In February 2008, Israel’s deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatened Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip with a “holocaust.” His threat came a day after Israeli occupation forces killed 31 Palestinians, nine of them children, one a six-month-old baby, in a series of air raids across the Gaza Strip. A report on the BBC News website headlined “Israel warns of Gaza ‘holocaust’” noted that the word “holocaust”—shoah in Hebrew—is “a term rarely used in Israel outside discussions of the Nazi genocide during World War II.”
Yet the holocaust promised by Matan Vilnai is already upon the defenseless population trapped in the Israeli concentration camp of Gaza. As Israeli artillery shells explode on the perimeter of a UN school compound in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, killing 45, a desparing child asks her mother, “Why are they killing us?” Obviously there’s no Israeli to hear her cries because other UN schools and health clinics also come under attack.
Four children huddled around their mothers’ dead bodies in the rubble of a Gaza home hit by Israeli bombs, where Red Cross rescuers were refused permission by the Israeli forces for four days, in direct contravention of every international law. Fifteen dead people recovered from the ruins of two houses in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. A UN truck driver shot to death while driving a clearly marked UN relief convoy during a pre-arranged three hour suspension of firing to allow the delivery of aid!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm
Israeli forces even fire on the armored car of Judy Clark, the assistant to the UNRWA director in Gaza. United Nations Relief Agency is responsible for providing food to more than 750,000 Gazans. More than 14,000 people have taken refuge in UNRWA schools since the current war began. But when the dark side of God/man takes over, there’s nowhere to hide. So the Red Cross and The UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees has decided to suspend its operations in Gaza (citing Israeli attacks on its personnel and facilities) “until we can get safety and security guarantees for our staff.”
It is known that indiscriminate use of force, not discriminating between combatants and noncombatants is a violation of International law. Why is the world silent while innocent children are maimed, dismembered and slaughtered? Why are the “freedom fighters” helping Israel shoot and kill defenseless mothers who bleed to death while trying to protect their children? I find the following article very enlightening: John Pilger on “The Lying Silence of Those Who Know:
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=917&Itemid=199
He ends with a touching statement: “we are diminished as a civilised society. For what happens in Gaza is the defining moment of our time, which either grants the impunity of war criminals the immunity of our silence, while we contort our own intellect and morality, or gives us the power to speak out.”
Last but not least, where is Obama in this melee? His silence regarding the Gaza crisis is deafening and meaningful. It was not a violation of U.S. foreign policy or intermeddling in the affairs of the current president when he spoke out against the Russian invasion of Georgia and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, but he sees it as such a violation if he speaks out now that a million and a half people are trapped in the Israeli concentration camp on the Gaza strip? I don’t understand. I can only hope that he will remain true to his promise of change that we can count on, restore our image in the world, uphold the American values of freedom and democracy, fight for human rights and demonstrate his commitment to charting a new foreign policy with an even-handed objective and non-partisan approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Though I know there’s two sides to every story and deplore the acts of war committed by both “state terrorist” powers of Hamas and Israeli zionists, I can’t help but wonder how human beings are capable of such heartless carnage and massacre of innocent children under the guise of self-defense or one’s right to exist! It’s a travesty that is beyond my comprehension.
My heart weeps for the children, the defenseless, the casualties of war, the merciless “collateral damage.” Where are the peace seekers and freedom fighters when it comes to the Palestinian people trapped in a sea of blood? May God forgive our crimes, cleanse our shame, wipe our unclean hands, and guide us all to the path of love…..
My heart weeps for the children, the defenseless, the casualties of war, the merciless “collateral damage.” Where are the peace seekers and freedom fighters when it comes to the Palestinian people trapped in a sea of blood? May God forgive our crimes, cleanse our shame, wipe our unclean hands, and guide us all to the path of love…..
Gruesome images of the Gaza crisis 2009 on utube: Please watch to the end!
Don’t turn your back on the innocent who desperately need your help!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsc2DPPcHuI
Eye opening report re continuous Israeli breach of cease fires:
Outrageously biased one-sided resolution proposed by Senator Harry Reid:
http://aipac.org/Publications/SourceMaterialsCongressionalAction/SenateRes.pdf
Amnesty International’s reports on Gaza:
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/?tr=y&auid=4390142
Human Rights Watch on Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/08/israel-and-egypt-allow-humanitarian-access-gaza
John Pilger on “The Lying Silence of Those Who Know:
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=917&Itemid=199
Robert Fisk on “Why do they hate the West so much?
This is our people, this is our world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGOPmqGkFgc&NR=1
Join “Jewish Voices for Peace” to flood your legislators with emails to put a halt on aggression on both sides. Fight the onesided Israeli- biased Senate resolution which may pass today. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26397
See the AIPAC’s web page for the outrageous text of this resolution. Ask your legislators to act on your behalf to respect the most basic of human rights, the right to live!
