Gaza -- Rage and Anguish
I am widely in touch with people on both sides of the Green Line -- I mean that symbolically as well as literally.
I have never known such an explosion of rage and anguish afflicting Israel/Palestine. Obviously the Israeli leadership, if not its caring citizens, have decided to punish the Palestinian people as a whole. Here is an account in my mailbox from Dorothy Naor, long time Israeli peace worker on both sides of the Green Line:
....................
Dear Friends,
I am speechless with grief, with frustration at not being able to do anything to stop Israel's atrocities. All I can do is to inform you and to ask those of you abroad to keep badgering your politicians wherever you live to stop Israel's government and military from
continuing to commit war crimes and from Israel's senseless refusal to recognize that the Palestinians will not disappear, that they have rights, that they are human beings no less than are Israelis. Ask your politicians to recognize that Israel's government wants land not peace,
that it must be made to realize that its continued wrongs and uses of force will not bring Israelis security any more than it will bring Palestinians to stop fighting for their freedom and rights and justice. The only way to stop Qasams is to recognize Palestinian rights. Force will not quell violence. Violence breeds violence-Israeli violence towards Palestinians breeds theirs towards Israelis.
The first of the string below is about the wanton killing of 2 teenagers in Jenin by the IOF, the remaining 4 items are about Gaza. [omitted by EAK] I so wish that I could mail you better news.
Dorothy, sadly
........................
And here is the response of Khalid Amayreh, American trained journalist who lives in the West Bank, writes for Aljazeera and the British press, who responds to an angry attack on Palestinians by one of my Yale classmates who declines to communicate personally with him.
........................
Dear Ed:
Israel, a nuclear power with the fourth strongest army in the world is simply ganging up on a nearly completely helpless Palestinian population already tormented by four months of a crippling siege that pushed them to the brink of starvation. Israel has been denying our people access to food, water and work. And now, the Israeli army is murdering us, all under the rubric of fighting terror. What terror is greater than firing artillery shells and air-to-ground missiles into the hearts of civilian neighborhoods? What terror is greater than terrorizing an entire civilian population under the rubric of freeing a captured or abducted soldier?
Israel is using scandalously disproportionate force against unprotected civilian communities. Today, an Israeli missile slaughtered a family of three. The missile decapitated a six year-old girl, killed her mother and brother. Yesterday, three other civilians were killed. All in all, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed and as many as 140 injured, many in critical conditions. And since September 2000, Israel killed more than 954 Palestinian children and minors.
This is not war, wars are fought between armies. This is carnage. This is a massacre.
As to the occupation, it is real and its reality transcends reality. It is a daily crime, it is an act of rape. And many of its aspects can be compared to the holocaust.
Don't raise your eyebrows. Wasn't the holocaust after all a series of brutal killings by an overwhelmingly merciless army of a shockingly helpless civilian population?
Israel is therefore committing war crimes. A state that knowingly and deliberately targets innocent civilians, power stations, bridges, streets, homes, schools and universities is a criminal state.
I think Jews should speak out against this manifest criminality. This Israeli government is made up of war criminals and ought to be viewed and treated as such. It is a government that is making the star of David look like the Swastika of Hitler.
shame.
....................
I am generally being excoriated, as are all who try to mediate or put persons in direct touch with each other over there as either a fool or knave by those who are adamant supporters of Israel. I assume that this contempt will also include Kofi Annan who has issued an appeal for Israel to halt its assault on Gaza per the latest BBC reports that brought me out of bed a few minutes ago.
Those of us who insist on peace there ARE supported by a majority on both sides of the Green Line per polls of people too long burdened by such violence. Any and all of us could rage at those who are perpetuating the atrocities over there. Rage is an easy emotion to muster when one's loved ones have been assaulted. I have been there and done that. But we are hopefully more than chimps programmed to kill and maim our enemies? Or are we not?
And lest we forget, we Americans are involved in our own killing games today in Iraq and Afghanistan where our occupations are also being resisted.
[I have done spell checks and corrections on all of the above.]
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
I have never known such an explosion of rage and anguish afflicting Israel/Palestine. Obviously the Israeli leadership, if not its caring citizens, have decided to punish the Palestinian people as a whole. Here is an account in my mailbox from Dorothy Naor, long time Israeli peace worker on both sides of the Green Line:
....................
Dear Friends,
I am speechless with grief, with frustration at not being able to do anything to stop Israel's atrocities. All I can do is to inform you and to ask those of you abroad to keep badgering your politicians wherever you live to stop Israel's government and military from
continuing to commit war crimes and from Israel's senseless refusal to recognize that the Palestinians will not disappear, that they have rights, that they are human beings no less than are Israelis. Ask your politicians to recognize that Israel's government wants land not peace,
that it must be made to realize that its continued wrongs and uses of force will not bring Israelis security any more than it will bring Palestinians to stop fighting for their freedom and rights and justice. The only way to stop Qasams is to recognize Palestinian rights. Force will not quell violence. Violence breeds violence-Israeli violence towards Palestinians breeds theirs towards Israelis.
The first of the string below is about the wanton killing of 2 teenagers in Jenin by the IOF, the remaining 4 items are about Gaza. [omitted by EAK] I so wish that I could mail you better news.
Dorothy, sadly
........................
And here is the response of Khalid Amayreh, American trained journalist who lives in the West Bank, writes for Aljazeera and the British press, who responds to an angry attack on Palestinians by one of my Yale classmates who declines to communicate personally with him.
........................
Dear Ed:
Israel, a nuclear power with the fourth strongest army in the world is simply ganging up on a nearly completely helpless Palestinian population already tormented by four months of a crippling siege that pushed them to the brink of starvation. Israel has been denying our people access to food, water and work. And now, the Israeli army is murdering us, all under the rubric of fighting terror. What terror is greater than firing artillery shells and air-to-ground missiles into the hearts of civilian neighborhoods? What terror is greater than terrorizing an entire civilian population under the rubric of freeing a captured or abducted soldier?
Israel is using scandalously disproportionate force against unprotected civilian communities. Today, an Israeli missile slaughtered a family of three. The missile decapitated a six year-old girl, killed her mother and brother. Yesterday, three other civilians were killed. All in all, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed and as many as 140 injured, many in critical conditions. And since September 2000, Israel killed more than 954 Palestinian children and minors.
This is not war, wars are fought between armies. This is carnage. This is a massacre.
As to the occupation, it is real and its reality transcends reality. It is a daily crime, it is an act of rape. And many of its aspects can be compared to the holocaust.
Don't raise your eyebrows. Wasn't the holocaust after all a series of brutal killings by an overwhelmingly merciless army of a shockingly helpless civilian population?
Israel is therefore committing war crimes. A state that knowingly and deliberately targets innocent civilians, power stations, bridges, streets, homes, schools and universities is a criminal state.
I think Jews should speak out against this manifest criminality. This Israeli government is made up of war criminals and ought to be viewed and treated as such. It is a government that is making the star of David look like the Swastika of Hitler.
shame.
....................
I am generally being excoriated, as are all who try to mediate or put persons in direct touch with each other over there as either a fool or knave by those who are adamant supporters of Israel. I assume that this contempt will also include Kofi Annan who has issued an appeal for Israel to halt its assault on Gaza per the latest BBC reports that brought me out of bed a few minutes ago.
Those of us who insist on peace there ARE supported by a majority on both sides of the Green Line per polls of people too long burdened by such violence. Any and all of us could rage at those who are perpetuating the atrocities over there. Rage is an easy emotion to muster when one's loved ones have been assaulted. I have been there and done that. But we are hopefully more than chimps programmed to kill and maim our enemies? Or are we not?
And lest we forget, we Americans are involved in our own killing games today in Iraq and Afghanistan where our occupations are also being resisted.
[I have done spell checks and corrections on all of the above.]
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 5:16 AM
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