Israeli invasion of Gaza – crime against humanity

The United Nations Secretary-General Bank Ki-moon must spearhead the world condemnation of Israeli invasion of Gaza.

The failure of the United Nations Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire and the role of the United States government in blocking a United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolution must be deplored by all peace-loving nations and peoples.

The United States President-Elect Barrack Obama, who will be inaugurated as US President in a forthnight’s time, should pledge to end all US carte blache support to Israeli aggression under his administration.

The Israeli invasion of Gaza, wreaking death and destruction, chalking up a death toll of more than 510 people, mostly civilian casualties including women and children, is a crime against humanity.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet with roughly 1.5 million people which even prior to the most recent escalation was undergoing a humanitarian crisis as the region has been held under siege for almost 18 months and was already struggling with lack of food, medical supplies, power, and other necessities.

The governments of the world must support all international efforts to condemn the Israeli invasion of Gaza, call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza imposed by the United Nations and backed unequivocally by the United States to create sustainable peace in the Middle East.

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116 Replies to “Israeli invasion of Gaza – crime against humanity”

  1. “An eye for an eye leaves both parties blind.” Mahatma Gandhi.

    So Hamas lobs hundreds of rocket shells into Israel territory. A few Israelis get killed. Now Israeli uses all its US sponsored military might against Hamas, and kills hundreds in return. The punishment does not fit the crime.

    Reminds me of the little red dot which puts all its political opponents into bankruptcy for saying the wrong things. Sigh. This is the world we live in.

  2. Ban Ki-moon did call for a ceasefire:

    BBC News Monday, 29 December 2008
    Ban Ki-moon: Ceasefire must be declared
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7803881.stm

    I’d be shocked and delighted if you got Obama to do anything remotely similar. As president of the USA, I think he’d have an easier time banning guns. Israel must not be supported if it is going to impose collective punishment on its neighbours.

    I was pleased to read about the demonstrations in London, and people throwing shoes at the gates of Downing Street. Leaders don’t represent all of their people, all of the time, in any country.

  3. If the world were to condemn and voice out their outrage against Hamas attacks then I can see the point of condemning Israel’s attack.
    The world response seem equally unfair in their responce. If you are going to condemn condemn both side for starting the wars. Who is sponsoring Hamas.
    You condemn the US and Israel but you need to condemn Syria and Hamas too.

    Every life is precious, both sides should be condemn.

  4. Hamas is not completely the innocent party they would want the rest of the world to see.If we have to condemn,then we must condemn both sides for choosing bloodshed over talk to settle their differences.

  5. There have been claims and counter-claims on both sides. Frankly, I do not really know which side of the story I should believe. Thus, I’ve got no strong opinion on this matter. However, most of us in Malaysia are only exposed to one side of the story. It’s high time that we heard the other side of the story. Below is an article exerpted from Jerusalem Post. I’ve got no opinion on the claims and arguments of the article. Readers have to make up their own minds. My purpose of posting it here is not to endorse its content, but to encourage Malaysians to hear both sides of the story.

    Sunday Jan 04, 2009
    Double Standard Watch: Israel’s actions are lawful and commendable
    by Alan M. Dershowitz
    Israel’s military actions in Gaza are entirely justified under international law, and Israel should be commended for its act of self-defense against international terrorism. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter reserves to every nation the right to engage in self-defense against armed attacks. The only limitation international law places on a democracy is that its actions must satisfy the principle of proportionality. Israel’s actions certainly satisfy that principles.

    When Barack Obama visited the city of Sderot this summer, he saw the same things that I had seen during my visit on March 20 of this year. Over the last four years, Palestinian terrorists – in particular, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – have fired more than two thousand rockets at this civilian area, which is home to mostly poor and working-class people. The rockets are designed exclusively to maximize civilian deaths, and some have barely missed schoolyards, kindergartens, hospitals, and school buses. But others hit their targets, killing more than a dozen civilians since 2001, including in February 2008 a father of four who had been studying at the local university. These anticivilian rockets have also injured and traumatized countless children.

    The residents of Sderot have fifteen seconds from the launch of the rocket to run into a shelter. The rule is that everyone must always be within fifteen seconds of a shelter, regardless of what they are doing. Shelters are everywhere, but the aged and the physically challenged often have difficulty making it to safety. On the night I was in Sderot, a rocket landed nearby, but there had been no “red alert.” The warning system is far from foolproof.

    Part 1 (to be continued)

  6. (part 2)

    In most parts of the world, the first words learned by toddlers are “mommy” and “daddy.” In Sderot, they are “red alert.” The police chief of Sderot showed me hundreds of rocket fragments that had been recovered. Many bore the name of the terrorist group that had fired the deadly missiles. Although firing deliberately to kill civilians is a war crime, the terrorists who fired at the civilians of Sderot were proud enough of their crimes to “sign” their murderous weapons. They know that in the real world in which we live, they will never be prosecuted for their murders and attempted murders.

    Barack Obama reacted to what he had seen in Sderot by saying that if his two daughters were exposed to rocket attacks in their own homes, he would do everything in his power to stop such attacks. I hope and believe that President Obama will take the same position he did as candidate Obama.

    The residents of Sderot were demanding that their nation take action to protect them. Most seem to agree with the Israeli decision to end its occupation of the Gaza Strip, to withdraw its soldiers and settlers despite the reality that during the occupation, rocket attacks increased against the residents of Sderot. But Israel’s post-occupation military options were limited, since Hamas deliberately fires its deadly rockets from densely populated urban areas, and the Israeli Army has a strict policy of trying to avoid civilian casualties.

    The firing of rockets at civilians from densely populated civilian areas is the newest tactic in the war between terrorists who love death and democracies that love life. The terrorists have learned how to exploit the morality of democracies against those who do not want to kill civilians, even enemy civilians. In one recent incident, Israeli intelligence learned that a particular house was being used to manufacture and store rockets. It was a clear military target since their rockets were being fired at Israeli civilians. But the house was also being lived in by a family. So the Israeli military phoned the house, informed the owner that it was a military target, and gave him thirty minutes to leave with his family before the house was attacked. The owner called Hamas, which immediately sent dozens of mothers carrying babies to stand on the roof of the house. Hamas knew that Israel would never fire at a home with civilians in it. They also knew that if, by some fluke, the Israeli authorities did not learn that there were civilians in the house, and fired on it, Hamas would win a public relations victory by displaying the dead civilians to the media. In this case, Israel did learn of the civilians and withheld its fire. The rockets that were spared destruction by the human shields were then used against Israeli civilians.

    (to be continued)

  7. (part 3)
    This, in a nutshell, is the dilemma faced by democracies with a high level of morality. The Hamas tactic would not have worked against the Russians in Chechnya. When the Russians were fired upon, they fired against civilians without hesitation. Nor would it work in Darfur, where janjaweed militias have killed thousands of civilians and displaced 2.5 million in order to get the rebels who were hiding among them. Certain tactics work only against moral enemies who care deeply about minimizing civilian casualties.

    Over the past months, a shaky cease-fire, organized by Egypt was in effect. Hamas agreed to stop the rockets and Israel agreed to stop taking military action against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. The cease-fire itself was morally dubious and legally asymmetrical.

    Israel, in effect, was saying to Hamas: if you stop engaging in the war crime of targeting our innocent civilians, we will stop engaging in the entirely lawful military acts of targeting your terrorists. Under the cease-fire, Israel reserved the right to engage in self-defense actions such as attacking terrorists who were in the course of firing rockets at its civilians.

    Just before the hostilities began, Israel offered Hamas both a carrot and a stick. Israel reopened checkpoints to allow humanitarian aid to reenter Gaza. It had closed these point of entry after they had been targeted by Gaza rockets. Israel’s prime minister also issued a stern, final warning to Hamas that unless it stopped the rockets, there would be a full scale military response. This is the way Reuters reported it:

    Israel reopened border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after Prime Minister warned militants there to stop firing rockets or they would pay a heavy price. Despite the movement of relief supplies, militants fired about a dozen rockets and mortar shafts from Gaza at Israel on Friday. One accidentally struck a house in Gaza, killing two Palestinian sisters, ages 5 and 13…the deliveries could ease the tensions that might have led to a military action to end the rocket attacks. Palestinian workers at the crossings said fuel had arrived for Gaza’s main power plant and about a hundred trucks loaded with grain, humanitarian aid and other goods were expected during the day.”

    The Hamas rockets continued and Israel kept its word, implementing a carefully prepared targeted air attack against Hamas targets.

    (to be continued)

  8. (Part 4)

    On Sunday, I spoke to the Air Force General, now retired, who worked on the planning of the attack. He told me of the intelligence and planning that had gone into preparing for the contingency that the military option might become necessary. The Israeli Air Force had pinpointed with precision the exact locations of Hamas structures, in an effort to minimize civilian casualties. Even Hamas sources acknowledged that the vast majority of those killed have been Hamas terrorists though some civilian casualties are inevitable when–as BBC’s Rushdi Abou Alouf, who is certainly not pro Israel–reported that “the Hamas security compounds are in the middle of the city.” Indeed his home balcony from which he observed the bombing of a compound was 20 meters from that military target.

    There have been three types of international response to the Israeli military actions against the Hamas rockets. Not surprisingly, Iran, Hamas, and other knee-jerk Israeli-bashers have argued that the Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians are entirely legitimate, and that the Israeli counterattacks are war crimes. Equally unsurprising is the response of the United Nations, the European Union, Russia, and others who, at least when it comes to Israel, see a moral and legal equivalence between terrorists who target civilians and a democracy that responds by targeting the terrorists.

    The most dangerous of the three responses is not the Iranian-Hamas absurdity, which is largely ignored by thinking and moral people, but the United Nations and European Union response, which equate the willful murder of civilians with legitimate self-defense pursuant to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This false moral equivalence only encourages terrorists to persist in their unlawful actions against civilians. The United States has it exactly right by placing the blame on Hamas, while urging Israel to do everything possible to minimize civilian casualties.

    There are some who claim that Israel has violated the principle of proportionality by killing so many more Hamas terrorists than the number of Israeli civilians killed by Hamas rockets. That is an absurd misapplication of the concept of proportionality for at least two reasons.

    First, there is no legal equivalence between the deliberate killing of innocent civilians and the deliberate killings of Hamas combatants. Under the laws of war, any number of combatants can be killed to prevent the killing of even one innocent civilian.

    Second, proportionality is not measured by the number of civilians actually killed, but rather by the risk of civilian death and the intentions of those targeting civilians. Hamas seeks to kill as many civilians as it can. It aims its rockets in the general direction of schools, hospitals, playgrounds and other entirely civilian targets. The fact that it has not killed as many civilians as it would have liked to is a tribute to Israel’s enormous devotion of resources to the building of shelters and to the construction of early warning systems.

    Hamas, on the other hand, refuses to build shelters, precisely because it wants to maximize the number of Palestinian civilians inadvertently killed by Israel’s military actions. It knows, from experience, that when it forces Israel to take military actions that result in the deaths of even a small number of innocent Palestinian civilians, many in the international community will condemn Israel. Israel understands this sad reality as well, and goes to enormous lengths to reduce the number of civilian casualties, even to the point of foregoing legitimate targets that are too close to civilian areas. Accordingly, Israel’s actions satisfy the principle of proportionality as well as the principle of self-defense against armed attack.

    Until and unless the United Nations and the rest of the international community recognize that Hamas is committing three war crimes–targetting Israeli civilians, using their own civilians as human shields and seeking the destruction of a member state of the United Nations–and that Israel is acting in self-defense and out of military necessity, the conflict will continue and perhaps escalate. If Israel succeeds in destroying the terrorist organization Hamas, it may well lay the foundation for a real peace between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. But if Hamas persists in its capacity to target increasing numbers of Israeli citizens, Israel will have no choice but to persist in its self-defense efforts.

    No democracy would do otherwise.

    (the end)

  9. It is most unfortunate that about 20% of those killed are innocent civilians but to say that Israel is commiting a cruel act against humanity is I think not fair.

    Who are the Hamas? No matter what you might want to label them, they are still militant terrorists who kill and spread terror. Their actions too must be condemned as they deliberately target innocent civilians unlike the Israelis.

    Their provocative rocket bombings have resulted in Israeli reaction and retaliation to protect its citizens; this Hamas should have expected. Now 80% of the dead are Hamas militants and I think given that Gaza is the most densely populated region in the world, the “low” civilian casualties might be acceptable although it is much regretted and unfortunate.

    Who are Hamas members? Do they wear uniforms and have “Hamas” printed on their foreheads? Most of the time they are somebody’s father, mother, son or daughter – you just really don’t know who. Many of them appear in public in civilian clothes with their faces hidden in balaclavas to hide their identities. And they all live and hide among the general population using the innocent public as shields. Well it would appear that most of them got killed this time along with innocent lives.

    The Israelis certainly didn’t wake up one morning and decided to bomb and invade Gaza for no reason. Why did they attack only Gaza and not Jordan, the West Bank, Syria or Lebanon? Why only Gaza?

    The Middle East situation is complex and war and violence is not the solution. The people there need to sit down and talk and see what solutions can be achieved peacefully to everyone’s satisfaction. Arafat realised this late in his life and he pursued peace. So is Mahmoud Abbas. But it would appear that Hamas only know the power of the gun and rockets and they are all out to ensure that peace does not happen, else they cease to be relevant.

    Why are many people, Malaysian demonstrators included, glorifying and supporting the actions of Hamas and its leaders? Are they not for the peace process? Do they fear peace?

    And political parties here must not simply and blindly condemn this
    or that because it is the popular thing to do to gain support. I certainly like them, DAP included, to come out with proposals to solve the crisis and bring lasting peace.

  10. The 10 Mumbai jihadists without blinking an eye slaughtered 300 humans in 2 days. If the Israelis had followed the jihadists’ example, 1,500 Gazans would had been killed by 10 Israelis during the past 10 days, that is to say 150,000 Gazans would be killed by 1,000 Israelis since the offensive began.

    I am not advocating the taking of human lives, but just to show that Israelis are angels compared to the jihadists.

  11. Such incidents bleed all our hearts, that is, casualties of the innocents. So who is to be blamed? Certainly those who claim that they are acting on behalf of the CREATOR!
    Having said so, I am equally shocked to read the actions of the Hindus religious leaders in the State of Orissa. To ‘preserve’ their interests, they burnt a young Christian convert to death!
    I would certainly sympathize with this poor girl who had not hurt anyone than what I read about the posting here!
    By the way, I am NOT a Christian.
    Do these people ever think that the CREATOR actually ask them to kill what HE had created?
    So long that people are blinded to follow teachings without thinking, a process given by the CREATOR HIMSELF to the human race, then all the results of such stupid interactions should only be read and cast aside!
    There is NOTHING anyone can do. As the saying goes ” Do not trouble trouble unless you want trouble to trouble you’!

  12. Please let me be a bit cynical this time.
    Why are we so worried about the Palestinian issue.
    Korea, Vietnam, India and even Euproe was divided after the war.
    People have learned to patch up, accommodate and evolve accordingly by their own determination.

    To me the Israel / Palestinian / Arab issue is more then just politics. It is “animistic” survival instincts guided by the “eye for an eye” theological doctrine. By freeing Palestine, the Muslim world is not going to stop its atrocious theological concept, nor Israel is going to be satisfied with the limited water resources in has.

    This “Israel / Palestinian / Arab” war will go on till kingdom comes. Best we stay clear of the “sins” these people are creating everyday. We must not take sides when the Satan and the Devil is fighting.

  13. I wouldn’t condemn Israel at all. They’re just protecting their territory. Wouldn’t any country do the same? After a week of bombing, hundreds of bombs unloaded by Israel, 500 dead. Are they targeting civilians? i don’t think so. Because with that level of bombardment, if they wanted to kill civilians they would’ve killed thousands already.

    Palestine and all Arab countries should just accept that Israel is a country, and its a country that showes you a finger when you f@#$ed with them.

  14. Why is the world condemning Israel?

    Hamas is the guilty party. Initiating and provoking the violence. It is putting the people at risk. For what?

    The only reason I can think of – oil price. Is Hamas the surrogate for the middle east oil companies. Creating a crisis to raise the price of oil.

  15. Together For 1 Nation, 1 Malaysia as 1 United Bangsa Malaysia

    Israel Must Be Stopped From Committing Further War Crimes in the Holy Land

    Dear YB LKS and All Malaysians,

    Conflicts in Gaza between Israel and Palestine had been so frequent that it is not news anymore. After every incident of aggression and termination of innocent lives in The Holy Land peace will be restored under pressure from The Rest of World not aligned to Israel and citizens of Israel’s allied itself.

    The calm achieved is deceptive since permanent solution is not achieved because the real Root Cause(s) to the conflict is not accepted fully. While the World’s leaders heaved a sight of relieve to the dousing of The Conflicts with haphazard Corrective and Preventive Actions like Peace Treaty, Sanctions, Military Aids, Food and Financial Aids, Trade Boycotts etc. the animosity and vengeful hatred of the OPPRESSED who lost their LOVE ONES to THE AGGRESOR sow future CONFLICTS.

    The real ROOT CAUSE(s) to the conflict must be accepted fully by both Israel and Palestine for an objective prescription of the right CORRECTIVE and PREVENTIVE ACTIONS to end the CONFLICT PERMANENTLY for lasting peace. To this end one must be ISSUES CENTRED regardless of race and religion and be COURAGEOUS without fear and favor to address THE ISSUES fully.

    While Malaysians Leaders showed their outpour of anger against THE AGGRESSOR and SUPPORT for the OPPRESSED from a distance, it is noble but not effective without hands on involvement at the HOT BED of CONFLICTS. Only if the Leaders of The World are UNITED as 1 VOICE and COURAGEOUS to congregate at the HOT BED of CONFLICTS to face the AGGRESSOR, restrain and immediate peace would have been restored instead of Aids and Sanctions , Protests and Boycotts from a distance.

    All Malaysians must similarly be UNITED as 1 BANGSA MALAYSIA to be COURAGEOUS to be ISSUES CENTRED to bridge our differences and divides along race/religion/language/political affiliation/believes/cultures/gender; etc etc. as the Time Bomb is Ticking Minutes by Minutes!

    Malaysians Leaders; in particular those Privileged Leaders with Power as claimed by some leaders must be ISSUES CENTERED to be with the PULSE of THE RAKYATS at the HOT BED of ISSUES before THESE ISSUES full blown into CONFLICTS. Lets tinker and remember that all man are born equal in the eyes of the Almighty God and yet The World had never been at peace because of WARS by use of Weapons of Mass Destruction which results in physical death, and abuses and manipulation of rights to power of 1 human race over another human race which results in SELF PROCLAIMED SUPERIORITY of the dominant race over all other mankind.

    This selfish SELF PROCLAIMED SUPERIORITY of the dominant group will result in oppression and sufferings of the minority groups which sow hatred and SELF AWARENESS of the OPPRESSED GROUPS to their RIGHTS.

    Malaysia is made to looks small by the very human race because of human weaknesses of SELF GRATIFICATION, GREED, PRIDE, EGO, and SELF DENIAL of all our failings and SELF DESTRUCTION.

    1 United Bangsa Malaysia seek the same issue focus attention of fellow Malaysians to resolve a 11 years old issue close at Home faced by Malaysians Condominium (MC).

    Malaysians Condominium (MC) jointly developed by a private developer with land from the Local Council which is now managed by a Joint Management Body (JMB) formed under Act 663 with effect from April 2008 .

    The JMB is Chaired by a cohesive minority group with 3 foreigners of the small traders and working class. 4 of the Joint Management Committee members are also related by marriage and blood tie. No audited accounts was presented for 1 decade since 1998. The JMB is also not able to provide any monthly accounts since April 2008 and buy time under Act 663 that the accounts will be audited in due course!

    A sum of RM3.2 millions Sinking Funds billed by the developer/property manager appointed by the Local Council since Day 1 was not accounted for.

    No action was taken by the JMB on the RM3.2 millions and instead JMB now intends to collect further Sinking Funds from owners although JMB have given notice on 8 May 2008 to owners that JMB waived the 7 sens psf Sinking Funds.

    All these are happening with full knowledge of the Authority without any enforcement action made against the JMB to address the issues.

    What a fall from grace and Rakyats Malaysia continue to face shoddy maintenance and services and facilities not provided but billed for by the developer/property manager and now The JMB!

    Perhaps privileged Malaysian Leaders with Authority and fellow 1 Bangsa Malaysia, may be able to assist to resolve the 1 decade old issues faced by MC?

    Rakyats MC do not want a repeat of Bukit Antarabangsa when the 40 odd storey’s MC lifts crashed with lost of lives.

    Thank you.

    Together for 1 Nation, 1 Malaysia and 1 United Bangsa Malaysia.

  16. The only way to bring real, lasting justice, peace and prosperity to Palestinians and to all the peoples of the region is through common mass struggle against oppression and the pro-capitalist, corrupt regimes. The overthrow of capitalism and landlordism and the creation of a genuine socialist society – putting people before profit and ending poverty – would see real collaboration between all working people of the region, pooling together all the rich resources for the benefit of the many and bringing about real self-determination for the oppressed.

  17. After giving them Gava, Israel got nothing but rockets in return.
    So, it’s clear to all the world that the Palestinians don’t want peace, and never did…

    Israel is exercising its legitimate right of self-defense in a conflict triggered by Hamas.

  18. ppl who condemn palestinians are so ignorant and hypocrite, do you know how life’s so difficult for innocent palestinians being bombarded by israelis? do you know that many of them have no homes like what we have in malaysia, and constantly shifting and moving away what they called home? so hamas killing israelis 1000 ppl, kill 1 and they kill you thousands, dhoes that justify?

    pakistani killed hundred indians during mumbai incident, but indians din launch war towards pakistan, at least they are civilized like wat tdm describe – war is barbaric. the same to australia when indon killed them with bali bombings. perhaps un should send a stern message to israel don play big bully in middle east..

  19. in fact, like ahmadinejad said, they shouldn’t be israel, israel shouldn’t exist – that land suppose belongs to palestines. what 2/3 israel, 1/3 palestine – it’s totally unfair… if suddenly an organzation appear infront of you and say give your 2/3 land/house to other ppl, you agree or not. israel/gaza/jerusalem/teheran always belong palestines…

  20. melurian, going back to history will bring back all kinds of memories to this inequitable world. Remember between nations, tit for tat holds no boundary. I’m neither for either party but not everyone is saintly, you get a slap on your right cheek offer your left; are you personally good enough to offer such practice?
    Are you prepared to be haunted every day and night by ‘expected’ bombardment? Only that you are not sure if you gonna be the next corpse?
    Having gone through the web, one need not listen to propoganda, the message is clear enough! If you are different, then we will treat you differently! The Creator created varieties in this world to do away with monotony, coupled with reasoning brains but the creatures so created insist that only one colour is the option.
    Hence we have all these problems! Please do not conclude that I believe in the liberal views of those Westerners who have gone bonker. Life is such that the old saying : an eye for an eye is still the norm around this materialistic world.
    Those with better brain would not create situations where they could not control; they would wait for a better day, if they can find one through hard work and grey matter. Slogan and chanting to the Creator, which everyone involved is doing, can only confuse the scenario! Who is HE going to listen to?, especially pleading to Him to allow more murders!! This man made!!

  21. ///Yet if we pause to think we cannot help but notice that these acts began with the forceful seizure of the land of the Palestinian Arabs in order to create the formerly non-existent state of Israel; the expulsion of the Arab Palestinians from their homes and their country, the killings of the Arabs by Zionist terrorists, and the incarceration of the Arab Palestinians in makeshift refugee camps for the last 60 years or so.
    Terror attacks will not diminish for as long as the Palestinians are forced to remain as refugees, are denied the right of return. ///TDM at http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/2008/12/terrorism.html#more

    If the intention is to make the formerly non-existent state of Israel to revert to its non-existent status, would Israel sit idly by to wait for that to happen? TDM does not help the situation in the Middle east, or reduction of terrorism in the world with his writing just like he did not help reduce racial tension in the country with his comment that non-Malays should not be attached to their language but perhaps follow instead his grandfather’s example or was that his father, to become NEWMalays.

  22. A very detailed story by Lee Wang Yen.
    We can’t really blame Israel to go all out on Hamas. They are just destroying the military power of the terrorists as far as I can see. Using human shield for terrorism purpose, and you guys are playing into Hamas’s game. Wake up guys!

  23. Why are we in Malaysia always making such one sided condemnations? Have you seen the Israeli and Hamas spokesman on TV? Reminds you of children fighting. “Well, he hit me.” “No, he hit me first.” “He took my things.” Sounds familiar? The truth is that there is enough fault to go around everywhere. Hamas has full control of the territories and started firing rockets at Israel. So Israel hit back. Surprise! Surprise! This once again illustrates when you have poor government, the people suffers. History has enough examples of this. So, if we want to condemn, then let’s balanced about it. Otherwise, we should shut up as there is no strategic interest for Malaysia with respect to the Palestinian/Israeli conflicts. There are enough conflicts all over the world. We should not use the misery of others for political posturing as is happening right now!

  24. Islamic fundamentalism is indeed a problem. I really hope that Islamic fundamentalism won’t gain ascendancy in our beloved country.

    We should support progressive and liberal Muslim leaders. I’ve met some really charming progressive Muslim scholars from Indonesia. Those are the type we should support.

  25. one simple question – do you agree that when japanese invaded/conquered malaya, the ppl should comply with the harsh rule, continue being oppressed/harrased/molested, condemn the act of mpaja against the invaders and backstab the freedom fighters ? do agree that iraqis should not against the us and obediently submitted to us invaders ? the palestines are the victims here – they are fighting for their land. and when the killed < 10 israelis and israelis retaliated with thousands death, do the palestines deserve it ? no wonder most post-war gen are so apathetic.

    maybe this site be a good reminder:
    http://ablogination.tn420.org/blog/index.php/2008/12/01/israel_s_oppression_of_palestine_starvin

  26. An editorial from the Jerusalem Post online:

    A Moral War

    ‘For pacifists who believe that all wars are immoral, Israel’s self-defense operation against Hamas in Gaza is necessarily wrong. To such people we invoke the 18th-century philosopher Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Confronted by a movement that amalgamates fascism with religious extremism and a genocidal platform, our moral imperative demands Jewish self-defense.

    Few of the voices slamming Israel for conducting an “immoral” war in Gaza are those of pacifists.

    Take Riyad Mansour, Mahmoud Abbas’s man at the UN. He claimed on CNN that “3,000 Palestinians had been killed or injured” in Gaza, then denounced Israel’s “targeting 1.5 million Palestinians” as “immoral” and a “crime against humanity.”

    Even as Mansour was pontificating, Hamas gunmen in Gaza were shooting Fatah activists in the knees as a preventive security measure lest they take advantage of the unstable situation.

    In the West Bank, meanwhile, Mansour’s Fatah has been ruthlessly hunting down Hamas members to keep the Islamists from seizing power there when Abbas’s presidential term expires next week.

    Far from there being “3,000 killed and wounded,” more like 500 have been killed – 400 of them Hamas “militants,” according to Palestinian Arab and UN sources inside Gaza cited by the Associated Press. Israeli sources put the Palestinian civilian death toll at some 50.

    Pointing this out does not diminish the dreadful loss of dozens of innocent Palestinian lives in a week’s worth of fighting. It does show, however, that the IDF continues to do everything possible to avoid “collateral damage.” But its prime mandate is to protect the lives of Israeli civilians and minimize risks to our citizen-soldiers. ‘

    (Part 1 – to be continued)

  27. (Part 2)

    Over the weekend, glitterati including Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger joined tens of thousands of mostly Muslim protesters in rallies held worldwide against the Israeli “genocide.”

    In fact, we’d be surprised if any other army currently on the battlefield is more conscientious about avoiding civilian casualties. Before it attacks and whenever possible, the IDF leaflets, telephones or sends text messages to residents of buildings used to launch rockets at our territory, warning them of the impending air-strike.

    Conversely, what sort of “resistance” movement deliberately uses mosques, schools and homes as weapons depots and rocket launching pads? Answer: one that also uses its children and women as human shields.

    AMONG those troubled by Israel’s actions are Jews whose connections to things Jewish are limited to the occasional bagel or lox sandwich. They too march to make clear they’re nothing like those pitiless Israelis. “As a Jew, it is very moving to see so many people… outraged at Israel’s actions,” said comedian Alexei Sayle, who was raised in a strictly orthodox Communist Liverpool household.

    Not all uncomfortable Jews are cut off from the community. Take Isaac Luria – not the ancient kabbalist, but the young Internet director of J Street, which is devoted to redefining what it means to be pro-Israel. Luria thinks that the IDF is “pushing the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict further down a path of never-ending violence.” He’s strictly against “raining rockets on Israeli families” (this is bad, he knows, because he spent a year in Israel), but “there is nothing ‘right’ in punishing a million and a half already-suffering Gazans for the actions of the extremists among them.”

    Wouldn’t it be more intellectually honest to admit that Palestinian suffering is mostly self-inflicted? And that Hamas’s anti-Israel agenda is wildly popular among Gaza’s masses? And doesn’t Luria owe it to himself to look a little closer at the nature of the Israeli military response.

    The folks at J Street believe “there is no military solution to what is fundamentally a political conflict….” Hamas would beg to differ. Indeed, Hamas has been trying to prove the contrary, forcing Israel’s hand.

    What Israel’s critics need to understand is that there can be no political solution while we are under Palestinian bombardment. Those who are sincere about fostering coexistence should stop bashing the IDF and start telling the Palestinians: Stop the violence.

  28. AAB has donated US$1M to Palestine – that was very fast! Where did he get the money from? Rakyat’s taxes? Never mind that, but during the cyclone Nargis (Myanmar – Irrawaddy), Sichuan (China) earthquake – how slow & little did the aid trickle in from Malaysia???
    Hurricane Katrina – none fr Malaysia! Dec 4 Tsunami – lots of govt funds channeled mostly only to Aceh. Only a trickling amount of govt funds went to other countries such as Sri Lanka & India… The Bam (Iran) earthquake also got Malaysia govt eyes opened fast with huge sums of money from govt coffers being donated there.

    The question is why the vast difference of govt money spent on say, Palestine, Iran, Aceh (Indon), Pakistan but so little & slow money to Myanmar, China, Sri Lanka, India etc….. ? We the rakyat wants to know.

  29. ” So, if we want to condemn, then let’s balanced about it. Otherwise, we should shut up as there is no strategic interest for Malaysia with respect to the Palestinian/Israeli conflicts. There are enough conflicts all over the world. We should not use the misery of others for political posturing as is happening right now.”

    Don’t forget to tell that to the many demonstrators all round the globe – London, Vancouver, New York, Paris just to name a few.

  30. Forgot to comment on this conflict.

    The solution is soooo simple. Ask any 3-yr old:

    1. Hamas stops firing rockets to Israel first.
    2. Israel stops all offensive & withdraw troops.

    Game over!

  31. This is a religious war ..on going for centuries.
    USA Govt. can stop it anytime…but the Jews are too powerful in America…for any US President to dare and do it.
    When one did made the peace so real and coming…it needs Arafat to blow it out of proportion.
    So many times..peace was close….and just look at those cunning Israel politicians…twisting and turning…making it a never ending war.
    Yes…the Christians under their flagship of Judaism are killing the Great Pretenders….the Muslims.
    The Muslims are fighting for jihad….jihad for their family and jihad for anything..as the Palestinians know nothing…except jihad wars now.
    Yes……these two religions are nuts…. brothers fighting against brothers.
    This present war…is to show Obama what is Israel and somewhat .a farewell present to Bush.
    It has always been a political war…during our educated era.
    I wonder what will it be….next 50 years…scientific and logistic war?
    No laughing matters when humans are treated by these political and religious devils….as useless fighting ants.
    But if one goes by the events for past 35 years…it is the Palestinians that want real peace more than the Israelites.
    Yes…fight to the death to protect Jerusalem.
    For this…USA Govt. has proven to be such a big hypocrite and applying double standards…always for their advantages……never for fairness to all humankind.
    Their military power must be contained ..sooner or later…as USA is the main player to world unrest and wars……after WW2….to keep selling war weapons..to keep occupying important roles in rich countries….especially for oil…to survive.

  32. \Don’t forget to tell that to the many demonstrators all round the globe – London, Vancouver, New York, Paris just to name a few.\

    Sure, there are also billions of people who are aware but are not foaming at the mouth and demonstrating! In fact, quite a lot of them have sympathy for the position that Israel has the right to hit back. No one likes war or the suffering that goes with it. The point that was raised is that it is not always black and white to apportion blame. Clearly, if one side desist from violence the situation would de-escalate rather than escalate. Neither side seems willing to take the steps to de-escalate the situation. So, why condemn only one side.

  33. When mosquitoes keep attacking human beings , human beings would kill the mosquitoes at sight (even use the weapon of mass destruction such as Ridsect/Sheildtox and killed some innocent insects in the process).

    The act of HAMAS launching rockets to Israel territories and killing innocent people has put themselves like the position of mosquitoes . So we cannot just blame the Israelites. The have the right to extinguish ‘the mosquitoes’.

    We should hear stories from both side. Both side have their own version of truth.

    The Hamas are to blame for provocation. Israel reacted and as a result, innocent people are killed.

  34. Sunday, January 04, 2009
    Iranians Announce $1 Million Reward For Assassination of Egyptian President Mubarak

    Demonstrators carry pictures of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak as they shout slogans in front of The Interests Section of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Tehran December 8, 2008. Demonstrators were protesting Egypt’s ties with Israel. (REUTERS/Stringer)

    The regime-run news agency, Fars News reported that the Islamic Republic of Iran has announced a one million dollar reward for individuals who assassinate the president of Egypt. The news agency wrote:

    “The ceremony for the designation of the reward for the revlutionary execution of the filthy traitor, Husni Mubarak has been organized through the justice-seeking movement of the (militant Basij) students as well as the cooperation of various other organizations. During this ceremony Forooz Rejaii, the secretary general of the organization entitled Rewarding The Martyrs of the World of Islam (and the suicide bombers brigade) spoke.”

    It is important to note that the “Rewarding The Martyrs of the World of Islam” is an organization designed and supervised by the Iranian revolutionary guards.

  35. pakistani killed hundred indians during mumbai incident, but indians din launch war towards pakistan, at least they are civilized – melurian

    You got it wrong. India has a few billion population – they can afford to sacrifice a few million like they did over the centuries.
    It was the famous Gandhiji who said “Muslims are bullies, Hindus are cowards”.

  36. Israeli invasion of Gaza – crime against humanity?

    New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg arrived in the rocket-stricken city of Ashkelon and said that “if I were the State of Israel, I would do anything to defend my residents, and they would expect nothing less.”

    Congressman Gary Ackerman said that New York’s residents supported Israel. Attacking Israel with missiles for years is like telling a woman who is raped that she can’t defend herself, he added.

  37. “So, why condemn only one side.” Justitia

    Let’s begin with the disproportionate use of power by the powerful and the deaths of some 500 including civilians, mostly innocent children, women and old men and some 2,000 injured.

    It is first, a human rights issue.

    This is not between Israel and Palestine but between extremists and moderates on both sides.

  38. This madness has gone on for decades even before anyone of us here were born.

    To tell you the truth, supporters of both sides of the divide do not want the war to end so that they can protect their own objectives and agendas.

    The Arab side loves to have a bogeyman, the Israelis, so as to deflect any protential trouble or rebellion from their own subjects. If the Israelis were no more the super bogeyman, the whole Middle East will go up in flames anyway. One despot will attack another despot and so on. Believe me, there are many despots in the Middle East. It’s so ironic that the Israelis serves as a convenient bogeyman to unite the disparate countries in the Middle East.

    On the Israelis’ side, the America is interested only in maintaining their hegemony over the region and to also test the effectiveness their war machines. In fact, the arms trade is big business.

    From what I see, it human hyprocrisy – the real victims are the Israelis and the Palestinians. If the Palestinians have accepted the partition plan without being egged by the Arab countries to attack the Jews, peace would have been achieved a long time ago.

    Remember, before the nation of Israel was born, there were no sympathy for the Jews in Europe, the Middle East and in many other countries. The Jews are the most hated people in the world. They were being gassed by the Nazis, they were being discriminated by nearly all the European countries; in their history as a people they were being invaded and taken prisoners by many empires: the Romans, the Persians, the Egyptians and other powerful kingdoms of those time.

    The British were not sympathetic to the Jews when war broke out. They tried their best to seize the weapons that the Jew acquired and also stopped the immigration of the Jews from Europe. They trained and supplied the Arab armies: remember Lawrence of Arabia? At the time when Israel was still not a nation, they were without an army. They were just refugees from all over the world who speak a babel of different languages. With such disparate pieces here and there, they were still able to defeat nations with armies trained by the western nations and whose populations were so numerically superior to that the Israelis. Also, the American at that time were neutral but only later came to support the Israelis.

    The blame for this sad event still lie with the sponsors of both sides: the Arabs despots and the Americans and all the European hypocrites.

  39. When one talks about equality, fairness, democracy, peace, unity, kindness, respect, condemns war and atrocities, condemns unfair treatment, condemns hegemony, condemns unilateral actions, etc., etc., one has to look at one’s very own backyard first.

    When we demand others not to be cruel and be fair and be magnanimous, we cannot be prejudiced, discriminatory, bigoted, abusive, manipulative, hegemonic, claiming supremacy and demanding special treatments and privileges. No matter what a piece of paper, which is man-made, purportedly says.

    When we claim to be religious and pious and God fearing, we cannot live and behave as if others’ religions and beliefs are wrong, inferior, and unacceptable, when the God that we pray to is the one and the same one.

    As such, we cannot only blame Israel for all the atrocities and war when the other side of the divide is also scheming and planning a war, shooting missiles and provoking endlessly. It take two to tango.

    It is all about sincerity. It is all about sense and sensibility. It is all about being truthful and honest about all matters. To sit opposite one another, or better, side by side, to discuss and negotiate is the most sensible thing to do, if ever either party truly wants everlasting peace and harmony.

    Unless and until that is done, the war will go on, people killed and maimed, time and opportunities lost, and the blame game will not stop.

    It is only on the premise of true equality, honesty and fairness that true and everlasting peace could be achieved.

    When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?

  40. To Undergrad2, what would you consider to be proportionate use of power (to stop the rockets)? Implicitly, you are implying that some (punitive) action need to be taken to stop the rockets being fired into Israel by your use of “disproportionate”. Israel and Hamas are BOTH responsible for the civilian misery. To be honest, I abhor the civilian deaths and misery. However, I think we need to be balanced to make sure we are not one-sided in our condemnation as we then give the perpetrators of human misery like the Hamas encouragement that their “stupid” actions are acceptable. They are not. This will result in even more misery in the future. I like the analogy of Reform Malaysia on swating mosquitoes. Why pick a military fight with someone who is clearly overwhelmingly more powerful and know that you will get beaten up or kick in the ass?

  41. Hamas attacked Israel with rocket first? but why Hamas do this? bcos Israel impose many restrictions on Palestine (Gaza n West bank), restrict trade, food supply, medicine, aids, restrict many many things on the excuse that Hamas cannot govern Palestine fairly alone.
    In Palestine, there are also Israeli ppl, Christian etc.
    Both sides should share the blame, the problem / hatred is already very deep n really NO ONE know how to solve them! Israel get the backing from USA (weapons etc)

  42. ” Why pick a military fight with someone who is clearly overwhelmingly more powerful and know that you will get beaten up or kick in the ass” – Justitia

    Hamas Charter

    Article 7: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews) when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say: O Muslims (.) there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. “Only the gharkad tree [evidently a certain kind of tree] would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.” (this hadith, quoted from al-Bukhari and Muslim, both considered as highly reliable sources for the hadith or ‘sayings’ of the Prophet Muhammad).

    Article 28 widens the circle of hate to include all Jews: “Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people: ‘May the cowards never sleep.'” The Charter in its preface quotes Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, as saying: “Israel will exist and continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

  43. Israel get the backing from USA (weapons etc) – cheng on

    True, but not all. And Israel sells to China as well (amongst others):

    In 1987 [Israel Aircraft Industries] was forced to cancel a program to build an indigenous fighter, the Lavi (Lion). The Lavi was a modified version of the Lockheed Martin F-16 already being used by the Israeli Air Force, but cost significantly more than the U.S.-made fighter. So the Israeli Air Force opted to stick with the off-the-shelf model.

    Some time later, the technical details of the Lavi were provided to [China’s Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group], although no government has ever officially acknowledged this fact. When the J-10 was rolled out in a public ceremony in Beijing late last year, a report in the Singapore Straits Times noted the obvious: “The Jian-10 aircraft that China unveiled recently bears a striking resemblance to the Lavi. . . .

    China in turn helps to supply Hamas:

    December 31, 2008

    Hamas fired 60 rockets at Israel today — another bombardment in an aerial assault that’s totaled 6,300 rockets and mortars since Israeli forces left the Gaza Strip in August, 2005. But today’s weapons were different. These weren’t short-range, home-made Qassam rockets that make up the bulk of Hamas’ arsenal. Nor were they the longer-flying 122 mm Grad rockets, designed by the Soviets and made in Iran. Some of today’s rockets flew an alarming 22 miles, hitting an empty school house in Beersheva, the unofficial capital of the Negev Desert region. And they were made in China.

    The Israel military says that these Chinese rockets not only fly twice as far as the Grads, and four times further than the Qassams. They can “potentially cause much greater damage,” too — with “metal pallets that can spread out across a radius of up to 100 meters from the point of impact.”

    Israeli officials didn’t specify which model of Chinese rocket is being used. But it’s “most likely the Chinese WS-1E 122mm rocket.”

  44. ” Why pick a military fight with someone who is clearly overwhelmingly more powerful and know that you will get beaten up or kick in the ass”

    Why did David fight Goliath? Same reason. – Undergrad 2

    There are many differences in the case of David and Goliath. Just a couple here. First, it was a representative fight on a one-on-one basis – no collateral damages to the rest of the nation. Second, there were clear conditions on what the victor gets. This conditions were accepted and that was why David met Goliath and fought alone. Incidentally, the Philistines have been trying to “renegotiate” the terms ever since. :-) I do not want to protract this debate. The overwhelming blog response here is more for an even handed treatment with respect to blame or condemnation. Seriously, this is not the BIG issue in my view for us here in M’sia. We have bigger fish to fry such as the economic crisis that is beginning to bite hard here. Our energies should be focussed on dealing with this versus dealing with someone else’s quarrel that is not even in our neighborhood.

  45. If all sides were to leave the Israelis and the Palestinians to solve their problems without religion, hyprocrisy, and plain ignorance being thrown into the mix, I think the problem would be solved. They have been living on that same piece of land for centuries without killing one another. It’s only because of the egging and provocations from others that the problem seems to be insurmountable.

    Stop all the stupid demonstrations, support and rhetorics. They are the victims of other people devices. Let them solve the problem themselves.

  46. “Why pick a military fight with someone who is clearly overwhelmingly more powerful and know that you will get beaten up or kick in the ass?”

    it reminds me an old mel gibson movie about scotland defending against england outnumbered cavalry. why fight ? why not just surrender and comply to the “prima nocte” and oppression. why mpaja guerilla continue to fight against technology superior japanese armies. why lks do not just join bn and make life easier ? israel land belongs to palestinians; as long the israelis continue to occupy that land, hamas as representative of palestinians would not relent their struggle.

  47. Just a thought.

    Just imagine:

    1) After being gassed by the Nazis in the ovens and being ill-treated by nearly all the European countries, they were considered as wretched people.

    2) The British, being the superpower at that time, were very sympathetic and supportive of the Arabs, yet they were the ones who made it possible for the Jews to return to their homeland.

    3) When they returned to Palestine, they were refugees from all over the world speaking a babel of different languages. The British restricted the number of refugees that were allowed to enter Palestine.

    4) The British and other Europeans trained and supplied the armies of the Arabs. The Jews, being not a nation, before the Partition, were not allowed to have an army. Yet the Jews were able to smuggled weapons right under the nose of the British.

    5) The population of the Arabs were 50–100 times of the Israelis. Yet Israel could defeat 7 Arabs armies, which are superior in training, military hardware and population.

    6) The Arab countries are very rich in oil and influence and yet the American throw their weight behind the Jews. By human behaviour, it natural to befriend someone who would bring benefits to you. Why support a nation which has nothing and which would only bring curses and resentment on your head from 3/4 of the world?

    Don’t you think this might be due to divine intervention? How can a wretched people be able to survive such terrible misfortunes that no other race have ever gone through? It a miracle, really.

  48. When one joins a competition such as in badminton, one cannot blame the opponents for disproportionate use of power to win. That too is when they are willing players. When one party infuriates others into retaliation, can one expect the unwilling opponent to reserve the use of full power to keep the game in play?

  49. Why Hamas attacked Israel? It sounds insane and suicidal for a weak opponent to provoke an enemy of overwhelmingly stronger strength. There was certainly a hidden agenda for Hamas to initiate such seemingly unwise action.

    You would be surprised to realize that the Hamas’ motive is closely linked with the crude oil prize which has been dipped below USD 40 from USD 150 per barrel recently. The Arabs will be facing severe financial difficulty if the present prize of crude oil prevails. They urgently need to put in some impetus to boost up the prize of crude oil which is almost their major source of incomes. The first country to face the gallows is UAE. The development in Dubai, which at one time has been idolized as the jewel of modern development in Arab world, has been slowed down tremendously.

    We still remember that when USA attacked Iraq, the prize of crude oil rose at a staggering pace. So it is sensible to conclude that war acts as a barometer to push up the prize of crude oil especially when it occurs in the Middle East region.

    No one can doubt that Hamas needs the financial support from their neighboring Muslim countries. When they are told to act for the benefit of their supporters or perhaps with a promised reward, refusal to obey will result in loss of financial support and of course eventually will lead to loss of power. So when they were ordered to bomb Israel, they have to act obediently. It is just like a father telling his son to do something for him, if not he will not give him any pocket money.

    I really feel sad and mentally disturbed as a human being on the unnecessary deaths of the Palestinian civilians.

  50. Some have argued that Israel’s action is disproportionate. However, many of us make this accusation on questionable assumptions, which have been challenged by Alan Dershowitz’s in Jerusalem Post:

    ‘There are some who claim that Israel has violated the principle of proportionality by killing so many more Hamas terrorists than the number of Israeli civilians killed by Hamas rockets. That is an absurd misapplication of the concept of proportionality for at least two reasons.

    First, there is no legal equivalence between the deliberate killing of innocent civilians and the deliberate killings of Hamas combatants. Under the laws of war, any number of combatants can be killed to prevent the killing of even one innocent civilian.

    Second, proportionality is not measured by the number of civilians actually killed, but rather by the risk of civilian death and the intentions of those targeting civilians. Hamas seeks to kill as many civilians as it can. It aims its rockets in the general direction of schools, hospitals, playgrounds and other entirely civilian targets. The fact that it has not killed as many civilians as it would have liked to is a tribute to Israel’s enormous devotion of resources to the building of shelters and to the construction of early warning systems.

    Hamas, on the other hand, refuses to build shelters, precisely because it wants to maximize the number of Palestinian civilians inadvertently killed by Israel’s military actions. It knows, from experience, that when it forces Israel to take military actions that result in the deaths of even a small number of innocent Palestinian civilians, many in the international community will condemn Israel. Israel understands this sad reality as well, and goes to enormous lengths to reduce the number of civilian casualties, even to the point of foregoing legitimate targets that are too close to civilian areas. Accordingly, Israel’s actions satisfy the principle of proportionality as well as the principle of self-defense against armed attack.’

  51. “The Jews were punished by God for their sins. Start from there. –” undergraduate2

    ————

    Yes, I think I agree with you. The Jews were the most obstinate people. Throughout their history they have been punished many times, like the Egyptian captivity where they were used as slaves to build the pyramids; then Jerusalem was sacked numerous times by different powers; they were blamed by many Christians for being responsible for the crucification of Jesus Christ – that the reasons why Christian Europe treated them horribly; and finally, the horrors of the Holocaust.

    Any people that have gone through such tribulations would have been wiped out from the face of this earth. Without divine intervention they would not be able to survive the odds that were laid heavily against them.

  52. Loh Says:

    Today at 04: 24.05 (2 hours ago

    “When one joins a competition such as in badminton, one cannot blame the opponents for disproportionate use of power to win …”

    The Middle East conflict which has gone on for almost five decades and has taken a heavy toll in human lives – women and children and innocent civilians – is not a badminton game. To trivialize a conflict in those terms and making a mockery of the value of human life, Jewish and Palestinian, is deplorable to say the least.

  53. Why is it anything that Isreal does makes headlines the world over but news such as the one below are buried away. Are the lives of Africans less in value to those in Gaza. The residents of Gaza are paying the brunt for voting in a militant govt which even went against even their brothers – the ruling Fatah. But the massacre in Congo is much much more henious. Don’t get angry due to religious lines but get angry for all inhumane actions being done.

    Ugandan rebels kill 400 in DR Congo: charity
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081230/wl_africa_afp/ugandadrcongounrest

    KINSHASA (AFP) – Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army rebels killed more than 400 people in Christmas massacres in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Caritas aid charity said Tuesday.

    The rebels denied any responsibility and accused troops from DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan of “bombing” the victims, but a statement from the United Nations Secretary General condemned the alleged LRA atrocities Tuesday.

    The LRA targeted a town where a Christmas Day concert was being held and a Roman Catholic church, and attacks were going on along the Sudanese border, the Catholic charity said in a statement.

    Caritas workers say that “over 400 people have been killed in the attacks in an area of northern Congo including Faradje, Duru, Gurba, Doruma, and Province Orientale,” it added.

    The archbishop of Dungu-Doruma, Monsignor Richard Domba, told AFP that at least 150 people had been killed at a Christmas Day service at Faradje and later, 80 at Duru and at least 200 others at Doruma and in the surrounding villages.

    “It is a dramatic situation that we are living through here,” he said. The rebels “are indescribably barbarous and savage.

    “They kill with machetes, axes and clubs. They burn people alive with their property in their homes.”

    The LRA also “captured young boys and girls whom they will conscript and force to work in their fields,” he said.

    In Bangadi, near the border with Sudan, 48 people died, and in Gurba 213 people were killed. Approximately 6,500 people have found refuge in the area with the Catholic church, Caritas said.

    “The rebels have committed terrible acts of violence,” said the director of Caritas in Dungu-Doruma, Abbe Come Mbolingaba.

    “They decapitated several people. In the villages hardly anybody is moving.

    “Everyone is in psychological shock. The death toll could be above 400 because it is difficult to find all the bodies.”

    Aid workers are worried by the lack of access in the region to local people who are wandering in search of shelter and help.

    The Caritas statement said that the areas had been plundered, leaving the population in desperate need of aid. It said that the number of dead bodies risked spreading disease.

    From New York, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the alleged LRA atrocities in a statement issued by his office Tuesday.

    “The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest possible terms the appalling atrocities reportedly committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in recent days” in both DRCongo and southern Sudan,” it said.

    Ban called on the LRA to “respect all rules of international humanitarian law.”

    He also repeated his support for the December 22 UN Security Council statement that “welcomed the joint measures taken by Uganda, DRC and southern Sudan to address the security threat posed by the LRA.”

    The United Nations mission in DR Congo (MONUC) said the LRA attacks followed the launching on December 14 of the joint military operation against it by the three countries.

    The operation followed the repeated refusal of LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is believed to be accompanied by several hundred supporters, to sign a peace deal with Kampala.

    A spokesman for the LRA said it was not responsible for the massacres, blaming the deaths on bombs dropped by the three African forces and said it had never harmed anyone

    He questioned how the three countries would let LRA forces kill civilians.

    In April the Ugandan authorities initialled a peace deal designed to end one of Africa’s most savage and long lasting civil wars.

    Tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced in Uganda in two decades of fighting between the Ugandan government and the LRA. The group is notorious for abductions of children for use as soldiers and sex slaves.

    The Ugandan army said Sunday that rebels had massacred 45 civilians in a church Friday, most of them women, children and the elderly.

    The rebellion began in northern Uganda in 1986 after Yoweri Museveni came to power. It blends a form of Christianity with traditional beliefs and extreme cruelty and brutality.

    Recruits may be forced to kill a family member to ensure they are not tempted to desert and go home.

  54. Lee Wang Yen PhD

    You got your PhD on the philosophy of religion. Let’s hear your views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not some quotations from some obscure Jewish journalist on the so-called Principle of Proportionality. That’s a lot of bull.

  55. While I support your statement, it worries me because its no different than anyone else who is trying to help/lead this conflict out of its mess.

    It seems to me that world leaders are lost at what do to and its clear Israelis and Hamas are both dysfunctional in solving the conflict.

    All I see is lines being drawn and yet more and more people are more confused about what is really going on – that the danger here is the world is getting played by this issue which is started by irresponsible people. All the show of support, the statements issued, underlying it is real danger this can end up drawing deeper lines between Muslims and non-Muslims and yet more and more are oblivious to it.

    The Isrealies don’t do stupid things and they don’t fight wars they can’t win. Palestinians may be highly committed to their cause but strategically they can’t match the Israelis. This is the real danger, the bad vs. the no-so-bright. The evil genius only loses in fairy tales, not in reality.

  56. Dont know. Not familiar with middle-east history and politics. So dont know who is right and who is wrong. But without going into the who is right thingy, I just want to say that all armed attrocities must be condemned. Such actions ought to have ended 50 years ago together with the second world war. That was when mankind and the world were tought a hugh lesson about fighting each other. No one will triumph. Problems will not go away. Bitterness between rivals will only escalate.

    It would be pointless here to find out who was first in the wrong. The fued had gone on for so long that knowing who threw the first missile is no longer relevant or important.

    Carter started peace talks there and for a while that part of the world was quiet and, I presume, peaceful. The effort continued for sometime under subsequent presidents of the US. What caused the about turn that we see now? Bush was desperately trying to re-assert US’s position as world leader without much success. Has he messed-up the order of things there?

    US has been a strong ally to Israel for decades. But US no longer commands the same international standing it used to in terms of military might and economy. US economy is in shamble and US has shown itself to be unable to fight conventional war despite its advanced war machines. US will soon see a non-white president and will also turn into a white minority nation in a generation from now. In other words, this important ally of Israel is losing its world influence. Is this a respond to fear on the part of the Israelis?

    Perhaps China is in a better position to mediate. In some small ways China is extending its foreign influence. But the West are ever suspicious of any such move by the chinese. Nevertheless for the sake of world peace and better tommorrow China must take a more active role in the matter.

  57. i watched mhi today on tv3, the prof said palestines are the victim here. since hamas held power, the state has been sanctioned by europes and us and job/food/supply/economy were scarce. and still hamas tolerated and signed ceasefile 6 mths ago hoping to have the sanction lifted. and then israel attacked gaza on november and when the ceasefile treaty expired, hamas retaliated by firing rocket hoping to get internation attention on their suffering and injustice. but us and europes lauded israel for taking action as self-defense.

    the prof also claimed since partition in the year 1948, there isn’t fairness to palestines, their land was carved, given way and they force to make themselves refuges to the “pendatang” from all europe.

    so who’s the victim here?

  58. Internet has provided information on matters around the world events but a person still has to decide what best for himself/herself.

    Below information has been doing its round in the emails.

    ***** Begin *****
    Islamic columnist on Jews
    By: Dr Farrukh Saleem.The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist

    Why are Jews so powerful?

    There are only 14 million Jews in the world; seven million in the Americas , five million in Asia, two million in Europe and 100,000 in Africa . For every single Jew in the world there are 100 Muslims.
    Yet, Jews are more than a hundred times more powerful than all the Muslims put together. Ever wondered why?

    Jesus of Nazareth was Jewish. Albert Einstein, the most influential scientist of all time and TIME magazine’s ‘Person of the Century’, was a Jew. Sigmund Freud — id, ego, superego — the father of psychoanalysis was a Jew. So were Karl Marx, Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman.

    Here are a few other Jews whose intellectual output has enriched the whole humanity:

    Benjamin Rubin gave humanity the vaccinating needle.
    Jonas Salk developed the first polio vaccine.
    Albert Sabin developed the improved live polio vaccine.
    Gertrude Elion gave us a leukemia fighting drug.
    Baruch Blumberg developed the vaccination for Hepatitis B.
    Paul Ehrlich discovered a treatment for syphilis (a sexually transmitted disease).
    Elie Metchnikoff won a Nobel Prize in infectious diseases.
    Bernard Katz won a Nobel Prize in neuromuscular transmission.
    Andrew Schally won a Nobel in endocrinology (disorders of the endocrine system; diabetes, hyperthyroidism) .
    Aaron Beck founded Cognitive Therapy (psychotherapy to treat mental disorders, depression and phobias).
    Gregory Pincus developed the first oral contraceptive pill.
    George Wald won a Nobel for furthering our understanding of the human eye.
    Stanley Cohen won a Nobel in embryology (study of embryos and their development) .
    Willem Kolff came up with the kidney dialysis machine.

    Over the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have won 15-dozen Nobel Prizes while only three Nobel Prizes have been won by 1.4 billion Muslims (other than Peace Prizes).

    Why are Jews so powerful?
    Stanley Mezor invented the first micro-processing chip. Leo Szilard developed the first nuclear chain reactor; Peter Schultz, optical fibre cable; Charles Adler, traffic lights; Benno Strauss, Stainless steel; Isador Kisee, sound movies; Emile Berliner, telephone microphone; Charles Ginsburg, videotape recorder.
    Famous financiers in the business world who belong to Jewish faith include Ralph Lauren (Polo),
    Levis Strauss (Levi’s Jeans), Howard Schultz (Starbuck’s) , Sergey Brin (Google), Michael Dell (Dell Computers), Larry Ellison (Oracle), Donna Karan (DKNY), Irv Robbins (Baskins & Robbins) and Bill Rosenberg (Dunkin Donuts).

    Richard Levin, President of Yale University, is a Jew. So are Henry Kissinger (American secretary of state), Alan Greenspan (Fed chairman under Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush), Joseph Lieberman, Madeleine Albright (American secretary of state), Casper Weinberger (American secretary of defense), Maxim Litvinov ( USSR foreign Minister), David Marshal ( Singapore ‘s first chief minister), Issac Isaacs (governor-general of Australia ), Benjamin Disraeli (British statesman and author), Yevgeny Primakov (Russian PM), Barry Goldwater, Jorge Sampaio (president of Portugal ), John Deutsch (CIA director), Herb Gray (Canadian deputy PM), Pierre Mendes (French PM), Michael Howard (British home secretary), Bruno Kreisky (chancellor of Austria ) and Robert Rubin (American secretary of treasury).

    In the media, famous Jews include Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Barbara Walters (ABC News), Eugene Meyer (Washington Post), Henry Grunwald (editor-in-chief Time), Katherine Graham (publisher of The Washington Post), Joseph Lelyyeld (Executive editor, The New York Times), and Max Frankel (New York Times).

    Can you name the most beneficent philanthropist in the history of the world? The name is George Soros, a Jew, who has so far donated a colossal $4 billion most of which has gone as aid to scientists and universities around the world. Second to George Soros is Walter Annenberg, another Jew, who has built a hundred libraries by donating an estimated $2 billion.
    At the Olympics, Mark Spitz set a record of sorts by winning seven gold medals. Lenny Krayzelburg is a three-time Olympic gold medalist. Spitz, Krayzelburg and Boris Becker are all Jewish.

    Did you know that Harrison Ford, George Burns, Tony Curtis, Charles Bronson, Sandra Bullock, Billy Crystal, Woody Allen, Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Dustin Hoffman, Michael Douglas, Ben Kingsley, Kirk Douglas, Goldie Hawn, Cary Grant, William Shatner, Jerry Lewis and Peter Falk are all Jewish?

    As a matter of fact, Hollywood itself was founded by a Jew. Among directors and producers, Steven Spielberg, Mel Brooks, Oliver Stone, Aaron Spelling ( Beverly Hills 90210), Neil Simon (The Odd Couple), Andrew Vaina (Rambo 1/2/3), Michael Man (Starsky and Hutch), Milos Forman (One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Douglas Fairbanks (The thief of Baghdad ) and Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) are all Jewish.

    To be certain, Washington is the capital that matters and in Washington the lobby that matters is The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Washington knows that if PM Ehud Olmert were to discover that the earth is flat, AIPAC will make the 109th Congress pass a resolution congratulating Olmert on his discovery.

    William James Sidis, with an IQ of 250-300, is the brightest human who ever existed. Guess what faith did he belong to?

    So, why are Jews so powerful?
    Answer: Education.

    Why are Muslims so powerless?

    There are an estimated 1,476,233,470 Muslims on the face of the planet: one billion in Asia, 400 million in Africa, 44 million in Europe and six million in the Americas . Every fifth human being is a Muslim; for every single Hindu there are two Muslims, for every Buddhist there are two Muslims and for every Jew there are one hundred Muslims. Ever wondered why Muslims are so powerless?

    Here is why: There are 57 member-countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together have around 500 universities; one university for every three million Muslims. The United States has 5,758 universities and India has 8,407. In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
    compiled an ‘Academic Ranking of World Universities’ , and intriguingly, not one university from Muslim-majority states was in the top-500.

    As per data collected by the UNDP, literacy in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent and 15 Christian-majority states have a literacy rate of 100 per cent. A Muslim-majority state, as a sharp contrast, has an average literacy rate of around 40 per cent and there is no Muslim-majority state with a literacy rate of 100 per cent. Some 98 per cent of the ‘literates’ in the Christian world had completed primary school, while less than 50 per cent of the ‘literates’ in the Muslim world did the same. Around 40 per cent of the ‘literates’ in the Christian world attended university while no more than two per cent of the ‘literates’ in the Muslim world did the same.

    Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The US has 4,000 scientists per million and Japan has 5,000 per million. In the entire Arab world, the total number of full-time researchers is 35,000 and there are only 50 technicians per one million Arabs (in the Christian world there are up to 1,000 technicians per one million). Furthermore, the Muslim world spends 0.2 per cent of its GDP on research and development, while the Christian world spends around five per cent of its GDP.
    Conclusion: The Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge.

    Daily newspapers per 1,000 people and number of book titles per million are two indicators of whether knowledge is being diffused in a society. In Pakistan , there are 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 Pakistanis while the same ratio in Singapore is 360. In the UK , the number of book titles per million stands at 2,000 while the same in Egypt is 20.
    Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to diffuse knowledge.
    Exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports are an important indicator of knowledge application. Pakistan ‘s export of high technology products as a percentage of total exports stands at one per cent. The same for Saudi Arabia is 0.3 per cent; Kuwait , Morocco , and Algeria are all at 0.3 per cent while Singapore is at 58 per cent.
    Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to apply knowledge.

    Why are Muslims powerless? Because we aren’t producing knowledge, Because we aren’t diffusing knowledge., Because we aren’t applying knowledge.

    And, the future belongs to knowledge-based societies.

    Interestingly, the combined annual GDP of 57 OIC-countries is under $2 trillion. America , just by herself, produces goods and services worth $12 trillion; China $8 trillion, Japan $3.8 trillion and Germany $2.4 trillion (purchasing power parity basis).
    Oil rich Saudi Arabia , UAE, Kuwait and Qatar collectively produce goods and services (mostly oil) worth $500 billion; Spain alone produces goods and services worth over $1 trillion, Catholic Poland $489 billion and Buddhist Thailand $545 billion. (Muslim GDP as a percentage of world GDP is fast declining).

    So, why are Muslims so powerless?
    Answer: Lack of education.

    All we do is shout to Allah the whole day and blame everyone else for our multiple failures.
    ***** End *****

  59. Why does DAP concern itself about what is happening between Hamas and Israel and worse still take sides. There is never only one side to a story and there are many stories all over the world to be concern with if DAP is so interested in them. How about in Congo where most of the women are mass raped and killed at this very moment, children army, starvation affecting millions, human trafficking, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, poverty, environmental pollution, economic depression, flue epidermic, tainted milk-there are no lacking of issues. I suggest as a growing political party that is rapidly increasing in strength and respect, it should never take sides and blind itself to complicated situations like in Middle East.

    If the Israel incursion is so damn wrong and is so much a crime against humanity as you put it, why are the Western nations and US not taking action but in fact tacitly supporting Israel. They cannot even get the Security Council to agree on a Statement to make! So the Jews have infiltrated all the Parliments and psyche of the Western world at the expense of the Palestinian and Hamas to wage its war and incursion against Hamas in Gaza with impunity. How come they got so much clout. They are only so few few Jews in the world.

    So it is right for Israel to be exterminated, its 5 million Jews burned and vapourized so that Palestinan can get back their land as Melurian wants. How sure is he that the land was given by God to Palestinian. How come Palestinian got land Israel with its millions did not. How come Israel is so advance and the Palestinians are not. How come the entire Middle East which is so huge cannot accomodate the Palestinians so much so that they have to exterminate 5 million minions Jews who is occupying perhaps 2% of all the land in the Middle East. If DAP cannot answer any of this and more questions in the Middle East I suggest it confines itself to politics in Malaysia which is no less challenging. I can assure you that if PR fails to kick out BN in the next election and BN continues to rule for a couple of terms more, the country will first be as poor as the Palestinians then the Zimbaweans.

  60. Israel’s action – crime against humanity ? Maybe but………………
    When Israel asked the civilian to leave, the World did nothing – like offering to transport/house the civilian for safety… This is the real crime !
    Hamas chooses to fight from mosque and “civilian” residency. That should be condemned !
    Please readers ! There is nothing wrong with Islam. Remember the “Crusader”, it has nothing to do with Christianity.
    There will be peace on earth when human ceases to exist !

  61. Hamas: We’ll kill Jewish children anywhere

    Behold the brazen hypocrisy: Hamas launches attacks from civilian areas and uses children as human shields, and then uses the deaths of Palestinian children to justify murdering Jewish children anywhere in the world. And the world yawns and issues another condemnation of Israel.

  62. Palestine and Israel was divided equally during the start. Its the Arab countries around them that caused the problem. After they attacked Israel and lost, they just left the Palestinians to rot. Even the neighbouring Arab countries didn’t want to deal with the Palestinian refugees.

    Give them PAlestine and they’ll fight against each other. There’s no bloody peace with these guys.

  63. Many may think..this is a territorial war..which is party true…..but mainly…it is still a religious war….under the disguises from USA and Israel Govt..it is not.
    Judaism and Islam fought for….hundreds of years.
    Palestine fighting for Gaza and Jerusalam…..what for..for land?

  64. Egyptian President Mubarak says he wants an Israeli victory in Gaza

    Monday 5th January, 2009

    Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stunned visiting foreign ministers Monday when he said he wanted Israel to emerge as the winner in the current conflict in Gaza.

    The European foreign ministers, headed by Karel Schwarzenberg of the Czech Republic, whose country currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, met with Mubarak in Cairo before travelling on to Jerusalem.

    The ministers met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni after arriving in Jerusalem and briefed her on their discussions with the Egyptian president.

    It was at that meeting that ministers confided that Mubarak had told them ‘Hamas must not be allowed to emerge from the fighting with the upper hand.’

    Hamas believes Egypt is trying to broker a ceasefire and sent a delegation to the city on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meantime has told visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Israel will not honour a ceasefire imposed by the UN Security Council. It will only honour an agreement that it agrees to, the Israeli prime minister told Sarkozy.

    Israel wants the rocket attacks to stop, and the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to cease. Mubarak, whose country patrols the border with Egypt, was insisting Monday there was no smuggling, that supplies to Hamas were coming from ships off Gaza.

  65. Mr. Lee Wang Yen, obviously some commentors are not well equipped. I notice one comment for instance:

    “not some quotations from some obscure Jewish journalist on the so-called Principle of Proportionality. That’s a lot of bull.” – undergrad2

    You are ABSOLUTELY correct on “I’m surprised by Undergrad2’s readiness to assert things he doesn’t know.”

    I did a check and Alan Dershowitz is described:
    “Alan Morton Dershowitz (born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and is known for his extensive published works, career as an attorney in several high-profile law cases, and commentary on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

    He has spent most of his career at Harvard, where, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor in its history, until Noam Elkies took the record. Dershowitz still holds the record as the youngest person to become a professor of law there.”

  66. I am not saying Harvard’s Alan Morton Dershowitz’s views on Hamas-Israelis conflict are fair or not fair.

    Neither would I denigrate his intellectual/legal brilliance and achievement. When pastor Jerry Falwell filed a $10 million lawsuit against Penthouse, the magazine (equivalent to Playboy) was represented by Alan arguing (successfully) PentHouse’s case before Supreme Court based on free speech civil liberties and the First Amendment. ..) [See this in the entertaining Movie – “The People vs Larry Flynt” starring Woody Harrelson (as Larry, Penthouse publisher, and Courtney Love, as his wife and Edward Norton as Alan Dershowitz].

    However it should be pointed out that Alan was born to mother Claire and father Harry, both devout orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, New York (same as the other famous actress/singer/socialite/political activist Ms Babara Striesand).

    Alan himself has adhered to the orthodox Jewish faith. In early days when Dershowitz sought employment immediately after school, thirty-two Wall Street law firms rejected him, despite his excellent academics, due to his Jewish heritage. He has fought Jewish causes against anti-Semitism since as far as anyone remembers..

    This also pertains to the issue of objectivity and sympathies.

  67. Alan is probably right about Israel’s right to self defence by international law. However issue of “proportionality” extends beyond legal issues into the realm of morals, military strategy etc but whether or not a specific response action is proportionate is again often influenced by one’s subjective sympathies based on cultural, religious background etc….though all may perhaps agree (to quote an extreme example) that nuking Gaza is definitely disproportionate response amounting to genocide that cannot be defended on “self defence” principle.

  68. Hamas is an organization practising violence and terrorism on their perceived ‘enemies’. It is of course supported financially and weapon supplies by the powers behind.

    Hamas took control of Gaza from P.A. which is under Abbas, by force, not through votes of the people.

    It controlled and ruled Gaza with terror and impoverished the people by pooling whatever financial resources to acquire weapons, like rockets to be launched at its neighbour Israel.

    It is an act of defiant provacation although it was and had been warned times and again to stop the rockets attacks at Israel.

    Defiant Hamas refused and continued, so as to attract the world and its sympathisers to whatever their hidden agenda in the Middle East at the expense of the poor and innocent people who live in Gaza.

    Through their selfish acts, defiant stance and terrorising policy, it has invited the attack and incursion by Israel.

    In any attacks, incursion and war there is bound to be casualties of the innocent. Who to blame?

    The humanity track record of Hamas has left much to be desired. To achieve its motives and agenda, Hamas does not give a damn to the poor and innocent by their terrorising action on its neighbour.

  69. the six-day war was fought like david vs goliath. for the jews it’s deja vu. guess who won and do u know why? the palestines know it, so does all of the arab world. israel will never fall without the permission of You-Know-Who. no, not the u.s of a, dumb dumb melurian.

  70. “Why does DAP concern itself about what is happening between Hamas and Israel and worse still take sides” – ablastine Today at 10: 42.14 (6 hours ago)

    That’s interesting – and a valid question. It is a global concern? Or maybe a local one (KT by elections) to take same side as ruling party? :)

  71. Loh,

    The only two words missing from your analogy is Israel and Palestine or Hamas. You’re not telling readers how you won your last game of badminton, are you? How you used disproportionate power?

    That was a cut and paste. What is not there I couldn’t have cut and pasted. Duh?

  72. For the convenience of readers, here’s what Loh wrote (delivered to those who bother to read through the magic of ‘cut and paste’).

    Loh Says:

    Today at 04: 24.05 (14 hours ago)
    When one joins a competition such as in badminton, one cannot blame the opponents for disproportionate use of power to win. That too is when they are willing players. When one party infuriates others into retaliation, can one expect the unwilling opponent to reserve the use of full power to keep the game in play?

    The thread is about the invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces – the use of disproportionate military power by Israel has been condemned by many around the world.

  73. When the term ‘disproportionate use of power’ is used as a basis to condemn a war, would it mean then that a proportionate response is acceptable? It would then imply that a proportionate use of power would be able to keep both parties engaged in a war. It would then be like a game for others to watch. The term ‘disproportionate use of power’ used in describing conflicts serves to trivialize the war like a game. That was what I tried to convey in my last posting. It would appear that it carried the opposite meaning, or perhaps only to one person who chose to understand it in the way that he could make comments.

  74. And today, another Hamas Top Cat Terrorist bites the dust (he thot his proportions would save him):

    IDF kills head of Hamas’ rocket unit in Gaza

    01.06.09

    The IDF has killed the head of Hamas’ rocket unit in Gaza in an aerial attack on the Jabalya neighborhood in northern Gaza.

    Ayman Siam also served as the head of the Islamist group’s artillery forces.

  75. manusia ada akal…. I read your post with surprise as you are stating facts, I assume.

    Thought I read somewhere that Jews have the highest IQ in the world followed by PRC Chinese… But I got this IQ link from wiki :
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations

    If we associate IQ with intelligence, then the most intelligent people in the world comes from East Asia. Hongkies are the most intelligent & also hardworking. That’s why there are no wars in this part of the world, except for ‘cold no-talking’ wars. That’s smart. Malaysia ranks 37, surprisingly just 4 steps behind Israel of rank 33. From this chart, Malaysia is also the top muslim country in terms of intelligence, a far cry from S’pore rank 5. EU countries come behind East Asian countries. African countries come last. Middle Eastern countries generally don’t score well except Turkey, Egypt which are Israeli supporters.

    The facts shows….. I don’t need to explain further. Where in the world are the most fighting? Poverty? – Africa. What happens if Middle Eastern oil dries up in the future? Will they be like Africa? too poor to fight? Time will tell.

  76. Israel left Gaza in 2005, and all it got for that unilateral effort was kassams that rain down on Sderot and other Israeli communities throughout Southern Israel. People within range of the kassams have less time to react than they do to read this post. They have seconds.

    That conditions for Gazans is bad now is the fault of no one but the Hamas terrorists who wished for a war with Israel, and Hamas all they could to ensure that one would bring the maximium amount of civilian casualties.

    None of this matters to the many anti-Israel demonstrators around the world who display their real intentions. It isn’t anti-war sentiments driving much of the demonstrators, but raging anti-Semitism. Israel’s existence is sufficient for the demonstrations, and the grievance theater surrounding these displays shows just how deluded so many of these people are. They demand nothing less than jihad and the destruction of Israel – in so many words.

  77. “disproportionate military power” is artillery barrages, cluster bombs and tanks used on residential targets. I’ve seen people say “any country would do the same”. Not before the War on Terror, they didn’t. I was detained while walking across London at night in 1990 (as were many) on the basis of a large rucksack and immigrant (to the UK) parents who gave me a name that was almost sufficient by itself to land the bearer in the dock in England for much of the 20th century. The Stock Exchange had been bombed by the Provisional IRA only months before, and the Metropolitan police were understandably cautious.

    At no point in the Irish Republican Army’s campaign did the UK use bombs or tanks against them. Even over-zealous SAS ‘hits’ were heavily criticised and even the subject of successful legal actions against. I remember a Private Eye front cover, just after the “Death on the Rock” episode in Gibraltar, showing SAS snipers on rooftops with speech bubbles “why did you shoot him 39 times?” “because I ran out of bullets”. Perhaps the Troubles could have been brought to a precipitous end by carpet bombing Ireland, but I suspect it would have hardened people’s attitudes in the long run.

    “Bombing back to the Stone Age” has only recently become fashionable again. Objecting to it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, and everything to do with concern for my fellow humans.

  78. “Objecting to it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, and everything to do with concern for my fellow humans.” – Orang Rojak

    I applaud such concern for the sufferings of fellow human beings. So, where and when were you objecting when the rockets were fired at Israel where other human beings were being put in danger?

  79. In this convoluted and confused world of ours where there are as many different opinions as there are the number of people, who also have their very own ideas just about everything, how do we expect the convergence of thoughts and objectives?

    When there is such a diversity of opinions and interests (self ), there are bound to be conflicts and disagreements. This is very evident even in this particular blog. Just imagine how such a small difference in world-view could multiply to become a full-blown and large scale war ( of words, and in the very real, cunning, selfish and cruel, and sometimes evil world of ours, into a real physical military war).

    The question is how do we come to a compromise and come to a peaceful and amicable conclusion which is acceptable and good for all?

    The distorted human nature is such that people would try to secure their own position and interest first, and then only would they consider those of others. It is this selfish and inconsiderate trait of human that contributes most to the turbulence, atrocities, inhumane conclusions, and all the troubles and problems that had besieged mankind since time immemorial.

    Back to the question : when will we ever learn, just when will we ever learn…?

    Surely there must be a permanent solution to this seemingly elusive and paradoxical human failing.

    Therein, lies FAITH.

    If there is true faith, most of the sufferings and shortcomings of mankind would be solved. It is precisely due to the lack of faith that the problems that we see and observed continue to stalk mankind. Evil begets evil. And surely, faith begets faith.

    There must be a convergence of faiths in order to usher in true peace and harmony amongst the peoples of the world. If we choose to be confrontational, how do we expect to achieve agreement, let alone a long lasting one? If we choose to be belligerent, how could there be peace and calm? If we choose to be cynical, how could we have trust?

    In the quest for more knowledge, material wealth and positions, it seems that mankind had forgotten to be human. Human nature in the uncorrupted state is amiable; until it is twisted and affected by conflicting and me-first positioning that the evil form begins to take shape. And, as often said, the rest is history.

    What we will accomplish eventually depends entirely on how true we are to our senses and how sensible we choose to be. Simple, but true.

  80. No matter where we stand, we would always try to justify our positions.

    It is such a premise (true or imagined ) that leads to confrontation among peoples.

    If inflicted death and suffering are so despised and unacceptable, then the wars waged are equally despicable and objectionable and should be avoided at all cost.

    Hence the current military conflict cannot be accepted or justified, either by the Israelis or the Palestinians. The perpetrators on both divide must be charged and indicted for war crimes, mostly for the killing of the innocents and the unnecessary destruction of properties and belongings, and the right to peaceful existence.

    By right, no war is justifiable or could be justified.

  81. OrangRojak,I think you have made a very strong case as to why the use of ‘disproportionate military power’ is unacceptable by citing that England even at the height of the Irish Republican Army’s campaign did not resort to the use of bombs and tanks against them, and that England if she had so chosen could have carpet bombed Ireland for a speedy resolution of her problem.Your humanism comes thro when you argue so compassionately against “bombing back to the stone age”.

  82. “I was detained while walking across London at night in 1990 (as were many) on the basis of a large rucksack and immigrant (to the UK) parents who gave me a name …” OrangRojak

    You must be using the Circle Line going back and forth from Nottinghill Gate to Tower Hill (where Jack the Ripper used to walk). I lived at the end of the Central Line. Nowhere near Small India where everybody is a Paki (short for potential terrorist).

  83. Loh Says:

    Yesterday at 21: 41.42
    When the term ‘disproportionate use of power’ is used as a basis to condemn a war, would it mean then that a proportionate response is acceptable? It would then imply that a proportionate use of power would be able to keep both parties engaged in a war …”

    Stop bloviating!

  84. Hey, let’s be honest; let’s not be so simplistic and naive. People kill over a chicken thigh and a dime. There must be rules to regulate man’s orderly existence but will rules ever be able to regulate death tolls in the thrusts of war? This debate is always tough and long. I am totally mind-boggled.

    Somw may say it ultimately boils down to this: If u worry about morals, don’t get into a war; and if u worry about a war, there isn’t time for morals.

  85. “where and when were you objecting when the rockets were fired at Israel where other human beings were being put in danger?”

    Right where I’ve always been when small groups have been making life a misery for very much larger groups: wondering what the answer is. I don’t think comparing the situation in Gaza to the UK and the IRA is very useful in the long run – it’s too easy to find any small difference between the two situations. The problem in Ireland was arguably caused by the UK’s expansion, and went on for more than a hundred years. Israel’s formation and expansion is much more recent, and more painful for the amount of information available and how quickly news travels today.

    Israel is not the only country in the world, even last month, to suffer misery at the hands of small groups of murdering malcontents. South of Thailand? While I continue to wonder what to do, I observe that very few countries respond to similar problems by blockade and full scale military assaults.

    What is so much worse in Israel that full scale military assault is justified there and not elsewhere? I do not claim to have an understanding of the problems in the Middle East as complete as a referee at a chess match. In my ignorance, I cannot equate recent events there with ‘proportionate’.

  86. IRA had nothing like the Hamas Charter:

    Article Seven: The Universality of Hamas

    By virtue of the distribution of Muslims, who pursue the cause of the Hamas, all over the globe, and strive for its victory, for the reinforcement of its positions and for the encouragement of its Jihad, the Movement is a universal one………
    The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree (cited by Bukhari and Muslim).

    palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html

  87. Are the facts listed below “proportionate”?

    More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined.

    Islamic terrorists murder more people everyday than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years.

    More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.

    19 Muslim hijackers killed more innocents in two hours on September 11th than the total number of American criminals executed in the last 65 years.

  88. “listed”

    Mao Zedog 43 million
    Pol Pot 3 million

    and your point is what? Who should we bomb first? I think of Farish Noor as ‘an Islamist’, but I don’t think he kills anyone, although I thought on one occasion he had bored me almost to death. Even if I had actually shuffled off my mortal coil while reading one of his articles, I still wouldn’t wish him any harm.

    I prefer to think of people who slaughter perfectly reasonable, normal people as ‘criminals’, ‘the insane’ or ‘idiots’, regardless of their claimed affiliations. It is on this basis I decry military action on the scale of mass destruction against them. It doesn’t matter how many people they kill, a state declaring war on individuals doesn’t make any sense, and it never will. The only consequence of war on individuals is dead non-combatants and a surge in recruitment to whatever idiotic ideal the individuals espouse.

  89. Before anybody bombs me out of patriotism or some other heartfelt affiliation, the ‘Mao Zedong’ miss-spelling above is an honest (if unfortunate) spelling mistake – I only just noticed it. Please don’t bomb me, please!
    Thanks.

  90. “The stone, which is thrown at the Jews, hates these Jews, these Zionists, because Allah foretold, via His Prophet Muhammad, that Judgment Day will not come before the Jew and the Muslim fight. The Jew will hide behind stones and trees, and the stone and the tree will speak, saying: “Oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” The only exception will be the Gharqad tree.”

    This harangue would be nothing new on television in the Islamic world; in fact, it is commonplace. What is unique about Sultan’s threats against America is that he holds U.S. permanent residency status and, according to one federal law enforcement official, travels regularly on a U.S. passport. And as I have reported elsewhere, Sultan is pursuing U.S. citizenship (the status of his application is unknown due to federal privacy laws). Thus, Salah Sultan has lived quite comfortably for more than a decade under the protections of the very country he now threatens with death and destruction.

    pajamasmedia.com/blog/top-american-islamic-cleric-threatens-us-on-egyptian-tv/

  91. k1980 Says:

    Today at 11: 22.15 (9 hours ago)
    “Are the facts listed below “proportionate”? Islamic terrorists murder more people everyday than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years”

    If you let KKK have their way, they’d hang you and every Jew, Asian and not just blacks they see from the nearest tree. I don’t believe they will do the same with a white Muslim.

  92. History shows that the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democrat Party. This ugly fact about the Democrat Party is detailed in the book, A Short History of Reconstruction, (Harper & Row Publishers, Inc., 1990) by Dr. Eric Foner, the renown liberal historian who is the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. As a further testament to his impeccable credentials, Professor Foner is only the second person to serve as president of the three major professional organizations: the Organization of American Historians, American Historical Association, and Society of American Historians.

    As from Jan.20th, the President of the US will be a black (or colored to be more precise). I very much doubt the KKK will hang their President.

  93. Loh Says:

    Yesterday at 21: 48.47
    Undergrad2,

    “I told you some time ago that you are free to exibit your knowlege or the lack of it…”

    Like I said earlier, to equate the Middle East conflict to a game of badminton is to trivialize the deaths of thousands who laid down their lives in defense of what they believe is just and fair. It has nothing to do with lack of knowledge. It is common sense.

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