Sunday, December 28, 2008

White House, US Media, Pick Sides In Israeli Terror Bombings

Three updates are at the bottom of the article.

By now, no one should be surprised that the White House is taking its usual, uneven and heavy-handed approach in reacting to the gargantuan Israeli shock-and-awe bombing of densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip.

Rather than using American influence – if there is any left in the region after eight years of Bush – to try brokering a renewed cease fire between Hamas and Israel, the administration is

Gordon Johndroe, a junior White House spokesman stuck doing holiday duty, says Hamas is responsible for the outbreak of violence, calling its rocket attacks “completely unacceptable. These people are nothing but thugs. Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas.”

By “thugs” Johndroe means the Gaza police chief and around 100 of his officers as well as the hundreds of men, women and children killed during repeated Israeli air strikes. If any Hamas extremists were the original target, they were snuffed out only by coincidence.

Condaleeza Rice is chiming in, declaring, “Hamas (is) responsible for breaking the cease-fire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza. The cease-fire should be restored immediately. The United States calls on all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza.”

A compliant American media is parroting Washington, solemnly ignoring the reality that while Hamas may have fired the first rockets into Israel, they were pushed into doing so by the Attica-like lockdown Israel slapped on Gaza months ago. Except on rare occasions, this keeps even food, fuel and medical supplies from reaching Palestinian civilians.

Balanced Israeli Reporting

Yet in surfing foreign media, I find sharp criticism of the Israeli government and a detailing of the suffering being inflicted. Even Haaretz in Jerusalem is carrying accounts with more balance than we’re seeing in the US coverage.

"A million and a half human beings, most of them downcast and desperate refugees, live in the conditions of a giant jail, fertile ground for another round of bloodletting. The fact that Hamas may have gone too far with its rockets is not the justification of the Israeli policy for the past few decades, for which it justly merits an Iraqi shoe to the face.

“Israel embarked yesterday on yet another unnecessary, ill-fated war. On July 16, 2006, four days after the start of the Second Lebanon War, (we) wrote: 'Every neighborhood has one, a loud-mouthed bully who shouldn't be provoked into anger ... Not that the bully's not right - someone did harm him. But the reaction, what a reaction!' Two and a half years later, these words repeat themselves, to our horror, with chilling precision. Within the span of a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, the IDF sowed death and destruction on a scale that the Qassam rockets never approached in all their years, and Operation 'Cast Lead' is only in its infancy."

In Britain, The Independent writes,

"These bombs were launched by Israel, as we had known they would be. The world watched the situation simmer then boil over, but did nothing. There are some who believe that hell is divided into different classes. The ordinary people of Gaza have long been caught in the tormenting underworld. Now, if the world does not heed what has happened here, our situation will worsen. We will be trapped in the first class of hell."

But words cannot convey the emotion of images and this report from al-Jazeera English shows what is happening in Gaza even as I write this piece.



Ehud Olmert, Israel's caretaker prime minister, is hinting at a wider war as he masses Israeli troops along its border with Gaza: "Israel wishes to make clear that it will continue to act against terrorist operations and missile fire from the strip which is intended to harm civilians."

The Arab League is convening an emergency meeting on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Egypt – until now, Cairo has been cooperating with Israel in sealing off Hamas – is opening its border with Gaza to allow injured people to be treated.

Both Sides Wrong

Before I am deluged with right wing and neo-con e-hate or am accused of being the Jewish Clarence Thomas – a horrid and undeserved curse – let me say unequivocally that both sides are wrong.

Hamas will not improve conditions for its poor, starving people by lobbing homemade rockets into Southern Israel willy-nilly. Nor will Israel find peace for its people by staging massive air strikes into populated areas; indeed, all this strategy will produce is moderates in the Arab world going from trying to find a liveable solution to backing its Palestinian brothers.

Oh, and by the way, somebody might want to remind Olmert – and Washington – what happened the last time Israel thought it could destroy a Hamas faction sitting on its northern border. That folly didn’t turn out so well, as I recall.
_________________________________________________________

UPDATE 1 (Dec 29 – 09.45EST) – This morning, Glenn Greenwald at Salon makes the same argument as I did yesterday about the Israeli attacks on Gaza. And he received many of the same type of hysterical comments that were posted here. Here is Greenwald’s response to his commentators:

“Many of our nation's most grizzled super-tough-guy cheerleader/warriors -- the ones who insatiably crave those sensations of vicarious power from play-acting the role of warriors from a nice, safe distance – are responding to my post yesterday by beating their chests, swaggering around and citing General Sherman to explain (in their best John Wayne voices) that war is hell. All good warriors (like them) know that anything and everything done to those who "start a war" is justified.

“Of course, if you ask Hamas why they blow themselves up in pizza parlors and shoot rockets at homes in Southern Israel as a response to the 40-year Israeli occupation and recent blockade, they'll tell you the same thing. If you ask Hezbollah why they kidnap Israeli soldiers and lob rockets into Israel in response to Israeli incursions into Lebanon, they'll make the same claim. If you ask Al Qaeda why they fly civilian-filled airplanes into civilian-filled buildings in response to American hegemony (and endless military actions) in their region of the world, they'll explain that jihad is hell and anything done to advance it is justified. You'll hear the same thing if you ask Russians why they destroyed Chechnyan residential blocks, or if you ask Serbian leaders about their genocide, or if you inquire with Rwandan tribal leaders about the brutality of their attacks, or if you ask virtually any other war criminal why they had to resort to such extremes.

“(One person who comments) points out that Professor Bernstein is either ignorant of or ‘pretending not to know the difference between jus ad bellum (justifiable war) and jus in bello (just action in war).’ That distinction, at least since Nuremberg, has ostensibly been central to Western justice. But just like Hamas and Al Qaeda, many blindly loyal cheerleaders for any American and/or Israeli war – as the last eight years conclusively demonstrated – simply don't believe in it. It's clarifying of them to say so this explicitly.”

UPDATE 2 (Dec 29, 14.55EST) – Both leading Israeli newspapers, The Jerusalem Post and, in particular, Haaretz, have criticised the government for overreacting, over-reaching and launching the attacks with no purpose or exit strategy. I’d say to people that jumped all over me – and, by extension, Greenwald – that if Israeli voices of reason are criticising their government then maybe Glenn and I are taking reasonable positions.

UPDATE 3 Dec 30, 16.43EST)– Writing in Haaretz yesterday, David Grossman calls on the Israeli government to announce a unilateral cease fire and negotiate to stop the current carnage.

"That is what Israel should do now. Is it possible, or are we too imprisoned in the familiar ceremony of war?" he wonders.

And another column in Haaretz by Yoel Marcus begins, "When Ehud Olmert declared this week that ‘the patience, determination and endurance of people on the home front will determine our ability to complete the job,’ all my fuses blew. This man dragged us into the 33-day Second Lebanon War and turned the rear into the front. How does he have the nerve to preach to us and tell us what is needed for the war against Hamas to end in victory? What achievement did the Second Lebanon War bring us, other than exposing Israel's soft underbelly and eroding its deterrence?"

18 comments:

Charley James - The Progressive Curmudgeon said...

Dr Bender ...

In a way, your comment reinforces the point of my article. This tit-for-tat must come to an end.

Palestinians can point to as lengthy list of Israeli aggression against them as you cite in your comment.

But until both sides begin to act rationally, and look to their future rather than the past, no progress towards a lasting peace will ever be made.

By the way, your comment contains some historical inaccuracies. Two examples:

Haj Amin did not bring the idea of the Holocaust to Hitler. Heinrich Himmler had been trying various ways of exterminating Jews since around 1939 and had already directed the German chemical industry to find a fast-acting, efficient gas to replace the firing squad approach mostly in use at the time.

Bosnian Muslims did not fight as Waffen SS because the entire SS was strictly limited to men who passed intensive scrutiny to ensure that they were "pure Aryans."

The Holocaust was awful enough without adding fiction to it.

Charley James

Charley James - The Progressive Curmudgeon said...

Sorry, Dr. Bernadiner for getting your name wrong in my original reply. I'm also sorry that I didn't Google your name before writing. You seem to have a long history of posting hate filled, anti-Muslim statements.

Charley James

mbutler said...

Here's a few thoughts:
Shooting rockets into Israel and expecting no retaliation is asinine

How about the world speaking out against all of the Islamic suicide bombers that have killed thousands.

radman said...

it isn't tit for tat. It is a constant barrage by the palestinians. The day the Pals put down their weapons, there will be peace. The day the Israeli's put down their weapons, there will be no Israel.

Why is it that everyone says Israel should stop fighting and start supplying aid? There is a common border with Egypt... Egypt is free to supply the Pals with aid. Why is Israel blamed by everyone from the EU to Britain etc for fomenting this. THey could construct a viable entity with a port and airport and trade with Israel and Egypt... but they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.. They are just pathetic

Anonymous said...

Israel is tired of having rockets day by day.
People stay in the shulter, children are off from school.
It's impossible to live ilke that

radman said...

and every liberal, naive commenter will say they can't live like that because they are laying siege to Gaza.

see my other content... Gaza has a border with Egypt that Israel gave up under pressure when they left (yes..they left and still the pals can't make a go of it). If the world including their brothers in Egypt really were interested in helping them, rather than letting them fight with Israel so they can criticize Israel, then they would help them by sending supplies across the Egyptian border.

Anonymous said...

The idea that human life is less precious than dirt is most disgusting thing I have ever heard. These governments that kill innocent children for the sake of dirt is a crime against humanity. Some of you who are trying to justify what Isreal is doing or has done are insane. The same goes for those who defend Hamas. Let history repeat itself because our nature is to destroy each other, we will not change,we do not wish to change. War is business and some one needs to be stepped on to keep business moving forward. So if there is a God or Allah or whom ever you believe in he will judge all of us. As Ghandi said "There is enough for everyones needs, but not enough for one persons greed". Make excuses for what has happend in history because that is what we are good at.

radman said...

it is not the dirt anonymous. it is the ability to live on that dirt. the pals could have had a state in 1948 when the un offered. They rejected it and have rejected every chance since (including camp david). what would you have Israel do to protect their miniscule plot of "dirt". sit there and get run over?

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately no one has acknowledged the fact that all through the 6 month truce, Hammas continued to fire rockets into Israel thus violating the cease fire. Even a dunce would know that Hammas has brought this current onslaught upon the Palestinian People who voted them into power. What a way to protect the very people who voted them into power. Let us all open our eyes and speak the truth as we have all seen it. Even if Israel stops now, it will not make Hammas stop the rockets. Israel's response may seem unpopular but this seems to be the only language that Hammas understands and it also seems necessary at this point that Israel defends herself from the daily rocket fire. The palestinians should wake up and revolt against Hammas and other extremist groups. And that would surely mark the change that they so desperately need. Until then, its seems like we would continue to see more of this.

Anonymous said...

Hamas did nothing! Absolutely nothing to warrant these recents attacks on innocent civlilian men, women, CHILDRENA, and their policeman bases. Now Israel is attacking their TV so the world won't see the genocide! Shame on the Israeli government for committing crimes that were once placed upon them by Germany! Shame on the lack of compassion for Palestinian children. They think because CNN and FOX are promoting their propoganda we cannot see what they did but the world sees that they are the bullies and horrific ones! No God would support what Israel has done. I don't care what has happened in the past. Both of them were attacking each other ever since Israel illegally took control of the West Bank. Israel has been trying to starve these people for decades preventing food entry every few months every years and prevented medical aid to heal the wounded and sick! Israel has lost all support from the world. The US must no longer fund via welfare Israel with American Citizens tax dollars! Any politians who supports this will be voted out of office! Israel just gave those who lost family a reason NOT TO LIVE! Is Israel insane! Do you think Palestinians are not human beings! Digusting, shameful, pathetic and we are all outraged!!!!!! You just made the Earth a terrible place to live. Shame on you!

Steve said...

I'm no Fox News wingnut nor have I ever bought the rightwing mantra that the media is some liberal bastion but hey guys Israel was indiscriminately rockets and shelled by some 300 rockets and mortar shells in 2 days and there's hardly a report where Israel's military operation in put in proper context. What other country would have shown the sort of restraint that Israel has shown? By not reporting the news fairly the media including CNN is contributing and validating the obvious ginned up "Arab rage" that's in fact organized by Muslim Brotherhood groups via the net across the globe. No one would expect their country to act in any other way than how Israel has responded and the media owes it to its audience to be fair and report iot as it is and in its PROPER CONTEXT.

Anonymous said...

Ehud Barak again !

This is a one time Israeli Prime Minister out to outdo himself and the atrocities of his predecessors in a crime against humanity . There is no justification in this disproportionate blanket military bombardment of Gaza .

Rocket launching into Israels surburb by Hamas though not condonable , seems to be a last resort of resistance to a formidable opponent who has barricaded and choked Gaza for months of : FOOD , WATER , FUEL MEDICINE and anything it needs to survive .

Hamas lest we forget is an elected Government by its people , though not the Fatah faction America and Israel had hoped for . So it becomes a good opportunity to ' blanketly destroy anything Hamas along with innocent civilians , children and more land occupation . Just as Israel as a Nation is made up of Jews from the diaspora , so must Israel allow a Palestinian Land to allow all Palestinians to come home . The Middle East leaders seem weak even to organise a proper forum to genuinely discuss the Palestinian Question .

When will Israel learn that a ' child that says it's mother will not sleep , that child itself will never sleep ' ! .

The Question is ; when will the World hold Israel for its continuous defiance of World opinion ? Forget a 'toothless' so-called United Nations . As far as I can remember Israel has always been above all laws including United Nations and International laws . Nobody ....or no Nation seem to dare criticise Israel in the face of blatant aggression .

Invariably , I suspect the role of Israel as a chosen people in the bible put the fear of God in most Christian Countries / Church leaders / Politicians et al, so they turn a blind eye to Israel 's beligerance
and disproportionate military use . I strongly believe the Holocaust which Israel invokes in most given situations to justify it's actions . So , I have always wondered why a Nation that had undergone such ' WICKEDNESS ' in the hands of HITLER and his equally diabolic henchmen would want to perpetuate the same kind of suffering on another displaced 'people ' .

The core of my religion stems from this troubled area . If I am unhappy with the treatment of the Jews by Germany which resulted in the holocaust ; you can bet that I feel Israel's action in Gaza outrageous !

I hope a sense of humanity prevails !


Some Anonymous comment above said after all Egypt has the " same border with Israel " and it does not suffer the same fate as is being witnessed in Gaza . In that I agree . May I remind the faceless 'anonymous' that Egypt is not an occupied land as Gaza and therefore has no quarell with Israel .

Anonymous said...

Very simple terms. ISRAEL = Nazi Germany.

This is exactly what the Germans did to Jews and somehow Israeli State Terrorism is returning the favor. Obama is impotent, he has his mouth shut by the the AIPAC. This is exactaly why we need a Nuclear Iran even more so not then before. Because as long as Israeli state terrorism goes on unchallenged there will be more innocent blood shed. There needs to be a balance in power and Iran getting Nuclear is the only solution to peace in the Middle East. Otherwise bully Israel will carpet bomb defenseless palestine.

Anonymous said...

It bothers me that many people seem to think that killing innocent civilians, women and children, is justified and adequate retaliation.It´s the same as invading Iraq when it had nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden or incarcerating and torturing quite a lot of innocents in Gitmo.This seems to be the age of scapegoats which means it is an age of studpidity and ugly beyond belief.

Anonymous said...

I´m not surprised that the politicians in the US are siding with Israel... the fact that many of them have in some-way-or-another received major funding from Jewish-owned businesses and people has everything to do with where they pledge their allegiance.

Anonymous said...

I live in southern Isreal.

The naivete' of your coments are amazing and show little understanding of the mentality of the people we are fighting with and by the way you are at war with too. The agony we have suffered from the compromises we have made for the sake of peace has endangered our very existance. In that light any "even handed" analysis people like you make have little meaning. We will do what we must do to live and survive as a people and a country. IN light of this you can pick a side and make any comment you want. We will finish this our way.

Chuck Snow said...

Jesus don't like killin'- no matter what it's for-

Anonymous said...

How long would your government wait once a neighboring country start to send missiles against it? One day, one week, one month? Israel waited for 4 years and thousands of missiles. How many innocent women and children were killed in Afghanistan after "freedom fighters" crashed into the Twin Towers?

Israel pulled out all their settlements in the Gaza strip to enable the inhabitants to build autonomy. Money was poured into Gaza. Instead of industry - tunnels. Weapons instead of Hospitals, terrorists training instead of universities. Rockets are fired on Israeli towns any hour of day or night.