US Condemns Israeli Shelling of UN School in Gaza

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Jul 30, 2014, 1:26 PM ET
Associated Press

The United States is condemning Israel's shelling of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip that was sheltering displaced Palestinians.

It's the sharpest criticism the U.S. has leveled at Israel over the more than three weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.

White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan says the U.S. is also "extremely concerned" that thousands of Palestinians aren't safe in U.N.-designated shelters in Gaza even though Israel's military has told them to evacuate their homes. Gaza health officials say 15 people were killed Wednesday when Israeli tank shells slammed into the school.

Meehan says the U.S. also condemns those responsible for hiding weapons in U.N. facilities in Gaza. She says the escalation shows the need for a cease-fire as soon as possible.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/us-condemns-israeli-shelling-school-gaza-24776185

[Scootaloo]

2. I hope Bernadette Meehan has her resume ready

'Cause she's going to be out of a job, no doubt

[LoisB]

7. I'm in.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. About time.

[whathehell]

10. Damned right. n/t

[riverwalker]

4. UNRWA spokesman breaks down at what he saw

UNRWA spokesman weeps on TV when recounts what he saw at the Israeli bombed UNRWA school. #gaza #GazaUnderAttack




Video is here, he is shattered

This is Chris
Chris Gunness

@ChrisGunness

UNRWA Spokesman advocating passionately for Palestine refugees to enjoy all their rights to the full, including the right to a just and durable solution

[alsame]

6. ...

[Hayabusa]

5. And then immediately gives Israel

120mm mortar rounds and 40mm grenades...

[Nihil]

16. Matthew 7:15-20

e.g.,

"The meaning is that it is often misleading to base one's impression of someone
on their words and that we are better off focusing on their acts. That is, know them
not so much by what they say but what they do"
(http://www.atheistrev.com/2007/08/why-know-them-by-their-deeds.html)

or, for the wiki-ists, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_7:16

or, for those who dislike having to click on things,

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly
they are ravenous wolves.
16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes
or figs from thistles?
17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.


Americans (especially those in the government ) had better not act surprised
if someone decides that their particular "tree" needs to be thrown into the fire.

Maybe they should "hope" for some "change"?

[NealK]

8. K&R

[4now]

9. Its time we start to speak out against

Israel murdering children.
We are paying for this slaughter we should have a say.

[whathehell]

11. Correct...

Cutting off the money would have them changing their tune FAST.

I'm sick of enabling these fascists.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. Move-on's petition to Obama and Congress here......

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/tell-whitehouse-johnkerry?source=c.em&r_by=1135580

[Alhena]

12. Just curious, why doesn't Syria get attention like this?

Assad probably kills a few hundred Arab civilians every single day, including by flattening entire civilian blocks with indiscriminate barrel bombs. No one seems to care. Israel does it and outrage is everywhere.

Not saying Israel doesn't deserve the outrage, just wondering why it's so much more pronounced than with Syria.

[bemildred]

13. We damn near bombed the crap out of Syria, and are supporting the Syrian rebels.

And negotiated the removal of their chemical weapons.

[BlueMTexpat]

14. Likely because we are not giving $$$$ and

weapons to the Syrian government ....

If Putin is being roundly (and rightly) excoriated for what pro-Russian rebels do in Ukraine with presumed Russian support, then the US is every bit as responsible for what its ME proxy state is doing with actual US support.

[BenFranklin99]

15. I'm not a Muslim,

but watching Israel enthusiastically engaging in mass murder while Americans cheer is horrifying and tragic. Israel's propaganda is obviously all lies. Existential threat? Two dead Israeli civilians and over 1,300 dead Gazan civilians = an existential threat to ISRAEL? What obvious BS that is. Gaza is an Israeli concentration camp, and Israel is conducting mass murder of the prisoners, including over 100 children. Israelis are cheering in the streets about killing Palestinian children! They are cheering, saying that there will be no teaching in Gaza tomorrow because all of the children are dead! Even the Nazis never conducted mass rallies in which killing Jewish children was celebrated!

[BlueMTexpat]

21. What is happening in Gaza right now is indeed outrageous

and religion, or lack of it, really should not even be factored into the equation. Here are some facts that a lot of people apparently do not know or understand. Or apparently even care to.

Genetic analysis suggests that a majority of the Muslims of Palestine, inclusive of Arab citizens of Israel, are descendants of Christians, Jews and other earlier inhabitants of the southern Levant whose core may reach back to prehistoric times. A study of high-resolution haplotypes demonstrated that a substantial portion of Y chromosomes of Israeli Jews (70%) and of Palestinian Muslim Arabs (82%) belonged to the same chromosome pool.[31] [Emphasis mine.] Since the time of the Muslim conquests in the 7th century, religious conversions have resulted in Palestinians being predominantly Sunni Muslim by religious affiliation, though there is a significant Palestinian Christian minority of various Christian denominations, as well as Druze and a small Samaritan community. Though Palestinian Jews made up part of the population of Palestine prior to the creation of the State of Israel, few identify as "Palestinian" today. Acculturation, independent from conversion to Islam, resulted in Palestinians being linguistically and culturally Arab.[16] The vernacular of Palestinians, irrespective of religion, is the Palestinian dialect of Arabic. Many Arab citizens of Israel including Palestinians are bilingual and fluent in Hebrew.

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

Killing other human beings is not right under any creed. Period.

The Gaza situation today is every bit as much of a Warsaw Ghetto situation as that situation itself was. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto

And it looks as if this nation is just standing by, much as it did then, but with much less excuse. After all, there was war throughout Europe in 1940 when the ghetto was created and we were fighting a pretty desperate war on two fronts in 1943, at the time of the uprising.

And we also were not providing financial aid or arms to the Nazis.

[Adrahil]

17. While I certainly get your point....

neither Syria, nor Hamas for that matter, are our "allies."

I think it's pretty clear we oppose both Syria and Hamas, but Israel is officially our friend and ally. We have a responsibility to express our disapproval, IMO.

[hrmjustin]

19. But we are giving Israel more Ammo to kill more people.

[obama2terms]

20. Then we turn around and give Israel more weapons

We love to call everyone else out on their hypocrisy, but I think now it's time to call our government out for its own hypocrisy. We can't condemn things like this, and then send more weapons out and then wonder why something horrible happens again. Our government continually has condemned what has been going on in Israel and Gaza but not only does nothing to stop it, but continues to feed the conflict by sending money or weapons. I am Jewish and support Israel's right to exist, but I don't support the murders of innocent people, I don't support destruction of schools or peoples' homes and businesses, and I don't support the destruction of hospitals that are sadly much needed right now. It's all been so wrong. That's all I can say, there are really no words for the callousness of it all.

Now I don't think nor have I ever thought that it was the U.S.'s duty or any other nation's duty to solve this long time conflict.No other nation can come in and be "the savior" that brings peace. To get peace they have to want it, and achieve it on their own. But we could show that we don't want any part in this conflict by stop giving anyone money or weapons. I know that will never happen, but its a thought.