Ethnic Cleansing
The IDF has taken a couple of hundred prisoners but discovered that only 15% of their captives have any association with Hamas. The prisoners are men, so that percentage probably holds for the Gaza population. A thousand Gazan have been killed, including 300 children and a hundred women, so you have 600 men, of whom 90 can be assumed to be associated with Hamas. Over 90% of those killed are “collateral damage”.
On the Israeli side 3 civilians and a member of the military have died as a result of the rocket attacks hitting outside of Gaza, leaving 9 IDF deaths in the assault. Of the 9, 3 to 5 died as a result of “friendly fire” incidents, meaning that Hamas has only inflicted a maximum of 6 deaths during the combat.
Every time the IDF has attacked a UN facility it has claimed it was receiving fire from Hamas fighters at the facility, but UN officials have denied that every time. The IDF has allowed no independent journalists in the area, so there is no way of independently confirming anything.
These claims of Hamas attacks are not reflected in the IDF losses. The IDF is not engaged in close combat, they have declared a free-fire zone in Gaza.
The attack on the UN headquarters make the object of this “war” obvious – they have destroyed all of the main stocks of food and medical supplies in Gaza. They intend to make Gaza incapable of supporting life to force the people out. Egypt is the only place they can go. This is ethnic cleansing, plain and simple.
The Israelis have claimed the right of self defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, but a number of people examined the claim and declared it fiction.
Further proof of my thesis can be found in a Ha’aretz article reporting on the banning of Arab parties in the coming election. The action is in violation of the Israeli constitution, and is expected to be overturned by the highest court in Israel, but it demonstrates the general attitude of Israel’s political leaders that Arabs, even if they are citizens of Israel, don’t deserve rights.
16 comments
I was snarkily remarking to a friend yesterday that either there were a tremendous number of Hamas fighters hiding in relief supply warehouses around Gaza or the IDF tank gunners and artillery teams needed to spend a lot more time on the training range. Combining all of these ‘curious’ attacks (storage facilities, UN schools being used as refuge, UN convoy vehicles, and hospitals) with clear photographic evidence of white phosphorus munitions being used in build-up areas, it become pretty difficult to argue with your thesis…
Jack K., the Grumpy Forester´s last blog post..Why I Didn’t Shoot The TV Tonight
When you look at the Israeli KIA number and compare it to Iraq, you know they aren’t engaging in battle. In both cases an enemy with AKs and RPGs is supposedly being engaged. The Israelis are using reservists in the operation. Free-fire is the only way I know to explain the number and types of targets and casualties.
That old war criminal Shimon Peres explained Israel’s strategy in a speech to AIPAC. As described in the Jerusalem Post: “Israel’s aim, he said, was to provide a strong blow to the people of Gaza so that they would lose their appetite for shooting at Israel.”
Which would be a lofty goal, I suppose, if it were the people of Gaza shooting at Israel, rather than a few hundred or maybe a couple thousand at most Hamas militants. The rest of the people of Gaza *already* had no appetite for shooting at Israel, and all that being bombed and killed does to them is make their survivors have an *increased* appetite for shooting at Israel.
But hey, that’s real life logic, not Israel logic, which is that “all those brown untermenschen understand is force and the right response to all provocations is to bomb the shit out of brown cockroaches, they’re all the same anyhow.” Sigh. Racism is so awkward, especially when perpetrated by people who should, from personal experience, know better.
– Badtux the News Reading Penguin
I haven’t noticed that attacks have made Israelis more amenable to their neighbors. You have to wonder why people always assume that other groups think differently than they do. If it pisses you off, it will probably not make the other guy like you.
If the tactics didn’t work against Irgun, why expect they will work against Hamas?
You know what I think from my previous comments recently. The Israeli’s (and Americans come to that) have the typical ‘victim’ mentality, in the sense that they always expect to be victimised. Bush has proved that, and it answers the question of why the Bush administration (and previous administrations) always took Israel’s side no matter what. Like thinking groups will always prefer other like thinking groups. The USA and Israel have simply taken it to the extreme *logical* (by their way of thinking) conclusion. Get them before they can get us. Bush, Cheney and others in his Administration have said so many times, and Israel is showing that they feel the same way. Essentially, it’s the response of very cowardly and very insecure (and not to mention thoughtless and ignorant) people. It’s the juvenile School yard bully mentality. I’m sure, Bryan, you would have seen several times how the child bully who’s behavior is unmodified acts as an adult in your Police work.
This will do wonders for the Hamas recruitment, and will also strengthen support from other ME (and possibly non-ME) Nations, even those who, up until now, didn’t like Hamas or their methods. Hopefully, it won’t be long until they are strong enough to take care of Israel once and for all. Then, it only remains for the USA to grow up (and out of the bully mentality), or be taken care of also. 🙂 *shrug*
Being a chicken-shit coward has never in the History of the Human race, solved any problems. But it sure has caused a lot of them. Cowards always end up the same way.
Cowardice is at the core of all of these problems and the behaviors. It takes a lot more courage to make peace, than war.
Fatah and Abbas are losing support among Palestinians, and the crazies are gaining support around the world, not just the Middle East.
The moderates in Iran and the Arab countries can’t speak out under conditions like this. The US and Israel are, by their actions, silencing the moderates and democratic movements throughout the Arab world more effectively than any of the repressive governments.
We can hope some improvement with the new US administration, but I wouldn’t advise anyone holding their breath.
Especially offensive is the notion, “well, if the Palestinians don’t want to get bombed, they need to throw Hamas out.”
WTF? So let me get this straight. The IDF is armed with advanced weaponry. Yet they need women and children to do their work for them?
Kryten is right. The correct word is “cowardly”. Anybody who want women and children to do their dirty work of dying for them is nothing but a coward.
– Badtux the Observant Penguin
Badux´s last blog post..Honda sure knows their market
It really pisses me off because it truly is totally unnecessary! Just as the Iraq war was totally unnecessary. Well, that’s true if one ignores the three primary reasons for the war, ie: oil, Israel, Pappa Bush (it’s the only reason pappa Bush wanted junior to be Prez. Saddam was planning to spill the beans about the Bush family & Bin Laden family connections and he was planning to tick off the other major oil producers and break ranks to trade only in Euro’s rather than USD. However, I think that was just bluster looking for a bigger seat at the table, which Saudi Arabia and OPEC were considering, which might possibly have weakened the US position.)
Ehhhhh… You’ve heard it before. Change channels… 😉
I like Krugman! 😀 Have you read his latest (and I believe, very accurate) assessment? 😉
You need an account to read his column at NYT, but C&L have posted it here:
Krugman: Not Ready to Make Nice
How true that is. 🙂 All those who agree, say “AYE”!! Better yet… make damned sure your local greedy ass-kissing coward of a Politician KNOWS how you feel about letting the Bushmorons totally off the hook. Does anyone think any of them would give you a free pass even on a misdemeanor? Hah! Not even if hell did freeze over!
You want things Fixed? Get off your asses and fix them. I’m sorry to say, the tooth faery, the leprechauns, Captain J.L. Pickard and G-d 😉 are otherwise engaged on important matters, like… watching the grass grow, while it still can. LOL
you don’t need an account anymore to read krugman’s column at the nyt. they stopped that times select foolishness a little while back.
hipparchia´s last blog post..That’s fucked up!
Israel is now talking about a “unilateral cease-fire”, I guess they ran out of UN daycare centers to blow up, or ran out of bombs. Actually, I think the politicians got their poll numbers where they want them, and don’t want to risk the incoming administration working with the UN on meaningful sanctions.
I see no reason to waste the money appointing a US ambassador to Israel, the Israeli government doesn’t believe in diplomacy. The country was created by a resolution in the UN general assembly – it may be time to revisit that resolution.
Hipparchia: I know (Select not needed) but you still have to register (free, if you don’t mind giving some details) to read that report. 🙂
Yeah Bryan… Israel has been *talking* about cease-fire for awhile now. We’ll see. Israel are usually full of talk, low on ‘doing’.
throwaway addresses! i uses dem. i’ve got a couple of email addresses along the lines of thisisjustforyoursillyregistrationrequirements @ hotmail.com.
various of these accounts think that i’m a little old lady in iowa, a 13-year-old boy in chicago, and a middle-aged sports-fan d00d in boston.
oops, didn’t realize that would turn into a link.
Well, Israel says it has declared a unilateral cease fire but is not withdrawing forces and reserves the right to react to any “provocation”, which it will define, just as it defined “combatant”. It must be tiring mass murdering people who can’t fight back.
Yes, Hipparchia, the PhP for comments is always being helpful. I’ll take care of it.
LOL Yeah… I use throwaways all the time for sites that want to be nosy. 😉
The recommended way of writing an email address without a hot link (making it a live link) is like this (just FYI):
thisisjustforyoursillyregistrationrequirements[at]hotmail[dot]com or,
thisisjustforyoursillyregistrationrequirements [at] hotmail [dot] com
Spaces are optional. some like them, some don’t. 😉
@ Bryan: Yeah. Exhausting. I saw lot’s of it in Cambodia. I don’t see any difference between Israel and Pol Pot’s Cambodia.
All it takes is the spaces before and after the @ to kill the urge in the program to create a link.
The paranoia runs rampant in a heavily militarized society like Israel. Being a military officer at some point is almost a requirement for running for office. That’s a superb way to create “groupthink” in the political class.