“Operation” Bomb-the-hell-out-of-Gaza-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-security

By Eva Bartlett

08 July, 2014
Ingaza.wordpress.com

People gather around a vehicle targeted in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on July 8, 2014 that killed four Palestinians. (Photo: AFP – Mohammed Abed) http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israeli-war-jets-bomb-50-sites-gaza

The Zionists are again bombing Gaza, in another sadistically-named “operation” which I will not repeat, out of respect for the Palestinians of Gaza. Why bother with the names, just be honest: bomb-the-hell-out-of-Gaza-this-has-nothing-to-do-with-security # XXX

[on that note, please re-read this important article: Dissecting IDF propaganda: The numbers behind the rocket attacks]

Also very relevant: Netanyahu government knew teens were dead as it whipped up racist frenzy

Some updates from folks in/following Gaza:

Adie Nistlerooy writes:

During its military assaults on Gaza, the Israeli army sometimes rings people to tell them; ‘leave your house, we are going to bomb it in a few minutes’. People then have to rush their children out of the house and run for their lives, and wait for that terrible moment when their homes are reduced to rubble. Today, the Al Qaware family received that dreaded phone call. In response, their neighbours gathered on the rooftop, to prevent the airstrike from happening. Since the many drones hoovering above their heads can read even the prints on their t-shirts, they would certainly be able to see them (civilians, including children) collectively standing on the rooftop. What happened; the house was bombed anyway. At least 7 people were killed including at least 2 very young children in this attack and over 25 were injured. Rescue workers are still digging through the rubble….

Omar Alhawi writes:
Martyrs of the massacre of Kaware family:

Mohamed Ashour 13 years
Riad Kaware 50 years
Baker Mohammed Juda 22 years
Ammar Mohammed Juda 22 years
Hussein Mohammed Kaware 14 years
and other 2 Unknown martyrs…

Al Akhbar reported:

At least 11 Palestinians have been killed, including two children, and 80 injured in a massive Israeli air and naval assault against the besieged Gaza Strip Tuesday, bombing over 50 targets, including homes.

“The casualty toll from the [Israeli] aggression has risen to 11 killed and 80 wounded in the Gaza Strip,” health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra announced on Twitter.

Seven people were killed in the deadliest attack on the Kaware family home in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, Qudra wrote, saying that two children aged 13 and 14 were among the dead. Another 25 people were injured in that bombing.

Witnesses told AFP a drone launched a warning flare, prompting relatives and neighbors to gather at the house as a human shield, but shortly afterwards an F-16 fired a missile which leveled the building.

That attack came after four bodies had arrived to Shifa Hospital after Israel bombed a car transporting them in Gaza City, Qudra said.

Israel claims its offensive is meant to end Palestinian rocket fire into Israeli occupied territories, urging Israelis within a 40 kilometer radius of the southern coastal territory to stay within reach of protected areas

The military said it targeted about 50 sites in aerial and naval assaults. Palestinian officials said more than 30 of them were bombed in little more than an hour before dawn, including two homes in southern Gaza, one of which was identified by a neighbor as belonging to a Hamas member.

Gaza medics said seven children and three women were among 22 people wounded in the overnight strikes, with more raids during the morning. Two of the wounded were in serious condition.

Al Watan media posted more photos from the bombing:

In The Case Of Israel: Western Hypocrisy At Its Best

By Ludwig Watzal

08 July, 2014
Countercurrents.org

The kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers and their murder was a despicable crime. Those responsible must be held accountable and brought to justice. Everybody condemned this heinous crime, including all Western leaders. After the abduction, the Israeli occupying forces started a search throughout the West Bank that led not only to the killings of a lot of innocent Palestinians but also to the devastation of uncountable homes and the demolition of two houses of assumed suspects. Until now, nobody knows who committed the crime. Collective punishment of the Palestinian collective is the norm in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The principle of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty only applies to the Jewish citizens of Israel and the colonizers in the West Bank.

Right from the start, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the abduction. Up till now, he could not deliver single evidence. Instead, the occupying forces went on a rampage; destroying, killing and arresting arbitrarily every member of Hamas, which they could lay their hands on. In the meantime, parts of the population, like a “Zio-Fascists” mob, went wild in Jerusalem and called “Death to the Arabs”. Six right-wing Israeli extremists got hold of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, they killed and burnt him. His father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, demanded form the Israeli military to demolish the houses of the murderers like they did to the Palestinian families from which allegedly the abductors of the three juvenile Israeli came. But a different treatment of Israeli and Palestinian criminals has a long tradition in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories like the reports of different Israeli and international human rights organizations show. This “principle” is just part of democracy à la Israel.

The Western leaders did not condemn this act of violence, instead, they kept mum. David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, did not call a press conference in Number 10 Downing Street; instead he “twittered” his “weighty” words about this gruesome death: “I’m appalled by the murder of a Palestinian teenager. The loss of four boys this week is a terrible reminder of the need for lasting peace.” Tony Blair couldn’t have put it better. The double standard of Western leaders, exemplified in the person of David Cameron, can be viewed in Anthony Lawson’s video.1

Not enough of the rampage of the Israeli military against Palestinians, the brutality of the “most moral army in the world” (Ehud Barak) made no stop in front of a U.S. citizen. Tariq Khdeir, a high school sophomore visiting Jerusalem from Tampa, Fla., was severely mistreated by Israeli police, like the video shows.2 The US State Department was “profoundly troubled” by Israel’s treatment of a Palestinian-American but has done nothing, as in the murder case of Rachel Corrie. This should not surprise anyone; hasn’t the US President a personal killing list, which includes also the names of US citizens of Arab decent? What would have happened, if the Palestinian “security forces” would have killed a Jewish-American citizen or mistreated him in Palestine? All hell would have broken loose.

Nobody should be surprised about the outbreak of racism towards the Arabs in Israel. From the kindergarten to the grave, the Israelis are indoctrinated by Zionism, which is an exclusivist ideology. After the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the late Israel Shahak has in his groundbreaking book “Jewish History, Jewish Religion. The Weight of three Thousand Years”3 elucidated the political implications of this belief system. But the real roots of racism in Israel and the hatred of the goyim can be found in “Classical Judaism”, which is used “to justify Israeli policies that are racist, as totalitarian and as xenophobic”. And Shahak continues: “Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in Jewish attitudes to the non-Jewish peoples of Israel and the Middle East.”

The crocodile tears of Netanyahu for the murder of the young Palestinian are hypocritical. For the record: Netanyahu and his extremist predecessor Ariel Sharon have not moderated a mob at a demonstration in Jerusalem, who slandered Rabin as a “traitor” and carried Rabin dummies in Nazi uniform, one of the most despicable symbols in Israel. Shortly after, Rabin was assassinated. Not without reason, Lea Rabin has refused Netanyahu’s condolences at the state funeral. Therefore, one should not belief the political arsonist, which calls for the fire brigade.

Dr. Ludwig Watzal works as a journalist and editor in Bonn, Germany. He runs the bilingual blog “between the lines”http://between-the-lines-ludwig-watzal.blogspot.de/