Judge Goldstone who lead the UN inquiry into the Gaza offensive in January this year has given Israel 6 months to bring suspects to justice for wilful killing and other grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention or have them face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. His report finds that up to 1417 Palestinian civilians were murdered in the onslaught but also cites uncorroborated claims that 3 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinian rocket fire as well as 10 Israeli soldiers including 4 killed by themselves in friendly fire incidents.

km

'Evidently'

Breaking silence on Gaza abuses

Well you can spin this any which way



Keep in mind that Hamas started this by lobbing rockets into Israel <-- simply they started the fight and paid dearly for it

Keep in mind that Israel was defending it self , the use of words like "offensive" are totally in correct and reflects stupidity or at the lease bias in reporting the truth - incursion and defense is the what really happened

also

Israel did bring this onto themselves by their continued oppression

So if you wanna cut the blame game , I give it a 50 / 50 both sides are at fault

In your haste to put your OWN spin on it
I think you responded to the wrong post.

Mine was the one where the Israeli soldiers
have already admitted to the war crimes.

Was not really pointed at you or even KM

Just trying to keep it in focus that BOTH sides are responsible their crimes , nothing is more stupid as thinking it was one side only - and some reporting agencies poor use of wording gets my goat

No worries

We all have pet peeves
mine is people who overlook
that people are being egged into
reacting then killed when they do.

The systematic use of starvation and
carefully contrived collective punishment
that elicits random bottle-rocket type lobbing
leading to entire regions being ethnically cleansed.

To defend such action you must agree with what's being done.

…

Every time Israeli war crimes come into comment or discussion you feel you need to "keep in focus" that both sides are responsible, that's your standard 'knee-jerk' uncommitted response on this.

We all know it, —even you must be tired of mentioning it already—, the judge Goldstone confirms so according to the article submitted by keymaker, the article's title confirms it again: "UN Gaza report accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes"; Quote: "The report was critical of Palestinian armed groups, saying their rocket fire did not distinguish between civilian and military targets in Israel, caused terror among civilians and amounted to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.".

You want to keep us 'focused' while you don't even want to understand what the article —maybe you haven't even read it— is about.

Because, read please: the article, according to its subtitle, is about the fact that the "[i]nquiry into [the] Gaza conflict singles out Israeli policy towards Palestinians for most serious condemnation". There are Crimes and Crimes, and there are "the most serious" condemnations to policy.


So now…
i'll make up a dream in which, for once, i could read you tell us that what you are also focusing on is the allegations of Israel's disproportionate use of violence (during its offensive against Gaza in January 2009), of its "direct and intentional attack[s]" on civilians, and, of all sort of petty-minded war crimes, much larger in quantity, much more vile in quality, and much deadlier than the home-craft made rockets with which Hamas allegedly 'kicks-the-crap-out-of', 'explodes' and terrorises Israel.…
But that's just dreaming.

Truth be told;
I used to fall for it too.
I used to think it was their own dam fault
for firing missiles into settlements "Wot IDIOTS!"
and "When will they ever learn?" and when they were
bombed in return, "Who cares?" ...but when it continued
beyond all logic & reason, I questioned "Why the hell do it?"

That's when I started paying closer attention...
and that's when I realized THAT WAS WHY THEY WERE DOING IT
It was TRYING To Call the WORLD'S ATTENTION to what was happening.

"OK, so now you've gotten my attention........so?"

Once I started watching... reading THE DAY-To-DAY Articles
it was easy to spot the pattern of low level abuse on the Israeli
side... punctuated by violent responses..and over-the-top
high powered attacks by Israel using state-of-the-art weapons.

Within days I'd see some jerk fire yet another homemade rocket.

I'd think "..they must be NUTZ!!!" but I'd read about closed
borders, and people barred from hospitals.. and vineyards...
then vineyards & orchards of hundred year old family farms
bulldozed out of spite. WTF?

That's when I realized this was more than spiteful, it was a
"Crime Against Humanity!" so I watched closer... and the more
I watched the more egregious it became... Land that had been
in the family literally for GENERATIONS stolen.. the families
pushed into barbed wired refugee camps........

And right in sight of the squalid corrugated tin roofed huts,
there was gorgeous modern apartment complexes being built on
what was once their land just the other side of the barbed wire

mmm there's something very wrong here.....

"Jeebis! Even I would fire missiles at them if I had one..."

Then just when I was wondering why no one else was seeing this;

Another missile would be "lobbed" but this time I understood.
Then would come the heavy handed response... 100s killed
and I started wondering WHY NO ONE ELSE WAS SEEING THIS!?!?

Worse yet I finally saw the coordinated pattern of abuse,
to elicit the response leading to the ethnic cleansing played
out time and again...

Then the Recent War on Lebanon and the crushing of the infrastructure,
then the denial of wrong-doing, and the "they made us do it"
justification to the world (even as proof of clusterbombs and
white phosphorus used against civilian populations, emerged)

While most people are intimidated by being tagged as AntiSemitic
for daring to say anything about it... reflexively "Turning
the Blind Eye" to this Train-Wreck in Slow-Motion, others feel
beholden to cry out against the injustice no matter the cost.


so now I sat through the GAZA "WAR"
..and a week ago learned about the OTHER (ANOTHER) War on Lebanon
when researching the Twin Towers/ bin Laden connection...

so there's even a pattern to the pattern LOL WTF?

and still carp carps on about "BOTH SIDES"

So Nobel Peace Prize winner Pres. Jimmy Carter has been painted
with the Anti-Semite Brush (in spite of the FACT that BOTH
SIDES ARE SEMITES, btw) and the Present President seems to
be following close on his heels- DARING to demand that the
Internationally Condemned Settlement building (and land grab)
Cease IMMEDIATELY! ((gee.. anybody following all this??))

And the Monster responsible for bringing down the Twin Towers
(..er.. the ones in Lebanon) has cut a deal with HILARY
that they would consider a TEMPORARY cessation of building...
IN RETURN FOR "CRUSHING SANCTIONS Being Imposed Upon IRAN"

Anyone following all this? you really ought to, you know...

because now Israel (and by extension AIPAC) is POed at Obama
and beginning to back The RELIGIOUS RIGHT (Sista' Sarah and
the End-of-Worlder Rapture-LOONIES) & changing their tactics
to MAKE THE COMING CONFLICT INTO A RELIGIOUS (WORLD) WAR

Because as we've been taught since birth: "God Is On Their Side"

Obama's Middle East speech in full

I spent a lot of timie in Israel when I was a kid (we actually emigrated there in '66 but bailed out after 6 months - cosseted middle-class English jewish parents meets tough young hot country etc.) but I stopped going back to visit after my last trip in '79 when I could feel a palpable difference in the country. It was trying to be European, and the arabs living in Israel were being treated like sh!t even then. I've got a sad little Israeli book from the 70's with 'subversive' political cartoons about the State of Israel, reminding folk even then that the original '48 constitution said 'we will not treat arabs as second-class citizens'.

Many Israelis are not behind this warmongering, but fear breeds aggression. MY parents' older Israeli friends totally bought into the crap they were being fed about 'the arab' in just the same way many folk in the US buy the scarefest the news feeds them about 'the black man'. I pointed out to my mum's friends back in 2000 a very well-documented report about a Palestinian family being arrested for 'using a beach' in Israel (a beach where I played as a kid), and she just got angry and told me point-blank it was liberal propagandist lying.

So actually, Israel is in some ways like a little Mini-Me of (some of) the US.

I think. The parallels seem obvious.