” This is industrialized killing of civilians for the “fun of it”.
No, that’s an anti-Semitic statement. And I think you know it. This is just war, waged the way wars have always been waged. It’s unfortunate the Palestinians began this war, but you surely can’t blame Israel for that. They’ve tried every possible peaceful method, and they simply haven’t worked. So, now they have to respond in kind. It’s sad, but it’s the Palestinians’ fault. If they surrendered and recognized Israel then the war will end. If they don’t do that, then it will continue. For generations, if necessary. But it’s up to them. Israel would be failing its duty to its citizens if it didn’t act to protect them. Any other government would do the same, and you all know that.

Posted by: mikep | Jan 6 2009 18:25 utc | 4

@Jeremiah
Just curious (not an indictment of your post in any way): as a tank commander/operator, what is the chain of information / orders in regard to target selection and destruction?
Depends on the army but can be virtually anything.
1. It may have been a tank crew doing this on its own. (They will get soft claps and a medal.)
2. It may have be given a general task-order (“Auftragstaktik”) and is free on how to fulfill it.
3. It may have been a direct order via radio from any point up the chain.
I’d say its 2 or 3 here. As the current troops in Gaza are supposed to be elite, 1 would be astonishing undisciplined.
@mikep – No, that’s an anti-Semitic statement.
Buhaaaaaaaaaaa.

Posted by: b | Jan 6 2009 18:48 utc | 6

No, that’s an anti-Semitic statement.

Actually, it is not, but, keep picking at bits of straw. It leads me to believe you are useful for something.
It is obvious to me that war crimes are being committed as we speak, with the aid of the US.
Question is, what are we going to do about it?

Posted by: IntelVet | Jan 6 2009 19:13 utc | 8

But this is what the “Israel” cult has come down to. Complaints about child murder in their concentration camp are deemed “anti semitism”.
Nobody’s buying your victim pimp bullshit any more.

Posted by: Thrasyboulos | Jan 6 2009 19:23 utc | 10

Press TV has pictures from and reporters inside Gaza.

Posted by: ww | Jan 6 2009 19:33 utc | 12

URGENT URGENT URGENT URGENT
Post this on every blog you can – email it to everyone – those with accounts on Daily Kos plaster it everywhere
Genocide in Progress

Amid the tidal wave of human misery swamping Gaza City’s central hospital a horrified Norwegian volunteer doctor found a minute to type a text message on his mobile phone to friends back home.
“We are wading in death, blood, and amputees. Many children. A pregnant woman. I have never experienced anything so terrible. Now we hear tanks. Pass it on, send it around, shout it out. Anything. DO SOMETHING! DO MORE! We are living in a history book now, all of us.” It was signed Mads Gilbert, one of two Norwegian doctors toiling relentlessly alongside exhausted Palestinian medics.

Get going! There is not a moment to waste! Whatever is in your power to do, do it NOW!

Posted by: bea | Jan 6 2009 19:40 utc | 14

i’d like to add that, besides the “fun” those sick bastards are having, this blast may be very well a message aimed at UN too..: the zionist entity don’t give a fluck about the rest of humankind

Posted by: rudolf | Jan 6 2009 19:49 utc | 16

It looks like The Messiah finally looked down to where the common mortal live and muttered that he is worried about the civilian casualties. Looking for the actual quote and a proper source.

Posted by: ThePaper | Jan 6 2009 20:26 utc | 18

They had a clip on Danish TV with one of those Norwegian doctors bea mention in #14. They didn’t have his most damning statements, but he did get to say that out of the many hundreds of wounded at his hospital, he seen no Hamas.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Jan 6 2009 21:04 utc | 20

It is stunning that we have to cite and compile pictures and videos of these atrocities day after day to try to beat it into the thick skull of the western world. Stunned by decades of state crimes by American, UK, Israeli, Russian and many other countries, where the fuck is the sheer outrage? I’m old enough to remember when the death of four students in Ohio…
Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Chechnya, Fallujah, Gaza becomes as natural a flow as blood pumping through a heart. All that’s left is to monitor the rate. 500 becomes 5000. Just data points.
I just wish there were a zero-state solution.

Posted by: biklett | Jan 6 2009 21:09 utc | 22

@23,
Yeah, I could never decide whether to get an abortion or a tattoo. WTF?

Posted by: biklett | Jan 6 2009 21:45 utc | 24

Murder has now become a spectator sport just like in Roman times, except instead of Jews we’ve got Palestinans.
this was the dream i had last night. that the enclosed walls of gaza were the colosseum. outside the colosseum all these elaborate efforts were made to pretend to the people it wasn’t a show going on inside, with the people arguing about it, but inside the colosseum were all the society enjoying the games.
all the important people were there, jockying for position to get a good view, but of course the press were banned so all the reports that came out were tailor made, and their were many professionals involved in the descriptions of the games. there was a hierarchy of these professionals. those that wrote the reports, and those that created narrative. they were in the upper tiers if the balcony sitting next to those who ran the games.

Posted by: annie | Jan 6 2009 22:40 utc | 26

annie-
Yes, I had that same dream. You’d better see a shrink. Despite what Fromm, Miller, et al say, you CAN be successfully normalized in a pathological society. It’s just a matter of finding the right meds.

Posted by: Malooga | Jan 6 2009 22:54 utc | 28

so this is it
“Israel’s leaders are for now rejecting a ceasefire. That is to be expected. Of course the Israeli leadership has to sound tough and uncompromising in their positions, that’s part of the dynamic of who has a winning narrative and is of course part of the domestic politics (especially with elections coming up on February 10th). This should not be confused with a cold look at the respective interests at play – and for Israel getting bogged down in Gaza is a distinctly bad idea.
The way this is set up politically means that Israel has to have a ceasefire imposed on it – this seems to be what Defense minister Barak is looking for and he favored the French proposal for a truce last week even before the ground invasion began. The speculation among Israeli commentators is that an international demand for a ceasefire is pretty much the only exit strategy Israel has up its sleeve, even suggesting that Israel may intentionally exacerbate a humanitarian crisis in order to force the international community to act (that was the expert analysis on Israeli channel 10 TV last night). Things are made even more complicated by the fact two of the ministers leading the country are competing in the elections next month – MoD Barak and FM Livni. So it’s not just Israel that needs a winning narrative – each minister needs his/her own particular winning narrative. So an outside push is a prerequisite for ending this. ”
http://www.prospectsforpeace.com/

Posted by: outsider | Jan 6 2009 23:36 utc | 30

biklett@22: It is stunning that we have to cite and compile pictures and videos of these atrocities day after day to try to beat it into the thick skull of the western world.
It’s virtually impossible to get people in this country to acknowledge what is happening. People in the town I live are too busy complaining about snow removal. Seriously. They’re hounding the mayor with complaints. In our local paper, an avid jogger lamented over his right to clear sidewalks.
I was made fun of at the local blog I antagonize because I tried to put the snow-bitching in perspective by mentioning the atrocities in Gaza.
I simply don’t know what to say to people anymore. Until the war comes home, and we live the kind of terror our good friend Israel is mercilessly inflicting on Palestinians, don’t expect an informed peep from the peeps in the states.
what most folks have had ingrained in their psyches is any criticism of Israel is anti-semitic, so when I say “FUCK ISRAEL” in mixed company I see wide-eyed disbelief that I would even voice, out loud, such a sentiment.
but for anyone paying attention, what else can you say? A nuanced, intellectual debate is sort of difficult right now, even though that is perhaps what is most needed. But that can only happen if the slaughter stops, and Israel shows no sign of wanting that to happen.
I guess I’ll just walk around, trying to help those who need it most in my own community, muttering fuck Israel to myself as the people in my town complain about snow berms and icy sidewalks.

Posted by: Lizard | Jan 6 2009 23:54 utc | 32

excellent point monolycus

Posted by: annie | Jan 7 2009 0:06 utc | 34

On the other hand, am I “anti-Zionist”? You betcha! Many of my Jewish friends share the same sentiment. I regard with disgust all theocratic governments.

Posted by: Obelix | Jan 7 2009 1:45 utc | 36

It’s almost as if the Zionist are checking off a list of recent horrors. Oh, we can do that? OK.

Posted by: biklett | Jan 7 2009 2:08 utc | 38

….. and Barack Obama (aka the messiah) will have plenty to say after the 20th Jan.
wtf?

Posted by: sabine | Jan 7 2009 4:44 utc | 40

I read about the entire extended family being attacked with many killed on Left Eye on the News, and I could barely believe this was happening in the beginning of the 21st Century, perpetrated by people from an ostensibly modern nation. It seemed more in keeping with the horrors of ancient wars. Or the revenge killing of the villagers of Lidice by the Germans.
I am so angry and feel so completely impotent. And since I can’t influence my own nation’s government, what hope do I have of influencing Israel’s?
What a terrible beginning to this new year.
Does wiping out such a large family group constitute a sub-set of genocide? Or is it just genocide?
Link: http://lefti.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html#7517100688363418567

Posted by: jawbone | Jan 7 2009 5:43 utc | 42

jawbone, the new draftees in the idf need target training?
sick, just sick, but according to the powers that are no genocide, no massacres, and only 25% of the dead are civilians.
Civilians = women, children.
the men are all hamas.
And yes as long the the US supports a country, that country can do anything. it goes hand in hand with protecting US american interests everywhere.

Posted by: sabine | Jan 7 2009 7:00 utc | 44

Asked three times by audience members, Meridor simply could not offer any plausible explanation as to how its military campaign in Gaza would achieve its stated goals.
You are right to bring up this point, b. There’s another article by van Creveld in the Guardian: So far, Israeli action is going to plan. He vaunts the success of Israeli operations, but completely avoids the point of where it’s all going.
Doing a Falluja on Gaza is all very nice (though with the disadvantage for Israel of a lot more visible blood than was seen in F.), but not even Falluja itself achieved all that much for the US.

Posted by: Alex | Jan 7 2009 9:31 utc | 46

What do you do if you see a killer rotweiler killing humans. Blame the dog or its controller?. Put down the dog? This dog perpetrating the Gaza Holocaust is controlled by the U.S.of Aipac. How does it feel to be an American when you see broken and burned children and women for whom you are individually and collectively totally responsible. John F Kennedy said that a citizens greatest right is his responsibilities. Where are the civilised worlds Powers necessary to stop the dog and its handler. The World would welcome Chinese, Russian, European Armies if they rescued the Gaza people from their holocaust. It has come to that. Why did you let it?.

Posted by: boindub | Jan 7 2009 10:22 utc | 48

@ obelix, #39 “I regard with disgust all theocratic governments.”
But Zionism, at least not as the modern political movement for which Theodor Herzl was such a prime mover, is not a theocratic movement. Herzl’s thesis was that a Jewish state was the only means to gain respect for Jews and end the form of anti-semitism aimed at Jews. The other option was assimilation and conversion to whatever was the local religion — but he did not believe that would end anti-semitism. He was half-right in the first part and on target with the second — assimilation in no way protected the Jews of Europe, as it was seen as a racial, not religious question by the Nazis.
True, there are strong, tragically dominant theocratic elements in Zionism today, not least the execrable Christian Zionism.
The western governments, in particular the US, were at best, lukewarm to the idea of an Israeli state. It was later, they (again, particularly the US) saw its use as keystone in dominating the ME.
Right now, the offense in Gaza is “like shooting into a cage” as one of the Norwegian doctors bea referred to in #14 has also said to the media. He has also said, in reference to the DIME munitions which bea refers to in #25, “…you don’t do this to human beings, no matter how much you disagree or think you need to fight them, you don’t do this to human beings” (quote after memory)– The implicit conclusion is that the Israeli gov’t and the IDF does not consider the Palestinians to be human.
What can we do? Juan Cole posted about “Raed in the Middle” who was kicked off a plane in the US by TSA for wearing a t-shirt with Arabic letters on it, “lan nasmut” and its equivalent in English, “we will not be silent”. It’s Danish equivalent would be “vi vil ikke tie”. It was the motto of the White Rose group in Germany.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Jan 7 2009 13:31 utc | 50

It’s not just fun for them.. it is orgasmic, and redeeming, they revel in it like a bully loves to step on the weaker types. It confirms his/her superiority over the lesser ones.
The soldiers and politicos can play GOD and snuff out lives.. and feel as if they did the human race a favor by crushing cockroaches.
The onlookers on the Israeli side can get their blood lust like the Romans did as the lions were chasing the christians.
and the best part is that the rest of the world just sits on the sidelines as the murderous butchers get away with it and the american giant gives the middle finger to anyone that tells the truth about it.
the leaders of the world will do nothing unless told how high to jump by the criminals running the USA and Israel. They have been bought and paid for.. so don’t wait for them.
the only way to protest this is to stop paying your taxes. there is no other way

Posted by: Sam | Jan 7 2009 14:23 utc | 52

(despite the political agenda of the u.s. embassy in the msg)
reuters: Sudan protesters call for attacks on Westerners-US

KHARTUOM, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Sudanese protesters have called for attacks on Americans and other foreigners living in Khartoum during rallies against the Gaza offensive, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
Students and religious groups have held small-scale protests almost every day since Israel started the attack on Gaza it says is in response to Islamist militants firing rockets into Israel.
The U.S. embassy in Khartoum said some protesters “have made threats against U.S. and other Western citizens in Sudan”.
At least one speaker at a rally outside the embassy on Monday read out read out a list of places and neighbourhoods where Westerners are known to gather, the embassy said.
…
The U.S. embassy said protesters were hoping to hold a large rally in the capital on Wednesday or Thursday, and advised its citizens to keep a low profile.

Posted by: b real | Jan 7 2009 16:17 utc | 54

Thanks to b, and bea @25, I’ve come across a new (to me) explanation for the apparently “goal-less” Gaza war, and some good news!
The explanation being that the war may simply be a showcase for manufacturers of new weapons to attract new customers, e.g. Israel’s HEAT, as well as intimidation/extermination.
fyi, DIME’s manufacturer seems largely UK-based, and now being sued for war crimes, according to
http://pandalonghu.blog.163.com/blog/static/50351199200906104325390/
Barflies, keep open eyes and hearts – never despair for too long!

Posted by: lambent1 | Jan 7 2009 17:26 utc | 56

Chuck Cliff,
It really don’t matter whether the Zionist movement was originally formed to form a safe haven for Jews, basing it upon their particular faith or race. Either way, science has proven this sort of thinking exercised by Zionists is dead wrong.
Modern cosmology coupled with our knowledge of evolution has traced the Universe back to its beginning, proving that all religions are merely a human invention, none of them are a product of Nature. Therefore, no religion, including Judaism, is more right, is more superior, than any other religion in the Universe. All religions are equal in the eyes of Nature.
Likewise, modern genetics coupled with our knowledge of evolution has traced homo sapiens back to their beginnings, proving that humans as a species with separate and distinct races is nothing more than a human invention, having nothing to do with Nature. Genetic studies have shown without a shadow of a doubt that humans as a species can’t be subdivided into races, which are separate and distinct from each other. Therefore, no group of humans, including Jews, is more right, is more superior, than any other group of humans on Earth. All groups of humans are equal in the eyes of Nature. So Israeli Jews don’t have a single leg to stand on when it comes to thinking that they, as a group of people, are more right, are more superior, than any other group of people on Earth, non-Jewish Palestinians included.

Posted by: Cynthia | Jan 7 2009 19:07 utc | 58

Herr Oberst-Leutnant b,
I was a tank-commander and a tank-platoon leader, too. One sometimes does shoot tank guns at things they later wish they hadn’t. One cannot always clearly identify targets through sophisticated, magnifying optics – day and night, in rain and through fog. If they could, there would never be friendly fire incidents involving tank guns. Israeli losses have also risen since the ground invasion began on Saturday. The military said that three of its soldiers were killed late Monday night when an Israeli tank shell was mistakenly fired at a building they occupied.
A fourth soldier was also killed Monday night, very possibly also by an Israeli tank shell, the military said.
Reliably identifying, shooting and hitting a target at 2000-3000 meters is not as easy to do as you make it sound. The gunner is usually the second most senior crewman on the tank.
A modern tank is not all that secure and comfortable a place at high speed off-road. The driver is fairly comfortable, the gunner less so, the TC and loader not so much. There is quite a bit of stress for the guys inside if there are dismounts with RPG’s and big IED’s about, but I guess a Bundeswehr panzer fuehrer would have to be over 80 years old to know about that.

Posted by: Cannoneer No. 4 | Jan 8 2009 19:02 utc | 60

So I promoted you.
Do you seriously believe that Israeli parents would rather be told that their sons were killed by Israeli tanks than by Hamas gunmen?
Do you really expect anybody else to buy that?
Press TV reported that the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – said it had destroyed an Israeli tank after its ground forces crossed the border with the Gaza Strip late Saturday.
Press TV also says Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, said Wednesday that it had blown up the tank in recent fighting in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitun.
So either Hamas is lying or tanks aren’t as safe as you claim they are.

Posted by: Cannoneer No. 4 | Jan 8 2009 19:34 utc | 62

@62 – there have been 8 Israeli occupiers so far.
In 60 you want me to believe Israeli claims that 4 of those were killed by friendly fire which was never confirmed by the Palestinians. In 62 you want me to believe Izz ad-Din claims they blew up a tank which was never confirmed by the Israeli side.
I do not believe any of these claims unless I find some confirmation from both sides or a report from a neutral source.

Posted by: b | Jan 8 2009 19:47 utc | 64

Cannoneer @65:
At first the Israelis claimed “Hamas” fighters were hiding inside and firing mortars from the school. The Israelis even claimed to have identified the bodies of two of them among the dead, and released their supposed names. After the UN emphatically denied the allegations and Israel could come up with no evidence — because there was none — Israel has now admitted there was no Palestinian fire from the school, but insists there was fire from outside the building.
So there are two possibilities:
(1) Assuming the Israelis are now telling the truth (ahem), the tank hit the school while trying to hit someone outside the building.
(2) Assuming the Israelis are still lying, the tank hit the school because the crew wanted to hit the school.
By all accounts, the school was clearly marked as a UN facility, and its location had been reported to the Israelis after previous strikes endangering UN facilities.
So either (1) the Israelis deliberately fired at the school, or (2) they fired at a target just outside the school with reckless disregard for the civilians inside a clearly marked UN structure, revealing their so-called “purity of arms” for the BS it actually is.
I’m inclined to believe the first alternative because the Israelis’ shifting story is so lame.
“Yes, we admit we fired directly at the school. That’s because there were Hamas guys in there firing mortars at us. In fact, we went in there afterwards and identified two of the dead as Hamas fighters. Here are their names. What’s that you say? There’s no evidence we’re telling the truth? Hold on, give us a minute to come up with something. Hmmm. OK, you’re right. That stuff we just told you, we made it up. Here’s the real story. We were actually trying to, ah, hit someone just outside the building. Yeah, that’s it, someone outside the building.”

Posted by: Keine Ahnung | Jan 9 2009 1:26 utc | 66

@67 – the Haaretz piece quoted in the piece above says “Two tank shells exploded outside the Gaza school …”
While Israeli Merkava tanks also have an internal 60mmm mortar, the high number of dead and wounded point to a more “effective” weapon, i.e. 120 mm HEAT rounds.
On does not need, btw, to have been a tank-gunner to have an opinion on shooting up civilians.

Posted by: b | Jan 9 2009 3:38 utc | 68

@67, Almost no one on this thread has any freaking clue, yet all feel qualified to pontificate upon weapons and tactics about which they are ignorant.
Yes, I feel qualified to comment on the bodies of dead children and distraught parents, because I’m a human being. I feel qualified to suggest that weapons and tactics that kill civilians are contrary in every way to what SHOULD constitute basic human morality. You, apparently, feel able to suggest that your experience as a tank commander, and your knowledge of weapons systems, somehow entitles you to put the massacre of 700 people into some sort of safe context understandable only to the perpetrators and therefore beyond the ability of civilians to criticize.
But clearly an ability to empathize with war criminals is something you’re proud of.

Posted by: Tantalus | Jan 9 2009 4:02 utc | 70

One can get lost in the minutia of how the killing was done, but it won’t bring the dead to life.
I doubt it matters much to the dead if it was a magical spell, fancy tank rounds or plain ol’ mortar rounds that killed them. Dead is dead, and these poor people are being executed on the world stage to show everyone who wears the pants. The Palestinians are in the wrong place at the wrong time in world history, and they are just another example of what lunacy states are capable of.
The violence against protesters at both of the united state’s political parties conventions this past year was another example of the state’s love of force against anyone who would speak against it. Anyone who dares stand-up to authority anywhere will be abused to the fullest extent of the law…
We are about to turn a corner and start back-down the alley way to the Dark Ages, where ignorance equals intelligence and keeping quiet is the only way to speak out.
Dave

Posted by: David | Jan 9 2009 4:44 utc | 72

@73
Except that it isn’t la guerre, not by any stretch of the imagination. You come in here with your jargon – dismounts, servicing targets, M509A2 PIBD, and expect it to trump the reality of entrails and squirming, legless people.

Posted by: Tantalus | Jan 9 2009 13:27 utc | 74

Cannoneer#4@75X3-9=
Regarding posers-
I guide flyfishing trips for trout on a river in Colorado. I deal with all sorts of fisherfolk, some are humble and listen to my advice, others are arrogant, outfitted with custom equipment and the nomenclature of trained entomologist.
Given the choice, I’d rather guide the former, rather than the latter. The guys who can tell you exactly what stage of development a mayfly nymph is in are rarely people who can fish, but they’re good at memorizing.
They know all sorts of silly little “facts” but nothing about how those really apply to a given situation.
One may know how to service a target, and even what the proper nomenclature of a fuze is, this only means that said human has become a machine, something less than a human.
Any machine can be programed to find targets, select the right round and fire–shouldn’t the human part of this machine have the ability to reason that a tank round, even one designed to explode from a command, not impact, is a horrible choice of weapon to respond to a mortar position near a school, if indeed such a position existed in the first place?
Just a thought,
Dave

Posted by: David | Jan 9 2009 15:15 utc | 76

IDF investigation shows errant mortar hit UN building in Gaza
Tank gunnery had nothing to do with it.
120-MM HEAT-MP-T CARTRIDGE M325 was not the ordnance involved.
Your credibility isn’t any better than the IDF Spokespersons, Herr Oberleutnant.
You should pick what to pose as more carefully.

Posted by: Cannoneer No. 4 | Jan 12 2009 2:11 utc | 78

One of the touchstones of the war so far has been the fate of a group of Palestinian civilians fleeing the fighting who were lining up to enter a United Nations school. They were killed on Jan. 6 in an exchange of mortar fire between Hamas fighters and Israeli troops.
Witnesses, including Hanan Abu Khajib, 39, said that Hamas fired just outside the school compound, probably from the secluded courtyard of a house across the street, 25 yards from the school. Israeli return fire, some minutes later, also landed outside the school, along the southwest wall, killing two Hamas fighters. Nearly all the casualties were in the street outside the compound, with only three people wounded from shrapnel inside the walls. — STEVEN ERLANGER, NYT
You people lend credence to Palestinian “witnesses,” don’t you?

Posted by: Cannoneer No. 4 | Jan 17 2009 20:39 utc | 80

Cannoneer No. 4:
You people lend credence to Palestinian “witnesses,” don’t you?
Since when did John Ging become Palestinian? Perhaps you could provide us with a link? And you linking to the Judy Miller WMD in Iraq Times is credence? Here’s the best line in the article you linked to:

But after completing its initial inquiry, the army now has returned to its first version — that Hamas militants fired from inside the school compound.

Now what does that say about your post at #78, which you used to attack the credibility of others on this board? If it was just errant fire as stated in the link you provided @78 there would have been no need to tell so many lies in the first place. Now that the UN is talking war crimes investigations the story changes again from errant to justification. How predictable.

Posted by: Sam | Jan 17 2009 21:31 utc | 82

Was it mortar fire or was it 120-MM HEAT-MP-T CARTRIDGE M325 tank fire?
If it wasn’t tank fire, then the legitimacy of a thread entitled Tank Gunnery condemning Israeli tankers is shot, to any who retain the ability to think about it rather than emote all over the screen.
Comments by people who don’t know their breech from their muzzle provide amusement, especially when they proudly proclaim virtue in their ignorance.

Posted by: Cannoneer No. 4 | Jan 17 2009 22:21 utc | 84

Cannoneer no. 4,
Google Dr Abu al-Aish.
I proudly proclaim virtue in my ignorance as to why I should accept collateral damage as an excuse for mass-murder.

Posted by: Tantalus | Jan 17 2009 22:40 utc | 86

ahhh – primary sources – Globe and Mail:

News of the tragedy travelled fast, with aid workers and medical staff quoted as saying the incident happened at the school, the UNRWA facility where people had sought refuge.
Soon it was presented that people in the school compound had been killed. Before long, there was worldwide outrage.
Sensing a public-relations nightmare, Israeli spokespeople quickly asserted that their forces had only returned fire from gunmen inside the school. (They even named two militants.) It was a statement from which they would later retreat, saying there were gunmen in the vicinity of the school.
No witnesses said they saw any gunmen. (If people had seen anyone firing a mortar from the middle of the street outside the school, they likely would not have continued to mill around.)
John Ging, UNRWA’s operations director in Gaza, acknowledged in an interview this week that all three Israeli mortar shells landed outside the school and that “no one was killed in the school.”
“I told the Israelis that none of the shells landed in the school,” he said.
Why would he do that?
“Because they had told everyone they had returned fire from gunmen in the school. That wasn’t true.”
Mr. Ging blames the Israelis for the confusion over where the victims were killed. “They even came out with a video that purported to show gunmen in the schoolyard. But we had seen it before,” he said, “in 2007.”
The Israelis are the ones, he said, who got everyone thinking the deaths occurred inside the school.
“Look at my statements,” he said. “I never said anyone was killed in the school. Our officials never made any such allegation.”

So the Israelis, from which I picked the story (Haaretz), gave the false information. …

Posted by: b | Feb 1 2009 5:44 utc | 88

Nobody is duped by either you or the quote you dug out of the Jerusalem Post — or, should I say, supplied by the IFF, the Israeli Fascist Force. Go troll somewhere else. The last guy Israel sent to this Blog left after only a few hours with his/her tail between his/her legs. Don’t waste your time disseminating Israeli Fascist propaganda here, and warn your handlers that MoA is off-limits.
Try Yahoo blogs, you may get lucky.

Posted by: Parviz | Feb 17 2009 11:28 utc | 90