On the Streets of New York, Calls to "Wipe Out" Palestinians;
Friedman: Hit Civilians to Teach them a Lesson
Max Blumenthal films a pro-Israel rally in New York and asks questions about civilian casualties that elicit the most horrific answers.
But these sentiments are not just on the street. They are even on the op-ed page of America's newspaper of record.
Uh, calling for or endorsing war crimes is itself a war crime, and some people were tried for that sort of thing after WW II.
End/ (Not Continued)
posted by Juan Cole @ 1/15/2009 12:04:00 AM
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Israel has signed a UN agreement which makes it illegal to attack a target where children are known to be present.
Friedman is sure that in "six months" time he will be proved correct.
The problem with these guys is that they are never aound six months later to take the heat for their abuses of reality, not to mention their support for abuses of defenseless Palestinians.
Strategic ballgame. Heavy pain. Get those Palestinian kiddies to stop making bombs and keeping them under their desks.
I believe that even the number of Israelis killed by Israel in this attack has topped the number killed by Hamas missiles.
The woman who tried to say that mourning rituals for Imam Hussain were reason enough to see muslims as savages to be killed got supremely owned. She had no comeback to the circumcision comment. New York is the only place that they can get away with saying such savage things. Where is the media coverage and outrage? Where is the round the clock coverage of religious extremists openly enciting for others to be killed? Oh wait, wrong religion.
Things like this are the reason for worrying levels of anti-semitism. In london I had to keep correcting friends of mine and other protestors who were angrily denouncing jewish people, and tell them that our fight is with zionism not the jewish people. Zionists dont even have to be jews, as evidenced by the many hindu, christian and even muslim supporters or Israels actions.
And then idiots like this are given free reign and validate all the old stereotypes against jews.
Can you imagine if someone texted Chuck Schumer to get out of his home, or else? Homeland Security would be all over 'em.
And "Never again" means "Don't screw with the Jews!" Thanks for clearing that up.
My letter to NYT's editors:
Dear Editors Hoyt and Rosenthal,
There is no evidence for Thomas Friedman's contention that after
Israel's 2006 war with Hizballah, "Lebanese civilians, in anguish,
said to Hezbollah: 'What were you thinking? Look what destruction you have visited on your own community! For what? For whom?'" In fact, in the month following the war, a public opinion poll conducted in Lebanon confirmed the opposite: that Lebanese public opinion strongly favored Hizballah.
According to a poll conducted by Information International from Aug.
22 to Aug. 27, 2006, 57% of respondents "supported" Hizballah's
kidnappings of Israeli soldiers, which initiated the conflict.
According to the same poll, 79% of respondents rated the performance of Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah as "good/great." These numbers are noteworthy not only because they disprove Friedman's claim, but because they also represent a relative uniformity of opinion across Lebanon's notoriously divided populace.
Furthermore, even in mid-October 2006, months after the war's end, a poll conducted in Lebanon by the Center for Strategic Studies found that 78% of respondents believed that Israel would have attacked Lebanon "whether Hizbollah captured the Israeli soldiers or not," thus signifying that a large majority of Lebanese were unwilling to place blame on Hizballah.
Based on these numbers, it is easy to see that Thomas Friedman is
rewriting history in order to justify his current support of Israel's war on Palestinian civilians. It is remarkable that he seems to have assumed that his claims could not be fact-checked in this age of ubiquitous polling.
Best,
[redacted]
Candidate for M.A. in international relations, [redacted] University
Haha yeah that comment about Israelis texting people in gaza to leave there homes. I guess that in a place where there is no running water, no electricity, scarce resources, everyone owns a cell phone and has an unlimited text plan. Wonder what kind of coverage they get out there...hmmmm
The current actions by the Israeli government are against international law and the tenets of every major human religion. International law regarding war is a pragmatic code of conduct created by victor nations to try to prevent human barbarism and protect non-combatants, and to hold transgressing individuals and nations accountable. The US cooperated as a principal in the creation of that international law over a long period of time. German and Japanese leaders were executed for ordering the same actions we see today. The Israeli government is not the Israeli people, any more than the any government is the same as its people. However the difference between any government and its people will become perceived by the international community as negligible if the people consistently acquiesce to the government. Currently neither Israel or the US is adhering to or protecting international law. We all think we are all so much more clever, intelligent, and informed than our own ancestors who created that law to protect us, who carried in their mind and hearts the searing images of what happens when humans become barbaric. I find the calls from well fed New Yorkers to wipe out an oppressed people to be totally disgusting.
This is what I have just sent to Senator Schumer via his senate.gov site:
Shame on you for participating in and abetting the public protest on January 11 in New York in support of Israel's savage attack on Gaza.
Shame on you for proclaiming that the IDF texted Gazans in warning of imminent attacks on their homes. Texting...hmmm...How many Gazans have cell phones and unlimited text plans?
Shame on you for proclaiming that the text was a warning of imminent bombings and that Gazans texted henceforth should leave. To go where? To Israel through the closed Eretz crossing? To Egypt via the closed Rafah crossing? To a hospital or a UN refuge that would be bombed anyway?
Shame on you!
Friedman's strategic insight has Israel's artillery and Air Force "while not directly targeting the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined, to inflict substantial property damage and collateral casualties on Lebanon at large."
So the 1,000 + fire missions on buildings in Gaza will likewise collapse them in punishment on Gazans 'at large'? So the recent deaths of particular family members by the hundreds is specifically accidental, ancillary to 'sending a message'? And therefore forgivable and not accountable on the Israeli government 'at large'?
OK then Tom. Got it. It's just like kicking doors off the hinges in Iraq. Regardless of what a particular family might think, the group is demoralized. Mission Accomplished.
When is Friedman going to expand his newfound honesty with an expert analysis of the role of the Israeli Nuclear force? What it's targeting and mission should be? The 30 years or so that Israeli nukes have been a central strategic fact should have given Tom time to develop a position.
So sad, that in the middle of the city, in the most advanced democracy in the world, we find people who still think that violence and murder can be justified. Where are we, that we cannot express remorse, self-doubt or a fragment of compassion for the plight of those whose leaders have failed them? Need we be reminded, we elected George W. Bush, under whose tenure we have seen the refinement of torture, and the legitimizing of war crimes? I would absolutely hate for any other country to judge me by the actions of the soon-to-be-ex President, simply because he was elected. Similarly, why are we punishing the Gazans for their election of Hamas?
Scheherazade
Friedman - advocating war crimes as he may have been doing - was at least stating the truth.
The point of war is - and has been since WWII - to inflict casualties and suffering on the civilian population until they lose the will to fight and withdraw their support for their leadership.
It was the point of dropping an atomic bomb on two Japanese cities, the reason behind the bombing of Dresden, the reason behind going village to village in Vietnam and burning down those that were deemed to be supporting the VC, it was the reason behind the "Shock & Awe" campaign of 2003.
Rather than chastise Friedman, I think we should be asking our government to stop criminal wars. If we ask anything of the NY Times and Friedman, we should ask that they fairly apply the label of war crimes to state actors - Israel and the US included - as we do to non-state actors such as Hamas (debatable - Hamas was democratically elected, and was subsequently almost illegally removed from power by a Fatah/Israel/US coalition).
Let Friedman's column stand out for what it is - an admission that modern warfare is nothing but a war crime. But at least ask him to be fair.
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