Comments on: Gaza Update: Olmert “No Humanitarian Crisis”

By: mui1

mui1 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:24:19 +0000

Naomi Klein has an interesting take on the rise of the security industry and Israeli peace-seekers losing traction. Shock doctrine.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:52:51 +0000

Actually the Israelis bulldozed most of their settlements rather than turn them over to Palestinians for their use. It is indicative of the great poverty that Israel has created in Gaza that Palestinians found it worth their while to loot the rubble.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:49:22 +0000

So yes, the people in Gaza are suffering. We already know that. But I have presented you with very strong evidence that their suffering is part of a deliberate ploy on the part of Islamic Jihad and Hamas. That key fact ought to have weight in all discussions about this issue.

Small inaccurate rockets fired sporadically into Israel versus an economic blockade of 1.5 million. I would question on whose part the ploy is deliberate. You dismiss so easily and so lightly these 1.5 million people. Yes, they suffer but then you pass on to your weak argument that somehow that suffering is not Israel’s fault although it is the one actually doing the things causing the suffering but it is really somebody else’s fault. Basically the Palestinians are doing it to themselves.

Yes, Israel closed a crossing point in response to a couple of rockets. So in response to a specific incident it engaged in collective punishment, a war crime. And it should be noted that one of Hamas’ demands was precisely about the crossings, that throughout the Israelis have kept most of them closed. You persist in this fiction that Israel is this peace loving country that somehow has been forced to engage for 40 years in a brutal occupation and had to, despite all their efforts, settle hundreds of thousands of Israelis on Palestinian land, that they have been left with no other option but to starve Palestinians in the Territories, to engage in reprisals against them, to block any effort at development in the Territories.

We are told now and then as if it meant something that in the last few days that Israel let in a 100 trucks of supplies. But these trucks contain what Israel says they can contain. And think about it. Could you keep a city the size of Philadelphia (1.5 million) supplied on a 100 trucks a day?

By: OmerPahpa

OmerPahpa — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:48:31 +0000

The so called Palestinians could have a lovely country with a wonderful beachfront resort. The International tourists would flock to the area. Israel left Gaza in the hands of Hamas and rather than produce fruits and vegetables in the Green Houses that were left, they looted and destroyed them. Lobbing shells into someone’s neighborhood provoked a response that Gazans deserved. No one is “occupied” or or refugees unless by choice. Choose your battles. Hatred is really on the Arab side. Israel, nor anyone else, has called for the destruction of the Arab nations. The anti-Semitic Arabs feel that it is more important to hate than to take care of their populations. What a bunch of misguided rhetoric by a group of miscreants. Omer.

By: selise

selise — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:43:45 +0000

Madoff Ponzi and the SEC

By: mui1

mui1 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:38:05 +0000

Yikes, I am so out of it. What’s the hearing?

By: selise

selise — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:35:54 +0000

howdy mui1! listening to cspan now…. first hearing of the new year.

By: mui1

mui1 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:33:23 +0000

It would be more helpful if you were specific and spelled out who “they” is. Name names. Don’t just say Hamas, or the Palestinians, or “leaders”. That’s tired. as tired as the War on Terra. Describe “the enemy.” Because the term “enemy” is often a nebulous term often used by dictators and political wingnuts to advance their own domestic agenda or personal cause. Sort of like Nixon was said to believe the peace movement was advanced by “commies” i.e “the enemy”, or segregationists would be whipped up into a violent frenzy by being made to believe that the civil rights movement was led by “commies,” i.e. “the enemy.” Tells us what you think the exact agenda of the Palestinian “leaders” was, if it wasn’t refusing to be beggared even further for a few scraps off the big man’s table.
BTW. In fem theory, “the other” is a term used to describe someone who’s constantly objectified, and spoken of as “not like us.”

By: selise

selise — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:30:20 +0000

i have personally seen an inhumane level of oppression that has nothing to do with israeli’s security - this was confirmed to me by israelis (some with shame and some with pride).

in no way do i support the violent measures being taken by individual israeli or palestinians. but the crimes are not the same - either qualitatively or quantitatively.

and yes, my pov and concern is with the people there - ALL the people: both israelis and palestinians.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:28:04 +0000

Just wandered by for a quick check in. It was you who brought up the canard that Palestinians sold their land to Jewish settlers. And while both sides have families who have suffered losses you overlook the fact that while a fairly small number of Israelis have been killed thousands of Palestinians have been killed. So many more Palestinian families have suffered loss. You also overlook that while Israelis are pretty much free to pursue their lives. Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank are basically treated as prisoners. In Gaza, they are half starved and in the West Bank they continue to see their land and water disappear into Israeli settlements or behind Israel’s Fence of Separation.