Earlier this week I heard a recording of a telephone call made by a child from a car in Palestine. Her parents and siblings had been fleeing to what they hoped would be a safer place when they turned a bend in the road to be confronted by an Israeli tank.
The tank opened fire on them and the child somehow survived to make the phone call and beg for help. They sent an ambulance and when it arrived her phone went dead. Yesterday they arrived at the scene and found that the girl had been shot and the ambulance had been destroyed. Everyone - including the ambulance crew - had been killed.
Netanyahu has announced that he is sending ground troops into a small town which is holding thousands of refugees living under tarpaulins, with the intention of killing a Hamas battalion. The desperate refugees have virtually no food or water and disease is spreading rapidly.
28,000 civilians have now been killed and Netanyahu refuses to listen to any suggestions regarding an even temporary cease fire. Hamas will not cease fire unless the IDF vacate Gaza.
There is only one thing which can be done to stop further genocide now, and that is to deny Israel further armaments unless they stop breaking the international rules of warfare. If Israel is worried that Hamas will use a ceasefire to regroup, then they will have to deal with the situation another way. Netanyahu has left no other options and seems not to care about the fate of the hostages, let alone any other innocent people. 70% of Gaza has now been totally destroyed.
Both sides have been de-humanised.
It is also too late for the baby who was taken out of his pregnant mother's womb and his head was cut off, it is also too late for the little girls who were raped in Kibbutz Bari and then shot on the seventh of October, it is also too late for the parents and children who were tied to each other and burned with their houses in the kibbutzim. It's too late for everyone. What a shame. Also the four-month-old baby and his four-year-old brother who were taken captive and are probably already dead with their mother, the young women who were raped at the party and then shot at that Shabbat. Too late indeed.
ReplyDeleteDebby has said it.
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DeleteThe atrocity you speak of is a horrible, horrible thing. But your own talmud specifically warns against revenge. Even Hammurabi only demanded an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Your country's 'revenge' far exceeds even that. When will that awful event be atoned for? When is enough enough?
ReplyDeleteThe Torah specifically says. ' You should love your fellow as yourself.'
Debbie, I am not in favor of the actions in Gaza nor in favor of Netanyahu, and of course you are right. What really hurts me is that I did not see the same treatment of the terrible disaster that happened to us here, terrible things happened here and I did not read the same words of mercy and participation in our terrible pain, I have no way to describe the pain, despair and fear in which we still live, and not of our own volition, no We started it. Understand that they want to eliminate us and we have no way out of it.
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DeleteI don't know if my comment was deleted or didn't reach the right place, I'll write again. Debby, I am not in favor of the actions in Gaza nor in favor of Netanyahu, what hurts me is that I did not see the same participation in our pain here, I wrote more but now I will be content with this.
ReplyDelete28,000 killed so far. How much revenge do you need?
DeleteAnd you DID see the same sympathy for the horrible attacks on the Israeli people.
DeleteYael, define participation. The world was outraged. Did we send in supplies and medical help to the degree that the world assists Palestine? No. We didn't, because your country was not destroyed.
DeleteYou dismiss any contrary opinion as 'ignorance', but it is not, Yael. We all see what is unfolding with our own eyes. There is nothing to be ignorant of.
I am not trying at all to be unkind. I am trying to tell you what I see, and what almost all of the world sees.
Debby, I mean on a personal level, I expected more from people I've known here for more than ten years. It didn't happen. I have no argument about everything else.
DeleteI know that I outraged you earlier, because you said so, not directly to me, but publicly, but by name. I thought that was unfortunate since understanding comes from direct dialog. I hope that you will understand that my sympathy is with any person affected by war.
DeleteI understand it Debby and I'm sorry if I commented something personal, there were days when I wrote out of great anxiety and under a real barrage of missiles here. I don't want to continue arguing here, I would be happy to continue to correspond with you by email and explain more. My email is on the blog if you want.
DeleteWhy did you delete my comment?
ReplyDeleteI have not deleted any comments. I will go to spam and see if it is there.
DeleteThe UN is useless, Hamas is evil to its own people and to those of Israel, the Zionists of Israel persist in seeing themselves as the eternal victims and they are driven by fear and the result of the Israeli defence action will be that Israel will end up without any allies and for Hamas maybe this will be the victory they seek.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of this.
DeleteThe world is watching daily horrific acts (as you describe). The UN is a puppet and not effective (follow the money). War crimes under the leadership of BN are more visible daily. The US support is strong for Israel but in decline among our youth. Generational shift is going to drive change. The current generation is unwavering but questioning. Some are saying after the US presidential elections, there will be big changes. Until then, it is heartbreaking to watch the cruelty of war crimes.
ReplyDeleteThat unwavering support is driven by 'Christian' Republicans. They are not Christians in a Biblical sense. I will always be ashamed of my country's response.
DeleteThese acts are supported by a pragmatism of the wrong sort. As usual, people without power suffer the most. Nothing ever seems to change in global politics.
DeleteI heard about that little girl's death on NPR this afternoon. I grieve for all the children who have and are suffering in this terrible situation. Hamas needs to be stopped, but so does Netanyahu.
ReplyDeleteShe is only one example amongst 28,000 dead and 60,000 seriously injured.
DeleteTo answer your question, Tom, yes, it is too late. Not only are both sides de-humanized, so too are all the aiders and abettors, all the way back to WWII.
ReplyDeleteEconomics and geography now take precedence.
DeleteIt is indeed terrible and has gone too far. However, I can see Netanyahu's position that terrorism will continue after all this is over because the various groups would like to bring about the end of the Israeli state and perhaps see this as a step along the way. And if that were to happen, where would be next? I don't know the answer.
ReplyDeleteBoth sides fear and hate each other. Netanyahu's position is entrenched by his own personal survival, not his country's.
DeleteIt may be PC now Tom to quote the number of civilians killed in Gaza and to condemm many of the Israeli actions. However it has to be remembered that many of us in Britain are the product of a generation that bombed German cities like Dresden to the ground, killing thousands and thousands of civilians in the process. Our history has had it's share of the current atrocities.
ReplyDeleteWW2 was the only war I can think of which - to my mind - was 100% justified. Dresden, Hamburg, Nagasaki and Hiroshima have always been questioned and the debate is still going on. The Nazis systematically killed 6 million innocent civilians and the nation which voted them in were bound to be held responsible for them.
DeleteAnd what do you mean, 'PC'? Do you think that anyone who talks about this is acting on a politically correct level? Is it now politically correct to talk about 28,000 civilians killed and 60,000 badly injured? Does your political standpoint mean that you are not allowed to mention it in case you embarrass yourself?
DeleteAgree with you Tom whole- heartedly. Coward I may be but I can no longer bear to watch the killing of the innocents - always more of them are killed in any war.
ReplyDeleteI know you are not a coward Weave.
DeleteI listened to an Israeli survivor of the attack whose mother has just been released by Hamas but whose father still remains hidden away with other hostages from her village. She spoke With eloquence and dignity and she cried not only for her father’s life but for peace
ReplyDeleteIf only all involved could spotlight on her painful, beautiful words
Ah John. If the world cannot pause a moment for the screams of a terrified child, what is the hope that they will listen to words of reason?
DeleteTom, tell me I am getting old but surely everyone must now despair of the way the world is going. Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestinians, various countries in Africa, war whichever way you turn, shop-lifting soaring to unheard of heights, strikes. I could go on. But there is no point - we all know the score. All I can say is I shall not be sorry to leave before long and I can't bear to think of what the future holds for my grandchildren and great grandchildren
ReplyDeleteYes, the world is going through one of its regular down-turns. I've only just found your comment, Weave.
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