32 thoughts on “Gaza War: Day 9, 202 Palestinian Dead – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Thanks , now I understood why Hamas did not accept the truce. By the way, is it possible to any group affiliate to ISI start to be active in Gaza ?
    what Hamas think about them ?

    1. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Where there is tension/unrest and long term oppression, the jihadists see an opportunity and fight with the most extreme groups as happened in Syria and now in Iraq. This group acts as vanguard of a rebellion, see the presence of fear in Jordan.

      Don’t Call Them Al Qaeda, Terror Coming from ISIS (aka AQI, IS)

      ISIS influence on the West Bank has been mentioned in the media. ISIS would grab full control of a movement, not what Hamas or the PA is looking for.

      1. I ve read that isis is a US-Saudi Creature. Difficult to belive that it will work hand in hand with Hamas.

          1. merci, Oui. J´aime beacoup vos links.
            vous connaissez le blog vineyard of saker? ils ont beacoup d´information sur ce qui est en train de passer in Ukraine et iraq et ISIS.

  2. Perhaps Obama, who was known as a keen student of law in earlier days, should brush up on the subject:

    “On the fourth day of Israel’s most recent onslaught against Gaza’s Palestinian population, President Barack Obama declared, “No country on Earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.” In an echo of Israeli officials, he sought to frame Israel’s aerial missile strikes against the 360-square kilometer Strip as the just use of armed force against a foreign country. Israel’s ability to frame its assault against territory it occupies as a right of self-defense turns international law on its head. 
    A state cannot simultaneously exercise control over territory it occupies and militarily attack that territory on the claim that it is “foreign” and poses an exogenous national security threat. In doing precisely that, Israel is asserting rights that may be consistent with colonial domination but simply do not exist under international law. 
    … examining what international law says with regard to an occupant’s right to use force is worthwhile in light of Israel’s deliberate attempts since 1967 to reinterpret and transform the laws applicable to occupied territory. These efforts have expanded significantly since the eruption of the Palestinian uprising in 2000, and if successful, Israel’s reinterpretation would cast the law as an instrument that protects colonial authority at the expense of the rights of civilian non-combatants.  

    Military occupation is a recognized status under international law and since 1967, the international community has designated the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as militarily occupied. ”
    See:
    http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/8799/no-israel-does-not-have-the-right-to-self-defense-

    1. You forgot a tiny nearly insignificant matter that Israel since 2005 withdrew from Gaza thus no longer occupies it under international law. Thus it is free to defend itself from ‘foreign’ aggression, and does so.

      But of course Israel can do no right, and even when withdraws from occupied territories is still wrong in your eyes.

      1. @As you are a lawyer, I’m sure you’ll appreciate Arie’s terrific response to you. Also, in case you didn’t know, MANY commenters before you have raised that false argument. I like to avoid repetition to keep it fresh for me. So try a fresher argument next time. Meant partially tongue in cheek.

      2. Shmuel: “You forgot a tiny nearly insignificant matter that Israel since 2005 withdrew from Gaza thus no longer occupies it under international law.”

        As a matter of law Shmuel really does need to re-read the original “disengagement” document that Sharon presented to the Knesset.

        In it he will find that Sharon stressed that the Israeli colonists were to be “withdrawn” from Gaza, but that the IDF was to be “deployed” from Gaza.

        Those two words make a huge difference, because the distinction that Sharon made (i.e. “withdrawn” = the settlers were leaving and not coming back, whereas “deployed” = soldiers were simply being moved to the periphery, and Sharon was free to REdeploy them back in whenever he wants) does actually demolish Shmuel’s argument.

        Think of it this way: a prison warden decides that he’s sick of dealing with all those unruly prisoners, so he orders all the prison guards to cease patrolling the prison yard; those guards are to move up into the guard towers, there to shoot any prisoner who approaches the prison wall.

        Q: Has that ceased to be “a prison”?
        A: No, it is still a prison.

        Q: Are the “prisoners” now “free”?
        A: No, they are still prisoners.

        Q: Have the “prison guards” quit their jobs?
        A: No, they are still guarding that prison.

        Q: Has that “prison warden” now become a hotel concierge?
        A: No, he is still the warden.

        Q: So what changed?
        A: he ONLY thing that changed is that this prison warden is guilty of a criminal abuse of the authority granted to him by the state.

        Sorta’ like Israel, when you really think about it.

  3. For an understanding of what is going on in Gaza we should keep in mind how extraordinarily small the area is. Gaza 360 square kms; Singapore 716 square kms; urban area of Sydney 1,788 square kms. It is for this reason that Israel’s accusation about Hamas “hiding amidst the civilian population” has always struck me as risible.

    1. @arie brand.

      So since Gaza is such a small place… so much so that any aymy operating in it has to be emmersed with civilians and that operating an army in civilian areas is also illegal because it’s unavoidable to have civilian casualties… should this not mean Gaza shoulf be demilitarized?

      If gaza is to be demilitarized there would have to be an international peace keeping force.. and honestly who will go in and convince hamas (politically or physically) to comply?

      If there is another cease fire or truce it will only act as a lull and lead to more future wars which means more pointless death because nothing will have changed.

        1. @liz would ending the blockade somehow make hamas non violent and accept the quartets damands to lift the blockade?

  4. Come back to planet earth, dear Shmuel, where Israelis cannot unilateral;y dictate “international law”

    From Wikipedia:
    Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza in September 2005, and declared itself no longer to be in occupation of the Strip. However, as it retains control of Gaza’s airspace and coastline, it continues to be designated as an occupying power in the Gaza Strip by the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly[12] and some countries and various human rights organizations.[13

    And here is further elaboration:

    Under the “Disengagement” Plan, Gazans will still be subjected to the effective control of the Israeli military. Although Israel will supposedly remove its permanent military presence, Israeli forces will retain the ability and right to enter the Gaza Strip at will.[28] 
     
    Further, Israel will retain control over Gaza’s airspace, sea shore, and borders.[29]  Under the Plan, Israel will unilaterally control whether or not Gaza opens a seaport or an airport. Additionally, Israel will control all border crossings, including Gaza’s border with Egypt.[30]  And Israel will “continue its military activity along the Gaza Strip’s coastline.”[31]  Taken together, these powers mean that all goods and people entering or leaving Gaza will be subject to Israeli control.  
     
    Finally, Israel will prevent Gazans from engaging in international relations.[32]  Accordingly, if it enacts the “Disengagement” Plan as envisaged, Israel will effectively control Gaza—administratively and militarily.[33] Therefore, Israel will remain the Occupying Power of the Gaza Strip.
     
     
    B.   Israel Will Remain the Occupying Power of the Gaza Strip so long as Israel Retains
          the Ability to Exercise Authority over the Strip
     
    In The Hostages Case, the Nuremburg Tribunal expounded upon The Hague Regulations’ basic definition of occupation in order to ascertain when occupation ends.[34]  It held that “[t]he test for application of the legal regime of occupation is not whether the occupying power fails to exercise effective control over the territory, but whether it has the ability to exercise such power.”[35] In that case, the Tribunal had to decide whether Germany’s occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia had ended when Germany had ceded de facto control to non-German forces of certain territories. Even though Germany did not actually control those areas, the Tribunal held that Germany indeed remained the “occupying power”—both in Greece and Yugoslavia generally and in the territories to which it had ceded control—since it could have reentered and controlled those territories at will. 
     
    Similarly, Israel will retain ultimate authority oveo retain effective control over Gaza’s borders, air and sea space, overall security, and international relations.      
    r Gaza and to a much greater degree than Germany in The Hostages Case: The Israeli military expressly reserves itself the right to enter the Gaza Strip at will. Further, Israel will not just retain the ability to exercise control over Gaza, but it will also retain effective control over Gaza’s borders, air and sea space, overall security, and international relations.      

  5. This article is a good example of putting a carriage in front of the horse.

    There must be truce before peace.

    There must be ceasefire before trice.

    Israel had stopped firing and offered Hamas to do the same, but Palestinians refuse. It should be obvious who is responsible for the continuation of violence.

      1. What is there to negotiate?

        One side stops firing and waits for another to do the same.

        If this is fraud, then the word has noeaning.

    1. A third-party broker can’t describe his call as a “ceasefire document” if it has been drafted in talks with only one of the two sides of an armed conflict.

      To claim that this amounts to “brokerage” is an abuse of the English language.

      It is what it is i.e. an Israeli diktat.

      That Israel drafted this “offer” and then got Egypt to “announce” it is nothing but theatre, since there is no actual need for Egypt to be involved: Netanyahu could just as easily have stood up and announced such an “offer” himself.

      Hamas has done it right: it has announced what it wants to see in any ceasefire, and it has directed that announcement toward the Egyptians. At which point the Egyptians are free to decide whether they want to do next e.g. attempt to sell those points to Netanyahu (good luck with that!) or simply tell the Palestinians that they are delusional.

      But that’s what a “broker” actually does i.e. he goes back ‘n’ forth between the two parties to arrive at a ceasefire that he **knows** the two sides can accept, and then that’s what he announces.

      But what a “broker” doesn’t do is simply put his name on the bottom of a document written in its entirety by Netanyahu, and then claim that it is “offering” that deal to both sides.

    2. @Sanych
      You could be the only one who thinks a ceasefire would end Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza. Perhaps you recall an earlier ceasefire, signed by both parties on November 21, 2012. Israel violating it that same day, and just about every day following. Hamas didn’t respond to continued Israeli attacks for many months, until it became clear nobody was going to stop Israel terrorism.

      On November 21, 2013, one year after the ceasefire was signed, Israel committed violation number 281.

      http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/gazaunderattack-4th-israeli-violation-of-truce-palestinian-injured-after-being-shot-by-israeli-troops-in-gaza/

      Why on earth would Hamas sign any ceasefire with Israel, knowing Israel’s signatures and promises have long proven to be worthless?

  6. [comment deleted–comments which portray a fraudulent view of history and provide no support for their claims will not be published.]

  7. Well Shmuel if Gaza is not a occupied area because Israel “left it”, then what is it in your Israeli “minds”? A independent country or part of Egypt? You must have a clear understanding of Gaza’s status. If it is an independent entity then aren’t Israeli actions against Gaza actions of war between two countries? Which makes murdering four small boys playing football in front of international media workers eating lunch what? A “mistake” or a war crime?

    Emptying the area of settlers and army doesn’t make the area like Gaza “independent”, not occupied or a separate free political entity. Equally we could say that Warsaw Ghetto was a “independent entity” even a independent state, because the German soldiers had left the area. The Judenrat “president” Adam Czerniaków lead the “country” (Warsaw Ghetto) with the Jewish collaboration authority (like PA ironic isn’t it) and the terrible Jewish terrorists lead by their Hamas type terrorist organizations attacked the defenseless citizens of Poland/Germany. Of course German Army, Wehrmacht, had to defend the new “German homeland” from the hundreds of bombs and rockets the Jewish terrorists rained on them. Any country would have done that and has the right to do so.

    If Germany would have won we would read the history written in this style. I am sure you Shmuel do not agree, but where is the essential difference? Saying, that the amount of corpses is not even near equal or that Nazis made the Jews “thinner” in Warsaw than Jews the Palestinians in Gaza, is not enough. The reality is that many of basic functions and aims of these both ghettos are/were much the same. In Gaza are 1.7 million people, in Warsaw Ghetto some 400,000. What happened in Warsaw is already a closed chapter of history. What happens in Gaza is still badly open and if nothing is done soon, it will end like Warsaw did. To a major final uprising and massive slaughter. What then?

  8. [comment deleted: this blog is not a rooting section for Israel and pro-Israel cheers and slogans do not constitute substantive comments. You are now moderated. Only comments that respect the comment rules will be published.]

  9. To understand what is going on in Gaza one only needs to read. ” The general’s son”. This is a up to date story of what has been going on there and what is still going on. There are many interviews with the author online. You can learn the truth , and please accept it. All the lying must stop.

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