Last week I noted in a post that according to “a report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council” the “so-called Gaza buffer zone imposed by Israel” – essentially anything close to 300 meters from the northern fence area – is like no man’s land.
In 2010, 40 boys and 4 girls were allegedly injured by Israeli fire in or near the buffer zone. Of those, 26 boys, some as young as 13, were shot while collecting gravel within 800 metres of the fence. In cases where sworn affidavits were taken, 19 children were shot in the leg, 2 in the arm and 1 child was shot in the head.
A much newer report from the spokesperson of the Higher Committee for Medical and Emergency Services In Gaza, now says that “in 2011, Israeli soldiers killed 19 children, and injured more than 200, in Air strikes and bombardment targeting the Gaza Strip.” Some details:
Abu Salmiyya added that the youngest of the slain children were identified as Malak Shaath, 2, and Islam Qreiqe’, 3, adding that most of the slain children faced horrific deaths as Israeli military shells mutilated their bodies.
He further stated that more than one-third of the wounded Palestinians in 2011 are children, adding that Yousef Bahjat Az-Za’lan, 10, is still in the intensive care unit after a shell fired by the Israeli army on Thursday killed his father, Bahjat, 42, and his brother Ramadan, 12 years old; at least 17 residents were wounded in the shelling, seven of them were children.
Abu Salmiyya accused the Israeli Army of deliberately targeting the civilians during the illegal and random bombardment of civilian areas in the Gaza Strip, especially during late night hours and at dawn.
He added that the repeated offensives against the Gaza Strip are impacting the psychological conditions of the children in Gaza, and called on different international humanitarian groups to ensure the protection of the Palestinian children and civilians in the coastal region in particular, and in Palestine in general.
This is not just another brutal regime America supports. This is the preeminent American ally. And this is only one aspect of a much larger story, of course; as this WAFA report explains, “About half of the Palestinian households were directly exposed to violence by occupation forces and settlers before July 2010, the highest in Gaza Strip, 49.1% compared to 47.8% in the West Bank.” This is the status quo Republican candidates last week squabbled to praise higher and louder than each of their counterparts. These are the policies of the highest priority judging by U.S. aid (over $16 billion dollars since 2007, if we include their allotted aid for 2012). When it comes to the various dictatorships the U.S. government avidly supports, political elites at least some of the time pay gentle lip service to an improved future: “We’re working with the Bahraini government on issues of democracy and human rights” and so on. They’re lies, but at least its acknowledged these places are hell holes. In contrast, Israel is a haven of democracy and human rights, a lone advocate of these principals in a sea of tyranny and extremism.
Ron Paul (R-TX) was excluded last week from making a speech in front of the Republican Jewish Coalition, as every other candidate for president did. The reason, the Coalition explained, was that Paul has “misguided and extreme views,” regarding Israel-Palestine. Unwavering support for a government which commits, according to findings from U.N. Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices just last month, “systematic human rights violations against the Palestinian people, including ‘countless acts constituting war crimes and State terrorism‘” is mainstream, fair-minded diplomacy. Advocating we pull that support is “extreme” and “misguided.”
You got this one wrong. When Israeli bombs kill innocent men, women, and children that is Israel exercising its right to self defense. This especially true when the only victims are Palistinian untermenschen. When Palistinian bombs kill innocent men, women, and children, especially when those innocent men, women and children are Israeli, that is terrorism. Further, if Palistinians offer any form of resistance to the predations of the IDF that is also terrorism. So if a Palistinian throws rocks at soldiers who are about to destroy his home, that is terrorism. If an Israeli soldier shoots and kills an unarmed six year old Palistinian child because he feels threatened that is self defense.
Ira, you probably should have added [SARCASM] [/SARCASM] tags for those irony-challenged folks who are sure to misinterpret your post.
Gee! Sounds like the defense American cops use whenever they abuse the citizenry. And to think it's only going to get worse.
The israelis are a great and moral country just like the great usa.you only target israel and usa not the arab muslim terrorists who put their chidren near rocket launchers.you dont focus on other countries because you would be executed.if the usa and israel are so bad move to a muslim country.the muslim countries like palistinian authority,pakistan ,egypt get more aid than israel but of course you dont publicize that
Untermenschen – a term that became infamous as Nazi racial ideology to describe "inferior people."
Hey Epstein? Are you a Nazi? Israel likes to kill young American women. See Rachel Corrie's murder at the hands of IDF. Turkish/American flotilla activists. See Furkan Dogan, shot in the head four times in international waters by IDF pirates. See multiple wars of naked aggression wrought on Lebanon by IDF. See crimes against humanity wrought on Gaza by IDF. Think white phosphorus munitions. Well and cluster bombs and such.
Untermenschen? Damn poor choice of words home-boy.
And yet that's exactly how Palestinians, or anyone not so "special", are treated. It was, of course, said in sarcasm.
There are lots of ways in which the current Israeli policies follow Nazi German policies. Isn't Gaza the world's largest concentration camp? It's sad how the victim became the oppressor. But I guess many religions promote superiority of one ethnic group over another. Grow up and become an atheist anarchist!
Hi Rex:”Grow up and become an atheist anarchist!” Really? Piss off!
you need to settle down there skulz…probably the effect of warm flat english beer doin that to ya!
Um.. skuls dude – – you might want to check your righteousness googles. That was indeed very bitter irony that you are reacting to. If I take Epstein's point properly, it is that anyone who resists IDF predations is reactively labeled a "terrorist" via the apparently Nazi-esque demented mindset demonstrated by the IDF on a daily basis. And he did say it is "especially true" not "exclusively true" regarding Palestinians.
@Gary Israel and the US may be great and moral in your imagination only. Open your eyes and see what is going on in the world. The Palestinian kid near the rocket launcher is a product of your great and moral countries mistreatment of these people. Palestinians would be living normal lives if it was not for the East European who drove them away. The occupation is not moral, nor is the siege of Gaza or the illegal settlement policy moral and it certainly isn’t great to kill stone growing teens with high tech weapons.
People should be able to recognize sarcasm in this day of age :o)
Sarcasm is greatly underappreciated as an art form.
There are not two sides to the Israeli-Palestinian debate unless one considers racism, disproportionate violence and planned genocide as practiced by Israel to be worthy of consideration. I deeply resent America's kowtowing to those bastards. I will not vote for any candidate representing continuing aid to Israel.
Then I guess you won't be voting at all Richard, since all the candidates are bought and controlled by AIPAC.
Well then, that will be my vote, Pat. Kind of like saying, "If the only thing on the table, is a plate of dogcrap sandwiches, I'm going on a diet – starting right now!"
I no longer vote at the federal level, as I consider the federal govt. illegitimate. Even a 3rd-party vote puts one's stamp of approval on the regime. Better to boycott the whole corrupt system until it collapses.
It was Israel and the Jewish people who were attacked in the past and threatened with annihilation today. We reject the savage, Islamic propaganda – which is stirred up by their Leftist shill worldwide.
The news is awash with Islamist atrocities the world over: no day passes without bloodshed committed by the radical Muslims.
Islam is a pure, totalitarian fascist ideology encompassing stoning, genital mutilating, honor killing and the list is endless.
Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia… those are the true satanic places:
Israel is a peaceful oasis by comparison.
Earlier this year, I spent a little more than two weeks in a country that is about 99% muslim. Not once did anyone try to stone me, kill me, or mutilate my genitals. I was actually treated with courtesy and respect. What was I doing wrong?
Even the Nazis tried to cover their crimes.
Hamas celebrates 24th anniversary, brags it has killed 1365 Israelis.
So we see the wacko's on here support these Arab murderers.
Hamas also released some statistics for the occasion:
1365 Israelis killed
6411 Israelis wounded
1117 terror attacks
87 suicide bomb missions
11,093 rockets and mortars shot to Israel