Neither Progressive nor Reviving When Commenting on Gaza

Mr. Safi --
You main point is wrong simply because you choose to ignore th damage caused by EIGHT YEARS of rocket attacks. Eight years of trauma, serious psychological damage, disruption, and to be VERY BLUNT: TERROR.
You also choose to ignore the facts of: HAMAS deliberately using children to hide behind; HAMAS *removing* their uniforms to "hide" among the civilian population; HAMAS firing their rockets from in the midst of the civilian population -- and then claiming that Israel targets civilians [I assume that you give HAMAS a pass -- it is OK to target civilians by firing rockets in the midst of civilians -- but NOT OK to respond to such rocket fire]; reports that HAMAS does not allow civilians to move away from the area when Israel drops warning leaflets - IN ORDER to increase the civilian casualties that can then be exploited against Israel; and finally, that a significant proportion of those killed are actually HAMAS fighters!
So, the rate is NOT "a hundred to one" at all. Where was your moral outrage BEFORE Israel moved in? Where was your loud voice when HAMAS fired rockets for close to a week BEFORE Israel moved in?
And, Israel has NOT imposed a "food and medicine blockade" at all. Trucks are being allowed in -- LOTS of trucks. Of course, YOU never address the factor of HAMAS confiscating material from these trucks AFTER they are allowed in (so that they never reach the intended civilians and thus allow HAMAS to magnify the "humanitarian crisis").
Indeed, if Israel were to be "equal" in committing atrocities, they would have responded with rocket firings of their own for the past EIGHT years. But, of course, THIS you do not address either.

Also, HAMAS was voted in by all of these civilians knowing FULL WELL what is the HAMAS "platform". I do not recall ANYONE in Gaza protesting the HAMAS actions. They were SUPPORTED by the Gazan populace. To a large extent, they CHOSE to bring this misery on themselves. All THEY had to to do at any time was make clear that they did not support HAMAS.

So, before you ty to address the issue, at least get some facts straight. And, be honest -- Condemning Israel in this operation is simply saying that it is "OK" for HAMAS to target Israel since NO *effective* Israeli response will be acceptable to you. Which means that you tacitly accept HAMAS's *stated* goal of the destruction of the State of Israel.

Omid.
Its time the Palestinians take responsibility to their life and actions. If they don't want 700 war casualties simply make sure Hamas won't bomb Israel. They have nobody but themselves to blame. The people in Gaza are no victims and they get way too much attention from the world press.

Its sad to see that while you live and work in the US you failed to internalize key concepts of the US system like accountability, hard work and self reliance. Your words are emblematic to the finger pointing and helpnesness culture prevelant in the Arab world.

It is tragic that the Children of Abraham are killing each other. I am hoping that one day soon, both sides will see "the light" and stop this senseless killing.

I read Omid Safi's article, and this time, I agree with the rabbi. If we were in a court of law, virtually nothing Safi's writes would be admissible and that which could be admitted would be seriously impeached.

In journalism, however, people like Safi recognize no need to have a factual basis for their writings. For them journalism is propaganda. For the propagandist, more lies are better because then the charges against Jews have no bounds, and thus, Safi’s writing deteriorates into vilification.

Is there any people more bereft of rationality than the Palestinians?

The UN partitioned the land in 1947, and the Arabs immediately rejected it and instead the opted for one goal: Murder all the Jews.

In 1948 Israel prevailed in the War of Independence and the areas set aside for Arabs in 1947 were then occupied by Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Had the Arabs accepted the UN Partition, then could have build a prosperous nation along side Israel. (There is a problem with this theory in that the Palestinian Arabs have been grossly backward and incompetent for several centuries and really there is no fact to support the idea that they could have constructed anything positive.)

In 1967, the Arabs again tried to murder all the Jews, and they again failed. After the Six Day War, the 1947 Partition lands which Egypt and Jordan had occupied (Gaza and West Bank) came under Israeli control. For the 20 years that these UN Partition lands had been under solely Arab control, no attempt whatsoever was made to establish a Palestinian state. Instead, the Arab world keep their fellow Arabs in refugee camp facilities. The only use other Arabs had for "Palestinians" was as a political tool to divert their own populations' attention away from the dreadful conditions at home -- these wretched conditions gave rise to two types of Arab states: Thugeries (Arafat, Saddam Hussein) and religious fanatics (Afghanistan and Iran (Muslim but not Arab).

Since 1967, the Arabs complained that the sole cause of all problems was Israel's Occupation. This claim was a lie, but one which the world wanted to accept because the West, especially the United States State Department, found it useful to divert the "Arab street" from their hideously corrupt and incompetents regimes. Yes, low and stable oil prices were purchased by fueling Arab hatred and scape-goating of Jews. The USA watched as the Muslim religious fanatics grew more and more powerful and more and more anti-US. Even after the first bombing of the World Trade enter, the bombing of the US Embassies, the attack on the US Cole, the US still perpetuated the Big Lie that Israel was oppressing the poor Palestinians. The GOP found Monica-Gate more important than protecting the US from he world-wide terrorism. Whenever President Clinton made any attempt to deal with the terrorism, the GOP yelled, “Wag The Tail, Wag The Tail,” which was the movie where a president invents an international crisis to divert attention from his domestic troubles.

Can we blame the Arabs for the GOP’s thwarting Clinton’s modest efforts? No. Can we blame the Israelis? No.

In 2005 former Israeli PM, Ariel Sharon, decided that Israel would withdraw from Gaza and a few West Bank towns as a political move. Despite wide opposition, Israel forced the Jewish settlers in Gaza to leave their homes and Israel turned the entire Gaza over to Palestinian control without any Israeli control. (Some thought that Sharon’s longer rang plan was to withdraw, show the world that Israeli “occupation” play no role in the Arab desire to murder all the Jews and then take action after Gaza disintegrated. Due to his stroke, no one knows whether Sharon’s withdrawal was step one is a larger plan or Sharon had turned into Neville Chamberlain.)

What did the Gazans do? Did they try to run a decent society? No. They elected a recognized terrorist organization, Hamas, with full knowledge that foreign relief and investment would immediately stop. Then, they continued to attack Israel. In an illustrative analogy, Gazans’ response to having complete control over their own lives was similar to a postal employee receiving a nice promotion, but he quits his new job, reverts to his home, starts shooting his neighbors from his upstairs windows and then complains when the police show up and barricade his home. He then negotiates for his children to attend school, but they carry bombs and blow up the school cafeteria. The postal worker than complains when the authorities do not let his other children attend school. The authorities let him send out another child to buy groceries, but she turns herself into a suicide bomber and blows up the store. The postal worker complains that the police are starving his family.

His neighbors demand that the police do something, especially with the postal worker’s shooting at their kids while playing in their backyards. The international news media show up and say that the postal worker has no choice but to try to murder as many of his neighbors as possible to draw attention to the fact that he has no job and the police have barricaded his home. The news media does not mention that the postal worker quit his job and the barricade would stop if he would cease trying to murder his neighbors.

No one knows what Ariel Sharon would have done if he had not suffered his stoke. We do know that as a result of Sharon’s stroke, Israel got the corrupt and effete Olmert as PM. Olmert's grand incompetence resulted in Israel's loss in the 2006 War with Hezbollah. Weakness always invites more attacks and so Hamas continued to attack Israel on a daily basis.

The Israelis’ failure to remove the corrupt and incompetent Ehud Olmert cannot be blamed on the Arabs any more than the Palestinians' electing Hamas can be blamed on Israelis. Despite the fact that Israel has allowed a dithering incompetent to stay in power for two and one-half years, Israel has done nothing to interfere with the Gazans' having a decent life.

The Gazans' poverty and ignorance is a reflection of their own free will decision that murdering Jews is more important than caring for their own children. The Gazans conduct their perpetual war on Israel by sending children as suicide bombers into Israel and when Israel does attack, the Gazans place their woman, children and elderly in schools and hospitals and their weapons in mosque and then fire rockets at Israelis from these sites. The Gazan plan is simple -- Suicide by Israeli. Hamas leaders tend to stay safely under ground. They wisely know that the world wants to see women, children, and elderly dead so that the world can descend into another orgy of anti-Semitic rants and ravings – and let's not forget, higher news ratings.

One wonders whether Olmert isn't a double agent for Hamas. Olmert makes grandiose boasts, launches incompetent and ill-conceived attacks, and while the Israeli troops are most vulnerable, he reverts to his Surrender Mode. Because Olmert is once again in Surrender Mode, no nation dares support Israel; there's no telling when Olmert will pull the rug out from under them by surrendering. This was Olmert’s modus operandi in Lebanon and he is replicating it again in Gaza.

The consequences for the US in Olmert’s slow-motion surrender will be devastating. After Rumsfeld’s, Bush’s and Cheney’s colossal disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel may have been the world’s last hope in the War on Terror.

The Israeli-Arab conflict can be solved only with humor: introduce Soma on their drinking water for 40 days.

It is a shame that Dresden was fire bombed in WWII.

Do you think it may have had anything to do with the fact that Nazi leaders were directing V-2 rocket attacks against British civilians?

The only difference between the V-2s and Hamas' Qassam rockets is that the former had greater range and explosive payload.