As Israel’s massacre of 19 civilians last week disappears off the media’s radar, Israel has started taking a more PR-friendly approach to illegal assassinations. Something that would allow them to launch a missile into a refugee camp in the middle of the night without the world getting pissed off. Calling 10 minutes in advance to warn the target has been one solution but that seems to have backfired recently after Mohammed Baroud received such a call and ran to his local mosque to get some support. Hundreds of Palestinians then followed him home and drew a large enough crowd to form a human shield. Israel called off the air strike, telling Reuters: “The attack plan was canceled because of the people there,” he said. “We differentiate between innocent people and terrorists.”
If you didn’t laugh hysterically at the last sentence then you’re just not having enough fun in your life. Not only did the Israeli army kill a 24 year old Palestinian police officer and a 16 year old kid in Gaza on the same day but not two weeks ago did the Israeli army open fire on a large crowd of women who had surrounded a mosque in Beit Hanoun to help militants escape. The Israeli army shooting unarmed women in Beit Hanoun briefly made headlines only to be overtaken a while later by the killing of those 19 civilians.
Meanwhile…
The Palestinian leadership is struggling to get its act together in an attempt to push a return to the negotiation tables. But apparently there’s really no need for it…
NABLUS, West Bank РIsrael̢??s deputy prime minister on Saturday said Israel should assassinate Hamas̢?? leadership, ignore the moderate Palestinian president and walk away from international peace efforts, the latest in a string of hard-line positions voiced by the newest member of the Cabinet.
The comments by Avigdor Lieberman came as the rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, continued talks on forming a unity government. President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah hopes the coalition deal will enable him to revive peace efforts with Israel…
â??They … have to disappear, to go to paradise, all of them, and there canâ??t be any compromise,â? he said. [source]
I didn’t laugh hysterically but instead breathed a sigh of relief as I was expecting the news story to end with Israel NOT cancelling the airstrike and later explaining “The house was a terorrist and it was hiding behind innocent civilians to use them as human shields”.
israel’s official line has always been that they didn’t intentionally kill civilians. but all that usually means is some vague statement of regret whenever someone was killed who couldn’t be labeled a “terrorist” and an explanation that they weren’t the intended targets. of course, if they really regretted the loss of human life, they would stop with the strikes.
when my mother caught me stealing a cookie from the cookie jar, i would always say i was sorry. “you weren’t really sorry last time,” my mother would say, “you did it again.”
but like iksfadljk said, it is nice that they called off the airstrike in this case. i just wish i was confident they will call off the next one too
The Israelis have not just begun ringing up and warning people as some sort of PR exercise…. check your facts. They have been doing this for over a year and in fact did so very extensively during their attack on Lebanon also! Perhaps you are confusing them with the Palestinians and others who randomly fire missiles into Israel without any real aim or any care about where it lands! At least the Israeli take aim, even if sometimes tragedies do happen… But if the cowardly hide behind innocent civilians, they make themselves targets…. they remind me of little children who go and hit their big brother and when the big brother goes to retaliate, the little one runs to hide behind their mother screaming that big brother wants to hit him! So it is time for people like you to get real for once and tell the truth.
Matt: when you launch missiles into a refugee camp in the middle of the night…every one of those hits is a “tragedy”. and if you’ve ever been in a refugee camp you would know how condensed they are and all this bull about hiding behind civilians becomes irrelevant.
Nas.. missiles launched into anywhere, at any time of the day or night are a ‘tragedy’… I spent much time on business in Lebanon from 1973 right through to 1991 staying throughout the civil war and do understand these tragedies…..
I am neither Jewish, or have ever been to Israel, so I have no axe to grind…. but my point is that too many people, led by the world media, seem to demonise just the Jews when there is responsibility on both sides to be taken…. The hundreds of millions of arabs of surrounding a few million Jews have all become very proficient at playing at being the poor hard done by victim and refuse to take any responsibility for their actions, as we see from the Palestinians who can only see as far as their own problem and refuse to even accept that they have backed Israel into a corner and made them lash out in defence! Start taking responsibility for your own actions and trying to see both sides of the problem and things will change. But as long as the arab world refuses to allow for anything other than the total destruction of Israel, things will not change!
Matt: I agree with you when you say there is responsibility on both sides, BUT I am inclined to believe that the group of people with the big army, and big guns, who kill way more people than the other group and who have destroyed much of their livlihood under occupation…is the group that bears the greater responsibility.
the very notion that palestinians are to blame because they have “backed Israel into corner” and caused it, much like an animal would, to lash out in “defense” is preposterous. Israel has been an occupying force since its beginnings and i could care less about the religion of zionists.
the “total destruction of Israel” is something that was given up a long long time ago. palestinians would settle for resolution 242 but instead Israel continues to occupy, continues to annex land and continues to build settlements and walls.
so if we want to talk about taking responsibility…Israel first.
Nas, we do need to get some perspective into this as I have said before.
Just in the last 5 days or so, more than 90 missiles have been fired indiscriminately into Israel from the Gaza strip and Israeli civilians have been killed and injured! With this being an ongoing thing, what do you suggest that Israel do? Sit peacefully and say “it’s all right, we’ll manage, you keep chucking missiles over to us trying to kill us because you are small and hard done by?” Get real Nat!
Palestine and the much of the arab world still want the extermination of Israel and continuously say so in many ways…. this is also indicated by the fact that over the decades, and even in recent years, Israel has given every opportunity for a Palestinian state.
Palestinians do not have a state today because the Palestinian leadership has thus far refused to give up its ambition to have ALL the land of Israel. Refused to give up the strategy of armed conflict to achieve that goal. Refused to clamp down on terrorist networks that attack innocent Israeli civilians. And refused to accept any of the previous political deals that have been negotiated.
Yes, the Israelis have often mistreated the Palestinians and subjected them to all kinds of abuses. Few people condone or excuse such behaviour. But, it is ultimately the fault of the various Palestinian governments that the Palestinians do not have a state.
Starting with 1947, The League of Nations came up with the Partition Plan, essentially dividing the Holy Land in half. Israel said “yes”, even though 80% of the land Israel were being given was useless desert!! The Arabs said “no”. And five Arab nations invaded Israel, seeking to throw the Jews into the sea.
Then, much more recently, in the summer of 2000, at the second Camp David Summit, the then Israeli Prime Minister, Barak, offered Yasser Arafat 87% of the West Bank and Gaza!! Previously, no Israeli prime minister had ever offered more than 40% to 50%. So this was perceived by everyone observing as an incredibly generous offer. But, Arafat said “no”. He wanted still more! Arafat negotiated all the way to to 97% of the land, AND half of the Old City of Jerusalem! Barak agreed!!! BUT, what did Arafat do? He then rejected the deal outright! He went back to Ramallah and set into motion the Aqsa intifada, a wave of terrorism and suicide bombings that left thousands of Israelis and Palestinians dead and wounded.
History shows that it is absolutely clear that the Palestinians do not want ANY sort of peace with Israel… they don’t want ANY split of the land…. they will settle for nothing less than EVERYTHING. They have affirmed this many times over.
Furthermore…. before Yasser Arafat died, he actually made the ‘Forbes 400’….. the list of the 400 wealthiest people in the world. They reported that he had over 1.3 Billion US Dollars stashed away for himself!! Did he make that through working? No, it is alleged that this was money he filtered away from aid sent by the world to help the Palestinian people! It is alleged that Arafat got rich by stealing people’s money, stealing people’s dreams, while the Palestinian people kept sinking further and further into poverty and despair! So… who wants peace? Only Israel… the Palestinians want only total annihilation!
Matt: how many Israeli civilians have been killed by palestinian rockets?
how many palestinians have been killed by the Israeli war machine?
And its funny to even think about what Israel “has to offer” when it has stolen Palestinian land…and what’s left of it has either been annexed or had settlements built on.
All of this and unwillingness for Israel to end the occupation or return to the 67 borders and abide by the UN resolution 242.
No doubt, Palestinian leadership has failed, I acknowledge that. But the biggest contributor to this conflict is not abbas or arafat…it’s israel and its occupation.
You can spin it any way you want…but it’s. just. that. simple.
Okay, Nas…. let me get this straight.
The joint arab nations pre-emptively attack Israel in the hope of wiping them out and pushing them into the sea to claim the land just for themselves. This leads to a war in which Israel is fighting the aggressors, who are many times larger than Israel and numerically outnumber Israel by many, many times over, during which in only 6 days Israel manages to push the agressors back and defeat them. These agressors of course appeal to the UN when they realise that they cannot beat little Israel and then expect Israel to give back absoloutly everything to the agressors who attacked them without warning, and go away as if nothing happened!!??
A bit like a gang of big kids with big sticks jumping a little kid walking along the road and when the little kid manages to defend himself and beat off this whole gang of big kids and take their big sticks. So the big kids go running crying to their mothers and not only complain about the little kid, but insist on having the big sticks returned which they had used to beat the little kid with!
What planet are you on Nas? Surely you can see how bizarre your arguments are? Surely you are not so blinded by islamic propoganda that you are not willing to think for yourself?
Please, please, watch the CNN special by Greg Black which shows just how brain-washed you have become. See it at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PWIK8YTZS8
Nas… I am not saying that the Israelis are totally in the right or that they are doing the right thing…. I hurt for my Palestinian friends…. but I do try and think for myself and keep a balance.
First of all, let me put aside the fact that the realities of the 1960’s less than 2 decades of Israeli statehood to the realities of 2006, nearly half a century later. Israel is built on stolen land, it’s as simple as that. In 1967 the world decided that the borders established then should be the national borders, but Israel has refused that.
Secondly, geographical size has nothing to do with it, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense that the little island of the UK once colonised continents. It’s about technological advancement and funding, both of which Israel has been gladly given by the U.S., there’s no denying that. Israel has been since the 60’s the strongest military force in the middle east and is one of the strongest military forces in the world today. So lets not compare apples and oranges.
Thirdly, stop calling me “brainwashed”. Israel is occupying lands that do not belong to it. One cannot deny this reality. The whole “a land with no people for a people with no land” is a load of hogwash, especially given the fact that Israel now refuses the right of return for Palestinians.
Putting aside all propaganda, there are undeniable realities of Palestine that Zionists are so inclined to deny.
Nas, many thanks for you response again, it is good to communicate, hopefully with open minds on both sides. Who knows where it might lead to for each of us?
I do sincerely respect your views which are the views of the general Arab populace and the views of most of my Arab friends also, but one thing that many can see is that what I said about ‘brainwashing’ is true… perhaps it struck a chord with you also, which is why you reacted to it in the way you did and yet did not even mention the documentry which clearly illustrates what I was saying about brainwashing. Please do not be offended by my use of the word ‘brainwashing’ as I do not mean it in any derogatory way but use the word in it’s literal context.
As for the land being ‘stolen’ land….. Firstly, how far back do we go with Israel or with any other land on the earth all of which has at various times been held by somebody different? Perhaps England belongs to the French? Spain to the Arabs? Cyprus to the British or Turks? etc…. How far do we go and where do we draw the line?
If we look at Israel…. there is no doubt that the modern state of Israel was only started in the 1940’s…. BUT, it was in the control of the ancient Jews thousands of years ago, even before there was such a place as ‘Palestine’ ever thought of…. The Palestine of today is a political creation. I will send you the link to a straightforward history lesson in PowerPoint which illustrates this very clearly when I get home, as I am at the office at the moment and cannot remember the link…. I would be interested to hear your view on what you see on that.
stop with the patronizing. if anyone is brainwashed here it’s you. but don’t worry, its not your fault.
(don’t take that the wrong way…i just meant it literally)
how about modern times…how about the people who have been living on that land since history can remember…arabs who were muslim, christian and jew. what right does a jewish fellow from russia or poland or india or somewhere half a world away, have to any land in the middle east?!
there is race, there is religion and there is ideology…if your historical claim is based on jews (as a group of people following a faith) that “controlled” the land (which most historical scholars agree never happened) then there were arab jews in palestine years before the first ships came from europe. zionism is what’s at play here. if arab jews in palestine had an uprising at the turn of the century and decided to have their own state, this would be a completely different discussion.
the land is stolen, and anyone who thinks otherwise is either brainwashed or simply a rejectionist of basic fact.
a 10 year old would get this if simply the events of the last century were laid out for him.
what’s your excuse?
Nas…. once a person begins to get angry and simply insisting that their point of view is the absoloutly right, I would suggest that they are losing their argument and know it…..
Nas, there is no historical evidence for what you say apart from a few people like yourself who have put together so called ‘evidence’ after the fact to prove your argument.
I have taken each of your arguments and provided at least some evidence. Firstly with the one hour CNN documentry which very clearly illustrates my argument on unconscience brainwashing, whereas all you come up with is an insistance that you are right and I am wrong. This is why peace eludes you, because you simply keep repeating claims that have no logic or substance in the hope that if you say it long enough it will be accepted as truth. Why have you not commented on the CNN commentry… the link to it is in one of my previous posts. Perhaps you don’t want to watch it? Or you have watched it and have no logical comment to make apart from your usual ‘it’s a Jewish propoganda plot’, which seems to be the explanation by the Arab world for anything and everything in the world!
So what now…. do I become your enemy and worthy of death as well because I disagree with you? Isn’t that the way it goes? What was the insane quote recently by one of your leaders? Something about Islam being a peaceful nation and anybody who disagrees with Islam deserves to have their heads cut off!
Please Nas… break your mind free of the insane stuff which has filled it for so many years and start to investigate things yourself without fear…. you will be surprised by the results and you should also then realise that you have been brainwashed all these years.
dont confuse anger with irritation that a person must resort to saying the other is brainwashed simply because they have no substantial argument. obviously if you have nothing to argue then automatically the best explination for it is that the other guy’s brainwashed.
yes there is no historical evidence that palestinians existed in this piece of land and that it was theirs. refugees just sorta showed up out of the blue eh? an alqueda conspiracy. and yes, the cnn documentary…always an objective source…talk about orientalism at its best.
peace does not elude me. in fact you dont even know me. i am an advocate of peace between palestine and israel, but that’s rather difficult to accomplish with the israeli occupation OF palestine. holding a gun to my head and demanding that i want peace is not the best way to go.
no, how it goes is first you make a racist generalization that a person of arab or muslim decent will always be inclined to kill those that disagree with him, a comment possibly generated due to the view embedded in your mind that we are inferior people, and then i tell you that what eludes you is in fact something called common sense. And I don’t know what “one of your leaders” you’re talking about: i’m guessing you’re going to start quoting alqueda manifestos now. but maybe we should start with what one of your leaders said as quoted in the above post.
my suggestion to you is to open your eyes the certain realities of this past century. you’ll be surprised at the amount of undeniable things that you’ve been denying.
Okay Nas…. Let’s agree to differ on the history of the what has happened in the past and let’s agree that future actions will prove who is serious about peace and who isn’t?
What I mean is that Isreal and Palestine are both at the stage now where Israel has totally pulled out of all permanent occupations of Gaza, and yet rockets are still being fired across into Israel, killing and wounding civilians in Israel. The Palestinians asked for the Isrealis to leave Gaza, they left…. what now? Will the Palestinians next step be to ask Isreal to leave more of Israel, or even all of Israel and then keep firing missiles into Isreal until all the land belongs to the Palestinians? You and I know that logically, the Israelis are not going to hand over all their land… they keep making concessions which keep getting bigger and more demanding all the time… so where must it all end?
I believe that short term history will show that the Palestinians will not want to agree on anything short of total control of all the land of Israel even thought he Israelis are continuously showing that they are willing for a compromise.