January 7, 2009
Q&A: Ask your questions about the roots of the Gaza war
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As the war in Gaza continues and tensions flare on both sides, Worldfocus takes a step back to examine the historical roots of the conflict and the background of the current war in Gaza.
Thank you for your responses. Worldfocus.org presents a webcasted radio show on Gaza with the help of BlogTalkRadio, addressing some of your questions.
42 comments
OMG, Elki! Those videos are terrifying! Thanks for showing them and I’ll be showing others!! Those poor civilians. Their lives were ruined well before Israel even came by!
Must see!!!
unbelievable videos on youtube. HAMAS KILLING ARABS. This should show you what Israel has to deal with.
So long as one might continue to examine only
the outer natures of the ’shells’ [outer aspects] which surround, hold, guard and constitute [within]: the powerful ‘ingredients’ ['grains of psychologically perceived situations']
of the ‘ordnance’ [applied 'military symbology']–aspects of which are always hidden in the Idea of Intellectual Mobility-and-Immobility which remains [even by mere sense perception] as much a parallel to Physical Motion-and-Rest as the Cosmic Implications of the Limits-and-Expansions of the Words of the Current Pictorial Forms of the Human Language being used which constitutes [in nature] all that is [thoroughly] involved in a ‘Theological-Political Treatise’ [a metaphorical title to describe the more written aspects of religious, military and socio-political relationships] now being [as long before] ‘written’: into ‘words’ [virtual 'hieroglyphs'] and ‘actions’ ['coordinates'] of [periodically] ‘launched rockets’ of ‘tribal disunities’ [representing, also: 'variable thoughts' not well aimed but intentionally aimed nevertheless] and ‘fired’ ['theologically'] into ‘[semi-] foreign territories’ ['(semi-) worldly philosophies'] which may [themselves] be [in ignition] similar [in nature] to the combustible substances involved in the launchings of any such rockets–so will the Collective And Fragmented Aspects Of The End Result be the same in their own specific nature and way as can [often] be seen in the ‘Twilighted Variations’ ['hues' and 'shades' of Evening] of the negotiatory aspects of the diplomacies which attempt to act as ‘Balancing Weights’ ['Theological-Political'] in the Egyptian Scales [Ma'at] of our every Night and Day.
why are you sparing the women?
600 men, 300 kids, 100 women.
you must get all, or they will come back and ask for money.
Root Of The GAZA Problem: West’s Promotion Of
A Fundamental Islam’s Cultural Phenotype
By Gunnar Heinsohn
As the world decries Israel’s attempt to defend itself from the
rocket attacks coming from Gaza, consider this: When Hamas routed
Fatah in Gaza in 2007, it cost nearly 350 lives and 1,000 wounded.
Fatah’s surrender brought only a temporary stop to the type of
violence and bloodshed that are commonly seen in lands where at least
30% of the male population is in the 15-to-29 age bracket.
In such “youth bulge” countries, young men tend to eliminate each
other or get killed in aggressive wars until a balance is reached
between their ambitions and the number of acceptable positions
available in their society. In Arab nations such as Lebanon (150,000
dead in the civil war between 1975 and 1990) or Algeria (200,000 dead
in the Islamists’ war against their own people between 1999 and
2006), the slaughter abated only when the fertility rates in these
countries fell from seven children per woman to fewer than two. The
warring stopped because no more warriors were being born.
In Gaza, however, there has been no demographic disarmament. The
average woman still bears six babies. For every 1,000 men aged 40-44,
there are 4,300 boys aged 0-4 years. In the U.S., the latter figure
is 1,000 and in the U.K. it’s only 670.
And so the killing continues. In 2005, when Israel was still an
occupying force, Gaza lost more young men to gang fights and crime
than in its war against the “Zionist enemy.” Despite the media’s
obsession with the Mideast conflict, it has cost many fewer lives
than the youth bulges in West Africa, Lebanon or Algeria. In the six
decades since Israel’s founding, “only” some 62,000 people (40,000
Arabs, 22,000 Jews) have been killed in all the Israeli-Arab wars and
Palestinian terror attacks.
During that same time, some 11 million Muslims have been killed in
wars and terror attacks-mostly at the hands of other Muslims.
What accounts for the Mideast conflict’s relatively low body count?
Hamas and their ilk certainly aim to kill as many Israelis as possible.
To their indignation, the Israelis are quite good at protecting
themselves. On the other hand, Israel, despite all the talk about its
“disproportionate” use of force, is doing its utmost to spare
civilian deaths. Even Hamas acknowledges that most of the
Palestinians killed by Israeli air raids are from their own ranks.
But about 10%-15% of Gaza’s casualties are women and minors-a tragedy
impossible to prevent in a densely settled area in which nearly half
the people are under 15 and the terrorists hide among them.
The reason for Gaza’s endless youth bulge is that a large majority of
its population does not have to provide for its offspring. Most
babies are fed, clothed, vaccinated and educated by UNRWA, the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East. Unlike the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which deals with the rest of the
world’s refugees and aims to settle them in their respective host
countries, UNWRA perpetuates the Palestinian problem by classifying
as refugees not only those who originally fled their homes, but all
of their descendents as well.
UNRWA is benevolently funded by the U.S. (31%) and the European Union
(nearly 50%)-only 7% of the funds come from Muslim sources. Thanks to
the West’s largesse, nearly the entire population of Gaza lives in a
kind of lowly but regularly paid dependence. One result of this
unlimited welfare is an endless population boom. Between 1950 and
2008, Gaza’s population has grown from 240,000 to 1.5 million. The
West basically created a new Near Eastern people in Gaza that at
current trends will reach three million in 2040. Within that period,
Gazans may alter the justifications and directions of their
aggression but are unlikely to stop the aggression itself.
The Hamas-Fatah truce of June 2007 allowed the Islamists again to
direct all their energy on attacking Israel. The West pays for food,
schools, medicine and housing, while Muslim nations help out with the
military hardware. Unrestrained by such necessities as having to earn
a living, the young have plenty of time on their hands for digging
tunnels, smuggling, assembling missiles and firing 4,500 of them at
Israel since 2006. While this gruesome activity has slowed the
Palestinian internecine slaughter, it forced some 250,000 Israelis into
bomb shelters.
The current situation can only get worse. Israel is being pushed into
a corner. Gazan teenagers have no future other than war. One rocket
master killed is immediately replaced by three young men for whom a
martyr’s death is no less honorable than victory. Some 230,000 Gazan
males, aged 15 to 29, who are available for the battlefield now, will be
succeeded by 360,000 boys under 15 (45% of all Gazan males) who could
be taking up their arms within the coming 15 years.
As long as we continue to subsidize Gaza’s extreme demographic
armament, young Palestinians will likely continue killing their
brothers or neighbors. And yet, despite claiming that it wants to
bring peace to the region, the West continues to make the population
explosion in Gaza worse every year. By generously supporting UNWRA’s
budget, the West assists a rate of population increase that is 10
times higher than in their own countries. Much is being said about
Iran waging a proxy war against Israel by supporting Hezbollah and
Hamas. One may argue that by fueling Gaza’s untenable population
explosion, the West unintentionally finances a war by proxy against the
Jews of Israel.
If we seriously want to avoid another generation of war in Gaza, we
must have the courage to tell the Gazans that they will have to start
looking after their children themselves, without UNRWA’s help. This
would force Palestinians to focus on building an economy instead of
freeing them up to wage war. Of course, every baby lured into the
world by our money up to now would still have our assistance.
If we make this urgently needed reform, then by at least 2025 boys in
Gaza-like in Algeria-would enter puberty as only sons. They would be
able to look forward to a more secure future in a less violent society.
If the West prefers calm around Gaza even before 2025, it may
consider offering immigration to those young Palestinians only born
because of the West’s well-meant but cruelly misguided aid. In the
decades to come, North America and Europe will have to take in tens
of millions of immigrants anyway to slow the aging of their
populations. If, say, 200,000 of them are taken from the 360,000 boys
coming of age in Gaza in the next 15 years, that would be a
negligible move for the big democracies but a quantum leap for peace in
the Near East.
Many of Gaza’s young-like in much of the Muslim world-dream of
leaving anyway. Who would not want to get out of that strip of land
but the international NGO’s and social workers whose careers depend
on perpetuating Gaza’s misery.
——————
Mr. Heinsohn heads the Raphael Lemkin Institute at the University of Bremen, Europe’s first institute devoted to comparative genocide research.
—————–
Fwded by Dov Henis
Semo Rantamaki:
I am on this blog because I DO NOT WANT TO SEE REUTERS THE LIARS. The media is outrageously slanted and tells half a story.
I BLAME THE MEDIA FOR A LARGE PORTION OF THIS. For years now, they reported ‘here we go again, the cycle of violence’. Never reporting the suicide-bomber atrocity - only Jewish retaliation as a ‘cyle of violence started by Israel’.
Their slanted stories have emboldened the terrorists and murder of the Jews in Israel to greater levels. Blood of Jewish child, a wonderful children psychologist, the first doctor on the scene of every devastation, along with his daughter the bride is nothing.
MEDIA HAVE EMBOLDENED THE ARABS TO ESCALATE THEIR VIOLENCE, causing the Arabs to think, ‘oh the world is with us, we are doing the right stuff. We are only freedom fighters’. GARBAGE MEDIA.
Besides, they don’t even know the history of what they are reporting. Them days are gone. There must be some good journalists out there who are not on the telly…. Oh yes, Daniel Pearl. Remember him?
Thank you, Benedict and Elki.
I am absolutely agreed with you.
Just want to say, that even Egypt understands that Hamas is fanatic terrorist organization and want to destroy them in spite of all civilian casualty.
Boris.
This defines this war completely:
Gaza war is not. It possesses a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating.
Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger. Hamas, which started this conflict with unrelenting rocket and mortar attacks on unarmed Israelis — 6,464 launched from Gaza in the past three years — deliberately places its weapons in and near the homes of its own people.
This has two purposes. First, counting on the moral scrupulousness of Israel, Hamas figures civilian proximity might help protect at least part of its arsenal. Second, knowing that Israelis have new precision weapons that may allow them to attack nonetheless, Hamas hopes that inevitable collateral damage — or, if it is really fortunate, an errant Israeli bomb — will kill large numbers of its own people for which, of course, the world will blame Israel.
For Hamas, the only thing more prized than dead Jews are dead Palestinians. The religion of Jew-murder and self-martyrdom is ubiquitous. And deeply perverse, such as the Hamas TV children’s program in which an adorable live-action Palestinian Mickey Mouse is beaten to death by an Israeli (then replaced by his more militant cousin, Nahoul the Bee, who vows to continue on Mickey’s path to martyrdom).
At war today in Gaza, one combatant is committed to causing the most civilian pain and suffering on both sides. The other combatant is committed to saving as many lives as possible — also on both sides. It’s a recurring theme. Israel gave similar warnings to Southern Lebanese villagers before attacking Hezbollah in the Lebanon war of 2006. The Israelis did this knowing it would lose for them the element of surprise and cost the lives of their own soldiers.
That is the asymmetry of means between Hamas and Israel. But there is equal clarity regarding the asymmetry of ends. Israel has but a single objective in Gaza — peace: the calm, open, normal relations it offered Gaza when it withdrew in 2005. Doing something never done by the Turkish, British, Egyptian and Jordanian rulers of Palestine, the Israelis gave the Palestinians their first sovereign territory ever in Gaza.
What ensued? This is not ancient history. Did the Palestinians begin building the state that is supposedly their great national aim? No. No roads, no industry, no courts, no civil society at all. The flourishing greenhouses that Israel left behind for the Palestinians were destroyed and abandoned. Instead, Gaza’s Iranian-sponsored rulers have devoted all their resources to turning it into a terror base — importing weapons, training terrorists, building tunnels with which to kidnap Israelis on the other side. And of course firing rockets unceasingly.
The grievance? It cannot be occupation, military control or settlers. They were all removed in September 2005. There’s only one grievance and Hamas is open about it. Israel’s very existence.
Nor does Hamas conceal its strategy. Provoke conflict. Wait for the inevitable civilian casualties. Bring down the world’s opprobrium on Israel. Force it into an untenable cease-fire — exactly as happened in Lebanon. Then, as in Lebanon, rearm, rebuild and mobilize for the next round. Perpetual war. Since its raison d’etre is the eradication of Israel, there are only two possible outcomes: the defeat of Hamas or the extinction of Israel.
Israel’s only response is to try to do what it failed to do after the Gaza withdrawal. The unpardonable strategic error of its architect, Ariel Sharon, was not the withdrawal itself but the failure to immediately establish a deterrence regime under which no violence would be tolerated after the removal of any and all Israeli presence — the ostensible justification for previous Palestinian attacks. Instead, Israel allowed unceasing rocket fire, implicitly acquiescing to a state of active war and indiscriminate terror.
Hamas’s rejection of an extension of its often-violated six-month cease-fire (during which the rockets never stopped, just were less frequent) gave Israel a rare opportunity to establish the norm it should have insisted upon three years ago: no rockets, no mortar fire, no kidnapping, no acts of war. As the U.S. government has officially stated: a sustainable and enduring cease-fire. If this fighting ends with anything less than that, Israel will have lost yet another war. The question is whether Israel still retains the nerve — and the moral self-assurance — to win.
Benedict says:
Son of Jerusalem, I too would like to believe you but I just cannot. You propose that the most moral and ethical answer to this problem is a “one state solution”. But what state would that truly be? A 23rd Arab state? I wouldn’t even mind it if I could be truly sure that I would be safe, but you and I know that that is an impossiblity. If, as you say (because I never heard this), Jews consider Arabs to be snakes, then surely the Arabs consider the Jews to be below snakes, worthy of death, based on the suicid bombings. And besides, history and time have shown us thousands of times over that we can only be safe on our own. From Persia, Rome, England, and Spain to Germany, Russia, Poland, and Syria, the Jews have been kicked out, persecuted, blood libeled, and made second class, if not dead, citizens. Our bloody history taught us well that we should respect our neighbors but only truly trust ourselves. Pre-1948, pre-Israel, we were still people without a place to be safe. And when we were killed in Hebron because of a false rumor, we were killed with impunity and Jewish blood was once again cheap.
The U.N. decided on the two state plan in 1948: neither the Jews nor the Arabs actually had a say, so neither side can share any blame for that decision. And if that vote, as you say, was unjust/unethical, then certainly more so was the dropping of the A-bomb on Nagasaki, and the Vietnam war, and thousands of other historical events that have changed history irrevocably. But what happened has, and we must move on. Life only moves forward. And what I know most is that while the third of Palestine’s population, the Jews, celebrated with great thanks to be given ownership of the land they were on - a tiny dot on the map, truly, the Arabs readied themselves to wipe these few Jews off the map. No, even with their own state, and millions of acres around it, the Arabs could not tolerate the Jews owning anything at all. And again in 1967 and 1973, the Arabs began the wars by striking first without warning. And these people I should trust with my children’s safety?????
Israel would never be attacking now if Hamas hadn’t, once again, begun a war, albeit differently this time by using guerrilla warfare, rockets, and human bombs/shields. But the basic themes remain.
And while we are discussing morals and ethics, how could the millions of other Arabs in the area allow their sufferering brethren to continue thus, if they were so suffering? If the Arabs won’t even care for their own people, how much more so they wouldn’t care for the “infidels”, the Jews!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Benedict: I like to believe you, but I can not. You made so many claims about your children and love. If that is the case where are you finding your soldiers? They are killing and will continue to kill Palestinians with out any mercy. It is very hard for me to accept such a statement thus, it is half PR and Half twisted lie Your claim about Israel’s ability to wipe out Gaza, but not doing that. I think you would if you could. The only problem you have is live TV and the Internet. Remember you did it in 1947 & 1948. Back then there was no Media to carry it live and you wiped out more than 400 Palestinian villages, 20 times the size of Gaza, so spare me the Israeli morality. Probably you are living in my grandfathers home, and you call yourself moral and ethical. Indeed the glob is experiencing a new code of morality and ethics. The weak has no rights and the strong can kill with impunity and will have many in the Media to defend him You mentioned the massacre of Hebron, it happened, but it was a response to a false claim that the British made that the Abraham Mosque was tarnished by Jews, several people in Hebron attacked their Jewish neighbors, but many saved their neighbors.Had everyone in Hebron participated, the number of killed Jews would have in the 100s rather. The story of Hebron should teach you and many Jews a lesson that before Imperial and Zionist Jews moved to Palestine, the three religions coexisted peacefully in Palestine. Can the Israeli government license the building of a mosque or a church in Tel Aviv/ and West Jerusalem, or can an Israeli Arab by a house in Jewish neighborhoods. You and I know the answer to that and you still call yourself moral and do not teach hate. Remember the story of the 3 years old Arab student who was kicked out of a kindergarten in Biet Shan less than three weeks ago and many Jewish Parents were adamant about not having her out of the school just because she was an Arab, and you call yourself moral and ethical, Remember what Robbie Ovadia Youseff said “ all Arabs are snakes, insects, and dirt less than few years a go and you still call yourself Moral and Ethical. Israel has a long way to go in teaching anybody about morality and ethics. After all Israel was built on the ruins of another nation and you seem to call that moral. Less than three weeks ago Olmert said about the behavior of the settlers Programs and you call yourself Moral and Ethical. You claim that your schools and homes have been teaching love and respect of the other and racism is bad in your society. I wonder, had you been teaching hate would be the result???????!!!!!!!
HEBRON, West Bank, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinians last week were a “pogrom” and that Israeli police must end “intolerable leniency” towards such violent offenders.
“As a Jew, I am ashamed of other Jews doing such a thing,” Olmert told his cabinet, referring to a shooting incident.
JERUSALEM, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday likened a rampage by armed Jewish settlers in a Palestinian village to a pogrom and said Israel would not tolerate such attacks in the occupied West Bank.
In other videos, we see Jewish settlers attacking Palestinian sheperds.
Why are these not reported by the mainstream media ?
At the time of the British mandate for Palestine, two thirds wetre Palestinian Arabs and one third Jewish. If you go by democratic principles, the majority vote or desires should count, which was One state, do not divide. But instead, you have outside powers and an outside body (U.N) going against the wishes of the majority indigenous people and dividing the land.
So, now that the foundation of the state was made on shaky moral grounds, Israel tries to obfuscate each flare up by focusing on the symptoms, not the cause. Focus on homemade and Chinese rocket fire, not Israel’s total blockade of Gaza and periodic violent incursions. Focus on the smuggling of crude arms, not Israel’s blockbuster supplies of F-16s, Apache helicopters and much more.
It is the religion of the Palestinians that is the problem, not the occupation, not the blockade, not the bombings, not the land grabs, not the suffering of the Nomad arabs in Negev who cannot even get water lines and so on…
How about a one state solution ? Oh no ! Israel must be a Jewish state, even if it has to be done artificially. Israel is willing to bring in millions of Jews thousand of miles away from around the world, but not Muslim palestinians a few miles away from the West Bank. Does not that sound racist to you ? Israel just wants the land there, but not the people in it if they are not Jewish (especially if they are Muslims). After cleansing the Arab villages of Palestinians and making refugees of them, Israel have kept some token Arabs as Israeli Arabs, as longs as they are a minority.
My question is why not a one state solution ? If you forcibly remove part of a population (making them refugees) and bring in only Jewish people from around the world, ignoring people a few miles away in the West Bank (which Israel controls) to make a Jewish state artificially, is that legitimate ?
At least the “Palestinian” campain/statements maintains the same bent: Mingled with truth, but still a lie. For example, #26 (Son of Jerusalem) says it started with Israel in 1948, citing Dier Yasien, implying the poor defensless “Paletinians” were attacked. The truth is a different matter - even here, back up in time and you will see what? This was the “Battle of the Roads” - The Arab League (the “peaceful?” HAA!) sieze the high ground (Dier Yasien) a few months prior and began attacking Israeli trucks and convoys through the roads! The response was to secure these roads and retake these grounds! But - what does truth matter right?
Son of Jerusalem
It is clear why the Arabs have such good PR. Twisted half truths and half lies.
Well, If Israel were interested in ethnic cleansing and ridding Gaza of the Arabs, wouldn’t they just carpet bomb the area? They are certainly militarily capable. No, instead they warn the civilians IN ADVANCE to get out, and then try to divert missiles from Hamas terrorists when they cower behind civilian human shields, like in schools, hospitals, and mosques. If there are civilian deaths, the blame lies with Hamas.
The 1929 massacres of Jews in Hebron and city of Safed are well documented. There were also other massacres in Hebron, well before the establishment of the Jewish State. Those were massacres just because they were Jewish. Arabs would burst into homes, ‘slaughter to Jews’, killing whole families.
The government of Israel has the right to protect it’s citizens. Many suicide bombers were not retaliated, and each one an act of war, claimed by Arab government as just. However, enough is enough.
Go see what Jews teach their children. They learn to love and help people in need. WE DO NOT TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO HATE. . That would be destroying the mind of the child. You should read the long list of Jewish philanthropies. They started out as little children.
We took our quarrels with the Germans to court. Did you see some massacre in Germany perpetrated by Jews?
I saw a vile criminal depravity in Mumbai perpetrated on Jews and other westerners by Muslims. I do not want to shame and report the mutilation done to the Jews in Mumbai. Where is the ouctry by the world. Where are you people that know only when the Jew is protecting himself? No one stopped Germany in Europe!!!
david Paterson
As I read the posting of a reader of a New York paper, If you pull the tail of a tiger, you’re going to get bitten. 8 years is more than enough. May I refer you to the web sites already listed in addition to one showing terrorists using a UN ambulance as a transport.
Elki says that Jews do not kill Athletes, people on buses, people in restaurants, and more. What Israel has been doing the Middle East since 1948 is just that. All the MASSACRES that your state committed are not enough evidence for you. Beginning in 1948, with Dier Yasien and Kfur Qasm, walking through Quina 1996, in Lebanon, Jenin, and Gaza . In the last 60 years Israel committed more than 150 MASSACRES, all of them against civilians. Indeed all of that does not concern you, because those killed from an inferior race: the Arabs. Remember what many of your Rabies teach you: a finger of a Jew is worth a million Arabs. Gaza is a case in point. Since 2003, the Palestinians have killed probably 15 Jewish people with their missiles. In 15 days Israel has killed a 1000 Palestinians. Still, it is not enough for you and your elk, you want more blood, you want the Palestinians to pay for what Germany did to you. If you have quarrels with the Germans declare a war on them, but stop killing Palestinian Christians and Muslims. Or pick on those who are your size, declare a war on Iran, or Egypt, or Russia because of the old pogroms. It never happened before that people come take others land, kill them, call them terrorists, and then ask for understanding. Even the Americans who killed so many natives are now allowing the natives to live and preserve their culture. Not like Israel. You are looking to totally destroy a culture and exterminate its people. You went so low to steal their national meal the Falafel and made it yours. One last question, what has your family been teaching you about the Holocaust and the Germans? Do not act surprised to see Hamas teaching that to the children through the Cartoons. Israel to the Palestinians equals Nazism to the Jews
Dear World Focus,
some questions for your panel:
(1) Isn’t the situation in Gaza the result of 60 years of Arab refusal to settle the Arab refugee issue? Isn’t the whole idea to use the Arab refugee issue as a permanent propaganda and political weapon against Israel?
(2) Between 1948 and 1967, Egypt had Gaza and Jordan had the West Bank. Why did they not establish a Palestinian state then?
(3) Israel uplifted hundreds of thousand of Jewish refugees from Arab lands. Why did the Arab world not do the same for the similar number of Arab refugees? Especially as the Arab world started the wars and had the West Bank and Gaza between 1948 and 1967?
(4) How long will it take for the media to contrast the way Israel uplifted Jews who fled, or were expelled from, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, …, with the way Arab lands keep descendants of Palestinian refugees stateless? The Jewish refugees came to Israel penniless, and lived in tent towns, but in a few decades ceased to be a problem.
(5) How can there ever be peace when Iranian backed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah proclaim their primary goal is the end of Israel and the death, expulsion of all Jews? Is the current conflict not partly the product of decades of incitement and indoctrination across the Arab world?
To Elki and Boris: You have the right to support Israel, but as Jews how can you support ethnic cleansing. What Israel is doing to the Palestinians is similar to what Germany did to the Jews: killing people because of their faith, culture, language, and looks. Your excuse in Gaza is Hamas. What is your excuse for what is happing in the West Bank. Israel in the West Bank is not using F-16 to kill the Palestinians, but it is confiscating land, cutting trees, destroying buildings, building settlements, and stealing water to get the same results: killing Palestinians
I hope that your panel has a legal expert to discuss the possibility of indicting Israeli leaders with war crimes. I see the situation similar to that of Serbia, Rwanda, and the Sudan. Total madness in the air by F-16 against civilians is appalling. The talk that Hamas is threatening the security of Israel is similar to talking about a mice threatening a Lion.
I believe pre-empting the incoming new US presidency is the incentive here. Obama is going to say let’s continue talking about it again for at least 4 more years, while it is raining rockets into Israel. Eight years is enough. Jewish deaths do not count in the world. I have not seen even 1 outrcy from the world at a suicide atrocity. The media are probably paid off by the Arabs, or something. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Why question Israel’s sovreignty to protect its CITIZENS, whose children receive standard education?
See what Gaza kindergartens are teaching young children on Hamas Mickey Mouse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-c6lbFGC4
See how Hamas uses children in their attacks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3c5uWIDBXY
Idf found Hamas map of planted bombs in populated areas of Gaza to make Jews look bad
when they explode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3c5uWIDBXY&NR=1
It is time for the world to allow the Jews have a Homeland in peace, and accept it. The Arab refugees should have been absorbed back into Jordan and the 22 Arab nations. The Jewish refugees expelled from the Arab lands have been absorbed by the Jews. (Their properties confiscated by the Arabs) There have been many wars in the world, and there are no refugee camps to be seen anywhere. Why should a new state be created out of refugees who have 22 countries from which they came from?
To Martin Savidje:
In upcoming discussions I hope to hear from experts about Iran involvement.
Hamas is in full control by Iran and Syria. Why did they choose to escalate situation now and what they trying to achieve?
Israel election in Feb; new US President or their nuclear program.
Boris Dlansky.
See Hamas Mickey Mouse along with corrected link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-c6lbFGC4
http://www.road90.com/watch.php?id=DLcSUUAr1A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td8YdfNoPBk
The Jews don’t go arount the streets showing their dead - shouting and singing revenge.
The Jews do not kill athletes at the olympic games, kill civilians on buses, restaurants, shopping malls, at homes, etc.
PERHAPS THE MUSLIMS SHOULD RECONSIDER AND INVEST IN MAINSTREAM EDUCATION FOR THEIR CHILDREN INSTEAD OF BLAMING THE JEWS FOR ALL THEIR PROBLEMS. see link:
//www.road90.com/watch.php?id=DLcSUUAr1A
WHATEVER YOUR FEELINGS WITH REGARD TO THE CRISIS IN ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS AND THE NEIGHBOURING ARAB STATES - EVEN IF YOU THINK THAT THE ISRAELIS ARE MORE TO BLAME, JUST CONSIDER THE TWO PHRASES BELOW - THEY SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.
IF THE ARABS IN THE WORLD PUT DOWN THEIR ARMS - THERE WOULD BE NO VIOLENCE.
IF THE JEWS PUT DOWN THEIR ARMS TODAY - THERE WOULD BE NO ISRAEL.
Saudi Initiative was writing like dictate to Israel. Arabs country lost in 1948, 1967 & 1973. They should not dictate and demand everything they want. No country can survive in the border before 1967.
Anybody can explane me why Y.Arafat rejected B. Clinton Initiative in 1999. This Initiative may be just a start. Israel has full rights demand from Arabs country everything they need for security.
Boris Blansky
Here is an example of fear mongering..
Boris Blansky Says:
Media against Israel.
It’s not a secret that Arabs regimes want total distraction of Israel.
Have you been sleeping ? Arab league comprimising of 22 Arab nations has offered what Israel for years has asked for. Land for peace has been offered by the Saudi led initiatives. Israel goes back to UN stipulated borders and Arabs recognize it and establish the diplomatic ties.
American media are anti-Israel!
Before the war started the price per barrel of oil was falling. Since its begining the price has been rising. It makes me wonder whether this forceful response and the lack of outrage by the governments of Arab states is all tied to the price of oil.
Media against Israel.
It’s not a secret that Arabs regimes want total distraction of Israel.
They could not achieve that in conventional wars in 1948, 1967 & 1973.
After all this defeats, Soviet KGB created for notorious “freedom fighter” Y.Arafat blue print how slowly but steady destroy Israel.
Gaza is a perfect example: first, terror attacks against Israeli citizens to provoke Israeli Army retaliation. Second, put as many as possible Palestinian children and women’s under fire. After bloody accident, call for international cry and then, blame “Israeli aggressor” in crime against humanity. Demanding UN Resolutions, political and economical boycott and more. They started this in 1982 and successfully repeated every 2-3 years.
What is most prostration to me that so call balanced media (CNN, BBC, N.Y. Times and others) are intentionally or not intentionally, I don’t know why, are using this False?
My answer is: ”most of the media are anti-Israeli”
Boris Blansky
Los Angeles
Jan. 09, 2009
I would like to understand how is compare the militar capacity of Israel to the Palestinian. Why palestinian can not have military resources like any other country and defend themselfs from their enemy like in any other war.
I am terrified to learn the huge power capacity of Israel,when 80% of the world is against this human massacre and they still are doing what they want. How is compare the dead of 800 palestinias to 15 israelis? Why press is not allowed to record what is happening? There is no excuse for this, just to cover their evil way to do things.
No peace will ever be reach like this.
“measured response”? Israel should slam them to teach them a lesson they wont forget !
“innocent civilians” says who? hamas? so a hamas fighter can wear street clothes, get killed and be called a civilian?
“humanatarian aid”? a chance for reconstituting hamas fighters
All of these catch words are absurd……the world loves a weak Jew and that is not going to happen anymore !
wen israel bombs a site they give worning before. wen hamas attack they aim at civilians(like the murder of shalhevet pas in 02 wen a sniper shot the 10 month old baby between the eyes). Why do non of you care about what hamas does? why do non of you care that hamas use children as human shields? why do non of you care that hamas turn schools into targets? the truth is that non of you really care about human writes, because if you did you would be protesting the masicres in africa. And to all you claiming that the land was stolen from the palistinians, in order to steal something from someone, they had to have had it at one point. But at no point in history was there a palistinian country. These people just happend to live in this area just like the jews who lived there. For them to ask for a country is like brooklyn trying to be there own country. And for all you americans you have no write telling enyone that land was stollen while you are living on land that was stollen from the native americans.
what israel is doing in gaza is murder.and the world is letting them do it.shame on israel and bush that gave them the green light to slaughter defenceless people.
World Focus claims to report this confict between Israel and Hamas from all sides. Your report on 1/7 did not show any of the Israeli civilian victims. Your report showed images only of Palestinian victims. Why? Do not Israeli victims exist in the lens of ‘World Focus’? There have been Israeli victims of Hamas and Fatah rocket launching from Gaza for 8 years. Civilian life in southern Israeli towns has been destroyed as a result of these one-sided hostilities. Israel withdrew from Gaza and the rocket launches from Gaza got worse. When Israel did something for peace, the ‘Palestinians’ saw it as weakness. If the ‘Palestinians’ truly wanted peace with Israel, they would have not increased their hostilities after this Israeli withdrawal. They would have not elected Hamas, which does not recognize Israel. How can you proclaim you want peace with someone whose right to exist you deny? Israel does not deny the right for the Palestinians to exist. That is why they withdrew from Gaza. World Focus took a simplistic and biased approach to the civilian casulties in Gaza. World Focus did not report how Hamas launches attacks from civilian areas. They did not report on how Hamas hides behind its own civilians. World Focus did not report how the Israeli army calls all the homes in Gaza to warn the residents if there will be a strike so as to give them time to leave. World Focus does not report to the extent Israel goes to to minimize any civilian casulties in Gaza. Israel does this even to the detrement of their own succcess. Hamas does the opposite. Hamas deliberatly targets Israeli civilians and hides behind their own. Why isn’t this in the World Focus report? You claim to report from all sides. Where are all the sides you report on? You have to do more than just claim to do that. You must actually do that. If you don’t report fairly then you are a propoganda machine. Propoganda machines get in the way of peace because they obscure facts and truth. Focus your lens on yourself to see who you are.
For some of the bloggers here interested in getting information about Gaza - and what’s happening on the ground visit
http://www.freegaza.org
BTW, I stand by what I said, at least the Blacks in slavery was considered part of a person. In spite of the fact they were considered property, they were still at least part of a person.
I would like to protest World focus’s news on 01/07/09. Were you trying to portray the Israeli soldier wounded in the battle as a hero? He was also involved in the mission of killing innocent people including children –he was a murderer.
Hamas is a democratically elected government, despite the fact that many do not agree with the palestinian choice. It appears Israel is ethnic cleansing Palestine for choosing a government not acceptable to them….and the disgusting Arab governments sit idly by while apartheid, murder, and ethnic cleansing goes on. With Israel emboldened, it will be them next. I am saddened that my tax dollars play a part, against my will, to help murder innocent Palestinian civillians…and Red Cross aide workers. I am disgusted with the silence of the world. If this is not an example of the worst war crimes, tell me what is?
Gaza is one huge prison camp - run by Israel, armed by the US. when will it stop, certainly not while we are sending them guns, tanks, planes…
Until a few years ago, I was “pro Israel” all the way! Then, Israel’s leaders like Sharon (& others before him), decided that it was OK for Israelites to build settlements in Gaza & the West Bank, blocking travel out of Gaza & the West Bank, and literally begin to oppress the Palestinian people.
I am appalled by Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people!!! By building those walls and they took possession of excessive amounts of land, divided Palestinian family member’s and farmers from their farm lands. Their excessive “check points” have blocked access to markets, medical aid, and travel to & from jobs. In essence, the Israelites are keeping the Palestinians in a constant state of poverty. Their justification for this is the violence of the Palestinian people against them, but by building the settlements and walls, they have brought on more violence by the Palestinians! On Charlie Rose (PBS 7 Jan ‘09), CBS reporter Bob Simon (60 Minutes), who lived in Tel Aviv for 10 years, said the Israelites are in denial - of what their policies have done to the Palestinians, what caused this new crisis, and what must be done on their side to have a lasting peace. You can’t get a better truth than that!
From all I’ve heard & read, one of the early Political leaders said this would be a big mistake, when it was proposed. I don’t recall his name, but he banned all building of settlements in these areas. The ban only lasted for about 12 years. He said that any attempt of Israelites to settle in the territories “given” to the Palestinians would cause great resentment, and eventually retaliation by the Palestinian people. How right he was!
Like Max Johnson, I am also appalled by the US Government’s stance to always side with Israel, without demanding an end & removal of the settlements in Palestinian territories. BOTH sides are wrong, but our Government only blames the people of Palestine. Washington was ecstatic over the “democratic” voting in Gaza, that is, until the people spoke and elected members of Hamas fair & square! Do we want true “democracy” in the Middle East, or only democracy that suites our point of view?
It’s time to call both Israel & Palestine to task, to listen to President Carter and make demands of both Governments (backed with a proposal to deny aid) to seriously and with sincerity & candor to come to a real peace settlement. Israel must rectify the wrongs of the settlements, checkpoints, & walls, and stop its excessive retaliation - the loss of hundreds if lives for loss of their few. Palestine must recognize Israel’s right to exist and stop the indiscriminate killing of Israeli civilians by their missile attacks.
Just to state, I am not on either side, because both sides have done their wrong-doing at some point in this history. But I guess thinking back to it, Isreal is awfully coming off like the agressors. Like the people who feel that they are entitled to some land that was never theirs to begin with. Until some Unions decided that maybe they should get a little piece of the pie or restituion, rather. They’ve gone a little haywire to me, killing children point blank, especially, that shows me that they’re trying to halt the progression of these people by killing children; I saw the photos.
For the first individual who mentioned, “At least the U.S. had it partly right in regards to slavery of blacks, meaning, they were at least part of a person,” that is absolutely false. African slaves were never regarded as people, something to the equivalent of animals and acutally less than the former. So wanted to clear that up really quickly.
For some reason, I have been particulary interested in this war. For one, I suppose because very little is being brought up in the news to me , and I like to know what’s going on around the world. And what happended to World Focus on PBS, the show doesn’t seem to be playing in Philadelphia any longer. I was really into that show. I think the news program was pretty fair in realtion to other news programs.
Anyhow, from what I’ve been searching on the net and the conversations I’ve been having with people, I think that this is truly incredible, a new nation who has artillery to demolish a vast population, and an good, backing ally who is known as a “superpower”, these little known facts are what is scaring me. And then hearing very little from the news programs who are known for putting information on loop. And then Isreal limits or halts the press from reporting on their actions. Very biased. These pieces of information are scary.
Why can’t people just make due with what they have instead of making others suffer. Folks just want to take, take, take. It is very clear that the devil is lurking in the hearts of so many around this world. Free your heart and show your greatness.
I would like to understand what Israel expects to accomplish from this air, sea, land assault/war.
Israel says it wants peace, but how can they after this? Israel will cause not only its own children, but, the children of Gaza to endure lifelong psychological problems. Especially so for the children of Palestine. Can you imagine a child growing up in this type of environment? Then with this recent war on Gaza, children seeing their own family members torn to pieces right in front of them.
Does Israel really expect piece after this? The Palestinians already had it hard. At least the U.S. had it partly right in regards to slavery of blacks, meaning, they were at least part of a person. The Palestinians are regarded as not even that! They are surrounded by border check points, no Identity, no Country, now they may not even have a place to lay their heads. And to top it off, looks like Israel has been trying to starve them to death.
This is not your normal anger management cases. This looks like Ethnic Cleansing in order to get more land, maybe all the land. This looks like a modern day Holocaust, but of the Palestinian people.
Just so you’ll know, I am not Pro-Israel, nor am I Pro-Palestinian. I am Pro-Humanity!!!
In spite of all the world protests, there’s no mention of the Kaffiyeh’s being worn by protestors on U.S. soil. So, Israel, may be the cause of something happening here in the U.S.
Thanks Israel, thanks for not leaving this country and going where you will have peace. Thanks for trying to use the “May the last-baddest guy win.” Thanks for putting yourself in this situation, causing others to get involved.
Although I have no particular interest in this conflict, I am appalled by the loss of civilian lives for no apparent purposes.
The fact that some of the mediators of the conflict talk to one side and not to the order suggests that Israel is acting with their approval.
To this day, I still don’t understand the reason for the Israel-is-always-right bias of the american government and the american media.
This policy will ultimately bring the downfall of the United States as she will be fighting Israel’s wars with no end in sight.
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01/15/2009 :: 11:23:41 PM
pete Says:
Tonight’s program was almost critical of the chosen people - white phosphor on the UN… - where do they get the stuff from?