UN school in Gaza hit, 40 dead?
Oh God.
Let’s pray the reports are false.
Related Posts
What is liberation this year?
April 17, 2024
“Together We Will”…Speak the Truth. Only Then Can We “Win.”
April 11, 2024
“militants of using schools, mosques and residential neighborhoods to store weapons or launch attacks”
The report is not false – however, please don’t jump to conclusions as to the cause of deaths. Reports are now that IDF responded to mortar fire coming from the school, hitting the heavily booby trapped facility, triggering secondary explosions, and resulting in the heavy death toll
Which of course makes the civilians expendable.
Why are you twisting my words? It does not mean the civilians are expendable. It does not at all. I am very sorry for their deaths. Truly. However, I just wanted to place it in context – those responsible for their deaths are Hamas. That’s all.
The outburst was not solely for your ears, LB or Bycenator, it’s the whole damn Jewish world which wants a moral Get Out of Jail Free card.
Israel is responsible for their direct killing, Hamas responsible for their being in the crosshairs, Israel for using bombs in civilian centers, Hamas for hiding in civilian centers, Israel for disproportionate use of force, Hamas for firing rockets with impunity, Hamas for calling off a renewed ceasefire, Israel for refusing the terms of Hamas’ ceasefire offer, Hamas for breaking the ceasefire with rockets, Israel for breaking the ceasefire on Nov. 4th, Hamas for…
We can put as big a context as we choose to see around any event.
The culpability is equal when two forces choose to stare each other down and play chicken with civilians’ lives. Israel is just as at fault as Hamas for the deaths of those civilians. Israel chose to accept civilian deaths as collateral. Israel is counting on civilian suffering to loosen the power of Hamas. This is a big game of chicken.
Israel never has the moral high ground when it uses civilian suffering as a tool of statecraft. It’s stooping to terrorism.
Powerful states are almost always developed on terrorism directed at weaker people. This is true of both the US and Israel.
All the apologetics for Israeli terror are as lame as the rationale for the terror of the more powerful throughout human history.
Now we monkeys have nuclear weapons–and we may ‘final solution’ our way out of existence.
“Not all civilian deaths are a war crime” LOL This is the smack that pro-Israel intellectuals are saying on BBC. The guy then goes on to use Iraq as an example.
I love humankind more than my ethnic, natioinal, and religious affiliations. Just like Germans that worked with the resistence to undermine their abusers, I will work with people denouncing US and Israeli terror.
Jews and Israelis that reject this violence are my brothers and sisters. The rest are retarded people, the same level as any other apologist for ‘might makes right’ that have live and breathed on this Earth in our entire human history.
Israel is guilty of unleashing a war that kills innocent civilians, in large numbers, from the very start. It will continue to kill them until the very end.
http://middleeast.change.org/blog/view/breaking_news_israel_bombs_un_school_kills_dozens
It can only end as a result of international pressure, which some might express as inchoate rage. Others of course, might go too far….
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/06/europe/france.php
Stay tuned for another uptick in Israel related attacks on Jews.
“Not all civilian deaths are a war crime” LOL This is the smack that pro-Israel intellectuals are saying on BBC. The guy then goes on to use Iraq as an example.
Actually, that’s a position taken by a lot of anti-Israeli intellectuals too, when they normalize Hamas rocket attacks and suicide bombings even after Israel pulled the settlements out of Gaza, and insist that Israel not respond at all. And of course, that’s even the position that European nations take when they go to war (and also why not every German military officer was considered a war criminal at Nuremberg.)
Way to go for disguising antisemitism in faux-pacifist furs.
By the way, the U.S. and the U.K. committed a war crime when they invaded Iraq because they used a number of false causae belli and even violated the terms of the U.N. Security Council Resolution they had lobbied for, by invading before the arms inspectors did their job.
Get a basic understanding of international law before you start throwing criminal charges around.
Stay tuned for another uptick in Israel related attacks on Jews.
So either accept attacks on Jews living in Israel or accept attacks on Jews living in the Diaspora?
I think this is part of the equation, that a “good Jew” is one who passively accepts his fate when targeted for violence, while a “bad Jew” is one who resists (i.e. acts like a gentile.) I think we’ve internalized this dynamic even now. Raul Hilberg made that point in The Destruction of the European Jews.
But we’ve already seen increased antisemitic violence in Europe for years prior to this recent escalation.
it’s the whole damn Jewish world which wants a moral Get Out of Jail Free card.
Isn’t it more like the whole damn world wants a moral Get Out of Jail Free card when it comes to dead Jews?
Ian, the Jewish world doesn’t seem to care about Palestinian deaths except where it impacts their PR. The proper response is “Gee, you’re right, civilian deaths are bad, so let’s cut a ceasefire deal!” Outside the peacenik quartet (APN, Brit Tzedek, J Street, IPF) the response to civilian deaths is, “It’s Hamas’ fault.” Hardly.
the Jewish world doesn’t seem to care about Palestinian deaths except where it impacts their PR.
KFJ-
If what you say is true what’s with the flyers and text messages warning civilians of impending strikes against military targets?
If we’re talking about right-wing Jews, I’m in agreement with you (I dated one once– “Hey! She said she was a Democrat!”) but they aren’t the totality of “the Jewish World” as much as they like to claim to be.
Question is, does the gentile world (not just the Arab world) care about Jewish deaths if it doesn’t hurt their PR? Do Jewish deaths hurt the gentile world’s PR?
I think the warnings about being near military targets are the most cynical part EVER. Where are they going to go? Really, where? And the Hamasniks will not follow them as cover? “Leave your neighborhood” in the most densely-populated peice of land in the world? Really?
The Jewish world for purposes of my rants are all the Jewish newspapers, Israeli spokesmen, rally signs, communal public affairs councils, the right-wing yap machine, oh, and anybody with clout over Congress. The recognitions of mutual culpability, concern for both sides’ deaths, and moral voices against both sides using civilians as a tool of statecraft (as I outlined above) are limited to me, my friends, and a quartet of four small Jewish organizations.
Start preparing for the peace counter offensive:
http://middleeast.change.org/blog/view/finally_pro-peace_rally_in_new_york_city_this_sunday
Mobius (and others, who I suspect will chime in) are pushing for this, and I’m totally on board.
PS: Ian, I’m against the Israeli occupation no matter how many Jews are hurt/not hurt. Israel inspired Antisemitic violence is merely the icing on the cake for a Jewish state that was founded as part of a plan to END antisemitism. Good luck with that! What’s ‘plan b’?
There is no “moral high ground” in a war. The immediate goal is to kill your enemy and destroy his places. Sometimes, civilians get killed, too. It should be rather clear by now that the civilized rules of engagement can’t be followed in the present circumstances.
And before rendering judgment, why not try living in Sderot for a few months, first.
Israel inspired Antisemitic violence is merely the icing on the cake for a Jewish state that was founded as part of a plan to END antisemitism.
More like a sovereign state that protects the population from antisemitism. I’m not saying that Israeli politicians have never made a boneheaded or craven decision, or an Israeli soldier has never taken a stupid or illegal action in the field. But ultimately, the “Israel inspired” antisemitism predates any one stupid, craven, boneheaded, or illegal action. It is inspired by the old antisemitism that existed when Jews had no state. Israel might inspire the degree of recent virulence, but would there really be no anti-Semitic violence without Israel?
Somehow, that didn’t work either.
I’m with Steve. There’s no moral high ground in war. But you’d never feel it standing in the rallies (for either side, which is why we hope you’ll join this one). Black and while, pure good and pure evil. Balls.
Gaza is NOT the most densely populated area in the world. Anyone with half a brain can check population figures to discredit that widely held myth. Furthermore, the school was not hit directly by Israel – Israel struck Hamas fighters outside the school who were naturally surrounded by ‘civilians’. Blaming Israel for deaths caused when fighting back against terrorists is intellectually dishonest. If Israel were to do nothing, Israel would be a) encouraging the use of Hamas human shields and b) committing a crime against its own people by turning them into sitting targets. The Palestinians are responsible for the deaths of Palestinian civilians since Israel targets legitimate targets.