Hysteria in Gaza

Children's bodies are being covered with cardboard boxes in Gaza -- the hospitals have run out of sheets -- as Washington and London urge Israel to use restraint and avoid civilian casualties.

Palestinians on the West Bank are organizing in protest, but this was Israel's plan all along. Less than two weeks ago some 50 Israeli policemen injured each-other in "gloves-off" training that a spokesman described as "a huge police training exercise to prepare for riot control and to deal with different scenarios."

Israel is trying to decapitate Hamas in Gaza, to use an favorite expression of military spokesmen and a docile American media, and the bodies are piling up. What is the limit? As it stands, over 200 Palestinians are dead. One Israeli died today from a rudimentary rocket fired from the Gaza, the supposed impetus for all this.

When the "operations" subside -- after how many days? -- what will have changed? More Palestinians will have died because Israeli "security" is sacrosanct in the current international system but Arab lives are not. But it goes beyond American-made bombs and jets and stonewalling in the Security Council. Blame falls also on the supportive Arab regimes in America's orbit -- perhaps Egypt most of all -- as Gaza is blockaded, bombed, blockaded, and bombed again, this time among the worst in its history.

Tzipi Lizni was just in Cairo, smiling with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit after she told reporters "enough is enough." The meeting, at Egypt's invitation, was described by the BBC "as the first of several diplomatic steps Israel must take before launching military action." Apparently it was the only step, at least publicly.

Meanwhile, commentators and politicians will justify the killing in Gaza because Israel needs "moderates," legitimate negotiating partners, anyone but Hamas -- which will ignore, as always, how you manufacture opponents to your state.

To quote the Ma'an News Agency:

Twelve year old Ayaman is screaming at his father who tries to prevent him from seeing the bodies of his uncle and brother, torn to pieces under sheets. "I'm not afraid to see them," he screamed. In a rage as his father holds tight, Ayman catches the hand of a resistance fighter; "shell and kill them as they did to us," he says.

Israel's leader sit at a podium and say "We are not fighting against the people of Gaza" as they ready a probable ground invasion.

Reading some Mahmoud Darwish in between news reports only seems appropriate. He writes about air strikes at the outset of Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982, his meditation on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the destruction of Beirut.

"The hysteria of the jets is rising. The sky has gone crazy. Utterly wild. This dawn is a warning that today will be the last day of creation. Where are they going to strike next? Where are they not going to strike? Is the area around the airport big enough to absorb all these shells, capable of murdering the sea itself?"

Comments

[TerrapinCB]

I love the way it's always the Palestinians fault. One dead israeli to over 200 Palestinians.

Please stop rejecting reality and substituting your own when dealing with this.

Jesus wouldn't own a gun or kill.

[TammyKnowsBest]

ONLY in this country.

[Petunia39]

Shameless.

[FreeToBeMe2]

The Israeli attacks are horrible, and if you don't think so then you're simply in denial. Anyone who thinks these attacks will lead to a final peace are just crazy, unless the "final peace" is complete and utter obliteration and death for everyone on both sides. That is what this crazy kind of violence -- on both sides -- will lead to. How will anything ever end unless restraint is shown on both sides. Otherwise, it will always be this ridiculous, childish and constant "retaliati­on." Come on people! Have we learned nothing over all these centuries on earth?

[hortonhearsawho2]

Hamas must stop.

[Petunia39]

A person's a person, no matter how small. Save Gaza.

[trubluelefty]

Hamas must stop ?

This is about Israel. And death and control. This is painful beyond words to bomb the world's largest prison in such a manner takes a certain amount of cruelty I can't even imagine. These are America's Friends. I wonder why the world hates us.

[AbuNivi]

Following the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the Palestinians did not bring in business investment nor venture capitalists to develop the territories. They immediately started to use their new space to further launch rocket attacks into Israel. And instead of developing an economy in Gaza, they continued to develop a network of tunnels to smuggle in thousands of tons of weapons from the outside world in order to continue attacks on Israel. The Palestinian Resistance Committees have also been launching their mortar and rocket attacks from civilian areas too, essentially endangering everyone around them. What else are the Israelis supposed use against the Palestinians? Harsh language? Sorry folks, but the Palestinians are reaping what they have sown.

[DomainDiva]

Reaping what they have sown? Israelis were not displaced in 1948 & 1967. Israelis did not have their homes and lands appropriated and given to foreign people. Israelis were not massacred at Shatilla and Sabra.

Even when a complacent dog is pushed into a corner and goaded with a stick, it will come out snarling. The latest blockade on the Gaza strip may have been the straw that broke the camels back. (no pun intended).

Israel only wants to increase their borders and exterminate the Palestinian people. One sees that they have learned well the lessons of WW II.

[trubluelefty]

Folk, this is BS

[Hedonist]

Wrong, it's absolutely true.

[fisherwoman]

My dear friend - you have been misinformed. London and Washington are calling on Hamas in Gaza to stop the rocket attacks. London and Washington cannot criticise Israel's reactions because they know if English or American citizens were under the threat of recieving upto 150 rockets and mortars each day, they too, would respond in the same way as Israel.

Gordon Brown said - "I call on Gazan militants to cease all rocket attacks on Israel immediately. These attacks are designed to cause random destruction and to undermine the prospects of peace talks led by (Palestinian) president (Mahmud) Abbas." http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article//ALeqM5htit1HYbDNPJanOFqCUKauypXwnw)

While, During a visit five months ago to the southern Israeli city of Sderot, US President-elect Barack Obama defended Israel’s right to protect itself from such attacks: "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing." http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004747.htmll)

Israel targets Hamas leaders in a response to the threat to the lives of 2,500 Israeli civilians. Israel seeks not to harm Palestinian civilians, unfortunately however, Hamas leaders deliberately hide in densely civilian areas and do not order civilians into bomb shelters - unfortunately, Hamas puts Palestinian civilians at risk.

[bascombe]

typical blaming of the victims. the israelis plannd this for six months. how is it a 'response'?

[WorkingClass]

Israel deserves rocket attacks and much more for starving an entire city. This American is no friend of Israel.

[Karin Kloosterman - Huffpost Blogger]

Sorry –– here is the link to the post I penned with Shimon Peres' remarks:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karin-kloosterman/israels-president-shimon_b_153749.html

[TammyKnowsBest]

How do you expect Gaza to be blockaded for months with no response?
It is "ridiculous" to exonerate Israel from any culpability in causing this misery.
By the way, punishing civilians for the actions of partisans in their midst is considered to be a war crime.

[Hedonist]

You couldn't be more wrong. Firing rockets into civilian areas is a war crime. Positioning your rocket launchers among civilians is also a war crime. Retaliating against these rockets is Israel's right. The consequences of where the rockets are placed also lies with Hamas.

[Karin Kloosterman - Huffpost Blogger]

Wake up America. Israel is dealing with Hamas now. But if Israel doesn't, Hamas will be your childrens' future too. Here is a statement from Shimon Peres on the Israeli retaliation:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/world/

[SimonNZ]

Ah, so by your logic if the Palestinians began blowing up police stations in Tel Aviv with no warning in order to maximise casualties as a response to Israeli settler violence perpetrated against them this would totally justified?

[Petunia39]

Don't trouble yourself responding to this kind of post. Israel does no wrong. Everything is the Palestinian's fault. The victims always ask for it... blah, blah, blah. You can't change their minds.

[skippypicasso]

Let's agree this is awful.

I'll also agree this is all Israel's fault once the poster explains to me the point of lobbing Kassams.

I really want to know.

[Vcubed]

Why do people object more vociferously and in greater numbers to Israel's actions? Hamas has been lobbing stuff over the border for days. Is it the arithmetic? When does Israel get to respond?

[ponderingmuch]

Why do people of all sorts do these things?

I want to banish all who use violence of any kind anywhere to some secure place where they can play our their harm only with each other.

[Vcubed]

Fair enough.

[chaos4700]

What's the kill rate on a Kassam rocket? It's less than 1:1 -- there have not been as many deaths as rockets launched. Therefore, one concludes that killing people is not a useful goal of firing a Kassam.

The Israeli's have dropped at least 100 tons of bombs on Gaza. They've caused at least 200 deaths. These are minimum figures, mind you.that's at least a kill rate of two people to one bomb, assuming it weighs a ton. And that's before we even have the final death toll.

Do the math. Who's got the blood on their hands, really?

[trubluelefty]

Thank you if they open up a thread where only people with reasonable attempts to understand this are allowed I will meet you there.

[bascombe]

israel has been planning this attack for six months! explain that.

[BaileyWo]

They are going in for a full scale occupation of the Gaza, or so it appears. My hope is that once they do they will begin to employ the strategies of General David Petraeus, who is the world's foremost counterinsurgency expert and who holds two PhDs.

Tommy Franks and his bloodthirsty cowboys screwed up in Iraq by using conventional weaponry including tanks and air strikes against insurgents sheltered within the civilian population. The effect of this high testosterone strategy, ignorant of the military lessons of Vietnam, is that the civilian population of the entire region turned against us, feeling like victims and "collateral damage," having been driven into the arms of the insurgency.

Petraeus has sought to promote the goal of any effective counterinsurgency operation -- winning the civilian population. The war is hopeless without this. In fact, by the time Rumsfeld was fired, it was already too late.

The IDF is stupidly employing conventional weaponry. They do not seem to want to win the population. Conversely they appear to want to continue the expansionist strategies that brought them to the dance. They want to roll up the Palestinians and send them into exile. But this is not democracy; it is chianism (spelled with a zee).

[BaileyWo]

I want to apologize if my above comment appears to support a military occupation of what is recognized as a sovereign people. I meant only to encourage humane military treatment of civilians. In this case, what really needs to be the priority is for the IDF to back off completely and give these people room to breath. That means ending the siege of the Gaza.

The point I am trying to make, not very articulately as it appears, is that Israel does not seem to want to grant these people autonomy as per their posturing in the world press. Rather than even use effective and humane counterinsurgency measures promoted by General Petraeus, they are revealing themselves as monsters intent on exiling the Palestinians and then forbidding their return. There's is not a haphazard strategy. They know exactly what they are doing. They may not like the label but most sane observers would call it "G-E-N-O-C­-I-D-E." Pray to G-d the international community, including the US, will recognize the strategy for what it is and force an intervention.

[skippypicasso]

Return to where? Your agenda clouds your reason.

[chaos4700]

We cannot allow Israel to get away with these crimes against humanity. Thank you for speaking out.

[plebeianswillrevolt]

Despicable, horrendous injustice.

[Netizen]

Thank you for your courageous post.

[trubluelefty]

Thanks for the last 3 posts. I believe in a world where there is hope now. Israel whispered into Bush's ears shall we take them out now before you go and he nodded. What's a few more.