Now, to bomb the living daylights out of these people who have suffered every kind of torture that Israel and the world has decided to make them go through, is criminal. And, you mention that it was done when children were in the streets is almost beyond criminal, if that is possible, it is absolutely evil.
Among the targets was a compound where a police graduating ceremony was in progress, pictures of mutilated bodies of young men in uniform, pictures of school children lying on the ground, a university campus bombed!!
School children waiting at a bus stop bombed.
The onslaught was unleashed just after the Christian world celebrated the birthday of Jesus Christ and Pope Benedict XVI called for peace in the Middle East in his Christmas address.
Gaza has been turned into an open-air prison, a giant concentration camp where Palestinian women and children are being denied food and medicine in their own homeland. And now the illegitimate usurper regime has launched a merciless attack on the Palestinians of Gaza, but no one is calling for Israeli officials to be brought to the Intentional Criminal Court to stand trial for their crimes, which is itself a crime against humanity.
The Israeli military claims that it is taking surgical strikes at the Hamas and is minimizing civilian loss. When it comes to Gaza, said to be one of the most densely-populated areas of the world, there is no such thing as a surgical strike. Moreover, over half of Gaza’s population are children under 18. Even the smartest smart bombs could not cherry-pick between resistance fighters and innocents in such a packed environment.
I am sure Israel will, and very soon come to US Congress and the new Obama administration and ask for replenishment of the weapons and ammunition it used to murder so many innocent people. When Jews and Israelis die it is terrorism and all are innocent including the soldiers who shoot and kill, the pilots who drops the 1000 lb.bombs. When Palestinian die, they are collateral damage and are guilty as charge of simply being a Palestinian.
There has not been a single day in the past 60 years where there was not at least one Israeli gun pointed at a Palestinian, whether at the checkpoints that lace the West Bank, or on the battle field during Israel's frequent ground incursions into West Bank cities, or from the air as Israel drops bombs on Gaza. If that is what an aspiration for peace looks like, God save us from seeing an Israeli aspiration for war. And as we hear Olmert says that this is only the beginning of war.
Whatever one thinks of Hamas and it ideology, it was elected to office in free and internationally-monitored elections that were forced upon the Palestinian people by Washington as part of the Bush administration’s quest to democratize the Middle East. Then, after congratulating the Palestinians on their new democracy, the US-led international community promptly condemned the new leadership as terrorist and threw its support behind Fatah, which was “ordered” to turn against Hamas. This divisive strategy worked to the extent Hamas was driven to Gaza where it has since struggled against all odds to provide its citizens with the barest minimum required to sustain life.
Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't the Hamas which broke the ceasefire, but Israel had assassinated a few leaders of Hamas, in November, during the ceasefire, and had not suspended aid blockage as promised.
But like its Washington master (or is it the other way around?) Israel is not constrained by international law or the Geneva Conventions that also require an occupying nation to provide for the well being of people under its occupation and to respect their dignity. As the willful killing continues, Israel merrily ignores pleas from France, Russia, the UN, the EU and Britain to end the violence. Why should it do otherwise when it has proved time and time again that it is a law unto itself and immune from international punishment?
Unsurprisingly, the only message from the US to Israel is “try to avoid civilian casualties”, which is nothing more than lip service to international humanitarian sensitivities. In effect, the Bush administration has blessed this, by many accounts, long planned operation, cynically timed to begin during a political vacuum in Washington.
But there is another angle, and that is the upcoming Israeli election. It is not novel for incumbent Israeli governments to carry out atrocities against Palestinians to garner domestic support, and with the Likud expected to win the next elections, this is definitely a power play by the embattled ruling party, Kadima.
The Arab world will protest for a few days, condemn the acts, call them barbaric, agree to send millions of $ of aid which will be blocked by Israel That's all they will do.
The GCC, OIC will only condemn the attacks, then even these voices will become quiet and with them, perhaps Gaza will forever become quiet as life is sucked out of it.
As a former Israeli ambassador to the UN Gillerman just said
"We haven't seen dramatic condemnations [from world leaders], only the expected and generic calls for calm and cease-fire,"
"Even in the UN I didn't see anyone happy to condemn us," he added. "Unless something very dramatic happens, such as a blundered hit that kills large numbers of civilians, then we will have enough time to do what we need to do."
When the world leaders don't act, it's the desperate people who take things into their hands, this is where and how extremists are born.
This week saw/will see the rest of the world celebrate three festivals,
1) Christmas
2) The Islamic Hijri New Year
3) The English New Year
When one hears firecrackers on New Year's Eve, let him remember that the Palestinians hear bombs exploding all around them.
As we usher in a New Year let those of us who care, pray for peace and happiness for all mankind ( Palestinians and Israelis included).
The rest of us may only read the headlines somewhere in the corner of the newspaper
"300 killed in Palestine"
and without blinking an eye, turn the pages to find out something interesting such as, which theater Ghajini is running in.
(Dedicated to the old Palestinian and his family ( refer blog 2),
Sir, you are only physically blind, whereas the world is truely blind.
Our apathy is pathetic.
"Unfortunately sir, I still don't have tears in my eyes, " )
6 comments:
all we can hope is for peace..and lets pray for the lives of innocent people.
Yes, when one feels helpless, one can only pray to the Almighty.
indeed. it's just Him up there who can do something about it.. all we can do is beg Him to put an end to it...
For the common people like us, there are 2 options,
One is mentioned above
The other unfortunately is resorting to extremism which is now called terrorism.
If only the leaders concerned showed more responsibility and humanism, they could put an end to it.
"Let there be Peace in this World"
This are the most common lines we hear from our leaders & many of us too :S
But what are we doing to achieve Peace??????
We know the answer no more than you do
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