January 2, 2009
Gaza violence threatens civilian safety
Since the most recent violence in Gaza began, conflicting reports about civilian hardships have emerged from either side.
On Friday, United Nations officials warned of a “critical” humanitarian emergency in Gaza.
To try and understand the situation from a neutral observer, Martin Savidge speaks with Bernard Barrett of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
14 comments
more war crimes by israel - i cant believe us British were stupid enough to give them Palenstine, and a nuclear bomb. Welcome to world war 3 or as the zionists would call it - end game. I wonder if they know that most ppl in the UK would fight AGAINST them, on behalf of those they mistreat.
Thank you for tonight for beginning to restore some balance by
(1) showing Sderot’s plight for the last 8 years, with the Martin Greenspan piece;
(2) finally reporting Egypt’s blockade of Gaza in the interview with Geneive Abdo. Egypt has kept its Rafah border crossing tightly shut for months. In recent days, it has allowed some medical trucks through, but still not food. Despite all the rockets, food going into Gaza still comes from Israel - and most medicines too. Israel is still taking in Gazans for medical treatment.
As regards the emotive report of people in Gaza: It is truly heart wrenching, and disturbing. But again - Hamas is primarily to blame. There is precious little mention that Hamas has many tunnels for weapons storage, which civilians cannot use. Why did it not build a single bomb shelter for anyone but its leaders? In stark contrast, Israel has kept civilian casualties low through bomb shelters. Hamas has also made a practice of firing from civilian areas and using human shields. The casualty count does not reflect culpability.
Anthony Cordesman noted that the civilian casualty rate is not high given the nature of Gaza worse. It is now worse than in similar conflicts, and would be dramatically higher if Israel targeted civilians. It would also be dramatically lower if Hamas cared about civilians, and stopped firing from homes and using civilian shields.
I hope and pray for peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. The tragedy is that many Palestinians are imbued with Arafat’s dictum “we will drown them in our own blood”. They are far more intent on the destruction of Israel than on the creation of a Palestinian state. And until that changes, Israeli concessions cannot bring peace, and people on both sides will suffer.
It goes back to the same question, why don’t the Israeli’s leave?
Here in America, or any free-society, developed world, you can choose where you’d like to live.
If I want to have cheap rent, more than likely, I will be in a neighborhood of gangs, drug dealers, prostitutes. If I want to pay higher rent, I will more than likely be in “exclusive neighborhood.”
To me, it just doesn’t make sense. Hell, I know what neighborhoods are safe for me, and which ones are not.
When I travel, I know which ones are friendly to Americans, and which ones are not. Although, now, with our current foreign policies, there’s not very many countries friendly to Americans.
But, we keep going back and forth on this. Why not leave, and go where it’s friendly for Jews? It’s not like Jews don’t have the resources to leave. Why are you putting yourselves in danger then want the world to feel sorry for you? It’s not like accidental danger, you know what your future holds for you.
It looks as if you’re materialistic. I have had relationships where I left everything to move on. Somethings I left behind was family momentos, heirlooms, things I could never replace. You can replace material things, but not your life.
I understand some people will say, God gave us this land. Well, then, why not let God handle this, why do you have to take it into your own hands?
I never heard this much concern for jihadists, especially for immediate humanitarian action for even the people of Darfur,Congo,Chechenya,Rwanda,Bosnia.
The media is working hard to rescue the Islamic terrorists from a defeat by Israel.
I guess the Arab world has made things clear to the world focus groups.
The biase media ignore what you pointed out, Bob The Christianne Aminpour’s do hard interviews with Israeli government spokesmen while thye give the Palestinian liars and propagandists like Saeb Erekat and Hanan Asharwi an easy interview and a pass for their outright lies.
There are no longer real journailists who are not afraid of offending the offensive Palestinains.They are all agenda driven and the word down from the CFR pimps is to go easy on the Islamic terrorists in Gaza,but go hard on Israel.
They know it’s the Saudi’s who butter their bread.
More than half the Gazans voted for Hamas and its commitment to the destruction of Israel. They along with the hams are responsible for this latest war. The children should ask their parents why they so voted. Those who did not should look to those who did for blame.
Their plight being magnified by the world press into another Holocaust is pitiable indeed and the reason that this issue has not been addressed.
Hamas denies Israel’s right to exist !
Israel began the campaign to halt rocket attacks by Islamic militants after a six-month cease-fire with Hamas expired Dec. 19. Militants launched more than 3,000 rockets and mortar shells at Israel since the beginning of 2008, the Israeli army said. Hamas refused to renew the cease-fire because it said Israel had not eased its economic blockade of Gaza and launched 70 rockets at Israel the day before it ended.
When I walked into Gaza from a nearby Kibbutz in 1977 the Palestinians had only spit and pebbels to make war with.
No guns,no rockets ,no mortars ,nothing.
Under the phony peace agenda of the International community the Palestinians were armed to make war against Israel. The failed U.S./Quartet Road Map has always led to war. The Land for war agenda of President Bush and Clinton has been a failure since it began in 1993.There is no 2 state solution,Israel will not be reduced to what israeli statesman Abba Eban called Aushwitz borders.
Before the counterfeit peace process Israel had gained deterrence after the many wars the intolerant forces of Islam had fought to exterminate the tiny nation.
The peace process has removed all deterrece Israel once had which kept her enemies in check.Israel now perceived as weak is under constant attack now thanks to the failed Road Map.
How many billions of dollars has the International community flushed down the Gaza toilet with only a radical Islamic army,Hamas to show for it ?
That is another of many.,many colossal failure’s of the US,EU,and UN ,one thing they are good at.
Israel is always the scapegoat to blame for their failures.
If the Palestinians wanted to they could have built a thriving, prosperous economy but they chose only jihad.
And you want to blame Israel for their bad choice.
The Islamic terrorists only feed their children from birth jihad and you phony do gooders ignore this evil and blame Israel for doing what they have to do.
The only flourishing business in Gaza is about jihad against Israel and the phony ones who cry for the terrorists continue to call the Palestinians there ‘victims’ when in fact they built a war machine for one purpose only and it was not for peace.
The Islamic world will never end their rabid hatred against Israel and the only thing which keeps another holocaust from happening is Israel’s Defense Forces which the hypocrite nations seek to restrain to give the forces of evil a better chance to finish what Hitler failed to accomplish.
The International Community stands on the losing side against Israel.
anjell wrote;
‘How will a ground invasion solve the violence? It’s not about who’s right or wrong at this point, because neither justify the end or means’
How did the allies defeat Japan and the Nazi’s to win WWII ?
Hamas’ lives for 1 goal,the destruction of Israel.There is nothing to talk about only their complete defeat but the abject failure know as the International Community will work hard toi restrain Israel from reaching this goal of soundly defeating Hamas,a much needed message to Israel’s enemies which they understand.
It is about who is right and who is wrong unless you are amoral and stand with evil.
I saw some of the protests here on the streets of the U.S. One that particularly caught my attention was a sign, “Latinos for Palestinians.”
I called a couple of friends of know to find out more information. I’ve gotten a couple of responses. 1) Latinos have Arab, Persian bosses 2) Latinos understand their pain, suffering because of their own past.
My concern is, will the CNN special presentation of “Out of Gas,” come true. Here’s why I’m concerned, first, we (U.S.) don’t have good ties with Russia, Iran or Venezuela, which are oil producing countries. With the chaos involving Palestine-Israel, will this cause a rift with our relations with the Arab oil-producing countries?
China & Russia on the other hand, has been going through the backdoor and establishing ties with the countries we’ve had a shaky relationship with, such as the African continent, Venezuela & Iran. And, in spite of all this, countries would rather deal with the Europeans & Canada rather than deal with the U.S. anymore.
As far as I know, these are just some of the infrastructure destroyed in Gaza,
Hospitals, airport, universities, police station, markets, mosques, water-pipes…
Now, here is just a few names of refugee camps:
Al Nusairat
Al Buarij
Jabalia
Rafah
Now, the question is, how many refugee camps are there? Do the majority of Palestinians live in refugee camps? What will happen the group Al Aqsa - will they merge with Hamas?
The Palestinians, about 80% are forced to live off humanitarian aid, almost all live under the poverty line.
How will a ground invasion solve the violence? It’s not about who’s right or wrong at this point, because neither justify the end or means.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do!!!
Hamas is a much greater threat to Israel than the Chechnyan rebels were to Russia and those who trouble Israel come to the rescue of evil Hamas.
The hypocrites of the International community and their double standard.
When the Russians cleaned out the Islamic army from Grozny there was not the outcry from the International community or the desperate plea for huminatarian aid.
Russia did not have grads and kassems and mortars falling on their cities and yet they leveled Grozny with civilians not spared.
Israel is held to an impossible requrement and must stop playing this losing game to survive.
Israel has fallen into a trap that makes it certain Hamas is not defeated.The call for monitors is just a deeper hole in this trap.
When I walked into Gaza from Kibbutz Erez in 1977 the Palestinians has only spit to use for their weapon of choice ,no guns, no rockets ,no mortars,nothing.
Under the ‘peace process ‘Israel imported Yasser Arafat into the country and permitted a Palestinian’s to grow into a formidable army for this strange peace Israel continues to insanely follow.
and under direction from he peace masters in Washington Israel retreated from the smuggling tunnles into Gaza allowing what we see today to occur in Ashkelon,Asdod,Sderot,Beersheva and elsewhere. These are the rewards Israel receives on their heads for religiously obeying their false god Bush and his counterfeit peace.
Israel is where it is today with rockets firing on it’s cities because Israel listened to and followed the U.S /Quartet peace agenda and ignored the words of Hashem to make no agreement with her enemies but to ‘drive them out’ (Exodus 23_27-33)
I wonder when Israel will stop electing idol worshipers to lead them ?
There was never any possibility for peace with the Palestinians ,not even Fatah ,you trusted in lies and now reality falls over much of Israel.
Now the neutered,defeatist,idol worshipers who rule Israel wants monitors to take over as does theoir god Bush.
It goes from bad to worse because Israel follows idols and ignores Hashem.
Gaza has been going through a humanitarian crisis for a very long time. Finally, we can get some type of coverage of the Gaza strip. It’s always hard for journalists, film crews, Human Rights workers…to gain access to Gaza.
I note that you’re making an effort to keep your coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict balanced. Mr. Savidge’s follow-up question to Bernard Barrett regarding Red Cross’ preparedness to help Israeli victims as well is in evidence of that. Good job, WorldFocus!
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01/17/2009 :: 11:05:33 PM
Ronny Says:
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Thanks :). Ronny.