Hashtag Genocide: Why Gaza Fought Back | Ramzy Baroud

[Tace]

Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust

Aug. 12, 2014

My old family house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza was recently rebuilt by its new owner, into a beautiful three-story building with large windows adorned by red frames.

In Israel’s most recent and deadliest war on Gaza, the house sustained significant damage. A large hole caused by Israeli missiles can be seen from afar, in a part of the house where our kitchen once stood.

It seems that the original target was not my house, however, but that of our kindly neighbor, who had spent his entire working-life toiling between manual jobs in Israel, and later in life as a janitor for UN-operated schools in Gaza. The man’s whole life savings were invested in his house where several families lived. After “warning” rockets blew up part of his house, several missiles pulverized the rest.

My entire neighborhood was also destroyed. I saw photos of the wreckage-filled neighborhood by accident on Facebook. The clearance where we played football as little kids was filled with holes left by missiles and shrapnel. The shop where I used my allowance to buy candy, was blown up. Even the graveyard where our dead were meant to “rest in peace” was anything but peaceful. Signs of war and destruction were everywhere.

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http://worldnewstrust.com/hashtag-genocide-why-gaza-fought-back-ramzy-baroud

[oberliner]

1. "...a freedom fighter with a Palestinian resistance movement"

What does that mean exactly?

Are there any terrorists among Hamas or just "freedom fighters" (or do they overlap)?

[Cicada]

2. Terrorist is defined as one using force the US opposes

A freedom fighter is one using force approved by the US. Thus those pro-West rebels who used force to overthrow the elected government of the Ukraine are freedom fighters. Then those pro-Russian fighters who sought to restore the elected government of the Ukraine are "terrorists". This is not a hard concept to understand yet many seem confused by it. Just remember - force approved by US is freedom-fighting while force opposed by US is terrorism.

[alsame]

4. +1 nt

[hack89]

5. So a suicide bomber blowing up buses can be a freedom fighter?

ok.

[King_David]

6. In an upside down world

And then will get some support from websites on the extreme right .

[azurnoir]

7. well I'd guess that would be much like a bomber blowing up a hotel or

assassinating a UN negotiator

[hack89]

8. If Hamas limited its suicide attacks to Israeli government or military buildings

and also phoned in warnings so the buildings could be evacuated then you might have a point.

[azurnoir]

9. really so which happened with the hotel? and only military personel were killed?

you sure about that now? But by your own reasoning rocket attacks on Tel Aviv, Dimona, and Jerusalem are okay I guess not to mention anywhere in Israel there are IDF stationed

[hack89]

10. Two warnings were phoned into to the hotel

how many warnings has Hamas ever phoned in?

[azurnoir]

11. Two ya say, not according to the British who say no warning were ever recieved

Since the bombing, much controversy has ensued over the issues of when warnings were sent and how the British authorities responded. Irgun representatives have always stated that the warning was given well in advance of the explosion, so that adequate time was available to evacuate the hotel. Menachem Begin, for example, writes that the telephone message was delivered 25–27 minutes before the explosion.[20] It is often stated that the British authorities have always denied that a warning was sent. However, what the British Government said, five months after the bombing, once the subsequent inquest and all the inquiries had been completed, was not that no warning had been sent, but that no such warning had been received by anyone at the Secretariat "in an official position with any power to take action."

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

[hack89]

12. "was not that no warning had been sent..."

so you agree that a warning was sent? The British said it went to the wrong person but a warning was sent none the less.

[azurnoir]

13. well you're entitled to your own interpretation of events

in any event there was no meaningful warning sent

[hack89]

14. So two phone calls directly to the hotel management was not meaningful?

the second one sent when it was clear the first had been ignored? The issue is intent - if they wanted to kill all those people, why did they even bother to send warnings? Why not do like Hamas does? For that matter, why not attack completely undefended civilian buildings instead of a heavily guarded government and military headquarters?

[azurnoir]

15. do have something to back up these claims?

I'll assume you do

[hack89]

16. So you are saying they did not attack a heavily guarded government building?

you have already shown they intended to warn the inhabitants. What other point is left?

[azurnoir]

17. I've shown no such thing -again your opinion is not fact

and I'll take it that you can not produce a link for the 2 calls to the hotel management claim?

[hack89]

18. You provided the link

there were actually three warning calls. After the last one, the hotel management actually found the bomb but it was too late.

[azurnoir]

19. oh please my link shows no such thing but another one does show something

but you'll have to make your own case which apparently you seem unable to do

[hack89]

20. Really? This comes right after the paragraph you posted

American author Thurston Clarke's analysis of the bombing gave timings for calls and for the explosion, which he said took place at 12:37. He stated that as part of the Irgun plan, a sixteen year old recruit, Adina Hay (alias Tehia), was to make three warning calls before the attack. At 12:22 the first call was made, in both Hebrew and English, to a telephone operator on the hotel's switchboard (the Secretariat and the military each had their own, separate, telephone exchanges). It was ignored.[5] At 12:27, the second warning call was made to the French Consulate adjacent to the hotel to the north-east. This second call was taken seriously, and staff went through the building opening windows and closing curtains to lessen the impact of the blast. At 12:31 a third and final warning call to the Palestine Post newspaper was made. The telephone operator called the Palestine Police CID to report the message. She then called the hotel switchboard. The hotel operator reported the threat to one of the hotel managers. This warning resulted in the discovery of the milk cans in the basement, but by then it was too late.[5]

[azurnoir]

21. No calls to the British officials and 2 not made to the hotel either nothing official at all except

to the French consulate ya sounds like something was being minimized all right but it certainly wasn't causalities-civilian or otherwise

I think these days the term is plausible deniability much like a knock on the roof

[hack89]

22. ok. You win. Hamas and Israel are morally equivalent.

happy now?

[azurnoir]

23. Hamas and Israel? so you think Irgun is representatve of Israel?

well okay then

[hack89]

24. Not really.

Last edited Tue Aug 12, 2014, 04:33 PM - Edit history (1)

it just seemed important to you that the King David Hotel attack was conducted just like Hamas would have conducted it.

Irgun and the Stern gang were radical fringe groups. The difference is that Israel was able to corral their crazies and balance their views with more moderate ones. The Palestinians elected theirs to govern them with absolutely no moderation.

[intaglio]

3. Read this then tell me with a straight face that Israel is not the terrorist

From An open letter for the people in Gaza by Paola Manduca, Iain Chalmers, Derek Summerfield, Mads Gilbert, Swee Ang, on behalf of 24 signatories Published in The Lancet this link for full text

/snip
The blockade on Gaza has tightened further since last year and this has worsened the toll on Gaza's population. In Gaza, people suffer from hunger, thirst, pollution, shortage of medicines, electricity, and any means to get an income, not only by being bombed and shelled. Power crisis, gasoline shortage, water and food scarcity, sewage outflow and ever decreasing resources are disasters caused directly and indirectly by the siege.

/snip

Gaza has been blockaded by sea and land since 2006. Any individual of Gaza, including fishermen venturing beyond 3 nautical miles of the coast of Gaza, face being shot by the Israeli Navy. No one from Gaza can leave from the only two checkpoints, Erez or Rafah, without special permission from the Israelis and the Egyptians, which is hard to come by for many, if not impossible. People in Gaza are unable to go abroad to study, work, visit families, or do business. Wounded and sick people cannot leave easily to get specialised treatment outside Gaza. Entries of food and medicines into Gaza have been restricted and many essential items for survival are prohibited.3 Before the present assault, medical stock items in Gaza were already at an all time low because of the blockade.3 They have run out now. Likewise, Gaza is unable to export its produce. Agriculture has been severely impaired by the imposition of a buffer zone, and agricultural products cannot be exported due to the blockade. 80% of Gaza's population is dependent on food rations from the UN.

Much of Gaza's buildings and infrastructure had been destroyed during Operation Cast Lead, 2008—09, and building materials have been blockaded so that schools, homes, and institutions cannot be properly rebuilt. Factories destroyed by bombardment have rarely been rebuilt adding unemployment to destitution.

/snip

This “defensive aggression” of unlimited duration, extent, and intensity must be stopped.