Then As Now
Can we please just drop the pretenses and officially designate Israel a terrorist state and take appropriate military action?
Suppose aid convoys from the UN acted in concert with another nation to bring desperately-needed relief supplies into Israel. Then that nation, seemingly forgetting having just coordinated with the United Nations, fires tank shells at a supply truck, killing a UN aid worker, injuring two others and continues firing mortar shells deep into Tel Aviv. They kill at least 765 Israelis, 220 of whom being children.
How would we as a planet react?
Well, we'd all have post traumatic stress disorder flashbacks of a Holocaust that transpired before any of us were born, hoarsely scream "Terrorism!" and call upon all nations and the UN to impose economic sanctions and maybe even launching nukes on the attacking country and would likely get it.
Well, it's a different story when the tables are turned and Israel murders and wounds aid workers without apology after promising them safe passage and curtly promising to "investigate the incident." It's a different story when the 765 dead are Palestinians and when the 220 dead children are Palestinian. Who cares if nearly fifty women and children were killed when three schools were bombed in one day (43 perished in one mortar attack on one school)? It's enough for Israel to claim that there was Hamas activity somewhere in the area.
And through all this, all we're hearing from Israel and its endless apologists is how they're the victims in all this. 11 Israelis have died from Hamas bombs in the 12 days of these newest hostilities. That's less than one a day. Palestine, particularly in the Gaza strip, has lost an average of 63.75 lives per day, not including injuries and maimings.
But who cares? As long as they're not Israelis, all's fair in love and war.
The firing on civilians trying to flee the carnage and getting murdered indiscriminately is very reminiscent of the 34 day-old hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon in July-August of 2006. Israel, after declaring martial law in southern Lebanon, announced that anyone left behind would be considered a terrorist. After demanding that the city's residents leave, the IDF then strafed minivans and even clearly-marked Red Cross ambulances, killing fleeing civilians within. Then, as now, they killed over 40 women and children in one mortar attack by leveling a building. Approximately 165 more Palestinians than Lebanese have been killed in just over a third of the time. Then as now, Human Rights Watch gave us some pretty grim figures and the casualties were occurring so fast that the HRW's figures were already grossly outdated by press time.
Then, as now, Jewish casualties were minimal. In fact, the slaughter in Lebanon started because two Israeli soldiers were captured. These days, 11 Israelis are dead from Hamas mortars and missiles, most of them military. 765 Palestinians dead, over half being civilians, 220 or more being children.
You do the fucking math.
Israel says it's doing its utmost to avoid hitting civilians. I'd say they're failing miserably and the murder of the UN aid worker seems synecdochal of that, a wanton terrorism that's rooted not so much in incompetence as it is pure sociopathic bloodlust.
Qualities that we've seen in terrorist organizations such as al Qaida. Yet Bush is blaming Hamas. Obama, who will surely prove to be yet another AIPAC puppet and completely worthless for Palestine's purposes, has echoed the worst foreign policy president in the history of latter day geopolitics.
I'm at a loss to understand the longest alliance that Israel has enjoyed since establishing independence 61 years ago. It's not as if they hold the note such as China. In fact, we're subsidizing Israel's terrorist activities to the tune of $3,000,000,000 annually. Obama, in fact, is talking about increasing their aid by $30,000,000,000. Somewhere in the shadows of the Senate, Joe Lieberman is grumbling that Obama didn't call for $100,000,000,000.
Maybe it's post-Holocaust guilt, a guilt that we've yet to embrace when it comes to African American slavery and lynching, Native American ethnic cleansing and other terrorist atrocities of which Rev. Jeremiah Wright has forcefully reminded us. Crimes of which we truly are guilty.
What do we have to feel guilty about? Did we supply the Zyklon B that killed the Jews in the showers? Did we drive the trains to Auschwitz and other death camps? Did we bulldoze the emaciated corpses into mass graves? No. We liberated them and, unlike the Soviets when they got there first, we didn't withhold food and medicine from the survivors unless they swore fealty to our government.
So we have nothing to feel guilty about. The Holocaust was 65-70 years ago. They've had time to get over it. Any knowledge of it is academic, not even atavistic. Israel pulling the Holocaust card is somewhat akin to my having flashbacks about the Irish Potato Famine of 1845. Even John McCain pulling the POW card has some relevance since he was actually a POW.
Since we keep turning a blind eye to the Zionist bastards' war crimes (they're acting in defiance of the UN Security Council not to mention the fourth Geneva Convention), then how come we're still persecuting gays and lesbians and don't feel any guilt for Nazis targeting them even before the Jews?
posted by jurassicpork @ Thursday, January 08, 2009
18 comments
18 Comments:
All well and good. And true. And never gonna fly in this country because of our own history.
Treaties. (all broken and somehow that fact is very missing from our history books.)
Settlers. (a heroic word in this country)
I've long been a supporter of Israel, and even spent a summer working on a kibbutz, although I'm not Jewish. Sadly, though, I agree that they've become like the Nazis, in the same way that a beaten child often turns out to be a child-beater. Hamas is not a noble organization -- they're trying to make Gaza into a radical shaia-state -- but the slipshot rockets they launch in response to Israel's strangling blockade is not excuse for wholesale slaughter.
What do the Israelis think the endgame of this is going to be? They go in and kill enough people, blow enough shit up, and the Gazans are going to settle down? That hasn't worked too well in the past. The troubles keep returning. There are 1.4 million people in Gaza. After their water, sewage and electrical systems have been blown all to hell, are a million people going to survive by shitting in plastic bags and drinking ditch water in the dark? It was a crap place to begin with, and is turning it into crap squared going to bring peace?
Or will it bring epidemics of cholera or malnutrition or just people dying of any little ailment, as the Israelis dick around with relief supplies of medicine? Dp they think the Palestinians will walk across the Egyptian border en masse and ask for sanctuary? Yeah, that's what they need, a NEW refugee camp!
How many deaths will it take before the world -- especially the U.S. news media -- starts calling the Israelis "genociders"? I estimate at least a million. And I fear it will come to that. With an already squalid ghetto-by-the-Med now being reduced to more squalor, and a maniacal Hamas intent on getting martyrdom status for its people, there's going to be a lot of dead bodies on the pile before this is over. It cannot help but end badly -- like everything in the Bush Universe.
I can't see the US media ever calling it a genocide. Which is probably an anti-Semitic statement, these days, I guess.
Lessen the misery, and terrorism will have less allure. Sure, people will die, but guess what, you won't have to be genocidal.
Pow!
re: settlers
i was always amazed as a kid when high school teachers would wax all poetic about the way noble white folks moved into the "wilderness" and set up farms.
some of the most sophisticated agriculture ever practiced happened in native american cultures.
it took botanists and archeologists until nearly the end of the 20th century to understand things like how in the north eastern arizona forest there was an artificially high proportion of food and building material types of trees. it wasn't "wilderness" at all but a sophisticated orchard and builder's emporium which was managed in concert by a coalition of seven distinct nations.
i have a high level of discomfort working about isreal. i understand the history of its formation (they took a page from the old texas interlopers, flooded a zone with illegal immigrants, demanded a vote and installed themselves)
still, given our world's history, it should not be too much to ask that somewhere, someplace a haven for jews exists. a bolthole or panic room if you will.
this is certainly not the way for isreal to accomplish this goal. one of the first casualties of the ground action as reported by npr was an ambulance. a tank blasted an ambulance all to hell, killing one doctor, 3 emts, and several children who were being evacuated.
also, i am mighty tired of people reporting about the gaza war.
using tanks and jets against civilians is not a war, it's a slaughter.
Hear, hear!
Wow,you folks would have fit right in at an early 1930's Munich beer hall...you'd be cheering the little guy with the mustache.
Is this an anti-semite blog?
Seems to be.
JP,you've written the truth! The sycophants of rightwing Israeli policy have even accused Jimmy Carter and Amnesty International of being anti-Semitic....Frankly,the accusation(s) is getting old. This blind allegiance to Israel needs to stop. She's a meth addicted mistress that needs to have her 3-6 billion a year allowance cut off. And let's not forget,the American public (and this includes many among the left)when it really comes down to it doesn't give a fuck about the oppressed or poor people....Whether they reside in Palestine or New Orleans.
Which is why the left wing blogs aren't even talking about it. You don't believe me? Take a gander on the tonier side of the tracks.
Which is why the left wing blogs aren't even talking about it. You don't believe me? Take a gander on the tonier side of the tracks.
I know. Frankly,a lot of the blogs of the so called left come off as nothing more than an opportunistic attempt at lifestyle blogging--with politics used to snare your initial interest. Aimed at folks unhappy with the Bush Junta but deep down are Pat Boone fans(if ya get my drift).So,fuck, I understand your frustration(s) regarding blogging. So far,the three bloggers that I read often that have mentioned and elaborated on the elephant in the room is yourself,Larissa Alexdrovna(sic?),and The Dark Wraith.
JP excellent post. The Young Turks Youtube channel has some great video comments on this travesty as well. Also FYI there is a new article on the intertubes about the US trying to get a merchant ship to deliver a few hundred TONS of ammunition from Greece to Israel by the end of this month. WTF is going on in this world? What happened to morals, decency and common sense? Or am I just being a naive fool again? As I said before this world needs a good collective shock to the system to wake it the freak up. A nice meteor hit or massive earthquake in the right place would do nicely.
I’m with you JP. Israel is acting like a terrorist state. The MSM reports how Jewish children have to hide in shelters because of Hamas rockets. Then they show footage a little pot-hole and a bit of crumpled metal. Give me a break. Israel has no qualms about killing Palestinian children; perhaps they blame them for the holocaust too.
JP, your comment at 6:39 p.m. was a masterpiece of understatement compared to how you usually deal with dumb-ass dissent. Cheers to ya for explaining. I hate to agree with you almost all of the time, because you can be a disagreeable person, but then again, I wouldn't be reading your blog if I thought you were wrong. Life's too short to read bullshit.
You know why allegedly left-wing blogs won't touch this topic? You see it in microcosm on your own under-visited place. Israel's slaughter is something that splits the Left. And the lefty blogs are scared of dissent, much as the righty ones are. So they paper it over.
I don't hate Jews. I don't hate Israel. BUT I DO HATE WHAT ISRAEL IS DOING! And it will end badly.
Look at the Crusades. The Europeans arrived with superior fighting tactics against a disorganized Muslim population. They seized control and held territory for more than a century. But there was never a permanent settlement of hostilities.
The Muslims adapted their tactics and became more unified under Saladin. When the Europeans were weakend at home due to economic factors, plagues and a general weariness of fighting so far away, their control slipped. And little by little, they were driven out. The world did not end, but a lot of peoples' lives did. And the blowback from that eventually led to Turkish armies attacking as far as Vienna in the 1500s. What will be the longterm blowback from what's happening now?
Here's my predictions: U.S. military bases in Israel. America and Israel are already the same thing in the minds of much of the world. As the U.S. is driven out of Iraq during the coming Bush Depression, the militarists will want to have a foothold somewhere in the Middle East. You and I will live long enough to see permanent U.S. bases in Israel.
Turkey and Egypt will turn against Israel. They've been bought off by U.S. money and military goods, but that won't be affordable in the Bush Depression. The people of those countries are getting angrier about what Israel's doing, and eventually that public pressure will change the policy of those governments, especially in Turkey, which is a democracy, after all. Egypt helps keep a lid on the Palestinians for Israel. If the Gyppos start subtly aiding the Pals to act badly, Israel will feel more pain. And Turkey is a conduit for many things Israel needs to survive, including oil and natural gas. What's Israel going to do when its vital trade partner in the Muslim world grows cold?
It's not just the U.S. and Israel vs. a weakened Islamic world, either. Russia and China are going to use this as an opportuity to extend their influence in the Muslim world, and elsewhere thst they seek geopolitical advantage. Israel is "on the nose" as they say where I live, meaning "it stinks to high heaven." Let me emphasize, Zionists-in-blinders, I ay that not because of what Israel IS, but because of what it DOES. And when you're perceived to be the class bully, the other classmates turn on you.
A radio commentator I listen to brought up a wild card -- one nuclear missile, shot from Pakistan, not Iran, landing in Tel Aviv. Horrifying, but not out of the question. So does Israel obliterate Pakistan, and kill 50 million? Unleash a generalized spasm of atomic violence and blitz Damascus, Beirut, Amman, Cairo, and on and on? Kill 100 million people in one fell swoop? How does Israel NOT do that? Take an existential hit and not hit back exponentially? But if it does, how would the rest of the world not turn against the most massive murder-state that humanity has ever known?
There's a lot of possibilities, 99.9% of them ominous. The roller-coaster ride has started. The cars are hurtling down the tracks. But there's no telling whether there's a brick wall, or tracks just ending at a chasm into space, where this ride's going.
JP, if you want to know why I am not blogging about this, you should go back and read what little I have written in the past about how while anti-Israel sentiment doesn't equal anti-Semitism, to those of us who are Jewish, or were even raised marginally Jewish, as I was, it FEELS like it's anti-Semitism.
The reason I can't write about this is because while I am appalled at what Israel is doing, i.e. trying to prevent another Holocaust by behaving like Nazis, I simply cannot write what you do because you know as well as I do, especially after reading this comment thread, that the minute you open that door, some asshole is going to come in talking about Jewish bankers and other crap drawn right from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Turner Diaries.
I quite frankly hate that I have to keep silent about this lest I invite people for whom the anti-Semitism is right there under the surface (and I don't think you are one of them, for all that you occasionally say "Jews" instead of "Israelis", because the two are not interchangeable). But until I can read through a comment thread about this issue without someone lapsing into the kind of talk that DID lead to the Holocaust, my readers will have to come here.
The reason I can't write about this is because while I am appalled at what Israel is doing.
Jill, that's reminiscent of something that Supreme Court Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter said about the Holocaust. He said that he couldn't believe the Holocaust had happened. His friend was incredulous and asked him if he was serious. Frankfurter clarified, "It's not as if I don't believe the Holocaust happened. I just can't believe it."
Perhaps it's a self-defense mechanism. But that doesn't stop a lot of American Jews for condemning the Israeli government's antics. Not doing so is to not take the side of the Palestinians who are being slaughtered on a daily basis. And I just don't understand why some American Jews, especially, for whom Israel doesn't speak, continue to turn a blind eye to these war crimes.
You cannot achieve distance from this and that's OK. But we gentiles can and that's where I and so few others come in.
I notice that you completely ignored the stuff that comes out of the woodwork about Jewish bankers and the rest of the blood libel-related crap that comes out of anti-Semites every time you open the door.
I'm not saying that this justifies what Israel is doing, but it would be a whole lot easier for people like me to be more activist in holding Israel's feet to the fire if there weren't so many people around to remind us just what they actually think of Jews.
Perhaps if we didn't have the Aryan Nation and the Twelve Jewish Bankers Controlling the World folks to deal with, we'd be more likely to believe that a Jewish state is necessary, however silly and as we can see, futile, a notion that is. And I realize that the atrocities that Israel is committing make it hard for those people to think anything but badly of Jews. But there's a shitload of history here, and perhaps if we didn't see the Usual Suspects using Israel as an excuse to spout anti-Semitic bile, we would be out there more.
I ignore it for good reasons, Jill. Likewise, if I feared what people would say about me and my kind (liberals), I wouldn't be a blogger and people wouldn't know my thoughts and feelings on things.
I can't live in fear. I've done enough of that and I'm done.
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