“Breaking the Silence” publication of Israeli ‘Front Line’ troops testimonies further echoes and corroborates concerns posed by all humans rights organisations working in the war torn enclave of the Gaza Strip. However, despite pro-Israeli counter arguments against the validity and authenticity of some of the testimonies provided, the authors of the report are extremely well respected on the international press and diplomatic circuits. The revelations contained in their report, along with those compiled by Amnesty International, International Red Cross and Human Rights Watch, put further pressure on Israel to answer International ’War Crime’ allegations inflicted upon the Palestinian people during ‘Operation: Cast Lead’.
How much longer can so called western democracies turn a blind eye to the strenuous allegations from recognised international bodies of ‘war crimes’ perpetrated against Palestinians

Shingo, who is Melanie Phillips?

Sepharad,

If Israel is living in a vacuum amidst many many many million Arab States it’s because it chooses to do so.  How many times must I remind you that 22 of those Arab States have offered to not only recognize Israel, but go even further and normalie relations between them an Israel. 

All Israel have to do is accept the offer and presto, vaccum is no more.  The way to peace is there on a plate if they want it.  It astounds me how Israeli suporter keep hammering the lie that there is no partner for peace, that the Arabs want to drive them into the sea etc etc. The also cite a survey that Israelis overwhelmingly want peace, but the fact is that they want peace on theri onw terms, otherwise they are not interested. They don’t want to pay the price.

Your favourtire boogie men, Hamas and Hezbollah have both said they would accept the Arab peace initiative.

You sond like Melanie “Sharia law under the bed” Phillips sometimes.

Re the Hamas point of view via Al Jazeera, the fact that only Al Jazeera have been able to report from Gaza has played right into Israel’s hands, because the mere mention of the name Al Jazeera now suffices for Arab propaganda.

Yes, Hezbollah and Hamas are quite clear about what they want. Hezbollah want Isrle to stay out of Lebanon and Hamas want a 2 state settlement.

None of this matters to the Zionist brain that seems to reside in a hermetcially sealed idelogy that is impervious to reason or facts.

My only response is my previous July 16 post. I think the Israelis understand that they aren’t living in a vacuum in a land amidst many many many million Arab Moslems plus the Iranian Moslems, and they certainly do not think killing Arabs is the way to survive—they’re not stupid, and they are not generically immoral. If there is a way to peace they will find it. Despite Hamas and Hezbollah, despite all the rising anti-Semitism in Europe (largely but not entirely among Muslim immigrants who find it safer to attack Jews than their host countries).

Inherit, thanks for pointing the way to the Hamas point of view via Al Jazeera, but it might be more helpful for the diggers to read books about Hamas and Hezbollah written by their leaders. They are quite clear about what they want. But they know how to confuse and dazzle the ever-gullible Western left in their public statements.

Inherit The Wind,

>> It took me LESS than a minute to find the Al Jazeera English Language web site a reasonable starting point for alternate POVs.

So I take it you regard Al Jazeera as the PR wing for Hamas.  Interesting. I wonder why right wing politicians like Newt “let bomb Iran” Gingrich appear so frequently on this channel?

As for Hamas, given that our Western media virtually blocks us from any Hamas or Palestinians news sources, it’s highly unlikely we would hear dissenting views even if they existed.

You’re scraping the barrel.

Shingo, you disappoint me.  It took me LESS than a minute to find the Al Jazeera English Language web site a reasonable starting point for alternate POVs.

and I agree, Shingo, its great the soldiers are speaking out, but they do not know (and aren’t told) the reasoning of the upper military officers.

“loose rules”??

or planned Savagery. I say the latter.

My high school classmate Johan Eskes was executed by a German squad in 1945 during the German occupation of the Netherlands. Johan had absolutely nothing to do with the resistance action for which he was killed. The murder of Johan and the murder of civilians in Gaza have one thing in common. They are done to terrorize the population. It did not work in the Netherlands and will not work in Gaza.

That’s a weak argument Sepharad,

The fact that soldiers are speaking out is commendable on the part of the individuals, not a positive reelection on Israel itself.  Remember that the IDF are doing their level best to discredit or ignore what these people have had to say.

The fact that people are speaking tells us there are good people with a conscience in Israel.  It does not exonerate Israel or comprise evidence is a healthy and moral society.

As for Hamas, given that our Western media virtually blocks us from any Hamas or Palestinians news sources, it’s highly unlikely we would hear dissenting views even if they existed.

You’re scraping the barrel.

To Folktruther and those of us who disdain the current regime of Zionazis and their ilk, there is a rabbi, who when questioned about the state of Israel, stated that there is no religious basis for the state of Israel to exist.
The statement was made by an Orthodox Rebbe, who looked at the religious side of the question of the existence of Israel.
Looking at the philosophy behind the existence of Israel, Noam Chomsky, has said it best, ‘that one cannot justify evil actions because evil has been done to you.’  Those who blindly take the word of AIPAC and its minions, are blithely considering the fate of the Palestinians and their progeny. This is inherently and explicitly evil on its foundation.
We, the world community cannot sit idly by any longer, we must come out on the side of right thinking and actions. We must move quickly or there will be no Palestinians left to help. The Israelis are doing a wonderful job, backed by the United States government of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The blood of the Palestinian people is on our hands for not taking action against the very cause of this disaster, the regime of Israeli governments that at their core beliefs, hold the Palestinian people hostage to starvation, ill health and worse, after Operation Cast Lead, wholesale slaughter and extermination.
I am appalled at the lack of coverage of the Palestinian side of this horrific event. We can no longer deny that the Israeli government is ‘rogue and outlaw!’ They will not take the word of the world
community and stop the madness that they have been perpetrating on the Palestinian people.
As Americans, we can do some things, one of which is to speak out to our Congressmen and Congresswomen, about cutting off of the funding, both militarily and financially, so that Israel will be forced to come to the ‘table of peace’ and negotiate in good faith, not the way things have been since 1947.

Sepharad, in my opinion, does identify with evil.  She is a ziofascist whose speciality as a journalist is is damange control of Israeli violence in pursuing ethnic clensing.  Her political hero is the political monster Sharon, and she has sanitized his militarily surrounding the Beirut Palestinians suburbs and bringing in falangists to rape and kill the men, women and children inside.  She defends Israel killing the civilians, mostly children, of the military pogrom of Gaza.  She is like those cultured Nazi women who argue in modulated tones for the desecration of Jewish cemetaries.

Shapharad states explicitly that she prefers the current racist Israeli regime to Hamas and Hezbollah defending the Arab population.  She has, and will, defend any massacre that Israel perpetrates, including its use of nuclear weapons in initiating a neuclear war.

And those kind of people are in power in Israel.  That is what Lieberman and Natanyahu are like.  And the only way their policies can be discredited is by making them too costly to pursue.  One way is by the boycott, etc now promoted by Naomi Klein, and many others.  Another is by pressuring Obama to change his real policy, which now supports the increasing of settlements while publically denying it. 

And a third way is providing Hamas with weapons to resist these types of massacres; anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles in particular.  these could then be used to defend a Palestinian state.

Most important, it would increasingly discredit Zionists who support the US War on Terrorism, which is a war on Muslims.  These people are fanatics who can’t think reasonably or humanely about power, and blindly support Israeli imperialism.  And this is leading historically to disaster, not least for Israel.

Ed, “Unclear rules and reckless conduct” are sufficiently damning without your faux embellishments. The fact that the soldiers themselves are telling the truth about what went on is commendable and important. The fact that they themselves perceive that it is wrong to make war on civilians even in a guerilla war situation where the enemy combatants are moving in and around the civilians should command some respect even for enemies of Israel such as yourself. (I doubt you’d find anyone in Hamas admitting to anything but perfect conduct and lying like hell to look good.)
I find the Israeli commander’s comment to the effect that he didn’t want to lose one hair on a soldier’s head, let alone life, coupled his words when-in-doubt-protect-yourself (i.e. shoot) to be understandable—not perfect. Israeli Jews are small in number compared to the Arabs around them, in the occupied territories, and they know they can’t afford to lose many of them. This does not mean that Arab life is cheap, and should not be expressed in such a way that the soldier thinks it’s OK to shoot an unarmed civilian when in doubt.

Folktruther once said it was too bad I “identified with evil.” I don’t. I don’t like Israel’s current government, but even if I did I consider them far less evil than Hamas or Hezbollah, who have the art of human shield defense down pat, who tolerate no dissent among their own people and during and after the Gaza battle have seized and shot every Fatah sympathizer they can get their hands on.

It is my strong hope that Israel and the Palestinians will find their way to a second state, and that both will prosper in peace. There are many Israelis and many Palestinians with the same hope. Many on both sides have been embittered, are fearful and full of distrust. Progress will not be easy, but it will be impossible if Hamas and Hezbollah succeed in seizing and holding those under their power hostage, all the while indoctrinating them in the most vile anti-Semitism. To wish death to either population is evil, and to long for a Middle East where you can amuse yourself watching the world burn instead of trying to help both sides arrange a decent life for both—now that is without a doubt evil.

Israeli Soldiers Reveal the Brutal Truth of Gaza Attack

Troops’ testimonies disclose loose rules of engagement and use of civilians as human shields. Palestinian houses were systematically destroyed by ‘insane artillery firepower’

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

“July 15, 2009 “The Independent”—-  Israeli troops were repeatedly encouraged by officers to prioritise their own safety over that of Palestinian civilians when they embarked on the ground invasion of Gaza in January, according to the first direct testimonies of soldiers who served in the operation.

The picture that emerges from the testimonies, which have been seen by The Independent, is one of massive fire power to cover advances and rules of engagement that were calculated to ensure, in the words attributed to one battalion commander, that “not a hair will fall of a soldier of mine. I am not willing to allow a soldier of mine to risk himself by hesitating. If you are not sure, shoot.”

The first eye-witness accounts of the war by serving Israeli reservists and conscripts describes the Israeli use of Palestinian civilians as “human shields”. They detail the killing of at least two civilians, the vandalism, looting and wholesale destruction of Palestinian houses, the use of deadly white phosphorus, bellicose religious advice from army rabbis and what another battalion commander described to his troops as “insane firepower with artillery and air force”. The reports amount to the most formidable challenge by Israelis since the Gaza war to the military’s own considered view that it conducted the operation according to international law and made “an enormous effort to focus its fire only against the terrorists whilst doing the utmost to avoid harming uninvolved civilians”.

They are contained in testimonies from about 30 soldiers that were collected by Breaking the Silence, an army veterans organisation that seeks to “expose the Israeli public to the routine situations of everyday life in the occupied territories”. Although the organisation has collected hundreds of testimonies from ex-soldiers before, this is the first time that it has done so from serving soldiers so soon after the events they describe.

They tell how:

* Unprecedentedly loose rules of engagement were put in place to protect Israeli troops. One soldier said his brigade commander and other officers made it clear that “any movement must entail gunfire”. He added: “I don’t remember if the brigade commander said this or someone else. I’ m not sure. No one is supposed to be there. If you see any signs of movement at all, you shoot. These, essentially, were the rules of engagement. Shoot if you like if you are afraid or you see someone, shoot.” Another soldier said his battalion commander had said the operation was not “a limited confrontation such as in Hebron, and not to hesitate if we suspected someone nor feel bad about destruction because it is all done for the safety of our own soldiers… if we see something suspect and shoot, better hit an innocent than hesitate to target an enemy”. One soldier said the “awareness of each soldier going in is simply… a light finger on the trigger. You see something and you’re not quite sure? You shoot”.

* Houses were systematically demolished. Despite official accounts that homes were only destroyed for strictly “operational” reasons, one reservist, a veteran of the conflict in Gaza since before 2005, said “I never knew such fire power” used by tanks and helicopters for the “constant destruction” of houses. The soldier said that some houses had been destroyed for normal operational reasons, such as because they had been booby trapped or used by militants to fire from, or had contained tunnel openings.”
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23060.htm

Was it only “unclear rules and reckless conduct” that led to the crimes? Or could it also have been due to Israel’s increasingly blatant racial supremacism and sadistic power-worship?

Destroying Gaza

By Sara Roy

“July 14, 2009 “Electronic Intifada”—The recent meeting between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu generated speculation over the future relationship between America and Israel, and a potentially changed US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Analysts on the right and left are commenting on a new, tougher American policy characterized by strengthened US demands on Israel. However, beneath the diplomatic choreography lies an agonizing reality that received only brief comment from Obama and silence from Netanyahu: the ongoing devastation of the people of Gaza.

Gaza is an example of a society that has been deliberately reduced to a state of abject destitution, its once productive population transformed into one of aid-dependent paupers. This context is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the US and European Union, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Gaza`s subjection began long before Israel`s recent war against it. The Israeli occupation—now largely forgotten or denied by the international community—has devastated Gaza`s economy and people, especially since 2006. Although economic restrictions actually increased before Hamas` electoral victory in January 2006, the deepened sanction regime and siege subsequently imposed by Israel and the international community, and later intensified in June 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza, has all but destroyed the local economy. If there has been a pronounced theme among the many Palestinians, Israelis and internationals who I have interviewed in the last three years, it was the fear of damage to Gaza`s society and economy so profound that billions of dollars and generations of people would be required to address it—a fear that has now been realized.

After Israel`s December assault, Gaza`s already compromised conditions have become virtually unlivable. Livelihoods, homes and public infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed on a scale that even the Israeli army admitted was indefensible. In Gaza today, there is no private sector to speak of and no industry. Eighty percent of Gaza`s agricultural crops were destroyed and Israel continues to snipe at farmers attempting to plant and tend fields near the well-fenced and patrolled border. Most productive activity has been extinguished.”

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article23053.htm

P.T. and Photoschock are quite right.  this was a punitive action directed against civilians instigated by rabbis brought in by the Israeil military to incite the troops to kill.  the t-shirts sold to the military deliberately invoked brutality, such as killing pregnant women.

What this was was a military progrom.  In the War on Terror the West, lead by the US, is reinacting the historical looting expeditions known in history as the Crusades.  The Crusades targeted and massacred Jews as well as Muslims (and Christians.)  Here an historical inversion has taken place, with the Jews now on the side of the Christians.

When Sharon removed the Jewish settlers from Gaza, he sealed it off as you would a giant concentration camp.  Currently a starvation blockade is occurring to destroy the economy and malnourish the population, especially the children.

but what is most resonant about Gaza is that it is a giant ghetto, like those the Jews were imprisoned in Europe as part of a religious attack by Christianity to debase and degrade Jews as god killers.  Just as people molested in their childhood have a greater tendency to molest their own children, Jews are now doing to the Palestinians what the Christians did to them historically.

In European Ghettos, the population was incided, particularly on Good Friday, when the Passion was read to the people by the priests emphasizing the Jews killing of Jesus, to general assaults of Jews.  These were called progroms. The Israeli’s are now conducting them against Palesitinians in the Gaza ghetto.

This is largely supported by the US, and, particularly, American Jews.  None of the truthdig Zionists, for example, Sehpahrad, Inherit, the the lemmings, opposed this Gaza massacre while it was happening, and justified or diverted attention from it in various ways.  A third of the Israeli settlers are American Jews, and the money to fund them comes from the US.

This is increasingly known to the billion and a half Muslims in 58 nations.  these states are gaining power while the West is losing world power.  therefore this military action, effective in the short term to intimidate and subjugate, is sucidal to Israel in the long term, which many knowledgeable Israelis know.  This is why Jewish emmigration from Israel in now greater than immigration.

History occurs twice, Someone said, and though it has its farcical aspects, its just as bloody.

The whole point of ‘Operation Cast Lead’ was to target the civilian population of Palestine, the Gaza Strip for their unmitigated gall of electing Hamas as their government in free and fair, open elections.
How dare the Palestinian people go against the wishes of the American and Israeli governments and elect their own representative government.
What occurred in Operation Cast Lead was nothing more than the collective punishment of a population of people, for the actions of maybe 1% of the population of the Gaza Strip, who have actively resisted the illegal and unethical occupation of Palestine since the 1967 War. To compound the problem, Israel, has committed many illegal acts of aggression and expropriation of Palestinian land to settle ‘religious Zionists.’
Is it not enough that the Israeli government has choked off the livelihood of the Palestinian people, caused tremendous harm to the children of Palestine by blockading the borders of Palestine through illegal and unethical means, while proclaiming that they are the party that is hurt. Men, women and children faced with the prospect of starvation, disease and certain death because they cannot get to the hospital to receive necessary medical care, also the prospect of economic downfall because the Israelis will not allow the Palestinians to print their own money! This is not just a war against an occupier, but a war of survival! A war which, is being fought with sticks and stones against the most modern and effective army and navy in the Middle East.
The stated wish of the Israeli government is to wipe the earth clean of Palestinians, complete and total genocide of a people so that they can usurp the land and these people proclaim that they are the persecuted(the Israelis)! All these actions based on the predicate, Nazi Holocaust! And they have the unmitigated gall to do the same to a people who owned the land and had legal and true documents that proclaimed their ownership of this land.
Zionism, is nothing more than a land-grabbing philosophy that leads to bloodshed and death, for the Palestinians. To equate Zionism, with Judaism, is akin to equating the Crusades with true Christianity. All true people of faith and those who have worked through the ethical comparisons, have and will find that the Israeli’s are committing the worst act of genocide that has yet been known to man other than the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people.
The world community must not stand idly by and watch this occur, we must blockade Israel, economically and physically. There must never again happen a circumstance where a people become endangered by another group for the sake of land or economic status.

Targeting civilians was the whole point.  Guerrilla fighters can just fade away so you don’t know who or where they are.  So you attack the civilians on the ground that they harbor the guerrillas.