Not that this should be the main objection, but a friend pointed out to me that not only is Israel slaughtering innocents, but making it much more likely that we in the U.S. will be slaughtered as well by the terrorist attacks that this will surely engender.

A New Low for the New York Times: Ethan Bronner on Gaza

By the Angry One

First, notice that Bronner goes out of his way several times in the article to list the targets of Israel bombing to assure the readers that all are terrorist targets: “his air force struck at the organization’s civic institutions—the Islamic University, Interior Ministry and presidential guesthouse.” Yet he is made to admit: “The death toll surpassed 350, some 60 of them civilians, according to United Nations officials.”

But he then moves quickly to report to you about the horrors of Hamas bombing of Israel, and at one point I almost expected him to report that Hamas fighter jets were bombing the Israeli coast.

At least a quarter of the dead are civilians

Speaking earlier today on the growing death toll in the Gaza Strip, United Nations Relief and Works Agency spokesman Christopher Gunness said that “a minimum of 25 percent of all those killed are civilians,” adding that “it may well be far higher.”

At present count, that would put the minimum civilian toll in the Gaza Strip at roughly 100 killed. 1,900 people have also been reported wounded, though so far there is no breakdown of civilians and militants in the wounded toll.

Fairouz: We will return

Palestine's Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood

What has and is occurring is nothing short of a war crime, yet the Israeli public relations machine is in full-swing, churning out lies by the minute.

Once and for all it is time to expose the myths that they have created.



I already posted this on the Palestinian Pundit, but TGIA asked me to post it here.

Palestine's Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood

What has and is occurring is nothing short of a war crime, yet the Israeli public relations machine is in full-swing, churning out lies by the minute.

Once and for all it is time to expose the myths that they have created.

I used to have a desire to argue with Zionists, to confront them, to try to change their minds (American Zionists more than actual israelis), but I've lost that. If I ever hear someone say something in support of Israel again, I will just walk away. If they haven't learned already, they never will. But if they ask me why I turned away, you better believe I'll tell them.

I'm glad at least some (one?) Jews are waking up

Today I end my support of Israel by "Chilean Jew"

I'm Jewish and descendant of holocaust survivors. Moreover, I've been a Zionist all of my life. I went to a Zionist school, I was active in Zionist youth groups. I've always been a fervent supporter of Israel as a refuge for Jews around the world who seek a place to exercise their traditions and embrace their identity in peace.

Via As'ad- Nir Rosen: Gaza: the logic of colonial power

Terrorism is a normative term and not a descriptive concept. An empty word that means everything and nothing, it is used to describe what the Other does, not what we do. The powerful – whether Israel, America, Russia or China – will always describe their victims' struggle as terrorism, but the destruction of Chechnya, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the slow slaughter of the remaining Palestinians, the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan – with the tens of thousands of civilians it has killed … these will never earn the title of terrorism, though civilians were the target and terrorising them was the purpose.

I feel too upset about the news to post. I invited TGIA to post, but it must be night in Australia. I hope Yasmin isn't stuck in transit somewhere.

Good article from Johann Hari: The True Story Behind This War is Not the One Israel is Telling

There will now be a war over the story of this war. The Israeli government says: we withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and in return we got Hamas and Qassam rockets being rained on our cities. Some 16 civilians have been murdered. How many more are we supposed to sacrifice? It is a plausible narrative, and there are shards of truth in it - but it is also filled with holes. If we want to understand the reality and really stop the rockets, we need to rewind a few years, and view the runway to this war dispassionately.

From Amira Hass

S. saw the results of some of Saturday's bombings when he visited a friend whose office is located near Gaza City's police headquarters. One person killed in that attack was Hassan Abu Shnab, the eldest son of former senior Hamas official Ismail Abu Shnab.

The elder Abu Shnab, whom Israel assassinated five years ago, was one of the first Hamas politicians to speak in favor of a two-state solution. Hassan worked as a clerk at the local university and played in the police band for fun. He was performing at a police graduation ceremony on Saturday when the bomb struck.

"Seventy policemen were killed there, not all Hamas members," said S., who opposes Hamas.

But they're all thugs and terrorists, right?

By the way, Anand said he will not be commenting here any longer.

from Haaretz, Zvi Barel writes: "Six months ago Israel asked and received a cease-fire from Hamas. It unilaterally violated it when it blew up a tunnel, while still asking Egypt to get the Islamic group to hold its fire." Yet the U.S. media refers that only Hamas violated the ceasefire.

It's times like this that I wish I were religious. It would be a comfort.

Zionists are thinking 290 down, 3.9 million to go (I'm assuming they don't care about the ones in the Lebanon, Syria or Jordan too much).

The crazy thing is, the Israelis really could have peace if they wanted it. They could pull out of the West Bank totally, and let them be a normal state without any of the unacceptable provisos like retaining control of WB water and air space. Not that I agree with this solution, but it would pretty much stop attacks. Why don't they do this? My guesses:

1. A good portion of the population is religious loonies who believe God gave them ALL of Palestine.
2. They need or think they need the water under the West Bank.
3. For most of the atheist Israelis, although they may not be religious in the traditional sense, their Zionism is religious in its irrationality and absolutism.
4. Their racism (well, Zionism is racism of course).
5. Part of the Israelis' identity is about fighting their enemies (this is not true in the diaspora, part, if not most of our identity rests on thinking everybody hating us, but not fighting back).

An eye for an eyelash.

During the first intifada, it was 5 Palestinians killed for every Israeli. During the second, it was 20 to one. Now it is 200 to zero.

WE ARE ALL GAZANS TODAY

Gaza massacres must spur us to action

By Ali AbuNimah

What the media never question is Israel's idea of a truce.
It is very simple. Under an Israeli-style truce,
Palestinians have the right to remain silent while Israel
starves them, kills them and continues to violently
colonize their land. Israel has not only banned food and
medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is
also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there
is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for
schoolchildren.

That is an Israeli truce. Any response to Israeli attacks
-- whether peaceful protests against the apartheid wall in
Bilin and Nilin in the West Bank is met with bullets and
bombs. There are no rockets launched at Israel from the
West Bank, and yet Israel's attacks, killings, land theft,
settler pogroms and kidnappings never ceased for one
single day during the truce. The Palestinian Authority in
Ramallah has acceded to all of Israel's demands, even
assembling "security forces" to fight the resistance on
Israel's behalf. None of that has spared a single
Palestinian or her property or livelihood from Israel's
relentless violent colonization. It did not save, for
instance, the al-Kurd family from seeing their home of 50
years in occupied East Jerusalem demolished on 9 November,
so the land it sits on could be taken by settlers.

Once again we are watching massacres in Gaza, as we did
last March when 110 Palestinians, including dozens of
children, were killed by Israel in just a few days. Once
again people everywhere feel rage, anger and despair that
this outlaw state carries out such crimes with impunity.

On top of the intense anger and sadness so many people
feel at Israel's renewed mass killings in Gaza is a sense
of frustration that there seem to be so few ways to
channel it into a political response that can change the
course of events, end the suffering, and bring justice.

But there are ways, and this is a moment to focus on them.
Already I have received notices of demonstrations and
solidarity actions being planned in cities all over the
world. That is important. But what will happen after the
demonstrations disperse and the anger dies down? Will we
continue to let Palestinians in Gaza die in silence?

Palestinians everywhere are asking for solidarity, real
solidarity, in the form of sustained, determined political
action. The Gaza-based One Democratic State Group
reaffirmed this today as it "called upon all civil society
organizations and freedom loving people to act immediately
in any possible way to put pressure on their governments
to end diplomatic ties with Apartheid Israel and institute
sanctions against it."

The global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement for
Palestine (http://www.bdsmovement.net/) provides the
framework for this. Now is the time to channel our raw
emotions into a long-term commitment to make sure we do
not wake up to "another Gaza" ever again.