Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
What "Waltz With Bashir" can teach us about Gaza The stunning new Israeli film reveals painful parallels between one of Israel's darkest moments and the current conflict.
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  • PA?

    Bankers had me arrested in a bank in Waynesboro, PA.

    Then: No lawyer would defend me. A District Attorney?

    A DA cross-examined me in Chambersburg PA. Fraud!

    Ask the FBI? It's all public record. Ask D.A. Nelson? Yes.

    Ask Sonny from the FBI? On and on. PA Commonwealth.

    I was the outhouse lawyer? Where can one find Honesty?

  • Um. Difference? What difference?

    I've always found Mr Kamiya's articles on this volatile subject to be well-balanced, and well-informed, giving us information hopefully less skewed that what we'd get from, say, Congress.

    But I do have a bit of a puzzle regarding the bit that goes, "Intentionally massacring women and children is not the same as dropping bombs and firing shells into one of the most densely populated areas in the world, even if the resulting civilian death tolls are similar."

    I mean, it can only *not* be the same if either the dropping of bombs and firing of shells either does not end in a massacre, or is not intentional.

    Since we're told that the death toll is similar, then for it to be different, it must mean the dropping and firing must be unintentional. Only, those bombs and shells probably don't fire off all by themselves, so there must be someone who intentionally does it for them, right?

    So, where is that elusive difference?

  • JonathanInTelAviv - you asked me a question

    "Where have you been for the last eight years? What have YOU done to stop the rocket fire?"

    I personally have done nothing to stop the rocket fire and am in no position to do so. I know what I would NOT have done, which is inflict collective punishment on Gazans through daily personal humiliations, blockades, and now massive loss of life through bombings. I just cannot see how this would achieve anything apart from at best a short-term respite for Israelis from Hamas rockets, and further radicalizing Palestinians and their supporters, thus endangering Israel (and all the rest of us for that matter) even more.

    I know the parallels are not exact, but I lived through the IRA campaigns in the mainland UK where IRA terrorists planted bombs in pubs and other public places, killing many innocent people (far more than have been killed by Hamas rockets as it happens). The British government did not exactly cover themselves in glory with their response to this, but bombing Belfast or Dublin would have been unthinkable.

  • The rockets into Israel are an existential threat

    Lebanon was not. That is the difference that Kamiya missed.

    After all, the US was destroyed with only 19 men using box cutters. Sderot was on the verge of being abandoned.

    Finally, if you put offensive weapons amongst the civilian population, you, not your opponent, is responsible for their deaths.

  • Jonathan in Tel Aviv

    I knew you wouldn't answer my questions.

    Zionists never do.

  • I remember this bumper sticker.

    ~

    Woe unto You scribes,

    lawyers, and Pharisees.

    And, at mass a wino priest,

    who whacked me for giggling.

    I laughed when saying in Latin:

    Oh, my misery make me cranky.

    I got kicked off the alter boy list.

    I'm glad tho - I'd sip the wine too.

    I liked the after-mass-doughnuts.

    But, I always wondered about nuns,

    and told the priest about a wet dream.

    Honest. Sister Gertrude was a real babe.

    A nuns in a church is often so beautiful.

    I'm just remembering. I thought 'um cute.

  • English_roG

    Yeah, I knew it: you can't handle the truth.

    The truthful answer to your question, why do Palestinians of like mind as the Hamas hate Israel, is this: because we're Jews. They also don't like (and persecute) others because they're Christians.

    You could also ask:

    Why do the Moslems in Iran hate the Zoroastrians?

    Why do the Moslems in Iran hate the Bahai?

    Why do the Moslems in Thailand hate the Thais?

    Why do the Moslems in China hate the Chinese?

    Why do the Moslems in the Phillipines hate the Catholics?

    Why do the Moslems in Europe hate the Europeans?

  • Kamiya did lots of homework, but still gets an F on this paper

    Ok, it's obvious Kamiya has an agenda. He did a lot of homework and still comes up with nothing new.

    Those nasty Israelis and those complicit Americans blah blah blah...

    Oh, but he does indeed poke a pinhole in the fabric of the real story and admit that Hamas does indeed "employ terrorism". Oh goodie, how balanced of him!

    The bottom line is that Gaza is not Beirut and there is no similarity other than there's a war going on. Hamas is the government in Gaza, and its policies are clear: no to peace and yes to attacks on civilians. Hamas says it themselves in their charter: "There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad."

    This is barely in the same universe as the Lebanon war, and Kamiya's attempt to equate the two are simply non-starters. There's no 3rd party who wants to come in and settle scores with anybody in Gaza. This is strictly a 1 on 1 affair, with Hamas doing a great job of making martyrs - why not? It's their openly stated objective.

    And as for the posters all bleating and blathering about "war crimes", well, Amnesty International did a great job of analyzing the situation and they came up with this conclusion. Link included so you can ascertain its veracity:

    "The attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups are widespread, systematic and in pursuit of an explicit policy to attack civilians. They therefore constitute crimes against humanity under international law. They may also constitute war crimes"

    http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE02/003/2002

    Bottom line is that this is exactly the war Hamas has been clamoring for, yet nobody, Kamiya included, bothered writing about the Hamas angle before.

    It's simply too politically incorrect to go questioning the Pals about their criminal activities - it's a real conversation stopper at left-wing cocktail parties and you get shown the door.

  • @JonathanInTelAviv - note "the world's oldest hate;" Marc Steyn's recent column regarding anti semitism

    Good morning.

    Note these haters coming out of the woodwork like termites day in and day out.

    I really seen no difference between Gwenn and Kamiya and the raging 'Steele the Worst' and the hag, 'Maureen' as they spout their ugly hate day after day.

    Note Maureen's complaint that there are too many Israelis of European and Russian extraction, as if these Jews have no right to emigrate from countries where their shops, their synagogues and their children are still being set upon by mobs.

    Every day they come out of the woodwork like cockroaches screaming that Israelis have no right to defend themselves.

    They use inflammatory rhetoric day in and day out, and, the really sick thing about it is, quite a few of them are self hating Jews like Glennnn and Mooser the looser with his non stop rants regarding Zionists, as if he cannot see what happened to Russian Jews and what currently is happening to Jews in France.

    Hah! Do you think Marks and Spencer will miss Maureen's business now that she's decided to boycott Jewish enterprises? Do you think they will go broke because the looney hag is buying her booze and ciggies and lotto tickets elsewhere? But remember, she is NOT an anti semite, she has that particular kind of Irish radar which correctly identifies only those British Jews who, unlike Gwennn and Mooser the Looser, always back whatever Israel does 100 per cent.

    No, she is NOT anti semite, Gwennnn is NOT an anti semite, nor is Gary K. They just think it is they who should micro manage Israel's defense of her own people.

    Cheers,

    Zolt

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