I know I just blogged about Lisa Goldman’s latest blog post, but I just had to relate to another aspect of her very long post here.
Bouhamza mentioned in a comment here that he cannot condemn Hamas, because of all that they do for the Palestinian people. Well, not only is Lisa more articulate than me, she is also an actual journalist who is much more thorough in her research. So, I hope she wouldn’t mind this long quote, but I think she says it best:
Which is probably why the Hamas leadership, holed up in cozy bunkers, thinks it’s a good strategy to keep launching rockets at Israel while the people of Gaza sit in the dark, terrified, freezing and hungry, not knowing when the next bomb or tank shell will come and where it will land, with nowhere to run and no way to protect their children. Indeed, some Hamas militants took time off from their heroic battle against the Zionist enemy to visit Gaza’s Shifa Hospital, where they summarily executed wounded Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel – with a bullet to the brain. Sorry for the gore – I just wanted to make a point, in case you are one of those western fake leftists (a.k.a. anti-democratic reactionaries) who might be marching in London, waving banners emblazoned with the idiotic slogan “We are all Hamas now.” If you are one of those people, you might be interested in knowing that the Hamas leadership has completely buggered off, leaving ordinary people to fend for themselves without any infrastructure – no phones, no banks, no post office, no schools, etc. So much for the “resistance.” So go ahead, I am with you all the way on the calls for a ceasefire. But please, spare me the apologia for a fascist, theocratic, thuggish movement.
Not only are the Hamas leaders not suffering, but they must be figuring they’re about to come out of this campaign way ahead. Thousands of Arabs are demonstrating on their behalf, enraged at their own leaders for failing to help the people of Gaza. I imagine that a certain turbaned gentleman living in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan is rubbing his hands in glee at the prospect of pro-west Arab rulers having to deal with popular protests that threaten to destabilize their governments. Saves him having to recruit more suicide bombers, doesn’t it?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Hamas may be a great organization for running schools, managing hospitals (with some very advanced methods for getting people out of them!) and organizing charities. They were limited to that in the past and they were doing a good job, albeit nurtuting hatred for Israel at the same time.
When it comes to being the government of Gaza, and taking action against Israel, they suck. Big time. They are worse than bad for the Palestinians. And from what I hear, many Palestinians agree to that. Every bit of support given to Hamas and to Hamas actions, IMHO, is hurting the Palestinians, both in the short term and the long term.
on Jan 7th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
You got i a bit wrong but that’s ok.
Let me clarify my point:
I CAN condemn Hamas, but I will not. Because they are not to blame for the state of Gaza. They were never allowed to govern it. It is the state of Israel alone who is to blame for the on-going blood bath in Gaza.
On a side note, Hamas is not a terrorist organisation according to the UN. How come, do you think?
When it comes to the article Goldman quotes, I’m amased that E. Bronner could get this piece of information in Jerusalem which of course is in the Gaza strip (Irony). There are no reporters let in to Gaza. This means that all the information to journalists are filtered by the Army. Remember the Gulf War? Same thing. You know that Israelimom. Please don’t isult your readers’ intelligence.
Good luck with your next posting.
bouhamzas last blog post..The Poet Lives!
on Jan 8th, 2009 at 2:36 am
bouhamza;
Hamas to be blamed cuz it fire on IDF from UN schools, hide in ambulances, firing rockets on Sderot schools and civilian places, no one said Hamas to be blamed cuz she has a seat in the kenesset pal!
UN itself support terrorism, we all saw on youtube how it allow Hamas to hides in that school and use it’s ambulances as a cover, so what i want to tell is UN is not God we should follow what she acknowledge or not with closed eyes.
be serious and subjective pal or you will lose you credibility and people won’t take you serious anymore.
An Egyptians last blog post..look how palestinians"struggle" against the israelis – بصوا على "جهاد" الفلسطينيين
on Jan 8th, 2009 at 3:44 am
Bouhamza, you said “There are no reporters let in to Gaza. This means that all the information to journalists are filtered by the Army.”
My turn to say, please don’t insult my intelligence, my friend. Even I can get information from Gaza, let alone journalists. You don’t have to be physically there to talk to people. This day and age? Skype, phone calls, emails, you name it. None of that goes through the army, so please. Albeit, it’s getting more difficult, with the humanitarian crisis going on there (and I will fully acknowledge there is a horrible humanitarian crisis there – no matter what Livni and Olmert are saying) – it’s all too possible to get information, directly from Gazans. Knowing my friends in Gaza, they’re usually not too shy about supplying the information.
Hamas has proved in the past that it has no problem executing those in the opposition, so why would you not believe they would shoot those suspected of collaborating with Israel? These are the people that were throwing PLO activists out of windows to their death, not to mention shooting them.
Don’t get me wrong – I know that the PLO guys were not exactly supporters of non-violent resistance to the regime there, but still, both factions showed no restraint when it came to using violence against their political opponents – will you at least acknowledge that?
So, is that story about the executions in the hospital true? I would like to believe that the Herald Tribune is a serious enough publication to make sure its journalists have done their research, and I see no reason why you think this kind of behavior is beyond the scope of the Hamas?
And to clarify one thing here. Personally, I don’t think the Hamas evil. I happen to strongly disagree with their conviction that my country should be wiped off the map, but you know what, I could even live with that in their charter, as long as they agree to postpone the verdict
I do think Hamas, with their best intentions, are leading the Palestinians in Gaza in the worst possible path. They may not be evil people at heart, they may be convinced that they are doing the right thing for their people, but I think that any objective observer would say their actions are stupid, if nothing worse.
Let’s say for a minute that indeed Israel is to blame for everything wrong in the Gaza strip. Let’s assume that the so called siege is at fault. Please explain to me the logic in shooting rockets on Sderot as a means to rectify the situation? What exactly did they think would happen? That Israel will say “ooooh, we just can’t stand those rockets, let’s lift the siege and open the borders so you can get even more ammunition in”? What kind of logic guided the leaders of Hamas? Because I still can’t get it. Forget about right or wrong – it was plain stupid.
And they did have other options. For the life of me I don’t see why the Palestinians till this very day have not pulled out their ultimate joker, their winning card that Israel can do nothing about: non-violent resistance.
I asked a Gazan friend not too long ago, what was the logic of Qassams. He first agreed that it was counter-productive to Palestinians, but then tried to explain that people are too desperate in Gaza. That they feel that death is better than the life they are leading now, and so some would welcome war over the status quo. Desperate enough to bang their heads against the hard wall of Israel. Well, look, when you bang your head against a hard wall, for whatever reason, you get hurt. If you welcome war over the satus quo – obviously you get war. Is it wise though?
There’s a saying in Israel about how to avoid being involved in a car accident: Don’t be right – be smart. I condemn Hamas for being stupid, even if by their own reasoning they are right. And their stupidity is costing too many innocent people’s lives.
on Jan 8th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
an egyptian.
First off, I’m not your “pal” so spare me your “von oben” perspective of me. You can adress me by my nic, or by any other polite and civil way, of which includes “Mr Bouhamza, Bouhamza Beh, Bouhamza effendi, besh kaatib etc.
Second, I am nothing but subjective as objectivness is a myth. I write my own opinion, sometimes on my blog, sometimes on other peoples blogs. As for credibility…I never had it, so I can’t lose it.
Kifayya ba2a!
bouhamzas last blog post..The Poet Lives!
on Jan 8th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
bouhamza;
I’ll never stop exposing you and your people everywhere, sorry.
An Egyptians last blog post..look how palestinians"struggle" against the israelis – بصوا على "جهاد" الفلسطينيين
on Jan 8th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Israelimom>>>
First, my God that’s a long post in comments
I will just mention some things that needs clarification: The Article comes from Taghreed al-khodary and Ethan Bronner, well-known sionist apologetics.
It’s a fact that no reporters are let into Gaza by the IDF. Why? And don’t think it’s out of concern!
When it comes to the story itself, I’m not saying it’s untrue, but did hamas admit to it? Maybe it was a “private” group behind it. Maybe it never happened. That’s why I want more reporters on the scene!!! Tghreed el-khory is not a reliable source!
Last: Let’s accept the Israeli argument that Hamas is to blame for the attack on Gaza. Does that give the IDF the right to slaugheter innocent civilian palestinians by the hundreds? Injuring Innocent civilians by the thousands? Not mentioning wrecking what little infrastructure there is in this poverty-stricken part of the world?
Basically what olmert said was, stop sending rockets and we will stop killing your women and children. Isn’t that state-terrorism?
Isn’t this collective punishment?
You are justifying the slaughter of a people because some of them are shooting rockets at sderot (which is built on palestinian land in the first place)
By this logic any palestinian could attack any given Jew in the world since some other jews in another part of the world are bombing Gaza.
And an end note: If the palestinians pulled out the joker non-violence (which most of them do on a daily basis) it would only speed up the process of further Israeli settlements on palestinian soil thus accomplishing sionist goal to eradicate the palestinian people alltogether.
actually i made you a special post on my blog.
bouhamzas last blog post..The Poet Lives!
on Jan 8th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
and it is here:
http://bouhamza.blogspot.com/2009/01/for-israeli-mom.html
bouhamzas last blog post..for an Israeli mom
on Jan 9th, 2009 at 1:59 am
bouhamza;
how come Taghreed al-khodary is a ” well-known sionist apologetics”?!!!!!!!! i mean just google her name, man you really destroying your credibility
i read on BBC couple of days ago about reports allowed to enter Gaza so which reporters are disallowed? may be the Arab reporters? yeah for sure cuz those help the Palestinian terrorists.
Again: Israelis not allowed to kill civilians, havn’t you heard about those whom went to the jail for mistreating them in the IDF??
Hamas launch rockets and open fire from UN buildings and civilians regions so when the IDF fire back they kill civilians
dude the IDF is not a militia like hamas to act his shameful way.
An Egyptians last blog post..look how palestinians"struggle" against the israelis – بصوا على "جهاد" الفلسطينيين
on Jan 11th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
an egyptian?>>>
Chek out this clip for Taghreed expressing her concern for Israels security: http://fora.tv/2008/05/02/Taghreed_El-Khodary_on_Uncertainty_in_Gaza
And why is it so hard for you to beleive that an arab can be pro-Israeli? You are, so why can’t others be???
You should read more. No army in the world are allowed to kill civilians. But the IDF is, and THAT’S A FACT! Read the news will you! Look at the pictures that come out of Gaza. Seriously! Ask Israelimom, she might agree with you that Hamas is to blame, but she is human enough to admit that civilian Palestinians are the victims of this slaughter.
This massacre on Gaza is one-sided. It is the IDF against anyone in Gaza!
The Youtube-video on the UN school is two years old. It’s a shitty attempt by sionistapologetics to justify the murder of innocents. That video is a lie!
when you have a dictionary around you next time. Look up the word TERRORISM and tell me who is performing terrorism in Gaza!
Iffamhuha ba2a!
bouhamzas last blog post..Tzipi Livni: Det går bra nu!
on Jan 12th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Ummm… While I do agree that the Palestinian civilians are victims (and that’s an understatement even), I do object to this statement:
“No army in the world are allowed to kill civilians. But the IDF is, and THAT’S A FACT!”
Where on earth did you come up with that one? What army in the world is not “allowed to kill civilians” whatever that even means. There are rules of engagement and most Western militaries share them. They recognize the fact that sometimes civilians do get hurt, and in some situations, armies will shoot even when civilians of the other side may be hurt (for example, when your own troops are directly threatened in the battlefield in a specific situation).
Ever read the creed of the Marines? or of the US army? Go take a look sometime. Then go read the spirit of the IDF –
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/IDF_ethics.html
For those who won’t follow the link. Here’s one of the very first items in this document – which I can tell you as a former officer in the IDF, we ALL have to know very well:
Human Life
The IDF serviceman will, above all, preserve human life, in the recognition of its supreme value and will place himself or others at risk solely to the extent required to carry out his mission.
The sanctity of life in the eyes of the IDF servicemen will find expression in all of their actions, in deliberate and meticulous planning, in safe and intelligent training and in proper execution of their mission. In evaluating the risk to self and others, they will use the appropriate standards and will exercise constant care to limit injury to life to the extent required to accomplish the mission.
And just in case you think this doesn’t relate to the “enemy” – I had to learn everything about the massacre at Kfar Kassem and just why an IDF soldier should never agree to carry out an order from his or her commander to kill civilians like that. I’m talking about our basic training course here in the IDF.