… Israel’s ambassador to the US Ron Dormer for saying that the Israeli Defense Forces deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for their “unimaginable restraint” in Gaza.
You can see images as a result of this “unimaginable restraint” here, here, and here.
I will show just one from the first link that was from the assault on Shejaiya on July 20.
It is only 140 square miles and contains 1.8 million people, making it one of the most densely populated places on Earth. It is very small, similar in size and population density to Philadelphia, one of the biggest cities in the US. It is a narrow rectangular strip. The northern, eastern, and western borders are blockaded by Israel and the southern edge by Egypt. It is essentially a large, densely populated open-air ‘prison camp’ (as British prime minister David Cameron described it in 2010), which is why it is cynical when Israel, in its widely-publicized attempts at showing its ‘humanity’ while bombing Palestinians, urges people in northern Gaza to evacuate because they are going to bomb the region. That region alone has 200,000 people. Where are they supposed to go? Unlike the victims of violence in other countries, they cannot flee to a neighboring country. They are trapped and so must stay where they are and hope that they will not be blasted to bits. [Update: The original map has been replaced with new a one that is more accurate. Thanks to the commenters for pointing out the errors.] [Read more…]
Mohammed Suliman sends out a stream of tweets from Gaza that provide an insight into the kinds of surreal thoughts that flood your mind when you await what might well be your own death from a missile strike. It is poignant and tragic. It should be read in conjunction with this report (via Pharyngula) about the most recent massacre committed by Israel in which nearly ninety people died in one neighborhood.
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The latest assault by Israel on Gaza has furthered the process in which Israel is losing support worldwide and also among Jews in the US, especially among the young, who do not buy in to the idea that Israel faces some existential threat that requires massive and disproportionate attacks on Palestinians. Instead what they see is a reactionary government backed by the US that is using its massive military power to oppress people that they have displaced from their homes.
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The arrival of young children from Central America seeking refuge in the US has caused a problem for the xenophobes in the US. On the one hand they hate the idea of more non-white people coming to the US. But the members of the elite media and political classes also do not want to appear as heartless as their allies, the people gathering in groups on the border yelling angrily at the children. So they play a double game that Stephen Colbert parodies perfectly.
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The rising anti-government sentiment in the US is spiraling out of control The Republican party is whipping it up in order to stymie any of president Obama’s initiatives but they run the real risk of these sentiments resulting in a lawless nation in which people feel entitled to break the law because they think that powerful segments of the government approve of such actions and that they will protect them from repercussions. I have written before about how such things can easily lead to mob violence.
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The influence of the Israel lobby in the US is most clearly visible when that country engages in massive onslaughts on Palestinians that threaten to arouse widespread anger and disgust. Then it whips into action to blunt criticism in the US media and prevent any action against it. As Palestinian casualties in Gaza mount to over 300, one fifth of whom are children, and the destruction of a hospital, the Israel lobby has its work cut out for it.
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The editor of the Guardian has an excerpt of an interview with Edward Snowden where he seems remarkably calm about his fate and says that he is even resigned to being sent to Guantanamo. He also says that the people working for the NSA routinely shared amongst themselves embarrassing photos that they found while snooping on people.
The full interview will be published later today.
Back in 1983 in Sri Lanka, a group of Tamil separatists were conducting a low-level guerilla war against the government that the government was, typically, trying to quell militarily without addressing the political issues. Since almost all members of the military belonged the majority Sinhala community, this conflict took on an overtly ethnic coloration. In July of that year, the guerillas pulled off their biggest attack, blowing up a convoy of army trucks and killing over twenty soldiers.
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Glenn Greenwald reports on how NBC News has withdrawn from Gaza Ayman Mohyeldin, its reporter in the region who covered the killing by Israeli planes of four Gazan boys aged 9 to 11 as they played soccer on a beach in broad daylight. The reporter had been playing soccer with the boys just minutes before their deaths and posted chilling details.
Update: Here is an NBC News report on the bombing.