In their ongoing assault upon Gaza, Israelis seem to be trying to make a statement, to send a very loud and clear message to the world: that Jewish lives are of infinitely greater value than non-Jewish lives.
What other interpretation can you apply to the bombings of residential homes and hospitals? What we seem to be witnessing is an effort on the part of the Jewish state at intentionally running up the Gaza death toll–and I’m not the only one saying this. Considerthe following:
Euro-Mid confirms that the Israeli forces continued their attack with increased bombing on civilian facilities and stepped up the targeting of civilians, women and children in particular, and the bombing of houses continues exponentially.
Those words (emphasis added) are in a report published Friday by the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, a human rights group based in Geneva.
If we think of the current attack on Gaza as revenge over the killing of three Israeli teens (regardless of who actually carried out the abduction and murder of the teens, the official position of the Israeli government is that it was Hamas), then it is imperative that the number of Palestinians who must die in return be exorbitantly higher: this is the mindset. This is the sort of thinking we have observed, year after year, through one Israeli attack after another–upon both Gaza and the West Bank as well as in attacks upon neighboring countries. It has become in fact the official government policy, adopted at least as far back as 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon, killing nearly 20,000 people, following the assassination of an Israeli diplomat in Paris. The policy has even been given a name, “disproportionate response,” and now we see it being executed in Gaza.
The Old Testament injunction of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” comes to mind here, although the Israelis seem to have made a decision to adjust the ratio. What we see now transpiring in Gaza much more closely resembles “a thousand eyes for an eye and a thousand teeth for a tooth.” Here’s a bit more from the Euro-Mid report:
The Israeli forces have targeted an entire family at dawn on Friday 11 July 2014 by bombing their home without previous warning. Five members of the Ghannam family in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, have been killed in the attack, including a 7 years old child. The charred bodies and body parts of the victims arrived at the hospital, including 15 injured family members and neighbors, some of them in critical condition, including children. Palestinian rescue teams have searched for hours for survivors or casualties under the rubble of the destroyed house.
Again, why bomb civilian neighborhoods and homes? The government of Israel, and Israelis in general, seem to be in a perpetual thirst for vengeance. Is it caused by lingering rage over the holocaust? I don’t know, but countless Facebook postings calling for “death to Arabs,” the burning alive of a Palestinian teen, a Knesset member’s championing of genocide–all of these and more point to a “heart of darkness,” as it were, one descended over Palestine like a night fog over a city lost to the oblations of human warmth. And the implications are not just to Palestinians alone. Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is right when she says, in the article below, that it isn’t just Gaza, and that what we are seeing in essence is a war upon humanity.
One final word–about the photo above. The scene is from a Gaza hospital. A video of what took place there can be viewed here. Go there and watch it. The young boy with the partially blown away skull is 4-year-old Saher Abu Namous. This is him in better times, sitting by the sea in Gaza:
Take a good look at him, because you won’t see his picture or hear about his grisly death in the mainstream media.
“He was playing and smiling next to his mother when missile shrapnel divided his head,” a family member is quoted here as saying. “His father took him to the hospital screaming ‘Wake up, my son! I bought toys for you, please wake up!’”
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Save Gaza Today; Tomorrow’s Too Late!
Emma Bull was right when she said, “Coincidence is the word we use when we can’t see the levers and pulleys.” The timing of Israel’s recent assault on Gaza is not coincidental. It is the culmination of several factors: The Hamas-Fatah unity; Israel’s escalation of illegal construction in occupied territory; the collapse of the peace talks; the success of the BDS movement; and the growing number of Europeans warning against investment in occupied territories.
Israel’s expansionist agenda was at odds with the growing lack of sympathy around the world. So it pulled out its best card – the victim card. On June 12, three Israeli teens were kidnapped, thought by many to be another Israeli false flag operation. According to Israeli police records, “the voice of MK Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) could be heard who was being interviewed by Israel Radio as the kidnapping took place” (Jerusalem Post).
During the phone conversation, shots were heard while Hebrew language was blaring in the background. A gag order was put on this call. Immediately, Netanyahu launched on a campaign to solicit sympathy for this ‘victimization’ and to invoke outrage from world leaders blaming the kidnapping on Hamas (who denied responsibility), all the while giving the impression that the teens were alive.
Without provocation, on June 17, Reuters reported that Israel cracks down on Hamas “in a mobilisation on a scale not seen in years” to find the abducted shot teens. As sentiments of solidarity toward Israel and disgust toward Hamas increased, victim card in hand, IDF boots marched into Palestinian houses turning them into military observation posts, making arbitrary arrests and putting up road blocks to increase pressure on Hamas.
It took more than two weeks for the very competent IDF to find the dead bodies of the teens in a tiny area – and identifying all the ins and outs of Palestinians households. More sympathy and condemnation poured in as the teens’ bodies were found on June 30. Standing center stage amidst Western media, Netanyahu said, “May God avenge their blood.” Thinking of himself as God, on July 1, arrest raids were ordered, hundreds were arrested and a ‘Hamas member was killed.’ All hell broke loose.
The sympathies and framing of events on the ground by the Western media and sympathies of Western leaders gave justification to the bombing of Gaza. The burning alive of a teenage Palestinian boy got a passing mention in the press. As the death toll in Gaza keeps rising, always, not only must Palestinians defend their lives and livelihoods, but they must also contend with fighting the pro-Israel media narrative.
Meanwhile, the UN utters a pathetic whim but remains idle as bombs are dropped on toddlers. After all, they take their cue from their paymasters with US contributing 25% to the United Nations (the next largest contributors being Japan (12.53%), Germany (8.018%), the United Kingdom (6.604%), and France (6.112%). Lending their support in fratricide are the Arab leaders as their continued silence echoes the call to genocide by Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked.
As Israel is set for a ground invasion of Gaza, the alarming call of a “holy war” is heard from an Israeli commander who tells his soldiers that they are engaged in a war to “wipe out” an “enemy who defames” God. Jewish extremism has always been concealed, and with it, the dangers. But the threat is very real – and very well understood even by those supporting this growing danger.
A 1997 article reviewing the Israeli Defense Force repeatedly stressed the possibilities of and the need to guard against a religious, right-wing military coup, especially as the proportion of the religious in the military increases. They have been on the increase. In 2009, it was reported, “Israel’s army is changing. Once proudly secular, its combat units are now filling with those who believe Israel’s wars are ‘God’s wars.’” If Israel determines “God’s wars,” none are safe.
World leaders have warned that the conflict could engulf the entire region, but Israel is not heeding their warnings. Perhaps Netanyahu is smug in the knowledge that even if all in the region (and beyond) perish, Israeli Jews, or at least some, will be safe in its Site 911. Site 911, funded by America, due for completion soon, “will have five levels buried underground and six additional outbuildings on the above grounds, within the perimeter. At about 127,000 square feet, the first three floors will house classrooms, an auditorium, and a laboratory — all wedged behind shock resistant doors — with radiation protection and massive security. Each door of the facility will have a detailed description of the mezuzahswritten in “in-erasable ink.”
With the growing extremism in Israeli military, their “holy wars” and nukes, it is not just Gaza that is burning – this is a war on humanity and perhaps even human race. If we do not stop it today, tomorrow may be too late.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!
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