Israel under siege

[bigtree]

Alexander Marquardt ‏@MarquardtA Jul 24
Incredible. You'd never know that an hour south a war is raging. #Israel #Gaza



Reuters Top News ‏@Reuters 22m
Israel rejects a ceasefire plan, according to a source, as the death toll in #Gaza nears 850: http://reut.rs/1pTH4hq

updated:

Mark Knoller ‏@markknoller 1m
Kerrry says Netanyahu tells him reports that Israeli Cabinet rejected a ceasefire plan are "not true" & will issue statement on that.

[Enrique]

1. Diane Sawyer should show that photo

and say it's Gaza.

[malaise]

4. Don't rule it out

[Bettie]

2. They appear to be suffering

I see one guy who I'm pretty sure forgot his sunscreen.

Now that IS tragic, isn't it? Sunburn and it is all the fault of some Palestinian child.
(Sarcasm, in case someone can't get that)

[riverwalker]

3. Two Beaches

:large :large

[Bucky]

5. Reminds me of contrasts I saw from South Africa during Apartheid.

Land grabs, disproportional violence, ever rightward drift toward a segregated, minority-controlled, authoritarian democracy...

The similarities are creepy.

[timdog44]

9. Apartheid

Your remembrances are correct. We supported it then via Israel and now we support Israel out in the open. Ironically we supply Israel and then offer aid to Palestine for what they/we have done. It is another follow the money situation.

[KittyWampus]

13. WOW! You are right on. I never made that connection. Please start an OP. I think it deserves awider

audience.

I am going to think about your comparison for a while.

But has resonated with me.

[timdog44]

15. I am not a newbie here.

But when I used to post I always seemed to get in trouble. I am just back. It would be an honor to have you do the comparisons, though I know it to be a lot of work. But am glad someone remembered how we supplied arms to Israel and then they supplied them to South Africa to assist in the apartheid that the South African regime carried out. I remembered it when I saw a picture of Nelson Mandela waving out of jail bars.

[hopemountain]

6. the murdering of palestinian innocents is insane

and unforgiveable

and, yes, my maiden name has jewish roots - something we did not know until the 80's. my grandpa would be appalled at the murdering of the palestinian people. at one time i would have sided with the israelis efforts to have their own home. but not with this current debauchery. it is wrong.

[mikeysnot]

7. I'm sorry but

fuck israel. This UN mandated Frankenstein monster needs to be reeled in.

They are not our Allies.

[timdog44]

10. Allies

Now, now, now. Sounds
like anti Semitism. But, let's see, aren't all the people over their Semites. Except for the traitors from our country who go over there and fight in the Israeli army. Fuck them especially. They should be in our army if they feel testosterone so madly.

[Maximum Bob]

8. My first post has to be about this massacre

We've suffered enough for Israel, sacrificed blood and treasure, she betrays us in the UN over Ukraine, and now this war crime. Time to ditch this albatross around our neck.

On a sad note, talkingpointsmemo.com has been overrun by Hasbara commenters paid to defend Israel and have announced that aggressively anti Israel statements are cause for banishment. Several of the above statements would qualify I feel. It makes me feel helpless that no matter what occurs, our Israeli overlords have such a hold over our country and both parties that no sane resolution will ever occur and we'll be dragged to our demise defending this religious state and quasi-Apartheid.

[lark]

14. +1

Good start Maximum Bob, welcome aboard.

I think our funding of Israel has more to do with our war machine than theirs. The MIC makes billions off of Israeli aggression.

[EEO]

11. Iron Dome makes their little war pretty obviously one of choice, not necessity.

[lark]

12. I'd love to see this picture

next to a picture of the aftermath of the Israeli bombing of the UN school in Gaza. It totally makes me want to scream how our American government and media protects and lies about the callous murders done by the Israeli's just to keep our military companies humming and raking in profits by providing advanced munitions and weapons systems to Israel.

[Divernan]

19. Tweet from ABC reporter who posted the above photo of Israeli beach:

Retweeted by Alexander Marquardt

Just to be clear: there is no evidence whatsoever that there were rockets in the school at Beit Hanoun in #Gaza yesterday RT

(and)
Retweeted by Alexander Marquardt
BBC World Service @bbcworldservice · 18h

"We were pleading with the IDF to allow civilians out, approval never came", says UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness. #Gaza school #BBCNewsday.

[PatrickforO]

16. This apartheid system that Israel has these Palestinians under has got to go.

The Palestinians need their own homeland. The rhetoric that comes from the lips of some of the Israeli officials, particularly Netanyahu, is very scary.

To be fair though, as Bill Maher reminds us, Israel is something like 8 and 0 in wars, but if they lose one, they won't exist. There really are quite a few people in the Arab world that are dedicated to wiping Israel from the face of the earth. So I can understand some of their more hardline postures.

That said, the current level of oppression levied on the Palestinian people by Israel is doing nothing but perpetuating the conflict. They are treated like second class citizens, have to show papers to leave their barbed-wired and poverty ridden enclosures, many times without even running water, and they are surrounded by opulence. Homes with swimming pools, people driving nice cars, and general prosperity.

I mean, if it were any one of you (and I include myself) looking through those chain link fences at riches while we have nothing but rags and oppression, we'd probably be experiencing some uncharitable thoughts. We're starting to see more unrest in America from this phenomenon, too, as people look at the wealthy and contemplate their daily struggles to keep their heads above water. Imagine that same frustration amplified a hundred times and you've got the Palestinians.

Instead of launching missiles, maybe Netanyahu should launch peace talks with an eye toward a Palestinian homeland.

[timdog44]

18. Palestinian homeland

They had a homeland prior to 1946. Then the powers that be did not know what to do with the Jewish religious people of the world. Alas, they came and took it from the Palestinians and armed the Jewish people to the hilt. Over the last 70 years the Jewish people proclaimed Israel. We and the British people supplied them to protect the oil. The Israelis then began the program of genocide /apartheid and low and behold the Palestinians are now the bad guys.
The Israelis brag about winning the war back then, but they were the lions against the ill equipped Arab who they went to war against. If the USA did not exist, Israel would not exist. And for that, shame on us.

[Helen Borg]

17. Where and when was the picture taken? Just saying...

[JI7]

20. it says gaza is about one hour south of there

[Divernan]

21. Posted by ABC news reporter on Twitter on July 24, 2014

https://twitter.com/MarquardtA

Specifically, Alexander Marquardt, ABC's reporter based in Beirut and covering the Middle East. He's just come back from 2.5 weeks in Gaza.

Here's his brief bio from ABC News:
Alexander Marquardt covers the Middle East for ABC News, based in Beirut. He has reported on the region for three years, extensively covering the uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Syria. Prior to the Middle East, Marquardt covered Russia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe as the Moscow correspondent. He came to ABC News from CNN where he covered the 2008 presidential election. Marquardt graduated from Georgetown University in 2004.

I believe he took that photo himself, since professional journalists are always careful to credit photos taken by others.

[Helen Borg]

22. Thanks. But shouldn't the text

say specifically where it was taken and when? That beach looks like Herzliya or Haifa.

[Divernan]

23. I don't tweet myself, but understand there is a 140 character limit.

If the photo were published in a news source, without that limitation, there would be room for attribution. If he tells us the beach is an hour north of "the war", i.e,. Gaza, that's enough to understand it's a beach in Israel. Other than that, it doesn't really matter to me which beach.