"Robert Fisk’s World: When did we stop caring about civilian deaths during wartime?

The mere monitoring of bloody conflict assumes precedence over human suffering

I wonder if we are "normalising" war. It's not just that Israel has yet again got away with the killing of hundreds of children in Gaza.

And after its own foreign minister said that Israel's army had been allowed to "go wild" there, it seems to bear out my own contention that the Israeli "Defence Force" is as much a rabble as all the other armies in the region. But we seem to have lost the sense of immorality that should accompany conflict and violence. The BBC's refusal to handle an advertisement for Palestinian aid was highly instructive. It was the BBC's "impartiality" that might be called into question. In other words, the protection of an institution was more important than the lives of children. War was a spectator sport whose careful monitoring – rather like a football match, even though the Middle East is a bloody tragedy – assumed precedence over human suffering....."
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fiskrsquos-world-when-did-we-stop-caring-about-civilian-deaths-during-wartime-1521708.html

israel is getting away with mass murder...

http://www.rnw.nl/internationaljustice/icc/theicc/090115-icc-gaza

what can we do to stop israeli terrorism?

to all the hundreds of children & babies crushed by the evil of israel... may you rest in peace in Gods hands forever.

AIPAC HOLDS A DINNER IN NEW YORK TO RAISE MONEY TO MASSACRE MORE PALESTINIANS.
Yes! That HUGE unexploded ISRAELI bomb,is PAID FOR BY US,AMERICANS,EVERY TIME WE PAY OUR FEDERAL TAXES.
Now it's NOT often that you actually see an UNEXPLODED Israli bomb(and please note the difference in size compared to a paltry crude hand-made Hamas,or other faction,mortar),we just usually see the rubble,bodies,torn off limbs,decapitated heads,shredded torsoes,blood-stained childrens clothing,weeping mothers and fathers,or orphaned children,left behind by the blast.
All PAID FOR BY OUR TAX DOLLARS and supported by our Congress and AIPAC.
The DEATH MACHINE OF America/Israel rolls on,because WE KEEP OILING IT!
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/guess-who-came-to-aipacs-dinner/

DISGRACE AND SHAME ON ALL THOSE WHO ATTENDED THIS AIPAC SERIAL KILLERS REUNION!
AIPAC= Annihilation In Palestine America Cooperates.

Noam Chomsky is ALWAYS so down to reality in his view.And I agree with his statement that neither the US or Israel is a "genuine party to peace".

I have always concluded that the US and Israel are only interested in ONE THING.
'Peace' by Israeli conditions only,which would be UNILATERAL,easily corrupted by Israel and where Israel would not GIVE ANYTHING back that they have STOLEN since 1945 onwards,from the Palestinians.
As far as MUTUAL and RESPECTFUL "peace"?
As far as Israeli/US government mind goes,it is more a 'PREVENTION OF PEACE PLAN',at any cost,rather than have the zionists of Israel and America,CEDE anything.

This is what I believe the US Government is colluding with Israel to achieve.
"Peace" by Israeli conditions only,otherwise it's PREVENTON OF PEACE,all the way.
Empty promises/statements,backed up by Israels continuing violations of truces/ceasefires and ONGOING human rights abuses,collective punishment/torture and ETHNIC CLEANSING.
ALL BLATANT WAR CRIMES to which the US is party to,in a Court of International Law. Aiding,abetting and funding or CONDONING by delibarately ignoring.
And that, puts the USA Government,even MORE,into a terrible,LEGAL,ETHICAL AND MORAL aswell as spiritual dilemma globally,and totally contradicts the tenet of US Constitutional Freedom and Democracy,Liberty and Justice for all etc.
The illegal expansion of Jewish-only colonies,settlements,annexation,highways,Judification of Jerusalem,etc prove that Israel has NO INTENTION of MUTUAL and RESPECTFUL peace with the Palestinian people from whom they have STOLEN EVERYTHING,including their LAND,LIVELIHOODS,FREEDOM AND DIGNITY.
Israel accuses Iran of wanting to 'wipe Israel off the map'(which actaully was not the LITERAL interpretation of the statement).
BUT,what about ISRAEL TRYING TO WIPE PALESTINE and the Palestinians OFF THE MAP?
Or doesn't that matter to America,or TO THE REST OF HUMANITY???

Except,that one can see that,no matter HOW HARD it tries,Israel,in its ZIONIST form is dying,failing,fading fast,on a path to self-destruction.
Because their policies are INCOMPATIBLE with viable,self-sustained,quality existence,as ALL METASTATIC CANCERS are.
Once they have eaten all around them,they DIE themselves.
And the USA,my beloved Nation,is feeding,with our TAXPAYERS DOLLARS,and at great cost to our present,and future global integrity,a dying,self-consuming cancer,that will drag us down with it,and isolate us from more and more nations/states who SHOULD BE OUR PARTNERS and FRIENDS.
Israel is NOT A TRUE FRIEND OF THE USA.
It may well RUIN America(it sure has made a good job already within our economy,financial establishments,including the Fed Res,US Treasury,banks,Wall Street,Investment Co.s.lobbyists,and ALL the other USURERS.
If it were a GOOD friend,it WOULD NOT EXPECT US TO SACRIFICE so much for THEM,including the lives of our younger generations.
Israel,under a zionist political agenda,is an all-consuming,paranoid,selfish back-stabber to America,and the sooner we accept that,the BETTER,and SAFER,our OWN future,and world standing will be.
Many other Nations/States are admitting this sad fact now,even though they have KNOWN it,inside,for many years already.
The perpetuated FALSE GUILT is fading into history and PRESENT DAY realities must be faced,and TAKE PRIORITY over past events,long gone.
Time to close those books,and MOVE ON.
We need to PROMPTLY HOLD ACCOUNTABLE all those who manufacture and perpetuate the crimes/WAR CRIMES of TODAY. And absolve ourselves of the same.

Peace,Salaam,Shalom.

Kawther Salam - Names and Photos of Israeli War Criminals in Gaza

"I have decided to publish some names and photos of the Israeli military personnel who participated in the so-called “Operation Cast Lead”, the offensive launched by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on the Gaza Strip between 27 December and 18 January 2009. The names of these criminals called my attention since the first day of their criminal attack against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza. I consider each person who took part in this IOF and each one whose name appears in this report as a war criminal who should be requested by an international court of justice, just like all other war criminals who were persecuted before…"
http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/01/27/kawther-salam-names-and-photos-of-israeli-war-criminals-in-gaza/

Neither The US Nor Israel Is A "Genuine Party To Peace."

By Noam Chomsky
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21858.htm

Israeli Troops Killed Gaza Children Carrying White Flag, witnesses say

By Dion Nissenbaum

January 28, 2009 "McClatchy Newspapers" -- EZBT ABED RABBO, Gaza Strip — Nasser Abu Freeh was one of the first to see the Israeli soldiers as they entered this pastoral Gaza neighborhood overlooking the Israeli border on Jan. 3, hours after the Israeli government ordered the first ground forces into Gaza.

Abu Freeh's two-story hilltop home is a favorite spot for Israeli soldiers, who used it as a command post during three previous attempts to deter Gaza militants from firing crude rockets into Israel from the surrounding cattle farms, orange groves and dirt alleys.

Scouts from the militant Islamist group Hamas also favored the hilltop as a place to watch for approaching Israeli soldiers, and the fighters tried to lure the Israelis into a trap by planting land mines outside Abu Freeh's home.

As the Israelis moved in, neighbors said, the Hamas scouts put up little resistance and quickly fell back into the more densely populated part of the neighborhood.

Within hours, the Israeli soldiers took over Abu Freeh's house, moved the seven people living there into one room and began interrogating the adults. The questioners were angry because one of their soldiers had been killed nearby in the early hours of the ground offensive, and they wanted to know what traps Hamas had set for the Israeli forces.

"Where are the tunnels?" Abu Freeh said the soldiers asked in Arabic. "I will kill you if you don't tell me."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21859.htm

Just a side not, you failed to report.The WHOLE TRUTH and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. Sounds like two mature people who see both sides of the issue.

Peres: Outburst won't hurt Israel-Turkey ties

President says his heated public exchange with Turkish PM Erdogan was not personal, defends his unusually passionate speech as called for in response to verbal assaults on Israel over Gaza

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3664351,00.html

CONGRATULATIONS ERDOGAN!
Well done! For showing the EUNUCHS in the Arab world the size of the GONADS they should have!
However much many Arab nations FEAR the wrath of America,they should FEAR the wrath of GOD,and MORALITY/CONSCIENCE of man more,for NOT standing up and putting the Zionist Israeli Government back in its AMORAL,UNETHICAL,and CRIMINAL place,for what it has done to ALL its Holy Land Arab/Muslim neighbors,and indigeous peoples.
As long as OTHER Arab Nations DO NOT STAND up for the Universal Rule of Law they are traitors to their own,and they allow the American and Israeli governments(among many more)to bow in the direction of CORRUPTION instead of MORALITY.
Erdogan(love him or hate him)showed his moral manhood/strength by not kowtowing to ISRAELI WAR CRIMINALS ANY MORE.
He called Israel out for what it is. A brutal mass murderer.
No wonder he is called ERDOGAN-----he's a GONADER!
Well done Sir!
And Shimon can 'shimmy' back to the hole he crawled out of.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKIll89XXak

Peace,Salaam,Shalom.

IAEA CHIEF boycotts BBC talks/interviews because of BBC's blockade of Gaza Relief campaign airing.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=83969§ionid=351020202
Good for you El-Baradei.
Tell them where they shove it LOL!

We can fight for freedom, AND we can make freedom something else, which entails a different kind of struggle.

Americans once fought for freedom. If the founding fathers were alive today, they would be considered domestic "terrorists". The US has the largest prison population in the world, per capita. As Jon Stewart says, "How's THAT for repression!?"

Solzenitzyn says in The Gulag Archipelago that the time to protest one's capture by the secret police was at the moment of apprehension, but that no-one ever did. Then it was too late, and all one could do was "to accept one's death, and relinquish all hope of release, from that moment forward..."

The Zionist genocide in Gaza is mirrored by the totalitarian repression in the US. The one cannot live without the other. Zionist racism is the disease that is destroying America's freedom.

We become what we behold. 60 years of glorifying the Holocaust and reveling in the victimization of the Jews has created Nazi-ism in Israel. It is an inevitable consequence that follows universal spiritual laws. All difference is humanity is an illusion, and all claimed differences involve the idea of superiority/inferiority. "We're better than you."

In essence, Palestinians must fight, or lose their souls. The fight is not about land, it's about something spiritual. How does one maintain a sense of humanity under repression? There are numerous ways. The most obvious is to "fight the power". And there are ways of fighting that work better than others, and it is also true that all ways of fighting are about universal human needs. In the end, Jews and Palestinians want the same thing, a place too live in peace and freedom. In the end, the Jews will discover that they are not any more different and special than anyone else. When they do, either by choice or by the inevitable progression of human consciousness, then there will be peace, but not until.

When the Palestinians discover a way of struggling for their rights that makes the Jews confront their essential one-ness with the Palestinians, their struggle will achieve immediate and remarkable success. The secret of non-violent resistance is in a strategy for making the oppressor confront the fact of this essential one-ness. As long as the struggle reinforces a sense of separation, uniqueness and superiority, it has much less chance of success. At best, it can simply replace one tyranny and system of repression for another.

By the way Statesman, when I mentioned freedom, I meant the political one when talking about independent states or countries, and you are absolutely right, whose who are taking your freedom away, won't give it back unless you fight for it, and do you think they are going to help you to fight the "right fight", NO WAY, even if you defeat them they will keep coming back until they have the respect for you as to themselves. Most the colonialism powers were succeeded to leave a puppet governments to take of their business after their defeat and departure, because the colonies were only a market not another country with equal people like them. Then freedom is a process never stopped, and to be maintained it has to have a consciousness AND with education as THE corner stone of this consciousness.

If really you believe "that most people want to live peace" than how come most of your references are about the hate of Muslims, and Arab, including miss Nonie Darwish who consider all Muslim carry the virus of "jihad" including Obama, and here is more as I posted before:
"In her interviews and in her book, she insists that she is not anti-Arab or anti-Islamic, and even suggests from time to time that she is still a Muslim. Then she pivots nimbly and attacks "the Arab mind," "the seething Arab street," and "the Muslim world," with its "culture of jihad," "culture of death," and "culture of envy." There are "no real distinctions between moderate or radical Muslims," and no significant differences within or among Arab or Muslim cultures: for Darwish, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's secular Arab nationalism was essentially jihadist. Darwish is allergic to social history: "I realized that the Arab-Israeli conflict is not a crisis over land, but a crisis of hate, lack of compassion, ingratitude, and insecurity." Instead of history, scholarship, and footnotes, she gives us a watered-down version of Raphael Patai's The Arab Mind: a dictionary of Islamophobic commonplaces underwritten by the authority of an ex-Muslim native informant: I was there -- I know......"
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9646.shtml

statesman well said. Some people just don't get it, but that doesn't mean you stop seeking the truth. Be a good listener, you will find that most people want to live peace.

Hey Statesman, regarding the deep believe on both side, I see there is different, and please allow me to try to make this complected story a little bit shorter, let us imaging a group of people because of their god, and this god is only their god, gave them a promise 3000 years ago to have a certain land, a land only for them, but when they started arrive there they found out that there was already people living in their cities and villages, and now they have to deal with this native population, because they should not be there period, and in the after math most of the native got kicked out and the rest of them stayed under occupation and continued fighting for there land. Now both believe deeply that the land is their, but when one side see themselves as special people, different then the others, and above them, than we have a racist mind here, and yourself mentioned how just 40-50 years age there were, and still, people whom believe they have the right to have another human being as a "salve" and they used the the holy book to justice this, then if they believe deeply in their racist ideas what is the solution here? and are they equal to their victims when it comes to who is going to be blamed??? I don't think so, believing in something doesn't make it reality, but when the results become 750.000 Palestinians refugee in 1948, this is not any more a believe IT IS A CRIME, and they call it GENOCIDE.