Various news-things
* Right now the official numbers are 1.8k killed, ~10k wounded. I think it'll total 2k killed, when all is counted.
* I find it interesting that a lot of the wounded are being evacuated to the Bank. That's new. The Bank didn't used to have the facilities for this sort of a thing. For a change, the problem is not travel permits. (Yes, it takes two or three travel permits per person to move from Gaza to the West Bank.) It's a lack of ambulances - there's only a few dozen Palestinian ambulances, and hundreds of wounded that need to be moved. (Link)
* So some PLO veterans got together, and are signing a document saying they're willing to take what's coming, if Abbas joins the Rome Declaration (the Hague court). The senior leadership is refusing to sign it, as well as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. This is important because there's pretty much not a single person who was or is crucial to the Palestinian struggle for independence who isn't 100% provable culpable of war crimes. (The difference of a terrorist from a freedom fighter: the freedom fighter isn't so obviously guilty of war crimes that it doesn't even take a trial to show it.) This is interesting and potentially hopeful, because if the people signing this document really are among those who will go down if the PA confirms the Rome declaration and so becomes answerable to its violations? If so, that's decent (being willing to take the fall for your wrongdoings, if there's a chance it'll get justice for your people) and that's new. (Link)
* Can I repeat how crucially important it is that Egypt is signed on the ceasefire, and nobody else? This is actually huge.
* Meanwhile, Lebanon is falling victim to someone else's problems. Again. By which I mean, the shittery going on in Syria and Iraq is invading Lebanon, and Lebanon's kinda freakin' tiny. But that's Arabs killing Arabs, so Lebanon having domestically-displaced persons again on the scale of entire town is not going to get any attention, is it. Just like the years-long slaughter in Syria is just background noise. (Each week in Syria kills what Gaza lost in this entire campaign. But Gaza made headlines, and Syria? Yok.) /bitter
(You know what's the really fucking awful/hilarious thing is? The Palestinians bitterly say that the only reason anyone gives a damn about them is because they're killed/oppressed by Jews, not other Arabs. Meanwhile, Israelis bitterly say that the only reason Israel is receiving this much scrutiny is because the world antisemitic.)
Here, have Zvi Bar'el being bitter about it, too.
This entry was originally posted at http://hagar-972.dreamwidth.org/2571788.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
* I find it interesting that a lot of the wounded are being evacuated to the Bank. That's new. The Bank didn't used to have the facilities for this sort of a thing. For a change, the problem is not travel permits. (Yes, it takes two or three travel permits per person to move from Gaza to the West Bank.) It's a lack of ambulances - there's only a few dozen Palestinian ambulances, and hundreds of wounded that need to be moved. (Link)
* So some PLO veterans got together, and are signing a document saying they're willing to take what's coming, if Abbas joins the Rome Declaration (the Hague court). The senior leadership is refusing to sign it, as well as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. This is important because there's pretty much not a single person who was or is crucial to the Palestinian struggle for independence who isn't 100% provable culpable of war crimes. (The difference of a terrorist from a freedom fighter: the freedom fighter isn't so obviously guilty of war crimes that it doesn't even take a trial to show it.) This is interesting and potentially hopeful, because if the people signing this document really are among those who will go down if the PA confirms the Rome declaration and so becomes answerable to its violations? If so, that's decent (being willing to take the fall for your wrongdoings, if there's a chance it'll get justice for your people) and that's new. (Link)
* Can I repeat how crucially important it is that Egypt is signed on the ceasefire, and nobody else? This is actually huge.
* Meanwhile, Lebanon is falling victim to someone else's problems. Again. By which I mean, the shittery going on in Syria and Iraq is invading Lebanon, and Lebanon's kinda freakin' tiny. But that's Arabs killing Arabs, so Lebanon having domestically-displaced persons again on the scale of entire town is not going to get any attention, is it. Just like the years-long slaughter in Syria is just background noise. (Each week in Syria kills what Gaza lost in this entire campaign. But Gaza made headlines, and Syria? Yok.) /bitter
(You know what's the really fucking awful/hilarious thing is? The Palestinians bitterly say that the only reason anyone gives a damn about them is because they're killed/oppressed by Jews, not other Arabs. Meanwhile, Israelis bitterly say that the only reason Israel is receiving this much scrutiny is because the world antisemitic.)
Here, have Zvi Bar'el being bitter about it, too.
This entry was originally posted at http://hagar-972.dreamwidth.org/2571788.html. Please comment there using OpenID.