Dust in Your Eyes (Song for Iran)

Stop This Madness

This war must stop. It should never have begun. It must stop. Both sides must stop. Immediately.

I pray for the innocents, and the aid workers trying to help in Gaza.

sources: Democratic Underground and Daily Kos

Doctor's children killed on air in real time. Aired on Israeli TV.

Snip from Kos Diarist post:

by Assaf

Fri Jan 16, 2009 at 12:39:22 PM PST

Dr. Ezz-El-Din Abu El-Eish (I hope I am transliterating correctly) is a Palestinian gynecologist from Beit Lahiya, in the NE corner of the Gaza Strip. He works at Israel's largest hospital, Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv.

This impressive and peaceful man has been stranded at home during the war. Israel's Channel 10 TV has regularly interviewed him by phone about the situation. On one occasion, a tank gun aimed at his home - and Israeli media intervention saved him.

No such luck today.

(the link is a Hebrew site, the clip starts auto-playing after a few seconds. the article comes after a short commercial). What we see in the clip is Israeli anchor Shlomi Eldar holding a cellphone with Dr. Abu El-Eish on the other side, howling with misery. A tank shell has just hit his home and immediately killed three of his children (apparently they cut off the first seconds when the shell actually hit).

Text below the video frame says that the doctor's brother and two of his brother's children also died. Eldar barely holds himself from crying, and then offers help. Ambulances evacuated some of the wounded to Israel. read more here

U.K. Press Conference: Annie Lennox and speak out for cease-fire and peace in Israel and Gaza

Campaigners including Annie Lennox and Alexei Sayle voiced their concerns

Singer Annie Lennox has joined high-profile campaigners to call for an end to Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip.

At a news conference in London, she said TV footage of the attacks, which have killed more than 400 people, had left her "shaken to the core".

Comedian Alexei Sayle said Jewish people in the public eye should stress this was "not being done in our name".

Meanwhile, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is demanding a meeting with Foreign Secretary David Miliband. source: BBC

Hey! That's what I was thinkin'. -Obama's 'skills' need to match his words, need to match in order to broker peace in the middle-east

My imaginery conversation with a Vanity Fair author...

Go easy on me. I'm not kidding here either. I get real nappy with long-winded, complicated explanations. It's not self negating rhetoric or anything. It's just a fact.

It's not that I'm not smart enough to understand. It's just that most people make me really, really sleepy.

So what do you think about Obama and all this stuff going on with Hamas, Gaza and Israeli air strikes? Looks pretty bad to me. How should Obama handle this situation?

Ever since his 2004 keynote speech at the DNC, where he said, “We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states,” Barack Obama has been known for his ability to see both sides of an issue. It’s a handy skill for a lawyer—defeating your opponent is easier when you know what he’s going to do next—but it’s also an invaluable tool of statecraft. After all, it’s awfully hard to choose the right carrots and sticks if you don’t know what your opponent wants and fears.

OK. I get that. Go on. Do go on.

So I’m not yet convinced that Obama is a see-no-evil supporter of Israel just because he made this statement in July during a visit to the Hamas-targeted town of Sderot: “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”

Hell, we’d all expect that. Most Americans felt exactly that way after 9/11. But there are two sides to this story.

I can agree with that as well. Still listening

If Obama wishes to preserve his reputation for strategic omniscience—and perhaps move this conflict at last beyond the depressing, blood-soaked status quo—he will need to flex those empathy muscles on behalf of the Palestinians too.

Ahhh... empathy. I get that. Bleeding heart liberal here. Well, most of the time I am, but OK I get that too. I don't know. I think Obama has even used that empathy word before when he was talking to folks during the campaign cycle. Does he really know what it means though?

Early next year, I’d like to hear him say something like this: “If somebody uprooted my family, placed us in a glorified refugee camp, and wouldn’t allow us to travel or trade with the outside world, I would do everything in my power to fight back. I would expect Palestinians to do the same thing.”

And yes, I know that’s a world-class simplification, but so was Obama’s remark at Sderot. In both cases, the extenuating circumstances are cleared away to bring the emotional truth into stark relief. The Israelis and the Palestinians have inflicted an awful lot of pain on one another, and arguments about how one side’s crimes are justified by the other’s are beside the point. The fact is, families on both sides of this conflict are traumatized and deeply, deeply angry. Come January 20, the question for Obama will be: what to do about it. source: Vanity Fair

Ahhhh. Both sides. Looking at both sides. Makes great sense to me. Sometimes simple is good. Nice talkin' with you. Take care.

The End.


Hey dude who wrote this fancy pants article in Vanity Fair (Michael Hogan)... I just want you to know that every once in a while, one of us less than 'smarty pants' types are reading your stuff, and we appreciate more than you will ever know that over simplification stylin' you got going on.

Simply put, it was magnificent. Think, James Lipton, Inside the Actor's Studo, Bravo, Will Ferrell

We often refer to that as 'makin' a lick of sense'.

Thanks!

We got to have peace: KUCINICH CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT UNITED NATIONS INQUIRY ON Israeli government attacks civilians in violation of international law

From Kucinich house web site:

“Today I sent a letter to Secretary General Ban ki-Moon urging the United Nations to establish an independent inquiry of Israel's war against Gaza. The attacks on civilians represent collective punishment, which is a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention (http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm). The perpetrators of attacks against Israel must also be brought to justice, but Israel cannot create a war against an entire people in order to attempt to bring to justice the few who are responsible. The Israeli leaders know better. The world community, which has been very supportive of Israel's right to security and its right to survive, also has a right to expect Israel to conduct itself in adherence to the very laws which support the survival of Israel and every other nation,” Kucinich said.

“Israel is leveling Gaza to strike at Hamas, just as they pulverized south Lebanon to strike at Hezbollah. Yet in both cases civilian populations were attacked, countless innocents killed or injured, infrastructure targeted and destroyed, and civil law enforcement negated. All this was, and is, disproportionate, indiscriminate mass violence in violation of international law. Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held accountable. It is time for the UN to not just call for a cease-fire, but for an inquiry as to Israel's actions.”

According to published news reports, since the commencement of aerial strikes, over 300 Palestinians have been killed and approximately 1,400 have been wounded. The dead include 20 children under the age of 16--nearly half of them killed while on a school bus, according to the United Nations--and 9 women. The attack aggravated a humanitarian crisis wrought by the Israeli-imposed blockade of food, fuel, and medical supplies. With a population of 1.5 million people, the Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated territories in the world.