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#1
Posted to alt.home.repair
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What's really happening in Gaza
After reading the stuff posted here about the war in Gaza, with the
near-unanimous opinion that the Palestinians are getting what they deserve, I've got to say something to counteract this entirely *wrong* view. I'll refrain from calling those who post these opinions names. They can be forgiven because they are--we all are--victims of propaganda, of Israeli propaganda which is, for the most part, not challenged by our (writing from the U.S. here) miserable excuse for a "free press". (Things are a little different in, say, the UK: read the Guardian or the Telegraph for a much more diverse spectrum of views on this situation.) The fact is that in this situation, as in so many others, the Israelis are behaving somewhat like Nazis. I hasten to add that, as a Jew, I do not in any way equate the Israelis with those aforementioned vermin. But the parallels in their behavior are disturbing. What's being left out of any discussion of this situation is the extent of the oppression of the entire Palestinian population that is the driving force behind all of their violent actions (suicide bombings, rocket launchings). Even before this latest invasion, Gaza has been a gigantic prison for more than a million people. The Israelis, so far from having left the place as is widely stated, control every aspect of life in this miserable place. Nothing gets in or out without their approval. If you want to go out to visit someone, to buy something, for whatever reason, you have to negotiate an Israeli checkpoint. Which means you may or may not get in or out, and if you do, you may have to wait hours. Or days. I'll get to those Hamas rockets in a second. But to understand what's happening there, put yourself in that situation. Imagine you live here, let's say somewhere in Texas, and that your area is under occupation, let's say by Unitarians. (Your population is predominantly Christian.) Your region is surrounded on 3 sides by a fortress wall with guarded checkpoints; the 4th side is the sea. If you want to get in or out, you have to wait at a checkpoint where a Unitarian guard may or may not let you through; they will shower you with abuse, though, steal stuff from you, maybe even shoot you. You wouldn't get through even if your child was in critical need of medical attention which they could only get on the other side; sometimes they would die there. Unitarians will periodically demolish homes (occupied or vacant) in your territory (and this is during the time of a cease-fire). They'll uproot your olive orchards, kill your livestock. Every day you'll see them traveling on Unitarian-only roads, past their settlements which are watered with *your* water, living a life of relative affluence against your grinding poverty. I could go on, but you should get the picture. Don't take my word for it: here's a letter I got, written by a 26-year-old Israeli soldier, about his experiences in the Occupied Territories: On some days, of course, we enforced a full "closure", meaning that no Palestinians could pass at all. It didn't matter if you were a teacher or a student trying to get to the school right on the other side of the checkpoint. Nobody got through. Every day at lunch, we closed the checkpoint down until we were done. Queues would form, but we would pay them no mind. If a Palestinian got impatient and started approaching, we knew what to do: One of us would get up and point a rifle at him. He would quickly turn back. If not, we would make sure that he spent many good hours waiting at the checkpoint. Of course, if a settler came by the checkpoint--during lunch or at any other time--he'd just smile at us, wave hello, and walk by. These were the day-in, day-out realities of my time in the IDF. And there were, of course, examples of more extreme behavior. Like the day my unit set up a surprise checkpoint at the outskirts of a Palestinian village. A local farmer trying to pass through the area had raised a bit of a fuss. He wanted to transport some chickens, but a soldier refused him. Our commander decided to show the Palestinian who was boss. He lifted his rifle, aimed, and shot one of the chickens. End of argument. Sure, a dead chicken might seem like small potatoes, but multiply that small humiliation by a thousand and you begin to see how nobody--no human being--who lives under such conditions *constantly* would put up with it for long. So what about those Hamas rockets? It's true that Hamas has launched, and continues to launch, rockets into Israel. But to listen to the U.S. media, you would think that this is simply being done because they're evil, with no provocation. I refer you to the above for why they're doing it. This is not to say that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself: it does. But this situation is so disproportionate that it staggers the mind. Take those Palestinian rockets: how many have they killed? Turns out that over the last 8 years, about 20 Israelis have been killed by them. 20. How many has Israel killed in this latest carnage? The toll stands at about 900 today; almost a third of them (275) children. And those rockets? Anyone know how pathetically, almost comically inaccurate and crude those Qassam rockets are? They're homemade, for chrissakes. No accuracy at all. More likely to land in an empty field than anywhere else. While some of the rockets are better ones smuggled in from outside, the majority are these grenades-in-tin-cans. Sorry, Israel is the aggressor here, the one with the upper hand militarily. (Even so, it's likely they'll lose this war, just as they lost the 2006 Lebanon war, although not until much death and destruction.) So where will Obama come down on this? My guess is that he'll simply continue the decades-old policy of nearly unconditional support for Israel, no matter what. Let me close with a caustic look at this situation from an Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery (http://counterpunch.org/avnery01122009.html for full article): Nearly seventy ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands. Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz. This is the description that would now appear in the history books – if the Germans had won the war. Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured. -- In order to embark on a new course, the only one that will solve the problem: negotiations and peace with the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians. And: with Hamas and Hizbullah. Because it's only with enemies that one makes peace. - Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. (http://counterpunch.org/avnery08032006.html) |
#2
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What's really happening in Gaza
David Nebenzahl wrote:
After reading the stuff posted here about the war in Gaza, with the near-unanimous opinion that the Palestinians are getting what they deserve, I've got to say something to counteract this entirely *wrong* view. I'll refrain from calling those who post these opinions names. They can be forgiven because they are--we all are--victims of propaganda, of Israeli propaganda which is, for the most part, not challenged by our (writing from the U.S. here) miserable excuse for a "free press". (Things are a little different in, say, the UK: read the Guardian or the Telegraph for a much more diverse spectrum of views on this situation.) The fact is that in this situation, as in so many others, the Israelis are behaving somewhat like Nazis. I hasten to add that, as a Jew, I do not in any way equate the Israelis with those aforementioned vermin. But the parallels in their behavior are disturbing. What's being left out of any discussion of this situation is the extent of the oppression of the entire Palestinian population that is the driving force behind all of their violent actions (suicide bombings, rocket launchings). Even before this latest invasion, Gaza has been a gigantic prison for more than a million people. The Israelis, so far from having left the place as is widely stated, control every aspect of life in this miserable place. Nothing gets in or out without their approval. If you want to go out to visit someone, to buy something, for whatever reason, you have to negotiate an Israeli checkpoint. Which means you may or may not get in or out, and if you do, you may have to wait hours. Or days. I'll get to those Hamas rockets in a second. But to understand what's happening there, put yourself in that situation. Imagine you live here, let's say somewhere in Texas, and that your area is under occupation, let's say by Unitarians. (Your population is predominantly Christian.) Your region is surrounded on 3 sides by a fortress wall with guarded checkpoints; the 4th side is the sea. If you want to get in or out, you have to wait at a checkpoint where a Unitarian guard may or may not let you through; they will shower you with abuse, though, steal stuff from you, maybe even shoot you. You wouldn't get through even if your child was in critical need of medical attention which they could only get on the other side; sometimes they would die there. Unitarians will periodically demolish homes (occupied or vacant) in your territory (and this is during the time of a cease-fire). They'll uproot your olive orchards, kill your livestock. Every day you'll see them traveling on Unitarian-only roads, past their settlements which are watered with *your* water, living a life of relative affluence against your grinding poverty. I could go on, but you should get the picture. Don't take my word for it: here's a letter I got, written by a 26-year-old Israeli soldier, about his experiences in the Occupied Territories: On some days, of course, we enforced a full "closure", meaning that no Palestinians could pass at all. It didn't matter if you were a teacher or a student trying to get to the school right on the other side of the checkpoint. Nobody got through. Every day at lunch, we closed the checkpoint down until we were done. Queues would form, but we would pay them no mind. If a Palestinian got impatient and started approaching, we knew what to do: One of us would get up and point a rifle at him. He would quickly turn back. If not, we would make sure that he spent many good hours waiting at the checkpoint. Of course, if a settler came by the checkpoint--during lunch or at any other time--he'd just smile at us, wave hello, and walk by. These were the day-in, day-out realities of my time in the IDF. And there were, of course, examples of more extreme behavior. Like the day my unit set up a surprise checkpoint at the outskirts of a Palestinian village. A local farmer trying to pass through the area had raised a bit of a fuss. He wanted to transport some chickens, but a soldier refused him. Our commander decided to show the Palestinian who was boss. He lifted his rifle, aimed, and shot one of the chickens. End of argument. Sure, a dead chicken might seem like small potatoes, but multiply that small humiliation by a thousand and you begin to see how nobody--no human being--who lives under such conditions *constantly* would put up with it for long. So what about those Hamas rockets? It's true that Hamas has launched, and continues to launch, rockets into Israel. But to listen to the U.S. media, you would think that this is simply being done because they're evil, with no provocation. I refer you to the above for why they're doing it. This is not to say that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself: it does. But this situation is so disproportionate that it staggers the mind. Take those Palestinian rockets: how many have they killed? Turns out that over the last 8 years, about 20 Israelis have been killed by them. 20. How many has Israel killed in this latest carnage? The toll stands at about 900 today; almost a third of them (275) children. And those rockets? Anyone know how pathetically, almost comically inaccurate and crude those Qassam rockets are? They're homemade, for chrissakes. No accuracy at all. More likely to land in an empty field than anywhere else. While some of the rockets are better ones smuggled in from outside, the majority are these grenades-in-tin-cans. Sorry, Israel is the aggressor here, the one with the upper hand militarily. (Even so, it's likely they'll lose this war, just as they lost the 2006 Lebanon war, although not until much death and destruction.) So where will Obama come down on this? My guess is that he'll simply continue the decades-old policy of nearly unconditional support for Israel, no matter what. Let me close with a caustic look at this situation from an Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery (http://counterpunch.org/avnery01122009.html for full article): Nearly seventy ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands. Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz. This is the description that would now appear in the history books – if the Germans had won the war. Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured. You make a fascinating, but flawed, point. You blame Israel for the woes of the Palestinians mainly because Israel does not allow free transit between Gaza and Israel. Hamas would disagree with you, however. The main problem, according to Hamas, is the continued occupation of Palestinian lands. "What occupation," you may ask? Didn't Israel completely pull out of Gaza a couple of years ago? When Hamas speaks of "occupation," they mean Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifi, Askelon, and all the other places "occupied" by the Jew. Anyway, as I said, your observation is flawed for two reasons: * It's Israel's border and they can control it any way they see fit. Similar to your example of Texas, the U.S. tries to not allow Mexicans to enter unchecked. For a LONG time, Gaza residents - with proper documentation - could travel to Israel to work or shop, but this situation had to be curtailed when it was abused. * Gaza has a nine-mile border with Egypt and Egypt has virtually the same restrictions as Israel on the movement of Gaza residents. Egypt doesn't want the Palestinians. Neither does Jordan. For sixty years, in fact, no Arab or Muslim country has welcomed or even accepted Palestinian refugees. Nobody wants the Palestinians. Nobody needs the Palestinians. Nobody even likes the Palestinians! Don't put all the blame on Israel. |
#3
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Jan 12, 1:44*pm, David Nebenzahl wrote:
After reading the stuff posted here about the war in Gaza, with the near-unanimous opinion that the Palestinians are getting what they deserve, I've got to say something to counteract this entirely *wrong* view. I'll refrain from calling those who post these opinions names. They can be forgiven because they are--we all are--victims of propaganda, of Israeli propaganda which is, for the most part, not challenged by our (writing from the U.S. here) miserable excuse for a "free press". (Things are a little different in, say, the UK: read the Guardian or the Telegraph for a much more diverse spectrum of views on this situation.) The fact is that in this situation, as in so many others, the Israelis are behaving somewhat like Nazis. I hasten to add that, as a Jew, I do not in any way equate the Israelis with those aforementioned vermin. But the parallels in their behavior are disturbing. What's being left out of any discussion of this situation is the extent of the oppression of the entire Palestinian population that is the driving force behind all of their violent actions (suicide bombings, rocket launchings). Even before this latest invasion, Gaza has been a gigantic prison for more than a million people. The Israelis, so far from having left the place as is widely stated, control every aspect of life in this miserable place. Nothing gets in or out without their approval. If you want to go out to visit someone, to buy something, for whatever reason, you have to negotiate an Israeli checkpoint. Which means you may or may not get in or out, and if you do, you may have to wait hours. Or days. I'll get to those Hamas rockets in a second. But to understand what's happening there, put yourself in that situation. Imagine you live here, let's say somewhere in Texas, and that your area is under occupation, let's say by Unitarians. (Your population is predominantly Christian.) Your region is surrounded on 3 sides by a fortress wall with guarded checkpoints; the 4th side is the sea. If you want to get in or out, you have to wait at a checkpoint where a Unitarian guard may or may not let you through; they will shower you with abuse, though, steal stuff from you, maybe even shoot you. You wouldn't get through even if your child was in critical need of medical attention which they could only get on the other side; sometimes they would die there. Unitarians will periodically demolish homes (occupied or vacant) in your territory (and this is during the time of a cease-fire). They'll uproot your olive orchards, kill your livestock. Every day you'll see them traveling on Unitarian-only roads, past their settlements which are watered with *your* water, living a life of relative affluence against your grinding poverty. I could go on, but you should get the picture. Don't take my word for it: here's a letter I got, written by a 26-year-old Israeli soldier, about his experiences in the Occupied Territories: * *On some days, of course, we enforced a full "closure", meaning that * *no Palestinians could pass at all. It didn't matter if you were a * *teacher or a student trying to get to the school right on the other * *side of the checkpoint. Nobody got through. * *Every day at lunch, we closed the checkpoint down until we were done. * *Queues would form, but we would pay them no mind. If a Palestinian * *got impatient and started approaching, we knew what to do: One of us * *would get up and point a rifle at him. He would quickly turn back. * *If not, we would make sure that he spent many good hours waiting at * *the checkpoint. * *Of course, if a settler came by the checkpoint--during lunch or at * *any other time--he'd just smile at us, wave hello, and walk by. * *These were the day-in, day-out realities of my time in the IDF. And * *there were, of course, examples of more extreme behavior. Like the day * *my unit set up a surprise checkpoint at the outskirts of a Palestinian * *village. A local farmer trying to pass through the area had raised a bit * *of a fuss. He wanted to transport some chickens, but a soldier refused * *him. Our commander decided to show the Palestinian who was boss. He * *lifted his rifle, aimed, and shot one of the chickens. End of argument. Sure, a dead chicken might seem like small potatoes, but multiply that small humiliation by a thousand and you begin to see how nobody--no human being--who lives under such conditions *constantly* would put up with it for long. So what about those Hamas rockets? It's true that Hamas has launched, and continues to launch, rockets into Israel. But to listen to the U.S. media, you would think that this is simply being done because they're evil, with no provocation. I refer you to the above for why they're doing it. This is not to say that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself: it does. But this situation is so disproportionate that it staggers the mind. Take those Palestinian rockets: how many have they killed? Turns out that over the last 8 years, about 20 Israelis have been killed by them. 20. How many has Israel killed in this latest carnage? The toll stands at about 900 today; almost a third of them (275) children. And those rockets? Anyone know how pathetically, almost comically inaccurate and crude those Qassam rockets are? They're homemade, for chrissakes. No accuracy at all. More likely to land in an empty field than anywhere else. While some of the rockets are better ones smuggled in from outside, the majority are these grenades-in-tin-cans. Sorry, Israel is the aggressor here, the one with the upper hand militarily. (Even so, it's likely they'll lose this war, just as they lost the 2006 Lebanon war, although not until much death and destruction.) So where will Obama come down on this? My guess is that he'll simply continue the decades-old policy of nearly unconditional support for Israel, no matter what. Let me close with a caustic look at this situation from an Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery (http://counterpunch.org/avnery01122009.htmlfor full article): * *Nearly seventy ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime * *was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand * *days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of * *the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the * *German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had * *no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a * *total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands. * *Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The * *Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions * *of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their * *Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the * *Blitz. * *This is the description that would now appear in the history books – * *if the Germans had won the war. * *Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are * *being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of * *Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human * *shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive * *bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children * *and unarmed men are killed and injured. -- In order to embark on a new course, the only one that will solve the problem: negotiations and peace with the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians. And: with Hamas and Hizbullah. Because it's only with enemies that one makes peace. - Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. (http://counterpunch.org/avnery08032006.html) I understand this. Israel is pushing Palestinians to the wall. When someone gets cornered, that person will fight back with everything he can get his hand on. US media doesn't seem to have learnt anything from the lesson of the so called Iraq WMD program. It is still acting like a government mouth piece. So much for free press... Honestly I have really no idea what is the final goal of what Israel is doing in West Bank and Gaza. If the goal is to make Palestinians as uncomfortable as possible in order to force them away and to grab their lands, Palestinians have no where else to go, and other Arab countries are not going to accept the Palestinians. If the goal is to grab West Bank to create a defensible depth (West Bank is right in the middle of Israel), Israel is not saying which part of the land Israel is willing to give up to exchange for West Bank. If the goal is to find a way to live peacefully with Palestinians, what Israel doing is the complete opposite. Currently Israel is totally depending on US supports, their own secret stocks of nuclear weapons, and the fact that surrounding Arab countries are US clients and are not democratic. But none of these are safe bet. The long term trend is that US power will not like what it used to be. Countries left and right are doing nuclear program or setting up nuclear lab for "peaceful" purpose. Weak Arab client states may become democratic and need to respond to population call for "action". My advice to Israel is to "live and let live", and make a good peace deal when US power is still strong and the relative strength of Israel is still good. Jay Chan |
#4
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What's really happening in Gaza
In article m,
David Nebenzahl wrote: I'll refrain from calling those who post these opinions names. They can be forgiven because they are--we all are--victims of propaganda, of Israeli propaganda which is, for the most part, not challenged by our (writing from the U.S. here) miserable excuse for a "free press". (Things are a little different in, say, the UK: read the Guardian or the Telegraph for a much more diverse spectrum of views on this situation.) God. You could be just a LITTLE more condescending in your view of those who disagree with you. I especially don't need to be forgiven by the likes of you. The fact is that in this situation, as in so many others, the Israelis are behaving somewhat like Nazis. I hasten to add that, as a Jew, I do not in any way equate the Israelis with those aforementioned vermin. But the parallels in their behavior are disturbing. Yet you do exactly that, but without the balls to admit it. |
#5
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What's really happening in Gaza
In article ,
"HeyBub" wrote: * Gaza has a nine-mile border with Egypt and Egypt has virtually the same restrictions as Israel on the movement of Gaza residents. Thus the Palestinians getting rowdy with the Egyptians a couple of months ago. If the Palestinians could get along with ANYBODY, I might be more sanguine. Egypt doesn't want the Palestinians. Neither does Jordan. For sixty years, in fact, no Arab or Muslim country has welcomed or even accepted Palestinian refugees. Nobody wants the Palestinians. Nobody needs the Palestinians. Nobody even likes the Palestinians! Don't put all the blame on Israel. I would submit that many governments in the Middle East need Palestinians as whipping boys and to give their own people Israel to hate to keep them from turning on said governments. The arab countries in the ME could have resolved this 40 years or more ago if it wasn't in their interests to keep the hornet's nest stirred up. |
#6
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What's really happening in Gaza
Jay Chan wrote:
I understand this. Israel is pushing Palestinians to the wall. When someone gets cornered, that person will fight back with everything he can get his hand on. US media doesn't seem to have learnt anything from the lesson of the so called Iraq WMD program. It is still acting like a government mouth piece. So much for free press... Honestly I have really no idea what is the final goal of what Israel is doing in West Bank and Gaza. If the goal is to make Palestinians as uncomfortable as possible in order to force them away and to grab their lands, Palestinians have no where else to go, and other Arab countries are not going to accept the Palestinians. Israel once occupied the West Bank and Gaza (and Sinai). All have been given up - Sinai to the Egyptians and the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians (except for less than 1% of the West Bank still under negotiation). There are NO Israeli settlements in Gaza. When Hamas refers to the "Zionist occupation" it means the Jewish state in the Middle East. To Hamas, Israel is unlawfully occupying Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifi, Askelon, and everything in between. If the goal is to grab West Bank to create a defensible depth (West Bank is right in the middle of Israel), Israel is not saying which part of the land Israel is willing to give up to exchange for West Bank. If the goal is to find a way to live peacefully with Palestinians, what Israel doing is the complete opposite. Currently Israel is totally depending on US supports, their own secret stocks of nuclear weapons, and the fact that surrounding Arab countries are US clients and are not democratic. But none of these are safe bet. The long term trend is that US power will not like what it used to be. Countries left and right are doing nuclear program or setting up nuclear lab for "peaceful" purpose. Weak Arab client states may become democratic and need to respond to population call for "action". My advice to Israel is to "live and let live", and make a good peace deal when US power is still strong and the relative strength of Israel is still good. Good advice. If Hamas stopped terrorist activities today against Israel, there would be peace. If Israel stopped defending itself today, it would soon cease to exist. |
#7
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Jan 12, 2:55*pm, Kurt Ullman wrote:
.... ... The arab countries in the ME could have resolved this 40 years or more ago ... Not unless they somehow can also erase 2000 years of history. -- |
#8
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What's really happening in Gaza
Kurt Ullman wrote in
: In article , "HeyBub" wrote: * Gaza has a nine-mile border with Egypt and Egypt has virtually the same restrictions as Israel on the movement of Gaza residents. Thus the Palestinians getting rowdy with the Egyptians a couple of months ago. If the Palestinians could get along with ANYBODY, I might be more sanguine. Egypt doesn't want the Palestinians. Neither does Jordan. For sixty years, in fact, no Arab or Muslim country has welcomed or even accepted Palestinian refugees. Nobody wants the Palestinians. Nobody needs the Palestinians. Nobody even likes the Palestinians! Don't put all the blame on Israel. I would submit that many governments in the Middle East need Palestinians as whipping boys and to give their own people Israel to hate to keep them from turning on said governments. The arab countries in the ME could have resolved this 40 years or more ago if it wasn't in their interests to keep the hornet's nest stirred up. Egypt is concerned that the Hamas "political style" may infect their country,one reason for a "blockade" of Gaza. Egypt probably remembers how the Palestinians tried to take over Jordan and had to be expelled;Black September is how the Palestinians recall it.Then there's what the Palestinians did to Lebanon. Also,Egypt has a PEACE TREATY with Israel,and allowing arms to flow thru Egypt to be used against Israel is not be a peaceful act. But a basic undeniable fact is that Hamas is not interested in building a Palestinian nation,they are interested in the destruction of Israel and driving the Jews into the sea. The latter is a part of Hamas charter. -- Jim Yanik jyanik at kua.net |
#9
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What's really happening in Gaza
"dpb" wrote in message ... On Jan 12, 2:55 pm, Kurt Ullman wrote: .... ... The arab countries in the ME could have resolved this 40 years or more ago ... Not unless they somehow can also erase 2000 years of history. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_OGhj43GAE -- |
#10
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What's really happening in Gaza
"HeyBub" wrote in message
m... Jay Chan wrote: I understand this. Israel is pushing Palestinians to the wall. When someone gets cornered, that person will fight back with everything he can get his hand on. US media doesn't seem to have learnt anything from the lesson of the so called Iraq WMD program. It is still acting like a government mouth piece. So much for free press... Honestly I have really no idea what is the final goal of what Israel is doing in West Bank and Gaza. If the goal is to make Palestinians as uncomfortable as possible in order to force them away and to grab their lands, Palestinians have no where else to go, and other Arab countries are not going to accept the Palestinians. Israel once occupied the West Bank and Gaza (and Sinai). All have been given up - Sinai to the Egyptians and the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians (except for less than 1% of the West Bank still under negotiation). There are NO Israeli settlements in Gaza. When Hamas refers to the "Zionist occupation" it means the Jewish state in the Middle East. To Hamas, Israel is unlawfully occupying Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifi, Askelon, and everything in between. If the goal is to grab West Bank to create a defensible depth (West Bank is right in the middle of Israel), Israel is not saying which part of the land Israel is willing to give up to exchange for West Bank. If the goal is to find a way to live peacefully with Palestinians, what Israel doing is the complete opposite. Currently Israel is totally depending on US supports, their own secret stocks of nuclear weapons, and the fact that surrounding Arab countries are US clients and are not democratic. But none of these are safe bet. The long term trend is that US power will not like what it used to be. Countries left and right are doing nuclear program or setting up nuclear lab for "peaceful" purpose. Weak Arab client states may become democratic and need to respond to population call for "action". My advice to Israel is to "live and let live", and make a good peace deal when US power is still strong and the relative strength of Israel is still good. Good advice. If Hamas stopped terrorist activities today against Israel, there would be peace. If Israel stopped defending itself today, it would soon cease to exist. I agree entirely. Israel has had over 6000 missiles fired into its cities and towns by Hamas. It eventually chose to retaliate and attempt to stop these attacks. Israel returned land it had captured back to the Arabs in exchange for a promise of peace. Instead it was fired upon 6320 times with Hamas missiles. Hamas very deliberately places itself in the midst of civilians and uses mosques, hospitals, and schools as places to launch their missiles. What kind of human beings are these people who strap bombs to their bodies and blow themselves up? Within Pakistan they are murdering each other and fighting tribal and sectarian battles which have nothing to do with Israel because they would rather blame others for their problems than take ownership themselves..... |
#11
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Jan 12, 12:44*pm, David Nebenzahl wrote:
After reading the stuff posted here about the war in Gaza, with the near-unanimous opinion that the Palestinians are getting what they deserve, I've got to say something to counteract this entirely *wrong* view. I'll refrain from calling those who post these opinions names. They can be forgiven because they are--we all are--victims of propaganda, of Israeli propaganda which is, for the most part, not challenged by our (writing from the U.S. here) miserable excuse for a "free press". (Things are a little different in, say, the UK: read the Guardian or the Telegraph for a much more diverse spectrum of views on this situation.) The fact is that in this situation, as in so many others, the Israelis are behaving somewhat like Nazis. I hasten to add that, as a Jew, I do not in any way equate the Israelis with those aforementioned vermin. But the parallels in their behavior are disturbing. What's being left out of any discussion of this situation is the extent of the oppression of the entire Palestinian population that is the driving force behind all of their violent actions (suicide bombings, rocket launchings). Even before this latest invasion, Gaza has been a gigantic prison for more than a million people. The Israelis, so far from having left the place as is widely stated, control every aspect of life in this miserable place. Nothing gets in or out without their approval. If you want to go out to visit someone, to buy something, for whatever reason, you have to negotiate an Israeli checkpoint. Which means you may or may not get in or out, and if you do, you may have to wait hours. Or days. I'll get to those Hamas rockets in a second. But to understand what's happening there, put yourself in that situation. Imagine you live here, let's say somewhere in Texas, and that your area is under occupation, let's say by Unitarians. (Your population is predominantly Christian.) Your region is surrounded on 3 sides by a fortress wall with guarded checkpoints; the 4th side is the sea. If you want to get in or out, you have to wait at a checkpoint where a Unitarian guard may or may not let you through; they will shower you with abuse, though, steal stuff from you, maybe even shoot you. You wouldn't get through even if your child was in critical need of medical attention which they could only get on the other side; sometimes they would die there. Unitarians will periodically demolish homes (occupied or vacant) in your territory (and this is during the time of a cease-fire). They'll uproot your olive orchards, kill your livestock. Every day you'll see them traveling on Unitarian-only roads, past their settlements which are watered with *your* water, living a life of relative affluence against your grinding poverty. I could go on, but you should get the picture. Don't take my word for it: here's a letter I got, written by a 26-year-old Israeli soldier, about his experiences in the Occupied Territories: * *On some days, of course, we enforced a full "closure", meaning that * *no Palestinians could pass at all. It didn't matter if you were a * *teacher or a student trying to get to the school right on the other * *side of the checkpoint. Nobody got through. * *Every day at lunch, we closed the checkpoint down until we were done. * *Queues would form, but we would pay them no mind. If a Palestinian * *got impatient and started approaching, we knew what to do: One of us * *would get up and point a rifle at him. He would quickly turn back. * *If not, we would make sure that he spent many good hours waiting at * *the checkpoint. * *Of course, if a settler came by the checkpoint--during lunch or at * *any other time--he'd just smile at us, wave hello, and walk by. * *These were the day-in, day-out realities of my time in the IDF. And * *there were, of course, examples of more extreme behavior. Like the day * *my unit set up a surprise checkpoint at the outskirts of a Palestinian * *village. A local farmer trying to pass through the area had raised a bit * *of a fuss. He wanted to transport some chickens, but a soldier refused * *him. Our commander decided to show the Palestinian who was boss. He * *lifted his rifle, aimed, and shot one of the chickens. End of argument. Sure, a dead chicken might seem like small potatoes, but multiply that small humiliation by a thousand and you begin to see how nobody--no human being--who lives under such conditions *constantly* would put up with it for long. So what about those Hamas rockets? It's true that Hamas has launched, and continues to launch, rockets into Israel. But to listen to the U.S. media, you would think that this is simply being done because they're evil, with no provocation. I refer you to the above for why they're doing it. This is not to say that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself: it does. But this situation is so disproportionate that it staggers the mind. Take those Palestinian rockets: how many have they killed? Turns out that over the last 8 years, about 20 Israelis have been killed by them. 20. How many has Israel killed in this latest carnage? The toll stands at about 900 today; almost a third of them (275) children. And those rockets? Anyone know how pathetically, almost comically inaccurate and crude those Qassam rockets are? They're homemade, for chrissakes. No accuracy at all. More likely to land in an empty field than anywhere else. While some of the rockets are better ones smuggled in from outside, the majority are these grenades-in-tin-cans. Sorry, Israel is the aggressor here, the one with the upper hand militarily. (Even so, it's likely they'll lose this war, just as they lost the 2006 Lebanon war, although not until much death and destruction.) So where will Obama come down on this? My guess is that he'll simply continue the decades-old policy of nearly unconditional support for Israel, no matter what. Let me close with a caustic look at this situation from an Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery (http://counterpunch.org/avnery01122009.htmlfor full article): * *Nearly seventy ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime * *was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand * *days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of * *the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the * *German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had * *no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a * *total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands. * *Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The * *Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions * *of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their * *Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the * *Blitz. * *This is the description that would now appear in the history books – * *if the Germans had won the war. * *Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are * *being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of * *Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human * *shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive * *bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children * *and unarmed men are killed and injured. -- In order to embark on a new course, the only one that will solve the problem: negotiations and peace with the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians. And: with Hamas and Hizbullah. Because it's only with enemies that one makes peace. - Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. (http://counterpunch.org/avnery08032006.html) What about arabs open declaration they want israel gone, or is that just Iran, They want the land back and that is it. They wont get it back so there wont ever be peace unitl a few nukes are launched to settle it once and for all. What they want they cant get or take, Israel has been there to long and wont give in, Iran is making Nukes, in a few years the whole area will be ashes, and for what. It will end, nobody will get anything. |
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What's really happening in Gaza
"ransley" wrote in message ... On Jan 12, 12:44 pm, David Nebenzahl wrote: After reading the stuff posted here about the war in Gaza, with the near-unanimous opinion that the Palestinians are getting what they deserve, I've got to say something to counteract this entirely *wrong* view. SNIP kes peace. - Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. (http://counterpunch.org/avnery08032006.html) "What about arabs open declaration they want israel gone, or is that just Iran, They want the land back and that is it. They wont get it back so there wont ever be peace unitl a few nukes are launched to settle it once and for all. What they want they cant get or take, Israel has been there to long and wont give in, Iran is making Nukes, in a few years the whole area will be ashes, and for what. It will end, nobody will get anything." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLIdx...eature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTu-A...eature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTu-A...eature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_OGhj43GAE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00B3o...eature=related http://www.masada2000.org/ |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Jan 12, 12:44*pm, David Nebenzahl wrote:
After reading the stuff posted here about the war in Gaza, with the near-unanimous opinion that the Palestinians are getting what they deserve, I've got to say something to counteract this entirely *wrong* view. I'll refrain from calling those who post these opinions names. They can be forgiven because they are--we all are--victims of propaganda, of Israeli propaganda which is, for the most part, not challenged by our (writing from the U.S. here) miserable excuse for a "free press". (Things are a little different in, say, the UK: read the Guardian or the Telegraph for a much more diverse spectrum of views on this situation.) The fact is that in this situation, as in so many others, the Israelis are behaving somewhat like Nazis. I hasten to add that, as a Jew, I do not in any way equate the Israelis with those aforementioned vermin. But the parallels in their behavior are disturbing. What's being left out of any discussion of this situation is the extent of the oppression of the entire Palestinian population that is the driving force behind all of their violent actions (suicide bombings, rocket launchings). Even before this latest invasion, Gaza has been a gigantic prison for more than a million people. The Israelis, so far from having left the place as is widely stated, control every aspect of life in this miserable place. Nothing gets in or out without their approval. If you want to go out to visit someone, to buy something, for whatever reason, you have to negotiate an Israeli checkpoint. Which means you may or may not get in or out, and if you do, you may have to wait hours. Or days. I'll get to those Hamas rockets in a second. But to understand what's happening there, put yourself in that situation. Imagine you live here, let's say somewhere in Texas, and that your area is under occupation, let's say by Unitarians. (Your population is predominantly Christian.) Your region is surrounded on 3 sides by a fortress wall with guarded checkpoints; the 4th side is the sea. If you want to get in or out, you have to wait at a checkpoint where a Unitarian guard may or may not let you through; they will shower you with abuse, though, steal stuff from you, maybe even shoot you. You wouldn't get through even if your child was in critical need of medical attention which they could only get on the other side; sometimes they would die there. Unitarians will periodically demolish homes (occupied or vacant) in your territory (and this is during the time of a cease-fire). They'll uproot your olive orchards, kill your livestock. Every day you'll see them traveling on Unitarian-only roads, past their settlements which are watered with *your* water, living a life of relative affluence against your grinding poverty. I could go on, but you should get the picture. Don't take my word for it: here's a letter I got, written by a 26-year-old Israeli soldier, about his experiences in the Occupied Territories: * *On some days, of course, we enforced a full "closure", meaning that * *no Palestinians could pass at all. It didn't matter if you were a * *teacher or a student trying to get to the school right on the other * *side of the checkpoint. Nobody got through. * *Every day at lunch, we closed the checkpoint down until we were done. * *Queues would form, but we would pay them no mind. If a Palestinian * *got impatient and started approaching, we knew what to do: One of us * *would get up and point a rifle at him. He would quickly turn back. * *If not, we would make sure that he spent many good hours waiting at * *the checkpoint. * *Of course, if a settler came by the checkpoint--during lunch or at * *any other time--he'd just smile at us, wave hello, and walk by. * *These were the day-in, day-out realities of my time in the IDF. And * *there were, of course, examples of more extreme behavior. Like the day * *my unit set up a surprise checkpoint at the outskirts of a Palestinian * *village. A local farmer trying to pass through the area had raised a bit * *of a fuss. He wanted to transport some chickens, but a soldier refused * *him. Our commander decided to show the Palestinian who was boss. He * *lifted his rifle, aimed, and shot one of the chickens. End of argument. Sure, a dead chicken might seem like small potatoes, but multiply that small humiliation by a thousand and you begin to see how nobody--no human being--who lives under such conditions *constantly* would put up with it for long. So what about those Hamas rockets? It's true that Hamas has launched, and continues to launch, rockets into Israel. But to listen to the U.S. media, you would think that this is simply being done because they're evil, with no provocation. I refer you to the above for why they're doing it. This is not to say that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself: it does. But this situation is so disproportionate that it staggers the mind. Take those Palestinian rockets: how many have they killed? Turns out that over the last 8 years, about 20 Israelis have been killed by them. 20. How many has Israel killed in this latest carnage? The toll stands at about 900 today; almost a third of them (275) children. And those rockets? Anyone know how pathetically, almost comically inaccurate and crude those Qassam rockets are? They're homemade, for chrissakes. No accuracy at all. More likely to land in an empty field than anywhere else. While some of the rockets are better ones smuggled in from outside, the majority are these grenades-in-tin-cans. Sorry, Israel is the aggressor here, the one with the upper hand militarily. (Even so, it's likely they'll lose this war, just as they lost the 2006 Lebanon war, although not until much death and destruction.) So where will Obama come down on this? My guess is that he'll simply continue the decades-old policy of nearly unconditional support for Israel, no matter what. Let me close with a caustic look at this situation from an Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery (http://counterpunch.org/avnery01122009.htmlfor full article): * *Nearly seventy ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime * *was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand * *days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of * *the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the * *German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had * *no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a * *total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands. * *Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The * *Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions * *of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their * *Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the * *Blitz. * *This is the description that would now appear in the history books – * *if the Germans had won the war. * *Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are * *being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of * *Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human * *shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive * *bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children * *and unarmed men are killed and injured. -- In order to embark on a new course, the only one that will solve the problem: negotiations and peace with the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians. And: with Hamas and Hizbullah. Because it's only with enemies that one makes peace. - Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. (http://counterpunch.org/avnery08032006.html) Whats really happening in Gaza? Self defense. |
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What's really happening in Gaza
Jay Chan wrote:
Israel once occupied the West Bank and Gaza (and Sinai). All have been given up - Sinai to the Egyptians and the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians (except for less than 1% of the West Bank still under negotiation). There are NO Israeli settlements in Gaza. When Hamas refers to the "Zionist occupation" it means the Jewish state in the Middle East. To Hamas, Israel is unlawfully occupying Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifi, Askelon, and everything in between. Not really. There are many many Israel settlements inside West Bank. And there are many many roads cutting through West Bank to link from Israel to those settlements. Palestinians cannot get through those roads. If a road cut through a Palestinians property and cut it in half, of course he gets no compensation, and he cannot reach the other side of his own property without going many miles away and go through many check points. For practical purpose, he has lost half of his property. West Bank is effectively being cut into many small pieces of little cages where people cannot move from one area inside West Bank to another area inside West Bank. If they want to go through, they will have to get approval from Israel and have to wait in the long line in the check points. Yes, they are free inside the little piece of 10 square miles or so of land around their village -- effectively living in a cage -- and is a very tiny cage. Right. Like I said: Israel continues to "occupy" less than 1% of the "West Bank." This goes a long way explaining the reason why years has passed and Palestinians still continuously hate Israel. Please note that this situation in West Bank is not a secret. The info is readily available in the net. Jimmy Carter has written a book about this situation. Our "free press" choose not to mention this (or bury it inside the back page), and mis-guide the public. I guess that's why our "free press" was a part of getting us into that unnecessary Iraq War. The Palestinians hated Israel before Israel occupied the West Bank and will hate Israel afterwards. Israel's presence in the West Bank is irrelevant to the Palestinian's hatred. There were israel settlements in Gaza not so long ago. They were removed because those settlements didn't make much sense. Wrong. They were profitable to the settlers. The settlements were removed in an attempt by Israel to gain peace. Settlements only make sense to be in open land where the natives are fewer than the settlers where the settlement can expand relatively easily. Gaza is the opposite. Gaza is densely populated, and there is no room for the settlements to expand into -- unless Gaza is de-populatd. Wrong again. There is much open, undeveloped land in Gaza. Gaza is about twice the size of the District of Columbia and about the same population density. Of course, Hama will say all kind of things about Israel. Just like Israel say all kind of things about Hama. First of all, they are no friends. Secondly, this is probably something that can be bargained away -- like "I agree to recognize your rights to exist if you agree with our rights _and_ give us some of our land back". Oh Bother! Note that Israel is the ONLY entity in the region that has "given back" any land to anybody. Please note that UN had passed resolution to ask Israel to return back to pre-1967 border. I doubt that Israel will give back all of those lands (because they have a better bargaining power now). But they should give back some of the land back to Palestinians -- and that is where bargaining comes into picture. Some of the chips will need to be traded. If Israel refuses to talk to Hama, bargaining cannot take place, and we have a deadlock, and human suffering will continue. Unfortunately, there would not be peace either if Hama stopped terrorist activities. What Gaza would have ended up like one of those tiny cages in West Bank. The only difference is that it will become the largest cage among the many tiny cages: Trying to go from Gaza to West Bank would need to go through numerous check points, no over the land air traffic to avoid the check points, no marine traffic, no international airport, numerous border closure at any time, no way to earn a living to feed your family. You can imagine what would happen if you owned a business in Gaza and you wanted to sell some stuff to another country. When you were ready to ship the products, the border was closed (or Israel didn't allow you to ship because you said something bad about them in the press) and you missed the deadline. Now, you needed to pay penality, additional fee for extended credit to finance the inventory that get stuck at border, and your customer was not likely to order anything from you any more. You lost your business, and your employees lost their jobs. Your employees and you became restless. And the deadly cycle began. For many, many years business and life flourished in Gaza (under Israeli occupation). Businesses, such as your example, traded freely; workers from Gaza went into Israel daily to their jobs. By every objective standard (income, education, life expectancy, health services, wages, standard of living, etc.) life for the residents of Gaze exceeded that of their counterparts in neighboring Arab countries. Then the extremists gained control of Gaza. The thing is that Gaza and West Bank are tiny places; they cannot possibly be self-sufficient. They must depend on trading with other people in order to grow their economy. Having Israel controlling all the border crossings (even in a border with another Arabic country) is a bad situation for Palestinians because this gives Israel total controls over the economy growth of Palestinians. Uh, Jordan controls the border between the Palestinians and itself. Egypt likewise with Gaza. Therefore, we need a solution that Palestinians can at least live with. Something that the Russian has proposed recently is a good start: Both sides stop attacking each other and Israel remove the blockage on Gaza. Israel does NOT control the border between Gaza and Egypt. Israel DOES control the border between itself and Gaza. The Israeli's - for obvious reasons - don't want the Gaza people to run amok in their country. Evidently the Egyptians feel likewise. |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On 01/13/09 03:40 pm HeyBub wrote:
The Palestinians hated Israel before Israel occupied the West Bank and will hate Israel afterwards. Israel's presence in the West Bank is irrelevant to the Palestinian's hatred. Twenty-five years or so ago I heard an Arab Christian tell how back in 1948 (or maybe even earlier) they welcomed returning Jews into their homes -- and the next thing they knew was that they (the Christian Arabs) had been evicted from their homes. Perce |
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What's really happening in Gaza
LOSERS ARE LOSING AND WINNERS ARE WINNING. THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE.
OR THEY COULD MAKE UP AND LIVE IN PEACE BUT LOSERS SELDOM PICK THE RIGHT PATH. THAT'S HOW THEY BECOME LOSERS. |
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What's really happening in Gaza
Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
On 01/13/09 03:40 pm HeyBub wrote: The Palestinians hated Israel before Israel occupied the West Bank and will hate Israel afterwards. Israel's presence in the West Bank is irrelevant to the Palestinian's hatred. Twenty-five years or so ago I heard an Arab Christian tell how back in 1948 (or maybe even earlier) they welcomed returning Jews into their homes -- and the next thing they knew was that they (the Christian Arabs) had been evicted from their homes. It could have happened, but I bet Israel (or somebody) compensated the homeowners. Israel has a VERY complicated set of laws - it tries to administer three sets of laws and regulations simultaneously: Turkish law, British Mandatory law, and Israeli law, itself a mixture of English Common Law and Halacha. One of the confusing parts is what to do with property abandoned by Muslims who fled the area in 1948 (and 1967). Best I know, this abandoned land is held in trust by the government and rented to the current occupants - the proviso being that the land must be surrendered should the original owners return. |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Jan 13, 3:40*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
Jay Chan wrote: Israel once occupied the West Bank and Gaza (and Sinai). All have been given up - Sinai to the Egyptians and the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians (except for less than 1% of the West Bank still under negotiation). There are NO Israeli settlements in Gaza. When Hamas refers to the "Zionist occupation" it means the Jewish state in the Middle East. To Hamas, Israel is unlawfully occupying Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifi, Askelon, and everything in between. Not really. *There are many many Israel settlements inside West Bank. And there are many many roads cutting through West Bank to link from Israel to those settlements. *Palestinians cannot get through those roads. *If a road cut through a Palestinians property and cut it in half, of course he gets no compensation, and he cannot reach the other side of his own property without going many miles away and go through many check points. *For practical purpose, he has lost half of his property. *West Bank is effectively being cut into many small pieces of little cages where people cannot move from one area inside West Bank to another area inside West Bank. *If they want to go through, they will have to get approval from Israel and have to wait in the long line in the check points. *Yes, they are free inside the little piece of 10 square miles or so of land around their village -- effectively living in a cage -- and is a very tiny cage. Right. Like I said: Israel continues to "occupy" less than 1% of the "West Bank." Not sure where you get that info. But when you search the net, you can easily see that the area in West Bank that Israel controls and administrates are 60% -- this includes settlements and Israel military control areas that are off limit to people. Well, the settlements themselves may be small if we only count the houses and the surrounding area. But when you include the roads that link to each settlements and criss cross the entire West Bank, the areas related to settlements are big. You can easily see in various West Bank map that are readily available in the net. This goes a long way explaining the reason why years has passed and Palestinians still continuously hate Israel. *Please note that this situation in West Bank is not a secret. *The info is readily available in the net. Jimmy Carter has written a book about this situation. *Our "free press" choose not to mention this (or bury it inside the back page), and mis-guide the public. *I guess that's why our "free press" was a part of getting us into that unnecessary Iraq War. The Palestinians hated Israel before Israel occupied the West Bank and will hate Israel afterwards. Israel's presence in the West Bank is irrelevant to the Palestinian's hatred. May be they hated Israel peple before or after. This doesn't matter. What matters is that the ongoing hardship that Palestinians suffer from Israel keep the hatred alive. Time can wash away many bad feelings. But continuous suffering doesn't allow time to heal the wounds. There were israel settlements in Gaza not so long ago. *They were removed because those settlements didn't make much sense. Wrong. They were profitable to the settlers. The settlements were removed in an attempt by Israel to gain peace. They might or might not be profitable to the settlers themselves. But that cost Israel government a lot of money to protect those settlers because those settlers were not in areas that Israel had a free hand -- just too dangerous as comparing to West Bank. They were just wrongly placed. The saying "location, location, location" has a lot to do with removing those settlements. Settlements only make sense to be in open land where the natives are fewer than the settlers where the settlement can expand relatively easily. *Gaza is the opposite. *Gaza is densely populated, and there is no room for the settlements to expand into -- unless Gaza is de-populatd. Wrong again. There is much open, undeveloped land in Gaza. Gaza is about twice the size of the District of Columbia and about the same population density. I think you realize that District of Columbia is the metro area of Washington DC, and is not a rural area. You are talking about establishing a settlement in a city. This is like there is an empty lot in a city block, and someone decide to build a settlement in it with bar wire and everything and expect an outside force to protect them from unfriendly natives. That just doesn't make sense. Of course, Hama will say all kind of things about Israel. *Just like Israel say all kind of things about Hama. *First of all, they are no friends. *Secondly, this is probably something that can be bargained away -- like "I agree to recognize your rights to exist if you agree with our rights _and_ give us some of our land back". Oh Bother! Note that Israel is the ONLY entity in the region that has "given back" any land to anybody. They gave back to Egypt. But Palestinians get nothing -- not only nothing, actually getting less and less with the increasing number of settlements and roads in West Bank. Please note that UN had passed resolution to ask Israel to return back to pre-1967 border. *I doubt that Israel will give back all of those lands (because they have a better bargaining power now). *But they should give back some of the land back to Palestinians -- and that is where bargaining comes into picture. *Some of the chips will need to be traded. *If Israel refuses to talk to Hama, bargaining cannot take place, and we have a deadlock, and human suffering will continue. Unfortunately, there would not be peace either if Hama stopped terrorist activities. *What Gaza would have ended up like one of those tiny cages in West Bank. *The only difference is that it will become the largest cage among the many tiny cages: Trying to go from Gaza to West Bank would need to go through numerous check points, no over the land air traffic to avoid the check points, no marine traffic, no international airport, numerous border closure at any time, no way to earn a living to feed your family. You can imagine what would happen if you owned a business in Gaza and you wanted to sell some stuff to another country. *When you were ready to ship the products, the border was closed (or Israel didn't allow you to ship because you said something bad about them in the press) and you missed the deadline. *Now, you needed to pay penality, additional fee for extended credit to finance the inventory that get stuck at border, and your customer was not likely to order anything from you any more. *You lost your business, and your employees lost their jobs. *Your employees and you became restless. *And the deadly cycle began. For many, many years business and life flourished in Gaza (under Israeli occupation). Businesses, such as your example, traded freely; workers from Gaza went into Israel daily to their jobs. By every objective standard (income, education, life expectancy, health services, wages, standard of living, etc.) life for the residents of Gaze exceeded that of their counterparts in neighboring Arab countries. Then the extremists gained control of Gaza. If I remember correctly, most of the Palestinians income are coming from Palestinians who work in foreign countries and send money back to their family. Working as cheap labors in Israel also brings income. The thing is that Gaza and West Bank are tiny places; they cannot possibly be self-sufficient. *They must depend on trading with other people in order to grow their economy. *Having Israel controlling all the border crossings (even in a border with another Arabic country) is a bad situation for Palestinians because this gives Israel total controls over the economy growth of Palestinians. Uh, Jordan controls the border between the Palestinians and itself. Egypt likewise with Gaza. Therefore, we need a solution that Palestinians can at least live with. *Something that the Russian has proposed recently is a good start: *Both sides stop attacking each other and Israel remove the blockage on Gaza. Israel does NOT control the border between Gaza and Egypt. Israel DOES control the border between itself and Gaza. The Israeli's - for obvious reasons - don't want the Gaza people to run amok in their country. Evidently the Egyptians feel likewise.- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Israel has military exclusive zone all along the Jordan border in West Bank. You cannot go from here to there. Please check the maps in the net. Those maps are readily available. Israel can shut down the narrow border between Egypt and Gaza at any time. Egypt being a US ally and a very complying country will close the border as requested and has done that many times. That's why people in Egypt are very angry about their government. Of course, you cannot ship anything through sea or air either because of the blockage. All these on-going suffering in Gaza just because Israel doesn't want to talk to Hama and want to lock down Gaza. If Israel truely want to settle this issue, they should talk to Hama for one simple reason: They get the votes and are representing the Palestinians at least in Gaza (and will likely vote into office in West Bank if PLO allows voting to take place). If Israel wants to talk, obviously they should talk to someone who is representing the people that Israel want to talk to. What did that accomplish if Israel only wanted to talk to someone who only represented a small part of the people, but not most of the Palestinians? That won't accomplish anything other than serving as a delay tactic. Wasn't US talk to USSR in the peak of cold war? Of course we talk because that's how people solve problem. Jay Chan |
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What's really happening in Gaza
The facts are clear and fully verifiable, if one seeks them outside the
US mass media: 1.) At the start of 1948, 90% of Palestinian land belonged to the Palestinians. 2.) The zionists, having trained and armed the hagana, etc for many years, perpetrated mass murder and ethnic cleansing on the Palestinian land owners, initiating the Palestinian diaspora. 3.) From about 1949-1958, the Palestinians did nothing save try to exist where ever they could. That set the stage. The zionists have always controlled near all the involved resources. If you could randomly select and interview 100 Americans, 90+ would probably indicate that Palestinians are heavily armed and very violent. That is the work of the zionist propaganda. The average Palestinian would do well to acquire a pop-gun. The Hamas rockets are merely symbolic. The Palestinians tried passive resistance in 3.). It obviously didn't work. Hamas resists because "Israel" lacks 90% of legal (if there was any law) title to the land (and 100% of moral title). Since 1967, the zionists have placed (and rewarded) zionist settlers in proximity to the Palestinians, knowing that their armed status and preferred treatment would cause trouble. In that fashion they can always claim that the Palestinians are aggressors. The little towns, etc in range of the Hamas rockets don't need to be there save for the reason in the previous paragraph. Hamas has never presented a real threat to "Israel", and never will. It's basic human natu if one side has all the resources (weapons), they take what they want. All they have to do is drown the world with propaganda indicating that they are doing otherwise ("defending Israel"). I have nothing against jewish folks. David N. is a good example: he speaks well and honestly. Zionism is another matter. I don't see it as definitely Jewish in basic nature. I've come to see it as a form of death. Have you ever seen an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship? Equipped with fully automatic cannon, Hellfire missiles, etc etc? A very sophisticated WMD, about $1 million per unit (virtually free to "Israel"), designed to do nothing whatsoever except destroy human life. The zionists are in the 3rd week of ravishing Gaza. Perhaps 1000 Palestinians slaughtered. Several hundred women. Perhaps a 100 children. "They Are Using Incredibly Sophisticated US WMD's To Shoot (Human) Fish In A Barrel!" No civilized people would do this. I On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:44:22 -0800, David Nebenzahl wrote: After reading the stuff posted here about the war in Gaza, with the near-unanimous opinion that the Palestinians are getting what they deserve, I've got to say something to counteract this entirely *wrong* view. I'll refrain from calling those who post these opinions names. They can be forgiven because they are--we all are--victims of propaganda, of Israeli propaganda which is, for the most part, not challenged by our (writing from the U.S. here) miserable excuse for a "free press". (Things are a little different in, say, the UK: read the Guardian or the Telegraph for a much more diverse spectrum of views on this situation.) The fact is that in this situation, as in so many others, the Israelis are behaving somewhat like Nazis. I hasten to add that, as a Jew, I do not in any way equate the Israelis with those aforementioned vermin. But the parallels in their behavior are disturbing. What's being left out of any discussion of this situation is the extent of the oppression of the entire Palestinian population that is the driving force behind all of their violent actions (suicide bombings, rocket launchings). Even before this latest invasion, Gaza has been a gigantic prison for more than a million people. The Israelis, so far from having left the place as is widely stated, control every aspect of life in this miserable place. Nothing gets in or out without their approval. If you want to go out to visit someone, to buy something, for whatever reason, you have to negotiate an Israeli checkpoint. Which means you may or may not get in or out, and if you do, you may have to wait hours. Or days. I'll get to those Hamas rockets in a second. But to understand what's happening there, put yourself in that situation. Imagine you live here, let's say somewhere in Texas, and that your area is under occupation, let's say by Unitarians. (Your population is predominantly Christian.) Your region is surrounded on 3 sides by a fortress wall with guarded checkpoints; the 4th side is the sea. If you want to get in or out, you have to wait at a checkpoint where a Unitarian guard may or may not let you through; they will shower you with abuse, though, steal stuff from you, maybe even shoot you. You wouldn't get through even if your child was in critical need of medical attention which they could only get on the other side; sometimes they would die there. Unitarians will periodically demolish homes (occupied or vacant) in your territory (and this is during the time of a cease-fire). They'll uproot your olive orchards, kill your livestock. Every day you'll see them traveling on Unitarian-only roads, past their settlements which are watered with *your* water, living a life of relative affluence against your grinding poverty. I could go on, but you should get the picture. Don't take my word for it: here's a letter I got, written by a 26-year-old Israeli soldier, about his experiences in the Occupied Territories: On some days, of course, we enforced a full "closure", meaning that no Palestinians could pass at all. It didn't matter if you were a teacher or a student trying to get to the school right on the other side of the checkpoint. Nobody got through. Every day at lunch, we closed the checkpoint down until we were done. Queues would form, but we would pay them no mind. If a Palestinian got impatient and started approaching, we knew what to do: One of us would get up and point a rifle at him. He would quickly turn back. If not, we would make sure that he spent many good hours waiting at the checkpoint. Of course, if a settler came by the checkpoint--during lunch or at any other time--he'd just smile at us, wave hello, and walk by. These were the day-in, day-out realities of my time in the IDF. And there were, of course, examples of more extreme behavior. Like the day my unit set up a surprise checkpoint at the outskirts of a Palestinian village. A local farmer trying to pass through the area had raised a bit of a fuss. He wanted to transport some chickens, but a soldier refused him. Our commander decided to show the Palestinian who was boss. He lifted his rifle, aimed, and shot one of the chickens. End of argument. Sure, a dead chicken might seem like small potatoes, but multiply that small humiliation by a thousand and you begin to see how nobody--no human being--who lives under such conditions *constantly* would put up with it for long. So what about those Hamas rockets? It's true that Hamas has launched, and continues to launch, rockets into Israel. But to listen to the U.S. media, you would think that this is simply being done because they're evil, with no provocation. I refer you to the above for why they're doing it. This is not to say that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself: it does. But this situation is so disproportionate that it staggers the mind. Take those Palestinian rockets: how many have they killed? Turns out that over the last 8 years, about 20 Israelis have been killed by them. 20. How many has Israel killed in this latest carnage? The toll stands at about 900 today; almost a third of them (275) children. And those rockets? Anyone know how pathetically, almost comically inaccurate and crude those Qassam rockets are? They're homemade, for chrissakes. No accuracy at all. More likely to land in an empty field than anywhere else. While some of the rockets are better ones smuggled in from outside, the majority are these grenades-in-tin-cans. Sorry, Israel is the aggressor here, the one with the upper hand militarily. (Even so, it's likely they'll lose this war, just as they lost the 2006 Lebanon war, although not until much death and destruction.) So where will Obama come down on this? My guess is that he'll simply continue the decades-old policy of nearly unconditional support for Israel, no matter what. Let me close with a caustic look at this situation from an Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery (http://counterpunch.org/avnery01122009.html for full article): Nearly seventy ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands. Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz. This is the description that would now appear in the history books – if the Germans had won the war. Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured. |
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What's really happening in Gaza
"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message s.com... As yourself if it were your kid... http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/artic...oomberg-on-cnn |
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What's really happening in Gaza
"Dimitrios Paskoudniakis" wrote in message ... "David Nebenzahl" wrote in message s.com... As yourself if it were your kid... http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/artic...oomberg-on-cnn This is why the fighting is going on and will continue till they denounce their desire to kill all the Jews: http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/artic...oomberg-on-cnn |
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What's really happening in Gaza
"Sanity" wrote in message news "Dimitrios Paskoudniakis" wrote in message ... "David Nebenzahl" wrote in message s.com... As yourself if it were your kid... http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/artic...oomberg-on-cnn This is why the fighting is going on and will continue till they denounce their desire to kill all the Jews: http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/artic...oomberg-on-cnn Why did you duplicate my post? |
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What's really happening in Gaza
op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense..
---------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.minibite.com/america/malone.htm |
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What's really happening in Gaza
wrote in message ... op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense.. Any hamas lovers or sympathizers are in for a rude awakening if one of them tries to hurt anyone in my family. I would bring every resource that I have, be it weapons, family, friends, etal to destroy them. When you screw with the bull, you get the horns. |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:59:22 -0500, "Sanity"
wrote: wrote in message ... op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense.. Any hamas lovers or sympathizers are in for a rude awakening if one of them tries to hurt anyone in my family. I would bring every resource that I have, be it weapons, family, friends, etal to destroy them. When you screw with the bull, you get the horns. Howdy, I would like to understand something more of your view... You say that you would bring various resources to bear to "destroy them" were any to hurt your family. But could you define what you mean by "them?" Do you mean, the attackers? Their families? People who live in their neighborhood? Who would you hope to hold accountable? Sincere thanks, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." |
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What's really happening in Gaza
"Kenneth" wrote in message ... On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:59:22 -0500, "Sanity" wrote: wrote in message ... op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense.. Any hamas lovers or sympathizers are in for a rude awakening if one of them tries to hurt anyone in my family. I would bring every resource that I have, be it weapons, family, friends, etal to destroy them. When you screw with the bull, you get the horns. Howdy, I would like to understand something more of your view... You say that you would bring various resources to bear to "destroy them" were any to hurt your family. But could you define what you mean by "them?" Do you mean, the attackers? Their families? People who live in their neighborhood? Who would you hope to hold accountable? Sincere thanks, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. The U.S. and the allies did this in world war 2. They bombed the hell out of German cities. Why was it all right for them? The U.S. dropped to A-Bombs on Japan to end a war. Why was it all right for them? What did we do in Iraq? In war, people get hurt. It seems everyone in the world has a right to defend themselves in any manner except for Israel. |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:44:26 -0500, "Sanity"
wrote: "Kenneth" wrote in message .. . On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:59:22 -0500, "Sanity" wrote: wrote in message ... op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense.. Any hamas lovers or sympathizers are in for a rude awakening if one of them tries to hurt anyone in my family. I would bring every resource that I have, be it weapons, family, friends, etal to destroy them. When you screw with the bull, you get the horns. Howdy, I would like to understand something more of your view... You say that you would bring various resources to bear to "destroy them" were any to hurt your family. But could you define what you mean by "them?" Do you mean, the attackers? Their families? People who live in their neighborhood? Who would you hope to hold accountable? Sincere thanks, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. The U.S. and the allies did this in world war 2. They bombed the hell out of German cities. Why was it all right for them? The U.S. dropped to A-Bombs on Japan to end a war. Why was it all right for them? What did we do in Iraq? In war, people get hurt. It seems everyone in the world has a right to defend themselves in any manner except for Israel. Hi again, Thanks for your interesting comments, but... Would you care to answer the question I asked? I would like to understand who it is you would hope to hold accountable in the example you offered. (I'll also add that the examples you offer of retaliation that were "all right" are truly fascinating. Each of those examples has become the source of very vigorous debate by scholars, historians, clergy, and ethicists.) All the best, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On 1/17/2009 11:44 AM Sanity spake thus:
How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. The U.S. and the allies did this in world war 2. They bombed the hell out of German cities. Why was it all right for them? The U.S. dropped to A-Bombs on Japan to end a war. Why was it all right for them? What did we do in Iraq? In war, people get hurt. It seems everyone in the world has a right to defend themselves in any manner except for Israel. In my view, and in that of a hell of a lot of other folks, those things were all outrages, crimes against humanity: the firebombings of Dresden and Tokyo, and the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I'm no fan of the Nazis, but firebombing Dresden, a largely non-military target, was an evil, criminal act. -- In order to embark on a new course, the only one that will solve the problem: negotiations and peace with the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians. And: with Hamas and Hizbullah. Because it's only with enemies that one makes peace. - Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. (http://counterpunch.org/avnery08032006.html) |
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What's really happening in Gaza
"Kenneth" wrote in message ... On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:44:26 -0500, "Sanity" wrote: "Kenneth" wrote in message . .. On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:59:22 -0500, "Sanity" wrote: wrote in message ... op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense.. Any hamas lovers or sympathizers are in for a rude awakening if one of them tries to hurt anyone in my family. I would bring every resource that I have, be it weapons, family, friends, etal to destroy them. When you screw with the bull, you get the horns. Howdy, I would like to understand something more of your view... You say that you would bring various resources to bear to "destroy them" were any to hurt your family. But could you define what you mean by "them?" Do you mean, the attackers? Their families? People who live in their neighborhood? Who would you hope to hold accountable? Sincere thanks, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. The U.S. and the allies did this in world war 2. They bombed the hell out of German cities. Why was it all right for them? The U.S. dropped to A-Bombs on Japan to end a war. Why was it all right for them? What did we do in Iraq? In war, people get hurt. It seems everyone in the world has a right to defend themselves in any manner except for Israel. Hi again, Thanks for your interesting comments, but... Would you care to answer the question I asked? I would like to understand who it is you would hope to hold accountable in the example you offered. (I'll also add that the examples you offer of retaliation that were "all right" are truly fascinating. Each of those examples has become the source of very vigorous debate by scholars, historians, clergy, and ethicists.) All the best, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." "Them" is the person or persons trying to attack and harm my family AND anyone that gets in the way of me getting to "them". |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:16:05 -0500, "Sanity"
wrote: "Kenneth" wrote in message .. . On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:44:26 -0500, "Sanity" wrote: "Kenneth" wrote in message ... On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:59:22 -0500, "Sanity" wrote: wrote in message ... op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense.. Any hamas lovers or sympathizers are in for a rude awakening if one of them tries to hurt anyone in my family. I would bring every resource that I have, be it weapons, family, friends, etal to destroy them. When you screw with the bull, you get the horns. Howdy, I would like to understand something more of your view... You say that you would bring various resources to bear to "destroy them" were any to hurt your family. But could you define what you mean by "them?" Do you mean, the attackers? Their families? People who live in their neighborhood? Who would you hope to hold accountable? Sincere thanks, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. The U.S. and the allies did this in world war 2. They bombed the hell out of German cities. Why was it all right for them? The U.S. dropped to A-Bombs on Japan to end a war. Why was it all right for them? What did we do in Iraq? In war, people get hurt. It seems everyone in the world has a right to defend themselves in any manner except for Israel. Hi again, Thanks for your interesting comments, but... Would you care to answer the question I asked? I would like to understand who it is you would hope to hold accountable in the example you offered. (I'll also add that the examples you offer of retaliation that were "all right" are truly fascinating. Each of those examples has become the source of very vigorous debate by scholars, historians, clergy, and ethicists.) All the best, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." "Them" is the person or persons trying to attack and harm my family AND anyone that gets in the way of me getting to "them". Hi again, Thanks. -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." |
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What's really happening in Gaza
"Sanity" wrote in
: wrote in message ... op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense.. Any hamas lovers or sympathizers are in for a rude awakening if one of them tries to hurt anyone in my family. I would bring every resource that I have, be it weapons, family, friends, etal to destroy them. When you screw with the bull, you get the horns. what we have in Gaza is repeated acts of war By Hamas and then ceasefire when Hamas gets their ass kicked,then Hamas rearms and does it all over again. Until Hamas is DEFEATED;surrender or wiped out,there will be no peace;as they don't want peace,they want Israel eliminated. I'm amazed that this hasn't been learned yet. -- Jim Yanik jyanik at kua.net |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Jan 17, 3:15*pm, David Nebenzahl wrote:
On 1/17/2009 11:44 AM Sanity spake thus: How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. The U.S. and the allies did this in world war 2. They bombed the hell out of German cities. Why was it all right for them? The U.S. dropped to A-Bombs on Japan to end a war. Why was it all right for them? What did we do in Iraq? In war, people get hurt. It seems everyone in the world has a right to defend themselves in any manner except for Israel. In my view, and in that of a hell of a lot of other folks, those things were all outrages, crimes against humanity: the firebombings of Dresden and Tokyo, and the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I'm no fan of the Nazis, but firebombing Dresden, a largely non-military target, was an evil, criminal act. We'll make sure not to call you or the scholars, historians, clergy, and ethicists mentioned by the other guy next time the world is at war and our country is at stake. We'll make sure to leave war to guys like Patton. -- In order to embark on a new course, the only one that will solve the problem: negotiations and peace with the Palestinians, the Lebanese, the Syrians. And: with Hamas and Hizbullah. Because it's only with enemies that one makes peace. - Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. (http://counterpunch.org/avnery08032006.html) |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:16:05 -0500, "Sanity"
wrote: "Kenneth" wrote in message .. . On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:44:26 -0500, "Sanity" wrote: "Kenneth" wrote in message ... On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:59:22 -0500, "Sanity" wrote: wrote in message ... op is crazy.. everyone has a right to self defense.. Any hamas lovers or sympathizers are in for a rude awakening if one of them tries to hurt anyone in my family. I would bring every resource that I have, be it weapons, family, friends, etal to destroy them. When you screw with the bull, you get the horns. Howdy, I would like to understand something more of your view... You say that you would bring various resources to bear to "destroy them" were any to hurt your family. But could you define what you mean by "them?" Do you mean, the attackers? Their families? People who live in their neighborhood? Who would you hope to hold accountable? Sincere thanks, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. The U.S. and the allies did this in world war 2. They bombed the hell out of German cities. Why was it all right for them? The U.S. dropped to A-Bombs on Japan to end a war. Why was it all right for them? What did we do in Iraq? In war, people get hurt. It seems everyone in the world has a right to defend themselves in any manner except for Israel. Hi again, Thanks for your interesting comments, but... Would you care to answer the question I asked? I would like to understand who it is you would hope to hold accountable in the example you offered. (I'll also add that the examples you offer of retaliation that were "all right" are truly fascinating. Each of those examples has become the source of very vigorous debate by scholars, historians, clergy, and ethicists.) All the best, -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." "Them" is the person or persons trying to attack and harm my family AND anyone that gets in the way of me getting to "them". Hi again, I have continued to think about your comment above, and would like to say something more about it. You offered those thoughts originally as a parallel to the situation of the people of Israel. I wonder if you can see that the radical representatives of the Palestinians use precisely the same justification for their violence. When attitudes such as yours are held by even a modest minority of a population, they can be fanned by those who benefit from such conflict, to create situations of endless warfare..., -- Kenneth If you email... Please remove the "SPAMLESS." |
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What's really happening in Gaza
On Jan 18, 9:39*am, nick hull wrote:
In article , *"Sanity" wrote: How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. Try a bounty on the actual attackers. *Israel is probably spending more than $1M for each actual fighter killed; how many poor people could resist a $1M bounty? Apparently plenty. The USA has put up bounties of tens of millions of dollars for many terrorists, including Bin Laden. How successful has that been? Answer: not very, only a few have actually been turned in. You think the Palestinians are going to trust Israel to pay a bounty? And if they did, how long would they, their families and relatives live? Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/ |
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What's really happening in Gaza
In article ,
"Sanity" wrote: How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. Try a bounty on the actual attackers. Israel is probably spending more than $1M for each actual fighter killed; how many poor people could resist a $1M bounty? Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/ |
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What's really happening in Gaza
nick hull wrote in
: In article , "Sanity" wrote: How do you destroy the attackers when they fight and hide among civilians? You try and pick the attackers off but sometimes innocents get hurt. Try a bounty on the actual attackers. Israel is probably spending more than $1M for each actual fighter killed; how many poor people could resist a $1M bounty? Free men own guns - www(dot)geocities(dot)com/CapitolHill/5357/ those folks would never live to collect the bounty(they're pretty good at killing each other..),and most of them support Hamas anyways. Many of them let Hamas build weapons bunkers or tunnels under their homes. IMO,the Gaza "civilians" elected Hamas,so this is the consequence of that act. -- Jim Yanik jyanik at kua.net |
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