Gaza: rummaging around for shoes

"Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres" (tell me who hang out with and I'll tell you who you are) Old Spanish proverb

'Twas an evening in October, I'll confess I wasn't sober,
I was carting home a load with manly pride,
When my feet began to stutter and I fell into the gutter,
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
Then I lay there in the gutter, thinking thoughts I cannot utter,
Till a lady, passing by, did chance to say:
"You can tell a man that boozes by the company he chooses,"
Then the pig got up and slowly walked away.
"The Pig Got Up and Slowly walked Away" (1933, Clarke Van Ness, music by F. Henri Klickmann)

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Anyone eager for change they can believe in would do well to listen closely to the statements and perhaps more importantly to the silences of Barack Obama in the next few days.

As the Spanish proverb and the song quoted above suggest, the United States is defined by the company it keeps. America's conjoined twin alliance with Israel defines America for the world. No amount of chanting "yes we can", will change this. Only a genuine change in policy will change it.

Will there ever be any change?

If you believe that Barack Obama will face down the Israel lobby while trying to pull the USA out of a recession that is quickly turning into a depression, then your hope passes all audacity and enters into that part of the human psyche where suicide bombers expect 72 virgins on completing their assignment.

Richard Nixon once warned, in very different circumstance, that America was in danger of becoming "a pitiful and helpless giant". Nothing conveys this helplessness more graphically than America's supine support for Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people... but very few people pity the "helpless giant" today... if they ever did. DS

Israel to nuke Iran - Sunday Times

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This is the front page of the Sunday Times of London. Israel denies it. Easy prediction: If it does happen, then Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clinton and Senator McCain will endorse it and the United States government will veto any UN resolution condemning it. It probably would mean the political death of NATO and the relations with the people of the European Union... I wouldn't swear by the governments. The Times is owned by Murdoch, so this might all be part of the propaganda surrounding the "surge". What is clear is that the neocons have realized that it's double or nothing. So this could be bluff or reality or both. DS

Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran - Sunday Times

Abstract: Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.(...) The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb. Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout. “As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources. The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years. Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene, senior sources said. Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack. Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could range from disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets around the world.(...) Israeli officials believe that destroying all three sites would delay Iran’s nuclear programme indefinitely and prevent them from having to live in fear of a “second Holocaust”. The Israeli government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow nuclear weapons to be made in Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map”.(...) The Israelis believe that Iran’s retaliation would be constrained by fear of a second strike if it were to launch its Shehab-3 ballistic missiles at Israel. However, American experts warned of repercussions, including widespread protests that could destabilise parts of the Islamic world friendly to the West. Colonel Sam Gardiner, a Pentagon adviser, said Iran could try to close the Strait of Hormuz, the route for 20% of the world’s oil. Some sources in Washington said they doubted if Israel would have the nerve to attack Iran. However, Dr Ephraim Sneh, the deputy Israeli defence minister, said last month: “The time is approaching when Israel and the international community will have to decide whether to take military action against Iran.” READ IT ALL

Israel: dangerous when cornered

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Briefly described, the neocon plan for the Middle East theorized that the invasion of Iraq and its regime change, accompanied by much "shock and awe", would bring about regime change in Iran and Syria. The new regimes thus produced would forthwith sign peace treaties with Israel and this would leave the Palestinians isolated and thus forced to accept whatever conditions Israel willed. This strategy was expressed as, "the road to Jerusalem leads through Baghdad". Poof! That strategy lies in ruins. Turned inside out like a stocking. The United States is now in the death grip of the Middle East and is struggling to extricate itself. Now it appears that "the road to Baghdad lead through Jerusalem", in other words: for the USA to leave Iraq with even a shred of dignity intact it needs the cooperation of Iran, Syria and the various factions of Iraq who share a common hatred for the "Zionist entity" and will need to humble Israel in order to justify their concessions before their peoples. Therefore, any cooperation, peace plan, or peace conference will come at the expense of Israel, which will have to concede much, much, more than what Ariel Sharon termed, "painful concessions". To top it off, after their military, diplomatic and propaganda failure against Hezbollah last summer, the Israeli's military prestige is in tatters and their enemies emboldened. The Israeli rightwing will do anything and activate any resource to slow down or derail this momentum which is totally to their detriment. In my opinion many of the strange things that are occurring and may occur in the near future, in the Middle East and elsewhere, can be explained by the Israeli right's need to save what they can from the collapse of the neocon 'dream'. This article from the Financial Times lays out the elements without connecting the dots. DS
The assassination in Lebanon should not derail dialogue - Financial Times
Abstract: The assassination of Lebanese industry minister Pierre Gemayel last Tuesday sent shockwaves through the Middle East. It seemed to run counter to the growing momentum for diplomacy and co-operation that had seen Syrian ministers in Baghdad, the Iraqi president preparing to go to Tehran and calls in London and Washington for a change of course toward more constructive engagement with Syria and Iran. However, the killing necessitates a balanced policy of moving ahead with the United Nations special tribunal on assassinations in Lebanon while also reducing conflict and instability through constructive and multilateral dialogue.(...) At the international level, the murder disrupts the momentum in London and Washington for a fundamental change of approach in the Middle East. Regardless of who actually perpetrated it, much public commentary has laid the blame at the doorstep of Damascus. Syria has condemned the killing, denies any responsibility and protests that the act, carried out on the day that the UN Security Council was meeting to finalise the tribunal agreement, could not have been timed more effectively to hurt its interests. Nevertheless, the assassination revived international wariness of the Syrian regime and helped rush the tribunal agreement through the Security Council.(...) Despite the latest events, the logic of reaching out to Tehran and Damascus still holds. The two are major forces in the region and there is much to be gained from robust and responsible dialogue between them and the international community. With the removal of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, Iran has made gains in the region, helped by the rise in oil prices. Iran will be an important participant in the future of Iraq and in the stability or otherwise of the Middle East. Despite sharp differences over its nuclear programme, Iran shares with other countries an interest in a stable Iraq. It seeks assurances that it will not be attacked or overthrown, that it will not be considered a pariah state and that its role in the region will be recognised. In exchange, it should be open to co-operation in Iraq, security in the gulf, as well as co-operation in stabilising Lebanon.(...) The killing in Lebanon reminds us all that there are dangerous and violent elements at play. But there is no alternative to engaging governments and encouraging states to become partners rather than pariahs in the international community, thus having a stake in playing by its rules. READ IT ALL

American priest and nun join Palestinian non-violent resistance in Gaza - ISM

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This about the nicest priest and nun story I've heard since the US Civil Rights Movement or Central America in the 80s. (or maybe when this picture was taken). There is something in the air or rather something moving at the grassroots. Public opinion is a very strange animal and it has been hungering for the right international image of the Palestinian struggle. This might be it. A test of the effectiveness of this action will be the streams of insults and innuendo that will rain down on the heads of Father Peter and Sister Mary Ellen. DS

Abstract: November 22nd: Father Peter and Sister Mary Ellen have moved on to Beit Lahia, in the north of Gaza, where Palestinians have been gathered for the last three days to protect the home of Wael Rajab, a house that took 20 years to build. This is at least the second location in Gaza in the last four days where this particular nonviolent tactic has been employed to prevent home demolition. Fr. Peter said he has been sitting outside the house with many people from the town, including doctors, teachers, and a civil engineer. “It is clear that violence will only lead to more violence,” Fr. Peter said, “but perhaps this nonviolent form of resistance will help to end the vicious cycle.” Palestinians have explained that hundreds of villagers have decided to participate in this action because they feel that since the world community has chosen not to help them, they must help themselves. And they are dedicated. “Even if Israel destroys our homes, we will stay,” said one Palestinian man to Fr. Peter.(...) It is a contravention of the Geneva Convention for armies to fail to make a distinction between unarmed civilians and armed combatants. Israel practices the strategy of telephoning residents of targeted homes shortly before the homes are to be destroyed, giving them just enough time to quickly escape. This practice has been used in over 60 cases within Gaza, despite the fact that any act of collective punishment is a crime under international law.
Contacts in Jabalya: Father Peter - 0546259547, Sister Mary Ellen - 0547947159
Link to ISM webpage

"Human Shields" in the Jerusalem Post

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This article from the rightwing, Israeli, English language Newspaper, Jerusalem Post, gives some of the true flavor of what is going on. I've underlined a few choice phrases. DS
Abstract: Palestinian residents flocked to the home of a Hamas militant Monday to prevent the Israeli army from carrying out an airstrike.(...) The army had no immediate comment on Monday's incident. But military officials have said they do not yet know how to deal with the issue. Fearing militants will continue to exploit civilians as human shields around terror targets in the Gaza Strip, a high-ranking officer said Sunday that the IDF was prepared to launch ground raids into the Palestinian territory to demolish buildings that could not be destroyed in airstrikes.(...) The incident in Beit Lahiya on Sunday was the first time Palestinians have tried to prevent such an air strike and represents, officials said, a change in tactics to try and prevent the IAF missile strikes. "These human shields will not stop us from reaching every target of ours," an IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "If we can't get to the target by air due to the human shields, we will reach it by ground and the Palestinians will pay a heavy price." The officer said that the Air Force as well as the Operations Directorate has not given up using the "phone-call tactic" and would continue to call Palestinians before bombing a civilian area. The IDF might however, he added, change the amount of time it gave the Palestinians to evacuate the area.(...) "Since July, Israel has destroyed 58 houses in the Gaza Strip," said a senior Hamas official. "More than 240 people have been left without a roof." In the last three days alone, eight houses were targeted, as well as two workshops, a library and a charity run by Rasha Rantisi, widow of slain Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. The demolition of the houses has created tremendous pressure on the Hamas-led government, which is being forced to find alternative housing for those who lost their homes. The plight of the new "refugees" is amplified by the fact that most people in the Gaza Strip are afraid to host the fugitives and their families for fear that their houses would also be targeted by the IDF. (emphasis mine) READ IT ALL

Israel Holds Fire as Gazans Rally at House - New York Times

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The Palestinians have chosen the perfect moment to employ the tactic of passive resistance. That this story has reached the front page of the New York Times is proof of that. The Times does all it can to filter news from Israel in contrast to European media and even the Israeli press itself. Most Americans are inured or ignorant of the Palestinian's suffering. After destroying Lebanon, the Israelis are being watched over more closely and with the massacre of Beit Hanun their brutality seems to have finally entered the American conscience. Now, with world watching, it is the time for satyagraha, which is only effective against such a calloused opponent if the world's cameras are running. DS
Abstract: Israel called off an airstrike against the house of a suspected Palestinian militant in Gaza late Saturday, after the inhabitants ignored a telephoned warning and neighbors flocked to the house to prevent the bombing, the military said. On Sunday, hundreds of Palestinians, including the prime minister from the militant faction Hamas, stayed around the house and on its balconies and roof throughout the day. They declared a victory for “popular resistance,” but Israel, under criticism for killing civilians in such strikes, called it another example of Palestinians using civilians to shield military activity. “We see it as a cynical exploitation of our attempt to avoid harm to civilians,” said a spokesman for the Israeli military, who, according to usual practice, spoke on condition of anonymity. “They are using them as human shields.” But Palestinians celebrated it as a possibly potent new defense against air raids that Israel might find difficult to counter. “We are so proud of this national stand,” Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said Sunday while visiting the house, in the town of Jabalya, in northern Gaza. “It’s the first step toward protecting our homes, the homes of our children.” Israel said the house had been used by leaders of a militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees, which was active in firing Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel. Last week, a 57-year-old Israeli woman from the nearby Israeli town of Sderot was killed by one of the rockets, and over the weekend, Israel carried out several small-scale operations against militants suspected of being involved in firing them. READ IT ALL

Palestinians Form Human Shields to Stop Israeli Airstrikes - New York Times

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This story is by far the most significant in the Middle East today, and perhaps in years. The Palestinians are for the first time using the Ghandian method of "Satyagraha", often referred to as passive resistance. Ho Chi Minh once said that if Gandhi had been facing the French he would have abandoned nonviolence in a week. What is true of the French is also true of the Israelis, as the similarities between the struggles of the Palestinians and Algerian independence are obvious. Gandhi himself said of the Palestinians on the occasion of the first intifada in 1938, "I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds." If, instead of the intifadas they had spent the years since 1967, sitting in cafeterias singing "we shall overcome", they would have never even have been recognized as a people. This action by the Palestinians at this particular time could change the situation in the entire Middle East drastically, because the Palestinians have chosen a moment when the world's attention and sympathy are finally focused fully on their sufferings due to Israeli excesses. With the Bush administration crippled and the Democratic congress in total confusion on the Middle East, this was the perfect time to change gears. DS
Abstract: Israel called off airstrikes on the homes of two militants Sunday after hundreds of Palestinians crowded around the buildings forming human shields, a new tactic that forced the Israelis to re-evaluate their aerial campaign in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians began to gather around the homes shortly after the Israeli army ordered occupants out of them. Israel routinely issues such warnings before attacking buildings that it says are used to store weapons, saying it wants to avoid casualties. Instead of leaving the buildings, the homeowners remained inside and were quickly joined by crowds of supporters who gathered on balconies, rooftops and in the streets outside. ''Death to Israel. Death to America,'' the crowds chanted. Local mosques and Palestinian TV and radio stations also mobilized supporters. It was the first time Palestinians have formed human shields to prevent an airstrike. The first incident occurred just before midnight at the home of Mohammedweil Baroud, a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Baroud oversees rocket attacks on Israel. About two hours later, Mohammed Nawajeh, a Hamas leader in northern Gaza, got a similar call. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas arrived at Baroud's home early Sunday to support the protest. ''We are so proud of this national stand. It's the first step toward protecting our homes, the homes of our children,'' Haniyeh said as he made his way to the roof of the house, decorated during the night with black and green flags symbolizing the Popular Resistance Committees and Hamas groups. ''This strategy was decided by our people. This strategy was decided by our leaders who were here from all the factions ... and so long as this strategy is in the interest of our people we support this strategy,'' Haniyeh said. People loyal to various Palestinian factions -- Hamas, Fatah and the Popular Resistance Committees -- which have often fought against each other, answered calls for help, crossing party and ideological lines to fend off the Israeli airstrikes. ''These Palestinian masses have come to defeat the Zionist swords which are targeting our heads and the heads of our fighters,'' said Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader in northern Gaza. ''Look we are defeating them,'' he added, pointing to Israeli warplanes overhead in the night sky. Redwan Abu Daya, a 16-year-old Fatah supporter who lives near Baroud, said he was ignoring party lines because he felt a duty to protect his neighbor's homes from bombardment. ''I came here because everyone should be here,'' Abu Daya said, while the nearby mosque called on loudspeakers for people to gather at Baroud's home. The army said it called off the nighttime airstrikes because of the large crowds, but vowed to continue to fight the ''terrorist infrastructure.'' It condemned ''the cynical exploitation by the terrorists of uninvolved people as human shields.'' At midday Sunday, crowds continued to protect the targeted homes. READ ALL

Rummy, we hardly knew ye - Max Boot - Los Angeles Times

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Gee, the neocons are subtle folks, aren't they? Uber-neocon, Max Boot's article in the LA Times is like a transcript from a Stalinist show trial. I'll just give you a few phrases, but to indulge in the full cophragia flavor, follow the link*. (warning: set your chutzpah meter on 'high') DS
*Or try this more nuanced view from The NewYorker

Abstract: For a start, he is primarily associated with a cause — the democratization of Iraq — that he never gave much sign of believing in.(...) From the day that U.S. troops arrived in Baghdad, Rumsfeld was plotting to pull them out. It was this very resistance to a prolonged and massive troop commitment that probably doomed the mission from the start.(...) Another irony: Rumsfeld was a micromanager who took a hands-off attitude on the most important issues.(...) Yet he never accepted responsibility for the biggest decisions made in Iraq. Disbanding the Iraqi army? Talk to Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III. Not sending more troops? See Gens. Tommy Franks and John Abizaid. Rumsfeld won total responsibility for all facets of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but he never accepted the blame, except in the most perfunctory way, when everything went awry. On the other hand, he was happy to accept accolades for the toppling of the Taliban even though the basic strategy — using commandos backed by air power — came from the CIA, not Central Command. A third irony: For a man with abundant experience running large organizations, he proved to be a surprisingly poor manager — one who needlessly alienated generals and congressmen alike with his in-your-face manner. Given his track record, Rumsfeld's departure came at least two years too late. (I first called for his ouster on this page in May 2004.)

Bush Prepares Switch on Iraq and Downgrading of US Ties with Jordan and Israel - Debka

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Is Debka reliable? It certainly gives a reliable idea of what the Israeli right and the Israeli Defense Force are worrying about at any given moment. What is the situation? First, Iraq has broken the US military's reputation as "irresistible" and the summer war against Hezbollah has done the same for the IDF. Iran holds the keys and the winning cards in Iraq and Lebanon. Israel has always been considered both an strategic asset and a liability, but after their "andropausal moment" in Lebanon, more liability than asset. James Baker is back and the great "realist" consiglieri is a Texas oil person (PC for "awl may-hen"). I have never believed that the invasion of Iraq was about oil ("awl"), obviously what the oil business ("awlbidness") really wants above all is stability. The people with the oil have to sell it, they can't eat it. Iraq was a neocon project to cow the Middle East and give time to consolidate "Greater Israel"... They blew it. This issue is going to play havoc with the new Democratic Congress and drive a wedge between their anti-war base and their big Jewish donors. DS

Abstract: Monday, Nov. 13, former US secretary of state James Baker and ex-Congressman Lee Hamilton will present their recommendations on Iraq to President Bush in the Oval Office. Their audience will include an array of top administration officials: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Stephen Hadley, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and CIA Director Gen. Mike Hayden, as well as U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace. Incoming defense secretary Robert Gates will attend as a member of the bipartisan committee.(...) The timing and composition of the conference indicate that the larger decisions are already in the bag with regard to the new US policy on Iraq and a fresh approach to the radical side of the Middle East led by Iran and Syria, mainly at the expense of Jordan and Israel. Monday’s White House conference will be concerned mostly with tying up the last ends and deciding who performs which part of the revised strategy. DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, who is due Monday will be one of the first foreign White House visitors to hear an update on the new policy. He will find he is required to listen rather than speak. Bush will use the occasion to inform him where America’s Iraq policy leaves Israel and the Palestinian dispute. Most of all, the US president will be looking ahead to Wednesday, Nov, 15, when he stops over in Moscow for unscheduled talks with Vladimir Putin. Air Force One was originally supposed to refuel in Moscow and continue without delay to Hanoi for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this week. And the Russian president would not normally have come to the airport to greet him. But the US president has decided to seize on the chance of persuading Putin to jump aboard the new American format on Iraq, Iran and the Middle East, on none of which the two leaders saw eye to eye before. The first sign of Bush-Putin collaboration is in the air. DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, national security adviser Ali Larijani spent two days of talks in Moscow on Nov. 10 and 11, during which Putin asked him if Tehran was willing to adapt its nuclear program after Washington agrees to direct negotiations. Once president Bush decided, after his election defeat, to subsume his Middle East policy to the bipartisan model, he lost no time in realigning its elements. He took now time out for briefing America’s regional allies and dependants - whether Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s Kurdish leaders, Abdullah King of Jordan or Ehud Olmert – to name a few. No senior Israeli official was abreast of the seismic changes in Washington’s attitude before the prime minister embarked for the United States. His first stop is Los Angeles to address the North American Jewish Federations Conference. Since he is accompanied by seven cabinet ministers, he can call a mini-cabinet session to update them on his talks with Bush. After those talks, Olmert will follow the best diplomatic traditions of US-Israeli relations, declaring that Israel has no better friend who is more committed to its security that the President of the United States and affirming full assent between the two governments on the issues of Iran and the Palestinians. He will gloss over the reality: the New US Middle East Policy will add another negative layer to Israel’s situation and further aggravate the fallout of its Lebanon War reverses. In fact, Jordan and Israel will be the first two countries in the direct line of fire from the reversal of the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy (which DEBKA disclosed was on the cards anyway ahead of the midterm election) Unlike Israel, King Abdullah - who gambled and lost on Bush standing foursquare behind his plans for Iraq – has at least two alternatives: He can make common cause with Syrian president Bashar Asad and join the anti-Israel Eastern Front with Iran, Hizballah and the radical Palestinian organizations operating out of Damascus or - He can turn south instead of north and accept the protection of the Saudi Arabian-Egyptian alliance. Israel, in contrast, will find itself high and dry in the Middle East. After being downgraded by the Lebanon War’s outcome, the Olmert government will be obliged to accept the crack of the American whip - at least until it can build a new security option that is not dependent on Washington’s new Middle East strategy. A clear-eyed evaluation of this prospect was ventured Friday, Nov. 10, by the new deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh, who urged Israel in a Jerusalem Post interview to prepare to thwart Iran’s drive for a nuclear capability “at all costs”. READ ALL

No one is guilty in Israel - Gideon Levy - Haaretz

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This article is a credit to its author, Gideon Levy, his newspaper and a credit to Israeli society. This article and others like it show why it is unjust to compare Israel to Nazi Germany: no German ever stood up to Hitler this way. Those who are truly guilty for Beit Hanoun and other crimes without number are the people who pay for it all, the institutions and ultimately the people of the United States of America: nothing this harsh would be allowed to be printed in the USA. The furor caused by Mearsheimer and Walt and their timid questioning of the Zionist Lobby is the clearest indictment of our "collective guilt". DS

Abstract: Nineteen inhabitants of Beit Hanun were killed with malice aforethought. There is no other way of describing the circumstances of their killing. Someone who throws burning matches into a forest can't claim he didn't mean to set it on fire, and anyone who bombards residential neighborhoods with artillery can't claim he didn't mean to kill innocent inhabitants. Therefore it takes considerable gall and cynicism to dare to claim that the Israel Defense Forces did not intend to kill inhabitants of Beit Hanun. Even if there was a glitch in the balancing of the aiming mechanism or in a component of the radar, a mistake in the input of the data or a human error, the overwhelming, crucial, shocking fact is that the IDF bombards helpless civilians. Even shells that are supposedly aimed 200 meters from houses, into "open areas," are intended to kill, and they do kill. In this respect, nothing new happened on Wednesday morning in Gaza: The IDF has been behaving like this for months now. But this isn't just a matter of "the IDF," "the government" or "Israel" bearing the responsibility. It must be said explicitly: The blame rests directly on people who hold official positions, flesh-and-blood human beings, and they must pay the price of their criminal responsibility for needless killing. Attorney Avigdor Klagsbald caused the death of a woman and her child without anyone imagining that he intended to hit them, but nevertheless he is sitting in prison. And what about the killers of women and children in Beit Hanun? Will they all be absolved? Will no one be tried? Will no one even be reprimanded and shunned?(...) The heedless and arrogant reaction to such deeds contains a dangerous moral message. If it is possible to dismiss mass killing with a wealth of technical excuses, and not take any drastic measure against those who are truly guilty of it, then Israel is saying that, as far as it is concerned, nothing happened apart from the faulty component in the radar system or the glitch in balancing the sights. But what happened at Beit Hanun, what happened in Israel on the day after and what is continuing to happen in Gaza day after day is a far more frightening distortion than the calibrating of a gun sight. READ ALL