Unfair and Unbalanced: The U.S. Response to the Gaza Crisis

 

WAJAHAT ALI – 12/30/08

Moral relativism, political double talk, and a military juggernaut blind to its violence against an occupied people highlight the most recent, tragic conflagration in Israel and Palestine.

 

In justifying Israel’s most brutal and bloody salvo against Gaza in decades – which has so far killed nearly 400 Palestinians and wounded more than 1800 – Israel’s U.N. ambassador stated Israel rightfully defending itself from continued Hamas rocket attacks within her borders. Prime Minister Ehud Olmdert forewarned the offensive “is liable to continue for some time” and Defense Minister Ehud Barak declared it as an “all-out war against Hamas and its branches.”

 

By affirming Israel’s “right to self defense” and supporting Israel’s contention that the onus is on Hamas to renew the truce, President Bush’s administration highlighted its remarkably predictable political incompetence and tone deaf moral vacancy by squandering yet another precious opportunity to remedy – at least rhetorically – the festering, radioactive sore that is the Palestinian human rights crisis in Gaza and West Bank. Continuing to spin the broken record, his administration condones Israel’s brazen and repeated violations of international law, while simultaneously denying Palestinian human rights at the precarious risk of destabilizing a hostile and volatile Middle East region.

TOP 10 MUSLIM STORIES OF 2008

Courtesy of our friends at ALTMUSLIM:

http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/2904/

Day Four: Gaza War Postings

JAMAL DAJANI – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamal-dajani/day-four-gaza-war-posting_b_154204.html

Near Nahal Oz, Israel — The Israeli “all-out war” on Gaza has entered its fourth day leaving more than 363 dead and 1,800 wounded. Israeli troop movements on the Gaza border point to an imminent ground battle in the upcoming few days. On Monday, the Israeli military declared the Gaza border, where tanks, artillery and troops are massing for a possible ground offensive, a closed military zone.

Reporters are being barred by Israel from going into Gaza to cover the carnage. Many have been relegated to reporting from behind Israel’s declared military zone, some report from Jerusalem or Tel Aviv and rely on phone dispatches by stringers in the Gaza Strip. The best television coverage I’ve seen so far comes from Al Jazeera; the most provocative comes from Hezbollah’s Al Manar. The Israeli coverage on IBA TV and Ch 10 reminds me of FOX News during the Iraq War with a focus on military strategies, graphics and interviews, with Israeli government spokesmen and generals.

Robert Fisk: Leaders lie, civilians die, and lessons of history are ignored

Monday, 29 December 2008

Reuters

A Palestinian woman walks past a destroyed Hamas police compound after an Israeli air strike

• In pictures: Gaza conflict

 

We’ve got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don’t care any more – providing we don’t offend the Israelis. It’s not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel’s side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force.

 

Samuel Huntington’s Warning – Idiocy of the Day by F. Ajami

DECEMBER 30, 2008

He predicted a ‘clash of civilizations,’ not the illusion of Davos Man.

By FOUAD AJAMI

The last of Samuel Huntington’s books — “Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity,” published four years ago — may have been his most passionate work. It was like that with the celebrated Harvard political scientist, who died last week at 81. He was a man of diffidence and reserve, yet he was always caught up in the political storms of recent decades.

Zina Saunders

“This book is shaped by my own identities as a patriot and a scholar,” he wrote. “As a patriot I am deeply concerned about the unity and strength of my country as a society based on liberty, equality, law and individual rights.” Huntington lived the life of his choice, neither seeking controversies, nor ducking them. “Who Are We?” had the signature of this great scholar — the bold, sweeping assertions sustained by exacting details, and the engagement with the issues of the time.