‘Key Ally In The War On Terror’ Breaks With U.S., Condemns Israel For Gaza Strikes
‘Key Ally In The War On Terror’ Breaks With U.S., Condemns Israel For Gaza Strikes
After disastrously invading and occupying Iraq, one of the justifications President Bush frequently offered for sustaining the enormous U.S. costs in lives and resources was that we were developing a “key ally” in the Middle East:
Together we’ll help Iraq become a strong democracy that protects the rights of its people and is a key ally in the war on terror. [9/22/05]
Our mission in Iraq is clear. … We’re helping Iraqis build a free nation that is an ally in the war on terror. We’re advancing freedom in the broader Middle East. [6/28/05]
Freedom will prevail in Iraq; freedom will prevail in the Middle East; and as the hope of freedom spreads to nations that have not known it, these countries will become allies in the cause of peace. [3/20/06]
The Wonk Room’s Matt Duss notes that — in a central test of the U.S. alliance with Iraq — our “key ally” is instead more eager to disassociate itself completely from the United States:
Just as they did during Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah, Iraq’s leaders are now showing where their true sympathies lie. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Da’wa Party “issued a statement condemning the attacks and calling on Islamic countries to cut relations with Israel and end all ’secret and public talks’ with it.”
Khalid Hussain of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) told Gulf News “We have obligations towards Palestine and all Iraqi people are in solidarity with the people in Palestine, and we will support the people in Gaza.” [...]
“Iraqi resistance groups have to retaliate against the Israeli aggression on Gaza by escalating their operations against the US military in Iraq since the US position is in favour of this aggression, firstly, and secondly because the United States and Israel are both enemies of the Arabs,” Omar Al Kubaisi, an activist of the Sunni Muslim Clerics Association.
Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Sistani has also condemned the Gaza strikes. Duss concludes, “Looking on the bright side, if one can call it that, as with opposition to the U.S. occupation, Gaza is an issue on which Iraqis have achieved rare political consensus.”
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Shoe, meet Bush forehead.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:10 pmIn your face it’s a smack down. Look for others to follow. The US Media wouldn’t show the massacre done on woman and children by Israel. Israel bombed a children’s school now what’s that got to do with Hamas? It is just a cold bloody murder spree and life menas nothing. As one man in Israel was killed Israel want every Palestine man/woman/child to die for that one life. Now we’re made to remember the Holocaust and how Jews suffered and were murdered now the Palestine can do the same. Iran and South Korea can now legally get Nukes to protect their citizens from an attack per the Bush Policy. Bush murdered 1 million Iraq men/woman/chidren so this is nothing he has no problem with more killing.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:12 pmNothing the Chimp has said or predicted in the last 8 years has come to fruition. The same can be said for the prognostications of Deadeye Dick, William Kristol or any of the other neocon blowhards. Why should anyone be surprised that our “key ally” whom we illegally invaded and occupied nearly 6 years ago should come out against our policy?
December 30th, 2008 at 7:21 pmI hope we can be allies with Iraq in the long term. However, that’s going to require affording them the respect of disagreeing with us from time to time.
Ally =/= puppet.
If we want to maintain any other alliances in the Middle East, we’re going to have to get Israel to stop being such dicks. We’re the ones most likely to get them to listen, and I think there’s a huge diplomatic opportunity in at least getting Israel to chill out somewhat.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:23 pmAmerica will be making a huge foreign policy mistake ignoring the Arab(street) voices and feelings at this time of this Gaza conflict.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pmThere is a huge support among all Arab and Islamic countries peoples to the people in Gaza.
Arabs have been seeing Gazans suffering under a suffocating blockade with lack of food and medicine for a long time,before this aerial bombardments began few days ago.
This war was only the sparked of Iraqis and Arabs anger.
Iraqis, no matter what Bush and Cheney think,they will sympathize with their own Arab Palestinian brothers..because they know they are suffering,and if any people know about air bombardments ,it is the Iraqi themselves.
It is not just Arab people who are feeling also this way, the UN and many other humanitarian organizations all feel the same way.
No surprise here to see the Iraqis reaction.
Maliki knows about how the Iraqis feel about this issue.
This conflict will weaken some Arab leaders who do not go for the Arab street feeling,like Jordan,Egypt and Saudi Arabia,if this war drags on and more Palestinians civilians are killed.
1st
Friendship with U.S. doesn’t mean friendship with Israel. That are 2 different nations.
2nd
Friendship with Israel doesn’t prohibit a condemnation of Israel when they do something wrong. Not everyone is hypocritical.
3rd
December 30th, 2008 at 7:40 pmThe Iraqi government needs to bolster its credibility. Iraqi government speeches mean nothing to Israel now, but can help the Iraqi government to appear more legitimately – and that’s important.
But, but, but, I thought W was going to “ride herd” on the dual state peace process?
What? It was as big a success as free market regulation and government response to Katrina?
How about Condi? Hasn’t she been over there a lot lately?
December 30th, 2008 at 7:43 pmLook, this sort of thing was inevitable regarding Iraq. In order to function as a stable and sovereign government, they’re going to need to play to their own political situation instead of just living on our coattails. That means being responsive to the concerns of their own people, rather than our politicians.
This is a good thing. It’s democracy in action. That’s what we wanted, wasn’t it?
The problem is that Arab nations are viewing us as Israel’s conjoined twin, rather than a potentially valuable triangulation opportunity to leverage. We should be saying, “Look, we like Israel. We like Iraq. We want Palestinians to get into a stable and safe situation. It would sure help if y’all, along with Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia would help us work out an amenable situation with them.”
Seriously, there’s a lot that can be done here. Not by BushCo of course, but there is a pretty clear diplomatic path you could drive a Hummer through to make some huge strides.
Jan 20th, Jan 20th, Jan 20th, Jan 20th…
December 30th, 2008 at 7:52 pmrobbez_92107 Says:
But, but, but, I thought W was going to “ride herd” on the dual state peace process?
…
How about Condi? Hasn’t she been over there a lot lately?
Nobody outside our borders even listens to them any more, and most folks inside our borders wishes we didn’t have to.
December 30th, 2008 at 7:53 pmAnother mission accomplished, courtesy of Bush&Co.
Eight years of “let them handle their own problems” (GWB)
has allowed this festering wound to become poisonous.
Did you all see Zbigniew Brzezinski shoot down Joe Scarborough on MSNBC (Democratic Underground has a 3 minute video)?
December 30th, 2008 at 8:00 pmThe middle East situation is not black and white, as GW sees the world; it is extremely complicated, with plenty of responsibility to go around. But the leading nation of the world has been impotent, if not absent, in negotiations. Rice is a failure. Bush is a failure. American policy is a failure.
“A key ally in the war on terror”? It boggles.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:06 pmwiley Says:
“A key ally in the war on terror”? It boggles.
Ally, victim, whatever…
December 30th, 2008 at 8:12 pmThis is hardly surprising. Of course the Iraqi population is going to side with Hamas against Israel, and as a democracy, the political leadership sees the need to do the same.
Saddam rained SCUDS down on Israel when we were in the process of ejecting his army from its occupation of an Arab neighbor. What would he be doing now? Funding Hamas at minimum, perhaps more.
EVERY Arab government is howling about this, even the ones that are complicit in arming Hamas with the Kasam rockets they have fired into Israel daily for months.
In other words, business as usual in the Middle East.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:22 pmI posted this yesterday… it is an interview at DemocracyNow.
It is so relevant to this tread I thought I would post it again:
This from DemocracyNow interview on Israeli War Crimes and US’s cumplicity:
Dec 30
ALI ABUNIMAH: I want to say, Amy, first of all, that we have to go back to the Warsaw Ghetto or Guernica to find crimes in the modern era of the scale of the viciousness and of the deliberateness of what Israel is committing with the full support of the United States, not just the Bush administration, but apparently as well the incoming Obama administration. We have to recognize the complicity not just of the so-called international community, but also of the Arab regimes, Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak, the Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt. Tzipi Livni, when she issued her threats against Gaza, was in Cairo in the biggest Arab capital, and Aboul Gheit stood next to her silently.
Mahmoud Abbas is not a bystander, the so-called president of the Palestinian Authority. For two years since the elections, which Hamas won, he and his coterie have been collaborating with Israel and the United States, first to overthrow the election result and then to besiege Gaza. We have talked before of the Palestinian Contras, funded and armed by the United States, which sought to overthrow Hamas in June 2007 and had the tables turned on them. And now this. The complicity of Mahmoud Abbas is very clear and must be clearly stated. He does not have the authority, moral or otherwise, to call together the Palestinian people for anything. He has gone over to the other side. He has joined the Israeli war against the Palestinian people, and I choose my words very carefully.
And let me say this, as well, Amy, that Israel is trying to produce and promote the fiction that it is engaged in a war with a so-called enemy entity. What Israel is doing is massacring a captive population. You heard—you said in the headlines how Nancy Pelosi, our so-called progressive, liberal, antiwar Speaker of the House, gave her full support to these crimes. Obama has done the same through a spokesman. And that will not change. The United Nations issued a weak statement aimed at covering the backsides, let me say, of those who issued it, not aimed at changing the situation.
What are Palestinians calling for today? Yesterday, the Palestinian National Committee for the Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions reissued and reaffirmed its call on all international civil society in the United States, in North America, in Europe, everywhere, to redouble the efforts for boycott, divestment and sanctions modeled on the anti-apartheid movement. This is necessary. This is moral. This is the nonviolent resistance we can all participate in. And it is more urgent than ever. Let’s not look back at these crimes like we look at the Warsaw Ghetto and like we look at Guernica and we look at the other atrocities of the twentieth century and say, “We had the chance to act, but we chose silence and complicity.” The time to stop this is now.
And we also have to be clear that those who are accountable—Ehud Barak, his orders over the past few months to withhold insulin, chemotherapy drugs, dialysis supplies, all forms of medicine from the people of Gaza, were just as lethal and just as murderous as the orders to send in the bombers and warplanes to attack mosques, to attack universities. The Islamic University in Gaza is not a military site. It is a university with 18,000 students, 60 percent of them women. Last night, Israeli warplanes attacked a female dormitory in the Islamic University. This is what Israel is attacking. They attacked the fishing port. No food gets into Gaza. People can barely fish enough to sustain them, and Israel has attacked the fishing boats that sustains them. These are historic crimes, and we cannot be silent about them.
And we have to continue this nonsense that there’s fault on both sides. We have a captive occupied population. 80 percent of the people in the Gaza Strip are refugees. 750,000 of them are children. Where else in the world can these crimes be committed while the world looks on, while our elected politicians in Congress, Democrats and Republicans, sit there applauding, when you see the shameful statement of Howard Berman, the Democrat chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, giving his full support to Israel? People have to stand up to this. We cannot sit on our hands anymore and say change is coming. Change is not coming unless we create it.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:32 pmI was against Israel and the US huggy-buggy relationship from the start.
The internet is a good thing.
chimpy war on “terror” means anyone that pisses him off.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:33 pmIndeed, it is ironic that Israel is complaining about Hamas now. After all, Israel supported and helped create Hamas as an alternative to the PLO in the past. Somehow, the Zionistas thought that their “problem” with the Palestinians was “organizational”. Well, it’s not. It’s about neighbors being able to resolve their differences . . . instead of moving into their backyards, building impassable fences and bombing the sh*t out of them when they fling a shovel-full of dog-crap over the fence.
Israel’s disproportionate retaliation is indefensible. They need to pull out of their illegal settlements and work toward a two-state solution. We need to withdraw any further military aid (and perhaps even repossess the equipment we have already given them. The Zionistas will have no incentive to negotiate until they no longer have overwhelming military superiority. We need to practice some tough love with this spoiled child we have reared.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:36 pmKeltoi at Night@13
Cry me an ocean.
Israel has nukes and refuses to answer to anyone about their WMD. GMAFB
Israel causes a hell of a lot of unnecessary bs on people who want to decide their destiny.
Israel is greedy…well they are equals to chimpy destruction.
If President-ELECT Obama is the Messiah then chimpy is satan.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:48 pmSo much for the neocon delusion of a “new Middle East.”
December 30th, 2008 at 9:25 pmWhy is it ok for the Jews to put 6 million Palestinians in a refugee camp and then proceed to murder them?
December 30th, 2008 at 9:33 pmEveryone condemns the attacks, except the US. There was a UN security council resolution calling for a cease fire. Guess who vetoed it.
December 30th, 2008 at 9:34 pmIsrael must be destroyed. I’m glad you all agree!
December 30th, 2008 at 9:37 pmIsrael must be destroyed. I’m glad you all agree!
No. Israel must not be destroyed. It is just time for everyone in the powder keg know as the Middle East to stark acting responsibly and learn to live with each other. That means Jews and Arabs alike.
That will be easier for the Jews to do. My biggest concern is that — if the Israel situation is resolved — the factions within the Arab community will cause them to turn on each other. Shia versus Sunni. Saudi royalty versus their subjects. Moderate Arabs versus fundamentalists.
This part of the world seems destined for unending conflict. So it has always been; likely, so shall it ever be.
December 30th, 2008 at 9:53 pmtom, ‘Jihadi Warrior’ is Trajan, but you may already know that.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:04 pmtom Says:
My biggest concern is that — if the Israel situation is resolved — the factions within the Arab community will cause them to turn on each other. Shia versus Sunni. Saudi royalty versus their subjects. Moderate Arabs versus fundamentalists.
And that is precisely why it will never be resolved. What in God’s name does Hamas hope to accomplish by lobbing Kassams into Israel a dozen a week? There is absolutely no tactical value to it, neither a strategic one. There is only a Grand Strategic value to such behavior and that is to keep the conflict alive, keep the hate going, goad Israel into doing exactly what they are currently doing, retaliating out of all proportion. Mission Accomplished: Hamas reason for existence confirmed, Death to Israel.
It is a far sicker version of why Jesse “I wanna cut his nuts off” Jackson had no interest in Obama winning. Take away the source of the hate and contention, and those that profit from said hate and contention are out of a job.
We need to get off oil so bad it hurts.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:06 pmKeltoi at Night Says:
What in God’s name does Hamas hope to accomplish by lobbing Kassams into Israel a dozen a week?
They don’t know, and they don’t care. People who do stupid things are just being stupid. It’s the “violence will make me feel better!” excuse.
Hamas can’t control its population any better than the PLO could. They shouldn’t be expected to, actually – political institutions (police, fire, courts, etc) are not the same thing as political parties. So basically, they’re being set up to fail in a system that say “here you go, you won the election, the whole mess is yours.”
Call me stupid (stupid!) and an idealist (idealist!) but I still believe there’s a silent majority of Israelis who are thirsting for the chance to do the right thing by the Palestinians. They just need their “yes we can” moment to make it happen. One more of these and it can be resolved for once and all.
I know, I know, “Israel/Palestine will never be resolved no matter what.” We used to say that about the Cold War too, when I was a kid. And it got resolved. Nothing is impossible.
The more the bastards on both sides kill innocents, the more desperate they are showing themselves to be. All they have to do is make it bad enough that decent folk everywhere do what it takes to put a stop to it.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:35 pmKeltoi at Night says
I agree. What Hamas was trying to accomplish by not renewing the ceasefire and then firing Kasams at Israel is beyond me. Other than earning a serious butt kicking from the IDF. I think Hamas was hoping for a response. Just not quite as thorough as Israel has given them. From what I’ve read, Hamas was taken completley by surprise by the level of the attacks. I think they forgot that the IDF never does anything halfway. At least when they have competent leadership.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:35 pmOpps! I didn’t do that right. top line should be italic. Post underneath is mine.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:35 pmAriel Sharon promised to wipe out Hamas completely, and that apparently means starving out children and letting people with medical emergencies die at Israeli checkpoints.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:55 pmWhat’s wrong trolls. Nothing to say about this?
December 30th, 2008 at 10:56 pmIsrael broke the cease fire, and when the Palestinians retaliated, Israel took that opportunity to bomb them.
December 30th, 2008 at 10:57 pmSame thing any cornered animal hopes to accomplish.
Why do you think people strap bombs on their bodies and kill as many people as they can? Hoplessness.
Please don’t tell me you would behave differently.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:05 pmRight, el Zooster, Hamas retaliated and then the Israelis retaliated 100 times as strong. Every mainstreammedia and nearly all the Dems will say Hamas started it. At best, they will say the blame is equally shared. DemocracyNow comments at # 14 are true.
That sure was a strange group of troll friends you had last night! :)
December 30th, 2008 at 11:07 pmI thoroughly agree with the remarks above along the lines that Bush’s beligerent and muddled foreign policy has alienated the world and will make diplomacy much harder. I also have mixed reactions to the interactions of Israel and occupied Palestinian lands.
However, does even someone from inside the Shrub cabal have any doubts but that an Arab nation (Iraq) is extremely unlikely to side with Israel ? Not to mention, if they did, the rest of the Arab world would have a long hard talk with them.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:08 pmKeltoi,
Why did the people in the Warsaw ghetto use terrorist tactics against the occupiers? Why didn’t they just face the Nazi Army on the battle field?
December 30th, 2008 at 11:11 pmHi, Keith. Happy New Year! (I’m celebrating early)
Yes, they make it seem as if Hamas is the big bad guy here, but if they would look at the news on November 4 (we were a bit distracted), there was news of the Israelis incursion.
Those trolls were bizarre!! :D
December 30th, 2008 at 11:11 pmExcellent an@logy, Keith. Gaza is a Ghetto.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:15 pmHey Zooey, I recently got back from a holiday excursion. You sure are early—we got another 28 hours of ‘08 left.
Maybe the Israelis chose Nov 4th on purpose?
December 30th, 2008 at 11:15 pmWhere did you go, Keith?
I wouldn’t be surprised if they chose that date on purpose.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:16 pmZooey, a bunch of relatives south, north, and east of San Fran. It was fun! You might remember I’m 250 miles south. They are more the elite america while I am in more of the real america.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:20 pmSounds fantastic, Keith. I love CA, but so do so many others…
December 30th, 2008 at 11:21 pmThe area east of SF is expensive—-like $1500 for a 1-bedroom!
December 30th, 2008 at 11:25 pmI lived in Alameda. Since the Navy base closed, I wonder if the area is better or worse off?
December 30th, 2008 at 11:28 pmMaple, I think the Bush cabal just wanted to take control of that part of the world (the main reason being that we got 4% of the world’s oil and we use 25%). And all reasons given are just rationalizations. PNAC and the Pentagon wrote it pretty clearly in the 90’s.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:30 pmZooey, don’t know about Alameda, haven’t heard how that was affected. I was in Dublin, San Ramon, Benicia, and The People’s City of Santa Cruz for the holidays.
December 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pmOhhh, I like Santa Cruz. How very predictable. :D
December 30th, 2008 at 11:35 pmRemember trolls..theres a reason your hero the braindead puppet ronald reagan sold saddam chemical weapons to use on his own people..its because reagan, as stupid as he was, was still smart enought to undertand that any non-brutal dicatorship, any democratic government in iraq would be anti israel, anti western, pro iranian, pro-plalestenian, and pro hezbollah and hamas. about the only thing the IRaq peopel can agree on it that they support about every enemy Israel has in in the region. Is giving them the power to create a government who would rejoice at the destruction of israel really something we should ask our soldier to be dying for? tracy-pee-5 you got an answer for that one?
December 31st, 2008 at 12:11 amFred Says:
What’s wrong trolls. Nothing to say about this?
It’s a tough one. I think both the left and the right are each split about 50/50 on this thing.
It’s tough to know what’s going on. Were the rocket attacks just a few guys committing isolated incidents with homemade crap, or was it a coordinated program by Hamas? How many were they doing? How does it compare to the response? And how well-targeted is the IDF response: are they hitting known targets vetted by thorough intelligence or just leveling neighborhoods? Is it possible this could have been dealt with through police work and due process?
The fact is, wherever we stand on related issues, all we know is what we’re told by the MSM. They haven’t told us much. And at this point, nobody on either side of the spectrum really trusts them any more.
Everything else is people on the Interwebs talking out their azz.
So we (Left and Right Blogistan) are left to sit on our hands and wait to see. And you know how much we hate doing that.
December 31st, 2008 at 12:20 amThat’s the funny thing about “free countries”. They do whatever they think is in their best interest or, at least, whatever the Hell they want. It’s “democracy” at work.
And, since Bushco destroyed their country, in the process of “freeing” them, the Iraqi people don’t give a rat’s rump about what the neocons want.
Who knows? With another twenty days in power Bushco could take advantage of the situation to start a war featuring Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Jordan, and the other Arab nations, against us and Israel.
Why worry? They don’t have nukes, except for Israel. I just hope they don’t expect the patriotic, sane, American majority to fill the seats on the Rapture bus. I would prefer not to feel it necessary to rip the neocons into shapeless, quivering, gobbets of meat.
BTW. There’s still the impending war between Pakistan and India. They, unfortunately, DO have nukes. January of ‘09 could become the worst month in human history. Bushco’s scorched earth policy could still kill billions of people.
December 31st, 2008 at 12:42 amOops! Arab=Muslim. Iran is mostly Persian.
December 31st, 2008 at 12:47 amIsrael has an election coming up. Hope our campaign theater never involves massacres.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:49 amIt was especially disheartening to hear U.S. politicians almost unanimously praising Israel’s atrocities–when what they should be doing is cutting off Israel’s foreign.
Why, O why, is our government so far to the right of its citizens?
December 31st, 2008 at 5:36 amEr…”Israel’s foreign aid.”
On the nature of Bubbles:
December 31st, 2008 at 5:36 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Ocbt6l5NE
Does anyone else find it curious that both Barack Obama and George Bush decide to take extended vacations while the Jews slaughter hundreds maybe thousands of civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps?
Maybe Ariel Sharon was right. The Jews really do control America.
December 31st, 2008 at 9:58 amJihadi Warrior Says:
Israel must be destroyed. I’m glad you all agree!
December 30th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
__________
Yup. Sounds good to me. It is well past time for Israel to be wiped off the map.
The people can stay, of course – it’s just the regime that needs to go. Israel is an experiment that has failed miserably. The strip of land between Lebanon and Egypt, the Jordan and the Mediterranian, cannot work as a Jewish state, a Muslim state, or a Christian state. It must be a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, secular state with full rights and citizenship for ALL within its borders.
The land walked by Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad is too important to the cultural history of our species to be divided by green lines or apartheid walls. It is too important to be divided by roadblocks and gang violence. It is too important to be parceled out into settlements and ghettos.
It’s time for the entire idea of a two-state solution to be abandoned. The concept is unworkable – it merely creates two states competing for resources and fuels endless, unsolvable conflict. There’s only one solution – all residents of the current territories of Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza must be one state, under one multi-religious, multi-ethnic government. Palestinians must be afforded the right to live and move freely west of the Green Line, and Israelis must have the right to live in integrated Palestinian villages east of it.
It’s the only way the conflict will be resolved. Yes, it means the elimination of Israel in its current configuration, but this is a small sacrifice to make in the interest of peace.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:04 amI’m shocked. Somebody actually went public with a disagreement with Bush/Cheney/Gates? That was rude. Somebody get Condi a Kleenex.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:05 amElBruce Says:
It’s tough to know what’s going on. Were the rocket attacks just a few guys committing isolated incidents with homemade crap, or was it a coordinated program by Hamas? How many were they doing? How does it compare to the response? And how well-targeted is the IDF response: are they hitting known targets vetted by thorough intelligence or just leveling neighborhoods? Is it possible this could have been dealt with through police work and due process?
December 31st, 2008 at 12:20 am
_____________
It’s my understanding that Gaza is pretty much run by eight or nine gangs. Hamas has had a bit of success bringing them under control, but for the most part they either can’t or don’t want to. I also don’t believe Hamas is the source of the rocket attacks – they may not be making much effort to stop them, but they gain nothing by sponsoring them directly.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:08 amKeltoi at Night Says:
This is hardly surprising. Of course the Iraqi population is going to side with Hamas against Israel, and as a democracy, the political leadership sees the need to do the same.
December 30th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
____________
Who says they’re siding with Hamas? The Iraqis are, understandably, siding with the Palestinian people, not Hamas.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:12 amwiley Says:
Israel has an election coming up. Hope our campaign theater never involves massacres.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:49 am
___________
With all the police brutality in Denver and Minneapolis this year, it doesn’t seem all that farfetched.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:18 amIf anybody is interested in what it’s like to live in the Palestinian refugee camps and be terrorized every day by the Jews, please rent the documentary movie, “Gaza Strip”. The movie was produced in 2002 and things have deteriorated one hundred fold since then.
Very sad.
December 31st, 2008 at 10:23 amGaza Strip
A brief, two-week excursion to the Gaza Strip turns into an extended study of the Palestinian Intifada and the damaging effects of the Israeli occupation in this feature-length documentary from American filmmaker James Longley. Filmed over the course of three months and culled from over seventy-five hours of footage, Longley attempts to give a human face to the longstanding conflict by offering an intimate look into the daily lives of average Palestinians. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie
December 31st, 2008 at 10:48 amAs soon as the Lame Stream Media reports that 9/11 was a False Flag attack thus giving birth to a bogus “war on terror” we will continue to go down a dark, dark road.
All the money spent is wasted. Our civilian economy continues to crumble.
Our military economy is booming.
Happy New Year?
December 31st, 2008 at 11:01 amI meant until the Lame Stream Media reports…
December 31st, 2008 at 11:04 amAipac needs to open a Bagdad office.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:19 pmA nation which suffers more than a million dead, a destroyed economy and infrastructure because of a pack of lies is expected to be an “ally”? Genius, pure genius.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:21 pmIf they can’t stabilize the current situation in the Middle East forget about change here at home. Now the Iraqis are all for defending the Palestinians and the Americans are just standing in their way. What a mess! I wonder what the idiot has to say now about his failure in the Middle East. Death to idiot and his entire team of losers! Greed-assed zionist pigs!
December 31st, 2008 at 1:42 pmEven many Jewish Groups are calling for an end to Gaza violence.
December 31st, 2008 at 1:54 pmhttp://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/31
tom Says:
No. Israel must not be destroyed.
Better idea!! Let’s get all of the artists, scientists, musicians, and everyday decent people out of Israel, and be left with only Zionists. Then let these same Zionists take on Russia…..Alone!! It will be similar to when the Israel and US backed Georgia attacked South Ossetia.
December 31st, 2008 at 3:14 pmWhy does everyone hate Israel so much? I cannot believe the horrible things I am reading here. Israel is not the problem in the Middle East, jealous, hateful and evil islamo-crazies are. Would you be okay with Mexico launching raids into New Mexico. We did take it from them, don’t we deserve to die? This is insanity many of you are writing. Why is it okay for us to possess the southwest but Israel needs to be “wiped from the map”? What is all of this hate? Why can’t the militant islamists put down their arms instead of exposing their fellow muslims to death? Why can’t they stop firing rockets into Israel? Where is YOUR anger towards them?
December 31st, 2008 at 4:10 pmI for one don’t hate Israel at all. I’m just terribly and constantly dissappointed by them. I really expect better than this sort of behavior. I keep hoping they’ll come to their senses with the whole apartheid/ghettoization/genocide/settlement thing and shape up, but no, they continue to dissappoint.
And yes, I realize this makes me sound like Israel’s Jewish mother. I’ve come to terms with that fact.
December 31st, 2008 at 5:12 pmJihadi Warrior Says:
Bite my Bag you ignorant troll
December 31st, 2008 at 6:49 pmWell ElBruce, I’m sure that hundreds of Palestinian refugees who lost loved ones this past week from Jewish tanks, fighter jets, and helicopter gunships feel much better knowing that you’re disappointed.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:50 pmAfter months of being bombarded by rockets from Gaza, Israel is finally responding.
Where was the outrage as rockets fell on Israeli territory?
I am sick to death of the double-standard.
So, let get it straight:
Hamas is a murderous band of terrorists, their declared goal is the utter destruction of Israel and of jewry. It is right in their declaration (on their very own website) to read.
The palestinians voted Hamas in with a sweeping majority, just as the germans voted Hitler in. And just as the germans had to take their share of collective blame for nazi atrocities from 1933-1945, the palestinian people also shoulder a good deal of the blame here, for they openly support and fund a band of murderous terrorists. And those rockets are being fired from civilian homes all over the place, with those civilian’s blessings.
So, before we start to criticize Israel too much for giving Hamas the death-kick that those bastarts deserve, perhaps we should ask how many months americans would accept rockets falling on our territory before the general public would blow a fuse.
The answer in gaza is simple: get the civvies out and bomb the hell out of the entire city. Leave a smoldering hulk there. Move in and force the palis back at least 20 miles. Make them pay for their murderous ways.
And I am not a conservative. I am a centrist democrat. But enough is enough.
Hamas is puke!
January 1st, 2009 at 5:02 ambonncaruso, you do the same mistake that many people do:
You ignore half of the story.
That conflict is quite old and there’s no clear “A has attacked first” or “B is evil”.
Both sides of the conflict are puke.
January 1st, 2009 at 10:50 amThe Zionists decided long ago to make Palestine their homeland. It doesn’t matter to the Jews that Christians and Muslims have been living on those lands for thousands of years. The Jews are going to murder every non-Jew (Goyim) in Palestine until they get what they want.
Only Jews (and Jew lovers) will be allowed to live in Palestine. Remember, anyone who critizes a Jew is a terrorist and will be imprisoned, tortured, or assassinated. And if you’re a Jew and you plan on living in Palestine then the color of your skin had better be whiter than snow.
It’s so sad to watch America become a country of “Joe Liebermans”. sigh….
January 1st, 2009 at 12:09 pmbonncaruso Says:
After months of being bombarded by rockets from Gaza, Israel is finally responding.
Where was the outrage as rockets fell on Israeli territory?
I am sick to death of the double-standard.
Me too. I’m sick of people equating a handful of daily rocket attacks, which have killed all of fifteen people and caused a bunch of property damage in two Israeli cities over the past decade, with the Israeli military incursions and airstrikes that have killed FIVE THOUSAND Palestinians since the start of the second Intifada.
THAT is the double-standard. Israel gets away with murder, while the Palestinians are expected to just sit down and let themselves be exterminated.
The answer in gaza is simple: get the civvies out and bomb the hell out of the entire city. Leave a smoldering hulk there. Move in and force the palis back at least 20 miles. Make them pay for their murderous ways.
January 1st, 2009 at 5:02 am
In other words, your solution is exactly what Israel is doing – genocide and collective punishment. Nice plan, jackass!
January 1st, 2009 at 1:05 pmGood post toasterhead. There is a clear double standard here but to say its in favor of the Palestinians is flat out delusional. There arent any white hats in the whole conflict but Israel is occupying PALESTINIAN LAND for the past 40 years and stealing it not the other way around. When Amira Haas, an ISRAELI journalist reported that Israeli snipers were INSTRUCTED to target children it didnt get much notice in America nor did the rocket attacks from Israel that killed the blind, parapalegic cleric and seven other people who happened to be near him or the bombing and destruction of an entire apartment building killing nineteen including nine children to get ONE man ACCUSED of being a terrorist which Sharon then called a great victory. Both sides are targetting innocents and we ONLY get the media blaming the Palestinians for targetting innocents, which they are. Its time we criticised BOTH sides for their terrorism instead of ignoring Israeli terrorism and denouncing only Palestinian terrorism. If you dont hold yourself, your allies and your enemies to the same standard you arent even PRETENDING to have an ethical standard.
January 1st, 2009 at 1:23 pmIsraeli snipers were INSTRUCTED to target children
______________
say what??? oh sure, that action’s justified! riiiiight! and all this is in the name of God, eh folks?
January 1st, 2009 at 1:36 pmBarack Obama’s relationship with Israel will define his entire Presidency. Hopefully, Obama won’t be a rubber stamp for Israeli terrorism like every other President for the past 60 years.
We’ll find out soon who Barack Obama really is.
January 1st, 2009 at 1:45 pmhttp://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2908.shtml
This from Amira Haas, Haaretz journalist, accepting the Anna Lindh award
From the third day, Palestinian and Israeli human rights and health organziations commented that the number of injuries in the upper parts of the body was a proof that the order was to kill. They also claimed that the army is targeting children. I published their commentary in one of my early reports. An interview I held with an Israeli sharpshooter confirmed these claims
January 1st, 2009 at 6:14 pm