CNN: "Civilians on both sides caught in crossfire"

[berni_mccoy]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/04/civilian.crossfire/index.html

(CNN) -- Few civilians trapped in the crossfire between the Israeli military and Hamas in Gaza dare to venture out of their homes because of the constant threat of violence.

Sami Abdel-Shafi, who lives just a few hundred meters from Gaza's seashore, said he hears almost constant bombardment from Israeli ships offshore as well as thundering airstrikes by Israeli jets.

With "almost no sleep" in the nine days since Israeli airstrikes against Hamas targets began, Abdel-Shafi said the recent conflict has been very traumatizing.

"No one really is daring to step out of their houses to buy anything, assuming they can find it in the market and assuming they find a place that is open," he said.

Abdel-Shafi said stocks of basic essentials were already short on Gaza shelves because of the Israeli blockade of Gaza's borders. Watch Palestinians describe constant bombardment »

"People are put in a constant state of the unknown and this is very, very unsettling," he said.

A similar sentiment is echoed by Dove Hartuv, who lives in his Israeli kibbutz Nahal Oz, a regular target of mortars and rockets launched in Gaza for the past eight years.

From his back porch, Hartuv said he can hear the thundering sounds of war just across the Gaza border. Watch widespread destruction in Gaza »

"It's been a sleepless night," Hartuv told CNN by phone Sunday. "Hopefully, all this will end as soon as possible, and both sides will be forced to come to the conference table and find an agreement that will be acceptable to both sides." Listen to Hartuv describe situation »

Hartuv said the fighting is not about taking over Gaza or toppling the government or ruling forces there.

While I believe this article captures the stress of living in Gaza and Israel, I take issue with the headline. Civilians are not caught in the crossfire on both sides of the recent conflict. If there was no current violence, this article might make sense as a piece covering the stress of living in the area from both perspectives. There is clear bias in the presentation of this article (to no surprise, it's CNN) and it suggests that the current conflict is causing civilians to be killed/harmed equally on both sides. This is clearly not the case.

[Idealism]

1. Go CNN, your integrity is only second to your war crimes-denying charm.

How do they equate with "I can't sleep because I live close to Gaza" with being "caught in the crossfire"...

[Fozzledick]

2. This is hogwash, Israeli civilians are not "caught in crossfire"

Hamas, unlike Israel, is deliberately firing AT civilians.

[EFerrari]

3. Then, those Israelis must be the worst shots in the world. n/t

[Bodhi BloodWave]

4. you know, personally

i don't really care about intent when its two groups fighting each other and civilians are caught in the crossfire(in this case Israel and Hamas)

Even if on one side Hamas intends to try and kill as many as possible yet only manage to kill one or two people, and wound a few more in an attack

And Israel on the other side don't intend to kill civilians yet somehow manage to kill a large amount of them and wound an even larger number

I personally look at the number of dead and wounded on both sides and make my judgment based on that. That is all i really care about and to be honest even a single death on either side is a death to much.

Somebody in another post i seem to recall said something about that we should consider the fact that Hamas could have killed more people(or intended to kill more people, can't recall which of the two and can't recall the post it was in) and we should consider that. To me that seems wrong since that logic tells me that I'm supposed to look more harshly on Hamas because of the deaths that might have happened but didn't, yet excuse Israel for the deaths they have caused but didn't intend to do.

Sorry that this doesn't have to much to do with your post but its been gnawing at my mind for a while and this seemed an fitting place to post it

[EFerrari]

5. Yes, I agree with you. If we're counting bodies and trying to justify death

we're not doing the right thing, no?

[azurnoir]

6. And once again

The guiding principle of Israel's ground invasion is to move in with full force and try to minimize Israeli casualties, Israeli military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronoth. "We'll pay the international price later for the collateral damage and the anticipated civilian casualties," Fishman said."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=237283&mesg_id=237283

so Israel is not targeting civilians it says so but apparently doesn't really give a sh*t either, were as Hamas firing rockets that can not target anything is targeting civilians or does it just not give a sh*T either?