Gaza: ‘The Horror’ « Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Gaza: ‘The Horror’

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Tags: gaza, george-bush, hamas, j street, operation cast lead, peace activist

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 28th, 2008 at 1:15 AM and is filed under Mideast Peace, Politics & Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

47 Responses to “Gaza: ‘The Horror’”

ellen says:

December 29, 2008 at 4:20 AM

“wiping out a people. Face it.”
jsilverheels said:
“No, I won’t, because that’s not what’s happening. 300 people have been killed. This is a horror and a tragedy, but there are 1.5 million people in Gaza. The Israelis aren’t wiping anything out. Stop exaggerating.”

I’m not exaggerating. 1.5 million people in Gaza are dying slowly lack of food, lack of water lack of medicine lack of medical care. This is wiping out a people.

History will judge Israel to be the only 1st world nation to commit genocide in modern times. Someday there will be no Israel. That is obvious. It is only a question will there be any Palestinian people left.

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jsilverheels says:

December 29, 2008 at 7:34 AM

” You’re criticizing statements made not by me, but by another reader.”

Richard,

You are a smart guy. I realize that the statements were made by others. But you’ve expressed the same sentiments here many times. The entire post is indicative of that sentiment. No criticism of Hamas even from a purely TACTICAL point of view.

So I ask you again: what in the name of all that is decent is accomplished by Hamas shelling Israel? It is neither morally right, nor is it militarily effective. Yeah, sure, they sucker-punch Israel into a brutal retaliation that “the world” condemns. So what? You know as well as I do that even if the Israelis won’t “win” – and they won’t, neither will the Palestinians. All the Palestinians will “win” is a bunch of dead kids to wave in front of the cameras.

Please Richard, deal with that. As long as that truth is not faced we will continue down the road to hell.

Ellen,

1.5 million people in Gaza have it rough but it’s nowhere near what, say, Zimbabwe is. They survive, if barely. The tunnel system brings them weapons and food. There are even Gazans who are making money off the tunnel system, according to NPR. If they were really as bad off as you say their birthrate, one of the highest in the world, would drop. My stony heart is unmoved.

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Richard Silverstein says:

December 29, 2008 at 11:44 AM

@jsilverheels: I find your comment completely unacceptable. If you wish to criticize me DO NOT confuse me with other commenters & DO NOT lump me in with them. My views are quite different than Ellen’s. DO NOT claim that my views are the same as others without specifically addressing my own specific views.

I have spoken against the missile barrage many times before & also during the current crisis. However, the enormity of the devastation wrought by Israel is entirely disproportionate to whatever damage or danger caused by the missiles. Besides, Israel has violated ceasefire provisions IT ITSELF agreed to by not lifting the siege. So the blame if more on Israel’s side than Hamas’.

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jsilverheels says:

December 29, 2008 at 1:57 PM

Look Richard,

Don’t take that tone of voice with me. Cut it out. You are not convincing anyone of anything. You are howling in the wind. You’ll be doing this 10 years from now to no end.

I’m not goddamn criticizing you. I’m only pointing out that Hamas should have known what it was getting into when it shelled Israel.

As far as “enormity of devastation” since when are 300 dead people a huge number? 4,500 people are dying per month on Congo, I don’t see you getting your kosher panties in a twist over that. The only reason you care about this is because it makes you look bad.

You probably won’t print this. Fine. Keep screaming about nothing, you stinking loser.

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Peter D says:

December 29, 2008 at 2:28 PM

jsilverheels, what the hell is the problem with you? This is between you and RS, but, c’mon, first you say “I’m not goddamn criticizing you” and then “Keep screaming about nothing, you stinking loser” for a totally reasonable demand by RS not to attribute to him what somebody else said? You’re off you medication or something?

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Richard Silverstein says:

December 29, 2008 at 6:36 PM

@jsilverheels: I’ll take any tone of voice I choose to you or any other commenter here who trespasses the comment rules as you did.

I’m not goddamn criticizing you

You did indeed criticize me. And I have no problem with that. My problem is that you quoted someone else & attributed my views to her. That’s wrong.

kosher panties

I find that phrase offensive even as a feeble attempt at wit.

you stinking loser.

You have been banned for violating the comment rules.

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Jack says:

December 30, 2008 at 2:03 PM

Some of these statements are the height of ignorance and stupidity.

Sure Hamas has offered to negotiate with Israel, but let’s be honest about their offer. It is always for a ceasefire, including one that called for ten years of “peace.”

The problem is that their charter calls for the destruction of Israel. That makes negotiating useless. All Israel would do is give them time to arm themselves and prepare for the war that would come.

It is also wrong and patently false to claim that Israel is committing genocide. It simply isn’t true.

Beyond that let’s go back to the truly ridiculous argument that the rockets really haven’t hurt that many people.

How many people would allow their neighbor to attack them daily. Think about it, would you live peacefully next to someone who always threw stones at you.

Eventually one is going to hit and someone is going to be hurt.

It is a moronic argument to say that the rockets really aren’t dangerous so Israel should just stand by.

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feh says:

January 2, 2009 at 11:13 AM

This is the first major Israeli offensive against the daily barrage of missiles since the Palestinians started firing them at civilians.

The low death toll is down to Israelis living in the bomb shelters provided to keep them safe.

This of course contrasts vividly with Hamas who deliberately imperil their civilians because they know how these stories play with gullible liberals. They know that the closest thing liberals have to their native self-blame is to blame the westernised Israelis (rather than the misogynist, homophobic Islamic supremacist cult group who are causing this situation).

Israel has no apologies to make. The high death toll is down to Hamas’s strategy. The whole situation is down to Hamas’s strategy.

This war will stop the moment Hamas stop the rockets.

It’s that easy folks. HAMAS HOLD THE “OFF SWITCH”.

Don’t blame Israel for trying to stop the rocketing. Blame the fascist cult group for not stopping this war.

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Richard Silverstein says:

January 2, 2009 at 10:54 PM

@feh: I’m so unbelievably tired of this insufferably smug self-justification that Israelis and their apologists for the Gaza assault have adopted. Their brains are on autopilot and their moral compass is gyrating uncontrollably.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. And sad.

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Richard Silverstein says:

January 3, 2009 at 12:38 AM

@Peter: More absurd rubbish. Amazing how people can delude themselves into such beliefs.

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Richard Silverstein says:

January 3, 2009 at 12:41 AM

@Andrew Lale:

Why should Israel retire to borders which the Palestinians don’t recognise as valid?

You are either ignorant or a liar. Which is it? THe Saudi peace initiative endorsed by the Arab League proposes Arab recognition of Israel and end to all hostilities against it in return for a return to 67 borders. Have you forgotten that little inconvenient fact?

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Richard Silverstein says:

January 3, 2009 at 12:42 AM

@Andrew Lale:

With one of the most comprehensive victories in the annals of warfare, at the cost of the fewest lives.

Do you even know what “Shock and Awe” was? That’s how you describe the U.S. invasion of Iraq in which 4,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed, not to mention the hugely larger number of Iraqi dead?

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Richard Silverstein says:

January 3, 2009 at 12:44 AM

@Barry Williams: Must be the hasbara crowd. This guy “loves to read” my blog like he’d like fire ants crawling up his leg.

Thanks for the bellicosity & jingoism so all my readers can understand the primitive thinking that welcomes Israel’s assault on Gaza.

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Richard Silverstein says:

January 5, 2009 at 11:11 AM

@Kevin:

If all of the aggressive Hamas members get blown up, perhaps there is a real possibility for peace in that area.

About as much chance of that happening as the messiah coming tomorrow.

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Hattie says:

January 12, 2009 at 1:39 PM

Well, there is a lot of peace in the grave. Maybe it’s just that Israeli death wish that makes them imagine that killing people is the best way to guarantee their safety.
Get ready for the Israeli refugees. I can hear the sob stories already. Those bad bad people took my house and watered their goats in my swimming pool!
Truly, the only sin is to be poor.

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Pro Information Center » Blog Archive » On Gaza-3: The media reaction says:

January 28, 2009 at 8:21 PM

[...] Silverstein also suggests that this Israeli offensive is meant to put the new Obama administration on the defensive even before it [...]

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You can’t change a lion’s spots | Antony Loewenstein says:

April 23, 2009 at 10:23 PM

[...] Here is what I wrote on this subject at the beginning of the war: It is just like modern Israel and Zionism to appropriate Jewish history, holiday and tradition to justify its own agenda. Quite macabre also to think that the IDF has defiled a delightful children’s poem by Bialik in order to convey the power of its onslaught against Hamas (”solid lead”). [...]

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