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I was browsing online when I accidentally stumbled upon this site: http://www.israellawcenter.org/Missions-general-information.html (link not added purposefully).

Apparently this organization takes tourists on some sort of live military tour where they penetrate illegally occupied territories and sit in on courts of Palestinian captives.

Screenshot of the “tour highlight” !!

What year is this? Are we back in Roman times where Christians where being fed to lions in front of the cheering crowds? Are the destroyed lives and the misfortunes of the occupied people of Palestine a tourist attraction to this organization? Seriously, this is so barbaric!

During the last crisis in Gaza, Israeli spokespeople and pro-Israeli pundits argued that the high amount of civilian death and casualties is not because of Israel’s use of excessive fire power and disregard of Palestinian civilian human life, but because the Hamas fighters were hiding between civilians. On the scene eye witness accounts, however, have often denied that Hamas fighters or rockets were located in the bombed areas.

Even if we chose to believe that Israel is only surgically targeting militants and not infrastructure, civil services facilities, or just bombing anything that moves; That still does not justify Israel’s actual actions on the ground.

For example, Israel already had complete knowledge of GPS locations of hospitals, UN schools and facilities, and even residential towers. Israel also has complete knowledge that civilians fled to these locations for shelter and treatment. So, if Israel was really trying to minimize civilian casualties in the densely populated Gaza Strip, and even if a sniper or a rocket was fired from a hospital or a school’s vicinity, is the surgically targeted response to bomb the entire area ? Does that really minimize civilian casualties ? What benefit would Israel get from bombing a hospital ??

In the following video, Kenneth Roth, an executive director at the Human Rights Watch describes how Israel used 155 millimeter caliber weapons in a densely populated civilian area. A single fire from this weapon can cause casualties within a 300 meeter radius of its impact location. So, would an army seeking to minimize civilian casualties use such a weapon in a dense urban setting ? The answer is of course not.

The following interview is only 3 minutes long and is really worth the viewing. Unfortunately, it only aired on CNN International which is rarely viewed inside America.

Now that Israel has finally started to allow international journalists to go into the Gaza Strip, some reports of the scale of death and destruction inflicted on that tiny strip are starting to come out.

During the 22 day war only Arabic news networks had reporters embedded in the strip. Aljazeera English was the only international news network with reporters. Hopefully now

The following are a couple of reports filed by CNN’s Ben Wedeman. Unfortunately it seems that these reports were only aired on CNN international which does not really watched in America.

Kudos to Wedeman and all other journalists in Gaza for following the truth and reporting what is happening on the ground.

How will this current crisis in Gaza end ? I am interested to know what you think.

Israel’s declared goal from this assault was to stop the Hamas rockets coming out of Gaza. However, in a matter of 20 days Israel has killed more than 850 Palestinian adults and 300 children, and has injured more than 5000 people. Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza and the amount of death and destruction it has inflicted on the civilian population has given the Hamas government in Gaza increased sympathy and support. Not only that, but Israel’s brutality and excessive use of force has undermined the voices of moderates, instilled doubt in the Palestinian street about Israel’s true intentions for peace, crippled the credibility of the peace advocates, and diminished the expectations of any peace process. All of this seems to strongly indicate that the end of this current assault will not usher in an era free of rocket attacks.

After all, how can the Palestinian street believe that Israel seriously wants peace if Israel has been stalling the peace process for years and continues to expand illegal settlements and illegal outposts in the West Bank, while at the same time killing more than 1150 Palestinians in an all-out assault on Gaza ?

Israel of course realizes this. Many have argued that the true intention of this assault was to seize the opportunity while George Bush is in the white house and boost the electability of the Kadima party with Tzipi Livni against the right-wing hardliner Netanyahu who advocates for more violence against the Palestinians.

My question is: In your opinion, How do you think this current assault will end ? When will it end ? and what will cause it to end ? What will the end result be ? and How will the situation in Gaza be after it all ends ?

In an interview with BBC news, the Syrian president said something that i actually agree with:

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria warned that Israel’s campaign would fuel extremism and terrorism in the Arab and Muslim world.

“The effect of war is more dangerous than war. It is sowing seeds of extremism around the region,” Mr Assad said in an exclusive BBC interview.

[source]

Also, here is a graphical representation of the amount, and break down by category, of the casualties resulting from the 19-day Israeli assault on Gaza.

[source: BBC article]