Amira Hass, in a powerful Dec. 31 article for Ha'aretz, writes: "This isn't the time to speak of ethics, but of precise intelligence. Whoever gave the instructions to send 100 of our planes, piloted by the best of our boys, to bomb and strafe enemy targets in Gaza is familiar with the many schools adjacent to those targets - especially police stations. He also knew that at exactly 11:30 A.M. on Saturday, during the surprise assault on the enemy, all the children of the Strip would be in the streets - half just having finished the morning shift at school, the others en route to the afternoon shift." [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1051028.html]
This is an important insight. Israel's control of the situation is immense. They have detailed intelligence, sattelite imagery (which they like to show off at press conferences), sophisticated guidance technology, etc. It has planned this assault for months in advance, and its leadership is ostentatiously proud of how all the branches of military and intelligence, from Shin Bet to the Southern Command, have gelled in this attack. If an assault on major public facilities is timed to coincide with children being in the streets, this is not accidental: it is intended to leave a number of children lying in their own blood, and terrorise others.
Palestinian men not counted as civilian casualties
So far, we have been given the impression in media reports that the majority of those killed have been in some sense not civilians. The UN has suggested that of its estimate of 320 deaths, about 62 are civilians... I had assumed that this was because the majority of those killed were policemen and, for some reason, we are all going along with Tel Aviv in not considering this a civilian profession. However! Apparently, I was under-estimating the creativity of the statisticians, for here's a weird thing: the UN's tally of the civilian dead "does not include civilian casualties who are men." [ABC News, Dec. 30, 2008; http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/30/2456334.htm]
There is no such thing as a civilian adult male in Gaza! According to this supposed scourge of Israel, any Gazan male with a bit of size on him is fair game.
Israeli power is, of course, extremely creative in determining the fields of law, morality and knowledge within which it operates. After all, when the IDF (Israeli military) slaughtered women outside a mosque in plain view not only of the public but of the cameras, it was immediately explained by Israeli spokespeople and their apologists that the women were in fact part of a cunning Hamas military operation to stop morally upright Israeli men from killing morally degenerate Palestinian men. So, they were a legitimate target.
And besides, it was hinted, why do they get to wear the veil? What are they hiding? So, if needs must, the very category of civilian, adult or child, male or female, can be conjured out of existence. And then Lt Gen Ashkenazi can come out to the podium and explain: "our intelligence shows that 1.5 million terrorists were eliminated today..."
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During the bombing of Fallujah, a journalist asked an American soldier how he knew who was an insurgent. The soldier said any man between age 16 and 60 was an insurgent.
ReplyDeleteIn what I say I do not wish to minimize one iota the extreme horror and lies which this excellent article brings to the light of day. Rather, I simply wish to be a small reminder of another "civilized" holocaust that is taking place within a few miles of many of us -- 5 and sometimes 6 days a week under the full cover and protection of the "law." I have put "law" into quotation marks because according to the teachings of the Catholic Church (which I am a member of) laws which sanction abortion are not in the eyes of God real laws at all.
ReplyDeleteJust imagine, if you would, that if every one of the 3,000 or so surgical abortions that are performed day after day in our sanitized (and sometimes not so santized) hospitals and clinics were performed in the open street for all the world to see. "Well, son [or daughter] take a good look at mom. See that bloody thing coming out of her. That's your brother [or sister]. Obviously a lot of variations to this could be played out.
Oh, yes, my fellow Americans if you want to see your friendly neighborhood mass murderer (and terrorist) look no further than the directory of your local AMA chapter. He (or she) is ready and waiting to serve you. Cash on the barrel head! It's the American Way and helps to make possible the American Dream.
James B. Phillips