[Vision2020] The War in Gaza: "Bombing 1.5 Million People in a Cage"

[Donovan Arnold]

Dr. Gier writes:
 
"One could accept one accidental bombing of clearly marked and GPS located UN
buildings, but then three more UN schools and UN HQ in Gaza???"
 
I would image the only ones in those buildings would be Hamas hiding from bombings. If not, Darwin's theory of evolution comes to mind. 
 
"White phosphorous fires cannot be put out with water and other suppressants. 
The only thing that will stop it is sand, something that any fire trucks does
not carry."
 
Oh my! Where will they find enough sand way out there in the desert?
 
Best Regards,
 
Donovan

--- On Tue, 1/20/09, nickgier at roadrunner.com <nickgier at roadrunner.com> wrote:

From: nickgier at roadrunner.com <nickgier at roadrunner.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The War in Gaza: "Bombing 1.5 Million People in a Cage"
To: donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 12:56 PM

Greetings:

One could accept one accidental bombing of clearly marked and GPS located UN
buildings, but then three more UN schools and UN HQ in Gaza???  And why the
white phosphorous in the artillery shells? No doubt shipped from U.S. munitions
factories.  As one exasperated UN official said: "Their credibility is
hanging in rags."

White phosphorous fires cannot be put out with water and other suppressants. 
The only thing that will stop it is sand, something that any fire trucks does
not carry.  It is a weapon of terror, nothing more and nothing less.

Nick Gier
---- Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote: 
> I am in favor of eventually giving Palestinians a homeland. However, I am
also 100% in favor of bombing Hamas out of existence. It is a terrorist
organization that targets innocent civilians.
>  
> Dr. Gier has lost his grounding in comparing Hamas to the Bush
administration. While I have no love for the Bush Administration, it doesn’t
target children with suicide bombings. If he did and we kept him in power, any
nation we bombed would have right to bomb any and all US Citizens. If the
Palestinians want to end the bombings, they need to remove the Hamas from power.
If they don’t, Israel has no choice but to continue bombing for its own
existence. 
>  
> I don't think you can blame Israel for trying to remove a regime that
is bombing it and has a mission statement of removing Israel from the planet.
Hamas doesn't believe the holocaust even occurred. 
>  
> I would pray that our government would also bomb the crap out of a
government that was launching missiles at US civilians and that the world would
support us.
>  
> I think Dr. Gier, is incorrect to assume that Israel is intentionally
killing innocent people in Gaza. They are not. They are trying to defend
themselves from an enemy that is killing their civilians and they have every
right to bomb Gaza until all of Hamas is either dead or captured. 
>  
> You cannot negotiate with someone that only wants you dead.
>  
> Best Regards,
>  
> Donovan
>  
> 
> 
> --- On Fri, 1/16/09, nickgier at roadrunner.com
<nickgier at roadrunner.com> wrote:
> 
> From: nickgier at roadrunner.com <nickgier at roadrunner.com>
> Subject: [Vision2020] The War in Gaza: "Bombing 1.5 Million People in
a Cage"
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Date: Friday, January 16, 2009, 10:50 AM
> 
> Greetings:
> 
> This is my radio commentary/column for this week.  This was the most
difficult
> column I've ever written, and I'm sure people firmly on one side
or the
> other of this tragic conflict will not be satisfied.
> 
> The 2,000-word version is attached. The Idaho State Journal would have
> published the full version in their Sunday Insight, but the page was
already
> taken for this Sunday, so much of this would be old news by Jan. 25.  A
> 1,100-word version was published today in the Los Cabos Daily News, an
expat
> newspaper in Cabo San Lucas.
> 
> May the suffering in Gaza soon end!
> 
> Nick Gier
> 
> THE WAR IN GAZA: "BOMBING 1.5 MILLION PEOPLE IN A CAGE" 
> 
> By Nick Gier
> 
> An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind
> --Gandhi
> 
> Ever since its founding in 1948, Israel has been fighting enemies who are
> committed to its destruction. Because of weapons provided by the U.S. and
their
> own grit and determination, the Israelis have won every battle, even
though it
> is now widely believed that they lost, at least politically, the 2006 war
in
> Lebanon. 
> 
> The Lebanese Shi’ias of Hezbollah are actually stronger than
> ever--politically as well as militarily--and the Israelis now want to make
sure
> that the same does not happen with the Sunni Hamas in the current Gaza
War.  
> 
> After 21 days of bombing, shelling, and ground assault, Hamas has been
weakened
> but it is definitely not defeated.  There are between 15,000-20,000 Hamas
> fighters, and only about 550 have been killed. Furthermore, 15-20 rockets
are
> still being launched into Southern Israel every day.
> 
> There is world-wide condemnation of Israel’s bombing and shelling in
Gaza,
> one of the densest populations in the world. Civilian deaths are
approaching 600
> and about 2,250 have been wounded. The Quds hospital was set on fire,
evidently
> with artillery shells containing white phosphorous, the offensive use of
which
> is banned by international law.  
> 
> The Israelis are being charged with killing a UN driver and attacking
three UN
> schools where Palestinians were seeking refuge.  Even though the GPS
coordinates
> for UN buildings have been given to the Israelis, UN headquarters in Gaza
was
> shelled repeatedly on January 15, and a UN food warehouse burned to the
ground.
> UN officials reject categorically the Israeli claim that Hamas fighters
have
> been shooting from their buildings. 
> 
> When Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that "there is no humanitarian
> crisis in the Gaza Strip," she was obviously not helping Israel's
> already badly tarnished image in the world.  Also unfortunate was the
comment by
> the Israeli Interior Minister that it is necessary to "break the will
of
> the Palestinians." 
> 
> Some say that the Palestinians have no excuse because a majority of them
voted
> for Hamas in 2006, and they allow Hamas fighters to hide in their houses,
> schools, and mosques. Blaming all Palestinians for this war is as absurd
as
> blaming all those who voted for Bush for his incompetence.
> 
> Just as insensitive as those who blame all Palestinians are those who
dismiss
> the 30 Israeli dead in seven years of rocket attacks as the equivalent of
one
> weekend of deaths on Israel's highways. Israelis still have memories
from
> the Gulf War, when the entire nation wore gas masks awaiting what they
thought
> would be chemically laden Scud missiles from Iraq. The warheads carried
> conventional explosives, but it was just as terrifying then as it is now.
> 
> George W. Bush’s naïve ideas about democracy and pushing for elections
when
> people are not ready for them has had disastrous results. Early elections
in
> Iraq led to the rule of a corrupt Shiite majority and a deadly civil war.
Both
> Israeli and Palestinian leaders wanted to postpone the 2006 elections in
which
> Hamas was the big winner, but Bush insisted that they go ahead.
> 
> The Bush administration has now joined Israel in refusing to recognize
Hamas’
> legislative mandate and has supported Israel’s brutal blockade of Gaza,
which
> has led to the malnourishment of 75 percent of its children.  The tunnels
have
> not only been dug for the transport of weapons, but also for basic
supplies for
> survival.
> 
> Just as the bombing of Lebanon did not force the Lebanese to disown
Hezbollah,
> so, too, even if Gaza is completely leveled, the Palestinians will not
give up
> their support for Hamas. In fact, Fatah, which has been cooperating with
the
> Israelis in the West Bank, may lose credibility because they are now
perceived
> as giving insufficient support to their brothers and sisters in Gaza.  
> 
> Over 80 percent of the residents of Gaza are refugees, 60 years removed
from
> their ancestral homes in present day Israel. Some of the elders still have
keys
> to the original locks on those residences. 
> 
> In 1978 I met a Christian Palestinian in Denmark and for he first time I
> learned what it meant to be stateless. Israelis have a right to be safe in
their
> homes, but the Palestinians also have a right to return to the land and
houses
> that were theirs long before the state of Israel was founded.
> 
> Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet, 
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
>                http://www.fsr.net                       
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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