David Corn

""No doubt, there are people who don't fancy Israel's attacks on Gaza due to their own anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism.""

not only has israel (with the full help of US/Britain) high-jacked palestine land, but they have high-jacked the term *semite* as well.
a semite is a person who has evolved in that region of the world, ie; palestinians, lebanese, syrians et-al.
the israelis are nothing more than invader transplant european jews who were enabled to steal palestine from the palestinians, based on a bogus premise that "god said this land is for jews who alone are the chosen people"

""...a legitimate concern about the proportionality of the military action,""

hmmm. if there was really a "legitimate concern about the proportionality" then the rest of the world would not be tolerating this evil israeli nonsense.
israel SHOULD have responded with equal firepower by lobbing over some cherry bombs or TNTs (if those kinds of fireworks are still being made and called by those names).
do you expect that palestinians should have just bent over and accepted the last 60 years of israeli invader brutality?

"" let me state that the Gaza rocket attacks are human rights crimes, and Israel has the right to defend itself.""

israeli "settlers" have systematically spread out and taken more and more land from the palestinians ever since they were illegally squatted there by the UN which has since issued a great many sanctions against israel which have been ignored or even vetoed by the US.
these so-called "rocket attacks" are merely a lame attempt at asserting their rights as humans.

look closely at the devastation that these so-called rocket attacks do to israel:

http://tinyurl.com/a4ujc5

Fisk: History of israeli lies

http://tinyurl.com/7bgujt

This was an excellent start, David. But you didn't answer all of Frum's points. As I understand it, Democrats are wussy, talky, uninformed anti-Semites. If we only liked the military more, put less faith in negotiating, read more about Israel and weren't such anti-Zionists, we'd think bombing little kids in schools & letting them die without water & food was GREAT!

The Constant Weader at www.RealityChex.com

"Frum, a friendly fellow I have enjoyed debating on television, is attempting to taint that debate by suggesting that anti-Semitism is a major factor prompting Democrats (and others, presumably) to question the assault. That is the last refuge of someone who doesn't want to see a real discourse on this touchy but crucial matter."

*****

This is the level of discourse from the neocons. No reason to debate - they are insane warmongers. They love war at all and any cost.

This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders".

http://tinyurl.com/9q37fk

"Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has admitted that pictures of civilian deaths coming out of Gaza generate pressure on Israel for a cease-fire, which the government is resisting for as long as possible."

JuanCole.com

Report: US military re-supplying Israel with ammunition through Greece

During the Israeli assault on Lebanon in the summer of 2006, in which 1200 Lebanese people were killed, 90% of whom were civilians (and 168 Israelis were killed, 10% of whom were civilians), the US Congress approved funding for an 'emergency' shipment of cluster bombs to Israel after Israel had dropped their entire store of the banned weapon on civilian population centers in southern Lebanon. Over one million cluster bomblets were dropped in southern Lebanon, largely due to the US 'emergency' shipment. Many of those bomblets remain on the ground in Lebanon, unexploded two years later. They continue to kill and maim Lebanese civilians, mainly children and farmers, who come across the unexploded bomblets and step on them or pick them up.

http://www.imemc.org/article/58374

Meanwhile, Americans are losing their jobs, paying for bailouts, stores are closing which will lead to more unemployment.
Yet our government forces you to pay for more death.
When will you tell them "no more?"

I like the Corn and Pinkerton show and appreciated James' comments on Politico's Forum. But this posting misses the point of Israeli military action after weeks of Hamas missile attacks into an ever-widening zone of southern Israel.

The military action is preventative in nature - to stop the flow of increasingly sophisticated long-range missiles into Gaza to Hamas - a group that believes Jews and a Jewish state are insults to the prophet and Allah. Hamas has declared a permanent intent to destroy Israel and must be confronted for its act of war.

An Israeli election coming up made it untenable to ignore the weeks of missile barrage from Gaza which were causing PTSD psychological casualties in thousands of Israelis --- who also felt their government was not protecting them.

Upcoming elections are bad reasons to make a military decisions. But no action would leave all of Israel within missile range of tens of thousands of increasingly accurate and larger missiles. No action in the face of ongoing missile attacks would be grounds for impeachment of the President in the United States.

The smuggling tunnels from Egypt to Gaza have been the main military target for Israel. Hamas military trainees and leaders were targeted at their outdoor graduation ceremony - accounting for the greatest number of casualties. Of course the wounded would not be brought in to hospitals with their weapons.

Hamas snipers, out of uniform, firing from heavily-populated civilian areas at Israel troops advancing towards the tunnels triggered return fire. Disproportionate response would have been firebombing the entire strip like the US did to Dresden or a "shock and awe" campaign like the US bombing of Baghdad.

Has the US not launched missile attacks against alleged Al-Queda leaders that ended up killing civilian wedding parties? Is the Mumbai massacre the same as inadvertent civilian casualties in war?

Anti-semitism is invisible to people who have not experienced it. Rome felt no shame in casting Jews as Christ-killers; medieval Christianity widely portrayed Jews as tools of the Devil, Spain felt no shame about the Inquisition and expulsion of 1492 and Europe no longer feels accountability for the ethnic cleansing of 6 million Jews.

The propaganda campaign of the Arab and Muslim world against the Jewish state has succeeded in portraying Jews as European invaders and occupiers of Arab land. Europe, through the UN, has been complicit in sustaining a welfare state in Gaza and the West Bank for Palestinians who have not built a sustainable economy of their own.

The rest of the Arab and Muslim world uses the Palestinians as pawns to keep pressure on Israel. Egypt uses machine guns at Gazans who wish to cross into Egypt. The feeling of expendability in the Palestinian world is as much a creation of the Muslim pressure to stay in Gaza as it is to the comparison Palestinian workers must make as they cross into Israel to find work and see wealth growing for the Jews while Gaza remains in the poverty of a welfare state.

The simplest political solution to this crisis that would reduce civilian deaths would be for Egypt to open its border to any resident of Gaza who does not want to live under the rule of Hamas. Come back later once Hamas stops putting you at risk.

Break out of the box and take a fresh look at the situation without the terms "refugee camp" and "occupation". The partition of India and Pakistan is not going to be reversed. But the Muslim world still wants more in Kashmir. Israel has turned over Gaza and the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority. They are already separate nations. Hamas missile attacks are an act of war.

Israel could permanently close the border with Gaza, turn off the power plant that provides Gaza with electricity, and stop sending in food and money to Gaza. Yes, it would have been wiser to just turn off the power for a week every time Hamas launched a missile. Behavioral conditioning works. It takes time and repetition.

Negotiate with a terrorist organization sworn to your destruction? Israel made that mistake with the PLO. Hamas wants nothing from Israel but actions that facilitate its destruction. Yes, everyone wants negotiations - but it is Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria that must tell Hamas to stop.

If Corn has never faced the vociferous anti-Zionism of the hard left he may have missed the shock value of professed peace-lovers condemning their friends and fellow activists.

Corn may not understand the cultural and psychological impacts of 3500 years of human rights crimes against the Jews. "Before proceeding" he writes but in reality it is "after proceeding" with his thesis that Corn backs up to acknowledge Hamas broke the truce and attacked Israeli civilian areas with missiles.

Yes, the anti-semitism card will be played. It is in play all the time. If you don't feel in your guts the videotaped beheading of Daniel Pearl, if you don't know about the mutilation and dismemberment of the Chabad rabbi's wife in Mumbai, if you have forgotten the Jewish teenage hiker whose head was crushed while hiking in the West Bank... you can't understand the anti-semitism card.

But let's rename it. How about the Hebrew Card? "Jew" has been a derogatory term for so long we ought to go back to the original language used when Abraham came west out of Sumeria. The Jewish-American card. The Holocaust card. "Zionist" has been propagandized for so long that its original meaning is lost. Why not just call it the Race Card?

Israel is not going after the missiles Hamas dug into tunnels under the densely-populated areas of Gaza. Hamas will have rockets to fire after Israeli troops withdraw. But world attention will be drawn to the need to stop the smuggling of missiles into Gaza ---- or to Israel as the villain.

Which way the issue is framed -- Israel as the villain -- or national self-defense to stop missile bombardment .... depends on non-rational factors. The mobs throughout the Arab and Muslim world chanting death to Israel have already decided. Their propaganda machine is at work in every interview, in every media, in every image.

"Legitimate debate" and "policy reasons" were not at the center of this piece. Corn places the emotional descriptions of the alleged civilian casualties of presumably innocent Palestinian women and children in the center of the piece.

if he cannot see that he is following the tracks laid out by the Arab and Muslim propaganda machine - that looks to take advantage of civilian casualties on both sides - he misses the meaning of "jihad".

As a cheap shot Corn de-legitimizes Jewish emotion, Jewish concern, and Jewish history as having a necessary role in the discussion. Take a look at the comments you generate from your piece.

Is Frum right that Democrats are likely to be afraid to discuss the Palestinian rocket attacks and Israel's response for fear of splitting party unity? Of course he's right.

But if we can elect Obama maybe we can stand up more directly for our own multi-ethnic identities and loyalites that go beyond the borders of the United States to the lands of our ancestors and relatives.

Media coverage of terrorist attacks on Israel is miniscule. Do you know how many rockets hit Israel and how many Israeli civilians went to the hospital while Hamas broke the truce before Israel took action?

Have you interviewed any of the Israeli families of people maimed and killed by suicide bomb attacks? Do you know what the Jewish community's response was to the murder of rabbis in Mumbai?

The media coverage is very heavy on the Israeli response to terrorist attack - often not mentioning the scale of the missile terror campaign - which Corn minimizes.

The subject is named as "Israel's attacks on Gaza". David, take a look at the cumulative effect of your phrasing and imagery and ask yourself - have you been tainted?

To answer your questions. There is no "guarantee" the Israeli response will ease the way to a political solution. But since when do you expect there to be "guarantees" in military or political actions?

One could argue that the diplomacy underway with Egypt and the discussion of putting American troops on the Egypt/Gaza border represent new initiatives and qualitatively different discussions.

Yes, it is possible that the Israeli action is leading to a coordinated international demand that Islamic terrorist attack against Israel must stop. Until 9/11 terrorism against Israel was a minor issue to the world. Strong action to stop Hamas and clear the offensive missiles out of Gaza could be the best step to showing Afghanistan and Iraq that it is time to stop fighting and killing based on jihadi principles.

It is incorrect to assume that pressuring Israel will help discourage Islamic jihadi terrorism or bring together an imaginary coaliition of moderate Arab states. The United States has not lifted a finger to actively defend Israel or to honor security treaties by attacking those who attack Israel - the way we pledged to defend Europe or South Korea or Taiwan.

By keeping Israel out of the coalition of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan we send a message to the Arabs and Muslims that Israel is not a full partner with the US, not a real friend.

US decisions have made Israel appear as part of the problem, not part of the solution. Oil money from Saudi Arabia is far more important to the US.

Why shouldn't Jews return home to Iraq, Iran, Saudia Arabia, Egypt and all the countries dwelt in before World War II? Why shouldn't Jewish property in the Arab world and in Europe be returned? A real friend of Israel would put these issues on the table.

But no. Israel has a second-class status as an American ally. In the eyes of Islam America has been willing to sell out Israel again and again. Only the Arab and Islamic propaganda machine portrays the US as unjustly favoring Israel - while in reality Israeli territory, security, and standing has been allowed to be degraded.

If the US - under Obama - forces an end to Gaza launched terrorism by naming it for what it is and stopping the Palestinian arms race Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan will know where we stand. Otherwise the Muslim world simply waits for US troops to leave and then resumes attacking Israel.

There can only be one standard for civility. We cannot look the other way when Israel suffers terrorist attacks and expect that a "war" on terrorism will be taken seriously. Saudi Arabia needs to be held accountable for 9/11 and the madrassa's it has funded around the world seeding hatred.

The morality of Israel's operation in Gaza has to be discussed with the right of national self-defense put first. No one is claiming that civilian casualties were intentionally inflicted by the IDF. Some of us consider all war and all death by weaponry immoral. But that is not the policy of the United States. Accidental deaths happen and the information is still too scanty to determine the specifics in the situations mentioned or to calculate Israel's level of care to minimize and avoid harming the innocent.

But remember, the Palestinian people elected Hamas and Hamas directed the offensive act of war against Israel. The moral responsibility must be shared by the people of Gaza as well as by the leaders of Hamas.

Don't forget to include the morality of the funders of Hamas and those who violated the treaty with Israel by smuggling missiles into Gaza. Don't forget the complacency of the French troops who promised to keep missiles out of Southern Lebanon and then simple failed to do so. Don't forget Iran and Syria who sent weapons and provided haven and guidance for Hamas leadership. Don't forget Russia who founded the PLO.

On the matter of wisdom - only time will tell whether the ground invasion and the focus on destroying the tunnels used to smuggle missiles will prove to be wise or not.

Thus far, Israel has succeeded in requiring that ceasefire discussions must include provisions for ending smuggling and ending rocket attacks on a state that is, after all, a member of the United Nations.

On a lighter note, the Panetta appointment to CIA was to serve a check against possible Robert Gates disloyalty. Gates was involved with so many dirty tricks over the last 30 years that he really can't be totally trusted by Obama. Not right away. Gates would be the guy to know if someone was talking to someone about hiring someone to plot against Obama. Panetta knows all Gates' history - going all the way back. Panetta's role is that of a personal bodyguard - which is why Obama didn't run it by Feinstein.

Did anybody else notice this sentence from the Physicians?

" No armed persons were identified among the casualties."

Say wha? Like they lay their assault weapon beside them on the stretcher for the trip to the hospital (or morgue), or transfer them side by side with their rocket launchers on a separate stretcher.

My bad. I see that DrDan briefly commented on it.

israel and palestine in 2 minutes:

http://tinyurl.com/7nn9mc

the ever-shrinking map of palestine:

http://tinyurl.com/7gqjpj

and now a few words from the holiest of chosen ones holiest book from which they have derived their right to behave as they do:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations … then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
(Deuteronomy 7:1-2)

You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.
(Leviticus, Chapter 26, verses 7-9)

…do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them … as the Lord your God has commanded you…
(Deuteronomy 20:16)

I think it is more than egotistical of us to believe that what we think has much bearing at all as to what will happen in and to Gaza. This having been said, this is not a situation that is black and white. It isn't a question of two neighboring states at war.

W made a massive mistake pushing for elections that made a "terrorist organization" a player. Refusing to deal with a "terrorist organization" being part of the Bush Doctrine. W made our voice moot.

Look to what Cheney has been about in recent months. Look to who stands to gain the most out of continued conflict, and last but far from least ask yourselves why, even though we see with our own eyes (thanks mostly to Aljazeera) that the weapons being used in Gaza are phosphorous and cluster bombs. Ask where they came from. Ask why Israel would be using these weapons if they were indeed trying to reduce civilian casualties.

War is profit. We increasingly live in an age where those with the bombs are also those with the ability to manipulate governments into using the bombs.

Ike warned us. "Beware the Military/Industrial Complex" and since then, over and over we have watched in silence as weapons are trotted out, weapons the "people" never got a vote on. Then used on mostly civilian populations.

The people who made thier fortunes making these weapons have nothing at stake. Not their sons or daughters and certainly not their fortunes. These have no particular National ties.

It is now as it has always been about getting and keeping money and power.

The people, have never really mattered. We the people are an endlessly renewable resource.

Kept poor, the people will always be available to fight the wars that make the rich richer.

I don't know if it is possible to end this cycle of destruction. I hope it is.

But I have no faith.

It is impossible to deny that war as waged these days is horrific. It always has been. Hamas chose to bombard Israel on a daily basis and then it chose to go on TV and brag that Isarel was impotent and would not respond. Hamas also chose to make sure that the Gazan population would be collectively punished by placing their arms and barracks in the midst of population centers. They even chose Mosques as the places from which to launch missiles.

The lack of competence on the part of Hamas in causing damage to Israel since Israel left Gaza is no excuse to claim that Israel's response to bombardment is so devastating.

I remember in 1962 when Cuba tried to set up missiles the USA response was, Hell, no! No missiles were allowed to be delivered. Had Cuba managed to sneak in a missiles and fire it off. Castro would have been dead 47 years by now and Cuba would would have had several major craters to fill in as soon as the radioation had abated sufficiently.

Excuse me, but American citizens have every right to oppose a government (their own or foreign) if it seeks to establish itself upon the basis of either racism or religion, let alone both. Since I do not acknowledge the ludicrous concept of a "master race" or "chosen people" nor do I subscribe to any form of Single Spook Animism, I find the Apartheid Zionist Entity completely without merit on grounds of the non-racial, secular American Constitution alone.

Furthermore, I resent the linguistic highjacking of the term "semitic" by Jews, who form only one racial/linguistic subset of that Middle Eastern anthropological demographic. My younger brother the California high school English and history teacher loves to point this out when Apartheid Zionists call him "anti-semitic." Replies he: "On the contrary; I like Arabs." Anti-Jew? Not necessarily. Anti-Zionist? Most certainly. Anti-Semitic? No way.

Neither Americans nor Palestinian Arabs had anything to do with Nazi German persecution of European Jews before and during World War II. So why in the hell do rabid Apartheid Zionists expect any of us uninvolved bystanders to give a rat's ass what Apartheid Zionists say they have a right to steal from whomsoever they wish? I don't feel the slightest bit "guilty" for what I had nothing to do with and I resent Apartheid Zionists trying to "guilt-trip" me into silence through emotional extortion and "anti-semitic" caterwauling. I oppose aggressive, acquisitive, belligerent Apartheid Zionism. I always will. I make no apologies for that. And if any of my fellow Americans feel really, really, really bad about the Holocaust that happened to six million Jews (and six million non-Jews) in another land before their birth, then let that person and all like him-or-her volunteer their own land, homes, and lives for the establishment of an American "indian nation" reservation the size of New Jersey where only Jews can live without having to deal with all those sub-human "goyim," American and Palestinian Arab, who don't owe them anything.

Oh, yes; and upon the subject of why I recoil from "Gaza" (actually, I recoil from Apartheid Zionists like David Frum), I thought a bit after re-reading Shelley's immortal poem "Ozymandias" -- which deals rather dismissively with perishable human arrogance -- and came up with my own take on ...

"Cozy, Scandalous ..."

I met a refugee from Gaza Strip,
Who spoke to me with empty, staring eyes
Dumb words whose depth of pain I could not grip
With all the helping hands the world denies
While lapping up the lurid lies that slip
And roll so greasy off the practiced tongue
Of Zionists whose caged and wounded prey
Are told to flee and leave their dying young
To weep beside the corpses of their old
In darkened shattered former homes where they
Cannot refute the garbage we’ve been told
By glib Israeli liars trained to spread
A veil of darkness over crimes they’ve sold
As “Peaceful Co-Existence” -- with the dead.

Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright 2009

While even the UN calls Hamas's bombing unacceptable, no one anywhere actually spoke up or took action against Hamas for the daily missile attacks. Since the attacks were against Israeli Jews no action was necessary and none was contemplated. As the wjole world knows it is no crime to kill Jews and it is not even a misdemeanor to make incompetent and unsuccessful attacks.

Since Israel left Gaza, Hamas and others have launched daily attacks and the world yawned with boredom. Trying to murder Israelis is no cause for criticism of anyone.

I am unhappy that Israel is doing what it is doing but since there is an election on the horizon the current ruling party felt it had to demonstrate to the voters that it is not weak. This demonstration will cost thousands of people their lives and limbs. It was also exacerbated by Hamas going on TV and claiming that Israel lacked the cojones to respond to the bombardment.

It was the intention of Hamas all along to place Gazans as a shield. Their plan required that Israel kill civilians which Hamas is more than willing to sacrifice for its cause as stated in its charter.

Hamas is willing to give Israel peace so long as it is the peace of the grave for all Jews who live in Israel.

So long as Hamas is intent on murdering Jews, Hams and its backers are legitamet targets. Gaza voted Hamas into poawer and stood by whil Hamas soldiers went around and murdered many citizens as well celebrating any strikes by Hamas rockets.

The citizens of Gaza can eject Hamas or they can act as its human shields. It is a choice that Gazans can make for themselves.

Anyone who knows Hamas is well aware that it will gladly murder as many gazans as they can if they are asked to leave or cease fire. The only human lives hamas values are those of its members, fighters and leaders. All other can and will be sacrificed for PR purposes

Oh, yes, and by the way: "Gaza" means "Grenada, only far worse," for those who recognize the political campaign proclivities of U.S. and A.Z.E. politicians during their respective campaign/crusades for coveted office of "commander-in-briefs." Lose a little military "face" in one botched blunder: say, Lebanon? Then just find some pathetic whipping boys on an insignificant island or captive colony on the edge of nowhere. All tough-and-stuff -- and just in time for the upcoming elections. Just don't forget to keep the press out while propagandizing the hell out of the somnolent Nation of Sheep.

Otherwise -- and despite all the decades of cynical bawling by some Jews who simply can't "move on" and "forget the past" (and any alleged theft of family valuables that may have involved German or Austrian bankers) -- "Killing Jews" doesn't mean the same thing as "killing apartheid zionists." Many Jews live in many countries all over the world and no one kills them for their self-identified "Jewishness." And in America, many enthusiastic supporters of apartheid zionism claim to subscribe to rabid Christian evangelical talibanism. No one kills them for their "Jewish worshipping," either. Nothing about what "Jewish" means in some countries necessarily means what "zionism" means in the crusading land-grab that some call "Israel." Distinctions that make a difference need distinguishing.

On the other hand, if an apartheid zionist (Jewish or Christian-talibangelical type) steals your land, robs you of your home; drives you into outdoor-toilet refugee camps for decades; economically and socially strangles you with blockaded borders and humiliating gauntlets of walls and checkpoints; kills and maims uncounted members of your family and community; repeatedly assassinates each and every person you choose to represent your interests; and -- whenever desirable or convenient -- assaults you with overwhelming military viciousness just to say "hello"; well, then, perhaps you might want to kill that person. Just saying ...

And if any apartheid zionist, Jewish or otherwise, wants to call me "anti-semitic" for telling the truth about apartheid zionism, then I'll just take the canard as a compliment -- considering the source. I recommend that other non-apartheid-zionist Americans do the same. Most of the rest of the world already does.