alternate History of the Universe.

      .

      Delete
  42. .

    There was an ancient people who thought they were a master race.

    Hosea 8:7 redux?

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice misreading. But thanks for reminding us all that the Land of Israel is and was the Jewish peoples for thousands of years and the fake nationalistic people who call themselves "palestinians' are not mentioned ONCE in the Torah.

      Delete
    2. Neither were the Ashkenazi, "O"rdure.

      Delete
    3. Neither were the Zionists

      Those two frauds that have hijacked Judaism were not mentioned in the Torah, "O"rdure.

      Delete
    4. .

      "palestinians' are not mentioned ONCE in the Torah.

      :-)

      Somehow I doubt the Palestinians are real worried about being left out of the Torah.

      .

      Delete
    5. .

      From the WiO and Allen's Alternate History of the Universe

      But thanks for reminding us all that the Land of Israel is and was the Jewish peoples for thousands of years

      Of course, there is also the orthodox history recognized by everyone else.

      1800 BC Abraham moves to Canaan and herds sheep for 500 years
      1300 BC Philistines and Israelite steel lands from the Canaanites
      1000 BC Israel conquers the city on the hill and renames it Jerusalem.
      Israel rules for 300 years.
      721 BC Assyria rules.
      586 BC Babylon rules.
      539 BC Persians rule.
      331 BC Greeks rule.
      166 BC Rule of the Maccabees
      63 BC Roman rule.
      614 AD Persians rule
      628 AD Romans rule.
      638 AD Muslims rule.
      1099 AD Crusaders rule.
      1167 AD Muslims rule.
      1517 AD Ottoman rule.
      1831 AD Egyptian rule.
      1840 AD Ottoman rule.
      1923 AD British Mandate
      1948 AD Jews declare State of Israel

      .

      Delete
    6. Looks like a lot of folks have come and gone, Q, and the Jews are still there.

      Does this tell you anything at all?

      Delete
    7. .

      It tells me they have no more right to land in Palestine than anyone else based on an argument of 'historical homeland'. It's a silly argument. Out of 4000 years of history, Israel controlled the land for maybe 400 years or so, the last time, that is before 1948, was 2000 years ago.

      .

      Delete
    8. All righty, then.

      How about on cultural grounds?

      The place was a destitute mess before the Israelis showed up again.

      Now it is doing extremely well.

      And it is a democracy.

      And it is not an apartheid state, though I am starting to think perhaps it should be.

      As WiO says, the Arabs is Israel proper are doing well, sit in the Knesset, and are living better than Arabs anywhere else.

      Women have rights. Their clits are safe. They vote. They run for Prime Minister. They dress as they please.

      Israel has not started an offensive war.

      They have been playing defense all the way through.

      If you don't like the Jewish idea of their connection to this land, then look at the matter from these other perspectives.



      Delete
    9. Then consider the matter from the point of view of culture.

      The place was a poverty stricken mess before the Jews showed up again.

      They made something of it. They put science to it. They farmed it. They brought it back to life. The Bedouin came in for the jobs.

      It is a democracy. People have rights. As WiO says, the Arabs in Israel proper have the best life of any Arabs anywhere. They don't wish to leave. Some sit in the Knesset.

      Women have rights. Their clits are safe in Israel. They vote. The run for Prime Minister. One woman has been Prime Minister. They dress as they please. They are not owned by some asshole man or other.

      Israel has not started wars. They have played defense. They won. Hence they were in Gaza, and are in the West Bank.

      Much of the populace of Israel is secular. They do not get killed for having a different opinion. They are free to change religions, form their own ideas.

      I could go on and on.

      If you don't like the Jewish feeling of connectedness to that land - and where really are they to go, after what they suffered in POLAND - consider the matter from the point of view of culture.

      Some cultures are simply better than others.

      Judaism is light years ahead of Islam in this regard.

      You go live in Tehran. I'll go live in Tel Aviv.

      Delete
    10. Thought that first post had vanished, so I wrote the second.

      I'd rather live in Tel Aviv than Detroit or Philly, to be honest about it.

      But best of all is Idaho.

      Delete
    11. I'm just happy that you have blessed us all with your presence here tonight, Quirk.

      I know it is a sacrifice for you.

      Thank you so much.

      CHEERS

      Delete
    12. .

      You are a fool, Bob.

      How about on cultural grounds?

      Cultural grounds? As I recall, it was Israelis that burned the Arab boy alive.

      The place was a destitute mess before the Israelis showed up again.

      I agree Israel deserves the credit for what has been done there. However, the 'place' is still one half destitute mess. Israel is fine but the occupied territories are a basket case in large part due to Israeli policies.

      And it is a democracy.

      A number of organizations put out annual listings ranking countries on their degree of democracy. In the studies I have seen Israel is designated a 'flawed democracy', it is a bifurcated system which has two sets of rules, those for Jews and those for everyone else, and who is a Jew is determined by the Chief Rabbinate.

      And it is not an apartheid state, though I am starting to think perhaps it should be.

      It does not surprise me at all that you would think so. You talk about all you are learning about India yet you evidently do not bother to learn anything about the country you constantly defend here. Regardless of de facto conditions in India, that country outlawed the caste system six decades ago. The prohibition is written into its constitution. Over that same six decades, Israel has written a caste system into its laws, rules that vary depending upon whether you are a Jew or not.

      As WiO says, the Arabs is Israel proper are doing well, sit in the Knesset, and are living better than Arabs anywhere else.

      So you are saying they should be grateful that they are allowed to live as second class citizens in a country where many have had homes going back generations and predate the recent waves of Jewish immigrants.

      Women have rights. Their clits are safe. They vote. They run for Prime Minister. They dress as they please.

      Lord, ignorant and bigoted.

      Israel has not started an offensive war.

      Nonsense. Bibi started this one. Only a fool would think otherwise. There was no way he was about to let the union of Fatah and Hamas stand. He pissed and moaned about the union but no one listened not even the US. When the three boys were kidnapped and killed he wasn't about to let a good crisis go to waste. He immediately declared Hamas was the perpetrator yet after all these weeks and the ensuing fighting he has yet to show one piece of evidence as proof. For three weeks he imposed a news blackout and during that time he arrested over 400 Hamas members. With that many perps you would have thought someone would have noticed them kidnapping the boys. Maybe they traveled around in a little clown car.

      When the Arab boy was burned alive by Israeli right-wing thugs and Hamas started sending more rockets in, that was Bibi's chance to attempt to take out Hamas once and for all. We see the result today.

      .

      Delete
  43. Slumming are we tonight, Quirk?

    ;)

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    1. .

      I couldn't help but agree with Deuce's post above on the process of enlightenment and on the catalyst WiO and Allen provide for that process.

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      I didn't mention you as you are merely one of the ill-read useful idiots.

      .

      Delete
  44. HERE IS A TRUE STATEMENT -

    Rufus IIThu Jul 24, 07:30:00 PM EDT

    I do not believe it would be possible, in a lifetime, to spend less energy contemplating "Jews, and Judaism" than I have.


    :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)


    BWABWABWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHARDEHARHAR

    And it shows.

    WHAT A WONDERFUL ADMISSION OF ILLITERACY

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Short on the neurons, but a heart as big as all Montana.

      Delete
  45. The only person here I am truly disappointed in is poor old Quirk the Logician.

    And here all along I thought he had a brain and some good sense.

    Well, being Polish, and a lapsed Catholic, that is hard to overcome.

    "How do you catch a Pole when he is drinking water?"

    "You slam the toilet seat on his head."

    Quirk, go back to Vodka.

    You are drinking toilet water these days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (Maria must have left poor old Quirk in the lurch tonight)

      Delete
    2. .

      Ahhhh. Lobby humor.

      I haven't heard anything like that since I was in grade school. You should get a few laughs when you visit comic con.

      Kinda sounds like something Allen would come up with. Your pals might get a chuckle even if you can't tell it in the original Hebrew.

      .




      Delete
    3. I've used it before in reference to you, Sir.

      You must have missed it.

      It never gets old.

      Gets howls of laughter every time.

      :) !

      Delete
    4. (I first heard it way back in High School. Was a big favorite then, too)

      Delete
    5. .

      Grade school humor in most of the country.

      High school humor in Idaho.

      Yea, that sounds about right.

      .

      Delete
    6. Bob OreilleFri Jul 25, 01:43:00 AM EDT
      The only person here I am truly disappointed in is poor old Quirk the Logician.

      And here all along I thought he had a brain and some good sense.

      Well, being Polish, and a lapsed Catholic, that is hard to overcome....


      No wonder you get Rat frothing at the mouth.

      Delete
  46. How to break Hamas’s stranglehold on Gaza



    By David Ignatius July 21

    What goal is Israel pursuing in its latest war in Gaza? That has been a hard question to answer, as Israel expanded its war aims from seeking “quiet” from Hamas rocket attacks to closing tunnels to destroying rocket-launch sites in northern Gaza.
    epa04305646 Smoke rises after an attack of Israeli aircraft in the South of Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 08 July 2014. Israel the same day launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip by conducting a series of fresh airstrikes in response to increasing rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. There have been more than 120 Israeli airstrikes in the coastal enclave, according to Palestinian sources, while hundreds of rockets and mortar shells have landed in southern Israel. Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said the offensive, named Protective Edge, could grow into a 'ground mission if required.' EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
    Smoke rises after an attack of Israeli aircraft in Gaza City on July 8. (Mohammed Saber/European Pressphoto Agency)

    The tragedy of this approach is that it brings death and destruction without a change in the status quo. Israel fights now, knowing that it’s likely to have to come back again in a few years to degrade Hamas’s military capability once more. Some Israelis are said to describe this recurring process as “mowing the lawn,” according to an article last week in The Post.

    I heard a more ambitious strategy for Gaza Monday from Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, a retired chief of Israeli military intelligence who now heads the country’s leading think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies. He spoke by telephone from his home in Israel as he watched Hamas rockets flare toward Tel Aviv only to be destroyed by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

    The essence of Yadlin’s proposal is to capitalize on the extreme weakness of Hamas by letting the Palestinians go forward with a “unity government” under a reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah announced in April. At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the idea, but Yadlin argues that taking a performance-based approach to this united government is the best way to move forward and break Hamas’s stranglehold on Gaza.




    ReplyDelete
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    1. The core of Yadlin’s argument is that Hamas has never been weaker than now. Its own war strategy is a shambles: Its missiles aren’t hitting Israeli cities; its fighters aren’t able to sneak through tunnels and perform suicide missions or conduct kidnapping operations. Its base in Syria is lost and its patrons in the Muslim Brotherhood have been toppled from power in Egypt.

      Hamas’s biggest weakness of all is its unpopularity among Palestinians in Gaza now. A poll taken in June, before the latest fighting began, showed that 70 percent of Gazans wanted a continuing cease-fire with Israel; 57 percent wanted a Fatah-Hamas unity government to renounce violence against Israel; 73 percent thought nonviolent resistance had a positive impact, and large majority thought Hamas had failed to deal with crime and corruption.

      The future? Asked if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas should send security personel and other officials to take over administration of Gaza, 65 percent said yes. The poll was published in July by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and its senior fellow, David Pollock.

      Yadlin argues that Israel should encourage what the Palestinians say they want. Specifically, Israel should halt its attack on Gaza if Hamas agrees to accept an Egypt-brokered cease-fire that would install a unity government, schedule early elections and commit to a demilitarization of rockets and other heavy weapons in Gaza. My colleague Jackson Diehl made a similar argument in an important piece in The Post this morning.

      Yadlin lists three basic elements of this strategy: An Israeli decision that Hamas must go and its military capability must not be rebuilt; an Israeli rejection of a limited strategy of trading “quiet for quiet”; and an endorsement of the Palestinian Authority’s return to power in Gaza. With this kind of framework, he argues, it might be possible to gain European, Arab and American support for a Marshall Plan-style effort to rebuild poor, tragic, devastated Gaza after so many years of intermittent war.

      Delete
    2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/07/21/how-to-break-hamass-stranglehold-on-gaza/

      David Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column and contributes to the PostPartisan blog.

      Delete
    3. .

      Yadlin should read the newspapers. They had all that under the reconciliation proposal between Fatah and Hamas.

      It scared Bibi to death.

      .

      Delete
  47. But the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), posting on its official Twitter feed, said Hamas had prevented people evacuating the area.

    It wrote: "Last night, we told Red Cross to evacuate civilians from UNRWA's shelter in Beit Hanoun btw 10am & 2pm. UNRWA & Red Cross got the message.

    "Hamas prevented civilians from evacuating the area during the window that we gave them.

    "Today Hamas continued firing from Beit Hanoun. The IDF responded by targeting the source of the fire.

    "Also today, several rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel fell short and hit Beit Hanoun."
    A Palestinian man holds a girl, whom medics said was injured in an Israeli shelling at a U.N-run school sheltering Palestinian refugees, at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip The IDF said Hamas prevented people evacuating the school area

    Israel's military said it had acted "against a terrorist target located in a populated area", promising a probe into what happened.

    "I accept it could have been Israeli fire" that landed on the UN school in Gaza, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said.

    Last week, the UNRWA slammed militants after it discovered around 20 rockets were being kept in one of its schools.

    More than 800 Palestinians have been killed in 17 days of fighting in Gaza, according to health officials. More than 140,000 people have fled the conflict.

    Some 32 Israeli soldiers have also been killed, and three civilians have died in Israel from rocket fire.


    http://news.sky.com/story/1307077/two-palestinians-killed-in-west-bank-protest



    G'nite

    Cheers !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Right.

      Hamas prevented civilians from leaving the UN facility.

      Pollard is not a spy.

      The attack on the Liberty was an accident.

      and

      Israel had nothing to do with the Lavon Affair.

      .

      Delete
  48. Quirk has no more idea what actually happened than anyone else'

    .......Israel's military said it had acted "against a terrorist target located in a populated area", promising a probe into what happened.

    "I accept it could have been Israeli fire" that landed on the UN school in Gaza, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said......

    But that doesn't prevent him from mouthing and frothing.

    ReplyDelete