What we can do?
December 29th, 2008Every one is talking about Gaza, the war, hamas and Israel, how many killed, how many rockets lunched and what we should do or do not?
But what about the poor people with all this war on their heads? What are they eating? Do they have a place to sleep after they lost their houses? Water, food, shelter, medicine, anesthesia in the hospitals, doctors, nurses, firemen?
Can the few international organization, RED CROSS and others, help?
We hear about this side sending help, the other trying to help, but are those people really getting help?
What is happening to the wounded? Who is burying the dead?
Those people do not need a poem or a song or a tearful eye, they need to live and we as activists need to ask these questions and ask ourselves what can we do?
Wamith Alkassab
Iraq
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There’s nothing we really can do, outside of donating money to causes that help Palestinians. I know if I petition my government it will do no good since the US is stubbornly and irrationally pro-Israel all the way. Watching worldwide protests is a little comforting, even if those governments aren’t listening at least the international community now knows that we all support each other and if we all, from several countries, find a way to reach out to each other, we may be able to do affect the future somehow.
Yes, give the terrorists more money. That will lead to peace.
“Those who survive will remain in Palestine. I estimate that none of them will survive.”
– Ahmed Shukairy, chairman of PLO in Jordanian Jerusalem, 1967
Quite a change from “they will all die” to “they are oppressing us”, isn’t it?
So, yes, give more money to the terrorists. That will help Palestinian Arabs. Keep the war going! That’s the answer. More money, more missiles, more war. A fantastic idea!
That would have been worth thinking about before firing rockets into Israel. It’s a bit late now.
My parents and grand parents have been in that situation. Germany attacked Poland and got bombed to bits for it. The occupation (in Berlin) lasted for 50 years.
Turns out the trick was not to attack the occupiers (or their children).
It’s difficult. When Christians left Gaza to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas, Hamas (or some other group) fired grenades at the border checkpoint, almost killing hundreds of Christians (thank G-d the grenade didn’t explode!). When trucks are at the checkpoints, Hamas fires at the checkpoints too.
The terrorists are having a hard time, not just because Israel is shooting back now. Israelis were also very lucky. Several times rockets hit Israeli schools and blew up the class rooms but the kids happened to be outside. All Israeli houses have bomb shelters and there is a 15 second warning which is often enough to allow people to hide from the rockets. That saves lives.
The Arab side relies on Israel’s good will for survival. Israel relies on G-d and bomb shelters. (G-d often helps the side that has more bomb shelters.)
Israel’s military is usually not affected by the rocket attacks, because Hamas and the other groups target civilian areas and the Israeli military is stationed outside residential areas. This creates an interesting protection that works only against an enemy who prefers shooting at civilians over shooting at military targets. It works against Hamas and the PLO.
If Hamas were to put their weapons caches and factories outside residential areas, there would be far fewer civilian casualties. That would be fantastic. But it’s their choice, not Israel’s.
Of the 200 or so dead the first day, apparently only 15% were civilians. This is quite remarkable considering that Hamas stationed their people right among civilians. How did Israel do it? I don’t know. It’s totally beyond me how one can plan an attack so carefully.
80% of the civilians in Gaza voted for Hamas and for war. Now they got their war.
I suggest the Arabs surrender.
If life and peace are more important than murdering Jews, here is where that principle would have an effect.
If Israel surrendered “Palestine” would simply become one more Jew-free Arab country.
If Gaza surrenders it will become occupied territory again for a while. Living conditions will improve, and Israel will withdraw again. (Israel doesn’t profit from the occupation.) Then Gaza will have another chance.
Andrew,
I would suggest that you stop your disrespectful trend of calling all Palestinians “terrorists,” while encouraging people to have no sympathy for these innocent civilians or supporting them in any way. It is abusive and wrong.
That’s an outrageous lie, by the way. And even if it were true, which it so obviously isn’t, “only 15%” is still a lot, and your usage of the term “only” proves the fact that you have completely dehumanized Palestinians regardless of who is a militant and who isn’t. In what way is this not racist? You justify and encourage the murder of innocent civilians throughout your comment, disregarding their situation and hardships while “voting” Hamas in, asking them to surrender so that Israel can get away with their globally criticized murder.
Furthermore, you are exactly who Ramzy was talking about when he noted that it’s easy for you to dismiss this as a “necessity” from the comfort of your peaceful home in Europe, which I assume is where you still are, while he’s in the battlefiend watching your beloved Israeli soldiers disamntle everything and everyone, mercilessly.
Your other two comments in the other thread have been deleted because it’s against our policy to be so incredibly hateful and inconsiderate. Other than proudly saying Gazans deserve what they’re getting and that Israel should continue the violence, you’re insulting the author even though he placed an equal amount of the blame on Hamas. How do you expect anyone to have a serious dialogue with you when you say that you will fight and kill anyone who practically disagrees with your policy? Later implying that criticizing Israel is a threat to Jews worldwide, which you compare to “murdering Jews,” not an uncommon tactic within Israel. After all ministers there repeatedly note that being anti-Israel is the equivalent of being an anti-Semite, even though thousands if not millions of Jews worldwide despise the Israeli government and their brutal, ruthless dictatorship.
Dark days in history are here for us to learn from, not for you to repeat. It’s illogical to use it as an excuse to occupy another nation.
Unless you’re suffering in Gaza, watching your family and home being shattered to pieces, I suggest you become more respectful and not so disturbingly nationalist in your approach to at least Ramzy who’s risking his life for your government’s disgusting arrogance.
I don’t call all “Palestinians” terrorists. I don’t even call them “Palestinians”. I call them “Arabs”. (I believe that using the term “Palestinian” to describe only Arab such is racist.)
But for some reason the money given to groups helping them always ends up with terrorist groups. Nothing else can be expected from totalitarian regimes. The money given to help their people never end up with the people.
You can either accept the fact that money given to the “Palestinians” WILL end up with those in power in “Palestine”, who will use the money to continue the war, or you can blame me for pointing it out.
What do you think will help the people in Gaza? Giving money that will end up with Hamas will prolong the war. Is that a worthy goal?
For all I care only the 80% of Gazans who voted for Hamas are guilty. And perhaps they are now sorry that they voted for war. The PLO might be the most corrupt group that ever existed, but at the very least they cared enough about their people to keep it down with the declarations of war. And I assume there are lots of peaceful groups among Arab Palestinians that people could have voted for.
It’s not a lie. And if you are looking for dehumanisation, ask Hamas why they are using them as human shields.
Israel has no reason to kill civilians. Even if you cannot accept that Israel actually cares about innocent lives, you could at least acknowledge that Israel has nothing to gain from the bad PR.
I didn’t. I’m just saying that occupation is a logical result of attacking a stronger enemy. Either look for a weaker enemy or don’t attack is what Germany has learned.
Germany’s allies of back then should learn the lesson too.
Israel has learned the lesson. Since 1948 any “death to the Jews” attack WILL result in an Israeli response. And the response will be violent. Get used to it.
IF the enemy is good-natured.
If you attack a stronger enemy who is evil, there won’t be a long occupation.
Oh, please. It’s the disgusting arrogance of Hamas. They wanted this war.
Israel has better things to do than waste ammunition. If Gaza wouldn’t shoot missiles at Israel, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
As I said, my parents and grand parents did watch their home being shattered. But they learned from it, and Germany doesn’t attack its neighbours any more, despite 50 years of occupation. That’s the answer.
I am sorry for every loss of life and even property in Gaza. But I am NOT willing to accept that Jewish schools are simply legitimate targets for rockets. If the people in Gaza were willing not to shoot at Israel, the border could be open and there would be no war.
That’s what I want. But it’s not what Hamas want. That’s why they staged their little revolution against the PLO and that’s why they shoot at Christians trying to leave for Bethlehem and that’s why they screamed for war until they got it.
Where is your source?
I seriously doubt that.
So weak of you to say. Gazans and Palestinians generally (and unfortunately) are used to your criminal behavior, so they’re already living this brutal and pathetic advice.
The only reason why Gazans cannot refute any of your inaccurate and arrogant remarks is because they don’t even have electricity to do so, since your government is so busy bombing the rest of the innocent civilians to oblivion, that’s why it’s only ever the Israeli side that is represented. Specifically since Israel doesn’t even allow journalists to enter the area, in fear of the truth coming out.
Now let’s focus on the actual topic at hand: How can we help Gazans, and make sure that their voices are heard?
And Andrew, much to your dismay, and as much as you discourage us from doing so, we WILL help Gazans. So you can take your justifications elsewhere.
dear Esra is right ,what we can do is importent ,i will post a ceasefire petetion ,that all we can do ,is to lobby to stop the war , please try all to join in
i am sorry for what happen in WWWII for your family andrew ,i live in iraq for the past 31 years ,all the days of my life , i had served in army , i work in hosptial ,unfortunatly i have seen death , and seen wonded people , every life is worth to protected life ,in regard to religoin ,coloure or any other thing ,life is gift to us ,we had already short time in life ,so it is our right to live it
i do not accept hamas or any orgnization like it ,i do not accept the military solution because i have been their and it is very hard to live with it s results ,more hate and blood and destruction
i say lets stop fire to prtotect people in gaza and people in israli cities that are been bomb ,find a solution so no child go to school and be afraid of a rocket to fall on his head ,so our children have a lfie we did not have
life worth it ,belive me i learn this the hard way , i have seen freinds die ,and seen my self death in the face and escap it ,
bultes has no religion or ethencity and they see nothing but the targets ,do we need to live knowing we did nothing to stop them !
non of us can ,so lets hope for the better and do what we can
Andrew,
I would start with a question:
So you are using logic and thinking why someone would waste ammunition, then why Hamas would do such a thing?
Who started this? History answers “Israel in 1948″. Jews started a war to create
a country called israel on other people property.
Would America welcome Syria to create a new country for it just in the middle of united states? of course not because it is dangerous.
Because Syria is supposed to be America’s enemy.
The creation of Israel has brought with it creation of new Arab governments that knew no mercy and delivered leadership possitions to mercenaries.
Almost all arab countries are ruled by u.s and israel, what can prove that is the war in Iraq, when Saddam Hussain refused the submission and trading Iraq petrol. In Iraq christians and moslems were living together in peace untill u.s started bombing without distinguing a moslem from christian, .. no human were saved.
Same in Gaza, Israel has proven through history that it has no sense bombing churchs and mosques, children and soldiers.
If you agree on treating civilians as such dull packages that could be used in exchange of lessons between Israel and Hamas, we -atleast in mideastyouth- don’t.
We are considering every human as a human not per to race, colour or religion.
And just for you to know: Christians and Moslems never had a problem living together, studying together or being neighbors and have morning coffee together!
So when you say Arabs, you’re not only talking about Islam.
And when you say terrorists, let us remember the definition of terrorism:
the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or …
We might have groups doing such activity in middle east, but most of them coming from Saudia Arabia, Saudia Arabia is the best middle eastern friend of United States of America.
Enough facts for now, but please think before media charges your brain.
And BTW what you see on TV is an enough evidence to what I’m saying, as media is totally controled by U.S = Israel.
To be honest, I don’t know how I can help, but red cross is asking through our churches for anything we can give, clothes, medicine, .. and we’re helping the synod in Syria and Lebanon in this mission.
Ok…..this site seems to look into only the palestinian side.
I have a couple of questions for you to answer to yourself…and if u want more contact me on my email. Davidhemley@yahoo.com
I am israeli, have lived to conflict on israels side and can give y0u an opinion for our side. it seems u have enough of yours.
First of all, do you think israel isnt going to react when hamas and other j-hads send thousands of rocktets into israel? How many rockets do we have to take?
You are saying, who is going to give you food and other suplies? I have been by the border for a while and could tell you, there are trucks after trucks com ing in from all the neighbohood countries and even from israel? Now why would israel give food, electricity and gas to someone who sends rockets over? I wonder that myself.
Where does all this money come from to make these rockets? You have to understand how much money each one is and also the amount of money to research it. S0, if hamas realkly cared, why not make gaza nicer or even make bomb shelters?
No it doesn’t. It’s pretty ridiculous making such a claim after reading only one article. We have many Israelis writing on this site representing different points of views, many of whom disagree with what this article says. So your accusation is pretty baseless and the inaccurate judgement only comes after you’ve read one article, from one author, expressing one opinion.
We’d appreciate it if others stop making these kinds of claims without having actually read the content on the site or bothered to look into more articles by other authors. Seriously.