Read someone like Charles Krauthammer and we have three
choices.[1]
One, we can join the popular ranks of Israel
defenders. The U.S. Senate recently (July 18) passed a resolution supporting Israel ’s attack on Gaza by a vote of 100 to 0. A week earlier, the
House of Representatives passed a similar resolution and President Obama has
been tongue tied with the exception of, ”Well, Israel has a right to defend
itself.” However, defending Israel ’s
right to “defend itself” is a position which is becoming harder and harder to maintain.
Two, we can choose to ignore the whole situation which is
what most Americans do. After all, who does not have enough to think about? And
we are so busy with making a living and keeping the family happy. Rather just
think about a ball game or watch a movie.
Or, three, we can push back against popular opinion, consider
the obvious and ponder the history. We can listen to our hearts, but when we
do, suddenly the first two options no longer appear valid. However, I warn you.
This third option, of facing what you
know is right, and standing up for peace through justice may well make you an
outsider. That is why so few people do it.
Krauthammer sees every act of caring for the suffering of
the Palestinians as abetting terrorism and every criticism of the policies of Israel as
anti-Semitic. He shows little concern for
the facts that do not support his opinions.
He writes:, “Israel
accepts an Egyptian proposed Gaza ceasefire; Gaza keeps firing.”
Wow! What terms were offered for the cease-fire? Israel will continue to blockade
the borders, air and sea access to the outer world. Deny the entrance of fuel,
electricity, medicines and food, to make life for the Palestinians as miserable as possible.
Palestinians did reject the cease fire. In spite of the pain
and death they were experiencing every day, they were unwilling to go back to
the “slow death” they have been enduring for 47 years. Since 2000 Israel ’s right
to security has killed a Palestinian child on the average of one every three
days
According to the Jerusalem Post, Hamas proposed a 10 year
cease-fire in return for the release of prisoners arrested during the hunt for
missing Israeli teens, the opening of Gaza ’s borders
with Israel and Egypt , and UN supervision of Gaza ’s port.[2]
Emily Manna, a young girl from Gaza writes:
Dear American
media, I’m asking you to simply tell what’s happening in Gaza . You watched this play out. You watched a heinous murder of
Israeli teens, and you saw no evidence presented that this was an action
sanctioned by the Hamas organization. You watched as Israel Israel and Gaza
You watched, but
you chose to tell Americans that Hamas simply began firing rockets at Israel with no clear rationale, and that Israel Israel , a
nation with one of the world’s most advanced militaries, as a victim that must
defend itself by bombing Gaza
In a post the day before, from the Jabalya refugee camp, Sarah Ali (a
contributor to a collection of short stories called Gaza Writes Back) wrote:
Last night was horrible. My house shook every
five minutes! Except for half an hour in the evening, we’ve been without
electricity for over 48 hours. Due to the long blackout, we had no water as
well. The Israelis have (again) bombed a main power generator that supplies
electricity to many areas. There was Israeli shelling from the sea, air and
land. I could hear the kids in our neighbors’ houses crying in terror all
night. This is not about destroying Hamas; this is about destroying every
Palestinian in Gaza Israel
Killing Palestinians seems to make up the agenda for the
day. So far, in this “war” only one side
has tanks, planes, gunships and drones.
Only one side has a defensive shield and safe places to hide. Not
surprisingly, the casualty list is 608 Palestinians, 75% civilians, and 27
Israeli soldiers. On Sunday alone, a hundred Palestinians were killed, many of
them children.
Krauthammer declared that “Hamas deliberately aims at
civilians; Israel
painstakingly tries to avoid them.” Of
course, those Palestinian rockets are pretty crude, without any guidance
system. That is why so many of them land in open areas or even back on
Palestinian soil. On the other hand, Israel
has the most sophisticated rockets on the globe. Yet, It’s disturbing how many hit mosques,
schools, hospitals, water systems and electric grids. It is also funny how with
all the blast and search for rockets which are supposed to be hidden in those
building, very few have been found. I am sure if Israeli soldiers stumbled on a
warehouse of explosives and rockets in a school it would be all over the US
media.
Krauthammer writes: “Occupation? There is not a soldier, not a settler,
not a single Israeli in Gaza Israel
uprooted its settlements, withdrew its military and turned Gaza
“Turned Gaza Israel
withdrew only to the borders of Gaza Gaza
He says, “Israeli counterfire produces dead Palestinians for
international television. Which is why Hamas perversely urges its own people not
to seek safety when Israel
Could he be serious? If so, he surely hopes we do not watch the evening news.
Parents screaming, children running and hospitals looking like horror movies as
doctors witho0ut medicines try to treat the injured. Palestinians caged in the world largest open
air prison have no place to go. Israel
has the fence surrounding Gaza
For those of us who chose option three, this has been a frustrating and
painful week. But, nothing like what Krauthammer supports, in Gaza
Thomas
Are
July
23, 2014
[1] Charles
Krauthammer, Gaza Situation Presents us Moment
of Moral Clarity, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Saturday, July 19, 2014.
[2] Reported
on All In with Chris Hayes.
[3] Reported
in Mondoweiss, July 22, 2014
[4] Pam
Bailey, We have nothing left to lose. I
would rather die with my family under the rubble of our house than have a
humiliating truce’: Palestinian youth demand justice. Reported in
Mondoweiss, July 22, 2014.
Thank you for telling "the rest of the story"
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