1,200+ killed in Gaza, 40 percent declared DMZ, evacuation notices and ROUTINE bombing of shelters

[morningfog]

This is a massacre. These are war crimes.

It is indefensible and unacceptable. This long ago ceased being about self-defense, rockets or tunnels. It is long past time for the US to give the war criminals an ultimatum: End the slaughter now, or no more US dollars. The blood of the innocent Palestinian is on our hands.


Here is picture of Israel warning of more bombings to come. Of course, there is no where safe to go. There never has been. Israel has declared 40 percent of Gaza a DMZ, Israel has routinely bombed UN shelters, Israel has even bombed the power supplies. There is no where left to go. Israel is shooting fish in a barrel and enjoying the support of US leaders while they do it. It is disgusting and shameful.

[morningfog]

1. UNRWA Strongly Condemns Israeli Shelling of Its School in Gaza as a Serious Violation of Internation

Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced.

We have visited the site and gathered evidence. We have analysed fragments, examined craters and other damage. Our initial assessment is that it was Israeli artillery that hit our school, in which 3,300 people had sought refuge. We believe there were at least three impacts. It is too early to give a confirmed official death toll. But we know that there were multiple civilian deaths and injuries including of women and children and the UNRWA guard who was trying to protect the site. These are people who were instructed to leave their homes by the Israeli army.

The precise location of the Jabalia Elementary Girls School and the fact that it was housing thousands of internally displaced people was communicated to the Israeli army seventeen times, to ensure its protection; the last being at ten to nine last night, just hours before the fatal shelling.

I condemn in the strongest possible terms this serious violation of international law by Israeli forces.

This is the sixth time that one of our schools has been struck. Our staff, the very people leading the humanitarian response are being killed. Our shelters are overflowing. Tens of thousands may soon be stranded in the streets of Gaza, without food, water and shelter if attacks on these areas continue.

We have moved beyond the realm of humanitarian action alone. We are in the realm of accountability. I call on the international community to take deliberate international political action to put an immediate end to the continuing carnage.

http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-strongly-condemns-israeli-shelling-its-school-gaza-serious

[Enthusiast]

22. +1

A source of universal shame.

[Bettie]

2. I'm starting to think they're simply planning on killing everyone

Then, settlers can take over and they can turn their attention to exterminating the human beings living in the West Bank. It's a test case, to see if they can really get away with mass murder. So far, the evidence shows that yes, they can.

At very least, they are radicalizing the population further. They are showing them, one and all that they are prisoners and totally at the mercy of their jailers. People who have nothing more to lose will risk everything.

Our leaders need to get a backbone and say "No More".

[morningfog]

3. The people have lost their homes, their water, their electricity and still getting bombed.

It's unconscionable.

[Bettie]

6. And there is no end in sight

It is horrible and needs to stop. Sadly, I doubt any government is willing to stop them.

[malaise]

8. Maybe they're clearing the way for pipelines

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jul/09/israel-war-gaza-palestine-natural-gas-energy-crisis

[Bettie]

10. Probably both

Then, they get the natural gas and the land.

The extermination of the people they displaced in the first place is just a bonus.

[alsame]

11. And guess who already has a drilling

license in another occupied territory.

Israeli-American Company To Drill For Oil In Occupied Golan Heights

<snip>

Which is why it’s kind of a big deal that Israel has decided to allow an American-Israeli firm to drill for oil there, as reported by Israeli financial daily Globes this week:

…the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources' Petroleum Council recommended awarding the license to Genie Energy Ltd. (NYSE: GNE), headed by former minister Effie Eitam.

Some interesting personnel notes: Dick Cheney and Rupert Murdoch serve on Genie’s Strategic Advisory Board, as does Lord Jacob Rothschild, chairman of the Rothschild Foundation. Genie is also the parent company of Israel Energy Initiatives Ltd. (IEI), “which is moving forward on a venture to develop shale oil deposits in [Israel’s] coastal plain.” IEI’s Chief Scientist, Harold Vinegar, likewise serves on Genie’s Strategic Advisory Board.

<snip>

So here’s what we have: a warmongering former American Vice President (and virulent opponent of the current President); a media mogul of dubious ethics; the head of an international Jewish philanthropic entity dedicated to (among other things) “the environment, sustainable development and green energy”; a tightly bound confluence of American and Israeli business interests; and a former Israeli governmental minister who is one caveat shy of advocating mass genocide, all about to benefit from exploiting the natural resources of a large chunk of land that, according to international law, actually belongs to another country.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/22/israeli-american-company-to-drill-for-oil-in-occupied-golan-heights.html

[Spazito]

13. Geez, doesn't that say it all...

this certainly explains so much about what is now happening to the Palestinian people. Oil and gas, the real reason Iraqis died and now the reason Palestinians are dying.

[alsame]

21. Yep, more blood for oil

[hack89]

23. Not this shit again

how many times does it have to be pointed out that the gas field off of Gaza is the smallest of three gas fields in Israel waters and that the other two fields are more than enough to meet all of Israel's energy needs and then some.

The Tamar gas field is a natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. The field is located in Israel's exclusive economic zone, roughly 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Haifa in waters 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) deep. While there have been small oil and gas discoveries in Israel over the decades, Tamar was the first large-scale hydrocarbon resource discovered in the country.

The field is considered to have proven reserves of 223 billion cubic metres (7.9 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas and is estimated to contain an additional 84 BCM of probable reserves and 49 BCM of possible reserves.[15][14][16] At the time of discovery, the field was the largest find of gas or oil in the Levant basin of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the largest discovery by Noble Energy. Production began in April, 2013.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamar_gas_field

The Leviathan gas field is a large natural gas field located in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel, 47 kilometres (29 mi) south-west of the Tamar gas field.[1] The gas field is located roughly 130 kilometres (81 mi) west of Haifa in waters 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) deep in the Levantine basin, a rich hydrocarbon area in one of the world's larger offshore gas finds of the past decade.[2][3][4] The gas find has the potential to change Israel's foreign relations towards a closer collaboration with Turkey and Egypt.[5] Together with the nearby Tamar gas field, it has been seen as an opportunity to Israel to become a major energy power in the Middle East.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_gas_field

[blackspade]

37. But why use your own reserves when you can plunder someone elses?

[hack89]

39. Have you actually looked at the "Gaza" gas field's location on a map?

It is further north then I suspect you think.

[blackspade]

40. I have.

There are two fields within 30 miles of the Gaza coast that belong to the Palestinians.
Both are being exploited by the Israelis.

[L0oniX]

17. IMO for quite a while the goal has been to exterminate them.

They have no where they can go to escape the slaughter. If there were a way for them to leave Gaza then it wouldn't be an extermination.

[Bettie]

19. I tend to agree

But the timetable has clearly been stepped up a bit, probably due to the natural gas...now there's something they want in Gaza.

[morningfog]

4. El Salvador becomes fifth Latin American country to recall Israel envoy

El Salvador recalled its Israeli ambassador from Tel Aviv on Wednesday to protest the military operation in Gaza, making it the fifth Latin American country to do so.

Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru have already recalled their ambassadors.

Hope the trend continues.

[Spazito]

5. It is unconscionable, appalling, horrifying...

What Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza is absolutely criminal yet they continue to kill Palestinians with impunity. Horrific.

[Tetris_Iguana]

7. I wouldn't hold my breathe on that.

The US government will likely continue its long held tradition of exterminating and oppressing native peoples for profit.

[malaise]

9. And they learned well from the

British

[jwirr]

12. They went in to destroy the tunnels and now they keep the land. Native Americans would recognize

this for what it is.

[morningfog]

14. Seriously. Does anyone believe that this 40 percent DMZ will ever be returned to the Palestinians?

I just wonder where a Palestinian trail of tears would even go. Into the sea? Egypt? We're talking over a million people facing home, electricity and water loss.

[ellie]

41. Thank you

My husband said the same thing last weekend. We have seen this behavior before and it is disgusting.

[Enthusiast]

15. Kicked and recommended. "It is disgusting and shameful."

I am shocked by how united DU is in their condemnation of Israel's actions.

DU is seldom this united.

I guess we agree that this slaughter is completely unwarranted.

This puts Israel in a terrible light.

I don't understand why they do not recognize this action as counterproductive to their interests.

[morningfog]

16. Indeed. Any credibility Israel had ended with the ground invasion and has degraded exponentially.

Routine and regular war crimes are now being committed.

[L0oniX]

18. Many have been banned on DU for what now is acceptable to speak of. Quite the turn around.

[Enthusiast]

20. Apparently someone recognizes that right is right and wrong is wrong,

as we do.

[L0oniX]

24. There may be hope for this place after all.

[Karmadillo]

27. I wonder how much social media has changed attitudes. If one listened

to only CNN or FOX, one would pretty much think it was business as usual. The terrorist tunnels must be destroyed. The IDF isn't sure what happened but there is an investigation ongoing. Human shields. Right to defend against terrorism. But now one can go on Twitter or sites for independent journalism and see and hear the horrors of what is happening. Maybe there's not just hope for this place, maybe there's hope for the world. There are an awful lot of decent people out there with governments that do not always reflect that decency.

[malaise]

28. Correct - the narrative is no longer controlled and sanitized by the corporate media

and as you wrote there are an awful lot of decent people out there with governments that do not always reflect that decency.

[Ghost of Tom Joad]

31. perhaps this is why

the power station was bombed. The reality of what is happening was changing a lot of peoples minds about the carnage that is occurring in Gaza.

[Spazito]

26. Israel has always been able, previously, to control the message...

through a complicit media who filtered their coverage accordingly. With the internet access we now have, people are getting the unfiltered story about what is happening in Gaza hence the changing view of Israel and it's actions. The Israeli government has yet to realize they can no longer control the message and that their credibility on anything has disappeared.

I read an interesting article entitled "Why Benjamin Netanyahu Should Be Very, Very Worried", which brought my attention to the change in how the public is now able to get their information unfiltered, it was very interesting.

"Netanyahu should be worried. The Israeli public should be worried. All supporters of the Jewish state should be worried—not only about the prospect of current events spiraling out of control, but also about a confluence of demographic and social trends that threaten Israel's ability to manage the war of perceptions."

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/why-benjamin-netanyahu-should-be-very-very-worried-20140728

[joelz]

25. reminds me of

the Warsaw ghetto in 1943 a nasty war crime of course Netanyahu will walk on this one as he always does

[KG]

29. Collective punishment, ghetto - izing, land theft, ethnic cleansing, war crimes. it's all there.

[sadoldgirl]

30. Europeans loved the US

Then came W, and we lost all their respect. Since we are still the enablers to this massacre, we also will lose more and more of the PR wars. Netanyahu's government should have been enough of a warning to the US, but obviously it has to get to the total destruction of Gaza, before our Congress revokes any further support.

[johnnyreb]

32. War crimes - enforce it or lose it.

I agree that this is disgusting and probably war crimes. But why should anyone fear prosecution for war crimes after the last couple decades. It's past time to give the term meaning.

[blackspade]

33. Yep. State terrorism.

It's despicable.

[ancianita]

34. This killer, Efraim Eitam, the force pushing Palestinian 'elimination,' sees himself as David.

http://electronicintifada.net/content/we-will-have-kill-them-all-effie-eitam-thug-messiah/8555

[oberliner]

35. He is retired and holds no government position

Just FYI.

[ancianita]

36. So where's he been since 2009? Hanging out with corporatists? Does anyone here know?

In print, he's disappeared. But if he's no longer a special emissary to Netanyahu, no longer tied to Knesset and the IDF, then what's he doing? Wasting his strategic killing capacities on a kibbutz? Working with private security forces?

Do you know? I'm asking because I think he's influencing these corporatists. Or they him...

[Comrade Grumpy]

38. Hey, Americans, that's your tax dollars at work.

$3 billion a year.

And now Obama wants to give the poor Israelis even more.