The Gaza War: Attempting a balanced perspective

The Gaza War: Attempting a balanced perspective


While nearly everyone on the lib-left front is outraged over the tragic civilian deaths in Gaza, presenting videos & other materials prepared by Aljazeera et al to support the condemnation of "Israel" and the allegations that "Israelis" are targeting civilians, adopting again the predictable hard line approach, there's another side to the story. The videos below show: first, the UN School, the site of so many casualties. According to the Israelis, Hamas members were inside the school, using non-Hamas civilians as shields. This makes sense when Hamas trains children to be suicide bombers and otherwise brainwashes them (see the childrenofgaza. blogspot, link below, which includes a video of a "Palestinian" tv show for children).

The second video shows mortar bombs shot from the UN School in October 2007 (Hamas supporters will counter this, maintaining that it's too old).

The third shows an Israel strike on a mosque that stockpiled rockets (yes indeed, there are videos depicting casualties suffered by children and other civilians rocket-targeted by Hamas and other terrorist groups for many years) -- as well as photos of children killed by suicide bombers and rockets, and by the way, it's a war crime to target civilians). PLEASE ALSO SEE: http://childrenofgaza.blogspot.com/, which includes the fourth video below, in which a Palestinian child/victim of the war holds Hamas responsible.

The fifth video brought to you by my favorite tv "news" show, Fox (yes, I loathe Bush and Fox), the story of the son of a founder of Hamas, who converted from Islam to Christianity. While I personally shun all religions, you may find the video of interest for his depiction of the fundamental Islamic world in which he was raised. I wouldn't immediately dismiss it as American-imperialist bullshit.


What is the truth, or at least the balanced view? So called pro-Palestinians are winning the PR/info war and so-called "pro-Israel" videos are being censored by Facebook (I can attest to that -- see also UNABLE TO POST LINK TO December '08 post at blog.wired.com re "Online Jihadists Plan for 'Invading Facebook'." Hmm. We on the left are rightfully suspicious of American reportage and upset that our hideous government has done nothing constructive in the face of the tragedy), but what of Aljazeera et al reportage? Accusations of "genocide" and "Israel's" intentional or reckless slaughter of children are flying about like mad bats. Anti-Jewish epithets are striking targets like rockets. I fear private censorship and anger from friends and others with whom I agree on many issues, simply for suggesting that the politically correct left-lib perspective may be unfairly balanced and ill-informed.

A Facebook friend has written: "When it gets to pictures and videos that were made by the Arab side we have to be very cautious and critical.

This is the link where you have pictures of dead children in Gaza. At least that's what they say. We all can't stand tears of a child, and we are completely ruined when we see child's death. Our enemy knows our weakest spots really well and he is using them to the utmost. He turns it all to our emotions, because this way it's much easier to convince us in anything. Often - in a lie.

http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/67E65341-758D-4BC3-92B0-B539B0C7D793.htm

I wanted to pay your special attention to these pictures: 4th and 5th from the top. We can see that their corpse' has already decayed. It means that these dead bodies are at least a few months old. It is known and proven that Palestinians do everything in order to blame Israel, even digging out their dead children from the earth (it happens that children die from natural reasons, too, you know, not all of Gaza children are killed by IDF, even though many Arabs in the world are convinced in that. It doesn't matter, all of the dead children in Gaza are added to Israel's bill).

If we continue to analyze these photos trying to abstract away from their emotional message, even though it is very hard - we are all human - we need to start to ask ourselves important questions.

For example, where these pictures were taken, what is the reason of suffer and death of these children. And who really killed them if they were killed. I admit that some of these pictures may be the true ones, because everything can happen on war. And even Goebbels knew that the most convincing lie is when you mix it with truth. When you believe a part of it, you believe everything.

Also continue to reason on. Children die from shell splinters or shrapnel. But do we know what side these shells came from in other words who shot them? It is a fact that people, including children die now. But it is really hard to determine without an expertise who is responsible for it. So don't be fast to judge."

Critical approach is necessary. Control your emotions. So the only way to fight lies is not to believe everything that you see, because nowadays even photos lie. It is so sad, there is nothing holy left in this world, if people dig out their dead children out of graves in order to picture them. Do you realize how strong is their hatred?"


Most of my fellow lib-radicals are going to say that the videos below and others are Israeli or Israeli-American government propaganda - they must've been cooked up; ya know, those clever Israelis. We are all emotionally overwhelmed by the tragedies suffered by innocents and frustrated by the world's inability to negotiate peace and end the cycle of violence. Was it "right" for the Israeli government (I don't say Israelis, as many in Israeli are opposed to drastic, violent measures) to commence a full-fledged crusade to eradicate Hamas? Did the military unreasonably bar The International Red Cross access to demolished homes, as IRC contends and condemns? If the evidence offers no viable rationalization, I too condemn the military.

A few days ago, a Hamas leader vowed that all Islamic Moslems would set out with justification to kill Israeli children and Jews all over the world (not just the Israeli Jews): "Fighting intensified on the northern outskirts of Gaza City yesterday as a Hamas leader warned that the Islamists would kill Jewish children anywhere in the world in revenge for "Israel’s" devastating assault.

“They have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine,” Mahmoud Zahar said in a televised broadcast recorded at a secret location. “They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people.” The rest of the article is at The Times online, January 6th (unable to post link).

I will not post comments about this article from either "side." In my last post, a call to action for peace by a "neutral," compassionate non-profit organization, I received a long tirade against "Israel" from an alleged Palestinian who espouses fighting to the death for "freedom." Among other rants, she accused me of gloating over the deaths of Palestinian children. I've said what I want to say at this point. Many of you readers will no doubt take this post as a statement of unqualified support for the Israeli government. It is not. I was a lawyer for many years, so I tend not to adopt hard lines unless and until I'm totally persuaded they're well-reasoned. Hard lines breed conflicts, which result in the maiming and slaughter of innocents, who are prey to those who are worse than careless about life. I believe it best to question and investigate, and bottom line, work for peace.

Pax vobiscum,

CN