Today, the terrible scenes I have seen in Gaza can only be described as hell on earth as the enormous black plummes of smoke willowed upwards, it was nothing less than 9/11 visiting us all over again, as countess of bodies, mostly children laid lifeless on the streets and innocent people panicked not knowing where to run whilst Israel plummeted bomb after bomb over their heads, buildings literally cut in half. I ask, in what kind of world we are living when this is alowed to happen ? Why our government and the United States have kept mute whilst all this is going on ? No condemnation from our leaders ? when there has been widespread condemnation from ordinary people who have taken to the streets to protest ? There have been demostrations in London including by Jewish organizations in front of the Israeli Embassy, in Jordan, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Spain, Australia, Jakarta etc. The Jordanian people have even asked their king to severe ties with Israel, such has been the outrage felt all around the world.
The Israli state has only been founded 60 years ago, in the heart of Palestine and over its few years of existance, it has only created brutal and deadly confrontations with its neighbours like a cancer in the Middle East. The whole experiment, it is a failed experiment that cannot ever lead to permanent peace in the area but just chaos, death, brutality, aggression and more violence.
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13 comments:
I fear that there just is no solution to this Israeli-Arab problem. Not all problems have to have a solution, and I think this one is insoluble.
Maybe if Hamas were to stop firing rockets into Israel,then Israel wouldnt need to attack Hamas?
Remember Israels government( whatever you think of it) has been duly elected.Hamas has attained a semblance of power by intimidation and murder and thuggery.
If we make a comparison ,and imagine a mob of terrorists on the isle of wight bombarding the british mainland with rocketry.....wouldnt the british government be duty bound to wipe them out?
Im not sure Robert that there is no solution.If the terrorist groups were destroyed then i would imagine the two sectors could live in harmony.I truly believe Israels intentions are" good"....Hamas s ,on the other hand ,only intentions are to gain power.People,in most cases dont fully realise the aid Israel gives to the Gaza strip and the palestinians in particular,its allowed to "fly under the radar" by the media,for various nefarious reasons i believe.
regards
Dougie, Hamas was also elected by the people of Gaza and won the election fairly and squarely. For 18 months now, Gaza has been in a siege, where no goods can go in or out of Gaza without the Israeli's or Egyptian's permission. In effect, they have been starved of the essentials to live a normal life, hence the tunnels and the home-made rockets and stones. Coupled to that, Israeli's tanks have for 18 months now, been aggresively uprooting orange trees and ruining the agricultural fields in Gaza.
Israel has got a proper army whilst Gaza has only got a resistance movement which won the election in Gaza, this resistance movement is Hamas. Just because they only have home-made rockets and stones to defend themselves, the Israeli's are calling them " terrorists " By what I have seen on television today, the terrorists are the Israeli's who have now destroyed buildings like the Parliament, The Justice Ministry, the finance Ministry, a University, hospitals, schools, that have now been striken in Gaza. The Palestinians are thinking of launching an International criminal law-suit against Israel for the Gaza massacres. Today, there has been an intense increase in the number of bombs being dropped. 18 in the last 30 minutes. There are hospitals with broken windows and patients lying in the streets. According to the U.N. 100 humanitarian trucks with aid are needed to go into Gaza urgently, but the trucks are not allowed to go in by the Israeli's who are saying there is no need. The Israeli's are conducting a racial cleansing of the Palestinian people.
Tomorrow the Israelis are going to launch a ground attack with more than 800 tanks, they have the infantry and artillery ready for a ground invasion on Friday. Over head you can see f-16s bombs being fired. At least 450 people have been killed in Gaza, and 2,000 injured The only one who seems to be doing something to stop the blood-shed is the French President Sarkosy, who is planning to visit Gaza on Monday. The Palestinians have the right to resist the Israeli invasion. So what choice does Gaza has ? Dougi, you must not forget that the same thing happened to Lebannon in 2006.
Maria,
I read somewhere that directly after the present ceasefire had ended,that hamas fired 147 rockets onto isreali territory over two days..i believe israel have the right to self defence.As for hamas being elected,well,that is only veneer..on paper elected maybe..but its easy to garner peoples votes when you have an automatic pistol against their foreheads.Hamas and the other terrorist organisation in palestine,i forget their names right now, are responsible for the palestinians plight..not israel.
The wars and attacks against israel from their neighbours are the result of unreasonable hatred,a hatred that is not rational..similatr to catholic vs protestant, muslim vs christian and any number of other primarily tribal emnities. I personally hope hamas and the rest trhrow down their weapons and seek a diplomatic and ordered solution....if they not prepared to do that then i hope they are hunted down,dragged from watever hole they r skulking in andwiped out to the last terrorist or suicide bomber.
But take heart maria,this is nothing, wait till israel bomb iran,then you will see fireworks..i believe that is necessary though the cure might be worse than the condition i suspect.
Look at the jews history maria,its needed to understand their paranoia and the "hit back and hit hard" philosophy...Its a pity the western democracies didnt adopt the same attitude during hitlers early period.
regards
Right now my heart goes towards the people in Gaza who are the real victims in all this. 450 people have been killed and 2,800 people have been wounded which are not Hamas, but the normal civilian population of men, women and children. Dougie or you to say what you just said, about the rockets being the problem, is simply playing down the huge massacre which has taken place in Gaza. Israel and their chief allied the U.S. with the Bush administration, have given Israel the green light by interfering with the ceasefire and using technicalities to prolong this carnage. These tecnicalities are buying time for Israel to allow more time for the killing to continue. Despite claims of Israel that it is Hamas they are targeting, it does not ressonate with the evidence in the ground as it is the civilians who have been killed. Why target a Mosque ? When officially the Israelis are saying they are only targeting Hamas ? There were 250 Palestinians praying in that Mosque at that time when it was hit. 11 have been killed and 32 others have been wounded.
Anyone who would like to help the Palestinians victims in Gaza can do so, at Medicins Sans Frontiers who have at the moment a team working there right now, you can send your donations at this registered charity address:
www.msf.org.uk
Hi Maria and Dougie
I think the Israelis are getting this in now during the last days of Bush because they're not sure precisely how pro-Israeli Obama will be. He'll probably turn out to be quite pro-Israeli but the Israelis aren't taking any chances.
Obama will come out of this looking good, because as soon as he's sworn in he'll ask the Israelis to stop, which they'll do, because by then they'll have done all the damage they want to do, and Obama will then be hailed as a peacemaker.
That is exactly right Robert
That is precisely what is going to happen, and Obama will be seen as some kind of hero when in reality, by the time Obama takes office, the Israelis would have had all the time in the world to pulverise the Gaza strip. It is George Bush's good-bye parting shot. He hates the Palestinians and their religion and Bush does not have one iota of humanity towards the Muslims. This is an asymetrical warfare were the Bush regime knows perfectly well that civilians are going to be the ones who are going to be killed and wounded. This is now a full invasion, with huge human loss. Another Iraq.
It was on the news yesterday, that the Australian government has rejected the U.S. offer of having Guantanamo prisoners. The Bush regime would like it if they could shift their crimes to another country, to make them complicit of their atrocities, it is very good the Bush regime offer was flatly turned down by the Australian government, as they know the Americans have broken the Geneva convention about prisoners without a trial.
Maria,
Do you have an address where one can donate money for the ISRAELI civilian victims of suicide bombers,mortar attack,rocket fire?..There is also a fear that hamas can,or might be able ,to reach israels nuclear facility with their rockets.Why cant israel defend themselves? Do we hand the heads of israeli leaders to hamas? how much jewish blood must be sacrificed to appease the palestinians? or how much jewish money or jewish land must be handed over before hamas will agree not to kill any more jews?The reason why so called "innocents" are being killed or are suffering is largely because the terrorists store their arsenals of weaponry or site their rocket launchers within mosques,areas of high civilian population and hospitals etc etc etc.The terrorists of course want israel to attack those sites,with the resulting carnage,to gain the fruits of the propaganda that results when civilians are killed.What do you propose the israelis do Maria? to protect them selves ,and the ISRAELI civilians that are being killed? nothing?
Robert,
The machinations of the israeli government may well be as you describe..no doubt,as you also say Obama has his own version of how he can come out of it looking like the saviour of the middle east.But none the more ,or less for that,the fact is Israel IS under attack from all sides,from the terrorist groups,from iran,al quaeda ,syria ,if not directly,then certainly indirectly..the middle east is intent on ultimately destroying israel......have they the right to defend themselves or not?Why do people tend to focus only on the plight of the palestinians,a plight that is really self inflicted,and ignore the many israeli casualties,military and non-military.......and how on earth can anyone take sides with such as hamas,who send suicide bombers ,strapped full of explosives to blow themselves up in israeli shopping centres,markets, hospitals etc?Israels military actions are designed to eradivcate the threat to israel...whats wrong with that? ........The whole middle east,in my opinion is a festering sore ,a sore that most likely will eventually erupt and drag us all into another world war...its not about religion any more,its about a society with standards trying to fend off society(s) with NO standards....if the west ,or in this particular case israel,fail,the western world will be on the brink of the abyss....that is the war that is being fought,and israel vs hamas,america vs iraq and iran are only minor skirmishes ..lose these ,we are done for..thats my view.
regards
Hi Dougie
It never was about religion. It's about nationalism. Two different nations claim the same piece of land as their homeland. It's a dead end. There is no solution - or at least, the only "solution" will be when one side wipes out the other.
It's pointless now to ask who the land "really" belongs to, as there is no answer, and the answer certainly can't be found by reference to what old men with beards said hundreds or thousands of years ago.
Re the threat to the West : I think you're making the same mistake as the Americans made in the Cold War. Communism wasn't a monolithic centrally controlled entity - it was adapted to suit local conditions. Always first and foremost is the nation state. The Moslem religion is the same.
Actually, I think the main threat to Western civilization comes from Western governments themselves. Take the UK and run your mind back over the Prime Ministers we have endured : Brown, Blair, Major, Thatcher, Callaghan, Wilson, Heath...would you put any of these people in charge of writing a Bluffer's Guide to Civilization, let alone defending and preserving civilization? Look at America, which boasts such titanic figures as Bush Jr, Clinton, Bush Snr, Reagan, Carter....or Germany with Helmut Kohl, France with Chirac...tiddlers one and all.
Hi robert
I take on board what you say,but there ARE palestinians who live within Israeli territory and are happy to do so,and in fact are prospering.The nationalism issue is of course ever present,but I dont believe its an overwhelming issue for the "man in the street",its a tool used by leaders to whip up frenzy,for their own political ends..i suggest the ordinary people just want to get on with living,but are unable to do so because of the intimidation employed within hamas controlled territory.
As you say we are not dealing with a single body or enemy,the different organisations are many and they have many differences between themselves..but one thing they share is a hatred towards israel...a hatred towards america and the west, and a hatred of democracy .....Now bring irans nuclear gaols into the mix,syrias also,not to mention pakistans....add the oil problem, and russia and chinas need for those oil supplies and what alliances those countries would or might be prepared to enter into to guarrantee those supplies...its a heady mix,one that could be the catalyst for ww3...
As for the list of leaders you provided,well i believe only thatcher and possibly reagan reincarnated would give me hope ...
I guess these things are up for argument but Bush ,to me,while i admit he is inarticulate,boorish and prone to gaffes,and in speeches is hardly inspiring....nevertheless i think history will judge his iraq escapade as "the right thing to do" thats if there is still a civilisation around in 50-60 years to look back and judge these things lol
regards
Dougie & Robert:
Israel has the most sophisticated weapons in the world. There have been only been 7 dead Israelis in four years, against 700,000 civilians who are now being attacked in Gaza. They are being bombed with DEPLEATED URANIUM by air, by sea and by land. These weapons of mass destruction have enormous power and the humans who have been attacked with these weapons have been chopped into pieces. I have just heard a Norwegian doctor saying that he attended a 10 year old boy who had his chest completely wide open and he had someone else's leg on his lap. The boy died shortly after getting into hospital. The Norwegian doctor said this is against the International laws. He also stated, he had clear evidence that a new weapon is being used against ordinary people from Gaza and he made a plea to his Israeli colleagues to ask their government to stop the bombings right now. He also said that most of the patients being treated at the hospital have had their limbs being cut off, and that these questions should be raised by the international community. He said these bombs are being used as an experiment. The patients who survive this, will suffer from widespread cancers and leukemia. The bombs causes severe amputation.
And these were of made of dense inert nuclear material and that these same weapons which were used in Lebanon.
Also, children in U.N. founded schools, have been hit and killed by these bombs.
Gaza lacks electricity, the hospitals are operating on generators which need fuel to run, fuel is not getting in and the life support machines will fail to work during the night. There are many children and babies who depend in those generators working. Electricity is low and if these stop functioning, it will be catastrophic for hospitals.
Doctors themselves are targets. One was killed as he was coming out of an ambulance trying to save someone else's life. Gazans have nowhere to go, as nine Mosques have been bombed and are not safe in their own homes either.
Dougie:
The Palestinians as well as the rest of the world have been preached for many years by the U.S. about Democracy and when the Palestinians did vote Hamas into power, this election was monitored by the U.N. when Hamas won the elections fairly and squarely now the Palestinians are being collectively punished by the U.S. for having voted for Hamas. As a revenge they are now allowing this massacre to continue. So really " Democracy " its only a slogan which is used only if the result is how the U.S. would like it to be. if the result does not agree with the wishes of the U.S. the people get massacred.
It would only take one phone call from Washington to put an end to this bloodshed. Lets not forget that the U.S. allocates five billion dollars to Israel in military aid, annually. It is high time, the American public woke up to this realisation and ask themselves why do they need to contribute towards military aid to Israel ? what for ? So that the Israelies can continue acting as a rogue estate and can also continue bombing their neighbours with banned weapons like depleted uranium and cluster bombs ?
How about this for a thought? Its fashionable to blame wars and killing on inequality,injustice and even on economic security,but the simple fact is its a trait of the human race that individuals and groups are infected with a nervousness that periodically causes humans to turn on and destroy fellow humans.Hope,which is another human trait-the hope that is,that man will change ,and wars will be no more doesnt and never will change the past or the present..or the future.so far the trait of murder,violence and wars is as regular and predictable as is mans various sexual habits and drives.....nothing will change it...it is in us,just as if we put two crayfish together they will almost always fight..we are what we are..there will always be wars....common sense must dictate,that no matter the rights or wrongs of each party one must support ones own side..the alternatives frankly are ridicolous..who would you rather have as the dominant world power ? america?..or a rag tag band of middle eastern despots,terrorists and low life arabs?the choice is yours of course......but remember choosing the arab cause might well turn out to be similar to a turkey voting for an early christmas!
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