Israeli Atrocity on Gaza Civilians

[subsuelo]

Juan Cole

It is a perfect time for the Israeli government to commit a war crime on the miserable civilians of the Gaza Strip. The US primary season has created a news blackout on US television about foreign news (apparently the public of the world's sole superpower is not estimated by corporate news executives to be able to handle more than one story). So most Americans will never even know that the Israelis have cut off fuel to Gaza's power plant, depriving tens of thousands of people of electricity.

I sympathize with Israeli civilians who have been subjected to illegal bombardment by Hamas. (That bombardment has not recently resulted in loss of life, but it is traumatizing, especially for children.) But one has to ask whether the Olmert government has behaved toward Gazans in such a way as to try to achieve peace. (The unilateral withdrawal of colonists has been followed by frequent bombardments and incursions and arrests, political meddling and a placing of the whole Strip in a kind of geo-penitentiary.) Israeli deployment of excessive force in recent weeks has resulted in dozens of deaths in Gaza. Even if military action were justified, it is only legitimate for the Israelis to punish Hamas fighters doing the firing, and big bombs should not be dropped near civilian apartment buildings. Don't they, like, have SWAT teams?

Just a reminder that electricity is life and death for some people. The low is 48 degrees F. tonight; it is cold without electricity. And another reminder that the children of Gaza, who I suspect are 2/3s of the population, haven't done anything wrong, to be punished by this blockade

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. SWAT teams are for populations that value life. Israelis will not

use police tactics against organized militia. That's why these ain't war crimes - Hamas is using the civilian population, not Israel.

[subsuelo]

7. no excuse

[Fredda Weinberg]

11. Neither side seeks approval. Survival's at stake.

But you also have two different value systems ... for me, living outside the region, the choice is obvious. I know I would feel differently if I were born and raised there.

[Englander]

17. That's delusional.

?click

[Fredda Weinberg]

19. What's delusional is the expectations that Israelis will effectively police

Gazans. You may resent reality, but dismissing it is a futile gesture.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

22. Most of us don't agree that the Gazan population are terrorists...

Or are you just unaware that it's innocent civilians who are wondering where their food and supplies are coming from?

[Englander]

21. lol @ strawman.

Israel's committing war crimes, that's the reality. Denying that is delusional.

[L0oniX]

2. The Indians fought us too when we took their land. Why not exterminate the Palestinians and be done

with it. At least then it wouldn't be a slow decades long death like it is now. No one cares about the Palestinians anyway. :sarcasm:

[msmcghee]

3. I think you suffer from broken frame syndrome.

We kicked the Indians off their land and killed them in large numbers. If we hadn't done it so successfully the Spanish, the French, The Brits or the Russians - or some combination of them would have done it anyway and the US would now be part of one or more of those nations today. In fact all those entities did their share of dispossessing and killing American Indians at one time or another. That's not to excuse it - or to excuse our treatment of American Indians since that happened. All that was horrible.

In Palestine, Israel never stole any Arab's land and except during the several wars initiated by the Arabs, one of which continues as we speak, never tried to kill Palestinians who were not attacking Jews. Jews immigrated legally to a stateless territory, purchased land from Palestinian Arabs and developed it.

The UN then suggested that what was left of Palestine after Jordan took 80% of it - be divided into two sovereign areas, each governed by the majority population that lived in those regions. The Plan required no-one to give up their homes or property.

To compare that lawful UN mediated process that was the result of months of very serious deliberations - with the American Indian wars - is utter imbecility.

Some of the complete and groundless fabrications that constitute "The Narrative" that one reads here are truly amazing. It is scary that people can be so sure of things that they know nothing about - and don't even bother to try to understand. As long as Israel can be demonized - facts be damned.

[burythehatchet]

5. possibly the most ludicrous framing for genocide I've ever seen

Congrats. That was truly impressive.

[msmcghee]

6. I notice your comment is big on hyperbole . .

. . and short on substance. Got facts to back that up?

[subsuelo]

8. you asking for facts?

you make a claim that Israel never stole anyone's land and expect credibility out of others?

[msmcghee]

9. More BS and no facts. Talk's cheap. Let's see your cards. n/t

[subsuelo]

12. this isnt a card game

and defending Israel's terrorism is not acceptable.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[subsuelo]

18. so easy to sling mud

facing the reality that Israel is as terrorist as Hamas isn't as easy, apparently.

[breakaleg]

10. I think she thinks the OT dropped from the sky into Israel's lap. nt

[Vegasaurus]

4. No one is taking anyone's land in Gaza

In fact, it was all returned. And in response, there have been thousands and thousands of rockets.

The Israelis ignored the rockets for a long time, and they still came. Clearly, that is not a solution either.

[oberliner]

14. What is the solution?

The author expresses sympathy with Israeli civilians who have been subjected to illegal bombardment by Hamas.

It is difficult to tell if Mr. Cole is suggested that military action in Gaza would be justified to stop the Qassams if they fighters could be targeted more effectively.

[eyl]

15. SWAT teams?

I think he's been watching too many movies

[pelsar]

16. now that is funny

SWAT teams?...is that the best he can do to propose israel doing something to protect their citizens?

now we know hes living in an alternate universe......

[Englander]

23. Palestinian water authority: 40% of Gazans lack running water

By Amira Hass, Haaretz Correspondent

Gaza Strip residents Monday moved from worrying about the electricity cuts of the previous 40 hours to worrying about a water shortage. The municipality needs electricity to bring water to homes and the houses need it to pump water to the roof tanks. Hence 40 percent of Gaza Strip homes - 600,000 people - had no running water Monday, the Palestinian water authority said.

Oxfam International said Monday that unless diesel and fuel supplies were resumed immediately, all the Strip's water pumps could stop working Tuesday. The non-governmental organization also warned of the sewage system's collapse in the absence of diesel. "Without electric power we can manage somehow, without bread too," says a resident of the Nasser neighborhood in northern Gaza. "It's cold enough to prevent the food from going bad and we try to open the refrigerator as little as possible. The kids grumble but they can learn to live without the computer. But without water?"

"We calculate each step," he says. "We don't put on the gas heaters, because tomorrow might be colder. We don't cook for long. But to consider whether to go to the toilet? Whether to wash our face? That is insufferable."

The Israeli human rights organizations Adalah and Gisha Monday petitioned the High Court of Justice for an urgent interim injunction to prevent Israel from continuing to restrict the industrial diesel oil supply to the Gaza Strip. They said the shortage deriving from Israel's deliberate cuts in recent weeks culminated in the dramatic closure of the border crossings on Friday. The power cuts caused a shortage of drinking water and damage to the hospitals' function already on January 5, when Gaza's electric power's production was cut by 30 percent. But the High Court of Justice dismissed their request.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/947099.html