Friday 18 July 2014

Pointing out disproportionate responses is not anti-semitic

Palestinian Rocket
1 Israeli dead, over 200 Palestinians dead and over 80% of them innocent civilians.  Make shift rockets fired from the Gaza strip are rendered harmless by American designed and funded technology.   Israel then uses sophisticated rockets and bombs for which the Palestinians have no defense against.   All the while Israel has occupied Palestine for over 44 years and refuses to allow them any sovereignty.  Israel says they want peace but, with America's support, won't allow Palestine to even have a voice in the UN to negotiate for peace.

Israeli Defensive Rockets
Now as American's we have no moral ground to stand upon with how many civilians we've killed in the past 2 decades.  But as American's we shouldn't let what is happening in and around the Gaza strip to continue without voicing objections.  There is wrong on both sides but Israel is not responding in kind.  A 200:1 ratio isn't a proportional response especially when the current reason the fighting is going on is because Israel refuses to stop occupying Palestine.


Just one of the Palestinian Children killed by the Israeli Navy
What would you do if this was your child?  This child was just one of 4 that where killed by the shelling of a beach by the Israeli Navy.  This kid was not a"human shield" for Hamas or any other group attempting to attack Israel.  This kid was playing on the beach with his friends. Some of his friends died with him.  Others are badly wounded and witnessed their young friends bodies get mutilated beyond  any ability to survive.  Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli foreign minister, said "To the best of my understanding, it is not possible to ensure summer vacation, a normal summer for our kids, without a ground operation in Gaza".  So this Palestinian child, and others like him, had to be brutally killed so that children in Israel can enjoy their summer vacation?  What kind of sick twisted logic is that?

For over 4 decades Israel has been the oppressor.  Perhaps they should try a different tactic especially when they are killing 200 times more people then their enemy.  Perhaps they should show some restraint when they are only, at best, 20% effective at targeting their enemy with the other 80% being innocent people like the child above.

We, as Americans, have to realize that many around the world that "hate us" don't hate us simply because they are jealous of us.  They hate us because we occupy them.  They hate us because we kill their children.  They hate us because we oppress them.  Here we occasionally ask for Israel to show restraint but never demand it.

What if that was your child?  What if some foreign nation occupied were you lived for almost your entire life?  What if you had to live in constant fear?  How would you react?  Do you know why Palestinians blow themselves up in a market?  Because they don't have F-16s supplied by the USA to deliver their bombs.  They aren't terrorists.  They are fighting for their freedom.  Just because Israel has more expensive weapons doesn't make them right.  Just like the USA using unmanned drones to kill innocent civilians doesn't make it right.  Just because I point out the reality doesn't mean I'm anti-semitic.

As American's we need to open our eyes up to the reality of the destruction we cause.  We need to open our eyes up to the destruction we condone.  Then and only then maybe we can halt the blood baths we create.  Then and only then will we be able to start to repair the damage WE have done to our own image.  Then and only then can we start saying we are part of the greatest nation the world has ever seen.  Until then we are just bullies of the world an Israel is just our side kick.  But instead of stealing lunches and punching a weaker kid we literally kill children that just want to be children.

Israel, like the USA, needs to realize that just because we can destroy our enemies with relatively few casualties of our own doesn't mean we should.  So when someone like Dick Cheney talks about defense spending and says "That ought to be our top priority for spending. Not food stamps, not highways or anything else,"  we shouldn't listen.  We already spend more then the next 11 countries combined.  Dick Cheney says we can't fight 2 wars at once.  Well our funding says we should be able to fight 11 wars at once and still have a little left over.

The reason that they don't want peace is 2 fold.  First it keeps them in power.  For Israel if their people are afraid then their government has more power.  The second reason is money.  This is trillions of dollars in play keeping the military industrial complex going.  Those corporations don't want peace because peace is bad for business.  Fuck the dead kids and fuck the average person.  Dick Cheney would rather your son or daughter have a gun in their hands made by these corporations then your child actually getting an education.  Because the education won't make Cheney and his friends money and an educated person is what the rich fear the most.  Keep your population dumb and poor to keep your power.

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