Comments on: Wisdom and Folly from U.S., Israeli Media on Gaza

By: The Gaza Attacks: “Israel carefully planned the attack to extract the highest possible price.” « NIC - End The Occupation

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:51:36 +0000

[...] Richard Silverstein points to an analysis of the Gaza agony: In the midst of this madness called Operation Solid Lead, I see one of my roles as recording who got it right and who got it wrong. I am grateful for Sol Salbe informing me of Tom Segev’s strong denunciation of Israel’s Gaza onslaught published in Haaretz. Here is a long excerpt full of wisdom. For anyone who asks how to end this mess, read the last paragraph below: …The assault on Gaza…demands a few historical reminders. Both the justification given for it and the chosen targets are a replay of the same basic assumptions that have proven wrong time after time. Yet Israel still pulls them out of its hat again and again, in one war after another. [...]

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 08:29:20 +0000

@shira: What horse manure. If you are a left-wing Israeli then I’m a Kahanist & I ain’t one, lady.

I googled the text of your comment & you’ve published it verbatim at least six other places online. I’m tired of canned right wing hasbara. Can’t you right-wingers actually take the time to write individual comments? Do you have to make hasbara into assembly line political propaganda?

Of course there is (or would be if Israel allowed it to function) a functioning government in Gaza. In fact, when Hamas rules there is almost no crime or corruption as was rampant when Fatah ran things. When Hamas agrees to a ceasefire and Israel does as well there is remarkably little backsliding on the Palestinians’ part because Hamas actually enforces it.

Hamas is NOT “just like” Al Qaeda or Hezbollah. Far from it.

BTW, if there are no “governments” on Israel’s borders then what are Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon? Are they terrorist gangs as well?

They launch their missals [sic] from civilian’s houses

Where do you get such nonsense? How do you launch a missile fr. within a home?

They stash weapons; bombs etc. in hospitals, mosques, civil houses and schools

Precisely what Begin’s Irgun did as well except they stashed their weapons with their wives, mothers and grandmothers believing the British would not dare search them.

Over the years, they have dig tunnels between Egypt and Gaza to smuggle everything, including weapons

What about food, medicine and building materials of which there are none thanks to Israel’s siege? Have you forgotten that the tunnels provide bare necessities of life that Israel denies Gaza?

The Israeli army has such advanced technologies they can surgically hit those places.

That must be why 400 Gaza civilians are dead, because of all that advanced, surgically accurate technology.

what would you do if your life was constantly under threat?

I’d negotiate for a peaceful settlement so my children wouldn’t have to fight future wars.

By: B.BarNavi

B.BarNavi — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 04:47:01 +0000

The Israeli Center-Left shows its moral bankrupcy in the face of a coming election. Apparently, championing the peace process can be tossed to the wayside when a handful of votes are at stake.

By: The Gaza Attacks: “Israel carefully planned the attack to extract the highest possible price.” « Wallwritings

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:16:56 +0000

By: Trans fats

Trans fats — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:33:39 +0000

Why are Iranian grad missiles falling upon Israel? If Gaza is under siege, how did the Grad missiles get there? Why hasnt Iran gotten any criticism for escalating this conflict?

By: The Reaction « Across the Borderline

The Reaction « Across the Borderline — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:25:19 +0000

[...] I will direct you to Wisdom and Folly from U.S., Israeli Media on Gaza | Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a B…. There are some interesting comments in this section, and some good articles from Haaretz are [...]

By: shira

shira — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:48:48 +0000

To all the people who sleep safely in their beds at night and have the audacity to criticize the Israeli government, this is for you:
None of you spoke in the past 8 years when rockets and bombs fell in southern Israeli cities, causing death and damage without any provocation on our part.
What you need to understand are two things-
First of all, there is no functioning government in Gaza. The Hamas took over (in a military coup!) and they are running the show. The Hamas, in case you didn’t know, is a terror organization. Just like Al-kaida and Hezbollah. Israel is dealing with terror organizations all around its borders. Not with governments. And not with civilians. We have nothing against the Palestinians. Only the terrorists.
The second thing you need to know is that the Hamas is a very cynical organization which uses innocent women and children to fight Israel. They launch their missals from civilian’s houses, not from open fields or military camps, and when the Israeli army wants to destroy those missals launchers- sometimes innocent people die.
They stash weapons; bombs etc. in hospitals, mosques, civil houses and schools exactly for this purpose- they know that the Israeli army will not bomb those places. Over the years, they have dig tunnels between Egypt and Gaza to smuggle everything, including weapons which is being used against us.
The Israeli army has such advanced technologies they can surgically hit those places. And that is exactly what we are doing. The manipulations in the media, done by the Arabs are ridicules, at best.
Ask yourself- what would you do if your life was constantly under threat? Look at the map. Maybe that will help you grasp our geographic situation.
The purpose of the Israeli army is to defend. Not attack.
So next time you think about how miserable and poor the Palestinians are, and how powerful and evil the Israelis are- think again.
(Written by a left-wing Israeli who thinks terror should not win anywhere in the world).

By: ellen

ellen — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 12:34:09 +0000

John Dickerson
“The message is: do not f**k with the Jews.”

yes exactly right. When people ask, Why are the Israelis doing this, I answer: because they can.
They do it for the same reason that soldiers in Congo cut off a woman’s breast or shoot her in the vagina – because they can. In neither case is there a paramount military objective. True, some Israelis think that by terrorizing the Palestinians they will leave the land for the Jews “from sea to sea”.

But the politicians and generals who carry out the actions, are not so stupid. They know well the Palestinians, having endured 40 years of suffering, are not going to turn tail and run. Where would they run to anyway? Perhaps they should drown themselves?

So there is no military objective, there is only blatant cruelty, and the “fun” of seeing people that you despise cower. They do it because they can, and they will continue to do it until the “international community” [is there such a thing?] stops them, or until Israel as a country implodes.

Meanwhile there are things you can do. Write letters, The US Campaign to End the Occupation
http://www.endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1771
has a letter to Barck Obama you can sign.
This web site – http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3993 – has a list of your senators and others you can write.

You can hold a protest – one person or one hundred.
Do it for the sake of your conscience, not because it will necessarily change anything.
Do it so when your children and grand-children ask you what you did to stop the genocide of the Palestinian people, you can say – I tried.
I took an action.