Absence of Concern

[Pangurban]

Is no one concerned about the crime against humanity which is currently being carried out Gaza, or are you all out protesting

[Dougal Maguire]

It's an absolute outrage, however its nothing new and as long as the US continues to bankroll the most aggressive force in the Middle East without any sanctions whatever their actions there can never be any hope for the millions of Palestinians trapped in an open hell prison since 1947

[Tankie]

That Hamas are out of control. I do not support war but i feel that since Israel have hit back that they should also go in on the ground and take Hamas out and all their infrastructure, bombing from the air kills more innocent people that anything else.

[Orior]

Is no one concerned about the crime against humanity which is currently being carried out Gaza, or are you all out protesting

Yes, it is an outrage.

I dont know enough about the context though - is it a typical overraction by the Jews, or just their old testment eye for an eye stuff?

[Tyrones own]

Is no one concerned about the crime against humanity which is currently being carried out Gaza

Hardly shocking around here now is it PB sure the US weren't involved... Oh Wait  ...who'll we blame after Jan 20th

[Baile an tuaigh]

I'm concerned for the future of Palestine when president elect Barrack Obama openly showed his support for Israel. I was hoping he would bring a more honest approach to politics and not just be another US president.

The United States has a lot to answer for and has committed horrific war crimes to various peoples a round the globe. You just wonder will something not give sooner or later. Nelson Mandela described it very well when he famously said "that there is enough in the world for mankind but not mans  greed".  What happened in Palestine was another huge blow for humanity.

[PadraicHenryPearse]

Dear IPSC supporter,

In light of the ongoing attacks by Israel in Gaza (the current death toll stands at over 300, with many more injured) there will be another protest in Dublin tomorrow Monday 29th December. It will be held at the Israeli Embassy in Ballsbridge, and will start at 5pm, and there will be a march to the American Embassy down the road.

There will also be a demo in Belfast starting at 12 noon outside the City Hall.

Finally, here is a report from today's demo in Dublin: http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/ipsc/displayRelease.php?releaseID=94

In Solidarity

[man in black]

[Edited by Mod 3 - Disgusting Comment]

Everyone will be outraged but at the end of the day who actually gives a f**k, these pricks stand there saying its Hamas fault bla bla bla, bottom line is they are same as Ulster unionists except with serious weaponry.

[full back]

Gaza is well & truly fcuked
Israel have lined their army personnel along the border with Gaza & have called up its reservists (sp)

Cant wait to see the reaction from the Brits & the US now 

[Zapatista]

The Israelis are behaving like animals. It is mass murder.

it's also f**king typical of the Irish to sit say we can do nothing about it. The hypocrisy of the Irish is sickening. The US and others are big players in this but that is no excuse for the Irish to sit on the fence and pretend we give a f**k. Brian Cowen should be calling the Israelis the war criminals they are. He should be telling the US and the EU that Israel are guilty of genocide and so should be held accountable.

We are the great peace keepers policing refuges in Chad and telling the world we are great while we stand back and watch Israel bomb the f**k out of innocent captives in Gaza. f**king disgusting.

[mylestheslasher]

One of the few journalists worth reading on the matter had  this to say in todays indo. In my opinion Israel is one of the most powerful Tyrants in the world today. How ironic that they once suffered the same fate that the now meat out to the innocent civilians of Gaza and lebanon. Shame on Barak Obama for supporting these fascists.

By Robert Fisk


Monday December 29 2008


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.

Ever since 1948, we've been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis. Similarly, Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist "death wagon" will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be "liberated".

And always, Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" -- as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas's homemade rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.

The blood-splattering has its own routine. Yes, Hamas provoked Israel's anger, just as Israel provoked Hamas's anger, which was provoked by Israel, which was provoked by Hamas, which . . . see what I mean?

Hamas fires rockets at Israel, Israel bombs Hamas, Hamas fires more rockets and Israel bombs again and . . . got it? And we demand security for Israel -- rightly -- but overlook this massive and utterly disproportionate slaughter by Israel. It was former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright who once said that Israel was "under siege" -- as if Palestinian tanks were in the streets of Tel Aviv.

By last night, the exchange rate stood at 296 Palestinians dead for one dead Israeli. Back in 2006, it was 10 Lebanese dead for one Israeli dead. This weekend was the most inflationary exchange rate in a single day since -- the 1973 Middle East War? The 1967 Six Day War? The 1956 Suez War? The 1948 Independence/Nakba War? It's obscene, a gruesome game which Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, unconsciously admitted when he spoke this weekend to Fox TV. "Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," Barak said.

Exactly. Only the "rules" of the game don't change.

This is a further slippage on the Arab-Israeli exchanges, a percentage slide more awesome than Wall Street's crashing shares, though of not much interest in the US which -- let us remember -- made the F-18s and the Hellfire missiles which the Bush administration pleads with Israel to use sparingly.

Quite a lot of the dead this weekend appear to have been Hamas members, but what is it supposed to solve? Is Hamas going to say: "Wow, this blitz is awesome -- we'd better recognise the state of Israel, fall in line with the Palestinian Authority, lay down our weapons and pray we are taken prisoner and locked up indefinitely and support a new American 'peace process' in the Middle East!" Is that what the Israelis and the Americans and Gordon Brown think Hamas is going to do?

Yes, let's remember Hamas's cynicism, the cynicism of all armed Islamist groups. Their need for Muslim martyrs is as crucial to them as Israel's need to create them. The lesson Israel thinks it is teaching -- come to heel or we will crush you -- is not the lesson Hamas is learning. Hamas needs violence to emphasise the oppression of the Palestinians and relies on Israel to provide it. A few rockets into Israel and Israel duly obliges.

WE hear the usual Israeli line. General Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the Israeli army's "research and assessment division", announced that "no country in the world would allow its citizens to be made the target of rocket attacks without taking vigorous steps to defend them". Quite so. But when the IRA were firing mortars over the border into Northern Ireland, when their guerrillas were crossing from the Republic to attack police stations and Protestants, did Britain unleash the RAF on the Irish Republic? Did the RAF bomb churches and tankers and police stations and zap 300 civilians to teach the Irish a lesson? No, it did not. Because the world would have seen it as criminal behaviour. We didn't want to lower ourselves to the IRA's level.

Yes, Israel deserves security. But these bloodbaths will not bring it. Not since 1948 have air raids protected Israel. Israel has bombed Lebanon thousands of times since 1975 and not one has eliminated "terrorism". So what was the reaction last night? The Israelis threaten ground attacks. Hamas waits for another battle. Our Western politicians crouch in their funk holes. And somewhere to the east, a well-known man in a turban smiles. (© Independent News Service)

- Robert Fisk

[mylestheslasher]

The Israelis are behaving like animals. It is mass murder.

it's also f**king typical of the Irish to sit say we can do nothing about it. The hypocrisy of the Irish is sickening. The US and others are big players in this but that is no excuse for the Irish to sit on the fence and pretend we give a f**k. Brian Cowen should be calling the Israelis the war criminals they are. He should be telling the US and the EU that Israel are guilty of genocide and so should be held accountable.

We are the great peace keepers policing refuges in Chad and telling the world we are great while we stand back and watch Israel bomb the f**k out of innocent captives in Gaza. f**king disgusting.

Zapista - you are mistaking our politicans for some other people that might have some principles or balls on any international issue. I'm going to make this issue the 1st question I ask the next canvasers at my door.

[pintsofguinness]

Brian Cowen should be calling the Israelis the war criminals they are. He should be telling the US and the EU that Israel are guilty of genocide and so should be held accountable.

Lets hope the flying pigs dont land on his head when he's making that speech.

[cicfada]

IF Cowen was to condemn Israel he should also condemn Hamas for firing rockets into Israel. They have consistently done that  for years and we hear nothing about it! Having said that Israel's response is  akin to crusing a peanut with a steamroller!

[Hardy]

Balance is a wonderful thing. People are jumping over each other to condemn the imbalance of Israel's disproportionate response and it is indeed outrageous and indefensible slaughter and the perpetrators would be tried as war criminals in other circumstances. But if we're to concern ourselves with balanced responses, why has nobody even thought it worth mentioning that Hamas is killing innocent Israelis as well? In fact, some of the comments here seem to condone that particular form of killing.

So is it OK for one side to kill but not for the other? Certainly Fisk, one of the most odious t**sers ever to pretend to be a journalist when in fact he's nothing more than a propagandist, seems to think so? This is one of the most amazing lines I've ever seen printed in a reputable journal:

"Hamas's homemade rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years".

Cogitate on that for a while. What is an unacceptable rate of kill? What do the numbers have to be before even one of the people around here who are outraged (and rightly so) at Israel's savagery is moved to condemn murders by Hamas? How can I take anyone's outrage seriously when they seem completely unmoved by (or even condone) another set of bloodthirsty killings. Can someone tell me who it's OK to kill and who it's not?