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IT IS NEARLY two weeks since Israel began winding down its “Operation Protective Edge” in the Gaza Strip. The gaze of the world media has diverted itself elsewhere. For Palestinians, however, the status quo of occupation and blockade remains. Negotiations in Cairo continue to be afflicted by circular absurdities reminscent of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, while people in Gaza struggle to return to the “normalcy” of their permanent state of emergency and come to terms with the scale of destruction wrought in this latest offensive.
What the world witnessed in Gaza over the course of Operation Protective Edge was the calculated implementation of the ‘Dahiya doctrine’. Dahiya is an area of Beirut that was levelled by the Israeli army during its war on Lebanon in 2006. The military doctrine to which its name has been lent deploys the tactics of targeting civilian infrastructure and collectively punishing the civilian population, in pursuit of a broader strategy of eradicating all forms of opposition to military occupation and foreign rule.
Colonial military doctrine
Israeli military Deputy Chief-of-Staff Major-General Gadi Eizenkot has stated openly in relation to any city, town or village from which shots are fired in the direction of Israel: “We will wield disproportionate power against it and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these cities are military bases. This isn’t a suggestion. It’s a plan that has already been authorised.”
This approach has been consistently applied in Israel’s periodic incursions in Gaza over the years, such that lawyers in Palestine have now taken to labelling it the ‘Gaza doctrine’. Following investigations into Operation Cast Lead in 2009, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission held that Israeli forces had systematically targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure. Referring directly to the Dahiya doctrine, the Mission’s report concluded that the target of Israel’s offensive was not merely individual rocket-launchers or tunnel-diggers, but Gaza’s population as a whole, as part of an overarching policy designed to punish and terrorise that population. This policy reverberated through Operation Protective Edge in the bombardment of Gaza’s hospitals, universities, beaches and markets, the destruction of its only power plant, and the multiple strikes on UN schools in which civilians were being sheltered.
The violence against civilian areas and infrastructure in Palestine, over the past month and over the past several decades alike, is far from gratuitous. It is underpinned by a measured logic of conquest and control. The colonisation and progressive annexation of the West Bank relies on such force, as does access to Palestine’s natural resources (Gaza’s extensive offshore gas fields included). The continued control and suppression of the “hostile territory” of Gaza requires keeping the occupied population bullied into submission. Foreign occupation, as it always has done, breeds many forms of local resistance. The rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups at military targets and civilian areas in Israel are a symptom of colonial violence, not the cause of it. Non-violent expressions of resistance by Palestinians are equally dealt with by lethal Israeli military force, as has been the case at demonstrations in the West Bank in recent weeks. The late Edward Said’s portrayal of the war on Iraq as ‘imperial arrogance unschooled in worldliness, undeterred by history or human complexity, unrepentant in its violence and the cruelty of its technology’ is equally apposite to the situation in his own homeland today.
Try as Israel might to justify such sustained violence against a besieged population, it is indefensible by any barometer of morality. International lawyers are also in consensus that Israeli actions have again gone far beyond the pale of legality during Operation Protective Edge. Another commission of inquiry will be dispatched by the UN to investigate violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, while domestic pressure continues to mount on Mahmoud Abbas to defy his western sponsors and follow through on Palestine’s plans to join the International Criminal Court. Whether this happens or not, the institutional weakness of international law’s enforcement mechanisms—when viewed in the shadow of the Obama administration’s active diplomatic and military support for Israel’s use of force, the complicity of many of the Arab region’s counter-revolutionary regimes, and the meekness of the European Union—means that Israel’s rulers and generals remain confident for now of being allowed to continue to act with impunity.
Bending towards justice?
With the scale—if not the nature—of the destruction in Gaza reaching unprecedented levels during Operation Protective Edge, and the trends of incitement to further violence proliferating in Israeli public discourse (embodied in consistent calls from figures on the right such as Moshe Feiglin, Deputy Speaker of the Israeli parliament, for the full annexation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza), there appears to be ever less hope for the future in Palestine.
When history reflects on past situations of structural injustice, however, there is a tendency for defining moments to emerge as instrumental to a change in the course of events and an ultimate rupture from the historic wrong. The Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and the Soweto uprising in 1976 are recognised now as formative moments in the wider world’s understanding of apartheid South Africa. The imagery of children being mowed down with such ruthless intent by the regime was a shocking but galvanising agent in spurring social movements across the globe to act against institutionalised racial subjugation. This sparked the solidarity campaigns, boycott actions and political pressure for arms embargoes and economic sanctions that ultimately fed in to the downfall of apartheid.
Israel’s ruthlessness in Gaza this summer has opened more and more people’s eyes to the reality of the occupation of Palestine. We have seen that in the record numbers marching in demonstrations around the world, declaring that ‘we are all Palestinians’. We hear it in the volume of voices answering the Palestinian call to boycott and divestment, from Stephen Hawking, Desmond Tutu and Massive Attack to the village of Kinvara. Even G4S, a paragon of global capitalism’s security-industrial complex, has indicated that an Israeli prison system that incarcerates Palestinian minors without trial is too much for it to remain complicit in.
While numerous Latin American governments have protested Israel’s behaviour by suspending diplomatic ties, and Spain has frozen its arms exports to Israel, the ruling classes in much of Europe and North America remain some distance behind the curve of public support for the Palestinian self-determination struggle. If social movements, solidarity campaigns and unions continue to organise and mobilise effectively, however, that curve will ultimately catch up on our elected representatives. And future generations will look back to wonder how such a stifling regime of occupation, engaged in a colonial land acquisition project and employing military policies like the Dahiya doctrine, was allowed to persist for so long.
Dr John Reynolds is a Lecturer in International Law at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
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Want to commend u on this excellent article.a great read into the atrocities being carried out on the Palestinian people.
Hamas looked for trouble with Israel and that is what they found. Hamas MUST understand there is better ways of achieving their other than bombs and rockets.
Yeah Hamas bombed the sh!t outta Gaza did’nt it? You hasbara trolls are always lurking in the corner whenever any article points out the barbaric nature and vileness of your beloved Israel are’nt you?
Stanley Hamas didn’t start this, why would they advocate the slaughter of their people and the ruination of their villages, towns and cities. They have no running water in many places.
@ Stanley Groves!!!!
Stan. G. In the house!!! Thought Eleaonr “expalin it to a child” Reidy was it!
“For over 26 years, I have dedicated my life to the defense of human rights. But the last month has been particularly hard for me. Death and the rubble of Gaza are like a tsunami. But as a Palestinian, I must admit: I am responsible for what happened. We can not deny our responsibility for our own dead.” –Bassem Eid
Israel Today “Most Palestinians are against missile attacks on Israel. But we elected Hamas with the knowledge that doing so would bring about the death of our own people. We knew Hamas was digging tunnels, which eventually lead to our own destruction. …Hamas also knew that an attack on Israel would result in a high death toll. But the Hamas leadership is only interested in their own victory, not about the people.”
“Hamas requires death. Death brings her power and money for more weapons. Hamas was never interested in liberating the Palestinian people from occupation. And Israel will not be able to destroy the infrastructure of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Only we, the Palestinian people, can do that. The Palestinians in Gaza have to rebel against the Hamas regime.”
“Will we learn from this latest tragedy? I think so. We must first get rid of Hamas and demilitarize the Gaza Strip. Then the border crossings can be opened. And I say this as a loyal Palestinian. I say this because I care about the future of my people. ”
Why am I getting red thumbs I didn’t say anything, just pasted a statement from a “Palestinian” who can see the bigger picture.
But to admit anything other than its all Israels fault would be a sign of weakness for the popular cause of demonising all things Israeli.
No different to you Dhimmi trolls Hulk!
Neilo isn’t that the point he’s not exonerating Israel but pointing out the fallacy of the Palestinian peoples electing of Hamas and its total disregard for the safety of its own people for political gains.
Strange mandate don’t you think?, sacrificing your own to gain brownie points and the sympathy of the useful idiots.
William -How did the Palestinians vote for Hamas if Israel is the only democracy in that region ?
They have tried all other means since 1947 when their country was given away by the Brits! And like the Brits the only thing they understand is the bullet! America spends 3 billion a year maintaining the protective dome anti missile system over Israel! People In America have no jobs no health care no money no homes no food! Their government spends billions every year fuelling every war that’s goin instead if giving its people a better life! They create a monster and then go hunting it IE bin laden, the Taliban, Sadam Husain to name a few!
Now they back Israel and groom it like a little pet dog! It won’t be long before it bites it master
William how about the fallacy of the israeli people for electing right wing z!onist extremists for their government. Surely they are culpable for the rockets hamas fire at them by your logic?
US starts to distance itself from genocidal Israel.
” Israeli officials, speaking to the liberal Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, confirmed that delivery of a consignment of Hellfire missiles, which are fitted to helicopters, has been blocked by the US since late last month as part of the American decision to impose limits on the transfer of weaponry that could be used in Gaza. The suspension, the first of its kind in more than three decades, was first reported in an article in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
The article added that the Obama administration was convinced Israel had not done enough to minimise civilian casualties and that its concerns included the use of artillery rather than more precise weaponry in the densely populated coastal enclave.”
Yeah they did!! Shooting rockets into Israel. What did they expect is going to happen? Israel is going to sit there and just take it??? Well guess what???
Well said. Finally some trith
GOOOOOOOOGLE THE ANSWER
Right Stanley, by your logic if you hit me a dig in a pub I would be entitled to punch you in the face right back then kick and punch you wife, kids, and anyone else who’s with you. He’ll I might even steal your wallet, knock over your table and urinate on you. See how deranged you/Israel’s logic is? Psychopathic is a proper description.
My my are the UIFP very touchy on this thread don’t like been reminded by a Palestinian human rights activist of all people saying that Hamas are as much to blame for the plight of his people in Gaza as the hated Isarelis are.
Stephen you can try a bit harder than that yet another accusing me of been an Orange Loyalist just because I have an opposing view or is it the name “William” puts you in a cold sweat?.
I’d say the vast majority of flag wavers and stone throwers in the north on both sides wouldn’t be able to pick Israel out on a map or would you prefer if I called it Palestine?.
Here is the full article Neilo;
Hamas needs the Palestinians’
deaths in order to claim victory
For more than 26 years, I have dedicated my life to defending human rights. I have seen wars, terror, and abuse. Yet this past month – from the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish boys, throw the kidnapping and murder of Mohammed abu Khdeir, and to the war in Gaza – has been the most politically and emotionally difficult month of my life.
I live in East Jerusalem and I have witnessed the devastation of life in my city. Once again, Route 1 has become the dividing line between East and West. Jews and Arabs are afraid of each other’s shadows. Palestinian resident of Jerusalem have attacked the civilian infrastructure in Beit Hanina and Shoafat, causing massive damage to traffic lights, the light rail, and power supplies. I cannot accept this as civil protest – rather, it is pure revenge and retribution. And the co-existence for which I have struggled for my entire life – has been hanged and executed in the public square.
I am in pain.
There can be no doubt that the death and destruction in Gaza is a tsunami. Both peoples are hurting, but each side denies the other’s pain, and so the hurt is worse.
And yet, as a Palestinian, I must acknowledge: I am responsible for some of what has happened. As a Palestinian, I cannot deny my responsibility for the death of my own people.
The majority of Palestinians has opposed firing rockets into Israel. The Palestinians have understood that these rockets will achieve nothing. Palestinians have called on Hamas to stop firing on Israel and to try to negotiate with the Israeli occupation. But Hamas has never considered Palestinian needs – only its own political interests. And so they have continued to fire rockets at Israel, knowing full-well what the result would be: Hamas paved the road for the death of our people. We knew that Hamas was digging the tunnels that would lead to our destruction.
We all know that three people live on every square meter in Gaza, and Hamas knew that any attack by Israel would lead to massive death. But Hamas leaders are more interested in their victories than in the lives of their victims. Indeed, Hamas needs these deaths in order to claim victory. Death of its own people empowers Hamas, enabling it to accrue more money and more arms.
Hamas has never been interested in liberating the Palestinian people from the occupation. And Israel could never destroy the infrastructure set up by Hamas. Only we, the Palestinian people, could dismantle it.
What could we have done? The residents of the Gaza Strip had the responsibility to rebel against Hamas rule. Yes, Hamas’ control is deadly and people have been afraid to express their dissatisfaction with its rule and mismanagement. And yet, we abdicated our own responsibility to ourselves.
We knew this. And we let it happen.
Will these deaths – nearly 1,800 to date, nearly 0.1% of the population of the Gaza Strip – teach us a lesson that we will never forget? The lesson is that we must rid ourselves of Hamas and completely demilitarize Gaza. Then we will open up the border crossings. I say this as a loyal Palestinian and because I care for my own people.
I have no faith in the European and American initiatives. There is only one initiative that I can believe in and trust: a tri-lateral initiative that includes Egypt, the Palestinians and Israel. Otherwise, there will be no calm or quiet in Gaza or in Israel.
We must not allow the Gaza Strip to become the victim of Arab plots and intrigues. Egypt has always been the legitimate mediator, and had it been up to Egypt, many lives would have been saved. Qatar and Turkey have no relationship to the Palestinian people, and we have nothing in common. Qatar and Turkey have attempted to sabotage any and every attempt at a cease fire. In my opinion, at least two thirds of the Palestinian deaths are victims of Qatari and Turkish plots. We see what Qatar’s and Turkey’s meddling in Syria has led to; I do not want to see Qatar and Turkey establish a second Syria in Gaza.
Egypt knows that these plots are aimed against its own regime, too. We can only hope that Egypt’s president, Abdelfattah Assisi, will not be lost in the thick confusion surrounding the region, and that he will take his own people and us, the Palestinians, out of the Islamic and religious mud.
It is well-past high time for both the Israelis and the Palestinians to find an alternative to war. And yes, this is genuinely possible, with Egypt’s help.
Bassem Eid is a human rights activist and a political commentator.
How many civilians has Israel murdered in the West-Bank in the last 2 weeks? How many children between the ages of 5 and 10 have been arrested at gun point in the middle of the night?
There is a one sided ceasefire in place. Israel should have full economic sanctions placed against it until it stops its state terrorism against an entire population.
Spot on Cal. This murderous regime is allowed to murder, pillage and destroy with impunity. Sanction should be put on this terrorist state until it complies with the most basic of human rights. They treat Palestinians in the same way as nazis treated Jew and gypsies in the ghettos in the 40′s.
The worst part is this will fade into the past and Israel will walk free of its war crimes because it obviously has a major influence on elected officials in the west.
It looks like Israel could be involved in other crimes against humanity and its not just Gaza. …
….Israelis at forefront of international organ trafficking….
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/18/375753/israelis-highly-involved-in-organ-trade/
The Chinese are also big players in organ trafficking .The usual victims are prisoners whose family’s are told they just died unexpectedly.
Wait until ISIS move their focus on Israel. They will then know what it is like to be on the receiving end of violence.
As as I have seen Isis do not care about Palestine or Israel. They are working to a plan outside of nation states or heritage. Not that they don’t have the Koranic obsession with Jews.
They’ll focus on Israel when they have Syria, Iraq, Jordan and the Leb.
Well then why don’t Israel use it’s military might to destroy ISIS? Well the reason of course is that to do so would align themselves with Iran, the Shias and of course Hamas. ISIS created by the US armed by the US to bring down Assad.
Mossad trained the leadership of ISIS. It is a pillar of Z-ism that a foreign threat be present at all times to bind a nations people together for an aim they would not otherwise support.
Israel will not lie down to ISIS. Israel has been dealing with this kind for decades
Yes Richard, ISIS will know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of violence if they attack Israel.
As long as Israel does not have to rely on Iron Dome to protect it from ISIS’s artillery.
” Israel Defense Prize winner and aerospace engineering expert Dr. Moti Shefer stated simply that Iron Dome was one of the biggest bluffs ever seen.
He said, “There is no missile in the world today able to intercept missiles or rockets. Iron Dome is a sound and light show that is intercepting only Israeli public opinion, and itself, of course.”
“According to Dr. Shefer, Iron Dome is a part of a broad conspiracy, in which two interested parties afraid of peace are participating: the defense industries and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-defense-prize-winner-shefer-iron-dome-is-a-bluff-1000954085
why was america funding and sending these guys arms in syria.
Good article. I have found Lorenzo Veracini’s book Israel and Settler Society very useful in understanding Israeli violence, which can at times seem incomprehensibly cruel and sadistic.
http://www.pulist.net/israel-and-settler-society.html
As Greg Shupak aruges, “Driven by both its own settler-colonial agenda and by its function as an American partner in the geopolitical system, Israel strives to balance its desire to maximize the territory it controls against the imperative of minimizing the number of Palestinians living in the territories it seeks to use for its own purposes.”
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/07/the-logic-of-israeli-violence/
If might is right then love has no place in the world.
Love is the most powerful thing in the world : )
according to the Buddhists it is the central theme of the universe !
They’re not far wrong…
Howaya Buddhists!
Superb article by John Reynolds.
As to the reason why such things happen, with jewish Israelis’ 80% + in polls either believing ‘appropriate’ or ‘not enough’ (!) force was used against Gaza…. I think mirroring Hitler & Goebbels efforts in 1930s Nazism….
Thomas Sheridan has something interesting to say here:
Consiousness Parasites and Psychopathic Society.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I87hC8dcVU
Or… the short version…. we have allowed too many clinically psychopathic people (lacking normal human ‘empathy’ or conscience, from birth, incurably) to attain positions of power, control & public interest responsibility.
We now have reliable psychiatric tests for this condition, involving live brain scanning techniques.
Could it be as simple as that… get the psychopaths out of public office?
Actually, yes, I think it could, and over time, we could have an infinitely better world than the present one hurtling at increasing speed toward the abyss that few humans will survive.
One of the best articles I’ve read in a long time.
Israeli propaganda – applied logic:
Aids isn’t a bad disease when compared with death by Ebola. As a mater of fact Aids, when compared with some of those other nasty diseases is little more than an inconvenience and an expected outcome of a naturally occurring chemical circumstance.
You do know that its really a force for good don’t you? It stops some people living long enough to get some of those other really really nasty diseases.
Therefore stop trying to rid the world of aids. You should look only at curing the the far more nasty ones.
Do you have a reason for picking on the aids virus above all of the others even though it’s not as bad as many?
Is it because you are homophobic and Aids was once called the gay plague?
Ahh that must be it!
That explains it.
You’re a homophobe.
How tiresome and repetitive that strategy has become on here.
I like the cut of your jib.
Indoctrination is a mind-lock that can only be broken with truth and debate !
People do need to be able to spend some un-distracted time out of (knee-jerk) Daniel Kahneman’s ‘Mode 1′ brain mode & into the more reflective ‘Mode 2′. (It doesn’t happen unless we make deliberate effort – we learn nothing new, and our abilities to evaluate & anylise atrophy if we don’t.)
(My interpretation from ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ by research psychologist Daniel Kahneman)
I think Eleanor is drunk… Or else its the ramblings of a mad woman. Quite funny.
“Israel could give a shet about European boycotts.”
It could, yes, we agree on that.
I don’t think you know what colonialism is. If the Israeli’s wanted to colonize Gaza, they would send in the IDF and have it occupied within days if not hours. They have the resources and will to do this many times over if they wanted to, actually they could probably have Syria, Jordan, Hamas and Egypt defeated within a week (they’ve done it before). Israel are civilized people so they don’t. Do you really think the Arab’s wouldn’t destroy Israel if they could?
“Israel are civilised people”
Are they civilised when killing children John ???
I hope you haven’t pro created yet !!
“Israel are civilized people”
Name one people more civilized than the Israelite’s in the Middle East, just one. The Palestine’s, where gays and adulterers are still stoned, beaten and spat at? The Egyptians where literally hundreds of people at a time can be executed by the Government at a time? How about sectarian Iraq, war torn Syria or the Jordanians who fear an ISIS revolt because so many of their countrymen support a seventh century ideology? Yes, gay-tolerant, fully democratic, western ally Israel are so barbaric compared to the innocent Arabs that surround them.
“The Egyptians where literally hundreds of people at a time can be executed by the Government at a time?”
Notwithstanding the fact that this makes no sense grammatically, it’s also a lie. Unless of course you can tell us of even one specific time when any Egyptian government executed hundreds of people at a time.
Well?
John
If they are so “civilised ” then how come the rest of the Middle East won’t play football with them ?
You said hundreds of people can be executed at one time. That didn’t happen and the link you posted says nothing of the sort.
They got convicted by a court. That means it can happen and is perfectly legal in that country.
From the link you posted:
“Legal experts say it is likely to be overturned on appeal, rejected by the Grand Mufti, to whom all death penalties are referred, or commuted by the president – not least because of the international consequences of such an event. ”
Right so. Hundreds of people have never been executed in Egypt at the same time, and that’s unlikely to change any time soon. I’m glad we got that cleared up, and I’m sure you are too!
For most of 1900 years the ancestors of the Palestinians called it home, what Jews were there was so small as to be immaterial, blame the Romans for that.
Then in the late 1940′s, the Palestinians wake up one day and their home is now called Israel, they are bombed, shot and beaten out of their villages and towns at night by terror gangs. One million have to flee and Israel is proclaimed a racially pure majority state.
What is it but a colonial state. Going home after nearly 2000 years away and expecting the people who live there to not mind being burnt out of it because a 3000 yr old book says its yours.
Weasel
Why do you have to resort to personal attacks.
If you can’t debate properly maybe the journal isn’t the site for you.
Debate with you glen? You who constantly call people paid schills. Who patronises and attacks and demonises anyone who disagrees with you. Ok!
Weasel
You will find its jack ripper who constantly calls me a ” paid shill ” It’s kind of a running joke, well I find it amusing.
John Bransfield – My Late Father used an expression that ” bad would always beat worse ” and I think his expression would be very appropriate for something that you stated .
You try to justify the barbarity , genocide and murder of The IDF and The Israeli Government, on the basis that there are worse people out there and Israel can justify their huge crimes on that basis ?
Well John – I feel my Dad would be as thoroughly ashamed that the Israeli’s only learning from what happened in Europe in 1939/45 …… Was they themselves to imitate what The Nazi’s did ?
Now John – that’s not something that I would imagine anyone could be proud of , in the whole of this wide World.
You need to ashamed of yourself, trying to defend the indefensible …a Chara !
If Israel is in the Middle East then what is it doing in the Eurovision ?
Boycott the Eurovision !
They don’t recognize the State. Israel only has diplomatic ties with Jordan and Egypt. Syria is still at war with Israel and South Lebanon is controlled by the Hezbollah. The previous Iranian president had said on many occasions that he wanted to wipe Israel off the map and Saddam’s Iraq would rather fire SCUD missiles at Israel rather then invading Coalition forces in 1991. I wouldn’t play football with them to be honest.
John, it would not serve Israel’s interests to bring the Palestinian conflict to a resolution. The US pours billions of tax dollars into Israel, mostly military aid, and there is a risk this would cease if there was no conflict to justify it against. Public support for the transfer of money relies on the backdrop that currently exists.
In fact the American public should be encouraged to bring this aspect into their national debate. Why continuously fund a never-ending cycle of violence when there is never any progress towards a resolution. The provision of US tax dollars actually encourages Israel to maintain the status quo.
Try telling that to moderate Jews who live near a Hassidic community in Jerusalem, When they sent their girl children to school dressed as ordinary children would be, or their wives went out shopping with their head bare they were spat at and actually assaulted, just as the Muslim morality police do. The abuse got so bad at one stage that the government had to intervene. There are religious fanatics on both sides.
John they are no different than the worst islamic terrorist in the me. They butcher the palestinians because they are arabs much like the fundamentalist kill infidels. So they are no different and in fact fit in well with their neighbours
We have been persecuted by the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt, the Caesars of the roman empire, the Kingdoms of Europe, the Czars of Russia, the Nazis etc. So if we dont have Irelands backing I think we will be just fine. We wont give up our tiny piece of land we built from a dessert wasteland into a beautiful thriving country for anyone.
We are not warriors, we are scientists (Albert Einstein) and Poets( Abba Eban ) and men of G-D (jesus christ). And the day the arabs love there children more than they love killing our children will be the day we all live in peace.
This is what an Israel friend of mine who is a dentist in Jerusalem and served in the IDF wrote me when I showed him what Ireland was writing and thinking about Israelis
What a smart guy your friend is. He’s able to memorize crass Israeli state propaganda and regurgitate it to credulous fools.
Gibberish.
Clearly the ramblings of a delusional apologist for violence.
It’s never too late for help…
Just need your medications tweaked and vitals checked….hourly
eleanor, your comments clearly highlight the fact that the lsrealy people have been demonised since biblical times by each and every race that they have come in contact with. Do you not think that this pattern indicates that a change in Jewish methodology and attitude is necessary if they hope to live in peace with the their neighbours.
Germany fells in the 40′s, South Africa fell in the 90′s, Israel will reform in time.
Well written Eleanor. Not all of us are left wing terrorist lovers. The irony is mist people here also comment on how backward Ireland is in social rights like abortion, gay rights and women rights but can’t see that Hamas are kinda against that stuff
Prior to Hamas taking over ? Who created Hamas Petr ?
I’m afraid the flight from Egypt wasn’t much of a flight at all, the reality is a lot more boring and dull, there were no Israelite slaves, just Cannanite travelling labourers, there’s a reason they don’t teach the Bible in History Departments Eleanor.
Blood of 400 children dripping from the Israeli state. So the Jews ( wrongly) were treated extremely bad in the past somehow gives them the right to murder thousands of innocent people? Elinor ( or what ever your name is) are you working late at the embassy?
Eleanor, Einstein was German, not Israeli. Facebook is American, not Israeli. Intel is an American corporation, not Israeli.
You are doing Israelis no favors by quoting non-Israeli companies, people etc. There are Nobel prize winners (Jewish) who detest what Israel is doing to Christians and Muslims in Palestine.
Israel has lost all right to use ‘Jewishness’ as a defense for its actions. They have become a murderous terrorist state.
There was a man I met once and we were discussing Moses and the whole Exodus thing – He asked – “if they were slaves then where did they get all the Gold for the Golden Calf ?”
The discussion continued and he came to the conclusion that given the ancient tradition of Jews being revered as mathematicians – they were probably the Tomb designers – and if so then they were probably expelled by the Pharaoh for grave robbing because that was where the gold was and that if he was correct about the jewish being tomb builders then they would have been best positioned to rob the tombs !
I don’t know whether to believe him or not , but it does make sense on one level !
I am more of the belief that the jewish religion and the Hittites were linked as they disappeared after their greatest victory against Rameses and all because technical innovation to chariots and went to God knows where ….. they dispersed …and then Rome rose and Rome has given us the Jewish cult Catholicism !
There is something very wrong with what was and what was recorded – kinda like Enda being in line to be European President and holder of European Time man of the year and then Anglo Tapes came out !
Yeah you forgot to put murderers beside scientists.
I’m Irish 100% born in Kildare raised in the curragh went to Newbridge college , and you clearly don’t understand war. Easy to count 400 dead children sitting in your armchair safe in Ireland. Be on the frontline against woman stoning gay hanging islamofacists that want to oppress everyone who’s not Muslim and then talk. I’ve been there. Lived there for a few years, seen it first hand. No one wants death, every jewish Israeli I asked wants peace, to grow old and raise a family, but you don’t get it. It’s not Europe it’s not secular and being an infidel (not Muslim you moron) means not welcome.
Take out your cross necklace in Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Iraq and see what happens to you.
They have to not show weakness and if rockets and snipers are in schools and they don’t fire what happens the next day when they realize they can shoot freely from there.
20 rockets found in the un schools?! Are you people blind?
To demonise Israelis into bloodthirsty child killers makes you more Middle eastern than Irish
99.4% of jewish people support Israel and Facebook founder recently donated 30mil to israel foundation. And Einstein was Swiss you dumb bird and he was almost the president of Israel in the 50s before he died
Historically the banking money manipulators who plunder the wealth of nations plunging them into poverty is what has enraged nations against the new Jewish Khazar peoples for centuries. Of course the perpetrators escape with their wealth and the poor are left with punishment. It continues today.
Eleanor stop saying stuff like take “your cross out in Saudi Arabia” etc. So what? Does that give Israel a right to do what they do because we cant wear a cross? And clearly you are worried about a boycott because you can’t stop talking about it. Israel has done what the Nazis did to them. And fools like you justifying it because you where there thousands of years ago is just embarrasing.
He had German citizenship at q stage and American didn’t he?? Selective memory you have…dumb bird
Yes Jarlath, apologists for Islamic fundementalist violence!
Like your ancestors in Ireland, Gary?
“I’m Irish 100% born in Kildare raised in the curragh went to Newbridge college , and you clearly don’t understand war.” …
Has Mossad infiltrated the Irish Army in Kildare ? …or has there been a war in Kildare that I can’t remember to understand ?
Do we have to get a Geiger Counter to Dermot Earley’s grave ?
Elanor you seem to be blind to the fact that israel detains hundereds of children under the age of 18 for months at a time without trial. This is just one Of many examples of human rights violations your ‘beautiful thriving country’ does to innocent children. It is internement for minors, its sick. And no, they are not warriors, that too romantic and glorious. The people who carry out these atrosities are thugs, murderers and sorry excuses for human beings. J
@ Eleanor.
Are you an Irish Christian or an Irish Jew.
Interesting to see that you wrote god as G-d.
That’s how the observant religious Jews write it. Apparently it’s because they are afraid the name of god could be damaged which would be blasphemy so they mis spell it intentionally.
If you are observant no worries, welcome, but if you a shill would you mind clocking off and stop waffling
Netanyahu begs US to shield him from war crimes trial.
“Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appealed to American legislators to help Israel stave off what is likely to be a concerted global push to haul the country’s military and political leaders to international courts for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza, The New York Post reported on Thursday.”
Lies
The descendents of the people opressed by the Pharaohs and Ceasers are actually the palestinians, who converted to Islam and Christianity in the following centuries. So this is an imagined history, a thing many nations invent for themselves, to bolster their own identity, and to compare others as essentially less civilized. If the test of civilisation is about killing children, then Israel is not acquitting itself well. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28916761
(Adam) If we don’t have Irish or Europe’s backing in general its okWe never didandwe are doing fine. And Israel was Jewish for thousands of years and will always be jewish. When Europeans were pagans sacrificing humans for a good harvest we were writing the commandments and introducing monotheism to the world. From King David to jesus christ we have always lived there. You dig in the ground anywhere in Israel you find jewish artefacts everywhere coins with Hebrew writing, mikvahs, etc. funny the irish should love us. We 14,000,000 jews managed to survive 7 attacks from 21 arab countries with a total population of 500,000,000.
With zero help from the US government until 1970.We fought for survival not land. We fought from extinction.
And when we finally became strong enough to deter the arabs from conducting open war with us they resorted to sending suicide bombers to blow themselves up in pizza parlors and kindergardens. So we build security barriers and checkpoints to stop the terrorism.
Then when they couldn’t send autistic children into crowded markets with bombs strapped totheir chest.
They started a new war. Of propaganda and misinformation.
What a load of shite you talk, King David is a mythical story in the bible no historical prove he ever existed. All lies . And remind me who killed Jesus Christ!!! Israel is a terrorist state in every meaning of the word. You should be ashamed of your self spitting out that shite.
Well said Eleanor
Israel and Hamas – is there that much of a difference.
Look at what Israel did to the Black Jews, Apartheid South Africa didn’t even try that.
It is a crazy pariah state.
Boycott bpa. What’s the business line you are in? Using a business account to pass comment is not good for attracting new business.
Oh no, Eleanor’s mask has slipped, she actually believes Israel has a ‘biblical’ right to their land, ‘We were writing down the 10 commandments and introducing monotheism to the world’, you do realise how intellectually void that statement is, if you use holy books to justify genocide and war then you are no better than the Islamic fundamentalists ripping through Iraq and Syria at the moment. Religion has no place in modern progressive societies.
Israel could give a shet about European boycotts. It does 88% of its business with USA , Russia, China,and India. Besides we all know Europe is dying slowly. Stagnant economy being held up by Germany. As soon as England leaves we are all fcked. We made our bed now we must lay in it. Enjoy a 30% Muslim population by 2030
DM I believe in Jesus Christ and I’m not ashamed to say it. What’s happened to my country. Have we strayed so far from the love of our lord and saviour trash like dungeon master could make fun of us for having faith. Wake up people, don’t be turned to evil and condemned to hell.
By this alliance between left wingers and islamofacists.
Now she believes the writings of the bible as fact. Israel is a fascist country and committing war crimes
So you support the Boycott then? Am i reading it right?
The Israelofascists are very vocal again tonight. Usual fascist and racist slurs against Muslims. Israel has lost this war just like it lost against Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon. When you listen to Elinor she reminds me of Himmler. He believed in the purity and right of the nazis take land and murder whom ever got in their way. It’s incredible that Israel is now being compared to nazi Germany.
Eleanor, if you love Jesus so much, why support a terrorist state that has reduced the Christian population of Bethlehem by 90% over the last 20 years. The Christians living there in peace for centuries with their Jewish and Muslim neighbours until Israel took it over in 1967.
Eleanor, you have every right to believe in your imaginary friend, just don’t expect me to respect such childish nonsense, I don’t believe in any of that, because I’m not an idiot,
I’m confused, Eleanor has referred to Israel as we and then to Europe/Ireland as we, which is it?
Dead right Diarmuid. What was the name of that one that won the Eurovision ? She was a cracker !
Elanor, the muslim population of Europe is currently at 6%, and may reach 8% by 2030. Don’t be throwing out silly figures to justify your spurious arguments.
It’s ok BPA, I have told Super Valu and others that we will boycott them if they boycott Israeli goods, I think they got the message loud and clear!
Larkin, By my reckoning Israel won, and they will contnue to win!
Eleanor the far left lunatics are here don`t represent Ireland.
Operation “Red Cloud” has commenced and Israel despite its military prowess hasn’t the necessary acumen to arrest it. An impoverished spirit is a poor weapon against the legal onslaught that’s heading in Israels direction. They will hide behind their weapons of mass destruction wondering why they were forsaken.Outcast and isolated from the civilized world they will be the last to realize that they are the authors of their own misfortune such is the hold that their masters have over their thoughts. The reeducation program will be immense spanning several generations but slowly the world will repair the Israeli spirit and once again we shall have peace.
Eleanor, where do you get this stuff? The percentage of Jewish inhabitants of Israel that can trace their roots back more than 4 generations is tiny. There are approx. 6.1 million Jewish inhabitants today. In 1997 it was approx. 3 million. 47% of these were first generation and 42% were second generation, leaving only 11% (330,000) that could trace their roots back 3 generations on more. To suggest that Palestine has always been Jewish is a remarkable display of ignorance.
As for your attempt to justify the extermination of innocent Palestinian civilians as a desperate Israeli fight for survival, take a look at the expansion of the Israeli borders since 1947. It doesn’t take a genius to see that this is not the result of a defensive strategy. There is only one side that is engaged in a desperate fight for survival and they are the ones whose homes were bulldozed and families were destroyed to make way for an apartheid state.
And now eleanor when the irish are turning their backs on extreme religious views and have a greater moral standing than most countries in the world the israelis are bombing and murdering children all in the name of a z!onist interpretation of your same monotheist bullsh!t. Bet you must feel proud of your progress as a nation and as a people after 2000 yrs. If this is how you’ve evolved after that length of time your future will be bleak as a society in a multicultural world. Your wish for an insular society has left you a backward people much like your neighbours
The rest of the world has stood idly by and watched the wholesale sophisticated sluaghter of civilians in gaza.israel is a nuclear power and does what it wants because it knows there are no consequences. Political vested interests are dictating foreign policy in relation to israel which allows the slaughter to continue unchecked.
I agree that the actions of Israel have been totally disproportionate and abhorrent but to paint the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas as merely a ‘symptom of colonial violence’ is a bit rich. The destruction of Israel is in the Hamas charter and the stockpiling of thousands of rockets is clear premeditation towards violence on the part of Hamas.
Explain the Hamas charter to children under 10 in the West-Bank (where no rockets were fired from) being subjected to nightly raids by Israeli soldiers and arrested at gun-point. If the parents object, they are shot.
What has any of that got to do with my comment Cal? Where exactly did I support Israel’s actions?
The destruction of Israel was dropped from the Hamas charter in 2006 ! .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/12/israel
Gary, the Israeli still call for the destruction on Palestine in the charter of the ruling Israeli party.
No they don`t Milginte.
Pat yes they do . Look up and read the likud charter. Its as extremist and fundamentalist as anything in the hamas charter
IDF target / kill unarmed civilians.
“Warning families to flee fighting doesn’t make them fair targets just because they’re unable to do so, and deliberately attacking them is a war crime,” Whitson said.
Human Rights Watch investigated several incidents between July 23 and 25 when, local residents said, Israeli forces opened fire on civilians trying to flee Khuza’a, but no Palestinian fighters were present at the time and no firefights were taking place.”
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/08/04/gaza-israeli-soldiers-shoot-and-kill-fleeing-civilians
Fanciful thinking.. Israel is winning and will continue to expand West Bank settlements and “cut the grass” in Gaza every few years.. all it needs is continued US support which shows zero signs of changing in any meaningful manner anytime soon.
Whilst no one wishes to see the loss of one civilian in Gaza or elsewhere, it is hard to stay put if your neighbour is firing rockets daily in your direction. People from Gaza went it Israel daily to work prior to Hamas taking over. They were then ordered by Hamas to stay put and not work with the enemy Israel, do and guess what, a bullet awaits you. Have been to Gaza and it’s such a pity instead of building tunnels, Hamas did not build hotels and encourage overseas visitors as there is a lovely beach there. It would have generated some foreign cash. On the Israeli side, I was in Sderot and Saad in June and know what it’s like for the citizens there to be subjected to a barrage of rockets. Only for the remedial action many Israelis and Arabs in West Bank would have been killed. As for the beloved call to boycott the goods from Israel, ask our farming friends in Ireland do they think it’s a brainy idea or a thick solution.
“People from Gaza went it Israel daily to work prior to Hamas taking over. They were then ordered by Hamas to stay put and not work with the enemy Israel,”
And if you go back a little further, the people in Gaza used to live in “southern Israel” before they were ethnically cleansed by the parents and grandparents of the current inhabitants. Those refugees are still in Gaza waiting to go back to their village. You reckon this makes then a little angry maybe?
Hard not to want to fire Rockets when your burnt out of your home and forced to flee to squalor and refugee camps all because a group of European jews decide to return to a land they left in ancient history.
Israel’s claim is based on a control they had up to the 2nd century AD.
Italy would have a stronger claim to France and Spain via the Roman Empire than Israeli’s do to that part of the world.
The Ashkenazi Jewish people are converts from the middle ages. They are the descendants of Khazars. Their ancestors never settled in Palestine and they never had a right to region.
No race, no ethnic or religious group of folk have a right to a region because their ancestors once lived there. Otherwise half of the world would be maintaining that somewhere else belonged to them and ultimately we’d all be fighting over Africa.
But we stop the clock in 1947?
I’m a farmer – BOYCOTT ISRAEL !
Encourage overseas visitors? Gaza does not control its own borders and ports, nor does it have a functioning airport.
To the people saying ISIS care in the slightest about Israel . Just look who funded that group and who trained them to see how little interest or advantage ISIS would have involving themselves with Israel
“Beyond the pale” is a colonial term!
It’s a British Colonial term !
The usual mix of IPSC racists and conspiracy theorists are out in force once again. Fair play to Israel for defending its citizens.
“Pat O Farrell”….. only seems to have an FB page in order to promote Israel
another Hasbara propaganda shill
“Mike Hall” Another British settler in Ireland.
“Pat” — You are a moral disgrace.
Excellent article. As the government is demonstrating its contempt of the Irish people by abstaining from the vote to have Israel and Hamas investigated for possible war crimes and by not expelling the Israeli ambassador the onus is on the people to make clear where they stand. We would not even have the fragile ceasefire without the countless people marching on the streets and making clear that they do not tolerate actions devoid of any humanity. As sad as all the suffering in Gaza and the occupied terretories is – one thing has been accomplished. The mask has come off and people everywhere cannot fail to recognise that genocide is genocide is genocide. Stop buying Israeli products until the siege of Gaza is lifted and a just peace between Israel and Palestine is achieved.
Excellent article. As the government is showing its contempt of the Irish People by abstaining from the vote to investigate Israel for possible war crimes and not expelling the Israeli ambassador the onus is on the Irish people to make clear where they stand. We would not have the temporary ceasefires either if countless people had not come out to voice their non-acceptance of actions devoid of any humanity. As bad as all the suffering in Gaza is – one good has been achieved. The mask has come off and people start to see that genocide, is genocide, is genocide. Stop buying Israeli products until a just peace is reached between Israel and Palestine and the blockade of Gaza is lifted.
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