WARNING: This story includes graphic video of dead and injured people The latest:
Gaza health-care system at ‘point of no return,’ says Red Cross.
Israel revises death toll of Oct. 7 attack down to 1,200.
French president calls on Israel to stop bombing Gaza.
The U.S. on Friday expressed growing concern about the rising Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip — where airstrikes hit three Gaza hospitals and a school and health officials said the number killed in the five weeks of Israeli bombardment had topped 11,000.
In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the Gaza crossfire, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India: “Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks.”
Blinken welcomed the four-hour humanitarian Israeli pauses that the White House announced on Thursday but told reporters more action was needed to protect Gaza’s civilians.
Israel has faced growing calls for restraint in its month-long war with Hamas but says the militants, who attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and took hostages, would exploit a truce to regroup.
French President Emmanuel Macron told the BBC that Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, adding there is “no justification” for the rising civilian death toll.
“De facto, today, civilians are bombed — de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop,” he said Friday.
No one seem to complain about the civilian casualties in Syria during the Russian and American war on ISIS. By 2022, an estimated 306,887 civilians had been killed since the armed conflict began in the country. There are today about 15 million Syrian refugees displaced by the Russian and US intervention in Syria; I haven’t heard Macron complain.
Remember when France was telling the United States to intervene in Libya in 2011. I don’t remember the French President at the time Sarkozy complaining about causalities, and over one million refugees who lost everything they had and had to escape to Chad (BTW Chad is a desolate place to flee toward). You won’t remember the French complaint because it was France that demanded the NATO bombing runs, well over 4,000 sorties.
Oh, but when the JEEEwwss do it, then it’s a holocaust.
Lebanon has its own story with Syria and prior with Israel but Lebanon, all on its own is bad.
The problem is blame and scapegoating. The US is constantly scapegoated as well. If it was not a war with Israel it would be some other war between Iran and the US. As it is Iran has its fingerprints all over this now.
blink “war on ISIS?” The Russians are backing the Assad regime. The US was backing the Syrian rebels. Powerful forces wanted the US in that civil war. Common sense says, if you take up arms against your own government, you are going to meet pushback. But, nearly every day CBS “news”, was running “rare” reports on the Syrian “refugees”, with a translator voiceover, interpreting what the “refugees” were saying as “where is America? America has to help us.”
You may remember that the war on ISIS began in Western Iraq in Mosul and eventually spread to Raqqa, Syria, The City of Mosul was pounded into the ground, leaving nothing but rubble; a city of over 600,000 civilians; which didn’t stop US resolve. The scope of the artillery barrages per service member was high. A relatively small number of American troops fired tens of thousands of artillery shells; amount of rounds per crew member was the highest since the Vietnam War. Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, lost between 9,000 to 11,000 civilians in the retaking of the city from ISIS. The main hospitals were hit and demolished by US artillery fire. US artillery crews suffering psychological damage after ISIS fight.
The Artillery Barrage was so intense that US Troops today are experiencing "nightmares, panic attacks, depression and, in a few cases, hallucinations.” This according to a report by NYTimes. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/us/us-army-marines-artillery-isis-pentagon.html
several cases where troops suffered debilitating effects from the intense barrages they fired. That ranged from reportedly seeing ghosts to multiple cases of suicide. The Times’ reporting also outlined failed responses from the military to the issues facing those battery crews.
The number of civilians, again, didn’t stop the United States from this approach. This was before Russian was involved in its massive air bombardment campaign.
…because the army of the Iraqi regime the US “stood up”, folded, just like the ARVN did in 75. If there was no oil in Iraq, the US wouldn’t care any more than the US cares what goes on in Mali.
There should be a video of the hospital in this link.
The power is out and there is a cloud of brown smoke at the back.
Meanwhile, all the lights are on.
Israel did say they would provide power to the hospital.
Before someone kneejerks into calling me a liar if they are not following along or do not know the Israelis at all.
HOSPITAL AT HEART OF BATTLESIsrael has told civilians to leave and medics to send patients elsewhere. It says it has attempted to evacuate babies from the neo-natal ward and left 300 litres of fuel to power emergency generators at the hospital entrance, but the offers were blocked by Hamas.2 hours ago Israeli tanks outside Gaza hospital, Biden hopes for 'less intrusive' action | Reuters.
Of course, a whole other issue; For example did Iraqis invade the United States and kidnap hundreds of college student, children, mothers while they watched their husbands executed in front of them? Did Iraq pose an existential threat to the United States? Did Iraq fire thousands of missiles a day into the largest city in the United States?
Yet:
In the first five years of the US (unprovoked) invasion of Iraq there were over 70,000 civilian dead casualties, and that’s just documented dead bodies, further it doesn’t include casualties resulting in permanent injuries. I remember the Blackwater private military, basically pirates contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians in a public square indiscriminately because there was a traffic jam. There was public concern and investigations that led to a more public discourse about civilian deaths (a lot of talk). But, Blackwater was allowed to continue to operate in Iraq until January 2009 when the US forces pulled out of Iraq under the Bush the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement even though it was obvious that they had no regard for civilian lives.
The point of the discussion, I think, is that when Israel retaliates for attacks by Hamas, or Hezbollah, or suicide bombers during recurrent intifada, they are held to a different standard, and their enemies are cast as refugees or homeless city beggars living in tents on the streets.
Ok, I understand here that you’re saying it’s ok for the United States to kill civilians “only if they have to” if it’s about oil. The discussion I was responding to was the issue with Israel being called on concerning civilian casualties in response to Hamas’ invasion. The examples given relate to civilian casualties when the United States see the need to invade a country.
I would propose that the standards the US holds countries to now, are different than the standards the US used twenty years ago. Recall, “we the people” had been lied into supporting that war. The constant screeching by TPTB and their propagandists in the media was that there was this gigantic, monolithic, global, Islamic conspiracy to kill Christians and impose Sharia law. Grabbing people off the street and tossing them in prison with no legal due process was OK. Torture was OK. Anything was fine, as long as it involved killing Muslims to “keep us safe”, because “we were victims on 9/11”, and anyone who disagreed “hated America”.
Just wrote this to a very important contact of mine. I will paste it verbatim.
Hello
You know this but
Is Israel a Sephardic or Ashkenazi?
About 85 percent of the world’s Jews are considered Ashkenazim, the other 15 percent Sephardim. About 10 percent of the world’s Ashkenazim live in Israel com- pared with about 80 percent of all Sephardim. The Sephardim make up about 55 percent of Israel’s Jewish population and the Ashkenazim about 45 percent.
We, I am half Jewish, Ashkenazi Jews are not relating to the experiences of the Sephardic Jews. That is the divide.
Israel sees the Arab dictators scapegoating and can not let that go in the public debate. Netanyahu can not substantiate that scapegoating or blame is okay for the Arab leaders.
The blaming of the US and Israel is only hurting almost all Arab populations in many other ways. The Arab countries mostly need massive reforms both economic, social, and political.
Despite experiencing repeated waves of persecution, Ashkenazi Jews in Western Europe worked in a variety of fields, making an impact on their communities’ economy and societies. In Francia, for example, figures like Isaac Judaeus and Armentarius occupied prominent social and economic positions. However, Jews were frequently the subjects of discriminatory laws, segregation, blood libels and pogroms, which culminated in events like the Rhineland Massacres (1066) and the expulsion of Jews from England (1290). As a result, Ashkenazi Jews were gradually pushed eastwards to Poland, Lithuania and Russia.
During the same period, Jewish communities in the Middle East thrived under Islamic rule, especially in cities like Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus. In Babylonia, from the 7th to 11th centuries the Pumbedita and Sura academies led the Arab and to an extant the entire Jewish world. The deans and students of said academies defined the Geonic period in Jewish history.[150] Following this period were the Rishonim who lived from the 11th to 15th centuries. Like their European counterparts, Jews in the Middle East and North Africa also faced periods of persecution and discriminatory policies, with the Almohad Caliphate in North Africa and Iberia issuing forced conversion decrees, causing Jews such as Maimonides to seek safety in other regions.
There are about 7 million Jews and 7 million Palestinians living in Israel and Palestine. The 7 million Jews keep the 7 million Palestinians under a military and economic occupation and control. Why on earth should 7 million Jews have such authority and power over 7 million Palestinians? why on earth do the Jews have a right to evict and steal Palestinian lands?
