**PLEASE DIGG ORIGINAL POST ON MUSLIMMATTERS by CLICKING HERE**
UPDATE: Great article on HuffPo
As I came to Dailykos tonight, I was full of apprehension about how the humanitarian crises, murder of genocidal proportions in Gaza, would be treated by the Dailykos community.
My expectations were low considering that yesterday when I wrote in my facebook status that I was grieved by the situation of dead civilians, including women and children, I received a comment that startled me. Imagine my disgust, when one someone, who I counted among friends from my MBA class, an IVY school class of some of the brightest and smartest minds, had the gall to say
"they [the dead Palestinian] deserved it and plenty more a-comin'"
Is this humanity? I could not imagine celebrating the murder of innocent human beings, regardless of their religion, or non-religion. Does any woman or child deserve murder?
BUT to my glee, a glee for humanity, I saw the top recommended story a deeply-moving one by "Chilean Jew". and another one by Tom J on Real Ways to Stand with people of Gaza.
Over at MuslimMatters, we wrote a post, covering some of the issues around this tragedy, and I struggled to remind Muslims of the importance of not stereotyping Jewish people as being monolithic, just as Muslims don't appreciate that sort of generalization. Well, the story by the humanist, Chilean Jew and another editorial in Haaretz provided me the proof to make my point.
Over at Haaretz, a light in the darkness of Israel, this brave Israeli Jew wrote a story that would put many Palestinian Muslims to shame, in terms of its power and logic:
It’s all about politics: lives for votes– the worst that humanity has to offer:
Six months ago Israel asked and received a cease-fire from Hamas. It unilaterally violated it when it blew up a tunnel, while still asking Egypt to get the Islamic group to hold its fire.
[Delusions of victory in Gaza-Haaretz]
And who could have said it better than another Israeli Jew (proving the futility and injustice of stereotyping). This is a must-read, and must-distribute article [The neighborhood bully strikes again-Haaretz]:
"Every neighborhood has one, a loud-mouthed bully who shouldn’t be provoked into anger... Not that the bully’s not right - someone did harm him. But the reaction, what a reaction!"
Within the span of a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, the IDF sowed death and destruction on a scale that the Qassam rockets never approached in all their years
Once again, Israel’s violent responses, even if there is justification for them, exceed all proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international law and wisdom. What began yesterday in Gaza is a war crime and the foolishness of a country
In the meantime, let us now let the IDF win, as they say. A hero against the weak, it bombed dozens of targets from the air yesterday, and the pictures of blood and fire are designed to show Israelis, Arabs and the entire world that the neighborhood bully’s strength has yet to wane. When the bully is on a rampage, nobody can stop him.
And how about hearing it from a Palestinian Mother:
Update: Gaza
Gaza’s punishment continues today. Communication has been intermittent, but we have managed to keep the lines open. My father just called to inform me he was ok- after warplanes bombed the Islamic University there, considered to be the Strip’s premiere academic institution.
A little later I called my mother, only to hear her crying on the phone. "The planes are overhead" she cried "the planes are overhead". I tried to calm her down- planes overhead mean the "target" is further away. But in such moments of intense fear, there is no room for rationality and logic.
So I leave you with the MM diary, with full permission from the original publisher:
After an agreement to a six-month ceasefire between between Hamas and Israel expired on December 19th, Israel launched multiple F-16 bombers into the Gaza Strip, dropping 100 tons of bombs in the first nine hours of fighting, indiscriminately massacring over 225 Palestinians and injuring over 700 others, the worst number of Palestinian casualties, and the bloodiest, since the 1967 attack in Gaza.
This latest violation of human rights and basic decency by the Israeli government was allegedly due to rockets fired from Gaza into the southern border of Israel, although Hamas contends Israel had been violating the conditions of the ceasefire by closing off checkpoints and murdering 28 Palestinians.
There remains, however, speculation about the motives provided by the current Israeli regime. Within a month's time, Israel will be holding parlimentary elections and thus far, Ehud Olmert's government has received poor marks from the Israeli public for their handling of Hamas-controlled Gaza. It is believed this disproportionately senseless attack was meant to beef up Olmert's party's street cred with those holding more hawkish views, pulling them away from opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
There is further speculation that President-elect Obama supports the Palestinians and this will most likely be the last time it receives unconditional support from the United States through the Bush Administration.
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, lending credence to this theory, has already stated, "We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the cease-fire and for the renewal of violence there. The cease-fire must be restored immediately and fully respected," referring to rocket attacks which killed one Israeli civilian.
The most plausible theory, however, is that reported by the Haaretz, which states Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has been planning this operation, known as Operation Cast Lead, into the Gaza strip well over six months. Those six months of relative peace were used by the IDF for information gathering, in order to understand Hamas's security infrastructure completely and destroy it when ready.
That time came when IDF forces carried out attacks in Gaza just over a month ago (during the ceasefire) to take out a tunnel which the army alleged was meant for use as attacking IDF troops. This was met by retaliation from Hamas and has this has now escalated to where the issue stands today.
The rest of the world, including the UN (minus the hawkish neo-conservative executive branch of the US government) has condemned Israel's disproportionate aggression against the Palestinian people and called for a ceasefire. Israel has made it clear that no ceasefires will be negotiated, and it is gearing up to continue its attacks on Gaza and they will not be ended any time soon. Israeli troops are already amassing tanks and infantry at the border in preparation.
Humanitarian Disaster
"There are heads without bodies .... There's blood in the corridors. People are weeping, women are crying, doctors are shouting, " said nurse Ahmed Abdel Salaam from Shifa Hospital, Gaza's main treatment center.
The death toll is expected to rise further, with bodies still lying buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Hospitals, already suffering from shortages due to an 18-month blockade on the Gaza Strip, said they were struggling to cope with the number of injured, which included women and children.
Gaza is densely populated. Its 1.5 million residents are already experiencing shortages in power and basic supplies due to the siege which is widely condemned by human rights movements as a collective punishment.
MuslimMatters Statement on the Gaza Massacre
The Prophet sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam has taught us that if we can stop the evil we encounter with our hands, then we should do so, and if not the hand, then by the tongue, and if that's not possible, then to at least hate it in our hearts.
Today, we have the platform by which we can express ourselves through the medium of writing and have this reach a wide audience. Thus, we say to you, we stand united with our brothers and sisters in Gaza, and we not only condemn, no, but we curse Olmert, Ehud Barak, and all others involved in this blood bath committed against the people of Gaza. There is no justification by which one group can purport to murder over 225 lives and seriously injure over 700 in retaliation for the loss of one life.
See Also:
Raising Yousuf and Noor: diary of a Palestinian mother
The neighborhood bully strikes again (@ Haaretz)
Delusions of victory in Gaza (@Haaretz)
Israeli Occupation Causes Terrorism (UN Report Finds) @ MM
Israel’s "Retaliatory" Killing Machine Fully Justified @MM
The World I Live In : Reflections on Gaza @MM
Farmocracy Experiment Part-2 (The Gaza Crises) @MM
Updates (12/28/08):
The death toll in Gaza has risen now to 280 of our brothers and sisters. May Allah subhaanahu wa ta'aala have mercy on them and accept them into jannatul firdaus, aameen.
Tunnels which were alleged to have been used for smuggling weapons from Egypt into Gaza to build up Hamas have been bombed. In total, more than 40 airstrikes have been carried out, taking out 210 targets.
The red cross has been allowed into Gaza to provide medical supplies,which is interesting when you consider that all this time when such supplies have been in need, Israel has continued to blockcade any form of help to the people of Gaza.
Sister Safa, who lives in Gaza city and is witnessing the carnage and destruction firsthand, has written the following:
I've never seen anything like this. It all happened so fast but the amount of death and destruction is inconceivable, even to me and I'm in the middle of it and a few hours have already passed. I think 15 locations were hit during the air raid on Gaza City. [some Israelis sources said 150 targets were struck] The images are probably not broadcast in US media. There are piles and piles of bodies in the locations that were hit. As you look at them you can see that a few of the young men are still alive, someone lifts a hand here, and another raise his head there. They probably died within moments because their bodies are burned, most have lost limbs, some have their guts hanging out and they're all lying in pools of blood.
Outside my home, (which is close to the universities) a bomb fell on a large group of young men, university students, they'd been warned not to stand in groups, it makes them an easy target, but they were waiting for buses to take them home. This was about 3 hours ago 7 were killed, 4 students and 3 of our neighbors kids, teenagers who were from the same family (Rayes) and were best friends.
As I'm writing this I heard a funeral procession go by outside, I looked out the window and it was the 3 Rayes boys, They spent all their time together when they were alive, and now their sharing the same funeral together. Nothing could stop my 14 year old brother from rushing out to see the bodies of his friends laying in the street after they were killed. He hasn't spoken a word since.
A little further down the street about an hour earlier 3 girls happened to be passing by one of the locations when a bomb fell. The girls bodies were torn into pieces and covered the street from one side to the other.These are just a couple of images that i've witnessed. In all the locations people are going through the dead terrified of recognizing a family member among them. The city is in a state of alarm, panic and confusion, cell phones aren't working, hospitals and morgues are backed up and some of the dead are still lying in the streets with their families gathered around them, kissing their faces, holding on to them. Outside the destroyed buildings old men are kneeling on the floor weeping. Their slim hopes of finding their sons still alive vanished after taking one look at what had become of their office buildings.
At least 160 people dead in today's air raid. That means 160 funeral processions, a few today, most of them tomorrow probably. To think that yesterday these families were worried about food and heat and electricity. At this point I think they, actually all of us, would gladly have Hamas sign off every last basic right we've been calling for the last few months forever if it could have stopped this from ever having happened.
The bombing was very close to my home. Most of my extended family live in the area. My family is ok, but 2 of my uncles' homes were damaged, another relative was injured. I don't know why I'm sending this. It doesn't even begin to tell the story on any level. Just flashes of thing that happened today that are going through my head.
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