THERE'S A LOT OF BIG NEWS around the world right now, more than global media outlets and even their audiences might have a chance to digest. Amidst it all, two tweets today, posted within a half hour of one another on the Israel Defense Forces Spokesman's Twitter feed:
Today, 312 truckloads of food, goods + gas entered the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom Crossing
130+ mortars, Qassams & Grad missiles fired from Gaza & landed in Israel since beginning of yr-56 of which fired this wk
So, even as missile attacks from Gaza continue to rain down on it, Israel allows essential aid to go through -- according to this report. That explodes -- sorry -- challenges what many might know or assume about Israel's stance on Gaza: that Israel's trying to choke off Gaza residents and that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel.
Let's put a bookmark on these and keep them in mind when the focus shifts back, as it inevitably will, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Jeff
Jeff, I will never understand how the only real democracy in the Middle East can have rockets continuously fired into its interior (aimed at civilian populations), and have suicide bombers kill as many civilians as possible (until stricter border controls were implememted), and as you noted, allow aid to go through into these territories (including inadvertant rockets), and yet be so universally condemned. I have racked my brain for answers over the past 20 years, and cannot arrive at any answer other than that a nearly universally taught anti-semitism is at the center of the explanation.
In most other regions in the Middle East, Jews (and for that matter, Christians) are not even allowed to practice their own religion, either by law or overt aggression by the rest of the community. Only in Israel can an Arab truly vote for his government officials. I see Israel as a democratic oasis in a desert of tyranny, and yet much of the world sees it very differently...
Posted by: Mspencer | March 21, 2011 at 06:21 PM
Sorry, but Isreal needs to do a check on who the aggressors are. The numbers tell it all.
As reported by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, since September 29, 2000 a total of 7,454 Palestinian and Israeli individuals were killed due to the conflict. According to the report, 1,317 of the 6,371 Palestinians were minors, and at least 2,996 did not participate in fighting at time of death. Palestinians killed 1,083 Israelis, including 741 civilians. 124 of those killed were minors
Posted by: jay kerr | March 21, 2011 at 06:59 PM
It's a good thing I'm a numbers guy because I have looked at those numbers. First, the numbers used by Arabs include terrorists, victims of "work accidents," and a lot of fudging. That's how you get a phantom massacre in Jenin, and they probably count Mohammed al-Dura among those minor dead--when that myth has been debunked by journalists across Europe not known for being friends of Israel.
Take a look at Radlauer's stats for some perspective. They demonstrate that Arabs TARGET female Israelis of childbearing age, and the gender/age of Israel's targets vary as their constituents are more active in their terror operations.
Funny, we have been seeing the same deliberate age and gender targets by Islamists in South Asia against Hindus and others. And I'll bet there's someone reading who thinks it's all a coincidence.
Posted by: Dr. Richard L. Benkin | March 21, 2011 at 07:25 PM