Israeli journalists in the leading and “liberal” newspaper, Haaretz, wrote and article demanding a strong military response against Gaza in the wake of a roadside bomb that killed an Israeli soldier in the Strip yesterday.
Not only is the demand criminal on its face, its justification is even more sickening:
With the bomb blast that killed an IDF tracker Tuesday along the border fence with the Gaza Strip, it is not only Israel’s deterrent that has been reduced to a holding action, but also the political campaign of the ruling coalition, Kadima and Labor.
Without [military attack], Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak placed their hopes for improving their standing at the polls on the security card and on bolstering Israel’s image versus Hamas.
As for how an attack comes out of Gaza only days after Israel ends its latest attack, they offered a retrospective:
Whether this was a matter of Israel forgetting to let the Palestinians know that the IDF had won,
So the IDF was wrong to stop at only 1330 murders. After all, there are thousands more Palestinians still roaming the streets of Gaza.
…or it was a sophisticated Hamas trick to challenge Israel at a time when the impending election would prevent it from a renewed escalation, it is clear that now an appropriate military response is necessary.
The title of the article demanded a strong military response, but not an excessive one. Any one cares to point to the tipping point between strong and excessive, assuming there are no other stages in between them?
For one thing, Israeli media, Haaretz included, did not refer to slaughter of Gaza as “excessive.” “Disproportionate” is a description they employed, I can’t recall if they even called it strong. But as the two authors suggest, after the slaughter of 1330 people in Gaza, injuring in excess of 5000, and leaving 50,000 homeless after their homes where bombed from the air, the IDF “forgot” to make the Palestinians know it won.
Therefore, a hard, but measured, blow is required: Send a message to Hamas, but do not drag the region into a conflagration, certainly not before the election, and not on the day the special U.S. envoy for the Middle East, George Mitchell, is due to land in Israel.
However, all this may be missing the point, because, whereas Israel is sending messages in Hebrew, its target audience, the Hamas leadership, seems to understand nuances in Arabic.
If they do not feel their lives sufficiently threatened as a result of an Israeli response in the coming day, the whole situation may just repeat itself.
To be fair, though I generalize in my statements, I do not think all Israelis think this way. At last count, only 94% of them do.
A side note: The Israeli soldier killed in the explosion was a Palestinian-Israeli. Numbers of them join the army because they are either conscripted like the Druz in the north or have virtually no other option to livelihood like the Bedouins in the south. Not that I’m mourning him, I just wanted to point out that he is “tracker,” meaning he was likely walked in front of the vehicle while Jewish soldiers sat in it, hence he was killed while they were injured. This is not a rare occurrence, it is a regular practice; in many cases Druz soldiers had to walk in front of the tank looking for roadside bombs, and are far more likely to die by them or by sniper fire. That’s why non-Jewish soldiers die at a far higher rate than their percentage in the army.
Related posts:
- The Myth of Israel’s “Targeted” Killing
- Not on CNN
- Happy Yom Kippur!
- In Case You Wondered Why…
- Horn-Dog Nation: Israelis Demand Their Leaders Neutered
Gee, that would be a right-wing sentiment in any other country. It’s okay though, I was reading today and came across at least someone who would condone Israel’s policy:
“On principle, when combating terrorists, anything that works is right – and I want that point hammered home. Everybody has the freedom of action they need. If the terrorists use women and children as human shields, then our officer or NCO must be able to open fire on them without hesitation. What matters is that he gets through and wipes out the terrorists.”
Ehud Barak? Livni? Olmert? Nope, Adolf Hitler bemoaning Italian restraint in combatting Serbian partisants.
Nice company you’re in there guys.
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009, 9:33 pmYou LIAR Fayyad! There is video footage of what happened, shot by Hamas terrorists.
1) The IDF tracker is not “Palestinian-Israeli”. He’s Bedouin! Since when are nomadic Bedouin Arabs considered Palestinians?!
2) The reason why he, a Bedouin, is a tracker, is because his people have special knowledge and training about the desert, following footprints, discovering tunnels, smugglers, etc., that their Jewish colleagues who grew up in Tel Aviv coffee shops don’t.
3) He was not walking “in front of the vehicle while Jewish soldiers sat in it”! You racist piece of shit. You’ll say any bullshit to make Jews look bad. Maybe that’s how you Arabs do it. Here is the video. You piece of lying shit. They were all in the truck together, and the other three soldiers were seriously injured.
4) Bedouin serve voluntarily. They are not drafted into IDF service, and neither are the Druze, you moron! Do you not know ANYTHING? They are not joining for lack of opportunities. They have access to high school and college education like everyone else. And even if they flunked school, they can easily just move to Tel Aviv and get a job waiting tables like thousands of Jews do. They join the army to receive training and defend the country, plus the status of a soldier is unmatched in Israeli society. Definitely it’s not for the money.
The short of it is that you’re a ugly piece of shit, which isn’t surprising since your family is PFLP.
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009, 9:42 pmThis is how you losers are spinning Hamas breaking the ceasefire? Interesting angle. The blood of your people on your hands.
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009, 9:45 pmYes, we have Haaretz to learn how Israelis think. How do Arabs think? That’s why we come to this blog, to learn how Arabs think. Instead, we learn about Arabs learning about how Jews think.
How about explaining, from your insightful Arab perspective, why Hamas chose to sabotage the ceasefire now, a week after the rain of destruction on Gaza… well, ceased. A week in which 1500 aid trucks laden with supplies have now crossed into the Strip? A week in which the hospitals began to cope with the wounded. Why now, Fayyad? Why does Hamas want to continue the war now?
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009, 10:03 pmIt sucks that Palestinian activists have been put into a corner where they more or less are forced to defend Hamas. That’s gotta suck for some of the more intelligent Kabob posters (Will, Mo), and business as usual for the extremists (Fayaad), and wannabe revolutionaries (Qui Qui)
Posted by Glenn | January 27, 2009, 10:19 pmI don’t know about Mo. I think he’s pretty much on board with the Hamas train. He’s very into resistance, and he sees Hamas as the only path left.
Kalash is completely in the bag for Hamas. I really liked him when he first started, but now every post from him is a piece exalting Hamas. He was way more balanced towards Hezbollah, and I thought he was a Lebanese Sunni.
Many of the Kabobers have become increasingly more radical with age. It’s a consequence of having to emotionalize and personalize every single piece of news about I-P conflict in order to excite and motivate their readership. I think they could all benefit from a break.
Emily, QQ… a joke. Their posts are just bitter, angry, sarcastic, snarky, but always devoid of any serious content. Emily kind of fizzled before she began, and QQ… what can one say about QQ. Poor QQ.
Will has been exceptionally quiet lately. He and Nimr are holding down the fort.
Yes, I’m being mean, but honest. I’m sure plenty of others feel the same way. Kabobers need to rest up for a bit. It says KabobFest, not RageFest.
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009, 11:07 pmHere’s an interesting article about what Israelis think.
Posted by Anonymous | January 27, 2009, 11:37 pmso whats wrong with liking hamas despite its flaws? thye are a resistance movement. I wont hate it cause israelis hate it. their flaws may have to do how they treat the internal palestinian situation but as far as i know, I defend them when it comes to israel.
oh and no rockets in west bank,
I wonder WHY the settlements are continuing to be built along with jailing palestinians every now and then as if they are in their backyard.
Israel is an ENEMY and an OCCUPIER afterall. Hamas should NOT be soft with it.
bedouin druze christains muslims, thank you israelis just keep on exploiting the divisions for your own gain.
how much I hate you no despise you.
Posted by yasse | January 28, 2009, 1:05 amhere is an interesting link:
http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=71792&language;=ar
settlements are STILL continuing to be built.
Abbas kissed your ass israelis and this is how you repay him.
and you guys have the nerve to bullshit me about hamas.
Posted by yasse | January 28, 2009, 1:50 amHamas is a joke of a resistance movement. Islamisation of this conflict has made the Palestinians so much weaker than the 1970s with the PFLP at the helm.
Posted by Anonymous | January 28, 2009, 3:52 amWell, yeah, things were different when Palestinians could count on thousands of foreign recruits thrilled by the notion of worldwide Communism backed by Soviet resources to fight the capitalists (Jews and Americans) in Lebanon. It created an entire generation of internationalist terrorists, like Carlos the Jackal from Venezuela.
Who do you see being inspired to go fight the Jews in Gaza today?
Posted by Anonymous | January 28, 2009, 6:31 amIn the early 90s I remember then newly-released footage of South African forces plowing through namibian veldt (in huge armored vehicles that were joint Israeli-South African designs) while khoi-san trackers ran ahead.
Colonial warfare is much of a muchness.
Posted by pulaski | January 28, 2009, 6:39 amAs an outsider being neither Palestinian (Muslim or Christian) nor Israeli (Jewish), I just think it’s funny how all the Jewish or the Pro-Israeli commentators place themselves as “Anonymous” and chose to hide behind the mask of secrecy. Way to show your true colors guys! If you’re serious about confronting this, put your names down and reveal yourselves.
Also, I think a more careful reading of Fayyad’s wording would serve to increase the understanding of everyone involved, especially when it comes to commenting on what was actually and factually said and meant. You can go read what was actually written and then the comments that were written about what was said. All I see are poor reading skills!
I’m not defending Fayyad; I don’t even know him, so why should I care about him? But I think an honest reading and interpretation is of the utmost importance, especially with the last paragraph.
If you want to know who started the recent war in Gaza, all you IGNORANT (definition: 1)uninformed person; 2)someone who pretends to know when he or she really does not; 3)media spoon-fed individuals; 4)people who are uninterested in find out the realities and are comfortable with a specific set of facts and quotes) fools need to start reading more and have got to stop being brainwashed by the same old tune which is and has been played out. Go and read what the New York Times wrote on November 5th 2008 in their article entitled: “Israeli Strike Is First in Gaza Since Start of Cease-Fire.” Israel was the aggressor, the truce-breaker and Hamas responded.
Israel likes to act and parade around the block as the poor, frightened nation who always get attacked and who never retaliates unless provoked. They like to think and to portray themselves as the “Good Guys,” while demonizing and portraying Hamas and the Palestinians as the “Bad Guys.”
Israel is not Innocent; Israel is not the “Good Guy” in this whole struggle. To really believe or even to see yourselves as such is a perfect display of the self-denial and the false perception of reality you folks currently find yourselves in day after day. Wake up people and smell the white phosphorus!
Posted by Sibawayhi | January 28, 2009, 7:32 amAre you an idiot, Sibawayhi?
You putting your “name” down as Sibawayhi is no different from Anonymous. There is no way to verify your identity. You could be George Bush for all we know. The point of the internet is that it is a battle of ideas, not individuals.
Furthermore, I don’t think there is a Sibawayhi. I think this is Fayyad, trying to clean up the mess he got his ass raped for in the comments above.
Write a decent post, using actual facts, and you won’t get raped. Write a piece of lying, racist propaganda, as exposed by Anon 9:42, and you deserve no mercy.
Posted by Anonymous | January 28, 2009, 8:27 amThe name is Carlos, you Ignoramus and did you actually read what was written, what words were actually used??? Obviously not!
If you define “rape” as people leaving comments in which they present half-truths as facts, then I agree with you 100%. But the point here is that both you and “Anonymous 9:42″ fail in presenting simple full truths. You can’t even dissect what was actually said, and that’s just for starters!
It’s you people who think you know when you really don’t who are really messing everything up for the large, INCREDIBLY ignorant super majority in the U.S. and around the world. Go and do a little bit of reading; go do some research for yourself and then come back when you can argue about is actually happening. You make me SICK, you ignorant Dumbass!
Posted by Carlos | January 28, 2009, 8:55 amAll the Zionuts do is try bring up different issues instead of addressing the ones mentioned in the article. Ever wonder why the posters rarely address your drivel.
Posted by Arayus | January 28, 2009, 8:56 amNo, I think the name is still Fayyad, trying to clean up the mess from when Anon 9:42 raped his ass with a little called “facts”.
Arayus, you Islamofascist prick, I’ve seen you getting your ass raped by commentators using facts vs. your drivel up and down KabobAvenue. Every time you start posting I make some popcorn and watch the inevitable smackdown.
The only issue brought up by this article is that Fayyad is a lying sack of racist shit, something we already knew.
Posted by Anonymous | January 28, 2009, 9:04 amBlah Blah Blah . . . Boooooring
Same Words, Same popcorn eating Dumbfuck! (I really like that title for you) Nothing new in what you said.
Go Home Pussy! Cry about it you Zionist buddies who hide behind planes, helicopters, guns and American dollars to protect your asses.
You are a weak people anyways! Occupying people for 60 years and still you’re all a bunch of crybabies who need someone else’s help to defend your country. That’s pathetic, but it’s what I’d expect from Girlie Men like yourself!
Posted by Carlos | January 28, 2009, 9:15 amI think the reality is that an organised state army is always going to have to accept a certain number of incidents from a barely organised militia where there may be rogue elements (not that that was necessarily the case here). Hopefully they will let this go, it is not worth more casualties and damage.
Once again I have to ask, please compare like with like. The Israelis are bastards in many respects and Palestinians (and others actually, Israel is a theist state in all but name) do get a raw deal in Israel but pray tell us what rights ordinary Jewish citizens living in Gaza or the West Bank outside the settlements would have.
Posted by xoggoth | January 28, 2009, 1:20 pmI think that the more acceptable term in the West for an Arab person living in Israel like that Arab kid who was serving in the Army is Arab-Israeli, not Palestinian-Israeli. But you do find them also referred to as Palestinian-Israeli in English, however less common it may be. In Palestinian Arabic we usually say:
1) hom min Arab tamanya wa arba3een – they are descendants from the Arabs of 1948
2) hom min daakhil Isra2eel – they are from inside/within of Israel
3) hom min Arab al-shamaal – they are from the Arabs of the north
We are still Palestinian though, since the whole area was “Filasteen” before Israel and after, whether we had a recognized “state” or were stateless in our own land. We are Palestinians who were brought into Israel in 1948. We are and always will be Palestinian! 7amdu Lillah!
I’m pretty sure, all these comments stem from this simply word choice. Let’s face the facts ya shabaab: it’s all the same “Khara”!
My question for everybody is this: Can’t we all just get along . . . Can’t we all just be friends???
Posted by 5alil | January 28, 2009, 1:41 pm5alil, I would like to be your friend. Now that we’re friends, can you name one Palestinian family not on the verge of starvation that would marry their daughter to a Bedouin?
Posted by Anonymous | January 28, 2009, 4:00 pmCarlos, you’re a child. First you write a post asking people to stop being mean and claiming your “freedom of speech” is being abused, and how you NEVER call people names. Then you go into the comments and act like an abusive, racist prick. You are irrelevance in action. Take your “khara” somewhere else (thank you for that one, 5alil).
Posted by Anonymous | January 28, 2009, 4:04 pmanon 9:33 – that’s a very interesting quote. Do you have a source?
Posted by Anonymous | January 29, 2009, 11:06 amAnon 11:06: It’s from the stenographic records of Hitler’s table talk. Seemingly like the Israelis Hitler also told his soldiers (before they went in) that that they wouldn’t be punished for “any offence, grave or minor” against civilians in Russia.
So I think – if he could see this conflict now and didn’t know the Israelis were Jewish lol – he’d be on their side, except like most Zionists he’d be bemoaning Israel’s restraint, which says as much about the Israeli population as it does about Hitler.
Posted by Anonymous | January 30, 2009, 1:02 am“Who do you see being inspired to go fight the Jews in Gaza today?”
There was a report in the Israeli press that a Saudi mujahadin met his end in Beit Hanoun. He’d fought in Kosovo, Afghanistan (both wars) and Chechnya but Gaza was a step too far, probably due to his age. Other than him, erm, uh…
Posted by Anonymous | January 30, 2009, 1:06 amFound some more Israeli / Nazi method convergence:
“We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases,. This isn’t a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized.”
- Gen. Gadi Eisenkot (2007)
“Immediate collective punishments will be enforced against towns and villages from which ambushes or attacks on the armed forces are made.”
- Gen. Franz Hadler
As for been brought to justice, Eisenkot is at large and Hadler found a well-paid job afterwards as a historian for the US Army.
I have one more but they are a lot, deserving of a whole article really:
IRCC: “The Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”
Goering: “One can’t burden
oneself with wounded civilians. They must be left to lapse into the hereafter.”
Posted by Anonymous | January 30, 2009, 1:27 amYou are a Zionist collaborating troll. Stop comparing Jews to Nazis. No one believes this besides people who already hate Israel and it is undermining the cause to spread the message.
Posted by Anonymous | January 30, 2009, 12:09 pmWhy can’t we compare you guys to Nazis when you guys compare us to Nazis all the time???
If all Jews are the same, why are the European/German/Romanian (the Ashkenazis) the elite Jews who are and have been in control of all the major decisions and government affairs since 1948? The thinker Herzl was a visionary of a Jewish state “populated by European Jewry.” What a Kelb! That means, the Sephardis, the REAL Jews living in Palestine, in Egypt, in Syria, in Yemen, in Iraq, in Iran, in India, in Algeria, and in Morocco were not even thought about in all that went into what this future Jewish state should be. Go an ask Sephardic Jews how they are treated in Israel . . . most of my Sephardi friends feel like they are “less-than” Jews. Imagine: Jews feeling like that in their own country!!!
You Zionists (meaning Jews that are devoted to creating a 100% ethnically “pure” Jewish state (Master Race type talk here ladies and gentlemen) are Nazis! Example? The Nazis had a 100-to-1 policy when dealing with people who opposed them. Question: How many Jews died in the recent planned war on Gaza? 13! How many Palestinians died? 1300!!! Just another example of Nazi mentality: For every 1 they kill of us, we’re killing 100 in return.
Posted by Nadeem | January 30, 2009, 1:34 pmHamas are not Nazis. They are Islamofascists. Islamist fascists. That’s not a comparison to Nazis. It’s a realistic assertion based evidence. They are Islamist radicals who believe in a fascist approach to political and economic policy.
Posted by Anonymous | January 30, 2009, 1:52 pmNadeem,
You’ve been misinformed. Though Western/Eastern Jews in Israel had their differences in the past, that has rapidly changed in the last couple of decades. During the last Lebanon War, for example, The Defense Minister, Amir Perez, the IDF The Chief of Staff, Dan Harel, and the President, Moshe Katzav, we’re all Jews from Middle-Eastern decent, or “Sepharadic” Jews. Amir Perez from Moroccan decent, and the other two from Iranian decent. I’d say the Defense Minister, The Chief of Staff and the President have a pretty good measure of “control of all the major decisions and government”. I don’t know who your friends are (they’re the REAL Jews, I guess), but the reality is that tension between Jewish immigrants from Europe and Jewish immigrants from the Middle-East has all but disappeared in the eyes of the Jewish public.
Anon 01:27 –
Actually, I’d like a source too. A real one, not just quotes from memory. Please refer me to a reliable source from which you took those quotes.
Posted by Anonymous | January 30, 2009, 2:13 pmSorry I don’t have the time to go sourcing comments on a blog. Go pick up a copy of Hitler’s Table Talk or to the IfZ in Munich and ask to see a copy of General Hadler’s operational plans. Also , I’m not comparing Israel to the Nazis in that sense. I am saying that the escalation of the Israeli operations show that it is opearting in the same manner as the Nazis. I should add that after Hitler’s terrorist edict over 20,000 people were killed in four months. That’s more than this conflict has seen killed in four decades. Comparing Hamas to Hitler is nonsense though, no one can do that and still think they are impartial.
Regarding Israel’s conduct in this war I feel that the premeditated targeting of the police graduation ceremony (see Haaretz articles “Consent and advice” and “How IDF legal experts legitimized strikes involving Gaza civilians”) was totally immoral as are the lies that persist to re-write history and make Israel seem like it was merely responding to rocket fire when months of planning took place (just read the articles for yourself if you doubt this).
But being objective Sri Lanka has shelled the safe zone in Tamil land three times ths week, killing 40-60 civilians and hitting a hospital, have you seen it mentioned in the headlines anywhere?
Posted by Anonymous | January 30, 2009, 4:23 pm