Dear Israelis

at

Israeli-flag-Flickr

 

You need to know that your latest onslaught in Gaza guarantees that as a nation, you will be loathed and reviled by growing numbers of people around the world. No, not because you are jewish- that doesn’t come into it, but because you murder civilians in their 100s with your high-tech weaponry. Because you have burnt little children, blown their limbs off, killed their parents, their brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

You have destroyed their homes. Because you fire flechettes at human beings, because you use DIME bombs in densely crowded civilian areas, you have rained white phosphorous down on a school, you have killed disabled people in their residential home, killed sick people in intensive care when you bombed a hospital. You bombed a UN school where women and children had taken refuge and then lied about it. You bombed a playground on the first day of Eid Al Fitr, a festival akin to Christmas. That was your present to the little children who played on a roundabout in their new outfits, now wrapped in sheets in their graves. Again, you sent out your propagandists to lie.

Since you destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza in 2008-2009, you have never allowed it to be rebuilt, leading to no sewage treatment, poor water supplies, sporadic electricity – in short you have made people’s lives as hard as they can possibly be. Relentlessly. You shoot farmers and fishermen who are doing their best to fight off poverty and fend for their families. You have done all these things and so much more, and then you lie to the world, trying to depict your victims as perpetrators, when it is you.

You are the occupying power, you are the aggressor. You bully the policy and decision makers and use political influence to ensure that your version of events is the one that is repeated, as if it were the truth. But you are not fooling us all, and you will pay for your crimes in the international criminal court – of that I have no doubt.

Call me an anti-semite and I will laugh at you as I know it is untrue, you will not shut me and others like me up. We will continue to speak out.

We will boycott your products, we will call out with millions of voices around the world for divestment of funds from Israel and sanctions against you until you comply with international law, until you:

1. End the occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantle the Wall
2. Recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respect, protect and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

We will struggle against our governments and institutions that are complicit in your crimes until you find yourself alone.You can change your path. You can stand for rights, for justice, for humanity. I hope this is the choice you make. But in the end, the choice is yours.

Elaine Bradley

Elaine is a human rights activist working in the West Bank.

ALTERNATIVELY: Why Don’t I Criticise Israel? (Sam Harris)

Previously: We Walked In Solidarity 

The Mask Is Off And People Know

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265 thoughts on “Dear Israelis

  1. Buglebum

    There are two sides to this story. The above is valid but utterly one sided and therefore unbalanced and irritating to anyone who has bothered to understand what is going on in Israel and Gaza.

    With respect Broadsheet, can I request that you also publish the opinions of someone critical of Hamas and sympathetic to Israel.

    It is possible to criticise Hamas. It is possible to have an opinion about Israel that isn’t 100% critical.

    Just to balance things out.

    That would be the correct journalistic thing to do.

      1. Drogg

        This is not a news site so they don’t need to balance it out with some IDF PR statement and just because the people here support the Palestinian people doesn’t mean we support hamas, it means we don’t like seeing a modern well equipped army killing civilians and murdering children in their beds.

      2. Buglebum

        Not at all chief. I’ve known and loved this place for years. They’re daycent skins inside in Broadsheet, I reckon. That’s why I’m asking them nicely.

        1. Drogg

          But thats just it Buglebum, this is one sided. There is no justification for what Israel is currently doing and the scary thing is that they know it but just don’t give a f**k.

    1. Medium Sized C

      All these things are true, but the problem is Israel aren’t taking civilian casualties.
      Their infrastructure isn’t being bombed.

      There may be two sides to the conflict but there is only one side to the aggression.

      What you’re ignoring is this isn’t about Hamas, its about Israeli Defence Forces bombing locations where civilians are. Gaza doesn’t have a chance. They kill a soldier, Isreal kills a family.

    2. the good helen

      thats like asking for the opinion Hitler had on Jews – Because a Jew gave his opinion on Hitler. Who cares – Israel are at fault here, and everyone can see that. I don’t care of their opinion. Very well written and also, in case anyone cares. we can argue among ourselves all day about this, but at the end of the day, so many people are losing their lives due to Israel and their weapons. My heart goes out to the men, women and children who will be left behind to have to deal with the heartbreak of losing most of their children, parents, friends and whole families. Thoughts are with those.

      1. Buglebum

        That’s just nonsense Helen. I’m not suggesting for a moment that Israel’s actions aren’t completely abhorrent and reprehensible. I’m simply stating that there are two sides to this and to say otherwise is to fail to understand the problem. Anyone suggesting that Hamas is completely blameless for this horror is doing a disservice to the victims on both sides.

        1. the good helen

          i’m not saying that i’m saying I really don’t want to know their opinion. Its like push and shove. Israel started it, Gaza tried to defend what it felt was theirs, and Israel came back trying to bomb and kill people to get what they want. I sent a message to broadsheet earlier, and its as simple as this..

          BAD NEIGHBOUR IS OVER THE TOP (FROM NEWSPAPER)
          Lets make it local. You have a bit of land behind your house. Someone moves in and builds a house on it, you arent happy.
          You go around and throw stones at it. You shouldnt have done it, but you were angry. His response is to come around and kick the sh*t out of your kids.
          you get even more angry and protest./ so the next time he warns you before he comes around. He tells you to get out of your house if you don’t want your children to be hurt.
          But its your house. He’s the trespasser. so you don’t leave. And he comes around, he kills your kids. That is the story of what is going on between Israel and Gaza.

    3. scottser

      i don’t think anyone is denying that hamas’s actions are wrong, but there is a mitigating factor in that living conditions for palestinians are abhorrent and have been forced upon them by israel over the years. israel’s self-declared stance as ‘victims’ and using the fact of palestinian resistance to commit further crimes on a palestinian civilian population is a disgusting, murderous lie. with all due respect buglebum, any issue of ‘balance’ on this issue is impossible because the protagonists, the vested interests, the commentators have all outlined very clear positions on where they stand. for me, i have to choose a side simply because everyone else has.

      1. Nigel

        I’m not sure that there are many mitigating factors for Hamas as an organisation. They can’t win. If they were really concerned about civilian casualties, they’d stop firing rockets and stop hiding them behind schools and hospitals. Doesn’t make the Israeli bombardment right, but the moral difference between what works and what’s right cuts both ways.

        1. scottser

          nigel – it cuts both ways if the playing field is level so to speak. in this case, it clearly isn’t.

          1. Nigel

            The playing field determines the tactics. The weak side hide behind civilians. The strong side willingly kills the civilians. The playing field’s been there a while now and it’s guaranteed to bring out the worst in either side.

          2. scottser

            and when international law states that the killing of civilians is wrong then the buck stops with israel to cease this tactic and find another way. hamas’s response is almost like ‘satyagraha’ that gandhi preached, to remain steadfast in the face of persecution and violence until your aggressor finally feels his disgust at his own actions – obviously hamas do not take a non-violent stand but the intention seems similar.

  2. gallantman

    I don’t think Israel are signatories to the Rome Convention and are therefore not covered by the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

    1. jungleman

      They are signatories who have not ratified and have announced that they will not be bound by the original signature. So really they have nothing to fear in terms of their tendency towards war crimes.

  3. The bringer of facts

    I love people. Defending their “opinion”. Maybe you don’t know. Maybe the other people don’t know either. Maybe it’s ok to not know.

    But don’t stop.

    Keep telling us.

    Maybe you know.

  4. peter

    Same auld sh**e.
    BS would you ever give it a rest, It is nausueating.
    I see no mention of the 4 Israelis killed yesterday.
    One sided and mis guided…oh that rhymes

    1. Drogg

      Soldiers sign up to get shot at, thats the risk they take. Small children being bombed while playing in a park is just murder.

          1. peter

            Its not about even terms, Its a war, people die in wars, you are so naive.
            Do you execpt Israel to wait until one of their citizens died and then only follow up with the same number of deaths.

          2. Drogg

            Its not a war it’s a Genocide.

            Definition:
            Genocide is the systematic destruction of all or part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group via the (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Genocide entails also the Conspiracy to commit genocide; Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; Attempt to commit genocide; and Complicity in genocide.

        1. Drogg

          Sorry peter can you link me a source to some info on that? but i agree with Medium Sized C one wrong does not make another wrong right.

          1. Drogg

            Now your just being stupid can you not try harder then that and where is the link i asked for?

        2. donal

          Can you link to any news report that states that 4 Israeli civilians were killed yesterday?
          All I’ve seen, including a brief search for something to back your statement up, is that 10 IDF personnel were killed yesterday.
          from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/29/israel-pounds-gaza-after-netanyahu-promises-prolonged-battle
          “The IDF said overnight that five soldiers had died in a gun battle on Monday with militants who crossed into Israel via a tunnel near the community of Nahal Oz, close to the border with the Gaza Strip.

          The incident raised to 10 the number of military fatalities for the day, bringing the total to 53. Four others were killed in a mortar attack and another died in clashes in the south of Gaza.”

        3. Planet of the Missing Biros

          They weren’t civilians Peter, they were soldiers. The IDF said they were civilians first in order to cause confusion and ramp up the blame game but they were in fact soldiers.

    2. Planet of the Missing Biros

      They were soldiers, not civilians. Their job is fighting in wars.

    3. Medium Sized C

      Because 10 Palestinians were killed and 40 injured.

      The body count last night was 1023:56
      And only 3 of the 56 were civilians.

    4. the good helen

      4 killed??? seriously, do you know how many from gaza were killed yesterday.???

      1. peter

        It doesnt matter comparing numbers, the fact that Hamas insist on attacking Israel….oh I cant be arsed anymore….

          1. peter

            No it does not matter.
            1 dead person is too much for any nation to stand ideally by and let it continue.
            If any of the Palestines neighbours bothered to arm their “allies” there would be more dead in Israel.

          2. Medium Sized C

            Well then Hamas have over 1000 times the reason not to stand idly by.

            That is wishy-washy nonsense.
            If it was true the whole damn world would be entirely engulfed in war right now.

        1. WhoAreYa

          I worked it out a few days ago @ a rate of 70 dead Palestinian kids to one tunnel unblocked. But yea sure it does not matter whatever it takes right?

      2. Nigel

        I’m sure their friends and family will try to keep that in mind and modulate their grief and anger accordingly. Git.

  5. Violet

    Who is this actually for? I’m not disagreeing with the sentiments, or criticising the passion behind it, but what is it intended to do?

    1. peter

      It’s intended to make her feel better about herself before she heads back to Dublin to do her dissertation or something along those lines and then hopefully she will get some handy EU/UN job

      1. the good helen

        stone throwing peter!!! now now…

        but just so you know…

        According to the most recent calculation, 1000 Palestinians have been murdered by the Israeli army, majority of them civilians, who have nowhere to run. Trapped by Egypt from one side and Israeli army from the other, the mostly defenceless Palestinians are being slaughtered in more than two weeks of relentless bombing by what is considered to be the fifth most powerful military on earth, armed to its teeth by the United States and its European allies.

          1. Norbet Cooper

            Did you know the British Uganda Program was a plan to give a portion of British East Africa to the Jewish people as a homeland?

          2. the good helen

            ive given my opinion previously (not point) Peter. Do you really want me to give it again. as I started the whole what bit of text, i said, Just so you know…… then the text. I was mearly stating the amount of people killed in Gaza. what was your point of stating 4 people killed. My reply to that post was this. You need to keep awake and keep on top of the posts.. suppose it is hard to know who it is when so many are complaining at you.

          3. LeScull

            They have none, They ignore Hamas and its stated intention to wipe out not only all Israelis but all Jews.

        1. HF

          Trapped on one side by Israel, on the other by Egypt, but you forgot the most important element here and that’s the murdering filth Hamas.

      2. Eoin

        And what’s wrong with doing something to make you feel better yourself Peter? Maybe you should give it a go yourself.

        The second part of your comment is as baseless and asinine as they come.You have no idea how hard she works/will work in the future.

        1. HF

          I think Peter is fully awake, certainly more so that some of the Hamas supporters on this forum.

  6. The bringer of facts

    Let’s save these heart breaking opinions for when this happens in 5 years.

    People are great.

    Now, when is GOT back on tv??

    1. Medium Sized C

      I don’t think there is anything wrong with calling someone an asshole if you think they are being an asshole.
      Similarly I don’t think there is anything wrong with calling someone an asshole for thinking Isreal are justified in killing and maiming children.

      It doesn’t help, but its easily as self righteous to poke at people who feel passionately about this stuff.

  7. The bringer of facts

    NO…I care more!!!

    Can Irish people join the Israeli army like Americans can?? They have some really cool state if the art weapons. Must be great fun to play with those.

    1. Mani

      Not to jinx you before the results come out but I’d say it’s a safe bet you’ll be repeating.

        1. The bringer of facts

          Was that for me? A grown ass man. With his own car, house and full time job?? And no mortgage, loans or STDs?

          If not, soz.

          1. Mani

            Was that meant for me? A level three Mage with a castle in the sky and a unicorn in the garage? If not, soz!

          2. The bringer of facts

            Are you doing a troll on me?

            Soz, I’m new to your internet.

            You are so good at this.

  8. shitferbrains

    She hasn’t a hope with the International Court stuff. The Geneva Conventions from which all International Law comes is specific about the responsibility of fighters who operate among civilians for the deaths of those civilians. It mightn’t seem fair, but it’s logical not to give terrorists/freedom fighters carte blanch . As for her hopes for a Single State……

    1. shitferbrains

      What does the Balfour Declaration got to do with anything. The British ditched it in 1939 to get the Arabs onside in the war and abstained in the UN vote on the partition of Palestine into Israel and what should have been an Arab state.

  9. The bringer of facts

    Has everybody seen those guns with cameras that can shoot around corners?? Israeli invention. So cool. Imagine being in an army with stuff like that? The Palestinians stand no chance. Hamas howareya!!

  10. peter

    In the end of the day Israel are defending themselves from Hamas.
    Simple as.
    Now to return to eating hummus and collecting money.
    (scarcasm incase people didnt realise)

    1. Medium Sized C

      At the end of the day, they aren’t.

      If someone goes to my house and throws stones, I don’t go and burn down their house and all their neighbours houses with the occupants in them. That isn’t self defence.

      If someone throws a punch at me in a pub, I don’t shoot everybody in the pub in self-defence.

      If someone fires rockets at my state which get dealt with by my outrageously effective ballistic defence system I don’t go and bomb schools, hospitals, beaches full of kids, playgrounds, power stations, homes and aid missions set up because I have been blocking their access to trade for years in self-defence.

      The self-defence argument is broken and using it is the reason so many people are calling you names right now.

    2. HF

      Absolutely right Peter. Having Hamas in power in Gaza is giving the Gazans a death sentence. The sooner Hamas are smashed, the better.

      1. Drogg

        HF the only reason hamas are in power is because Palestinians are desperate because they are walled in supplies are blockaded and resources are sparse at best.

        1. HF

          Hamas are pretty good at getting rockets into Gaza. Also they’re a dab hand a building sophisticated tunnels into Israel with the only purpose of killing as many Israelis as they can. Hamas have just one goal, the destruction if Israel and if Gazans suffer because of that, then so much the better in the Hamas book.

          1. Drogg

            HF who here is supporting hamas? People here are defending Palestinians, no one is giving their support to hamas, so i have no idea of what yer going on about.

          2. Smashmouth

            Drogg why not direct some of your vitriol at Hamas?

            If they ceased their campaign then innocent people would stop dying

            simple as

          3. Drogg

            Firstly Bullshit if they ceased there campaign Israel would say they are still perusing them and keep bombing the s**t out of the place. Secondly i don’t like hamas or their tactics but i understand how frustrated they must feel being walled in, in a densely populated open air prison with lack of food medicine and basic resources while an illegal blockade stops anything getting in. Plus they don’t have a highly trained well armed force blowing up kids by the hundreds. Question have you seen the pictures of the pregnant woman having a caesarian as they take a dead child out of her womb because an IDF sniper shot her through the stomach. Could you image how painful that must be for a parent or the pictures of the child delivered from her mothers stomach after her mother died in a missile strike from israel, can you imagine telling that child what happened to her mother or how she came into this world. When i see stuff like that i imagine what i would do if that happened to me and even though i don’t agree with them hamas i know that if that happened to me i would do exactly what they are doing. Israel needs to take the positive steps here it is the only way to repair relationships and move onto a positive future.

          4. Odis

            That’s not how ethnic cleansing works Smashmouth.

            N.B. Simplest way to stop innocent people being killed/”dying”. Stop killing them.

          5. Smashmouth

            “if they ceased there campaign Israel would say they are still perusing them and keep bombing the s**t out of the place”

            what are you basing that on?

            The premise for the IDF launching the campaign was that rockets were being fired into Israel

            A ceasefire was proposed on the grounds that the rocket attacks stop – this was not adhered to

            it really is that simple

            and no – I do not support the current force being used by Israel

          6. Drogg

            Have you never heard of splinter groups? and the reasoning for Israel going in was the killing of those three teenagers, which wasn’t even hamas. Plus Israel has a highly trained well equipped army they could go in overnight do a snatch and grab mission and be back in Israel with a captured hamas leader, no civilian casualties and no massive destruction of property, but no Israel take the route that will just push more people to join up with hamas.

        2. shitferbrains

          Bullcrap. The tunnel economy made millionaires out of Hamas and their supporters. Even Abbas was complaining that there are over 1000 millionaires in Gaza. Petrol is – well was now – cheaper in Gaza than Israel.

          1. f

            @smashmouth: “Israel claims that its current and past wars against the Palestinian population in Gaza have been in response to rocket fire. Empirical evidence from 2008, 2012 and 2014 refute that claim. First, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs [http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/terrorism/pages/one%20month%20of%20calm%20in%20gaza%2028-jul-2008.aspx], the greatest reduction of rocket fire came through diplomatic rather than military means. This chart [http://blog.thejerusalemfund.org/2014/07/gaza-cease-fire-dynamics-explained-what.html] demonstrates the correlation between Israel’s military attacks upon the Gaza Strip and Hamas militant activity. Hamas rocket fire increases in response to Israeli military attacks and decreases in direct correlation to them. Cease-fires have brought the greatest security to the region.

            “During the four months of the Egyptian-negotiated cease-fire in 2008, Palestinian militants reduced the number of rockets to zero or single digits from the Gaza Strip. Despite this relative security and calm, Israel broke the cease-fire [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/world/middleeast/05mideast.html?_r=0] to begin the notorious aerial and ground offensive that killed 1,400 Palestinians in twenty-two days. In November 2012, Israel’s extrajudicial assassination of Ahmad Jabari, the chief of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, while he was reviewing terms for a diplomatic solution, again broke the cease-fire that precipitated the eight-day aerial offensive that killed 132 Palestinians.

            “Immediately preceding Israel’s most recent operation, Hamas rocket and mortar attacks did not threaten Israel. Israel deliberately provoked this war with Hamas. Without producing a shred of evidence, it accused the political faction of kidnapping and murdering three settlers near Hebron. Four weeks and almost 700 lives later, Israel has yet to produce any evidence demonstrating Hamas’s involvement. During ten days of Operation Brother’s Keeper in the West Bank, Israel arrested approximately 800 Palestinians without charge or trial, killed nine civilians and raided nearly 1,300 residential, commercial and public buildings. Its military operation targeted Hamas members released during the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011. It’s these Israeli provocations that precipitated the Hamas rocket fire to which Israel claims left it with no choice but a gruesome military operation.”

            http://www.alternet.org/world/five-israeli-talking-points-gaza-debunked?page=0%2C0

      2. scottser

        ironic then, that when the last of the palestinian enclaves have been colonised by israel and the last of their peoples are displaced, you won’t know where your enemy is, what they look like or how they’ll strike back at you. your enemy will be invisible.

        mwaaaaa-haaaa-haaaa!!!!

  11. shitferbrains

    As for not allowing Gaza to be rebuilt:-

    http://palestine-studies.org/journals.aspx?id=11424&jid=1&href=fulltext

    ” Such was the turnaround in the local economy that Gaza City had a surfeit of new hotels, restaurants, and beach cafés, which attracted not only the new moneyed elite the tunnels had fostered but also exiles returning to the Strip (sometimes via tunnels), and even visitors from northern Sinai. Gaza’s new luxury hotel, al-Mashtal, optimistically bought cocktail glasses, while visiting businessmen from the West Bank complained that the latest-model sports cars and Hummers could be seen on Gaza’s streets long before they surfaced in Ramallah. Real-estate brokers said the multiplier effect of the increased spending power spurred a threefold increase in real-estate prices. ”

    She should concentrate in using any influence she has – which given the iron fist of Hamas in Gaza probably isn’t much – in trying to establish an atmosphere for a cessation of violence.

    1. f

      Well, her letter is addressed to ‘Israel’, and according to the article you linked to:

      ‘UN Habitat estimated that, based on the materials allowed in by Israel, it would take eighty years to rebuild the six thousand housing units destroyed in Operation Cast Lead and accomodate the growth in population over five years of closure; tunnel flows reduced that lagtime to a more manageable five.’

      So, no, Israel did not ‘allow’ Gaza to be rebuilt. Smuggling through tunnels ‘allowed’ Gaza to be rebuilt.

      Also, again from the same article, and on the ‘iron fist’ of Hamas:
      ‘Western-backed NGOs and the United Nations, whose required funding criteria barred them from purchasing smuggled goods and therefore stymied their reconstruction efforts, vociferously campaigned to end Israel’s siege. UN officials noted the paradox whereby U.S.-led financial restrictions, which prohibited the United Nations from accessing tunnel supplies, gave their supposed target, Hamas, a distinct advantage. Refugee families turned increasingly to Hamas rather than depend on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the organization charged with sheltering them (and three-quarters of the Strip’s population). UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, fearing that the international community was hemorrhaging influence, complained in a May 2010 briefing to the Security Council that “the flourishing illegitimate tunnel trade permits smugglers and militants to control commerce,” while “international agencies and local contractors who wish to procure goods entering through legitimate crossings too often stand idle due to the Israeli closure.”’

  12. The bringer of facts

    It makes sky news and places like broadsheet more interesting. And isn’t that the most important thing?

    I mean, I couldn’t handle having no content. I love content. Feed me more content.

    Isreal…Israel…Palestine…Hamas…hamass.

    Israel is wrong but the hippies and bleeding hearts forcing their opinions on others would make you warm to the western accented Israeli PR people.

    Any Star Wars in Kerry posts? Dead Palestinians make me sad.

    1. Drogg

      Bringer i hope you don’t include me with that hippie statement. Cause just because someone doesn’t like children being murdered doesn’t mean they are a pacifist.

    1. The bringer of facts

      Russia was last week.

      This week Isreal is our “enemy”.

      Please keep up or your internet license shall be suspended.

  13. kurtz

    To not even acknowledge that Hamas share blame in this bloody mess is complete ignorance.

    Israel isn’t bombing the West Bank. The West Bank has a secular government. The Gaza Strip is run by Hamas, an organisation of religious zealots who wish every Jew dead.

    Take your blinkers off for a second, and realise that Qassam fighters are using their own people as human shields. Gladly. The know the IDF will pound an apartment, or school, or hospital to pieces if they fire rockets from them. They know the IDF doesnt care about dead Palestinian women and children. That’s why the IDF are such a ruthless army, it’s because they are fighting against an equally ruthless Hamas.

    Hamas are winning the PR war completely, because every dead child is as much a victory for them as it is a stain on the conscience of Israelis.

    If the Hamas leadership can genuinely stop rocket attacks from the comfort of their luxury hotels in Qatar, and genuinely try to run the Gaza strip as a proper government, then the excuses for that hateful warmonger Netanyahu are gone.

    This isn’t a black and white war. Both sides have far too much blood on their hands.

    1. Wolfe tone

      Take your blinkers off. The sole reason Netanyahu has decided to collectively punish the occupants of Gaza is not because of the 3 Israelis that were killed weeks ago,but rather because Hamas and the Palestinian authority had decided to settle its differences. Even Obama said this coming together was ‘unfortunate’. The punishment of Gaza was being planned from this moment. The three Israelis deaths were the green light.
      Collective punishment is a tactic normally used by invading forces, a kind of shock and awe. All aimed at making the resistance compliant. This tactic can take the form of propaganda right up to physical violence. Just watch as Israel target all facilities that the gazan’s rely on eg fuel,electricity,water,medicine etc. Oh wait, they have already done this. There’s a method to their madness

  14. The bringer of facts

    Now that everybody has left.

    I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY LOVE ISRAEL!!!!!!

    *gently closes door while looking over shoulder for bleeding heart liberal hippie types with “facts” and “opinions” and access to news.

    *click

  15. Byrnzie

    Great piece. Well said. The lunatic racist state of Israel needs to be brought in to line, and made to comply with international law.

  16. SunshineB

    Yes enough of this ‘if you’re pro-Palestinian you must be pro-Hamas’ nonsense. We see them for what they are, murdering terrorists. But the Israeli forces are still worse. Which says an awful lot.

    Also the fact atrocities are going on elsewhere in the world is tragic, and yes we should do more… But not speaking out about those doesn’t exactly remove our entitlement to be absolutely enraged over what’s going on in Gaza. That is a truly pathetic argument. I for one am so glad the people are making their voices heard, this should be encouraged if anything.

    Also may I say I’m so sick of this anti-Semitic rubbish… It has NOTHING to do with religion. And everything to do with the fact that Goliath is kicking the living hell out of David and the world feels helpless and angry.

    Thank you for the work you’re doing Elaine.

  17. JunkFace

    Israel’s military action and mass-murdering in Gaza makes me feel sick and angry. They’ve been doing this on and off for decades and they never win. They just create more extremists and suicide bombers for Hamas, and the children who managed not to get killed from previous bombings out of sheer luck, but who have lost half or most of their families, grow up full of vengeance and willing to do anything to hurt Israel in the future.

    Israel will never have peace if they continue with this plan of action. America needs to stop arming them, they’re responsible for this mess too.

  18. Steve Kingston

    I’m LOVING all the new trolls on here at the moment!! Keep up the good work lads you brighten my day!

  19. Lilly

    Israel is a disgrace. The US is also a disgrace for facilitating their barbarity. I’d like to expel the Isreali ambassador ASAP and boycott all Israeli products. They make me utterly sick.

  20. Eoin Mc Carthy

    Nothing will stop or change in Gaza until the USA discontinue their support and supply as was seen by the fact that they were the only country to vote against the UN resolution and typified by the comments of John Kerry yesterday…………..Thats where pressure needs to be put because the Zionists will not stop.

  21. Ez

    Maybe you should write the same thinkg about the US and UK as they killed 120,000 civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or maybe you should write something about the Hamas charter and wanting to destroy Israel and Jewish people. Then maybe you should write something about the self-defence and war.

    I do agree how horrible it must be for people in Gaza but your article doesn’t explain the whole story just merely what has happened over the last 2/3 weeks.

  22. Binyamin Zeev Kahane

    Get out of Eretz Yisrael. You have 22 other muslim countries. There is no such thing as Palestinians they are Jordanian refugees. God gave the jews one country. Why do you feel the need to squat on jewish land. If you want to live in peace with us in our country there are certain rules to follow like not shooting rockets at the citizens. Your article does not fool me. I am not so naive to realize that the jordanian refugee arabs are using kids and hospitals as human shields to make Israel look bad. The higher the casualty rate the more U.N. world sympathy the refugees will get. Palestine is a name given by Britain during their occupation. The arabs in Gaza strip should go back to Jordan. It is our land God gave it to us. The muslim countries lost the wars in 1948 1967 1976 and intifadas and Jihad. Israel is ours forever jews are here to stay. God made miracles and we had sympathy on you Ishmaelites. Cowards hide behind kids and store your arsenal in schools and hospitals. Hamas killed its people. What is Israel supposed to do not s shoot back and lie down and die. Never Again after the Holocaust will that happen.

    1. Case

      Mmm, of course never again for the Jews, But never again for any ethnic group surely? Because what is happening in Palestine right now, as we speak is extermination.

    2. John Boyd

      Holocaust,holocaust,holocaust, yes a very bad page in history, it’s just a shame the Zionist Israelis did not learn a lesson and have now imprisoned Palestinians inside their own death camps and are now systematically erasing them. Just as the Jews fought back in the Warsaw ghetto so are the Palestinians fighting back for their own existence.
      Palestine does not belong to the Jews as the land was not in ownership of the UN when it sectioned the country off. Following the Palestinians opposition to this self proclaimed state in 1948, they were then forcibly removed from their homes by The Israeli militia, and it’s not difficult to draw direct comparisons to Nazi Germany.
      The barbaric act being carried out at this moment will one day come back and haunt Israelis and I believe the Muslim extremists we see around the world now is an outcome of the Zionist over zealous oppression of the Palestinian people.

  23. Kev Bar

    The Jewhadi fundamentalists have changed the meaning of the term ‘anti-semite’
    It now appears to mean anyone who voices opposition to quasi genocidal regime of racist theocrats in Tel Aviv.
    Since that is what it now means, I am happy to say I’m an anti-semite

    You cry ‘wolf’
    And a sheep walks by.
    Then
    A wolf is no longer a wolf.

    Cos meaning is precious.
    Just like a child.
    Abuse it.
    You lose it.

    And just like Tommy Tiernan is.
    We’re anti-semites and we’re proud.

    Just like Robert Fisk is.
    We’re anti-semites and we’re proud.

    Just like Norman Finkelstein is.
    We’re anti-semites and we’re proud.

    Just like Jimmy Carter is.
    We’re anti-semites and we’re proud.

    Just like Nelson Mandela is.
    We’re anti-semites and we’re proud.

    Just like majority of the modern civilised world is.
    We’re anti-semites and we’re proud.

    Fuck it.

    If you won’t respect my meaning.
    You can’t have my sound.

    So I am taking these words from you.

    ‘Anti-Semite’

    Cos I’m an anti-semite and I’m proud.

    That’s right!

    I’m an anti-semite and I’m proud

    http://barringtonkevin.blogspot.ie/2013/01/im-anti-semite-and-im-proud.html

  24. Just A Pleb

    The Zionists hordes are swarming around their keyboards and for what? Zionism is doomed but regrettably for Jews, Israel is probably doomed with it and the reason is so so simple. In the beginning was Zionist Military Expansion primarily against the embryonic Palestinian State and later against Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon but lets focus on the case in point, Palestinians. Many years after the occupation and settlement of large swathes of Palestinian land, done by ethnic cleansing and apartheid, the first anti-Zionist primarily Islamic Militant entity was born. They were terrorists of course. Israel gleefully engaged them and another was born, and then another. After a couple of middle eastern wars, all caused by Israel, the militants swore to obliterate Israel for it’s continued expansion and oppression of a primarily Arab Muslim people. Notice that the line between Israel, Jew and Zionist is now blurred to the point of irrelevance. For every militant organisation that Zionism defeats, another 10 are born. Terrorist Militant opposition to Terrorist Zionism is a phoenix that will rise again and again forever. FOREVER. When all of Palestine is gone, Israel will push further east, north and south in the name of security and will initiate more wars and create more enemies in doing so. Eventually, these enemies will find a way to topple the Zionist State and then unfortunate Israeli Jews will find themselves in the same kind of hell they have already created for the Palestinians. The Zionists don’t care about Palestinians, Arabs, Christians, Muslims or Jews. they are all dispensable and irrelevant to its immoral Atheist Agenda. Real Jews need to join with their Arab Muslim and Christian neighbours and destroy Zionism before it destroys them as well. Make no mistake, the future of Israel is very bleak. You cannot claim the moral high with the argument that your enemies hate you because you are Jews, they hate you because you are Zionists and because you murder them. In short, you cannot create enemies forever and not be eventually slain by them. Goliath will be slain.

  25. jane

    What is the point of the UN and The Hague if all they do is make a few tut tut sounds. Omission to act is an offense , let us try them for such apathy. Letters, marches, all just mere words, action as the dear old saying goes will speak a hell of a lot louder .

  26. jane

    Neue Munition von den USA

    Die USA versorgen Israel derweil mit neuer Munition. Die US-Regierung entsprach gestern einer israelischen Anfrage vom 20. Juli. Ein Pentagonsprecher sagte, es habe sich um eine “rein ministerielle Entscheidung” gehandelt, eine Billigung des Weißen Hauses sei nicht nötig gewesen. Es sei für die nationalen Interessen der USA “entscheidend”, Israel dabei zu helfen, seine Fähigkeit zu einer “starken und reaktiven Selbstverteidigung” zu entwickeln und aufrecht zu erhalten.

    Ein Teil der Munition im Wert von umgerechnet rund 750 Millionen Euro stammt aus einem Zwischenlager der US-Armee auf israelischem Boden, sie steht den israelischen Streitkräften im Notfall zur Verfügung.

    From a german newspaper . Use google translate

  27. Cat, The Other White Meat

    The naked sectarianism of the OP is disgusting. Juden Raus = Dear Israelis.

  28. John Doe

    More blatant lies from the terrorist sympathizers. Hamas are a bunch of wussies as they store and fire their Iranian rockets from schools and hospitals. Why do people not get that? A terror organization bent on the destruction of Israel taking as many Jews as possible sounds like genocide to me. Terrorists are the government in Gaza. The reason infrastructure, etc is in shambles is because hamas cares less about their citizens lives than they care about killing Jews. The terrorist hamas will shoot any civilians who try to heed Israel’s warnings that they are going to target hamas weapons and the terrorists who use them.

    1. jane

      UK didn’t bomb Dublin in retaliation for IRA attacks on UK towns in the North, killing and maiming children. Hamas are terrorists, no argument there, but they are a weak organisation that have been propelled by Israeli action to one that is now a major player in Palestinian politics .Terrorists won’t reason, but an unjustified bloodied reaction by a State is not the solution, rather political resolution with the Palestinian Authority is what is called for.

    2. Just A Pleb

      Hamas exists because militant Zionism exists.
      Hizbollah exists because militant Zionism exists.
      They were all born to combat militant Zionism.
      All wars in the ME since 1947 were caused by or in response to Zionism.
      Palestine is being swallowed by Zionist Settlements using ethnic cleansing.
      Religious Jews protest with Palestinians against Zionsim.
      Where is the Palestinian right to defend themselves again 50 years of systemic illegal occupation?
      Still there are people who refuse to see the solution – No Zionists = No Problem

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