Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
May 05, 2019

Israel Again Bombs Gaza - But Is It "In Response"?

Since Friday noon a fire exchange between besieged Palestinians in the Gaza strip and Israel escalated into heavy bombing and missile fire.

The reporting thereof in U.S. media again proves that these are unable to fairly cover on the conflict.

Jeff Bezos' blog headlines:

More than 200 rockets fired into Israel from Gaza; Israel responds, killing 3

The first graph:

Militants in Gaza fired more than 250 rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, and Israel responded with airstrikes and artillery fire, ending weeks of relative calm and threatening efforts to forge a long-term truce.

Most readers do not read further than the headline and maybe the first paragraph. Their impression will understandably be that "militants in Gaza" started the fight and that the Zionists "responded". But that is far from the truth.

One has to read down to the fifteenth paragraph to learn that those 'facts' are probably false:

The Israeli military reported on Friday that two soldiers were lightly wounded in a shooting incident along its border with Gaza. In response, Israel struck sites belonging to the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, killing two fighters.

Also on Friday, two Palestinian protesters were killed taking part in ongoing weekly demonstrations at the border fence with Israel, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Note the sequencing. The exchange is again described as a "response" by Israel. The two murdered demonstrators, who were unarmed and posed no threat to Israel, are mentioned as an aside.

But is was their murder, by Israeli snipers, that actually started the escalating violence:

“It’s a reply to the Israeli targeting of peaceful civilians yesterday by Israeli snipers during the 58th Friday of Great March of Return,” said Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s bureau for international relations, referring to the weekly protests staged in Gaza since last year. “Also, to the procrastination policies of the occupation toward lifting the siege on Gaza.”

A second story at Bezos' blog, filed later, follows the same scheme though its first paragraph is slightly more neutral. It is headlined:

Death toll rises as Gaza militants fire more than 400 rockets into Israel and Israel responds with airstrikes

An escalation in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza over the weekend also brought with it a growing death toll Sunday, with reports that six Palestinians, including a pregnant mother and a baby, had been killed by Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian enclave and one Israeli man killed as more than 450 rockets and projectiles were fired into southern Israel from Gaza.

In the following paragraphs there are eight statements attributed to the Israeli side and one from Palestinians. The Friday murder of two Palestinian civilians is only mentioned in paragraph sixteen.

The New York Times is equally partisan with the headline also falsely claiming that Israeli "responds":

Gaza Militants Fire 250 Rockets, and Israel Responds With Airstrikes

Palestinian militants launched about 250 rockets and mortars into southern Israel from Gaza on Saturday, and the Israeli military responded with airstrikes and tank fire against targets across the Palestinian territory, as tensions along the volatile border boiled over and a fragile cease-fire faltered again.

The piece also gives ample room to Israeli military claims. The murder of the two Palestinians on Friday, the immediate cause of the exchange, is mentioned as an aside in the fifteenth paragraph:

Saturday’s escalation in violence came a day after two Israeli soldiers were wounded by a Gaza sniper and four Palestinians were killed. Two were shot by Israeli forces during Friday’s weekly protest along the fence dividing the Palestinian coastal territory from Israel, according to Gaza health officials.

This fake reporting saying that Israel "responds" is nothing new. As Louis Allday wrote in 2011:

If one consults only mainstream media for information on the conflict in Palestine, what is immediately striking is that Israel appears to be in a permanent state of “retaliation” — a phrase which immediately confers at least a modicum of legitimacy or justification upon the act to which it refers. Israel is never presented as the aggressor and however much its actions are condemned — which they are by some mainstream sources — they are invariably portrayed as a reaction to some form of provocation. Conversely, missiles launched from the Gaza Strip or southern Lebanon are habitually portrayed as “attacks” — never “retaliations,” even if Israel has launched a devastating missile strike immediately prior to the event — as so often is the case.
The public is subliminally conditioned to understand that Israel is a permanent victim that on occasion is forced to lash out in response to the ostensibly irrational and unruly aggression of illegitimate non-state actors that encircle it.

This warped and cursory reporting by U.S. media of the conflicts launched by Israel is contrasted by reporting in Israeli itself. This Haaretz writeup of this weekend's escalation, while also partisan, is way more informative than any reporting from the U.S. side. It explains the political background of the struggle:

Hamas Twists Israel's Arm Right Before the Eurovision and Independence Day
Killing of Hamas operatives, delay in Qatari money transfer spurred a significant escalation

The escalation between Israel and the Gaza factions over the weekend – more than 400 rockets fired at Israel, a broad bombing of Gaza by the air force, seven Palestinians killed and six Israelis wounded – reflects an attempt by Hamas to address its economic woes by putting military pressure on Israel at a sensitive time.
...
To understand what’s happening, it’s crucial to revisit events from before the April 9 election. In recent months, Egyptian intelligence officials have been mediating between Israel and Hamas in an attempt to reach long-term agreements. The Palestinians would put a complete stop to airborne firebombs and rockets, while Israel would ease movement through border crossings, allow large sums of Qatari money into the Gaza Strip and take steps to accommodate large-scale, internationally-financed projects in Gaza to improve the crumbling infrastructure. At a later stage, talks over a prisoner swap would be renewed.

Ahead of the election, and in light of the promises by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the hopes of avoiding a conflict as Israelis voted, Hamas held its fire. But the payoff didn’t arrive at a pace that satisfied the Palestinians. Israel wasn’t quick to meet its commitments. The concessions at the border crossings were anything but swift, the number of trucks bringing goods into Gaza every day was modest, and efforts to increase the electricity supply hadn’t yet begun.

An unfortunately paywalled Haaretz opinion piece draws the correct historic comparison: The Gaza Ghetto Uprising

In this case it is undoubtedly the Palestinian side that is responding to Israeli violence. But even if Palestinians would fire missiles without an immediate cause it would be within the full rights of the Palestinian people. In its 1982 Resolution 37/43 the General Assembly of the United Nations reaffirmed:

the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle;

The UN GA resolution is standing international law. The Palestinian people have the right to resist against the occupation force.

In practice as well as legally Israel is a colonial entity that occupies Palestinian land, especially in Gaza and the West Bank. Any armed struggle by Palestinians against the occupation, provoked or not, is thus morally and legally justified.

But do not expect that any 'western' mainstream media will ever point that out.

Posted by b on May 5, 2019 at 12:23 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Thank you for this dissection of the news texts.

Posted by: Really? | May 5 2019 12:45 utc | 1

Finally a useful media chart that doesn't try to tell people what to read:

https://swprs.org/media-navigator/

Note the main axis: the WP and NYT are close to (US and Israeli) power, MoA is at the very other end of the chart!!

Posted by: Paul K. | May 5 2019 13:10 utc | 2

Even RT is in on the propaganda:
"3 killed, including infant & pregnant woman, as IDF unleash retaliatory strikes on Gaza – officials"
https://www.rt.com/news/458360-israel-strikes-gaza-casualties/

This paragraph from the article makes it sound like equality:

"The latest unrest in Gaza comes on the back of massive protests, dubbed the ‘Great March of Return’, which intensified last May after the US relocated its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The protests saw repeated clashes between the IDF and Palestinian protesters, which at times escalated to armed confrontation."

That narrative is propaganda, clearly.

Posted by: SharonM | May 5 2019 13:18 utc | 3

Excellent info b, and lets not forget the fact that the apartheid regime also limited the fishing area last week, meaning more starvation for the people of Gazah. This is whole "fake/twisted news" narrative is timely and no doubt in preparation for the after Ramadan announcement of the "deal of the century". The US/Israel/KSA and puppet Statelets will push for the utter deportation of all Palestinians from Gazah and West Bank and painting them as aggressors will fit their sick narrative. Unfortunately this will continue to escalate through out this month, and the culmination will be the "deal of the century". It is all planned and part of a larger global efforts for distraction and diversion (Venezuela, Iran, Syria Libya, trade war with China, Novorussiya etc...)we will see a very coordinated effort to make this deal go through, either neutralizing some key global players or simply using the massive MSM fake machine, and honestly, the only thing staying between both sides is the Palestinians themselves, they were abandoned by most Arab Nations, which in vast majority support Israel/US/UK on this.
Just hope the Resistance can succeed in deflecting this attempt this time, it will be really hard to do it, and I simply can not see the EU or most of the UN standing in support to the Palestinians' rights, I am afraid thousands of Palestinians will be killed before any country will lift a finger to stop this genocide. It is going to be a long moth of Ramadan, we are just seeing the very beginning of the many provocations worldwide, mark this down.

Posted by: Canthama | May 5 2019 13:57 utc | 4

Israel must be thanking their God that it wasn't Hezbollah firing the rockets.

Posted by: morongobill | May 5 2019 14:13 utc | 5

Reminds me of Hitler's claim on Sept. 1, 1939 that he was only responding to a Polish attack. "Seit 5:45 Uhr wird jetzt zurueckgeschossen!"

Posted by: lysias | May 5 2019 14:15 utc | 6

Thanks for the reporting of ongoing Western propaganda about the Israel subjection of those in Gaza.

It is going to be through one of those BIG LIES that the next conflict will be started if it is going to happen as lysias just reminded us above it has before.

Blessings to b for his ongoing discrediting of Western empire lies and may he be read by all the zombies waking up in our world.

How much longer will our world live the sickness caused by an elite being in control of all the levers of power and using them inhumanely?

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 5 2019 14:49 utc | 7

Paul Watzlawick called this the 'punctuation' problem. Where does one set the point from which a new sentence respectively a new event sequence begins? In Western media coverage, it is always the Palestinians who start hostilities out of a blue sky. As the years go by, it becomes entrenched that they are the bad guys, the Israeli the good guys.

Posted by: Pnyx | May 5 2019 15:01 utc | 8

I've been looking, in vain, for even one photo of damage done by all of those 'rockets'.

Posted by: Dhylan | May 5 2019 15:09 utc | 9

It is all planned and part of a larger global efforts for distraction and diversion (Venezuela, Iran, Syria Libya, trade war with China, Novorussiya etc...) ... and honestly, the only thing staying between both sides is the Palestinians themselves, they were abandoned by most Arab Nations, which in vast majority support Israel/US/UK on this.
Posted by: Canthama | May 5, 2019 9:57:59 AM | 4

Of course a crucial part of the plan was the regime change in Venezuela and the thereby enabled expansion of the assault on Iran. No doubt the Palestinian part of the plan goes on on autopilot despite setbacks on the Venezuelan Regime Change front, but I wonder to what extent if any they might start tripping themselves over from the lack of progress on the Venezuela front? The project as a whole is an immense one, and overreach is virtually guaranteed ...

As regards support for the Palestinians from Arab countries, I assume your reference to abandonment was intended first and foremost with respect to the leaders of the Arab countries rather than their populations, and my (naive) impression is that those leaders (especially of course Saudi/UAE and Jordan) have to give more weight to Palestinian issues than they would like in order to give a semblance of support (where in fact they would perhaps even prefer to see the Palestinians genocided off), both for reasons of regional political credibility and perhaps also domestic. I would be very interested in how you see the support for Palestinians amongst the ordinary people of Arab nations these days, Canthama. How has their support for the Palestinians been affected by dramatic changes in the regional and global order over recent years, and the extreme perverse activities of the US, Israel, SA and UAE? Bored/disengaged/disinterested, wanting to "move on", animated, incensed, ... ? To what extent to ordinary Arabs really care about the Palestinians these days? Do they perhaps see the issue as the tip of the iceberg affecting all Arabs (them as the next victims after the Palestinians)?

Posted by: BM | May 5 2019 15:15 utc | 10

Nothing will change until somewhere on this dying planet, the grown-ups starting acting against the tsunami of corruption. Corruption isn't going to fix itself.

Until then, people's deaths and struggles are revealed daily in articles written to get the truth out, thanks to people like b.

So it's not that truth isn't being written, it's that the grown-ups are doing nothing with the truth. So, corruption will blatantly increase until the grownups who know the truth start acting on the truth.

Global humanity's frustration, sadness, depression, hopelessness all stem from utter lack of action against those publicly destroying everyone's way of life.

Posted by: Summer Diaz | May 5 2019 15:34 utc | 11

Boki68 @12

Yes, B mentioned that. Did you not read the post?

the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle

In other words, Palestinian armed resistance to Israeli occupation is perfectly legal.

Posted by: William Gruff | May 5 2019 15:37 utc | 12

The less radically unrealistic Israeli media response is interesting; of course they are closer to events, and the credibility cost of whitewashing on readers would be much higher, also the interest and impact on Israeli residents is far more immediate. With the more realistic Israeli media output contrast the more unrealistic Israeli military actions!

That Haaretz dares to make comparison with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising is surprising, though. Israel would brutally smash any US/European (even pro-Palestinian) media outlet that dared to raise such a comparison above the parapet.

Can someone give us a quote from the paywalled piece to give us a feeling for its content?

Posted by: BM | May 5 2019 15:42 utc | 13

So we have a lying media, directly opposed to the interests of the American people. Aside from whining about it, what is to be done?

First, learn the method:

"The more I argued with them, the better I came to know their dialectic. First they counted on the stupidity of their adversary, and then, when there was no other way out, they themselves simply played stupid. If all this didn't help, they pretended not to understand, or, if challenged, they changed the subject in a hurry, quoted platitudes which, if you accepted them, they immediately related to entirely different matters, and then, if again attacked, gave ground and pretended not to know exactly what you were talking about. Whenever you tried to attack one of these apostles, your hand closed on a jelly-like slime which divided up and poured through your fingers, but in the next moment collected again. But if you really struck one of these fellows so telling a blow that, observed by the audience, he couldn't help but agree, and if you believed that this had taken you at least one step forward, your amazement was great the next day. The J_w had not the slightest recollection of the day before, he rattled off his same old nonsense as though nothing at all had happened, and, if indignantly challenged, affected amazement; he couldn't remember a thing, except that he had proved the correctness of his assertions the previous day.
Sometimes I stood there thunderstruck. I didn't know what to be more amazed at: the agility of their tongues or their virtuosity at lying. Gradually I began to hate them."

Posted by: Joseph G | May 5 2019 15:44 utc | 14

Joseph G @ 16
Hating a people is no solution. In general, the corruption isn't being perpetrated by the people of a nation unless they're given permission by their leadership.

When Qaddafi and Hussein were taken out by the US, what did the world do? Nothing.
Guantanamo Bay, nothing. US wars overseas, nothing. Israeli oppression, nothing.

Netanyahu is a detriment to his nation, the Palestinians, and global peace. But he's allowed to continue to lead, standing next to other leaders in those VIP gatherings who know him for what he is.

The US has been allowed to become a detriment to itself, to oil nations, to the climate, to the planet as a whole. Yet Trump marches around like he's god, and while other leaders snicker behind his back, they do nothing.

I'm not advocating anything like the Hillary solution (we came we saw he died), but when did application of laws stop? Why is evidence and simple truth now interpreted as gray areas.

These two nations are working to bring the entire planet to heel if they can. Exactly what needs to take place before anyone acts on that truth?

Posted by: Summer Diaz | May 5 2019 16:07 utc | 15

https://southfront.org/israel-assassinates-hama-commander-the-palestinian-group-respond-with-guided-missile-strike-photos-map/

Southfront reporting that Israel assassinated Hamas commander which precipitated Gazan response. There seem to be several narratives in play in the recent course of events.

Posted by: WJ | May 5 2019 16:28 utc | 16

That Israel always 'responds' to Palestinian actions, irregardless of their own missile attacks, incursions, or assassinations, is as enshrined in the media as the notion that the sun will rise in the east. As SharonM @3 notes, this extends to the 'alt-media' as well, specifically RT. One had to read to the last paragraph of a different linked article to find out the recent escalation was kicked off by the killing of two protesters and the wounding of others, including a medic. What wasn't mentioned in RT's reporting was those woundings were done by "butterfly" bullets, aka dum-dums, banned internationally for over 100 years. RT's reporting of the Palestinian- Israel conflict is simply shameful.
Unfortunately, such bias is the norm for the MSN, where 'we' and our allies always occupy the moral high ground against the bestial 'other'. Our motives are benevolent regardless of the horrors of outcome, or evidence to the contrary. On full display in how Israel 'responds' to rocket fire, never mind shooting unarmed demonstrators with dum-dums, assassinating elected leaders, or invasions with tanks, troops, and airstrikes.
BM asks @15 what the 'people on the street' in the Arab world think of the Palestinians in the current climate. While this will differ to an extent based on political affiliation and economic and social class, from my experience people are still very much angered by the Palestinian's treatment, both by their immediate oppressors and the wider world that enables it. Few have any ideas of a white might riding to their rescue. Certainly many people I've spoken with express a helplessness of effecting any change in their government, as the majority of Arab governments don't lift a finger to help the Palestinian cause and are very cognizant of this fact. The question remains the extent to which popular anger will translate into concrete action when the 'deal of the century' is imposed.

Posted by: Don Wiscacho | May 5 2019 16:31 utc | 17

here's the "Gaza Ghetto Uprising" haaretz article in full:

http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-the-gaza-ghetto-uprising-1.7197814

another wall they failed at building, amirite?

to paraphrase gilad atzmon, "all narratives start with israeli suffering". luckily our "advanced" culture dictates that being a "victim" means you're never accountable. the biggest surprise is that it took this long for the repercussions of killing unarmed protestors. if anything, gaza is a model of restraint and patience. it's also an easier target than lebanon and the israelis can't possibly go through a summer without massacring a few thousand people.

Posted by: the pair | May 5 2019 16:32 utc | 18

JoeG #7. That's plain silly. Godwin's is appropriately invoked for gratuitous mention. It is not intended to stifle or patent all mention of Hitler and the Nazi atrocities of '33 to '45. In the case of Israeli behaviour towards Palestinians, comparison with Hitler is directly and glaringly appropriate. We don't squeal and invent some kind of gotcha word when Israel is compared with Apartheid... because the parallel is clear for all to see (though a little too mild and forgiving towards Israel, imo), so why the sensitivity about invoking the far more apposite parallels with Hitler/Nazism.

Posted by: Plod | May 5 2019 16:42 utc | 19

thanks b for highlighting this.. they say history is written by the writers, but what is happening now, is the media is cooperating with the ones in power and writing it for them.. of course your article highlights this and is exactly the opposite...

@summer diaz.. thanks for your posts here today.. bang on..

@boki68... obviously you don't like what b or william gruff articulate.. are you okay with the slaughter of innocent palestinians at the hands of israel? do you recognize how this is going on in the extreme on a regular basis? others do and are not thrown off by the bs regarlarly manufactured in the msm which acts like a servant to israel for the most part..

Posted by: james | May 5 2019 16:43 utc | 20

Thank you b-, I just posted a good portion of your observations in Sputnik's article on the bombings comments section.

Posted by: frances | May 5 2019 16:47 utc | 21

I continue to ask how we can stop all the bad actors/nations without changing the structure of our social contract so the folks that own global private finance and everything else lose their power to the public, us

China and Venezuela get it and have built socialism into their social contract. The West continues to live under the Might-Makes-Right faith based one-way, one group to control all by owning the lifeblood of our species and using it as a jackboot for mythological and personal ends.

Is humanity too stupid to evolve or too ignorant?

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 5 2019 17:04 utc | 22

Boki68 @ 12

The Palestinians target military targets but the accuracy of their missiles is so poor that they frequently hit civilian target. Perhaps you should start a campaign to deliver some M270 MLRS with one PGM substituted for each missile the Palestinians manufacture.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | May 5 2019 17:05 utc | 23

reply to the pair 21
thank you, that is a masterful article, I just posted a portion of it in Sputnik's article on this matter.
I encourage everyone to read it, it gave me hope for that the soul of the Israeli people is not lost.

Posted by: frances | May 5 2019 17:13 utc | 24

One thing that I have wondered about: First, let us assume that the snipers in Kiev back in 2014 really were Yanukovych's elite assassins, just for argument's sake. These snipers killed some protesters, some of whom were unarmed, and killed some police too, but let's just ignore that part about the police for this thought experiment. The world freaked out, even though we didn't have any clear evidence that state forces were behind the killings.

Fast forward to the present and the Israelis are murdering more protesters, all of whom are unarmed. What's more, there is no ambiguity about who is doing the murdering. We know with 100% certainty that the ones doing the murdering are Israeli state forces.

Question for the paid trolls (we know there are a couple assigned to MoA): How do you avoid crippling cognitive dissonance from condemning pro-Yanukovych forces for murders that you don't have proof they committed while completely overlooking ongoing murders of Palestinians by the Israelis? Your minds must be quite supple to handle such contradictions.

Aside: Frequent laundering lends suppleness to fabrics. I wonder if laundering works the same way for brains?

Posted by: William Gruff | May 5 2019 17:26 utc | 25

@ BM #15

Usually a search will turn up part or all the text of a paywalled article. In my opinion the original folks don't mind so long as only the "right" people know about the bypass.

Here is a quote from the Haartz piece:

Everything is completely disconnected from context and reality, intentionally and willfully. Half a week after Holocaust Remembrance Day, the knowledge that 2 million people have been locked up more than 12 years behind barbed wire in a giant cage doesn’t remind Israel of anything and doesn’t arouse anything. Half a week before Independence Day, the struggle for freedom and independence of another people is perceived as murderous terror for no reason.

Even the desperate attempt to prevent the brink of starvation is perceived as greed; the effort to somehow impart the appearance of a holiday in the holiest month of the year is depicted as extortion. That’s how low the brainwashing goes and no one protests. Everyone accepts it with a shrug. Anyone who doubts how hollow and destructive the inculcation of the Holocaust is in Israel should look at the responses in Israel to this Gaza Ghetto Uprising. Anyone who ignores the reality in Gaza or tries to deny its disaster has learned nothing.

Note to the smug JoeG at #7: the Zionists use the Hitler comparison routinely, but us goyim aren't supposed to do that. Some of them are a bit contrite about it, but others wave it around and bray like the holy jackasses they really are.

Two rabbis at a pre-military religious academy in a West Bank settlement were recorded making derogatory and racist comments about Arabs, defending Adolf Hitler’s worldview, and openly promoting Jewish supremacy.

In a series of undated recordings published by Channel 13 news on Monday, Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel, the head of the Bnei David academy in Eli, can be heard calling for the enslavement of the “stupid and violent” non-Jews due to their genetic inferiority.

“The gentiles will want to be our slaves. Being a slave to a Jew is the best. They’re glad to be slaves, they want to be slaves,” he told a class in one of the video clips. “Instead of just walking the streets and being stupid and violent and harming each other, once they’re slaves, their lives can begin to take shape.”

Embracing racism, rabbis at pre-army yeshiva laud Hitler, urge enslaving Arabs

The Nazis were Aryan Supermen, and their Heirs in Holy Israel are 'Yahwehan' Supermen. Chosen, select, and all head-and-shoulders above the common drek.

Neither of these groups give a damn what anybody thinks about their self-declared Superhuman status. Who cares what subhumans think about anything?

What has troubled me is the way "Christians" have developed moral systems as flexible as a limp rope. They embrace Trump of the Seven Deadly Sins. His pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth are OK, and he's their man! Never mind that they have thrown every single teaching of Jesus into the trash bin. Their insane desire is to build a fire under the reluctant Jesus and get him back to Earth smashing all their enemies (including the Jews they pretend to love at the moment). In their fantasies they'll be the Numero Uno types, and for that destroying the Earth is well worth it. They'll become the Final Supermen, forever and ever and ever! We're in a hell of a mess, especially when the ignorant and indifferent Orange Potus has become the tool of such end-timers as Pompeo and Pence.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 5 2019 17:30 utc | 26

Gruff @30,

I think it's simpler, and more barbaric. Palestinian lives don't count for anything, and Ukrainian and all other kind of human lives (including Jewish ones) only count when they can be used to forward the cause of AngloZionist Empire. Cognitive dissonance matters only for somebody who at the end of the day is interested in Truth. Power is not interested in Truth. "What is Truth?" asked Pilate, and did not stay for an answer.

Posted by: WJ | May 5 2019 18:50 utc | 27

@ Boki68

Question time:
What's your take on dropping Mk83 (mass 1000 lbs - containing roughly 500 lbs of high performance explosive) or Mk84 (2000 lbs- 1000 lbs of explosive) warheads on so-called military targets in the Gaza strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world?

What do you think of firing DIME warheads into said area knowing full well that the tungsten particles in these warheads' explosive fills are carcinogenic?

Posted by: Hmpf | May 5 2019 18:54 utc | 28

@all

deleted comments by Boki68 and banned him because he sockpuppeted by writing a comment under my moniker "b"

Posted by: b | May 5 2019 19:10 utc | 29


Gaza: Israeli terrorists massacre Arab babies in a display of savagery that’s rarely seen:

The infant Saba Abu Arar "A year and two months" she died with her pregnant mother "Falasteen Abu Arar" in an Israeli bombing in the Zaytoun neighborhood east of Gaza City

https://pic.twitter.com/4j2Lq9Bpg0

"IDF attacked more than 120 targets in #Gaza: #Hamas military intelligence office" Israeli media

https://pic.twitter.com/t751OTCQ91


Posted by: chloe | May 5 2019 19:14 utc | 30

The Jews have always been and are masters at playing the victim card. In Europe one can be jailed for illegal discussions or saying something that is considered offensive even if true. Other minorities have seen the success of this and are now doing the same. It is causing havoc and is destroying the present civilization. Most do not want to be bothered with 'truth' and ignore what is happening. They are too lazy to read the entire articles much less verify them,,, and very few are aware that an occupied land has the right to resist anyway they choose. Last time the US was occupied was over 200 years ago which they fought for their independence from Britain. One would think they would have a little sympathy for the Palestinians but the Jewish victim hold is just too strong. I imagine some time soon Israel will come up with a 'final solution'

Posted by: ken | May 5 2019 19:16 utc | 31

Pre-Eurovision 2019 murder and vandalism in Gaza reinvigorates the decades old burning question...

How come there aren't enough Good Jews in the world to persuade the "Israelis" in Jewish-occupied Palestine to act like Human Beings?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 5 2019 19:45 utc | 32

Official EU statement by Mogherini, commissioner of foreign affairs is not
much better

Indiscriminate rocket attacks from Palestinian militants in Gaza must stop immediately: the European Union reiterates its fundamental commitment to the security of Israel. We express our condolences to the family of all the victims and to the Israeli people, and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded.

These attacks provoke unspeakable suffering to the Israelis and serve only the cause of endless violence and of an endless conflict.

A new escalation risks also to reverse the work to relieve the suffering of the people in Gaza who are already paying a high price with many victims that we mourn. And it puts in further danger the prospects for long-term solutions, which will require the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, credible security guarantees for Israel and a lifting of restrictions of access and movement.

Posted by: kodlu | May 5 2019 20:06 utc | 33

It's apparently easy not to notice that since Trump gave the "Israelis" a couple of meaningless and unlawful tokens of US sympathy for their supremacist delusions, they seem to have decided that it's OK to expand the boundaries of their Territorial Ambitions and their Impunity Index.
Big mistake?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 5 2019 20:17 utc | 34

Why doesn't Russia support the Palestinian cause.deliver some s-300s on the gaza strip offer some decent training and condem Israel on the international ear. If I were Russia, I'd support the Palestinians they will gain so much support from middle Eastern countries that are currently under the American boot. I hope Russia sees the advantage in this for this. All that anti Russian rhetoric being pushed by America in the middle east will all go to shits if Russia stands up for palestine.

Posted by: Moroccaneyes | May 5 2019 20:36 utc | 35

Thank you, b. I had suspected this was the case. Israel has done this before. They did it just before the launch of Iron Dome. There was a cease fire. But then Israel noted a chance to nail a Hamas leader they accused of directing an attack months earlier. So they took him out in his vehicle. There was the missile response. Iron Dome did its thing and there was a counter-strike. The entire time Israel claimed to be responding to an attack. In the media, the context was lost.

Posted by: Curtis | May 5 2019 21:03 utc | 36

I disagree a lot.

Why can't Hamas learn from Hezbollah?

"He hit me first" is not an impressive argument even when true and note how this counts against both Israel and Hamas.

I believe the Israelis would be a lot more worried if they did not get a reply.

Each time the Israelis did anything and Hamas and others in Gaza did nothing in return would build the case in favor of everyone in Gaza. They should be 100% focused on defense rather than fireworks and be extremely well prepared for whenever the Israelis are stupid enough to try to walk in (and don't shoot them on the border unless you're an idiot and want to ruin everything). Of course when one becomes confident in one's own defenses one can start to plan and prepare other things too but the priority has to remain the same and any attack would have to be of the kind that has never yet happened (and in cooperation with others).

Wait did I just describe Hezbollah? What the fuck is wrong with Hamas? Why do they always play into the Israeli narrative? Does nobody tell them? Are their friends their worst enemies or their enemies their closest friends or both?

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | May 5 2019 21:36 utc | 37

The Haaretz opinion piece is written by Gideon Levy; it is a powerful essay. He asks at the end of it "What have we become?" Thanks to those who have posted earlier segments. Thanks to the pair @ 19 for posting a link to the full text.

Posted by: juliania | May 5 2019 21:55 utc | 38

Just in case it's too difficult to understand what I'm saying: Hamas and everyone else in Gaza should make Gaza into one giant trap for the Israelis just as Hezbollah has done with southern Lebanon.

If they could do that and stick with that and stop handing out what amounts to gifts to Israel then maybe they would get more support from those inclined to do so but the way things are right now it's hard to see why anyone would support them militarily or politically.

Palestinians are not more stupid than anyone else. Why Hamas and Gaza is so weird is a mystery to me. Yes their position is more difficult but they still manage to produce and fire rockets and since metal doesn't grow on trees in Gaza they could obviously choose differently.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | May 5 2019 21:58 utc | 39

The Israelis haven't become anything, they're the same as they've always been and there are two major world religions built on this very premise. Three if you count Judaism itself as well (and one probably should) much of which consists of their own god being very fed up with their evil behavior. Unfortunately pointing this out is increasingly criminalized but on the other side of the coin it ultimately doesn't matter if no one ever talks about it because the end result will be the same by their own hand. It is as if most humans do not understand anything at all about evil: one can not escape oneself.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | May 5 2019 22:06 utc | 40

Gideon Levy is so unpopular in Israel that Ha'aretz has had to hire bodyguards for him.

Posted by: lysias | May 5 2019 22:12 utc | 41

If Egyptian Intelligence wants Gaza to have more Qatari concrete why don’t they open their gates into Gaza.

Posted by: Psnead | May 5 2019 22:17 utc | 42

@42 lysias - i guess the majority in israel can't handle the truth as laid out by gideon levy... the future for israel looks foreboding.. another shoot the messenger type dynamic on display...

Posted by: james | May 5 2019 23:34 utc | 43

@ lysias #42

Gideon Levy is so unpopular in Israel that Ha'aretz has had to hire bodyguards for him.

If that's the case he is doing his job as part of the Big Plan. The apartheid Jewish state is providing some highly structured hope-and-change drama for a lot of people who aren't in the country. People who almost certainly don't speak Hebrew. "Liberals" of all types can use this evidence of "resistance" to the thefts and murders and general goonishness to tell themselves there is still hope. That the pissant nation might still reform. I'd wager it's especially useful with US Jews. All the "We're God's Favorite Nazis" stuff is bound to bother at least some of them, and the existence of Levy and the few like him allows them to salve their consciences. Remember, this project has been given a lot of brainpower and even more money for nearly a hundred years and they haven't missed many bets in that time.

One which surprised me is how the Zionists were allowed to pick Roosevelt's new vice president in 1944. Truman was by far the friendliest of the people on the list. It was obvious to everybody who saw Roosevelt up close knew he wouldn't survive his fourth term, and that minor bit of foresight really greased the skids when it was time for the First Land Grab War. Something the locals call the 'war of independence'. No, they haven't missed many bets at all.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 6 2019 0:45 utc | 44

Sunny Runny Burger @38,

I have always just assumed that Hamas had been thoroughly infiltrated by Israeli intelligence and shekels long ago. The reason why Israel is terrified of Hezbollah is because they do not have actionable intelligence on its commanding officers and have not been able to bribe their way into the organization via enough corrupt mid-ranking officials. Supposing Hezbollah decided to suddenly expand their social-political-military network into Gaza (which would never happen, I think), I bet you would see Israel suddenly come to the aid of Hamas. Hamas is useful for Israel because they can be counted on to launch the same, old, predictable counterattacks against Israeli provocations whenever Israel decides it's safe or necessary or politically useful to carry out the next step of the incremental genocide they've been committed to for several decades now. I don't regard Hamas as being truly opposed to Israel, in other words. There are doubtless some members of Hamas and there remain enough Gazans who would strongly contradict what I am saying, as otherwise Hamas could not play the role Israel needs it to play. But, really, does anybody think that Hamas has not for a long time been thoroughly infiltrated and controlled by Israel? Am I crazy for suggesting this?

Posted by: WJ | May 6 2019 1:09 utc | 45

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 5, 2019 8:45:07 PM | 45
(Gideon Levy vs "Israel")

Unless Levy has been caught dancing on the graves of Palestinians, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. There are easier ways to put food on the table than opposing Zionism's barbaric excesses from inside Zion.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 6 2019 1:17 utc | 46

@46 WJ. No you are not crazy. Hamas has as you say probably been coopted though I have no way of proving this assertion but remember some Hamas militants went to Syria to fight along other Sunni djihadist brigades, effectively putting them against Hezbollah..

Posted by: Lozion | May 6 2019 1:47 utc | 47

Even the 'Top Dog'of Alternative News Zerohedge follows the script.

Does anyone do any investigating today like 'b',,,

or is it just to put out propaganda. I am so glad I read MOA before ZH.

Thanks b

Posted by: ken | May 6 2019 2:06 utc | 48

@ Hoarsewhisperer #47

It hardly matters whether that author is a sincere and dedicated believer in truth and justice - or isn't. He's surely drawing a living wage, and his sincerity doesn't matter the least bit, for he's doing a job which must be done. Just as the trolls who visit sites like this are doing theirs. The important thing is that somebody writes the stuff and that it get published - in English - for the world to see.

Posted by: Zachary Smith | May 6 2019 2:38 utc | 49

Tlaib criticizes New York Times for framing of Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Rashida Tlaib is the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress. She tweeted:

"When will the world stop dehumanizing our Palestinian people who just want to be free?" Tlaib wrote. "Headlines like this & framing it in this way just feeds into the continued lack of responsibility on Israel who unjustly oppress & target Palestinian children and families. #FreePalestine."

Comments on theHill article contain typical attacks against anyone expressing support for the Palestinians and smart, even-handed responses from supporters of the Palestinian cause.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 6 2019 4:15 utc | 50

Can't fix crazy

US Media suggesting that Iran has some role in Gaza violence and that's one of the reasons that a Carrier task force and bombers have been sent to the Middle East

"In response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force," Bolton said.
...
The statement also comes as new violence flares between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza. The group Islamic Jihad, which has a foothold in Gaza, is seen as an Iranian proxy.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 6 2019 4:26 utc | 51

Jackrabbit @52,

That's nothing. I'm waiting for the day when Bolton reveals that Vladimir Putin himself is an Iranian proxy.

Posted by: WJ | May 6 2019 5:18 utc | 52

More seriously, however, your link does help me understand the play here. Which is so outlandish I would have never expected it. Provoke the Gazans to fire some missiles and then blame Iran?! What chutzpah. Luckily Americans are dumb as bricks and will believe this easily.

Posted by: WJ | May 6 2019 5:23 utc | 53

So we have a lying media, directly opposed to the interests of the American people.
Aside from whining about it, what is to be done? @15

Control of the media is 50 times more important than control of the government?
nearly all actions of consequences which drain the governed masses are result of lobbying
and false and misleading mind controlling privately owned (92% own by just 6 entities) media


Hating a people is no solution. Exactly what needs to take place before anyone acts
on that truth? Joseph G @ 16..
Once again: Control of the media is 50 times more important than control of the government?
nearly all actions of consequences which drain the governed masses are result of lobbying
and false and misleading mind controlling privately owned (92% own by just 6 entities) media
we must find a way to punish false media


How can the masses stop all the bad actors/nations without changing the structure of our social
contract so the folks that own global private finance and everything else lose their power to
the public, us psychohistorian @23

I answered that the other day, I will try again..
1. The problem with government is ::
2. The problem with the information environment is::

Understanding how these very different forces impact human thinking resolves to the following:
1. the masses have no way to enforce accountability. The governed cannot indite, convict or
imprison corrupt actors in government. Until an effective global power, independent of
the nation state and governmental instrumentalities emerge nothing will or can change.
always the only ones who can get elected are the criminals.

2 Until those who write, publish, produce or utter a false news bit, movie or documentry
on a public or private media, made public, are held accountable, nothing will change.

Because the masses have not found a way to organize their powers (7 billion strong) into
an entity which operates independent of government authority, corporate power and institutional
oversight (that is until the masses develop their own independent sovereignity totally
committed to enforcing human rights ) nothing will ever change.

Top down governments redirect the benefits of economics to a very few by enabling
wealth to be extracted from the masses. Bottom up governments enforce human rights
against the top downers and divde the profits more evenly.


Unless the governed masses can enforce integrity in all government at all levels and
punish dishonest government actors nothing will ever change.

Unless the governed masses can enforce honesty and integrity in all contents that
are published on any media, nothing will ever change.

Government itself cannot be depended on to represent the needs of the human masses;
instead government has proven itself to be the tool of the wealthiest or strongest.


"Christians" have developed moral systems as flexible "as a limp rope" Zachary DSmith @ 27 and

Religion is a bureaucracy which designs and regulates beliefs, morality is human subscription
to human rights Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness, equality of circumstance, access and
opportunity, in full support of the right to self determination.

Zionists were allowed to pick Roosevelt's new vice president in 1944, Zachary DSmith @ 45..

Yes, but that procedure was established the day after Lincoln was shot by a British Actor
in service to British Bankers.


Most do not want to be bothered with 'truth' and ignore what is happening.
They are too lazy to read the entire articles much less verify them,,, ken @ 32

Laziness is a result induced by the mind control media distributed propaganda.


Rephrasing Sunny Runny Burger @40 Three systems of propaganda (major world religions)
have long preached that life after death on earth is only possible if the decedent can
prove no evil behavior while on earth and total acceptance of the belief.
<= But "do no evil" is getting in the way of "organized crime, those in
control of the masses": as such the effort of Organized crime in government
and media seek to substitute "do no harm" with "the strong have a right to use and abuse the weak".

Posted by: snake | May 6 2019 5:58 utc | 54

Psnead @43 "If Egyptian Intelligence wants Gaza to have more Qatari concrete why don’t they open their gates into Gaza."

Because Israel is the occupying power, and Egypt acknowledges that to be a fact.

And Israel says that all materials must enter Gaza via the Israeli border crossings (mainly Eretz, but also Karni and Kerem Shalom) and that the Rafah crossing from Egypt can only be used by people in transit, and even then only under strict Israeli control.

That isn't Egypt's choice.
That is not Egypt's decision.

It is Israel that insists on that arrangement, and since it is "Israel, the occupying power" then Egypt either agrees to that arrangement or it draws a line in the desert sand and declares that it is willing to fight Israel for control of the Gaza Strip.

And, clearly, Egypt doesn't want to fight Israel over this or, indeed, anything.

Posted by: Yeah, Right | May 6 2019 6:14 utc | 55

The interesting question here is who has escalatory control?

Israel has gotten into the casual habit of sniping at protestors. Two dead this week, some more next week, some more here'n'there just to keep the eye in.

Which adds up into the hundreds per year, but Israel pays no penalty because the deaths are doled out a few at a time.

Hamas has clearly decided that it has had enough, hence the rocket barrage i.e. it is an attempt to show the Israelis that shooting at unarmed protestors will henceforth be at a cost of (at least) serious inconvenience and (perhaps) reciprocal death.

The smart move from Israel is to quietly take the message and lay off the sniping, in return for Hamas giving a tacit nod that they'll keep these border protests from getting too rowdy. Sensible men making commonsense decisions based on what the other side can/will do in response.

But that's if Israel is smart, which is not exactly a slam-dunk.

The other possibility is that Israel just goes all monkey-shit on the Gaza Strip and kills thousands.

Doing that is pointless, though it would not be unexpected.

It all comes down to this: who has escalatory control? Hamas? Or Israel?


Posted by: Yeah, Right | May 6 2019 6:27 utc | 56

It's total moral depravity and warped framing for the media and the corporate employee politicians to suggest that Palestinians are criminals for fighting back against an occupation. The French Resistance and American revolutionaries (Jefferson, Paine, and the like) both fought against occupation by oppressive occupation governments, to list just two examples. Like in the former case, the Palestinians are fighting facism, as Israel is built on racial discrimination, mass experimentation on subjected populations to sell weapons and high-technology repression devices, and massive war propaganda and military violence. Now the Trump-Bibi regime is sending ships to Iran at the behest of Heinrich Bolton. He claims he's "not looking to start a war," which would be a first for the man. Vive la Palestine, solidarity with the resistance martyrs!

Posted by: Blooming Barricade | May 6 2019 6:44 utc | 57

A great joint wank, hand wringing session in this thread. Pity nobody mentions that Israel only gets away with what it does because the US runs cover for it. Anybody wants to change what is happening in Palestine, you first have to take down the US.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | May 6 2019 8:16 utc | 58

Posted by: Yeah, Right | May 6, 2019 2:27:06 AM | 57

Hamas.
You forget the rocket landing close to Tel Aviv a few weeks ago. You also forget that the issue was not "just" people dying but also delivery of electricity and Qatari money coming through.

There is also an implicit threat. With escalation Israel could be forced to reinvade and take over. Which they do not want to do under any circumstance.

The long term plan was to annex the Westbank and make Gaza Palestine. It is highly unlikely to work in any term. Nor will it work with the US. Netanyahu's support depends on Trump and the Republicans. Democrats will support Israel but not right wing Israel. The US have been trying to withdraw from the Middle East quite some time now. You can read Trumps policy as a final attempt to consolidate Israel to make it viable.

There has been a realignment with Saudi, Egypt, UAE against Turkey, Qatar, Hamas, Iran with Russia sitting on the fence and Syria in a dilemma.

Whatever Israel does in secret service cooperation they cannot join the Arab World as long as there is no Palestine. And as long as there is no Palestine they cannot fully join Europe politically either.

Posted by: somebody | May 6 2019 9:19 utc | 59

add to the above no 60

I forgot a country in the above. I just had a look, it is interesting.

Israel Protests China's Invitation to Hamas' Foreign Minister

China set to host FM Mahmoud al-Zahar, 22 other Arab representatives, for forum on Sino-Arab relations.

The country that will be - with India - the main customer of the Middle East is China. They are bound to take over.

The US has the power of a spoiler. But their role will be no more than that.

Posted by: somebody | May 6 2019 9:24 utc | 60

add to 60/61

India, by the way, is sitting on the fence with Russia.

Posted by: somebody | May 6 2019 9:27 utc | 61

and a correction: I guess it is clear that Russia will not jump down at Netanyahu's side.

Hamas in Moscow

Wednesday is the final day of a meeting Moscow is hosting – the third of its kind since 2011 – of all Palestinian factions in the hope of reaching a “road map” to unity. The dialogue is being held by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the same institute where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was once a doctoral student.

The Hamas delegation is led by Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, the deputy chief of Hamas’s Political Bureau, while the rival Fatah delegation is led by Azzam al-Ahmad, a PLO Executive Committee member and head of the Fatah Central Committee.

Posted by: somebody | May 6 2019 9:31 utc | 62

and here some boasts of rocket innovation by Iranian state media

The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, has unveiled its latest domestic missile by firing it at targets in the Israeli occupied territories.

The resistance group released a video on Sunday which showcased the new missile, dubbed Badr 3, before cutting to footage of it being launched at positions in the city of Ashkelon, which is located 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Tel Aviv.

The missile carried a 250-kilogram (551 lb) warhead, a major leap from its predecessor which had a much smaller 40-kilogram warhead.

...

Meanwhile, Hamas' military wing, known as the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, published a new video that showed an Israeli armored vehicle being targeted with a Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missile.

...

In a separate report, Israeli media stated that a Hamas drone had fired a missile at an Israeli military convoy.

The extent of the damage and possible casualties were not immediately clear.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said, "At this stage, with the strides made in developing better missiles, not a single point in all of the occupied Palestinian lands will be safe from the missiles of the resistance."

The missile attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad more than anything have proven futile the multi-billion dollar Iron Dome missile defense system that Tel Aviv has long promoted as an agile response to rockets.

While it is not yet clear how the system fared against the recent barrage of Palestinian missiles, the fact that Israel had to accept ceasefire deals both this time and back in November speaks volumes about the true potentials of the Iron Dome.

I wonder what they mean by "Russian made"

Posted by: somebody | May 6 2019 11:43 utc | 63

Tony Greenstein republishes the Levy article. Greenstein is always worth following on the excesses of racist zionism.
http://azvsas.blogspot.com/

Posted by: bevin | May 6 2019 16:05 utc | 64

One of the problems I've always had with believing The Holocaust Story is that it is founded in the meme that it happened because Germans hated Jews for no reason. Not only did it not make much sense but the mystery was compounded by the fact that the German explanation for this behavioral aberration was either missing or a well-kept secret.

So the unanswered question "Why did the Germans do it?" rested uneasily in my Unsolved Mysteries basket until 2010 when Gilad Atzmon blew all of the "happened for no reason" twaddle clean out of the water...
https://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/judea-declares-war-on-obama-by-gilad-atzmon.html

In an act of Creative Carelessness the American Jewish Congress announced a worldwide Jewish boycott of German goods and businesses on March 24, 1933, without bothering to warn Germany's Jews beforehand. Hitler responded on March 28 1933, by ordering a boycott against Jewish stores and goods.
'Mystery' solved!

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 6 2019 16:10 utc | 65

WJ @54

That seems to be what happened.

But was it meant to 'turn the page' on the Venezuelan embarrassment or to 'convince' China (and maybe Turkey) to stop trading with Iran? Both?

Posted by: Jackrabbit | May 6 2019 16:26 utc | 66

slightly OT

There are two days left to fign a petition to the Canadian Parlaiment urging it to review the Jewish National Fund of Canada’s charitable status and its possible violations of the Income Tax Act and Canada Revenue Agency guidelines and policies. This organization acquires land in Palestine for the exclusive use of Jews, discriminates against Palestinians and demolishes entire villages. Donations to it (totalling about $30 million per year) are currently tax deductible.

https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-1999

Posted by: farm ecologist | May 6 2019 16:37 utc | 67

#32

Last time the US was occupied was over 200 years ago which they fought for their independence from Britain

From an American Indian perspective the U.S. is still occupied.

In any case, I think the Israelis are at a juncture where they need to make choices about the future of their society.(1) It seems to me if they want to retain the ethnic nature of their society yet at the same time some semblance of democracy then they would have to opt for the two state solution. (2) If they want to retain the ethnic nature of their society yet are willing to jettison any pretense to democracy (i.e., remain as an apartheid state) then they would opt for continuing with the status quo (indefinite occupation). (3) If they're willing to relinquish the ethnic nature of their society in favor of maintaining a democratic society then they would opt for a one-state solution in which the rights of all people living in what is now Israel and the occupied territories would be respected and all would have equal representation.

I, of course, prefer option #3. It would be the most humane. I don't like option #1 much for a couple of reasons. One is that there is still the issue of second-class status and discrimination against ethnic Arabs that live within Israel proper. And two, the facts on the ground at this point would make it very difficult for the Palestinians to establish a viable, sustainable state on the territory remaining to them.(It would at least require some major upheavals and rearrangements that would make that option difficult to pull off.) Of course, option #2 is illegal and immoral and a humanitarian disaster.

Just in general, I don’t think any kind of state where any group of people have privileged status is ever a good idea..

Posted by: Steverino | May 6 2019 17:15 utc | 68

Former Military Explains Why Iron Dome Failed to Intercept All Rockets From Gaza

A barrage of missiles coming from the territory of the Gaza Strip started hitting Israel early on 4 May. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) reported that 690 rockets have been fired over the course of 48 hours. The Iron Dome intercepted 240 of them, while some still made it through the defences, killing four Israeli civilians.

Sputnik News

Posted by: Bemildred | May 6 2019 18:34 utc | 69

@ Bemildred with the update on Gaza....thanks


Ok, I'll admit; I only want to write that your moniker continues to put a smile on my face.....

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 6 2019 19:09 utc | 70

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 6, 2019 12:10:16 PM | 66

Sure. Hitler wrote mein Kampf 10 years before all that in 1923 where he explained his idea of national socialism being a race war not a class war.

Posted by: somebody | May 6 2019 20:23 utc | 71

Sure. Hitler wrote mein Kampf 10 years before all that in 1923 where he explained his idea of national socialism being a race war not a class war.
Posted by: somebody | May 6, 2019 4:23:31 PM | 72

Sorry, that went right over my head. What are you trying not to say?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 6 2019 21:32 utc | 72

Hoarsewhisperer @66
Somebody @72


If you watch Hitler's speeches from the 30s you will see that a constant refrain in them is his critique of international finance and its affiliated organs. International finance on basis of gold standard was the engine and glue of the Europe of the latter 19th century as Karl Polanyi has demonstrated in The Great Transformation and WWI and WWII were in many significant ways directly precipitated by its dominance and subsequent collapse. The fact is, lots of these international financiers were in fact Jewish--not all of course, but a lot of them--and that the influence of the Rothschilds and others on the European global political scene was accompanied by the emergence and consolidation of political Zionism as an ideology. Zionism was itself predicated on the racial nationalism of the Jewish people--is on the conflation of the envisaged modern nation-state Israel with the biblical "people of Israel." Zionism frankly encouraged the privileging of Jewish racial solidarity over-and-above individual Jews' allegiance to one or another European state. Finance capitalism arguably institutionalized this dynamic by creating a powerful network of banks and financiers who operated across traditional political boundaries and did so primarily with the good of the firm in mind--not the good of this or that European state. I do not believe that Zionism is reducible to international finance, nor the latter to Zionism, but historically the relationship of the two is more than accidental in my opinion.
Such
I think Hitler was wrong in cultivating the mythos of the German Volk as a basis for an imperial state. But I would only point out that he was not the only person pushing such a mythos in the mid twentieth century. Tragically Nazism and Zionism are fratricidal twins more than radically opposed movements. Whenever today you hear the question asked, "Do you believe that the State of Israel has the right to exist?" You are hearing the very question Hitler was asking about Germany eighty years ago.

Posted by: WJ | May 6 2019 22:47 utc | 73

Posted by: WJ | May 6, 2019 6:47:20 PM | 75

Hitler was not "wrong", he was irrational.

Posted by: somebody | May 6 2019 23:56 utc | 74

@ Posted by: WJ | May 6, 2019 6:47:20 PM | 75 about global private finance versus Zionism

Thanks for laying the groundwork for my position that it is a better course for society to deal with the badness of private/public finance than to continue to attack the hopeless quagmire of Zionism....and still does not solve the underlying problem

Victim/Identity politics and "...ism" debates are crazy talk when compared to the realities of global private finance effects on humanity. I trust that China and Russia are not affected by such media manipulation like this

Posted by: psychohistorian | May 7 2019 0:16 utc | 75

somebody @76,

I am not sure what distinction you are meaning to make by this. I don't believe it serves historical understanding by writing off Hitler and Nazism as a crazed aberration, as is so often done. Hitler is scapegoated most frequently and casually by the very regimes that have inherited and developed many of the Reich's most odious and cunning practices. Was Hitler any *more* irrational than Truman or Churchill or any of a number of sociopathic leaders of the 20th century?
I find such exercises in the comparative ranking of bestial murderers tiresome and beside the point. It is usually not an exercise meant to aid our understanding so much as to forward an ideology. But, fine. Hitler was irrational.

Posted by: WJ | May 7 2019 1:41 utc | 76

As Hamas overcame the Iron Dome by firing more missiles than the system could handle, so Iran or Russia or China could defeat the U.S. Navy's Aegis system defending warships.

Posted by: lysias | May 7 2019 1:42 utc | 77

psychohistorian @71

I've had it a long time now, I like the pun too. Bewildered I am. At least I know it.

I was looking for stats on how Iron Dome did this round. Such are hard to come by, nobody wants to get too specfic about what they can and cannot do. On theoretical grounds (defense is much more expensive than offense in just about every way, you have to be faster, smarter, quicker, etc.) I expect mediocrity at best, which those numbers seem to support.

The Russians seem to have done about as well as you can, and they know perfectly well that they can be overwhelmed in the end too.

You have to admire the Gazans and the Houthis, they have really given a demonstration of the point working with not much.

Posted by: Bemildred | May 7 2019 13:18 utc | 78

Posted by: WJ | May 6, 2019 9:41:54 PM | 77

He was. He was an artist, remember. And he took a hell of a lot of drugs.
The people who used him were not irrational. Some backers were not as clever as others. When they found out they could not escape the dictatorship they had set up.
The people who profited in the end were the ones who set him up against Communism and the Soviet Union. To demonize Hitler has the use to make people not to look for who backed him and why.

Posted by: somebody | May 7 2019 13:35 utc | 79

India was partitioned to give pakistanis a safe place to live, equally Palestine was partitioned because the Artabs wouldn't let the native Jews live in peace. If the Israelis are an invading force and subject to military attacks, is it also ok if Amerindians randomly attack civilians?

Posted by: simon | May 12 2019 10:53 utc | 80

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