How must the world react to Israel's continued bombing of Gaza.....

[whistle]

<snip>
UN aid chief warns Gaza nears humanitarian crisis
Thu Jun 29, 2006 10:27 PM BST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Gaza is three days away from a deadly humanitarian crisis unless Israel promptly restores fuel and electricity to the densely populated area after its offensive to free an abducted soldier, the U.N. aid chief warned on Thursday.

"They are heading for the abyss unless they get electricity and fuel restored," said Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, who also urged the Palestinians to free the soldier and clamp down on militants firing rockets into Israel.

"I am confident that neither of the two want to see a massive increase in mortality in the Gaza," where children make up about half of the area's 1.4 million people, Egeland told a small group of reporters.

At the heart of the crisis, he said, was Israel's bombing of Gaza's sole power plant, which supplies about 40 percent of the area's electricity. The remaining power comes from Israel.
<more>

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-06-29T212642Z_01_N29220985_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MIDEAST-UN-AID.xml&archived=False

[The Blue Flower]

1. This is genocide

Inexcusable--and I'm Jewish.

[gaspee]

3. I agree

It looks like Israel is going with the tried and true way of winning an occupation. Total and complete victory, even if it means killing 25% or more of the population. Tit for tat, an eye for an eye. This is the only place that philosophy leads.

[cali]

16. It's lots of things

but it is not genocide, and we diminish the word and what it stands for when we apply it incorrectly. The Israelis are trying to bring down a democratically elected government. That's clearly wrong. They've cut power and water to a civilian population and that's a frank breach of the Geneva Conventions; an act of collective punishment against a civilian population. They've responded disproportionately to the firing of kassams into Israel. Fault them for many things, but calling their actions genocide or ethnic cleansing is wrong.

[applegrove]

2. My guess is Israel is bombing the hell out of Gaza because they

don't want Zarchowie tactics in Iraq to become the norm in Israel.

This specially ordered long war in Iraq is really teaching many terrorists.. many things.

I don't know how Bush, Cheney & Rumsfield sleep at night. They must be heavily medicated or something.

[The Stranger]

4. They are bombing Gaza to defeat the democratically elected government

that was put in place there.

This "war" could be the greatest fraud ever perpetrated.

[applegrove]

6. Likely forcing Israelis to make a Sophie's Choice. The war in Iraq is.

They made one. They gave up part of the occupied territories in order to have some peace. I don't think Israelis will fall for it.

I think the whole purpose of a long war.. rather one that the USA could have won in a year..with the right troops.. is about teaching people to love war. Or teaching them they need war.

[Tace]

5. I Don't Know If We'll Ever Know The Truth About Bushco Drug Psychosis...

but I've always had the impression that most of Bushco is cranked out on some crazy shit. Their behavior is just so similar to that of the Nazis, many of whom were completely twisted on meth. Hitler supposedly had doctors giving him injections of meth. Now, this is just a nasty, unsubstantiated rumor, but I've been told that * is taking injections of cocaine. I dunno'.

[applegrove]

8. I don't really care. There is no excuse for social engineering. They

are all wearing black capes.. sitting at an organ.. and smashing away at the keys.. and laughing at the pain they cause. It is relentless and painfull and I've seen it before.

All will be diminished by the organ they create. The organ of little minions who attack each other at their behest.. for fun.. for projection.. for power.. to fill their empty souls. Tribalizing the world.. so they can do it again... and tribalize some more.

And who will carry their legacy? The people who were minding their own business and got put into their big war game. Americans will carry it with them. Other countries are already turning away. When you have the choice.. you make it .. you turn away and build a life somewhere else.

Used to be America was a thing to get to - to be like - to be tied to. How many generations will pay. So that a few egos at the top can play like the kids they are in a sandbox.

[hogwyld]

7. Maybe Israel needs a taste of it's own medicine.

I'm sure the Arab world would love to give this despicable regime some payback.

[applegrove]

10. Maybe if Europe, Canada and the USA cut foreign aid to Hamas..

maybe they should have put outright pressure on Saudi Arabia and Iran to pony up with the difference.

I haven't heard boo.

Making Saudis fork over money for a school district might just stop them from forking over the money to keep Palestinians floating around in never-ever-have-peace-land through supporting terrorists. And giving the Saudis and Iranians a scapegoat in Israel so they can hide their lack of democracy and rights from their own people.

[Poll_Blind]

11. You don't speak for the Arab world. You speak for you. I wish...

...upon no-one, not even the Israelis themselves, what Israel has done to the Palestinians. It is inhumane, inhuman and perpetration of such despicable acts (under the blood-encrusted concept of retribution) is a disturbing form of "eye for an eye".

PB

[hogwyld]

12. You're right, I don't speak for the Arab world

But, 3 times in the last 60 years, the Arab nations have tried to destroy Israel. Don't you think that once they achive either military plurality, or even superiority, they won't try again??

[Poll_Blind]

13. You're slip is showing. n/t

PB

[hogwyld]

15. What do you mean??

[Violet_Crumble]

23. That's a totally disgusting attitude...

Firstly coz anyone who holds that viewpoint is a fucking hateful idiot, and secondly coz it's incredibly racist to try to pretend that there's an 'Arab world' who are all seething hatefilled nutters who'd think like that...

Disgusting...

violet...

[Poll_Blind]

9. Israel has stated they will destroy the Palestinian government...

...if they do not receive the captured soldier. They are also attempting to use the kidnapped Hamas lawmakers as "bargaining chips" to force the release of that soldier. The Israeli Attourney General has refused this behavior by Shin Bet/Shabak (Israeli security service) but what Olmert's conservative government will actually do remains to be seen.

  I've laid it out in a single message for ease of understanding, right HERE. If you wish to peruse the 5-6 different articles that comprise this recent turn of events and the backstory, Ha'Aretz has placed them all on the same page, HERE.

PB

[Dark]

14. Uh, sorry. I can't sympathize with the Palestinians. If they want to blame

someone for their situation, they should blame Jordan for annexing their country, and the rest of the Arab world for continually attacking and losing ground to Israel.

Plus, they are the ones who are kidnapping and suicide bombing. Not saying Israel's response is necessarily right. But the Palestinians aren't the victims in this.

Ghandi and MLK Jr. did far more through nonviolent resistance than suicidal terrorism.

Until the Palestinians adopt that approach, I side with Israel. They, to me, are in the same position as the U.S. i.e. both of us are targets of ruthless terrorists who don't care who or how many they kill to get what they want.

[Malikshah]

17. Hmmmm. A bit of history review is in order to provide an entire

picture of the modern history in this area.

Approach? Look up tidbits about the bombing of Arab Markets during the Mandate period.
The King David Hotel...
Deir Yassin...
For more recent events...
Qana bombing...

Then do some work on the creeping annexation and occupation of going on 40 years...

Add that to issues you just mentioned.

It's not about taking sides. It is about seeing the whole picture.

As for non-violence. It was tried at the beginning of the first intifada and met with rubber bullets, bayonets, and mass imprisonments.

Get a grip. Then get a clue. Then we can discuss this like educated rational human beings.

[pelsar]

18. some education?....

a quick summary:

if you would like to list the "arab vs israeli targeting of civilians you will find it incredibly lopsided with the arabs/Palestinians winning in mere numbers..and in attempts.

If you would like to list the attempts by countries to annihilate israel vs annihilating an arab counry..again the arabs win.

Perhaps listing who has killed /wounded more?...israel "wins' which explains why it hasn't been annihilated.

non violence?....antifada one was relatively non violent (rocks/stones/Molotov cocktails aren't exactly non violent to most of us). However it was restricted to the territories and led to oslo and partial PA self rule....that wasn't enough and the Palestinians brought out the guns and started killing israelis all over israel.....so much for "non violence.
__________________

thats a bit more accurate summary of the types of events

(note: .the israeli army doesnt use bayonets.....)

[Malikshah]

27. Again-- look at the point trying to be made. Folks will have an

an opportunity to bring out the favorite bogeymen in time.



(rocks/stones/Molotov cocktails aren't exactly non violent to most of us

True-- but walking down the street arm in arm with men women and children and being met by batons, rubber bullets and tear gas....

Again, providing a full picture as opposed to just one facet of it is not instructive, productive, or effective.

[The Magistrate]

19. And If We Are Going To Do That, Sir

It would be wisest to include the outbreaks of mob violence in Jerusalem and Jaffa and Hebron before those items you mentioned, as well as many other acts of violence in this mutual struggle....

[Violet_Crumble]

21. He was pointing out to the poster he replied to that it's not one-sided...

Yr comment would have been better aimed at the poster he was replying to, as they were the one who were promoting an incredibly one-sided view of things...

[The Magistrate]

22. Fair Enough, Ma'am

It is getting on towards Beelzebub's bed-time....

[Violet_Crumble]

24. G'night, sir...

fwiw, over the past day or so with the influx of GD threads, this place has taken on an air of a bit of chaos. I don't know who half the people are in threads, and half of that time I've got no idea what they're trying to say. I'm hoping things will settle down sooner rather than later :)

Violet...

[Malikshah]

26. Thanks-- you hit it right on the head

First we look at the whole picture then we discuss. To provide but one part of the picture is, by definition, not sufficient.

[Tom Joad]

20. Palestinian nonviolent resisters are ignored by the West.

Philadelphia - February 3 — The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker humanitarian service organization, has nominated two candidates for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize: Jeff Halper from Israel and Ghassan Andoni from the West Bank and Gaza.

In a region torn apart by conflict, these grassroots peace activists have been committed to nonviolence as the path to justice, peace, and reconciliation. For decades they have worked to liberate both the Palestinian and the Israeli people from the yoke of structural violence — symbolized most clearly by the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. They have opposed the Separation Wall that blinds people to one another's existence. They have instead tried to build bridges to recognition and celebration of a common humanity.

Ghassan Andoni is a physics professor at Birzeit University who has combined his teaching with peace activism since 1988. He is best known for co-founding the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People, but his peace activities began much earlier. While a college student in Iraq, Andoni dropped out to work in refugee camps in Lebanon during the civil war there. Returning home from Lebanon he was arrested and jailed for two years for his supposed involvement in the military conflict. His Israeli judge refused to believe that he was a hospital worker and sentenced him for alleged membership in the PLO.

During the First Intifada, 1987-1993, Andoni was an active participant in Beit Sahour’s tax resistance. He expanded his understanding of nonviolence from being a personal position to a public one, which if successfully employed could lead to a mass movement of liberation. In 1988, after another jail term for his participation in the tax revolt, he co-founded the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People. The Center’s aim was to allow those in conflict to acknowledge each other’s humanity and to work together for a world in which they could peacefully coexist. It did this through dialogue and joint activities between Israelis and Palestinians. As the Occupation wore on Ghassan and Rapprochement moved from dialogue to direct nonviolent action intended to end the Occupation. In this connection he co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), coordinating international volunteers with Palestinians and Israelis in nonviolent actions that called attention to the oppression created by years of Occupation. In working with ISM he has insisted that all international participants commit themselves to nonviolence, both physical and verbal.
_________________________________

Ghandi and King did not gain anything alone, it took massive solidarity. If the West continues to ignore the work of nonviolent resisters to a brutal occupation, the result will be more violence.

[Scurrilous]

25. EU: Militants must free soldier, Israel must free Hamas officials

<snip>

"The new European Union President said Saturday that Israel should release dozens of detained Palestinian officials and that Palestinian militants should free immediately an Israeli soldier abducted on Sunday.

"I call on the Palestinians to immediately release the Israeli soldier they took hostage. At the same time, Israel must halt its military operations, free the Palestinian ministers and members of parliament and stop destroying civilian infrastructure in the Palestinian territories," Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told German newspaper Die Welt."

<snip>

"I am very concerned about developments in the Middle East. The only way to resolve the conflict is to return to the negotiating table," he said.

On Saturday Vanhanen took over from Austria as the head of the rotating presidency of the 25-member European Union."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/733366.html