Today, the news made me cry
I don't usually get very invested in the news. The world will do what it's going to do, and I try to keep things in perspective (sometimes in too much perspective -- when Bush won in 2004 and all of my friends were so upset they couldn't function, my reaction was "look, it sucks, but how much damage can he really do, in the long run?")
But sometimes, on very rare occasions, things happen that are so bad, that are so ugly, that are so outrageous that I yell, and then I curse, and then I start to cry. Today was one of those days.
As a culmination of eight days of atrocity, Israel has invaded Gaza with ground forces. The news media in America continue with their dry coverage talking about hundreds of civilian deaths, including children, while four Israelis have been killed. Governments keep opening their statements with "of course Israel has a right to defend itself!". And then they follow with "but maybe they shouldn't be doing it this way." Nobody talks about the way that Gaza is being closed off -- has been closed off, even during the ceasefire, when Israel figured out that there are other ways to ethnically cleanse Palestinians other than shooting at them. You can just starve them and let them die of disease. They say that they want to make sure that the rocket attacks end forever, but what is going unspoken is that they are pissing so many people off that pretty much the only way to be sure of that is to kill everyone in Gaza, or leave the survivors so destitute, so impoverished and miserable, that the only thing that is left to them is the scrabbing for continued existance, with no energy for anything else. I honestly believe that this is Israel's goal, and that few in that country would shed any tears if the Israeli army went in and killed every last man, woman, and child in Gaza.
If any Arab country was doing this, the entire world would be up in arms, and the US would be talking about invading to stop it. At the very least, they would be talking about cutting off any aid to the country in question and instituting massive sanctions. Israel thinks they can get away with anything... because they can. But oh boy, if the UN started talking sanctions, they would stop in a hot second. If the US started talking 'No more weapons for you -- we saw what you did with the last ones', same deal. Israel would whine and cry and kick their feet, but in the end, they'd see what their continued assholishness would do, and they'd fucking stop.
Yesterday, foreigners in Gaza were evacuated. I knew they were going in when that happened. These foreigners include people who are married to Palestinians who must stay in Gaza to endure, and possibly be killed in, the coming assault. You know what, I can think of another time in the fairly recent history of the world when spouses were forced to flee tyranny in a country, leaving their loved ones behind and sometimes never finding them again. WHEN COULD THAT HAVE POSSIBLY BEEN?
Yes, I just Godwinized. The Israelis are like the Nazis.
In the meantime, this continued massacre, which is going to get much, much worse now that the ground troops have moved in, is putting an enormous amount of pressure on Egypt. People within Egypt are seeing what is happening, and want the government to do something, already. There are accusations that the President is colluding with Israel. For right now, the government in that country is still on fairly strong footing, even though they're being forced to cave to enormous diplomatic pressure from assholes like the US who are standing aside and watching this atrocity being committed without a word, but that support will erode more and more the longer that this goes on, and it will create a better basis for militants to take over one of the only, if not THE only, Arab country that is still strongly invested in peace. (Egypt is in an ugly place, because they're expected to be the only aid to Gaza -- other Arab countries kick up a fuss, but they don't do jack shit. It's in their interest for the misery in Gaza to continue, since that provokes more anger against Israel.)
My only comfort is that the longer Israel perpetuates its ethic cleansing of Gaza, the more public sentiment, especially in the Arab world which is getting images of the slaughter from Al Jazeera, will turn further and further against Israel despite Israeli attempts to quell the free press from seeing or reporting on what's happening. Western media is FINALLY starting to slowly, slowly turn towards negative reporting. Even if Americans never open their eyes and get angry, the rest of the world will do so, and there will be consequences for what is happening. The Israeli government thinks there won't, but there will.
(Oh, icing on the cake? Analysts almost universally agree that the motivation for these attacks is that there's an election coming up in Israel, and the government has been accused thusfar of being weak with regards to Gaza -- they're trying to shore up popularity at the expense of hundreds of innocent lives. And to the people of Israel, the slaughter of innocents is a reason to support the government. Hooray for racism and bigotry!)
I leave you with a quote from the linked article from a 14 year old girl:
A Gaza teenager, Jawaher Hajji, who said she had lost two close relatives in the past week, described a scene of growing desperation in the enclave. “There is no water, no electricity, no medicine,” Jawaher, a 14-year-old who has United States citizenship, told The Associated Press. “It’s hard to survive. Gaza is destroyed.”
If that doesn't make you cry, I don't know what will.
But sometimes, on very rare occasions, things happen that are so bad, that are so ugly, that are so outrageous that I yell, and then I curse, and then I start to cry. Today was one of those days.
As a culmination of eight days of atrocity, Israel has invaded Gaza with ground forces. The news media in America continue with their dry coverage talking about hundreds of civilian deaths, including children, while four Israelis have been killed. Governments keep opening their statements with "of course Israel has a right to defend itself!". And then they follow with "but maybe they shouldn't be doing it this way." Nobody talks about the way that Gaza is being closed off -- has been closed off, even during the ceasefire, when Israel figured out that there are other ways to ethnically cleanse Palestinians other than shooting at them. You can just starve them and let them die of disease. They say that they want to make sure that the rocket attacks end forever, but what is going unspoken is that they are pissing so many people off that pretty much the only way to be sure of that is to kill everyone in Gaza, or leave the survivors so destitute, so impoverished and miserable, that the only thing that is left to them is the scrabbing for continued existance, with no energy for anything else. I honestly believe that this is Israel's goal, and that few in that country would shed any tears if the Israeli army went in and killed every last man, woman, and child in Gaza.
If any Arab country was doing this, the entire world would be up in arms, and the US would be talking about invading to stop it. At the very least, they would be talking about cutting off any aid to the country in question and instituting massive sanctions. Israel thinks they can get away with anything... because they can. But oh boy, if the UN started talking sanctions, they would stop in a hot second. If the US started talking 'No more weapons for you -- we saw what you did with the last ones', same deal. Israel would whine and cry and kick their feet, but in the end, they'd see what their continued assholishness would do, and they'd fucking stop.
Yesterday, foreigners in Gaza were evacuated. I knew they were going in when that happened. These foreigners include people who are married to Palestinians who must stay in Gaza to endure, and possibly be killed in, the coming assault. You know what, I can think of another time in the fairly recent history of the world when spouses were forced to flee tyranny in a country, leaving their loved ones behind and sometimes never finding them again. WHEN COULD THAT HAVE POSSIBLY BEEN?
Yes, I just Godwinized. The Israelis are like the Nazis.
In the meantime, this continued massacre, which is going to get much, much worse now that the ground troops have moved in, is putting an enormous amount of pressure on Egypt. People within Egypt are seeing what is happening, and want the government to do something, already. There are accusations that the President is colluding with Israel. For right now, the government in that country is still on fairly strong footing, even though they're being forced to cave to enormous diplomatic pressure from assholes like the US who are standing aside and watching this atrocity being committed without a word, but that support will erode more and more the longer that this goes on, and it will create a better basis for militants to take over one of the only, if not THE only, Arab country that is still strongly invested in peace. (Egypt is in an ugly place, because they're expected to be the only aid to Gaza -- other Arab countries kick up a fuss, but they don't do jack shit. It's in their interest for the misery in Gaza to continue, since that provokes more anger against Israel.)
My only comfort is that the longer Israel perpetuates its ethic cleansing of Gaza, the more public sentiment, especially in the Arab world which is getting images of the slaughter from Al Jazeera, will turn further and further against Israel despite Israeli attempts to quell the free press from seeing or reporting on what's happening. Western media is FINALLY starting to slowly, slowly turn towards negative reporting. Even if Americans never open their eyes and get angry, the rest of the world will do so, and there will be consequences for what is happening. The Israeli government thinks there won't, but there will.
(Oh, icing on the cake? Analysts almost universally agree that the motivation for these attacks is that there's an election coming up in Israel, and the government has been accused thusfar of being weak with regards to Gaza -- they're trying to shore up popularity at the expense of hundreds of innocent lives. And to the people of Israel, the slaughter of innocents is a reason to support the government. Hooray for racism and bigotry!)
I leave you with a quote from the linked article from a 14 year old girl:
A Gaza teenager, Jawaher Hajji, who said she had lost two close relatives in the past week, described a scene of growing desperation in the enclave. “There is no water, no electricity, no medicine,” Jawaher, a 14-year-old who has United States citizenship, told The Associated Press. “It’s hard to survive. Gaza is destroyed.”
If that doesn't make you cry, I don't know what will.