Comments on Informed Comment: Karen Hughes Denies Israel Has Blank Check Fierce...

650 plus killed in Lebanon (not including those st...

2006-08-02T21:09:00.000-04:00

650 plus killed in Lebanon (not including those still buried under buildings which the dogs are eating) and 150 killed in Gaza and 50 plus killed in Israel (which includes military casualties).

That equates approx. to a ratio of 16:1. yet, incredibly the media is full of footage showing the IDF in actions and they are trying to beat up the damage done to Israel by almost directionless, low-impact rockets.

Meanwhile Bush et al pretend to be talking about cease-fires to deflect some of the world's outrage at the terrible carnage.

America will pay a heavy price for its support of the current genocide.

"If Americans are strangely complacent about the k...

2006-08-02T18:21:00.000-04:00

"If Americans are strangely complacent about the killing at will of Lebanese children and civilians, maybe they will get upset about Israel's creation of the massive Jiyye oil spill, which endangers Mediterranean sea turtles"

Gordon Gekko: That's the thing about the WASPs -- love animals; hate people.

Wall Street
1987

On Greek Anger and also Turkish ParliamentThe Arme...

2006-08-02T13:14:00.000-04:00

On Greek Anger and also Turkish Parliament

The Armenians are angry too. Armenia back on July 14(?) condemned Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Over the many decades, Israel still refuses acknowledgement of the Armenina genocide (what do the US, UK, [but not France] Israel, and Turkey have in common?). I'd be surprised if Turkish government did anything too rash that diplomatic relations with Israel became soured.

Americans and dead turtles: I think many Americans are pretty much in the camp of,

"people die in war., war is hell."
-pass the buck.

In the meantime, it appears over 1/3 of the population is going on about Mel Gibson's DUI.

?!?!?!

I've posted on NPR's covereage of the assault on...

2006-08-02T12:37:00.000-04:00

I've posted on NPR's covereage of the assault on the hospital. It is really shocking and inexcusable. What are they thinking?

Intentionally causing, or even allowing the possib...

2006-08-02T12:01:00.000-04:00

Intentionally causing, or even allowing the possibility of an environmental diaster crossing international borders such as that at Jiyye, was not addressed in Geneva in 1949. Awareness of the import of environmental diasters reveals some of what humans have learned since 1949. Yet it would be hard to argue that such an act would not be a crime against humanity. A Yahoo news search today August 2 yielded only three hits on this story: two from the Lebanese Daily Star and one from the Boston Globe. A Google search yielded only twenty one hits, an incredibly low number for any search. In those twenty one hits, there were no additional major news media listed over those resulting from the Yahoo search; all the additional Google hits were blogs, indymedia, or org sources. This means that the story is not getting media play and one must ask why.

I read, with great interest, your posting about Ka...

2006-08-02T11:21:00.000-04:00

I read, with great interest, your posting about Karen Hughes' statement on Israels' position. Karen apparently had enough of the Bush White House a few years ago when she left it, only to return to the limited position of a spokesperson on Middle East policy. That job was much easier when all she had to do was talk about our efforts to bring democracy to the region. Now things seem to make it more difficult to have a cogent and consistent position. Hence the conflict over choices of words. Karen's backgroun, in case you did not know, is that she, like Tony Snow, was a journalist. She was Karen Parfitt of Channel 5 (NBC) in Dallas for many years before the president found her when he was running for governor of Texas. Like Carl Rove (only with more scruples), she knew a good thing for herself when she saw it, and the rest is history. She, unlike Rove, has often seemed to find it difficult to keep in tune with administration policies. Michael Townes Watson, author of
America's Tunnel Vision--How Insurance Companies' Propaganda Is Corrupting Medicine and Law..www.StopMedicalError.com

A Greek boycott of an Israeli film festival in Hai...

2006-08-02T10:55:00.000-04:00

A Greek boycott of an Israeli film festival in Haifa may not seem important in and of itself. But the longer Israel's savage destruction of Lebanon continues, the more Europeans will begin to cut Israel off.

Last Saturday, we have had a big protest here in Swizterland. The TV channel announced about 3'000 protesters, mostly mostly nationals (unlike a privious protest in Geneva which gathered lots of Lebanese and Palestinians). In Geneva, a group holds a vigil each Wednesday in front of the Israelian Mission to the UN; they stay from 6pm to midnight. You can see video and pictures of these protests here as well as a link to a TV footage reporting on the large protest in Bern. Well, this is not much yet, nevertheless, I hope that it may offer some comfort to the people in Lebanon and in Gaza to know that many in EU aren't indifferent to their sufferances and try to do what they can abroad.

I can't help but notice that in the Daily Star exc...

2006-08-02T10:45:00.000-04:00

I can't help but notice that in the Daily Star excerpt,

"At least 828 Lebanese, almost all of them civilians, have been killed and 3,200 wounded over the last three weeks, the Higher Relief Committee said on Tuesday. Fifty-one Israelis have also been killed, most of them soldiers."

the "terrorists" have killed mostly soldiers and the "good guys" have killed mostly civilians.. to a much greater degree at that.

I am trying to understand what Ehud Olmert meant w...

2006-08-02T10:12:00.000-04:00

I am trying to understand what Ehud Olmert meant when he said:

"Israel's offensive in Lebanon has "entirely destroyed" the infrastructure of the Hezbollah guerilla group, Olmert said Wednesday.

"I think Hezbollah has been disarmed by the military operation of Israel to a large degree," he said.

The prime minister cited a reduction in the number of rocket attacks on Israel as proof of how badly Hezbollah had been damaged" (Haaretz).

I don't understand how we are to take this, as I know of no independent evidence yet that what he said is true. Indeed heavy rocket barrages have started again. The remarks sound at first sight like bluster, intended to reassure the Israeli people and his critics, which means there are more critics than we thought. If the remarks turn out not to be true, I would have thought his prime ministership was at risk.

There are stories that this war actually started o...

2006-08-02T09:47:00.000-04:00

There are stories that this war actually started over the taking of two I.D.F. soldiers in Aïta Al-Chaab, Lebanon, not on Israeli turk. Is there anything to this? Or (if there is), does it really matter anymore?

With the dismay that so many around the world, and...

2006-08-02T06:18:00.000-04:00

With the dismay that so many around the world, and in the West in particular, feel about the assault on Lebanon a world-wide economic boycott economic should gain some measure of broad support. An obvious first step is an organized boycott of Israeli agriculture products in Europe. However, a particularly key segment of the Israeli export economy is software. Israel exports some $3 billion of software a year. Israel's high-tech sector, including the software industry is critical is it's long-term economic viability and, one would imagine, it's security agenda. The wisest way to leverage pressure would be through investors and clients of companies using Israeli software. Another way to leverage pressure would be to target for boycott companies with substantial investments in the Israeli software sector. For example, both Hewlett-Packard and Computer Associates have recently made major acquisitions in the Israeli software sector.

At this point it is clear Israel could care less about world public opinion. Given that, it is more than justifiable that concerned citizens of the world to take steps that can mostly directly convey to Israel a message of censure. A global economic boycott combined with economic dislocation caused by the war pales in comparison to the utter devastation of the Lebanese economy wrought by Israel. Certainly, one can only take the deliberate creation of a massive oil spill on Lebanon's coast as an act of economic war by ecological means. Israeli warplanes purposely knocked out the berms that would have stopped the spill. Participation in an economic boycott of Israeli goods and services is the least concerned citizens of the world can do. Though, in the final event, it is likely that the American taxpayer will be forced to make up the difference with direct payments to Israel.

Hey, it's time for both you and Karen Hughes to gi...

2006-08-02T03:44:00.000-04:00

Hey, it's time for both you and Karen Hughes to give Haim Ramon a break. He's not been having an easy time of it lately.

>>Justice Minister Haim Ramon has been barred from making any decisions on professional matters relevant to his ministry while a criminal investigation is being conducted against him.

The decision to restrict Ramon's activities was made July 27 by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, following the start of a criminal investigation against the minister over allegations of sexual harassment against an officer serving in the military secretariat of the Prime Minister's Office.<<