« Yum yum, secret lists | Main | Gaza Conflict Clarifies the Lure of Cultural Supremacy »

January 09, 2009

Israel bombing rock-throwers?

(see update at the end of the post ~ Kev)

The UN's most senior human rights official wants a war crimes investigation of Israel.

OCHA said the incident took place on 4 January, a day after Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza. According to testimonies gathered by the UN, Israeli soldiers evacuated about 110 Palestinians to a single-storey house in Zeitoun. The evacuees were instructed to stay indoors for their safety but 24 hours later the Israeli army shelled the house. About half the Palestinians sheltering in the house were children, OCHA said. The report also complains that the Israeli Defence Force prevented medical teams from entering the area to evacuate the wounded.

Meanwhile it seems that everyone wants a ceasefire... except Israel and Hamas. The NYT piece contains a very curious sentence which seems like it has to be a typo, but perhaps not.

"Israeli warplanes attacked rock-launching sites..."

Given the reasons cited for launching it's attack on Gaza it seems more likely that the reference should have been to rockET-launching sites. But that's far from a foregone conclussion given that Israel has never had a problem with pitting advanced military hardware against kids throwing rocks.




Remind you of anything? Like maybe... Tienanmen Square a few years back?

Suffice to say that the pictures of the resulting dead bodies look remarkably similar as well.

Surprising nobody, Charles Krauthammer suggests that the only reasonable end-game for Gaza will rubberstamp both Israel's grievances and objectives (in Gaza and elsewhere) while utterly ignoring everything else. Of course he doesn't say it in so many words, but that's the substance of it whether he's honest about it or not.

Lastly, almost as if they'd read my post a few days ago about the disconnect between America's political elites and what polling has consistently shown the American people believe, Reuters observes that few in Congress speak out for Palestinians, while frequently expressing unqualified support for the Israelies, and yet somehow think that we can nevertheless be viewed as objective, honest brokers of peace between the two warring sides.

Update: Another in a string of disturbing allegations that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians - 100 Survivors Rescued in Gaza From Ruins Blocked by Israelis

Posted by Kevin at January 9, 2009 11:01 AM