In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, UN Official Christopher Gunness could not contain his emotions when asked about the clear massacre of innocent lives in Gaza. “The rights of Palestinians, and even their children, are wholesale denied… and its appalling,” Gunness said, right before breaking down in tears, a breathtaking image captured on video.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue bombing Gaza with or without a cease-fire agreement in place. He claims the goal of the Israeli military is to demolish all the tunnels used by Hamas.
Meanwhile, 24 days into the war, over 1400 innocent Gaza civilians have died. Some of those killed were hiding away in UN Shelters and schools, so-called “safe zones.”
OK Israel, enough is enough. When you start to bomb schools and kill sleeping children you have lost me for good. I knew Netanyahu was a right wing scum bucket, but now he should be considered a terrorist. If Arabs did this, we would be calling them just that. No more double standards, I’m done.
This is exactly what the Israeli’s have done. They bombed United Nations schools where Palestinian civilians went to escape the bombings because they thought they would be safe there. U.N. officials say they warned the Israeli’s no fewer than 17 times about the locations of these schools and that children would be there and that civilians were gathered there, civilians not terrorists.
“Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children” said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. I agree. The Israeli’s claim there was rocket fire from near the school so of course they needed to bomb the entire school. The Geneva Convention prohibits attacks on schools and hospitals, but hey they are Israel so they can get away with it right?
Anyone who claims there is no double standard at work here is simply full of shit. I mentioned Arabs but if any other country were bombing schools and killing children at the pace the Israel’s are right now the United States would be leading the charge against that country. The war hawks here would be calling for retaliation and another war against the violating country. Not with Israel. This is as appalling as the despicable acts of violence the Israelis are responsible for.
There is no excuse. We wouldn’t be accepting one from an Iran or a North Korea or even Germany for that matter. So far there have been 1,328 Palestinian deaths in this Gaza war. There have been 59 Israeli deaths. This is a one-sided massacre. Dare I say a Holocaust? Yes I dare.
The Israeli’s want this to be seen by everyone as a fair war. If that were the case then the Palestinians would have the same fire power that Israel has. Of course they do not. It makes sense for the right wing of this country to love Netanyahu because they love war. Anyone on the left who backs this daily massacre is a hypocrite. These people will call Bush, Cheney et al, war mongers, but in the same breath they will make excuses for Netanyahu. I’m here to call them on their bullshit hypocrisy.
The United States and their Israel apologist machine is in full force. The National Security Council has already put out a statement that tried to make the Palestinians equally responsible for the bombings by saying they oppose the Israeli attacks on the schools BUT ALSO oppose Palestinians hiding weapons in the schools. There is yet to be any evidence of that of course and even if there was it’s no excuse to kill innocent civilians and children.
The word “terrorist” has not been used by the United States in response to these school bombings. I wonder why? Ask yourself if that word would be part of the discourse if the roles were reversed or if one of the “Axis of Evil” were responsible for the attacks. You and I know the answer, it’s obvious.
There have been several “terrorist” attacks on these school. The U.N. has said there have been NO weapons stored in these schools by Palestinians. The U.N. is the same organization that said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
They were right then and they are right now.
It’s time to call out Netanyahu for what he is. A terrorist.
You would think, from all the talk about the midterm elections and the final two years of the Obama Administration, that the president doesn’t matter anymore or that absolutely nothing will get done in Washington between now and January 2017. While we may be fighting political gridlock, and the possibility that few if any consequential laws will be passed soon, the rest of the world is not stopping nor is our country’s need for attention to our very real problems. The Republicans in Congress have made it clear that they do not want to work with Barack Obama or give him any victories from which the Democrats can claim any advantage going into the 2016 election season. This is no way to run a country, and we will pay a price in the future for our inability to act now.
There is no shortage of media stories purporting to paint Obama as a lame duck before his time, abandoning his legislative agenda in favor of executive orders and agency rule-writing. The problem with this interpretation is that Obama’s actions, especially on the environment, will have a profound effect on business and industry. New rules that detail how much a company can pollute and whether they need to clean up their emissions is no small matter. If it was, then the various business groups that oppose these changes wouldn’t be making so much noise.
The same is true with the Affordable Care Act. Yes, two Circuit Courts did issue contradictory rulings last week about whether people who buy policies on the federal exchange are entitled to subsidies, but in the end I believe that the law will be upheld and the subsidies will remain in place. I base this not on my fine reading of the law, but on the fact that by the time the Supreme Court gets the case, upwards of 30 million people will be covered by federal subsidies and the cost of ending them will be too much of a disruption to the country. Just as the Supreme Court ruled that police can’t search cell phones without a warrant mainly because the justices understood first hand what that would entail, so they will understand what it means to take health care away from people or make it unaffordable. Either Roberts or Kennedy will provide the deciding vote in any future case; the former to maintain his legacy, the latter because he tends to see applicability more than the other conservatives. The result of any case will be the president having to issue orders or to order executive branch offices to maintain the law so that it continues to honor its promises.
The president is never a lame duck when it comes to foreign policy, and Obama will not be an exception. The world is on fire as we speak and the United States will play a role in unwinding many of the conflicts that engulf it. Critics have been unsparing in their denunciations of Obama’s seemingly uninspiring handling of foreign affairs, but many on the right are calling for actions that the United States will not, and should not, take, such as sending troops or issuing ultimatums. Economic sanctions will have an effect on Vladimir Putin, and I think he understands this which is why he continues to push for separatist actions in Ukraine. Obama’s continuing contact with Benjamin Netanyahu will result in a cease-fire and long-term cessation of hostilities because the American president still carries great weight in the region. Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya look hopeless, but a concerted American effort will yield some results. Ultimately, these countries will have to solve problems on their own, but each will look abroad for help. Obama will be there.
Labeling a president as a lame duck is dangerous business in today’s world technology has made everything faster and response time smaller. The economy is improving, but if the gains in the stock market prove to be a bubble, then the president will need to act quickly. Any number of natural disasters would require a response. And if the GOP ever gets the message that tax policy, infrastructure improvements and immigration really do need more attention than suing or impeaching Obama, then perhaps we could have a significant bill before the next election.
I guess we should thank Israel for their kindness in allowing the innocent residents of Gaza – the ones still alive – to pull their dead from the rubble. Instead of a 12 hour cease fire, Israel gave the poor souls an additional 4 hours to prepare for more bloodshed!
Thousands of Gaza residents who fled the violence streamed back to devastated border areas during Saturday’s truce to find large-scale destruction: fighting pulverized scores of homes, wreckage blocked roads and power cables dangled in the streets.
In the northern town of Beit Hanoun, Siham Kafarneh, 37, sat on the steps of a small grocery, weeping. The mother of eight said the home she had spent 10 years saving up for and moved into two months earlier had been destroyed.
“Nothing is left. Everything I have is gone,” she said.
Across Gaza, more than 130 bodies were pulled from the rubble Saturday, officials said. In southern Gaza, 20 members of an extended family were killed before the start of the lull when a tank shell hit a building where they had sought refuge, Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.
Israel launched a major air campaign in Gaza on July 8 and later sent ground troops into the Hamas-ruled territory in an operation it said was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire and destroying cross-border tunnels used for attacks.
I took my talents to South Beach over the weekend for a relative’s surprise birthday party, and on the plane to and fro I had the opportunity to…think. Love airplane mode. Phones and tablets should have other modes, such as marriage mode, play-with-children mode, just-watch-one-screen mode, or perhaps physical media mode, where you would be forced to consume news and entertainment using a newspaper or magazine. I know, I know. I’m old and out-of-touch.
I am worn out about the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian war and the war over which press outlets are too pro-Israel (FOX) and too pro-Palestinian (The New York Times). Terrorist groups and organizations have for too long molded the narrative and have sabotaged every attempt at peace in the region. And the governmental authorities in the warring camps have let it happen. Clearly, Benjamin Netanyahu is not the man who will lead Israel to recognize a two-state solution and there is no current Palestinian leader with the credibility to make peace with Israel. As long as countries in the region refuse to recognize Israel’s sovereign right to exist, there is no basis for meaningful talks. As long as Israel continues to blow up Palestinian homes, the world will continue to paint it as an immoral country.
And speaking of leaders with no credibility and few morals, Vladimir Putin has almost succeeded in building his neo-Soviet state out of the ashes of the USSR. Covering up the shooting of the Malaysian airliner, then having his thugs block access to the crash site is right out of the Chernobyl 101 textbook. The problem is that textbooks are so passe and the technology we have now has laid bare his claim that it was Ukrainians, not pro-Russian separatists, who perpetrated this horrific deed. I don’t believe that this will lead to Putin’s downfall in the short term because he’s still very popular in Russia and he controls the media. Some Russians even believe that Putin himself was the target as he was flying in the general vicinity at the time the Malaysian plane was destroyed. Next up to blame will probably be the Israelis. Putin loves the Israelis.
As for the latest domestic squabbles, the Third Circuit Court in DC struck down the ACA subsidies and the Fourth Circuit in Richmond upheld them. Gotta love our judicial system. Both sides can claim victories, but my sense is that the ultimate decision by the Supreme Court, either next year or the year after, will uphold the subsidies that people get when buying insurance on the national exchange even though the law says that subsidies should only be given to people who buy on the state exchanges. Of course, the last time we tried to parse the ACA arguments in the court, the general consensus was that the law was toast. Ouch. And even if the Republicans win the Senate in November, which they won’t, the law will still survive.
Yesterday, a paid MSNBC contributor spoke out against her network’s apparent bias in the way it reported the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
According to Rula Jebreal, MSNBC showed clear favoritism in their reporting to Isreal, and disregarded the other part of the story – the suffering being caused by Israeli bombs in Palestine.
“Because of AIPAC, and because of the money behind it, and because of Sheldon Adelson, and because of all of us in the media,” Jebreal said. “We are ridiculous. We are disgustingly biased when it comes to this issue.”
She went on… “Look at how many airtime Netanyahu and his folks have on air on a daily basis. Andrea Mitchell and others. I never see one Palestinian being interviewed on theses same issues.”
Well that was yesterday, and it seems that MSNBC cannot take criticism. After making her pont, Jebreal tweeted that all her upcoming appearances on the network were mysteriously cancelled.
Sixty-four public figures, including seven Nobel Peace Prize winners, have called for an international arms embargo on Israel for its “war crimes and possible crimes against humanity” in Gaza. The statement came in a letter published in Britain’s The Guardian on Friday.
“Israel has once again unleashed the full force of its military against the captive Palestinian population, particularly in the besieged Gaza Strip, in an inhumane and illegal act of military aggression. Israel’s ability to launch such devastating attacks with impunity largely stems from the vast international military cooperation and trade that it maintains with complicit governments across the world,” read the statement.
“We call on the UN and governments across the world to take immediate steps to implement a comprehensive and legally binding military embargo on Israel, similar to that imposed on South Africa during apartheid,” the letter concluded.
Among the signators were Nobel peace laureates Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Jody Williams, Adolfo Peres Esquivel, Mairead Maguire and Rigoberto Menchu.
Also signing were academics Noam Chomsky and Rashid Khalidi, filmmakers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, musicians Roger Waters and Brian Eno, writers Alice Walker and Caryl Churchill, and journalists John Pilger and Chris Hedges. Two Israelis, academics Ilan Pappe and Nurit Peled, signed the letter as well.
JERICHO, West Bank (AP) – Mitt Romney’s assertion that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital is absolutely unacceptably , a senior Palestinian official said Monday, voicing the strongest Palestinian criticism yet of the Republican presidential candidate.
Palestinian officials had largely maintained diplomatic silence during Romney’s current visit to the region, even as the candidate embraced Israeli positions and in an apparent snub, avoided meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The U.S. is the dominant broker in efforts — paralyzed since 2008 — to set up a Palestinian state through negotiations with Israel, and Palestinian leaders do not want to antagonize key players, including Romney.
However, Romney’s comments on Sunday about Jerusalem prompted a strong response.
The Palestinians want to establish a capital in east Jerusalem, captured and annexed by Israel in 1967. Most of the world, including the U.S., does not recognize the annexation. The U.S. and others keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.
On Sunday, Romney said flat out that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and strongly suggested he would move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem if he were president, supporting two key Israeli demands.
Saeb Erekat, an Abbas aide, said Romney’s comments about Jerusalem were “absolutely unacceptable,” adding that “such statements and policy will push the region toward extremists
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