"I hope that my children will be the last price." -- Daughters of peace advocate killed in Gaza

[Anonymous]

This may be of interest:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/world/middleeast/18doctor.html

[Anonymous]

So tragic, this world is so evil

[Anonymous]

Every side of this conflict is sad...

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/195773.php

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every side of this conflict is sad...

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/195773.php

Do you want to post this in a condolences card and send it to the man who is burying his children?
Or do you propose they read it out at the funeral?

I do not think you have ever buried a child

[Anonymous]

Every side of this conflict is sad...

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/195773.php

Good god, that website is pure propoganda. Do you actually read that? Please tell me you have another source of "news".

[Anonymous]

I think the images of the Iraq war on Al Jazeera were probably similar to the images of Gaza. Given my feelings about Bush and Iraq, that should not be taken as a defense of the Gaza invasion, but as a reminder that whatever judgments we make of Israel as a nation or as a people are probably the judgments much of the world has been making about us.

BTW, the Anti-Defamation League has been publicizing a poll that they claim shows that American Jews are united in support of the invasion. As a Jew (albeit an atheist as well), I consider that claim to be defamatory. The poll was of 400 people, and I wonder how they chose their sample.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
BTW, the Anti-Defamation League has been publicizing a poll that they claim shows that American Jews are united in support of the invasion. As a Jew (albeit an atheist as well), I consider that claim to be defamatory. The poll was of 400 people, and I wonder how they chose their sample.

Me too, though I'm not an atheist. We don't all support the invasion, and I agree that it's a gross misrepresentation.

[Anonymous]

Yes, Hamas does bad things. That's news? Does that justify this man losing his daughters because Israel decided to invade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, Hamas does bad things. That's news? Does that justify this man losing his daughters because Israel decided to invade?

I think Israel's argument is that Hamas intentionally targets civilians, so if Israel happens to kill a few civilians when they retaliate, it is justified. Pictures of one family do not really counter that argument, wrenching and ironic as they may be, especially given the parent's peace advocacy.

The issue is proportionality -- hundreds of Palestinians die for each Israeli. That is what I do not think Israel can justify.

[Anonymous]

I have looked further into the video online. Actually, it looks as if the Hamas fighters are shooting into the air and harassing people at the wedding because they are singing Fatah songs.

Don't get me wrong. I think Hamas has done some bad things. I am the last person who would say they are a virtuous bunch. But there is a big difference between breaking up a Fatah wedding and walking in there and shooting people point blank.

[jsteele]

Just to follow-up on Israel's killing of the physician's daughters: The Israelis investigated and found that the killing was "reasonable".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29018112/

Does someone want to tell me again about "Israel's well-known compunction at shedding innocent life"?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:Just to follow-up on Israel's killing of the physician's daughters: The Israelis investigated and found that the killing was "reasonable".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29018112/

Does someone want to tell me again about "Israel's well-known compunction at shedding innocent life"?

Jeff,

I'm not a defender of Irael's Gaza invasion, nor of the killing of civilians, but I think the finding was that the misidentification of the house as a military target was a reasonable battlefield error, rather than that killings were reasonable. It's still far short of an apology; insensitive, but not as heinous.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
Jeff,

I'm not a defender of Irael's Gaza invasion, nor of the killing of civilians, but I think the finding was that the misidentification of the house as a military target was a reasonable battlefield error, rather than that killings were reasonable. It's still far short of an apology; insensitive, but not as heinous.

I don't think it's possible to split that hair quite so easily. Israel clearly practices tactics that do not provide for adequate identification of targets. This has been evidenced repeatedly. That exact house had even been fired upon before and members of the Israeli media had intervened to stop the shooting. When such tactics are utilized, the wrongful killing of innocents is to be expected. So, I don't see how one can separate actions from the expected results of such actions.

The misidentification of the house can only be considered "reasonable" by maintaining the lowest of standards for what can be considered proper identification. If the standard is so low, as it appears to be, it results in almost no effort to properly identify a target. In other words, the standard is essentially "kill them all and let God sort them out" and no effort is made to distinguish between military and non-military targets. In such circumstances, how do you divorce the natural outcome of such decisions from the decision itself?

It would be different if a number of steps were taken to properly identify the target and a regrettable error occurred. But, plenty of evidence is available to suggest that Israel tends to make little to no effort. In such a case, as we say in the computer world, the killing of innocents is "not a bug, but a feature".

[Anonymous]

She even knows how to swing opinion
In every magazine and the journals
For every bad move that this Jo'anna makes
They got a good explanation

-- do you guys remember this? It is a song about South Africas apartheid. It just seems to apply to what is happening in Israel now.