Needlenose

The key justification for the crackdown on the Palestinians in the Gaza and the West Bank spouted by the pro-Israeli camp is that the Palestinians are terrorists, because their suicide bombings and other attacks ‘target civilians.’  Frankly, I fail to see the ‘fine point’ these apologists put on it when, for example, in the recent ‘put down’ of the Hamas rocket launchers, the Israeli army killed an estimated 960 civilians out of a total of 1434 total dead – 67%!

Israel, of course, immediately and automatically disputed the number of civilian dead.  The ultra-nationalist message of the country’s leaders, however, was undercut by direct testimony from members of the IDF, who are coming forward with tales of policy-driven slaughter of civilians, including unarmed women & children.

It’s hard to take the moral high ground after the US did all this and worse during the dark years of the Shrubya Iraqi fiasco.   However, now that we are under new management, I really hope (but sadly doubt)  Clinton will put some pressure on Israel to investigate their war crimes.

War Nerd uses the Gaza war to make the point that the age of ‘total war’ (where civies are acceptable targets) is currently in abeyance.  The point he doesn’t make is that Israel seems to have mastered the art of the ‘focus group’ atrocity – pushing the limits of war crimes to kill civilians, trash infrastructure, do so and collectively punish a population – but stopping just before the point where they’ll lose political support among US politicans or provoke a serious civilian action in Europe such as a boycott.

Not convinced?  What could be more cynical then their agreement to a cease-fire on the day before the Obama inaguration?  I guess they want to figure out what they can get away with with the new guy.  Shrubya was the Larry King of cis-Jordan power-brokers, but they probably have figured out that Obama may actually pay some attention to what is going on.

My anecdotal bellwhether of course are a few die-hard liberal Jewish friends, who, while they decried the Iraq war, tow the line on Israeli politics of occupation.  None of them were shaken by the recent atrocity exhibition, so it seems Israel got away with it again.

It really makes you wonder though just what Israel can get away with, if torching civilians with white phosphorus, destroying their homes and fields, denying them power and foodstuffs and any but the most minimal contact with the outside world.  What would it take to get the Euroweenies to take action?  To revolt my bellwhether pro-Israel liberal pals?  To get the supposedly sympathetic Arab neighbors stop jawing and take any real action?

*Update* After lying for a few weeks, Israel admits to frying Gazans.  As they say,  ”Like Father Like Son.”  Israel is really our ‘Mini-Me,’ isn’t it?

This headline from the Israel’s attack on Gaza really just says it all: Gaza Children Found With Mothers’ Corpses.  I’m really not sure what more Israel can do in the way of war crimes before anybody on Capitol Hill says “Enough!”

“The statement said a team of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances accompanied by Red Cross representatives made its way to Zeitoun Wednesday where it “found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.””

I just wish our Pols would be more honest and finish the typical apologia statements around Israel’s actions and say “I support Israel’s right to defend itself regardless of the means and of the cost in innocent human life.”

Heading home for the holidays? Dreading the inevitable collision with that Libertarian uncle or redneck cousin where you both unavoidably launch into a heated, and family-alienating political discussion after he/she taunts you with Bush? Well, this year stay cool and stay on-message with these handy talking points on so-called conservative issues:

Fiscal responsibility:
* $1/2 trillion-dollar budget deficit and climbing, of which:
* $300 billion is pure government welfare pork
* $100-200 billion additional pork pending in the Energy and Prescription Drug bills
- Remind him/her that Clinton balanced the budget

Small government
* 12.5% growth in Federal Government last year
- Remind him/her that Gore, working for Clinton, trimmed 300K federal jobs and reduced Federal spending 3% (as share of GDP)

Fighting Terrorism
* Where’s Osama?
* Why are the Taliban operating out of Pakistan with impunity?
* Why weren’t the CIA/FBI heads and their staffs sacked?
* What happened to the 9/11 investigation?
* Why does Bush withhold information about possible Saudi complicity in 9/11
* Why is Al Qaeda still blowing things up around the world?

The War in Iraq
* War crimes (on the basis of Geneva Conventions) due to U.S. criminal negligence:
# 1,500 civilians killed in uncontrolled looting following the fall of Baghdad; insufficient forces on the ground
# 12,000 unique, priceless artifacts looted from the Iraqi Art Museum
# 1 million unique, priceless historical documents burned in the Iraqi National Library
# 8kg of uranium missing from looted Tuwaitha reactor; enough for several ‘dirty bombs’
# Thousands of Arabs ‘ethnically cleansed’ from Kurdistan
# Dozens killed in ‘reprisal’ slayings and ethnic civil war
# Destruction of houses, farms and other personal property in punative raids
# Hundreds of Iraqis being held without trial or tribunal
# Occupational Authority making significant changes to Iraqi legal system
# Occupational Authority making long term committments of Iraqi resources
*War botched:
# Where’s Hussein?
# Where are the WMD?
# 294 casualties since war ‘ended’
# Soldiers suffering dozens of daily guerilla attacks, the pace is increasing
# Guerillas have easy access to Hussein’s old arsenal
# Large political bloc militias still run free and armed
# No credible Coalition Government has been set up
# Strong-arm tactics appear to be further alienating the civilians
- Remind him/her that Clinton won the war against Serbia without a single U.S. soldier lost

Civil Liberties
* Patriot Act ‘sneak and peak’ provisions clearly unconstitutional
* DeLay used Homeland Security to spy on the movements Texas state legislators
* Why do Bush and war opponents end up on ‘no-fly’ lists?
* The FBI is spying on anti-war protestors
*The Secret Service is selectively enforcing ‘free speech areas’ – America is a free speech area!

I’m under no illusion that I can convince any of my reactionary relations to budge from their simplistic world-view, and I won’t try to persuade you that you will have any better luck. We can, however, potentially discourage them from contributing to Bush Co., and maybe, if they are lazy as well as misguided, discourage them from casting a vote next year. BTW, South Knox Bubba has a more comprehensive list of more general Bush failings that might be useful in political discussions with your non-rabid relations.