Proud to be an American

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What's interesting about this is as usual, Israel's own initial, aggressive actions are not being widely reported. Hamas seems to have honored the cease fire they negotiated with Israel. rocket fire trickled off. In return Israel had said it would lift their supply route blockade. They never did, insisting that rocket fire had to stop completely. I guess you can't control every single person, because that never happened, but again, it drastically tapered off. Five days ago Israel bombed the supply route.

U.S weapons are being used by Israel for this. Children have been killed as they bombed yesterday an area where school had just let out.

I wonder if someone's parents are angry? I mean I know an American would be, but these guys don't feel the same way about human life, so they might not be so bothered by their young child's broken, dead, body lying on the streets. And they might be willing to let the fact that an American weapon killed them, go. Let bygones be bygones, you know? Yeah, that is probably what will happen.

And I personaly feel so proud that my tax dollars are being used to blackmail health organizations in countries where women have zero sexual power, into withholding reproductive information, while buying viagra for warlords with multiple wives, some of whom, taking into account statistics, can be presumed to be underaged and forced to marry...and now they're going to kill these guys here.

So it's a good day for someone like me. Oh yes, I'm beaming!


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers Sunday, pounding smuggling tunnels and government strongholds, sending more tanks and artillery toward the Gaza border and activating thousands of reservists for a possible ground invasion.

Israeli leaders said they would press ahead with the Gaza campaign, despite enraged protests across the Arab world and Syria's decision to break off indirect peace talks with the Jewish state. Israel's foreign minister said the goal was to halt Gaza rocket fire on Israel for good, but not to reoccupy the territory.

With the two-day death toll nearing 300 Sunday, crowds of Gazans breached the border wall with Egypt to escape the chaos. Egyptian forces, some firing in the air, tried to push them back into Gaza and an official said one border guard was killed.

Hamas, in turn, fired rockets deeper than ever into Israel, near the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/28/israel-masses-troops-tank_n_153760.html
 
Here's a first-person account of what life in Gaza under Israel's anti-humanitarian blockade, is like.

This is nothing but a concentration camp. And people are starving. I don't understand how America not only defends this, but allows no dissent! You are a jew-hater if you want to talk about whether this fucking travesty is wrong.

"The world isn't just watching the Israeli government commit a crime in Gaza; we are watching it self-harm. This morning, and tomorrow morning, and every morning until this punishment-beating ends, the young people of the Gaza Strip are going to be more filled with hate, and more determined to fight back, with stones or suicide-vests or rockets. Israel's leaders have convinced themselves the harder you beat the Palestinians, the softer they will become. But when this is over, the rage against Israelis will have hardened, and the same old compromises will still be waiting by the roadside of history, untended and unmade.

To understand how frightening it is to be a Gazan this morning, you need to have stood in that small slab of concrete by the Mediterranean and smelled the claustrophobia. The Gaza Strip is smaller than the Isle of Wight, but it is crammed with 1.5 million people who can never leave. They live out their lives on top of each other in vast sagging tower blocks, jobless and hungry. From the top floor, you can often see the borders of their world: the Mediterranean Sea, and the Israeli barbed wire. When bombs begin to fall - as are do now with more deadly force than on any day since 1967 - there is nowhere to hide.

There will now be a war over the story of this war. The Israeli government says: we withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and in return we got Hamas and Qassam rockets being rained on our cities. Some 16 civilians have been murdered. How many more are we supposed to sacrifice? It is a plausible narrative, and there are shards of truth in it - but it is also filled with holes. If we want to understand the reality and really stop the rockets, we need to rewind a few years, and view the runway to this war dispassionately.

The Israeli government did indeed withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005 - in order to be able to intensify control of the West Bank. Ariel Sharon's senior advisor Dov Weisglass was unequivocal about this, explaining: "The disengagement [from Gaza] is actually formaldehyde. It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that's necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians... Effectively, this whole package that is called the Palestinian state has been removed from our agenda indefinitely."

Ordinary Palestinians were horrified by this, and by the fetid corruption of their own Fatah leaders - so they voted for Hamas. It certainly wouldn't have been my choice - an Islamist party is antithetical to all my convictions - but we have to be honest. It was a free and democratic election, and it was not a rejection of a two-state solution. The most detailed polling of Palestinians, by the University of Maryland, found that 72 percent want a two-state solution on the 1967 borders, while fewer than 20 percent want to reclaim the whole of historic Palestine. So, partly in response to this pressure, Hamas offered Israel a long ceasefire and a de facto acceptance of two states, if only Israel would return to its legal borders.

Rather than seize this opportunity and test their sincerity, the Israeli government reacted by punishing the entire civilian population. They announced they were blockading the Gaza Strip in order to "pressure" its people to reverse the democratic process. They surrounded the Strip and refused to let anyone or anything out. They let in a small trickle of food, fuel and medicine - but not enough for survival.

Weisglass quipped the Gazans were being "put on a diet." According to Oxfam, this November only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza this November - to feed 1.5 million people. The UN says poverty has reached an "unprecedented level." When I was last in besieged Gaza, I saw hospitals turning away the sick because their machinery and medicine was running out. I met hungry children stumbling around the streets, scavenging for food.

It was in this context - under collective punishment designed to topple a democracy - that some forces within Gaza did something immoral: they fired Qassam rockets indiscriminately at Israeli cities. These rockets have killed 16 ordinary Israeli citizens. This is abhorrent: targeting civilians is always murder. But it is hypocritical for the Israeli government to claim now to speak out for the safety of civilians when they have been terrorising civilians as a matter of state policy.

European and American governments are responding with a lop-sidedness that ignores these realities. They say that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate under rocket-fire, but they demand the Palestinians do so under siege in Gaza and violent military occupation in the West Bank.

Before it falls down the memory hole, we should remember that last week, Hamas offered a ceasefire in return for basic and achievable compromises. Don't take my word for it. According to the Israeli press, Yuval Diskin, the current head of the Israeli security services Shin Bet, "told the Israeli cabinet [on the 23rd] that Hamas is interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms." Diskin explained Hamas was requesting two things: an end to the blockade, and an Israeli ceasefire on the West Bank. The cabinet - high with election-fever, and eager to appear tough - rejected these terms.

The core of the situation has been starkly laid out by Ephraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad. He says that while Hamas - like much of the Israeli right - dreams of driving their opponents away, "they have recognized this ideological goal is not attainable, and will not be in the foreseeable future." Instead, "they are ready and willing to see the establishment of a Palestinian state in the temporary borders of 1967." They are aware this means they "will have to adopt a path that could lead them far from their original goals" - and towards a long-term peace based on compromise. The rejectionists on both sides - from Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh to Bibi Netanyahu - would then be marginalised. It is the only path that could yet end in peace - but it is the Israeli government who refused to choose it. Halevy explains: "Israel, for reasons of its own, did not want to turn the ceasefire into the start of a diplomatic process with Hamas."

Why would Israel act this way? The Israeli government wants peace, but only one imposed on its own terms, based on the acceptance of defeat by the Palestinians. It means they can keep the slabs of the West Bank on 'their' side of the wall. It means they keep the largest settlements, and control of the water supply. And it means a divided Palestine, with responsibility for Gaza hived off to Egypt, and the broken-up West Bank standing alone. Negotiations threaten this vision: they would require Israel to give up more than it wants to. But an imposed peace will be no peace at all: it will not stop the rockets or the rage. For real safety, Israel will have to talk to the people it is blockading and bombing today - and compromise with them.

The sound of Gaza burning should be drowned out by the words of the Israeli writer Larry Derfner. He says: "Israel's war with Gaza has to be the most one-sided on earth.... If the point is to end it, or at least begin to end it, the ball is not in Hamas' court - it's in ours."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-true-story-behind-thi_b_153825.html
 
The sad part is Obama will support the military industrial complex as much as any repuke would. Same for the Prison industrial for profit complex.
 
Topspin said:
The sad part is Obama will support the military industrial complex as much as any repuke would. Same for the Prison industrial for profit complex.
Click to expand...

His comments on this situation are disheartening to say the least.

I have this hope that, on the "only nixon can go to China" theory, he cannot be seen as pro-Palestinian, and therefore is making these jackass statements, but when he gets into office, he is going to be a real honest broker and negotiate and end to this.

But it's just a hope.
 
My hope is dimminishing fast. He got 600,000 question on the jailing of young people for pot possession on his (feel good only) website about change and asking for peoples opinions.
The response was a cold slap in progressive's face " Obama does not support legalization of mj"
Pittiful
 
nobody is right if everybody is wrong

israel is capable of making its own weapons or buying them - yes israel is not without blame, but consider how you would feel if a nation bordering the u s of a has a government committed to wiping out the u s of a and periodically fires explosives into your nation

actually, the whole thing sucks - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will produce a population of blind toothless people

and the arab world is content to let the palestinian/hamas fight for them - with protests on the side that is

right now, most of the world does not care as the upcoming depression is more on their minds

but, it lets the young males an opportunity to blow off steam...
 
Did you not read the reports when Hamas stated that the cease fire was over? I do know that I posted it on this very site.

And during the entire cease fire there were rockets fired indiscriminately fired into Israel. Also not "widely reported".

This attempt to only paste the Israelis with violence is preposterous.
 
Darla said:
What's interesting about this is as usual, Israel's own initial, aggressive actions are not being widely reported. Hamas seems to have honored the cease fire they negotiated with Israel. rocket fire trickled off. In return Israel had said it would lift their supply route blockade. They never did, insisting that rocket fire had to stop completely. I guess you can't control every single person, because that never happened, but again, it drastically tapered off. Five days ago Israel bombed the supply route.

U.S weapons are being used by Israel for this. Children have been killed as they bombed yesterday an area where school had just let out.

I wonder if someone's parents are angry? I mean I know an American would be, but these guys don't feel the same way about human life, so they might not be so bothered by their young child's broken, dead, body lying on the streets. And they might be willing to let the fact that an American weapon killed them, go. Let bygones be bygones, you know? Yeah, that is probably what will happen.

And I personaly feel so proud that my tax dollars are being used to blackmail health organizations in countries where women have zero sexual power, into withholding reproductive information, while buying viagra for warlords with multiple wives, some of whom, taking into account statistics, can be presumed to be underaged and forced to marry...and now they're going to kill these guys here.

So it's a good day for someone like me. Oh yes, I'm beaming!


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers Sunday, pounding smuggling tunnels and government strongholds, sending more tanks and artillery toward the Gaza border and activating thousands of reservists for a possible ground invasion.

Israeli leaders said they would press ahead with the Gaza campaign, despite enraged protests across the Arab world and Syria's decision to break off indirect peace talks with the Jewish state. Israel's foreign minister said the goal was to halt Gaza rocket fire on Israel for good, but not to reoccupy the territory.

With the two-day death toll nearing 300 Sunday, crowds of Gazans breached the border wall with Egypt to escape the chaos. Egyptian forces, some firing in the air, tried to push them back into Gaza and an official said one border guard was killed.

Hamas, in turn, fired rockets deeper than ever into Israel, near the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/28/israel-masses-troops-tank_n_153760.html
Click to expand...

I completely agree with you .. but Obama is Isreal's bitch and he won't say a word against Israel's actions no matter what they do.

His honeymoon with the rest of the world will be short-lived.
 
Damocles said:
Did you not read the reports when Hamas stated that the cease fire was over? I do know that I posted it on this very site.

And during the entire cease fire there were rockets fired indiscriminately fired into Israel. Also not "widely reported".

This attempt to only paste the Israelis with violence is preposterous.
Click to expand...

They are living under seige and under a blockade. The number of rockets fired since the cease fire had been dramatically lower.

You can't keep people like this and expect them not to fight. Not everyone is going to get on the train with no fight Damo.
 
Darla said:
They are living under seige and under a blockade. The number of rockets fired since the cease fire had been dramatically lower.

You can't keep people like this and expect them not to fight. Not everyone is going to get on the train with no fight Damo.
Click to expand...
You also can't keep poking the big guy and never expect him to do anything about it, then tell him the pact is over with and increase the number of pokes per minute. Israel didn't take this action until the official "cease fire" was ended by their own side.

The reality is both of these sides do things that cause the "reaction" you speak of. Most people sit around and blame the "enemy" of the people that they want to say are the 'victims' in the situation. No matter which side you go to, they do things that create that reaction in the other side. Yet only one of them is called "evil" by most people. Israel is not the cause of this, it perpetuates itself through the actions of both sides.
 
This reminds me of the 'Shock and Awe' day in Iraq. Remember that day a few yrs. ago? I was working in the art dept. at a place that had tvs in the lunchroom. The whole dept. except for me and a friend named Ellen left to watch the bombardment. We finally went to see the carnage. The people there were oohing and awing at the flashes and explosions, some cheering. I asked if they knew who was dying. The answer came back.. the republican guard and saddam. I said no! It's women and children who are being attacked and if you could smell the burning corpses you wouldn't see this as a fireworks display. Ellen agreed and we both went back to work disgusted.

Whether its Israel or the U.S. or Hamas, killing women, children and the innocent is just wrong and criminal for ANY reason. I guess there are those of us on the left that aren't as blood thursty as you on the right.
 
Damocles said:
You also can't keep poking the big guy and never expect him to do anything about it, then tell him the pact is over with and increase the number of pokes per minute. Israel didn't take this action until the official "cease fire" was ended by their own side.

The reality is both of these sides do things that cause the "reaction" you speak of. Most people sit around and blame the "enemy" of the people that they want to say are the 'victims' in the situation. No matter which side you go to, they do things that create that reaction in the other side. Yet only one of them is called "evil" by most people. Israel is not the cause of this, it perpetuates itself through the actions of both sides.
Click to expand...

Israel is the cause of this; they are keeping an entire people in a concentration camp.
 
Crashk said:
This reminds me of the 'Shock and Awe' day in Iraq. Remember that day a few yrs. ago? I was working in the art dept. at a place that had tvs in the lunchroom. The whole dept. except for me and a friend named Ellen left to watch the bombardment. We finally went to see the carnage. The people there were oohing and awing at the flashes and explosions, some cheering. I asked if they knew who was dying. The answer came back.. the republican guard and saddam. I said no! It's women and children who are being attacked and if you could smell the burning corpses you wouldn't see this as a fireworks display. Ellen agreed and we both went back to work disgusted.

Whether its Israel or the U.S. or Hamas, killing women, children and the innocent is just wrong and criminal for ANY reason. I guess there are those of us on the left that aren't as blood thursty as you on the right.
Click to expand...


Well said. If only we would show the bodies of the dead on tv, maybe Americans would wake up. It's hard to watch a child die, bleeding and in pain and terror, in a street.
 
How can anyone be proud to be an American?

How can anyone be proud to be part of the country that helped end two great empires years ago.

If I were American(which I'm glad I'm not) I would renounce my citizenship because americans account for nothing but destruction and evil in my book.
 
Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
Hate multiplies hate,
violence multiplies violence,
and toughness multiplies toughness
in a descending spiral of destruction....
The chain reaction of evil --
hate begetting hate,
wars producing more wars --
must be broken,
or we shall be plunged
into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Strength To Love, 1963
 
Darla said:
Well said. If only we would show the bodies of the dead on tv, maybe Americans would wake up. It's hard to watch a child die, bleeding and in pain and terror, in a street.
Click to expand...

Must be that darned liberal media not showing them.
 
a11n said:
How can anyone be proud to be an American?

How can anyone be proud to be part of the country that helped end two great empires years ago.

If I were American(which I'm glad I'm not) I would renounce my citizenship because americans account for nothing but destruction and evil in my book.
Click to expand...

your retarded
 
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