the silence that says it all

Obama has uttered mum about the massacre in Gaza.

US media continues to report ‘massacre’ in Gaza between quotation marks.

US media continues to interview only Israeli PR people who explain how Hamas is responsible and US media keeps repeating the same mantra.

CNN’s Situation Room wrote Rafah on the map as Rahaf. Ignorance is bliss.

And Obama has uttered mum about the massacre in Gaza.

Doesn’t that say it all?

lies and more lies

The propaganda machine has started… And what is infuriating is that some people, especially Americans, believe this shit!!

Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters Monday, while “Hamas is looking for children to kill.”
“Hamas is targeting deliberately kindergartens and schools and citizens and civilians because this is according to their values. Our values are completely different. We are trying to target Hamas, which hides among civilians,” Livni said. [link]

I remember showing some videos a while ago to an American friend of mine and he countered with the Israeli videos that claim to ‘debunk’ the Palestinian propaganda videos. It was clear in the videos how Palestinians were killed and were being targetted, but my friend said this was not true and it was all ‘theatre’ because the other Israeli videos said that.

What an outrage!! what total and complete outrage!!

As the Bible says, they have eyes but cannot see; ears but cannot hear.

And idiot stupid mf Rice says that she puts the blame squarely on Hamas. Stupid idiot!!

media reporting on the gaza strike

So I wake up this morning with the media reporting how Israel pounded Gaza in repeated air strikes. Here is the Yahoo news report- notice the title of the report ‘Israel strikes demolish Hamas compounds, kill 192‘:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing nearly 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in years.

Of course. Israel is always retaliating. They are not bloody murderers. They are only retaliating. But then listen to this:

Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were also among the dead.

So as you can see, there were airstrikes that targetted specifically ’security men’ – anyone with a ’security men’ antenna on his chest was  targetted. If a man standing next to him and was not a security man, he was not targetted nor dead. Must be some mighty intelligent ‘airstrikes’ huh?

But wait, there’s more:

Some of the Israeli missiles struck in densely populated areas as children were leaving school, and women rushed into the streets frantically looking for their children. Most of those killed were security men, but civilians were among the dead.

So in ‘densely populated areas’ and as ‘children were leaving school’, the airstrikes struck …. but hey… here is a repeat in case you missed it – the automatic: ‘most of those killed were security men but civilians were among the dead.’ Same sentence repeated twice in the same article, ensuring that even though they are reporting on children leaving school in densely populated areas, you understand quite well that Israel was not targetting the children but rather ’security men’. Ok?

“My son is gone, my son is gone,” wailed Masri, 57. The shopkeeper said he sent his 9-year-old son out to purchase cigarettes minutes before the airstrikes began and now could not find him. “May I burn like the cigarettes, may Israel burn,” Masri moaned.

Right. His 9 year old son must have been a ’security man.’ Just wait and see Israel explaining to the ‘world’ that it ‘regrets’ that civilians died but what can it do? Shit happens.

Gaza militants fired 30 rockets and mortars Saturday after the air offensive began. A missile hit the town of Netivot, killing an Israeli man and wounding four people, rescue services said.

Dozens of stunned residents gathered around the house that took the deadly rocket hit. Many wept openly. The crowd broke up after an alert siren went off and sent the onlookers running.

Stunned residents? Oh how sad. My heart breaks really for them. They are ’stunned residents’ because one Israeli was killed in 200 mortar shells – as opposed to one airstrike killing 200 including children – not to mention the wounded.

Israel left Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, but the withdrawal did not lead to better relations with Palestinians in the territory as Israeli officials had hoped.

Left Gaza. Uh huh. Left it as an open prison. Left Gaza? when did it ever really leave Gaza?

At the end of the article there is a correction from an earlier version:

(This version CORRECTS that siren went off in Kiryat Gat, but there was no rocket.)

C’est domage. No rocket? how on earth will you justify the airstrikes now? you just wrote that on your own and then discovered that there was no rocket??

Here is the link to the Yahoo article: link

barbara bush’s ‘beautiful mind’

War and coverage of war? why on earth would you want to see that? especially if you are the one responsible for all those deaths and all that destruction.. why would you want to bother seeing coverage of the war? There are more important things to do… like pontificate on how the Katrina Hurricane victims were certainly better off now than they were before the hurricane.  Some ‘beautiful minds’ simply cannot fathom why everyone is fretting over things like sending our sons and daughters to be slaughtered in a war for oil.

Here is Barbara Bush, in case you missed it, on March 18th 2001 on ABC, telling Diane Sawyer

that she for one would watch ‘none’ of the war on TV. “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what days it’s gonna happen?’ Barabara Bush asked rhetorically. “It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?” [The Greatest Story Ever Sold” p.76)

Honestly as I read this, I was dumbfounded. Could anyone in their right mind say something like that? AND the wife of a former president AND mother of current-not-for-long President? What does that tell of her ‘beautiful mind’? Maybe we should tell Cindy Sheehan this.. or the many mothers, wives and children who have lost loved ones in the Bush war, and let’s see their reaction.

politics of distraction

Israel had all along accused me of bias and of making inflammatory charges relating to the occupation of Palestinian territories. I deny that I am biased, but rather insist that I have tried to be truthful in assessing the facts and relevant law. It is the character of the occupation that gives rise to sharp criticism of Israel’s approach, especially its harsh blockade of Gaza, resulting in the collective punishment of the 1.5 million inhabitants. By attacking the observer rather than what is observed, Israel plays a clever mind game. It directs attention away from the realities of the occupation, practising effectively a politics of distraction.

That was Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories [link] on being detained and denied entry in Israel where he was on his way to Gaza to document the siege and meet with officials.

The ‘politics of distraction’ has always been Israel’s policy. Distract from the immediate and the here and now abuses and talk about anything else. Most importantly, play victim.

thoughts on the shoe

Regardless of what my view is of Bush and his policies, I was bemused when I watched the man who is now considered a ‘hero’ of sorts by many, throw his weapon of mass insult at Bush. However… why is that man a hero? I would consider him a ‘hero’ if he threw the shoe at a press conference of one of the Arab leaders. How about THAT type of hero?

What’s really funnier is that Al Arabeya website is reporting that a Saudi man is offering $10 million for the shoes if they are retrieved and that they are now called Freedom Shoes [link].

Does that remind you of the same stupidity of  ‘freedom fries’?

But really, the best comment on the issue was on Al Arabeya also. One reader wrote: “this is not Arab culture. A real Arab has no shoes on.”

ممكن يكون البيه اللى رمى الحذاء فى وجه بوش بطل كما يسميه البعض الآن وبخاصة فى الدول العربية. ولكن فى الحقيقة ما شفتش بطل عربى واحد تجرأ ورمى حذاء فى وجه أحد حكامه العرب وسط مؤتمر صحفى. مش كده وإلا ايه؟؟؟؟

أحلى تعليق قرأته عن الواقعة موجود على موقع العربية كتبه قارىء يقول: دى مش ثقافة عربية – العربى الحقيقى ما عندوش جزمة