Many feared dead after Israeli strikes in Gaza

So on I ramble...forgive me that indulgence..

I am not a religious man, but I do love God, whoever he is, his creation is more than any man can know.

I love both cats and dogs, and so this is one of my favorite writings..its by Garrison Keillor:

"The Meaning Of Life"...

To know and to serve God, of course, is why we’re here; a clear truth that, like the nose on your face, is near at hand and easily discernable but can make you dizzy if you try to focus on it hard.

But a little faith will see you through. What else will do except faith in such a cynical, corrupt times?

When the country goes temporarily to the dogs, cats learn to be circumspect, walk on fences, sleep in trees, and have faith that all this woofing is not the last word.

Time to shut up and be beautiful, and wait for morning.

Yahooism, when in power, is deaf, and neither satire nor Gospel will stay its brutal hand, but hang on, another chapter follows.

Our brave hopes for changing the world sank in port, and we have become the very people we used to make fun of, the old and hesitant, but never mind, that’s not the whole story either.

So hang on.

What keeps our faith cheerful is the extreme presence of gentleness and humor.

Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things; through cooking and small talk, through storytelling, making love, fishing, tending animals and sweet corn and flowers, through sports, music and books, raising kids-all the places where the gravy soaks in and the grace shines through.

Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.

Jesus,(God), is weeping.

Speaker For The Dead

Tony was correct when he said all Muslims were not terrorists.  We have many Muslims who live here in America.  I think that perhaps the reason they came to our beloved country was to most likely escape the radical Muslims/terrorists in their countries.  Who can blame them.

 We have many Americans, unfortunately, who are evil people as all countries do.  Unfortunately, America has experienced a small amount of domestic terrorism.  But, we don't have to be afraid on a day by day basis that we are going to be murdered within by terrorists or from terrorists of another country.  We have had one foreign terrorist attack on 9/11 and it could happen again, but we don't live in that fear.  Our everday lives are not based on having to live that way.  Therefore, I cannot in any way imagine how terrible it must be to live in a hotbed as the Middle East not knowing from day to day when my family and other American citizens will be blown up.  It's impossible to know that kind of fear when you haven't experienced it on a daily basis. 

As much as I hate to believe it, I do not think there is any way that peace can be brought to the ME because of the terrorist ideology that rules that part of the world.  Pure evil will never give in to any type of peace and cannot abide by the laws of the land.  Terrorists are the most evil breed of people on this earth because human life has no value whatsoever to them.  These satanic people are like none we have ever seen before and will forever, as long as this world exists, continue their evil desires of destruction and their desire  to conquer and rule.  That is fact and we can't dismiss it.  There will always be a bloodbath in that part of our world until Jesus comes back in the end days to conquer Satan.  This is God's prophecies being fulfilled.  Therefore, in the meantime, any country (like Israel) who is constantly attacked by terrorists has to defend herself. 

And this thread is now dead!! Goodbye all!

I will limit this post to two repetitions n this thread so that it will not become mere  "spam".

Truthinator

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This is for Tony and NowOrNever and all people who think it is important to repeat the assertion that not all Muslims are terrorists.  Read carefully and,  preferably,  multiple times.

A German's View on Islam
A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything.  I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. 

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is 
the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.

The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful  [Muslim] majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous. 

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. 

China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people. 

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a war mongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet. 

And who can forget Rwanda  which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'? 

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:  Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun. 

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. 

As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life. 

Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this message without sending it on is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this and thin k about it, and send it on before it's too late.

Emanuel Tanay, M.D.

Dr. Emanuel Tanay,a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Medical School, Dr. Emanuel Tanay MD  is a well-known forensic psychiatrist who has been an expert witness in many famous cases, such as the trials of Jack Ruby, Ted Bundy, Sam Sheppard, and Robert Garwood. He is licensed to practice in Ohio and Georgia, as well as Michigan. Dr. Tanay has served as an officer or committee member of many professional organizations, such as the Michigan Psychiatric Society, the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and others. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and of the American Board of Forensic Psychiatry and a distinguished fellow of the APA and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFC). A Holocaust survivor himself, he coauthored a book about the survivors of the  Holocaust and was asked by the German government to consult on just compensation for the Holocaust survivors. Dr. Tanay has served on several journal editorial boards, authored many publications, and presented countless times on forensic medicine. His efforts have also produced many awards and commendations from groups such as the Michigan State Medical Society, APA, the Detroit Institute of Technology, and AAFC, among others.

 When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

Robert F Kennedy on the "Mindless Menace of Violence."

Again I don't disagree with most of what you wrote,  Tony,  and I am about as world traveled as you.  I just returned from Ukraine,  lived in Africa for  6 months,  London for  7  months,  Israel for  1.5  years.  I was the guest of Israeli Arabs for a weekend at a wedding of the village leader''s son,  and my best friend there is a woman whose parents are Iraqi Jewish immigrants.  Israelis know what they have to do to survive better than any other people on the planet.  Good people like Dharma's miserable Palestinian friends have three options:  1)  adapt to life in the diaspora just as the Jews did for two millenia after most of them were evicted from Israel by the Romans  (You don't read about Jewish suicide bombers in history books,  do you?);  2) Stand up to their misguided hamas leaers and throw them out of power;  or  3)  Wage war against Israel until the last drop of blood is shed and the last person is left standing.  If you were Palestinian,  what would you do?

Israel has bent over backwards to make peace.  Israel is a democracy and permits debate and dissent.  Arabs write columns critical of Israeli policies in Haaretz.  If a Palestinian dissents with hamas,  they get murdered as collaboraters.  You can see their dilemma.

But notice that the West Bank is quiet.  I recently read an article discussing a resurgence of prosperity there.  (Unemployment  23%  and dropping;  49% in Gaza.)  This begs another question:  could there be a better alternative for Palestinians than swearing to the destruction of the State of Israel?  Because you can bet your best boots that if Israel is forced to combat an enemy sworn to its destruction,  Israel indeed will fight until the last person standing. 

I'm not sure what Dharma Girl means when she keeps referring to an  "anonymous"  post.  Everything I submitted was signed,  even if erroneously.  I don't have much to say to her.  I find her pompous and arrogant,  but most of all,  I find her dangerous to a  free world.  She may not be who you think she is.

Truthinator

Tony:

I hope you will take the time to view the following video footage of a talk given by an Arab journalist,  then let me know what you think.  Add in the  h t t p  designation and colon;  then the  2 slashes.  You don't need the  w w w.  I doubt you'll hear anything receptive about it from Dharma Girl.  For one thing I doubt she's a girl;  and for another,  I believe she is one of the people to whom the Arab journalist is referring in her talk.  While I stand by my statement of abhorrence of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres,  I think you will get a flavor of the political motivation that served as background for those atrocities.

Truthinator

multimedia.heritage.org/content/wm/Lehrman-092706a.wvx

Tony:

Ghandi's enemy was the British.  They're not exactly famous for their suicide bombing tactics or their glorification of death, paradise, and virginity.

>>She stated it is the radical elements we have to worry about the same as I stated above. I agree with that.<<

She also stated that we won't see Islamofascist tyranny curbed until the 'great silent majority' of muslims bows up at the fanatics in their midsts - which means risking and even inviting death,  as this brave woman has done,  and in the name of world peace and security,  also even fighting to the death.

>>In the meanwhile we need to find a way to stop the killing of those that are innocent.<<

We all die eventually, Tony, but we do get to have some say in our quality of life while we are here.  Sometimes people die or are blinded in an altruistic sacrifice for people and principles in which we believe.  Life seems disinclined to present us with easy choices - although they may be easier for some than for others.

Truthinator

I don't have time to read your post, Truthinator, and I thought we were in agreement that we don't really have much to talk about.  Your weaselly assertion that history books don't indicate  "Jews" bomb was a lie that isn't just annoying, it denies what Israelis are proud of, for the most part--Israelis are PROUD of their history of Zionist bombings.  This is what you posted:

 You don't read about Jewish suicide bombers in history books,  do you? 

Disengenuous, at best.  Enough to be a big lie, to me.  Because the Zionists were more efficient bombers than the Arabs, they get a pass from you?  What you posted SUGGESTS that they weren't bombers when it was their turn to be treated like animals.

While they denied (officially) their side of the atrocities after Israel was formed, at least initially (such as when the Prime Minister insisted that the military massacre at Quibya was carried out by civilians they had no control over--hey!  does that sound familiar?  Do you fall for it when Hamas says it?), they publicized their terrorist acts prior to that.  They were also reported in news accounts at the time (the Brits didn't like being bombed, or their vehicles blown up), and are included in memoirs of members of some of the Zionists, who included high officials in the later State of Israel.  Prominent members of several of the Zionist political parties were on the committee leading the Irgun. Menachem Begin--later the 6th Prime Minister of Israel--was in charge of the Irgun when they bombed the King David Hotel, the British Officer's Club, and the Jerusalem Railway Station.  David Ben Gurion--later the first Prime Minister of Israel who lied about military massacres, but then a relatively moderate Zionist--agreed with Begin on the bombing of the King David Hotel, although he retracted his approval before they actually did it. Itzhak Rabin was in the Palmach and took part in the raid on the detention camp which liberated 200 illegal immigrants.

The Zionists who targeted British military and civilian infrastructure (for instance, the Irgun) prior to the finalization of the State of Israel were "heroes" and "freedom fighters" to Israelis, although the bombing of the King David Hotel drew widespread condemnation after the fact (all evidence supports that the Irgun had meant to avoid the 92 deaths that resulted--but they BOMBED).  Zionists did their damnedest to encourage illegal immigration by European Jews (hopefully even your history books suggest why) and then responded violently when the Brits treated illegal immigrants they intercepted inhumanely.  Inhumane treatment included blowing the boats immigrants sneaked in on out of the water (that wasn't the rule, as I understand it, but it happened), and herding them into detention that looked just like concentration camps.  The Palmach bombed at least two of the ships carrying captured illegal immigrants years before they staged a raid on one of the detention camps (in which they liberated about 200, I think.  I've wondered what happened to the others there--one of the boats the Palmach bombed with illegal immigrants in it was carrying 1,800.)

In any event, that stupid "show me the Jewish bombers" line is too ignorant for words.  To suggest that Jews didn't bomb and commit terrorist acts BEFORE NOW if you don't believe that what they are doing now qualifies as illegal,  is just a lie, and not even a lie Israelis tell.  They called their terrorists "heroes."  They bombed.

 If you re-read Marek's post,  you will see that he does not call these people irrelevant.

Reread it yourself.  Here is the title and author of the piece on Arutz Sheva:

Why the Peaceful Majority is Irrelevant
by Paul E. Marek

Here is the title and author of the piece on the In Repair blog (it identifies the article as being written in February 2006):

Why The Peaceful Majority Is Irrelevant
By Paul E. Marek

The title on Celestial Junk (apparently his own blog):

 Why The Peaceful Majority Is Irrelevant

From the body of the piece:

 The peaceful majority were irrelevant. (referring to Russiains)

I stand by what I said about that.  Pretty to say it means something different?  You don't make it pretty to me, and neither does Marek.  And everything he posted would apply to the Jews who didn't resist when the Nazis decimated the various local populations.  So, not just immoral, but hypocritical as hell.  Apparently only the unresisting Jews get to be victims of the fanatics.  Every other non-resister is a collaborator, or irrelevant.

On the chance you are actually posting something different from what I have seen (or already responded to) I will come back when I have some time.  But you think I am an annoying murderer, and I think you are an irresponsible liar, and it is hard to see the point.  There are any number of things reasonable people can disagree on, but what I pointed out on your posts were FACTUALLY just wrong, except for the immorality (my opinion) of calling people irrelevant--which you now deny Marek wrote.  Facts aren't negotiable.  And I have no more respect for liars than you have for murderers.

You know what Dharma?  So far,  you're irrelevant.  I asked you for your ideas on how to solve the problem and bring peace forward,  and you reply with more accusations,  revisionist history,  focusing on the periods and semicolons of my remarks,  and generally perpetuating the very dynamic with me that resists peace in the region. 

Write to me again when you decide to answer my question.  Everything else gets ignored.

Truthinator

Gee, I've gone from "all too relevant" to "so far, you're irrelevant."  That's a bit of a revision. 

I didn't get to you asking me for my ideas, but if I had, it would have been good for a laugh.  I'm a murderer because I dared to correct your non-factual post, and you want my ideas?  You haven't actually responded to any facts or ideas in opposition to what you've posted, so that is pretty silly.

Revisionist history...let's see, that would be like you posting:

There was an outlaw terror group that formed in 1947-1948 called irgun that operated outside the law or the approval of most of Israeli society.  They were not a political party that was elevated or  "elected"  to office as was hamas. 

I hadn't even seen that whopper when I posted who some of the movers and shakers in Irgun were...including prominent members of various Zionist parties who were on the committee that ran Irgun, and Menachem Begin, for instance.  Their bombing of the King David Hotel was "outside the approval of most of Israeli society" when the death toll won the Zionists disapproval from all over, after the fact.  The possibility of that little issue was what inspired David ben Gurion to retract his approval after he had given it.  And they bombed the King David Hotel in 1946.  Probably not before they were formed.  That is not a period or semi-colon.  You don't seem able to cope with facts any more than you can cope with anything that I post.

"Zionists wrote the book on Middle East terrorism" is not semantically equal to what you claim I posted.  "Jews" does not equal "Zionists" and "tyranny" is not some synonym for "terrorism".  That's not periods or semi-colons, either.

If peace in the region depended on me finding a way to get past your ego, I would definitely give it a try.  Since it doesn't, ignore away.  Maybe you can find someone else who will bother with your posts.  I wouldn't bet money on it though.

nytimes.com/2009/01/14/opinion/14goldberg-1.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1

From my best Israeli friend:

Even my most left leaning Israeli friends approve the attack on Gaza. As Golda said, we can forgive the Palestinians for killing our children, but not for causing us to kill their children. Peace will come when they love their children more than they hate us.

Willy

The Moral Battleground
by Melanie Phillips
What other country would, for showing such unparalleled moral scrupulousness, be vilified and libeled as Israel is?
And so now begins the second and most difficult stage. Inside Israel, there is both determination and dread as tens of thousands of Israel's conscript army are called to the front. Untold numbers of these soldiers will lose their lives as the result not merely of the genocidal aims of Hamas (and its Iranian puppet-master), but also the indifference and pusillanimity towards Palestinian terror displayed by world governments over the past six decades of Israel's fight for survival, along with the active encouragement of genocidal Islamists by leftists, Jew-haters, Muslims and useful idiots who were on such thuggish display yesterday in the co-ordinated demonstrations in British and other western cities.
Such people have made no protest at the bombardment of Israeli towns by more than 6000 rockets in the past six years, deliberately targeting innocent civilians. They have made no protest at the way Hamas has used Gazan civilians as human shields, situating its murderous arsenals beneath apartment blocks, in schools and hospitals and mosques in order to maximize the numbers of civilians killed (in order to manipulate all-too pliable western opinion). No, their protest only starts when Israel finally takes the military action aimed at stopping this genocidal barrage.
The worst thing is the moral inversion, in which the murderous victimization of innocent Israelis is ignored while their murderers are described as 'civilians' when they are final ly killed by the Israelis -- who are demonstrably taking care to avoid civilian casualties wherever possible. Tragically, civilians always die in wars; and unfortunately there will undoubtedly be more civilian casualties in Gaza -- along with deaths among Israeli troops -- as the war goes on. But the frenzied misrepresentations, double standards and moral inversion fuelling a hysteria in the west which in turn can only incite more genocidal violence are simply depraved.
Particularly striking in its malice is the way in which the treatment of wounded Palestinians in Israeli hospitals is ignored -- while news of the barbaric behavior of Hamas in Gaza's hospitals is airbrushed out of the picture. At WSJ's Opinion Journal, James Taranto noted that a report of this scene in a Gaza hospital briefly appeared in the New York Times a couple of days ago:

Armed Hamas militants in civilian clothes roamed the halls. Asked their function, they said it was to provide security. But there was internal bloodletting under way. In the fourth-floor orthopaedic section, a woman in her late 20s asked a militant to let her see Saleh Hajoj, her 32-year-old husband. She was turned away and left the hospital. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. Hajoj was carried out by young men pretending to transfer him to another ward. As he lay on the stretcher, he was shot in the left side of the head. Mr. Hajoj, like five others killed at the hospital this way in 24 hours, [my emphasis] was accused of collaboration with Israel. He had been in the central prison awaiting trial by Hamas judges; when Israel destroyed the prison on Sunday he and the others were transferred to the hospital. But their trials were short-circuited...

You won't find that passage now on the New York Times website because, soon after it appeared, it unaccountably vanished into the ether. Nor will many in Britain or the west be aware of this:

Dozens of Gaza Arabs are being treated in Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital at the same time terrorists are bombarding the city. The medical facility, the largest on the southern coast, is in the line of rocket fire, and medical staff often have to stop caring for patients and run for=2 0cover during air raid warnings. The 500-bed Barzilai Hospital has close ties with Gaza City's Shifa Hospi tal, Barzilai deputy director Dr. Ron Lobel told the Associated Press. 'It might seem completely absurd, but we have the privilege to be doctors. Our medical ethics do not distinguish between patients. We treat whoever needs to be treated,' he said One Gaza Arab woman refused to identify herself to AP [Associated Press] because of fear of retribution by terrorists if it were known that her two-month-old granddaughter is being treated in an Israeli hospital. 'I am very sad and hurt. We want peace, not war,' she said as Israel began retaliating after hundreds of Arab rocket and mortar attacks, some of them lethal.

The moral inversion in the west is so egregious, so monstrous, that the better Israel is shown to behave the worse the vilification that rains down upon it. What other country in the world would show such restraint in the face of more than 6000 rocket attacks upon its citizens -- 6000! -- that it took seven years before going to war to put a stop to it?
What other country would treat individuals -- including proven terrorists --20from that enemy territory in its own hospitals?
What other country would continue to provi de essential foodstuffs and other supplies to those enemies who continued to fire rockets at it? What other country, when finally forced to go to war to stop the attacks, would show such concern to avoid the loss of civilian life that it contacts the population in enemy territory -- even households containing identified terrorists -- to warn them to flee from the imminent bombardment?
And what other country would, for showing such unparalleled moral scrupulousness, be vilified and libeled as Israel is?
Israel's behavior is moral, legal and proportionate. This conflict is revealing just who is on the side of morality, decency and sanity and who is not. The President of the Czech Republic, who is also the incoming president of the EU, has emerged in the former camp, declaring s toutly that Israel's behavior is both just and necessary. France's president Sarkozy, however, has called upon both sides to stop hostilities -- a moral equivalence which effectively gives Hamas victory by requiring Israel to abandon the defense of its citizens. Similarl y in Britain, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has repeated his call for an immediate cease-fire -- while Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has apparently complained to Israel's Prime Minister Olmert that "too many" people have died.
Would that be, perhaps, too many Hamas terrorists who have died? Would Brown have preferred that more of them continued to live so that they could carry on murdering more Israelis?
In startling contrast Farid Ghadry, President of the Reform Party of Syria, has written:

We Arabs must be the ones to stop Hamas and Hizbullah, rather than support their demonic and twisted logic of resisting development, enlightenment, and progress of the region. Even when development and enlightenment stare them in the face, their instinct is to destroy them pretending to safeguard their honor, the mechanics of which supersede all else including a happy life of fulfillment and accomplishments. So while we abhor violence of all kind, Israel's campaign against Hamas must continue to the bitter end not only for the sake of peace but also to help Arabs realize they have a choice: Destroy like Gaza or develop like=2 0Dubai. Will this happen soon? Maybe not, but if a wake-up call and a nudge, once in a while, to pierce through the fog of deceit perpetrated by Syria and Iran is what it takes to see the light, then we stand by the West and Israel in the only hope that an Arab Renaissance in the Levant may actually have a chance of resurrection.

Alas, many in the west don't stand with Farid Ghadry. They stand instead with Hamas. Whatever platitudes they mouth, it is clear that they really don't want Israel to survive at all. The moral dividing line in this battle is very clear. Those who stand with Israel are on the side of morality, justice, and civilization. Those in the media and public life who denounce Israel for having the temerity to defend its people are the fellow-travelers of barbarism. Having done so much to embolden and strengthen Hamas and Iran, who are playing them for suckers,20they are continuing to stoke the fires of irrational hatred and genocidal hysteria. As Israeli soldiers die, along with the Palestinian victims of Hamas whether as 'collaborators' or human shields, their blood will be on these hypocritical western hands.
This article originally appeared in Spectator.co.uk
Visit Melanie Phillips website at http://www.melaniephillips.com

Admirable and great journalism. Keep it up, please!

Admirable and great journalism. Keep it up, please!

A letter to the citizens of Gaza from a concerned neighbour

Dear neighbour,

My name is David and I live in Israel , thirty minutes (or one minute rocket time) from you. I hope someday to have you over for a cup of tea. We have a lovely view from the balcony. On a clear day we can see our jets bombing your neighbourhood.

I think it's time we had a heart to heart. It's time you knew the truth. After all, what are neighbours for? You might have wondered why both you and your parents were born in a refugee camp. Why is it that even though we live only 30 minutes apart, I live in prosperity and you live in poverty and filth? Why you live in despair and hatred while we live in hope and love.

Here is the truth, neighbour: There really was a Holocaust. I realize you've been taught otherwise. I know, that ever since you were a small child you've been told that the Holocaust is something the Jews fabricated to justify taking your land. Well, dear citizen of Gaza, it really happened. Not very long ago. It happened. And guess what? It's NEVER going to happen again. The time in history when Jews were led to slaughter, persecuted, raped and pillaged is over and will never recur. Never.
 
Now we have our own country. Now we have the bombs. We will never forget what was done to our people and you better not either.

We don't hate you. We don't hate anyone. Jews are a peaceful people.

We do not want your land. We don't want oil. We don't want to rape your women or murder your children. We never tried to force our religion on anyone. Our eternal capital, Jerusalem, is open to all faiths to love and to worship. We treat your Arab brothers who live among us as equals. Our hand has been extended to peace with our neighbours since day one. We have proven this time and time again through numerous negotiations and extensive compromise.

We ask only for one thing. Leave us in peace. That's right. We have no other demands. Just leave us in peace. It's as simple as that. If you don't, we will fight back ferociously and mercilessly. We will destroy your homes and your cities. We will make your miserable lives even more miserable. If you don't want this to happen any more, leave us in peace.

Our soldiers are not motivated by hate but by determination. We embrace life and will do anything to preserve it. However, we will kill and die to protect our land and our way of life. That's what they should be teaching in your schools instead of useless lies. A terrorist is a terrorist. Sorry to be the one to break the news, but it's about time somebody told you that a terrorist is nothing more than a coward. Not a hero. Not a Shahid. There is nothing heroic
in blowing yourself up amongst a crowd of woman and children. Anybody can do it. Anybody can hide inside a school or a mosque and blindly fire rockets into cities, hoping to kill as many babies as possible. There is nothing courageous or admirable in these acts of cruelty. To take pride in an act of terror is pitiful and pathetic.
 
I know you've been raised to believe the contrary, but it is a lie. I have seen how your children are taught to commit suicide. How your suicide bombers are glorified. This is tragically sad. A real hero faces his enemy and doesn't hide in schools and hospitals. A real hero protects his people and will die for them but not among them.
 
Israel exists and it belongs to the Jewish People. I've seen your school books. I know that Israel has been omitted from your maps. Contrary to what you've been told, the State of Israel really does exist. Look outside your window. We are here and we are not going anywhere.
 
Dear Palestinian neighbour, it's time to deal with the facts. We love our beautiful little country. We will protect it with our lives. You are not getting it. This was explained to you in 1948. You got your country and we got ours. Your arrogant and stupid leaders promised you that you will get the whole thing. Thousands of lives have been lost for nothing. It's NEVER going to happen!
 
While you have been foolishly drooling over our land instead of nurturing your own, we have built one of the most beautiful and successful countries on Earth. We have done it not to spite our greedy neighbors, but rather in spite of them.
 
We've planted forests and quenched the desert. We've drained wetlands and culivated fields. We built universities, opera houses, superhighways, hospitals, skyscrapers and stadiums. We have millions of refugees, but no refugee camps. You could do the same.

Focus on what you have and not on what you will never have. It takes love, hard work and determination. We can help. We have experts and scientists helping developing nations across the globe. Accept the facts, lay down your weapons and join us in making this great region of the planet even greater.

Remember, we're neighbours.
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David Rosenblatt, Sarigim , Israel – Jan. 9th, 2009 I'm trying to get thiis letter posted on Al-Jazeera and some other platforms. I know it will never get to its destination, but it was important for me to put my thoughts into words. Feel free to pass it around.

I can understand that after centuries of persecution it's satisfying for a Jewish state to be the aggressor for a change, but there's a codicil that goes with that role. You don't get to act like a victim any more. "Poor little Israel" just sounds silly when you're the dominant power in the Middle East. When you've invaded several of your neighbors, bombed and defeated them in combat, occupied their land, and taken their homes away from them, it's time to stop acting oppressed. Yes, Arab states deny your right to exist, threaten to drive you into the sea, and all the rest of their futile, helpless rhetoric. The fact is, you have the upper hand and they don't. You have sophisticated arms and they don't. You have nuclear weapons and they don't. So stop pretending to be pathetic. It doesn't play well in Peoria.

Yes, I know, we Americans should talk--always trembling in our boots about terrorists and 'rogue states' and 'evil empires' when we have enough nukes to blow up entire continents, and spend more on arms in an hour than most of the world's nations spend in a year. But just because we're hypocrites and Nervous Nellies doesn't mean you have to be.

Calling Hamas the 'aggressor' is undignified. The Gaza strip is little more than a large Israeli concentration camp, in which Palestinians are attacked at will, starved of food, fuel, energy--even deprived of hospital supplies. They cannot come and go freely, and have to build tunnels to smuggle in the necessities of life. It would be difficult to have any respect for them if they didn't fire a few rockets back.

The Israel lobby has a hissy fit when anyone points out that Israel has been borrowing liberally from the Nazi playbook, but to punish a whole nation for the attacks of a few--which Israel has been doing consistently in Gaza--is a violation of international law--a law enacted in response to the Nazi practice. And please, spare us the hypocrisy--borrowed, I'm ashamed to admit, from my own government--of saying 'every effort is made to avoid civilian casualties'. When you drop bombs on a crowded city you're bombing civilians. Bombs don't ask for ID cards. Bombs are civilian killers. That's what they do. They're designed to break the spirit of a nation by slaughtering families. They were used all through World War II by all sides for that very purpose. And that's what they're intended for in Gaza.

And please, Israel, try to restrain yourself from using that ridiculous argument, borrowed again from Bush (how low can you get?), that Hamas leaders "hide among civilians", by living in their own homes. Apparently, in the thinking of Israelis, they should all run out into an uninhabited area somewhere (try to find one in Gaza), surround themselves with flares and write in the sand with a stick, "Here I am!"

Yesterday you shelled three UN-run schools, killing several dozen children and adults, despite the fact that the UN had given you the precise coordinates of all its schools in Gaza. So much for 'taking every care to avoid civilian casualties'. You seem to feel you can kill whomever you like, whenever you like, and wherever you like, just because you have a blank check from the United States. Every day this assault goes on you're demonstrating contempt for the UN, the international community, and human life. Talk about a rogue state.

You might also pay attention to the fact that your outdated policy of macho bullying--the policy you've been following for decades--isn't working! The Palestinians are human. They're not dogs you can beat into submission. The worse you treat them, the more they'll fight back. That's what it means to be human. The more you oppress people, the more people resist. We dropped more bombs on Viet Nam than all the bombs dropped by all nations in World War II. Not to mention napalm, herbicides and all kinds of sophisticated land mines. But did they bow down and kiss the feet of their conquerors? They did not.

You'll have to kill them all. And when you do, you may finally lose the support even of the United States.
Remember that American support is based entirely on the notion that no politician can win without the Jewish vote. But not all American Jews think Israel is on a divine mission from God. A great many American Jews believe in international law and justice.

I can understand how Israel could resent this lecture coming from an American. After all, isn't this what we Americans did? Came into someone else's country, slaughtered 95% of its inhabitants and took over? And didn't we go all Nervous Nellie whenever they fought back, accusing them of aggression to justify even more genocidal slaughter? And didn't we get away with it?

Yes, but I'm sorry to tell you, Israel, you came on the scene too late. Genocide just doesn't fly any more. I know it isn't fair, you have every right to feel aggrieved about this, but the world's smaller, cowboys are passé, and bullies aren't heroes any more.