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Israel-Gaza conflict draws student blame, concern
Published: Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
An estimated 600 people, both Israeli and Palestinian, have been killed, and 3,000 have been wounded since the start of Israeli air strikes in Gaza on Dec. 27 and the subsequent ground invasion on Jan. 3. University students have ...(back to the article)
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I am incredulous at the audacity of this paper. Has blind pro-Israel campaigning really gone so far that a university publication is willing to be blatantly evasive and untruthful?
One does not have to look farther than the first sentence of this article to see that, probably out of fear at upsetting a particular faction within the university community, the author of this article (and most likely most Daily Princeton staff), has turned her back on factual, unbiased journalism. "An estimated 600 people, both Israeli and Palestinian, have been killed, and 3,000 have been wounded since the start of Israeli air strikes in Gaza on Dec. 27 and the subsequent ground invasion on Jan. 3." There are many things wrong with this sentence, and I can't believe the writer was so shameless as to make it her opening statement. First of all, anyone who has done any real research whatsoever on this crisis (and I mean more than just reading vague headlines!), knows that the death toll amongst the two populations is nowhere near proportional. In fact, since the fighting began on December 27th, the true proportion is about 100:1, where Palestinians have suffered an incredibly devastating number of casualties. I am at a loss as to why this very important fact was left out. Of course, it is equally exasperating that it is unmentioned that the 3,000 wounded are Palestinian as well. Moreover, it could have been an innocent lack of clarity, but I think it is significant to add that, just like air strikes, the ground invasion on January 3rd was also perpetrated by the extremist right-wing Israeli leadership. No massive military campaign has been carried out by Palestine.
I feel this situation is getting out of hand. It is precisely because of this type of fearful, cowardly, and ignoble journalism that more students have not mobilized in protest against the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Israeli population, though rightly perturbed by the rockets thrown their way every now and then, was never at a risk of extinction. The rockets are crude, homemade, and incredibly unreliable. Only 1 out every 1000 actually makes it to its target, and even then, apart from a few sparks, they are unlikely to have any devastating effect. Has it occurred to the staffers of this paper that the only reason the rockets are even used is because they are a desperate attempt by Palestinians in Gaza to protest the famine, loss of dignity, and a barefaced lack of humanity inflicted upon them by the government of Israel? I can understand that Israeli children are scared at the freaky sounds the rockets make, but I cannot understand why Israel has been allowed to perpetrate an air strike and a ground invasion in Gaza that has killed hundred of civilians, including countless Palestinian children.
The use of collective punishment, brazen vindictiveness, and cruel display of strength on the part of Israeli leadership should no longer be excused by the world. There is nothing that justifies this level of inhumanity.
I agree, it was impossible to take this article seriously after reading "both Israeli and Palestinian" when it is obvious that in this situation only one side is taking a beating.
explain this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykNnwqUD4sA
hamas=terrorists
According to Hamas itself, the "cause" of Hamas's terrorism is the very existence of Israel. Hamas spokesmen will occasionally raise the possibility of a long-term "hudna," but then they are usually contradicted by others in Hamas, and in any event they acknowledge that the hudna would only be a temporary step toward the ultimate "liberation of all of Palestine." So, there is really only one pure "diplomatic" solution to the problem of Hamas terrorism, and that is for Israel to capitulate. So if you were wondering why Israelis from across the political spectrum, from Meretz to Yisrael Beitanu, aren't exactly laying down their arms, there you have it. And military action, done right, is hardly completely useless--how many terrorist atrocities have emanated from Jenin or Bethlehem lately?
When a terrorist entity controls territory bordering that of a sovereign nation, and indiscriminately lobs rockets into that nation's territory, terrifying the civilian population and making normal life unlivable, what is a proportionate response?
Israel has engaged in pinpoint targeting of military facilities operated by said terrorist entities, and has gone so far as to send messages in Arabic to residents of Gaza, warning them that if they allow their homes or businesses are sheltering Hamas weaponry, they will be destroyed. Even according to Palestinian sources, the overwhelming majority of victims of Israeli bombs thus far have been Hamas fighters. This is perhaps the LEAST extreme response that any sovereign nation faced with an analogous situation has ever engaged in. Cf. Russia in Chechnya.
Israel's critics' real problem, I surmise, is that they think that Israel's response is "disproportionate" not because its disproportionate relative to Hamas's military actions and Israel's military objectives compared to the civilian damaged inflicted (more or less the international law definition of proportionality), but because they believe that Israel is primarily to blame for the situation in Gaza, and therefore any suffering inflicted on Gaza's civilians is primarily Israel's fault. Hence his observation about Israel's blockade of Gaza, which is not at all relevant to whether Israel's response to the rocket fire is "proportionate," but rather to whether Israel is morally at fault in general.
But by putting the issue in terms of the "proportionality" of Israel's response, these critics are obscuring their real argument, which is that Israel is not entitled to act in self-defense because no matter how many rockets are launched into Israeli territory, Israel is ultimately the aggressor in the Gaza situation.
To call a Qassam rocket homemade and ineffective is incorrect and irresponsible. Their ineffectiveness is the result of the widespread construction of defensive structures in the South of Israel necessitated by the continuous campaign of rocket terror waged by Hamas (even during the cease-fire)that began following Israel's pullout . The fact that children in Sderot must play in playgrounds reinforced by several inches of concrete is a testament to the abhorrent conditions Israelis in the South must live under. Hamas rockets don't only terrorize Israelis. Large portions of arable farmland are unusable because Hamas feels it more beneficial to Palestinians to lob rockets at Israel that may malfunction and detonate in these fields than to allow the development of sustainable infrastructure in Gaza.I mourn the loss of each innocent life that perishes in this conflict but it must be understood that Israel is acting out of the necessity to protect its citizens. Casualties are unavoidable because Hamas strategically locates itself in densely populated civilian centers. Peace and stability will only be achievable in Gaza when a regime is in place that truly represents the best interests of Palestinians and not the furthering of an ideology of death. Israel fights for peace, Hamas fights to wipe out the Jewish state.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs...
Home Made Rockets? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyYsFLttmX8
I agree with "Incredulous"-- even for the Prince, this is an all-time low point in journalism.
re: Jacob Loewenstein '11
Are you seriously citing the blog Atlas Shrugs as a legit source? Ye gods.
looney bin, if you actually read the link rather than attempted to discredit Jacob for mere sport, you would see that it is a link to a widely publicized video of a Hamas cell firing rockets from a school
don't attack the writer for attempting to write an unbiased, uninflammatory, politically correct article of a situation that is VERY difficult to discuss without seriously offending two very important memberships of the Princeton community.