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war in Gaza
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Anonymous
There's a huge difference between being Jewish and being a zionist. |
jsteele
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True, but it's also possible to be a Zionist and also oppose Israel's expansionist and aggressive policies. I really applaud the folks at J Street for their efforts. http://jstreet.org/ |
Anonymous
The Washington Post has an excellent article on this incident in this morning's paper. The reason why we're getting this news so slowly is because Israel is limiting access to this site, and even refusing to allow the Red Crescent and UN from bringing any type of media equipment with them. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010901139.html?hpid=topnews 100 Survivors Rescued in Gaza From Ruins Blocked by Israelis Relief Agencies Fear More Are Trapped, Days After Neighborhood Was Shelled By Craig Whitlock and Reyham Abdel Kareem Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, January 9, 2009; 7:05 AM JERUSALEM, Jan. 9 -- Emergency workers said they rescued 100 more trapped survivors Thursday and found between 40 and 50 corpses in a devastated residential block south of Gaza City that the Israeli military had kept off-limits to the International Committee of the Red Cross for four days. Relief agencies said they feared more people remained in the rubble of several shattered houses in the Zaytoun neighborhood. Red Cross officials said that they began receiving distress calls from people in the houses late Saturday but that they were blocked by the Israeli military from reaching the area until Wednesday. "There are still people under demolished houses -- we are sure of it," said Khaled Abuzaid, an ambulance driver for the Red Cross who treated survivors at the site Wednesday and Thursday. "But without water or electricity, we are sure they will die." In an interview at al-Quds Hospital, a Red Cross medical center in Gaza, Abuzaid said rescue workers found 16 bodies Wednesday in a large room of a house in Zaytoun: seven women, six children and three men, all members of the al-Samuni family. Most had sustained trauma injuries from shelling, but many had gunshot wounds as well, he said. Four children, weak but alive, were found lying under blankets, nestled next to their dead mothers, Abuzaid said. Red Cross officials had said earlier that 12 adult bodies had been found in the house but otherwise corroborated Abuzaid's account. Abuzaid said he was part of a crew of 10 paramedics and other rescue workers who reached Zaytoun on Wednesday afternoon, during a three-hour break in combat operations in Gaza during which relief agencies were allowed to deliver supplies and medical care to stricken Gazans. He said Israeli soldiers told the crew of Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent workers in advance that they were forbidden to take cameras, radios or cellphones to the site. It is standard practice for crews to carry such equipment on rescue missions. The Red Cross has accused the Israeli military of repeatedly refusing to grant permission for ambulances to go to Zaytoun, even though soldiers were stationed outside the damaged houses and were aware people were wounded inside. In a statement issued early Thursday, the agency called the episode "unacceptable" and said the Israeli military had "failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded." The Israeli military said it was investigating but declined to respond to specific allegations by the Red Cross. "This is a complaint, and we have to check it," said reserve Brig. Gen. Ilan Tal, an Israeli military spokesman. The United Nations also pressed Israel to investigate the Red Cross allegations. John Holmes, chief of U.N. humanitarian aid programs, called the Zaytoun deaths "a particularly outrageous incident." "What they found was absolutely horrifying," he said at a news conference in New York. B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, said residents of Zaytoun who had been trapped in other houses have given similar accounts of how Israeli soldiers were aware of their plight but refused to allow rescue workers into the neighborhood. "What these family members say consistently is that the IDF was close by," said Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for the group, referring to the Israel Defense Forces. "This wasn't some remote area. The soldiers certainly were about and were aware of their position." Access to Zaytoun, near a major north-south road that bisects Gaza, remained highly restricted Thursday. Red Cross and Red Crescent crews were allowed back to the site during another three-hour break in the fighting, evacuating 103 people who had been trapped for days without food and water, according to Anne-Sophie Bonefeld, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Jerusalem. Other relief officials said the people rescued Thursday were crammed inside three houses on the same block as the Samunis' house. Two surviving members of the Samuni family said dozens of their relatives in the area had been rounded up by the Israeli military early Sunday and ordered to stay inside a handful of houses while soldiers conducted operations door-to-door. They said some people died in the shelling, which left a gaping hole in the roof of the Samuni home. On Friday, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it had confirmed the account of what happened to the Samuni family. Calling it "one of the gravest incidents" in Gaza since the start of the fighting, the U.N. said Israeli soldiers had packed about 110 Palestinians into the house Sunday, then "shelled the home repeatedly" 24 hours later. The U.N. said about 30 people were killed inside. It said three children, the youngest five months old, died after reaching a hospital. Survivors of the fighting in Zaytoun remained scattered at hospitals across Gaza on Friday, and Red Cross officials said they were trying to account for their whereabouts and medical condition. The Israeli military has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza. "It was horrible," said Shifaa Samuni, 70, who was detained in the family's house but fled with her grandson Monday afternoon after the killings. She said two of her sons and three daughters-in-law were among the dead. "Look how much I lost," she said at al-Quds Hospital, where she was receiving treatment for minor injuries, including wounds to her hands. "Why? We did nothing. We are a peaceful family." Ahmad Talal Samuni, 23, said the neighborhood came under heavy shelling and helicopter gunfire Saturday night. He said that when tanks approached, two of his uncles and their families, who lived nearby, rushed over to seek refuge in his home, about 45 people all told. The next morning, he said, fighting resumed and soldiers came to the house. "They told us not to leave -- not by using loudspeakers, but by shooting," he said in a telephone interview from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where he was tending to other relatives. "The soldiers were shooting in the air and they told us to go east, in the direction of Salah Din Street." The soldiers ordered the family into a large concrete house owned by another relative, Ahmad Samuni said. By then, about 70 people were gathered inside, he recalled. "The soldiers told us not to leave. . . . We were hungry. There was no milk for the babies, no medicine for the ill children." Shortly before dawn Monday, three Samuni men decided to leave the house so they could gather other relatives and bring them back, said Meysa Fawzi Samuni, 19, a member of the family who survived the fighting and gave an extensive interview to B'Tselem. The group provided a written version of her statement to The Washington Post, but she could not be reached to independently confirm her account. Meysa Samuni told B'Tselem that an explosion struck the doorway of the house as the three men prepared to leave, killing one of them. Moments later, a larger explosion on the roof rocked the house. She said she fell to the floor, covering her infant daughter with her body. "Everything filled up with smoke and dust, and I heard screams and crying. After the smoke and dust cleared a bit, I looked around and saw 20-30 people who were dead, and about 20 who were wounded," Meysa Samuni said in her statement. She said she was only slightly injured; her baby also survived but lost three fingers in the explosion. After about 15 minutes, Meysa Samuni said she, her brother-in-law Musa and his two young sisters, Islam, 5, and Isra, 2, fled and knocked on the door of another relative's home nearby. Israeli soldiers had already occupied the house, she said, and were guarding about 30 Palestinians inside, several of whom had been blindfolded. Meysa Samuni said the soldiers seized Musa, tying his hands and blindfolding him. Another soldier gave first aid to Meysa and her infant, bandaging their hands and checking their pulses. The Israelis said the mother and daughter could leave. "They ordered us to leave the house and we walked along the street about 400-500 meters" -- about a quarter-mile -- "until we found an ambulance," which took them to Shifa Hospital, where she later met a few relatives who had escaped the shelling on the house, she said in her statement. "As far as I know, the dead and the wounded who were under the ruins are still there." |
Anonymous
Like people in housing projects can get the drug dealers out. Easier said than done. |
Anonymous
Please raise your children in your religion of choice. Don't let Israeli politics and actions dictate that. I'm saying this as someone who is very pro-Arab by the way. Very pro-Arab. But Judaism rocks. What's happening in the middle east is extraordinarily complex and has no easy solution. Teach your children to respect human life and different religions, just as I am doing. Sadly, I think it will take generations to realize anything good, though. 
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Anonymous
I agree, but it is hard to say one thing to my kids at home, then they hear something else at the Synagogue. They could be ostracized because they don't go along. It is not just the killing that gets to me. The entire concept of Zionism fuels this hatred. It is inherently discriminatory, non-Jews are the victims. |
Anonymous
I agree with this pp. I'm not Jewish but I appreciate how American Jews have consistently worked for social justice over the years. In most cases, when immigrant groups become successful, they turn conservative. That has not been the case for American Jews. True, when it comes to Israel, there is less dissent within the American Jewish community than there is in Israel, where people feel freer to criticize what is happening. That is a sad fact. But overall, the American Jewish community has much to be proud of and there are American Jews supporting peace and justice in Israel and Palestine. |
Anonymous
May I ask which synagogue you attend? Or if you don't want to say - could you at least recommend one? I'm a different poster who also has a Jewish DH, I would like to raise our kids Jewish, but I'm concerned about the intermingling of pro-Israel talk and religion in synagogues. Like the other poster, I don't want my kids to be the odd man out, and frankly, I don't want to be a member of a house of worship where I feel like a pariah for being the only non-Zionist there. I know it's easy to say that politics and religion don't mix, but have you seen the websites of local synagogues? There are mission statements - even from the most Reform, Reconstructionist, and Humanist congregations - that state a position on Israel. They're very up-front about how Israel is a big part of synagogue life - IMO that's politics, not religion, and I want no part of that in my religious life. The website of one local synagogue says essentially "you need to read X Israeli newspaper to get a balanced view of what's going on." I'm very torn here, because I agree with you that Judaism rocks, but how can a person (particularly someone who wasn't born Jewish, like me and the other poster) go to a synagogue in this area (or honestly, in the US period) and not have to deal with this? |
Anonymous
If you are addressing me (the PP you quoted), I'm Muslim, with a bunch of Jewish friends. So no synogogue for me. 
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Anonymous
| LOL, thanks, 9:50. I was indeed addressing you! |
Anonymous
The difference is that the Palestinians democractically elected hamas (the drug dealers). They chose a regime known for its suicide bombers and civilian targeting - they need to take responsibility for that choice. |
Anonymous
Although I am a non-Zionist, non-practicing (non-believing, for that matter) Jew, I have a positive impression, from neighbors, of a local synagogue, Tifereth Israel on upper 16th St in DC (http://www.tifereth-israel.org/). A positive sign for you is that on the website I was unable to find the word Israel, except preceded by the word Tifereth. |
Anonymous
The reason that Hamas was voted in wasn't because a huge percentage of the Palestinian population are crazy about Hamas, but because the Fatah party (eg. the competition) was as corrupt as all hell and the people were sick of that. According to US government programs promoting transparency and accountability in foreign governments, that is what the electorate is *supposed* to do to corrupt parties. |
Anonymous
I second the PP. Lots of people voted against Fatah rather than for Hamas because Fatah was corrupt and ineffective. Anyway, does that justify the bloodshed taking place on the ground? There are lots of foreign countries who hate George Bush. Would it be okay for them to start bombing the White House and the Capitol and then miss and hit my house? And then keep ambulances from coming to my house? And keep me from leaving the District? (And all of this after more than a year of blockading the District and starving the people.) I didn't vote for George Bush! I'd certainly like to get him out of the District but that is beyond my control. I agree that Hamas should not have been sending rockets into Israel and I understand the fear and the uneasiness of the Israelis living near Gaza. But dropping bombs on Palestinian civilians who are unable to run away from the battlefield (because there is nowhere to run) is not going to solve Israel's problem. This will make things worse for Israel. They should have relaxed the economic blockade first. |
Anonymous
I agree completely will this. In fact, many of the spikes in support for Hamas have been a result of things like, for example, when Hamas was able to break a hole in the wall along the Egyptian border so that people could stock up on basic necessities that they hadn't been able to get because of the Israeli siege. (The fact that the Bush administration has so staunchly pushed for Abbas, et. al. has helped Hamas too!) I think there is a lot of data to suggest that the majority of Palestinians are going to vote for who can make their lives easier, not who is going to kill the most Israelis. In the 2006 elections, they thought it was time to give Hamas a try after Fatah squandered the few resources Palestine had through corruption and incompetence. |