Dec 30 2008
We Need a Ceasefire and Some Empathy
“The war against Gaza is ongoing, more hospitals, houses, mosques, government and military facilities are under fire, and the number of casualties, especially among the civilians is gradually increasing. Death toll exceeded 385 residents, including children, women and elderly while at least 1750 residents were injured. “– IMEMC
At least 40 more people in Gaza lost their lives today. Were they Hamas or civilians, and why does that question even matter? Hamas is no al Qaeda, but Israel has vowed to kill even Hamas “sympathizers”. It would be very interesting to find out how Israel determines who is a “sympathizer” and whether kids under 16 or in refugee camps can be considered Hamas sympathizers. If not, Israel is making a lot of mistakes with its targeting.
Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and the Dignity made CNN news today several times. McKinney was interviewed by several reporters but CNN cut her off when she started talking about Gaza, as though defending the people there and pointing out their side of the story is just too controversial. On the other hand, various media pundits are castigating Hamas for hiding behind “women and children”. So we are getting mixed signals as to whether “women and children’s” lives matter or not.
Petitions to sign and websites promoting a ceasefire are coming into email accounts all over the country today and I’ve gotten a rush of them over the last 3 days. Here are two of the easiest “action items” from today and maybe they will even have some effect. The first is from CREDO — sign their petition here:
We need a ceasefire now in Gaza.
During a time of year filled with prayers for peace, the volatile Gaza Strip is plagued, once again, by violence and death.
Air strikes in Gaza have killed 300 so far - at least 50 of them civilians - and injured over 600 more. Rockets are striking deep inside of Israel. As the crisis is spirals out of control, it is certain to lead to more civilian suffering and an escalation of the conflict.
To make a profound understatement, the political and historical conflict causing this violence is centuries old and far too complicated to address in an e-mail petition. The purpose of this petition is not to assert who’s right and who’s wrong. Rather, we join our allies at Avaaz.org and ask for real action to stop the violence through an immediate ceasefire.
There must be a better way. We can neither stop the bloodshed nor secure a wider peace without a strong response from the international community. Only robust international oversight and action can help protect civilians on all sides and take real steps toward a wider peace.
On December 28th, the UN Security Council issued a press statement on this matter - but we need more than that.”
A related thing you can do is vote over at Change.org. There are many “causes” there but one thing I voted for today was this. It’s a suggestion that war is not the way to solve problems, that it doesn’t bring peace, and that empathy would help as a good place to start. (Believe it or not, this is a seismic shift in thinking for some people). We have some very poisoned thinking in our government. This proposal suggests people go through empathy training so that they can understand what it is like to be a Palestinian in Gaza, or at least imagine what it’s like, etc. There is too little empathy in the world, and it would be a very valuable thing if understanding and empathy could replace hatred and anger. The methods being used to solve problems in the Middle East right now are complete failures, (or bribery) so it would be worth it to try something new. Read more about it here.
Speaking of bribery — the U.S. is paying members of the Awakening Councils in Iraq, and is paying off Afghan tribesmen so they don’t shoot at us, or at least was recently doing both. That makes it all the more confusing why the White House spokesman today said that a ceasefire would “benefit no one,” (oh really?) but a “sustainable and durable” ceasefire would be beneficial to everyone. I think that’s ass-backwards, since obviously a ceasefire now would benefit those whose lives would be saved by it. If “sustainable and durable” are the benchmarks the White House applies to the Israel-Palestine situation, then it makes you wonder why they would choose such an unsustainable and non-durable method of buying peace in two other countries. Obviously, we can’t keep paying off tribal leaders to not shoot American and coalition soldiers into infinity. Some day those payments will stop and then what?
Empathy sounds like a better idea to me. Start with the basics from an entirely different approach and then set up a Department of Peace. We have been emphasizing all the wrong approaches to solving conflicts in the U.S. for the last 8 years and finally the majority of people are beginning to realize that and talk about it openly. In fact, I have seen no recent accusations of “liberal” or “lefty” or any of that other crap conservatives spew at people when their bad ideas are challenged. Maybe they are finally waking up too.
“Death toll exceeded 385 residents”….residents? Even the media admits most of the dead are Hamas, but I guess they’re “residents” too right?
By the way, I wish we could go back to World War II and try your Department of Peace on Hitler and Japan.
I bet that would be interesting.
http://poorrepublican.today.com/
Thank you for putting that link up there.
csc5502 — “Even” the media admits? Come on, most of the mainstream media is propaganda, at least in the United States. Try PressTV, try BBC or LinkTV or Al Jazeera or even CNN International, who interviewed a doctor in Egypt who said they had treated 150 civilians from Palestine who were wounded. Because of the blockade on medical supplies that Israel has illegally imposed for years, the hospitals in Gaza don’t even have enough medicine to treat the wounded that Israel is bombing. That was the plan. That is what Israel does and has always done to Gaza citizens. Their plans are to eliminate the Palestinians or drive them off their own land, out of their own cities. That should be obvious to everyone by now. Israel has gone from apartheid to ethnic cleansing.
That’s why it’s so beautifully ironic when Israel whines that Hamas wants to “destroy Israel”. What a joke. Hamas has no way or means to do that. With little homemade rockets? Not even possible. But Israel certainly has a way to destroy Palestine and Gaza, and they are doing exactly that, with the help of the United States.
This has nothing to do with WWII. We very much need a Department of Peace. Unless you and your right-wing friends don’t like peace for some reason? I think you would at least admit it’s a noble goal.