Why are Israeli girls signing bombs in English?

[Jara sang]

I guess the more appropriate question is "why are Israeli children signing bombs?'. This is Israel's "exploitation of youth in the promotion of war" moment. Just like the pics of a Palestinian child with a ammo belt strapped to it's chest. But why are these children writing their messages to the bombs recipients in English? <----HEAVY:sarcasm: Are these pictures intended for an American audience or are these children in fact Americans? Hebrew and Arabic are the official languages of Israel.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. This is one of the most horrible

photographs I have ever seen. I intend to print it and discuss it with my students. If I had done this as a child, I would never, ever forget it.

[whistle]

38. These photos remind me of the pictures of Hitler youth in the 1930s

...being conditioned and desensitized for Hitler's war machine and atrocities that were yet to unfold and horrify the world. Now 75 years later we have Israeli children being conditioned and desensitized and being exploited for Israeli propaganda purposes to unleash what upon the world? The Jews have not only become what their nazi enemies were but they have poisoned the minds of their children with the same evil. Why, so the world will fear them? This is madness. This is insanity. This vengeance will destroy Israel, not be its salvation. These people I fear are already dead. I pray to God it isn't so. I weep for their children.

[kenny blankenship]

45. Tut! Enough with the comparisons to Nazism! The pictures show

the shells signed in English so that everyone in the world can see that THIS IS A WAR ZONE. So that everyone can see ISRAEL IS IN DANGER OF BEING PUSHED INTO THE SEA!

In fact it's SO DANGEROUS for Israel that they let little girls right up to the front and sign heavy artillery shells that will be shot into Lebanon. Can't you sense that it's OBVIOUSLY A LAST DITCH DEFENSE brought about by the most savage necessity and not by any political choice, or preference, or national affection for warfare?

If it were not true that the children's presence at the front indicated that Israel was fighting for its very survival --and thus had to use its children in war--then you'd have a hard time avoiding the conclusion that these little ones were being inculcated into some kind of death cult celebrating the killing of Muslims.

[whistle]

49. Wow, are you ever brain washed, last ditch defense, Israeli children

...on the front lines of the war zone, smiling as they write graffiti on artillery shells, please stop with the bullshit. These are propaganda pictures.

The world sees what is going on. It is way too many Americans who are being duped. The first thing that has to happen to end this insanity is an immediate ceasefire ordered and enforced by a neutral peacekeeping force, the U.N.. Then get all parties in the region sitting down at the negotiating tables and hammer out a peace agreement. Keep BushCo and the U.S. neocon thugs out of it period.

[kenny blankenship]

2. 155 mm shells not bombs-ain't it cute though?

presumably because the shells are American made and they just want to be friendly?
And they'll soon be hurtling over the border and land in Lebanese villages where little Lebanese girls can sign them too. It's like a pen-pal letter!

[Arkansas Granny]

18. Shells, bombs - doesn't make much difference. They are all

designed to kill people. Doesn't much matter what language they are writing in either. What is the rationale behind letting children write messages on instruments of war and death?

[kenny blankenship]

33. Rationale? Oh it's just one generation saying to the next

all of this will be yours someday.

[msongs]

3. most people speak some english in israel nt

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[brmdp3123]

9. That's the second post that I've seen today...

comparing the Israelis to Hitler. Ironic isn't it?

[manic expression]

20. Yeah, I think

comparisons to Franco are far more accurate.

[Selatius]

16. No, that's Michael "Rock Us" Dukakis on the tank

[Ian David]

17. No, I think that's him in your garage. n/t

[Biernuts]

5. Uh, dude, believe those are 155mm artillery shells. n/t

[kenny blankenship]

14. Geeze! Nitpicky! n/t

[Jara sang]

31. Oh, you are so correct. A Bomb isn't a bomb...

when it is manufactured by the American defense industry. It becomes an "instrument of peace".

[snappyturtle]

6. Funny...the pictures of the children I've seen...

from the other side, are all DEAD! This is sickening.

[brmdp3123]

13. You don't think there are any dead Israelis?

They only publish what they want you to see.

[snappyturtle]

27. Are you referring to the U.S. press? nt

[brmdp3123]

48. You're damn right I am.

[laura888]

36. Please explain n/t

[brmdp3123]

50. The post that I was responding to

stated:

"Funny...the pictures of the children I've seen...

from the other side, are all DEAD! This is sickening."

Like the Israelis have no casualties.

[Ian David]

19. Israeli children are dying, too. You need pictures, Herr Zundel? n/t

[manic expression]

25. Perspective is in order

Try looking at the quantity. And before you say that it is meaningless, try thinking. First, think about which side has far more blood on its hands.

Next, think about the fact that Israel is pounding a country into oblivion and killing countless children. What would you expect to occur afterwards?

[snappyturtle]

35. I am aware of the children who died in Nazareth.

I don't want to start another WAR here HOWEVER, I do think the Israelis are featured as the victims MORE THAN the Lebanese. I was only stating a truth: THE ONLY PICTURES I HAVE SEEN FROM LEBANON OF CHILDREN ARE DECEASED CHILDREN. SORRY. Let's calm down. I do know, according to our beloved press, that twenty odd Israelis have been killed in this conflict. On the other hand, the press is reporting over three hundred on the Lebanese side. What's one to think?

[Ian David]

42. I'll send a letter to my Israeli family & demand that more Jews should die

to help ballance things out a little bit so my "liberal" friends won't feel cheated.

[snappyturtle]

46. Take a nap.....you're eyes must be tired and while

you are falling asleep THINK about what I said. I'm not a hateful monster. Frankly, I've gotten to the neutral point in my life that I don't care who is who....just STOP doing each other in. Rest. You'll feel better in the morning.

[brmdp3123]

51. Well..

"What's one to think?

The Israelis have better aim?

[stepnw1f]

7. That Truely is Fucked Up (nt)

[laura888]

37. AGREED!

[dave123williams]

8. Because they speak English? Duh.

[Tsiyu]

10. Because their parents are idiots?

I'm sure the Lebanese babies they hit can't read anyway.

But what kind of culture encourages its children to glorify destroying others?

Oh, yeah. I live in one of those cultures, too.

Sick. Sick. Sick.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

41. Speedreaders will be able to get a couple of words down

before they meet their ancestors.

[Ignoramus]

11. It's not all english

I don't know what hebrew hand writing looks like. Doesn't the second shell in the bottom photo have a non-english script on it.

I suppose it is possible that it could be photoshopped even if AP used it. Or, it could be intentionally in English as war propaganda, even if AP used it.

Urggh.. Embarassment. I don't even know if Hebrew is the dominant language in Israel. Maybe english is...

[Igel]

12. You have reporters egging them on, and

you get the girls showing off for reporters.

[Warpy]

15. PR for American Jews

and American right wing religious nut jobs.

[Ian David]

21. American Jews aren't pleased about this either. n/t

[Warpy]

52. MY friends sure aren't!

but then I don't tend to spend much time with kneejerk pro Israel war hawks. They are painful for me to be around.

[Ian David]

53. I agree. I have fought with many of those who call me a "self-hater." n/t

[Jara sang]

28. My thoughts exactly.

Although most Jewish Americans I've met think that Israel is in the wrong on this one.

[Sapere aude]

22. What a sick thing to have children do. Hate is a learned emotion.

This is how it is learned.

[skids]

23. That's just... wrong.

Now I wouldn't bat an eye if a soldier in combat released some aggression by signing a bomb.

This is just scary though.

What's scarier is that I bet if the U.S. military had held a bomb-signing session for munitions going over to Iraq when the war had just started, some Americans would have lined up around the block to get in on it.

What's even scarier is that there are some that would do so even now.

:scared:

[ComerPerro]

24. ENGLISH ONLY

[shance]

26. Really? Tell us everything that is on those missiles then.

n/t

[ComerPerro]

32. its a joke

[shance]

29. So why don't you dictate everything for us that is written Jara.

If its all in English, then by all means, prove it.

For the record, I can see what looks to obviously be Hebrew on one of the missiles. At least it's not English as you claim.

Also for the record, why the distraction from the reality that these kids are being conditioned at an early age to think of Lebanese and/or others as being the enemy and to be hated? Certainly hatred and racism has been conditioned into our kids here in America and its not right anywhere that it is spawned.

[niyad]

30. that is absolutely appalling. talk about teaching your children to hate;

YOU'VE GOT TO BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT


Cable:
You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.


You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.


You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

[niyad]

34. mark twain's "the war prayer"

(as far as I am concerned, this should be mandatory reading for each and every person who ever says anything positive about war, or who is in a position to vote us into one)

The War Prayer
by Mark Twain
<1904>
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came--next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams--visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation

God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory--

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside--which the startled minister did--and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne--bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import--that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of--except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two--one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this--keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer--the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it--that part which the pastor--and also you in your hearts--fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle--be Thou near them! With them--in spirit--we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it--for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(After a pause.) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/twain/warpray.htm

[BrotherBuzz]

39. Why aren't these girls writing their pen pals in Lebanon?

Breaking the cycle of violence has to start somewhere....

It is a bad outlook for the world if the spirit of violence takes hold of the mass mind. Ultimately, it destroys the race - Gandhi

[El Supremo]

40. It is mostly Hebrew. Here is another picture:

There is a discussion of this at:
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2006/07/bloodthirsty_ch.html

Whatever, it really makes me feel sick.

[RaleighNCDUer]

47. "Jazrala whit love, from Israel"

Looks like English is not the first language here.

Maybe they were told to practice their English by someone, in hopes that if the shell did not explode the english message would be found, connecting the US to Israeli munitions (as if that connection had to be made) and help drag US into the conflict?

Or am I making too much of this?

[Skip Intro]

43. unbelievable!

I just cannot believe these pics.

I don't have any more words...

just unbelievable

[kenny blankenship]

44. As the artillery will mostly kill the innocent, it's only fitting & proper

that the shells be signed by children.
It's a way of saying "YOU BET WE MEANT TO KILL YOUR KIDS!"