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Tag Archives: 2012

Syria: The Horror: Around 2012

24 Saturday Feb 2018

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics, Syria

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2012, Assad, dictatorship, impunity, Political Crime, remembrance, Syria, war crimes

Putin-Assad-Khamenei

Bashar al-Assad By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44378508 | Vladimir Putiin By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60759727 | Ali Khameini By Tasnim News Agency, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57953266


Houla, 2012

Posted to YouTube June 27, 2012.

Related:

Ryskulova, Nargiza and agencies.  “Syria: war crimes committed by regime in Houla, UN finds.”  The Telegraph, August 15, 2012.

“The commission found reasonable grounds to believe that government forces and the Shabbiha had committed the crimes against humanity of murder and of torture, war crimes and gross violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including unlawful killing, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, sexual violence, indiscriminate attack, pillaging and destruction of property,” said the 102-page report by the independent investigators led by Paulo Pinheiro.

Torture

Human Rights Watch.  “Torture Archipelago”.  July 3, 2012.

Since the beginning of anti-government protests in March 2011, Syrian authorities have subjected tens of thousands of people to arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment, and torture using an extensive network of detention facilities, an archipelago of torture centers, scattered throughout Syria.


Hell of a title —

Bond, Anthony.  “We took their fingernails out with pliers and we made them eat them. We made them suck their own blood off the floor’: Grisly accounts from inside Syria’s ’27 torture centres'”.  Daily Mail, July 3, 2012.

Related:


Posted to YouTube May 16, 2013.


18+ torture video — “Syrian Police Torture Protester” — posted to YouTube September 1, 2011

BackChannels experience suggests that if it’s called what it is — “war p___n” — it will attract a lot of viewers, such are the low desires of the world when it comes to deliberately seeking artless depictions of sex and violence.  the above URL links to a video of a young man who wears a tire around his chest while receiving a beating.

Related

Black, Ian.  “Bashar al-Assad implicated in Syria war crimes, says UN.”  The Guardian, December 2, 2013.

A UN inquiry has found “massive evidence” that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, is implicated in war crimes as the latest reported death toll in the country’s civil war reached 126,000.

Navi Pillay, the UN’s human rights chief, said a commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Syria “has produced massive evidence … [of] very serious crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity” and that “the evidence indicates responsibility at the highest level of government, including the head of state.”


Posted to YouTube Dec. 2, 2013.


Cumming-Bruce, Nick and Rick Gladstone.  “U.N. Says Execution Video from Syria Shows Apparent War Crime.”  The New York Times, November 2, 2012.

–33–

Egyptian Janus – From Secular to Theocratic Dictatorship

13 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in Egypt, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East, Politics

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2012, December, despotism, dictatorship, Egypt, freedom of speech, human rights, Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood, political, politics, torture, tyranny

Middle East journalist Jeffrey Fleishman’s November 27 header in the Los Angeles Times has a poetry in it for the ages: “Morsi may have misjudged Egypt’s tolerance of authoritarianism.”

A moment’s reflection may remind that all regimes labeled autocratic involve by definition the imposition of power, and while there may be elections, the story will also contain some combination of reports of bribery, intimidation, suppression, theft (of whole businesses, not mere wallets), and murder.

Organizations like the “Muslim Brothers” and leaders like President Morsi waste no time in organizing their challengers and rivals for neutralization even though they may not get all they want all at once.

For Morsi specifically, the distance between inauguration and the sacking of Mubarak’s army chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi was one month, mid-June to mid-August, and while overhaul of the military was arguably a first order of business, Morsi would go on to  conduct assaults, essentially, on Egyptian freedom of speech, human rights and rule of law, and, of course, on the courts.

Last week, Al-Monitor reporter Mohamad Jarehi wrote the following in relation to the old Mubarak torture chambers and methods returned to use courtesy of the Muslim Brotherhood:

“The torture process starts once a demonstrator who opposes President Mohammed Morsi is arrested in the clashes or is suspected after the clashes end, and the CSF separate Morsi’s supporters from his opponents. Then, the group members trade off punching, kicking and beating him with a stick on the face and all over his body. They tear off his clothes and take him to the nearest secondary torture chamber, from which CSF personnel, members of the Interior Ministry and the State Security Investigations Services (SSIS) are absent.”

The revelation and publicity may have been developed as a message to intimidate Egyptians who had believed they had a shot at freedom and modernity.

The truth is Egyptians have to find their own way out of the darkness and hell in which despots and thugs keep from them the freedom to inquire and speak broadly and openly about many things, to have recourse to court and security systems that are truly their own and working for them equally, and far more than either of those paths toward freedom and security, to choose for themselves between what is balanced, good, and kind, and what is cruel, dangerous, inhuman, and mad.

About three hours ago, the Associated Press reported that, “Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s center said . . . it will not deploy monitors for Egypt’s constitutional referendum.”

If it stinks too much for “Jimmuh” and his outfit, imagine, but one need not leave judgment with notice of the Carter Center’s disinterest in monitoring a state-defining referendum: today, The Algemeiner reported that since early 2011, more than 100,000 Egyptians have sought asylum in the United States.

Reference Update

I’ve gone loosely chronological with this listing as I track but don’t plug stories on a daily basis.  In a way, reading down the headlines tells the story.  This set starts, close enough, with “Morsi may have misjudged Egypt’s tolerance of authoritarianism” and ends (close enough — I revise as I go) with “Al-Masry Al-Youm Reports on Brotherhood Torture Chambers.”  Think about that.

Richter, Paul.  “n U.N. speech, Egypt’s Morsi rejects broad free speech rights.”  Los Angeles, Times, September 26, 2012.

Fleishman, Jeffrey.  “Morsi may have misjudged Egypt’s tolerance of authoritarianism.”  Los Angeles Times, November 27, 2012.  Note to readers: authoritarianism is never tolerated but always imposed.

Engel, Richard.  “Egyptians fear decades of Muslim Brotherhood rule, warn Morsi is no friend to US.”  News analysis.  NBC News, December 1, 2012 and earlier.

Fleishman, Jeffrey and Reem Abdellatif.  “Egypt court postpones ruling as protesters mass at chambers.”  December 2, 2012.

Fleishman, Jeffrey and Reem Abdellatif.  “Egyptian police fire tear gas during rally against President Morsi.”  Los Angeles Times, December 4, 2012.

Blair, Edmund and Marwa Awad.  “Rivals clash as Mursi’s deputy seeks end to Egypt crisis.”  Reuters, December 5, 2012.

Bloomfield, Douglas M.  “Washington Watch: The death of Egyptian democracy.”  The Jerusalem Post, December 5, 2012.

Reuters.  “Slideshow: Protests in Egypt”.

Fox News.  “Clashes between rival protesters in Cairo kill 3, wound hundreds”.  December 6, 2012.

Jarehi, Mohammad.  “Al-Masry Al-Youm Reports on Brotherhood Torture Chambers.”  December 7, 2012.

Fleishman, Jeffrey and Reem Abdellatif.  “Egypt’s Morsi reverses most of decree that expanded his powers.”  Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2012.

Gabbay, Tiffany.  “Egyptian Reporter Given a Disturbing Look Inside The Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘Torture Chambers’.  December 10, 2012.

The Independent.  “Morsi gives Egyptian army right to arrest civilians.”  December 10, 2012.

Friedman, Thomas L.  “Can God Save Egypt?”  The New York Times, December 11, 2012: “What has brought hundreds of thousands of Egyptians back into the streets, many of them first-time protesters, is the fear that autocracy is returning to Egypt under the guise of Islam. The real fight here is about freedom, not religion.

Human Rights Watch.  “Egypt: Investigate Brotherhood’s Abuse of Protesters”.  December 12, 2012.

Michael, Maggie.  “Carter Center won’t monitor Egypt’s vote.”  Associated Press / Connecticut Post, December 13, 2012.

The Algemeiner.  “Amid Egyptian Protests, Coptic Christians Concerned for Their Survival.”  December 13, 2012.

Fahim, Kareem.  “In Cairo Crisis, the Poor Find Dashed Hopes.”  The New York Times, December 13, 2012: “We had high hopes in God, that things would improve,” Fathi Hussein said as he built a desk of dark wood for one of his clients, who are dwindling. “I elected a president to be good for the country. I did not elect him to impose his opinions on me.”

Kirkpatrick, David D.  “Prosecutor Says Morsi Aides Interfered in Inquiry.”  The New York Times, December 13, 2012:

“All 49 captives had been beaten, Mr. Khater wrote, and they said members of the Muslim Brotherhood had tried to coerce them into confessing that they had taken money to commit violence. But prosecutors found no evidence that they had done so.

“Even so, Mr. Morsi declared in a televised speech later that night that prosecutors had obtained confessions.”

Earlier Reference

McElroy and Magdy Samaan.  “Egypt’s new president Mohammad Morsi sacks army chief.”  The Telegraph, August 13, 2012.

Muwafi, Murad.  “Egypt fires spy chief, security leaders in wake of Sinai attack.”  Global Post, August 8, 2012.

Bradley, Matt.  “Egypt’s President Morsi Defies Courts.”  Video report and interview.  Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2012.

Youssef, Nancy A. and Mohannad Sabry.  “Morsi inaugurated in Egypt.”  McClatchy, June 30, 2012.

# # #

Mohammed Salaymah’s Pistol

13 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Israel, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2012, December, fake pistol, gun, hate, Hebron, ideology, middle east conflict, Mohammed Salaymah, political, political theater, politics, post-Soviet, provocation, replica, training

pistol-toy-Hebron-121212.jpg

Yesterday, Mohammed Salayma, 16 or 17 years old and in the vicinity of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, took the pistol pictured to the left and raised it to the face of an Israeli border guard. A fellow officer drew her service weapon and shot Salayma three times, killing him.

Salayma’s gun turned out a replica.

Out in the wild, the sale and manufacture of replica guns serve interests from children’s toys to theatrical productions.  In the post-Stalinist, post-Soviet drama in which “actions” are planned for effect — or perhaps they just happen that way (sure they do) — perhaps someone had written the headline before arming or criminally failing to educate the victim.  As much seems suggested by the above gun replica.

Criminals have used replicas recently to attempt and carry out robberies, e.g., Tanyos, Faris.  “Police: Suspect in Plain Pantry robbery carrying replica gun.”  KOIN Local 6, December 5, 2012; Fanelli, Joseph.  “Convenience store robber with fake gun stopped by employees in East Portland.”  The Oregonian, July 26, 2012: “The two employees realized the gun was fake when the man accidentally dropped the gun and it split into two pieces, said Avinash Maskey, 24, who works the morning shift at the gas station.”

Do your own Googling if the subject interests you.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police define a replica as “a device that is not a real firearm, but that was designed to look exactly or almost exactly like a real firearm.”

Look again at that photograph of the pistol that was raised to a guard’s face in the middle east conflict zone.

“Replica firearms are prohibited devices in Canada,” says the Mounties page: Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  “Replica Firearms.”

No wonder.

Suicide-by-cop or just plain awesome stupidity (or communal or lonesome but in any case vicious and unscrupulous political ambition), the story will come out as to what directly motivated Mohammed Salayma, an older teenager, to walk up to  to a military guard, stick a fake gun in his face, and thereby draw fire.

Salayma’s death alone would be a tragedy, albeit not one unfamiliar to armed conflicts, but in the middle east conflict, riots and worse come from such sparks.

The Jerusalem Post.  “IDF, Palestinians clash following teen’s funeral.”  December 13, 2012: “Palestinian media reports 5 hurt in clashes before funeral of Palestinian teen killed by Border Police after pulling out fake gun.”

Ma’an News Agency, ever reluctant to put a whole truth (remember: clear, accurate, complete) up top in its articles (here’s the prosaic lead: “An Israeli border guard officer on Wednesday shot dead a Palestinian teenager in Hebron’s Old City in the southern West Bank”), nonetheless winds around to quoting Israel police: “Initial findings are that he had a fake pistol that he pointed at the officers at the time of the incident.”  I’ll call that middle-of-the-clip effort a kind of balanced reporting.  (Ma’an News Agency.  “Israeli forces shoot, kill Hebron teenager”).

Update 12/18/2012/1415H EST

Related Article: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/119536/ore-confusion-arrives-in-hebron

Syria: An Appeal for Regional Cooperation and Support

06 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share

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Tags

2012, appeal, December, humanitarian, Syria

“So far nearly 50,000 people have been murdered by pro-Assad soldiers and paramilitaries, making Syria’s uprising the bloodiest of those of the Arab Spring. While more than two million people have been displaced from their homes, the number of refugees is expected to reach 700,000 by the end of this year. With the beginning of winter soon arriving, with sub-zero temperatures, many children are at great risk unless we stop the ongoing massacre.” Sinem Tezyapar publishing in the Jerusalem Post, December 5, 2012 (“Syrian people need urgent help from Israel, Turkey”).

Loosely related from 2005: Efraim Inbar’s pamphlet “The Resilience of Israeli-Turkish Relations” (PDF): “Annual trade between the two nations grew to US$2 billion in 2004, up from US$200 million in 1993, and since the mid-1990s Turkey has been the number one tourist destination for Israelis.”  Hard to believe today — doubtlessly true seven years ago.

Egypt Starts Its Slow Burn

06 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, Fast News Share, Islamic Small Wars, Middle East

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2012, December, Egypt, protests

The above video was uploaded about six hours ago.  According to “MZWORDLNEWZ”, all of that above would seem to have taken place last night.

I’ve no way of vetting the video other than by glancing over related reference.

Egomania comes with hidden costs, but it’s no secret that people — even close associates (as noted in the RT piece listed in reference) — may only take so much provided their spirits are good and intact and they have room to maneuver.  At this point, President Morsi has polarized his country and lost both a fair chunk of popular support and trust as well as critical personal support.

Would that the powerful pay the price for the chaos and damage they bring to their states, but, and this seen too well in Syria’s meltdown, the would-be constituents of a democratic society and subjects of a creeping Islamic theocracy will arm up, figure out how to discern one another, and have a go in the streets while the military’s fat cats enjoy patronage and power and, for themselves, peace away from the spotlights.

Oren Dorell’s piece published in USA Today has some analytic wisdom in it and will fill in the reader on the military’s compact with President Morsi.

Won’t get fooled again?

That’s up to the Egyptians.

Associated Reference

Goldberg, Ellis.  “The Pharoah’s Curse: Muhammad Morsi and the Temptations of Power.”  Speaker’s address video (1 hour and eleven minutes), primarily audio communication.  Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, November 16, 2012.

Dorell, Oren.  “Analysts: Egypt’s military won’t buck the Brotherhood.”  USA Today, December 3, 2012.

Hauslohner, Abigail and Stephanie McCrummen.  “Egypt’s Republican Guard tanks and soldiers deploy around palace after deadly clashes.”  The Washington Post, December 6, 2012: “By Thursday afternoon, at least three of Morsi’s advisers had resigned over the decree, and Egypt’s influential al-Azhar University, a seat of moderate Islam, was calling on Morsi to rescind it.

Hussein, Abdel-Rahman.  “Egypt violence worsens as five die in Cairo clashes.”  The Guardian, December 6, 2012.

Russia Today.  “Curfew hits Cairo after military tanks quell anti-Morsi protests”.  The piece features a recent-events video.  “They’re saying . . they will not step down, will not back off, until Morsi steps down from power.”  Also notable in the RT report: “The volatile situation has also led to the resignation of five more of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s advisors, including Seif Abdel Fattah, Ayman Sayyad and Amr Leithy who quitted Wednesday over the violence. Mena news agency reported a further resignation on Thursday. Three others did so last week to protest Morsi’s November decree.”

Salter, Ann.  “Egypt: Army moves in to break up protests.”  IB Times.  Video.  December 6, 2012:  “”When Egypt reaches a point, after a revolution, where a brother kills his brother, when the people of one nation reach a point where they carry weapons against each other and slaughter each other – this is not democracy. This is terrorism, terrorism from the ruling party . . . .”

Walking Like Egyptians – President Morsi Provokes Return to Tahrir Square

27 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Egypt, Middle East

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2012, background, Egypt, Morsi, news, November, protests, reference

My prediction: the story may be underplayed today — the above is the most recent clip I could find on YouTube (I’m still looking forward to the day when Facebook or “buddies” share their cell phone feeds with me directly) — and it will get large.

Shortly after his election, Egyptian President Morsi stepped off with a libel launched at Israel, professing to uphold Egypt’s treaty with Israel while accusing Israel of violating its terms many times (not true, I’m happy to report — the clip may be found embedded with this BackChannels piece: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2012/09/28/fb-a-note-on-gellers-poster/).

Remember: evil begins with a lie.

Sometimes it is a small lie, something not-quite-right slipped into a sentence (“Everybody knows that . . . . .”); sometimes, it is large lie and (everybody knows that) the Martian American Zionist European Kaffir Imperialists are the source of all evil (plus monsoons, floods, earthquakes, colds and flue) everywhere in the universe.

Oddly enough, for lack of intellectual armoring or rigor, for misplaced or misdirected loyalties, perhaps for money — business, loot, patronage — people buy the worst lies, believing, hoping, perhaps, that their lives will get better if only something other than themselves were changed in relation to themselves and their environment.

Such misguided faith never works but leads always to greater suffering (a favorite, most convenient, and rather clinical and neutral example: Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, a dictatorship that got its start with a just complaint but then kept going and going and going with a big mouth, patronage, and thugs) and, inevitably, a lot of people who want to leave or promote revolution, usually both.

Morsi has so far done what dictators may be expected to do, including replacing the  generals he inherited, but who knows who’s loose in the junior officer’s corps — or elsewhere in the country.

Reference

November 27, 2012

Associated Press.  “Egyptians gather at Tahrir for anti-Morsi protest.”  Bloomberg Business Week, November 27, 2012.

Bradley, Matt and Sam Dagher.  “Thousands in Cairo Rally Against President’s Decree.”  The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2012.

CNN.  “Power Grab in Egypt?”  Video featuring Robin Wright and Stephen Farrell.  November 27, 2012.

Lynch, Sarah.  “Massive Cairo protests threaten Muslim Brotherhood rule.”  USA Today, November 27, 2012.

Pearson, Michael.  “Protesters to Morsy: Roll back your decree or leave.”  CNN, November 27, 2012.

November 26, 2012

BBC.  “Egypt crisis: Mohammed Mursi tries to defuse tension.”  November 26, 2012.

The Guardian.  “Egyptians clash after Muslim Brotherhood teenager killed — video.” November 26, 2012.

El Menawy, Abdel Latif.  “Is Egypt heading down the same road as Iran?” Twitlonger, November 26, 2012.

Hussein, Abdel-Rahman.  “Egyptian protests over Mohamed Morsi degree expected to draw thousands.”  The Guardian, November 26, 2012.

Trager, Eric.  “Shame on Anyone Who Ever Thought Mohammad Morsi Was a Moderate.”  November 26, 2012.

November 25, 2012

Associated Press.  “Egypt protesters storm Muslim Brotherhood headquarters.”  CBC News, November 25, 2012.

Associated Press.  “Egypt’s stock market plummets after Morsi’s decree.”  USA Today, November 25, 2012.

Fleishman, Jeffrey and Reem Abdellatif.  “Egypt stock exchange falls, protesters converge on Tahrir Square.”  Los Angeles Times, November 25, 2012.

November 24, 2012

Associated Press.  “Egypt judges urge strike after Morsi widens powers: Democracy advocate El Baradei warns of military involvement.”  CBC News, November 24, 2012.

November 23, 2012

CNN Wire Staff.  “Egyptian opposition united in anger over Morsy’s new powers.”  CNN, November 23, 2012.

November 22, 2012

Associated Press.  “Egypt’s Morsi grants himself far-reaching powers.”  Politico.  November 22, 2012.

YouTube Juxtaposition

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Israel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2009, 2012, Gaza, Hamas, human right, terror, terrorism

Produced by Human Rights Watch and posted to YouTube October 3, 2012.

Posted variously, it seems, since 2009, if not earlier.

# # #

Gaza 2012 – Light Background

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by commart in BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Israel, Middle East

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2012, conflict, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, middle east conflict, November, war

Coming home from work?

The diner dinner?

Catch up.

Every conflict — and now every battle — is a little different.  About an hour ago, a CNN clip shows a conversation between two citizen-reporter residents, one in Gaza, the other in Israel, both in the combat area and both reporting and addressing the conflict: “Let’s agree on one thing.  Let’s get this game of who is the victim and victimizer out of the way, so we can talk about more substantial issues,” says Mohammed Sulaiman, a resident of Gaza.

http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2012/11/15/nr-life-in-gaza-strip-seshay-intv.cnn.html.

Also watched shortly before publishing this post: http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2012/11/15/brooke-israel-vs-hamas.cnn.html

Also, much in reference comes from bookmarks, not today’s news, much less “breaking news”; however, being so, it too tells a story within today’s story. Incidental rocket fire from Gaza never stopped after “Cast Lead” (2009); the Hamas government itself has been in the proverbial doghouse with the human rights groups for some time (and reports of “confessions” obtained through torture seem common); the use of civilian centers for arms caches and even children’s playgrounds for launch sites seems to have been and to have remained a part of Hamas doctrine, essentially calling in return fire on, across, or through innocents.

Reference

Akram, Fares.  “Rights Group Criticizes Hamas-Run Justice System in Gaza.”  The New York Times, October 3, 2012: “Hamas should stop the kinds of abuses that Egyptians, Syrians and others in the region have risked their lives to bring to an end.” / A number of Hamas officials disrupted the news conference, challenging Human Rights Watch’s work and barely allowing journalists time to ask questions.”

CBN News.  “Palestinians Escalate Rocket Attacks on Israel.”  November 12, 2012: “JERUSALEM, Israel — Palestinians in the Gaza Strip bombarded southern Israel with more than 75 rockets and mortar shells in a 24-hour period. At least eight of them were longer-range missiles . . . The latest escalation came after terrorists fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli army jeep patrolling near the Karni border crossing early Saturday evening, injuring four soldiers, two seriously and two moderately.”

Chesler, Phyllis.  “Op-Ed: What a Wonderful People! and What a Cynical World!”  Arutz Sheva, November 15, 2012.

CNN.  “Blasts Interrupt Interview in Gaza.”  November 15, 2012.

Heller, Jeffrey.  “Israel hits back after Hamas launches cross-border rocket attacks.”  National Post, October 25, 2012.

Human Rights Watch.  “Gaza: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, Unfair Trials.”  October 3, 2012.  Report download page: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/10/03/abusive-system-0

IDF Blog.  “Would You Raise Your Child in This Neighborhood?”  November 15, 2012.  “. . . Imagine raising your children in a neighborhood where terrorists shoot rockets from the local playground.”

Khazan, Olga.  “Israeli army drops warning leaflets on Gaza.”  November 15, 2012.

Mughrabi, Nidal-al.  “Rockets hit near Tel Aviv as Gaza death toll rises.”  Reuters, November 15, 2012.

Lappin, Yaakov, JPost Staff, Reuters.  “IAF strike kills Hamas military chief Jabari.”  The Jerusalem Post, November 14, 2012.

Ostrovsky, Arsen.  “My Country is Under Attack.  Do You Care?”  The Huffington Post, October 24, 2012.

Ronen, Gil.  “Israel Air Force Ready for 2nd Assault: 70 Rocket Sites in Gaza.”  Phillip Pasmanick’s Israel and Stuff, November 15, 2012.

Sterling, Joe.  “Hamas justice system ‘reeks of injustice,’ rights groups says.”  CNN, October 3, 2012.

STRATFOR.  “Israeli Airstrike Kills Hamas Military Commander (raw footage of aftermath).  YouTube, November 14, 2012.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.  “The Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip Continues Inculcating Kindergarten Children with Support for Terrorism and Hatred of Israel.”  June 13, 2012.

Tobin, Jonathan S.  “No Alternative to Israeli Self-Defense.”  Commentary, November 15, 2012: Lead — “To its credit, yesterday the State Department rightly declared that Hamas was responsible for the latest round of violence along the Gaza border and that Israel had the right to defend itself. Even the New York Times editorial page affirmed that Israel had that right this morning. But the Times, speaking as it does for liberal conventional wisdom, claimed that Israel’s government was wrong to exercise that right.”  Tobin will go on to debunk that notion.

Wikipedia.  “List of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, 2012”: “As of October 2012, over 800 rockets had been launched at Israel from Gaza since January 2012”.

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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