| « Israeli Terror Attacks: Day 8 | The Hypocrisy of US Foreign Policy: Obama agrees, all countries have the right to defend themselves against drone strikes » |
In response to Danny Ayalon
by Philip Greaves
In response to the recent article by Israeli FM Danny Ayalon’s article in Comment is Free in the Guardian “Hamas leaves Israel no choice” I felt obliged to leave a comment to counter the propaganda and inaccuracies in his article…
Mr Ayalon,
The main problem with your whole argument is that you and your government are punishing ordinary civilians for the actions of a minority. Is it not true you have so far killed over 50 civilians in your latest campaign “Pillar of Defense” Is it not also true that after a two-week lull in violent exchanges it was the IDF that initiated the escalation with an incursion into eastern Gaza which resulted in the killing of a 13-year-old playing football?
-
The Israeli assault on Gaza was triggered Nov. 8 when the IDF crossed the border and murdered Ahmed Younis Khader Abu Daqqa, a 13-year-old boy playing football in his front yard: the official explanation for this action was an alleged weapons cache, supposedly stored nearby, but no credible evidence supporting this contention has come to light. In retaliation, Hamas launched a — generally ineffective — counterattack, and the conflict escalated.
As yet no explanation has been given for the death of this young boy, or for the following civilian deaths on 10th Nov…
-
An anti-tank missile fired by Palestinian fighters wounds four Israeli soldiers driving in a jeep along the Israel-Gaza boundary. An Israeli artillery shell lands in a soccer field in Gaza killing two children, aged 16 and 17. Later, an Israeli tank fires a shell at a tent where mourners are gathered for a funeral, killing two more civilians, and wounding more than two dozen others.
Your military constantly claims it is engaging in “surgical strikes” and doing all it can to prevent civilian casualties when clearly the evidence suggests otherwise. At the time of typing over 100 Palestinians have been killed as a result of over 1000 drone, jet or artillery attacks on Gaza, at least 50% of these deaths have been civilians, including 25 children. Since the start of the incursions and missile strikes, and resulting deaths Hamas rocket attacks have increased dramatically, proving you are only antagonizing the situation and a military operation serves no purpose other than to terrorise the civilian population of Gaza and to bolster your Prime Ministers domestic appeal before elections.
We can all agree that you have the right to defend yourself, just like any other nation, the only problem is you are defending yourself from the victim. Which is the Palestinian people. Israels constant aggression and oppression of the Palestinian people throughout the last 65 years has resulted in fomenting the extreme views which are held by Hamas and similar organisations today, and its also the reason so many Palestinians are led into extremism, what options do they have in Gaza?. As a famous US military analyst once said of the Americas enemies in the middle east-
-
“its not our freedoms they hate, its our policies”
Change your abhorrent foreign policy towards the Palestinians, give back the land that was stolen and right to return for all those that were exiled from their own land, and commit to living in peace (being the only state in the ME with nuclear arms does not help) Sign the NPT, then peace will have a chance, Israel is not the victim, its the antagonist.
Earlier in the week the Guardians middle east live blog continued to parrot the inaccuracies and propaganda of the IDF as is now customary for western MSM, again i felt the need to counter and left a comment outlining the critical omissions the Guardian (and the majority of the western MSM) had decided to omit from the narrative of how this particular escalation started…
For those that are confused as to what exactly started this current escalation in Gaza, mainly due to the lack of precise reporting in the western MSM and constant parroting of IDF statements, here is a timeline of how the escalation was started by Israeli defense forces sending 8 tanks into Palestinian territory last Thursday resulting in the death of innocent civilians including a 13-year-old boy playing football in a schoolyard…
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8
Following a two-week lull in violence, Israeli soldiers invade Gaza. In the resulting exchange of gunfire with Palestinian fighters, a 12-year-old boy is killed by an Israeli bullet while he plays soccer.
Shortly afterwards, Palestinian fighters blow up a tunnel along the Gaza-Israel frontier, injuring one Israeli soldier.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10
An anti-tank missile fired by Palestinian fighters wounds four Israeli soldiers driving in a jeep along the Israel-Gaza boundary.
An Israeli artillery shell lands in a soccer field in Gaza killing two children, aged 16 and 17. Later, an Israeli tank fires a shell at a tent where mourners are gathered for a funeral, killing two more civilians, and wounding more than two dozen others.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11
One Palestinian civilian is killed and dozens more wounded in Israeli attacks. Four Israeli civilians are also injured as a result of projectiles launched from Gaza, according to the Israeli government.
During an Israeli government cabinet meeting, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz urges the government to “cut off the head of the snake… take out the leadership of Hamas in Gaza.” He also calls for a cutting off of water, food, electricity, and fuel shipments to Gaza’s 1.7 million people.
Why the MSM continue to miss these incidents and failed to report on them last week can only be construed as an attempt to withhold important information from the western public.It seems undeniable tha in this current spate of tit for tat attacks the IDF initiated the escalation with the incursion into Gaza and resulting civilian casualties.
Yet the MSM continue to push false statements of Israeli retaliation, with continual phrases like...Israel had warned for several days that it may launch an offensive in Gaza after more than 130 rockets were fired by militants in recent days. The blatant hypocrisy and willingness to support such actions is sickening.
At the time of writing the death toll in Gaza has risen to over 100 with at least 50% of those confirmed as civilians and 25 children, constant rhetoric of ground operations are mounting yet western leaders continue to support the barbaric actions of Israel against the Palestinian people and denounce any feeble resistance the Gazans can muster.
Share this:
-###-
http://notthemsmdotcom.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/in-response-to-danny-ayalon/
by Philip Greaves
notthemsmdotcom An alternative to the mainstream.
No feedback yet
