Why don`t You read my posts more careful before getting personal? This is one of the reasons I chose to stay out of these threads - it is not possible to discuss the subject in a civilized manner - be more prepared and clear when You exprss Yourself - it is hard to take this post of Yours serious.
If You go back and read my posts You will understand why!
$ It calls on the Occupying Power (Israel) to "immediately refrain from committing grave breaches involving any of the acts committed under art. 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, such as wilful killing, torture, unlawful deportation, wilful deprivation of the rights of fair and regular trial, extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly".
The fight is happening in 2 different levels. One side is wellarmed and morally and financially backed up 500% The other side is desperate - when people are desperate they ply the only cards that are left - and those cards can be mistakes intended or not.
I admit human shields are terrible options - but don`t tell me that extremists are not to be found on the Israeli side - they just have perfect opportunities to cover their tails.
What I have understood is that what is going on in Israel/Palestine is SO unfair - disguised and obeying hidden agendas...
So if You ask me about the Israelis - Yes I understand why they act like they do - but I certainly do not approve!!! And I wish more people understood!
Just don`t see any reason to rewrite what has already been written.. As a matter of fact I like facts (but not these
In my view even 1 Israeli or Palestinian child being killed is 1 too much!!
And I pray this insanity will soon come to an end!
Too many hidden agendas to confuse the world opinion...
I had decided not to participate in these threads - but really have to contribute - since so many things are not correct or have been expressed very narrowsighted in my eyes..
But I know - it is always difficult to change Your mind about things which has been put into Your mind from Your environments/colleges/familys.
If The Palestinians did the same to the Israelis - I would be on the Israeli side since I try to see what is going on objectively.
Components of Israel Aid Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. aid since World War II (not counting the huge sums being spent in Iraq). The $3 billion or so per year that Israel receives from the U.S. amounts to about $500 per Israeli. Most of this money is earmarked in the annual Foreign Operations (foreign aid) appropriations bills, with the three major items being military grants (Foreign Military Financing, or FMF), economic grants (Economic Support Funds, or ESF), and “migration and refugee assistance.” (Refugee assistance originally was intended to help Israel absorb Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union, but this was expanded in 1985 to include all refugees resettling in Israel. In fact, Israel doesn’t differentiate between refugees and other immigrants, so this money is used for all immigrants to Israel.)
Not earmarked but also included in congresssional appropriations bills is Israel’s portion of grants for American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) and monies buried in the appropriations for other departments or agencies. These are mostly for so-called “U.S.-Israeli cooperative programs” in defense, agriculture, science, and hi-tech industries.
Before 1998, Israel received annually $1.8 billion in military grants and $1.2 billion in economic grants. Then, beginning in FY ‘99, the two countries agreed to reduce economic grants to Israel by $120 million and increase military grants by $60 million annually over 10 years. FY ’08 is the last year of that agreement, with military grants reaching $2.4 billion (reduced by an across-the-board rescission), and zero economic grants. Then, in August 2007, U.S. and Israeli officials signed a memorandum of understanding for a new 10-year, $30 billion aid package whereby FMF will gradually increase, beginning with $2.55 billion in FY ’09, and average $3 billion per year over the 10-year period.
This estimate of total U.S. direct aid to Israel updates the estimate given in the July 2006 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. It is an estimate because arriving at an exact figure is not possible, since parts of U.S. aid to Israel are a) buried in the budgets of various U.S. agencies, mostly that of the Defense Department (DOD), or b) in a form not easily quantifiable, such as the early disbursement of aid, giving Israel a direct benefit in interest income and the U.S. Treasury a corresponding loss. Given these caveats, our current estimate of cumulative total direct aid to Israel is $113.8554 billion.
It must be emphasized that this analysis is a conservative, defensible accounting of U.S. direct aid to Israel, NOT of Israel’s cost to the U.S. or the American taxpayer, nor of the benefits to Israel of U.S. aid. The distinction is important, because the indirect or consequential costs suffered by the U.S. as a result of its blind support for Israel exceed by many times the substantial amount of direct aid to Israel. (See, for example, the late Thomas R. Stauffer’s article in the June 2003 Washington Report, “The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillion.”)
Especially, this computation does not include the costs resulting from the invasion and occupation of Iraq—hundreds of billions of dollars, 4,000-plus U.S. and allied fatalities, untold tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths, and many thousands of other U.S., allied, and Iraqi casualties—which is almost universally believed in the Arab world to have been undertaken for the benefit of Israel. Among other “indirect or consequential” costs would be the costs of U.S. unilateral economic sanctions on Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria, the costs to U.S. manufacturers of the Arab boycott, and the costs to U.S. companies and consumers of the 1973 Arab oil embargo and consequent and subsequent soaring oil prices partially as a result of U.S. support for Israel.
Among the real benefits to Israel that are not direct costs to the U.S. taxpayer are the early cash transfer of economic and military aid, in-country spending of a portion of military aid, and loan guarantees. The U.S. gives Israel all of its economic and military aid directly in cash during the first month of the fiscal year, with no accounting required of how the funds are used. Also, in contrast with other countries receiving military aid, who must purchase through the DOD, Israel deals directly with the U.S. companies, with no DOD review. Furthermore, Israel is allowed to spend 26.3 percent of each year’s military aid in Israel (no other recipient of U.S. military aid gets this benefit), which has resulted in an increasingly sophisticated Israeli defense industry. As a result, Israel has become a major world arms exporter; the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports that in 2006 Israel was the world’s ninth leading supplier of arms worldwide, earning $4.4 billion from defense sales.
Another benefit to Israel are U.S. government loan guarantees. The major loan guarantees have been $600 million for housing between 1972 and 1990; $9.2 billion for Soviet Jewish resettlement between 1992 and 1997; about $5 billion for refinancing military loans commercially; and $9 billion in loan guarantees authorized in FY ’03 and extended to FY ’10. Of that $9 billion, CRS reports that Israel has drawn $4.1 billion through FY ’07. These loans have not—yet—cost the U.S. any money; they are listed on the Treasury Department’s books as “contingent liabilities,” which would be liabilities to the U.S. should Israel default. However, they have been of substantial, tangible benefit to Israel, because they enable Israel to borrow commercially at special terms and favorable interest rates.
The alarming pattern of killing of Palestinian children by the IDF was established at the outset of the intifada and has continued. On the second day of the intifada, on 30 September 2000, four children were killed by IDF fire.6The following day another four children aged between 12 and 17 were again killed by other security services. Within a month some 30 Palestinian children had been killed by IDF fire and by the end of the year 2000 the number was over 80.7
The rate at which Palestinian children were being killed decreased slightly during 2001 but increased again in 2002. In the first seven months of 2002 alone, more than 100 children were killed by IDF fire and the age of the victims was significantly lower than in the previous two years: in 2002, some 48% of the children killed were 12 years old or younger, as compared with some 35% in 2001 and about 13% in 2000.
In the first months of the intifada, the majority of child victims were killed as a result of the unlawful and excessive use of lethal force in response to demonstrations and stone-throwing incidents, when the lives of IDF soldiers were not at risk. In 2002 the majority were those children killed when the IDF randomly opened fire, or shelled or bombarded residential neighbourhoods in Palestinian towns and villages. Most of these children were killed when there was no exchange of fire and in circumstances in which the lives of the soldiers were not at risk.
Children killed in demonstrations and as a result of reckless IDF fire
During the first months of the intifada children were mostly killed during stone throwing demonstrations, though in many cases they appear to have been bystanders during these demonstrations.
Sami Fathi Abu Jazzar. On 10 October 2000 Amnesty International delegates witnessed the aftermath of a stone throwing demonstration in Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers shot at a crowd of some 400 people, mostly primary schoolchildren, who were throwing stones at an Israeli military post. Sami Fathi Abu Jazzar was shot in the head; a live bullet entered his forehead above his left eyebrow, went through the skull diagonally and exited at the back of his head. He died the following day, on the eve of his 12th birthday. Six other children were injured by live fire in the same incident. Amnesty International delegates, including an expert in riot policing, concluded that the lives of Israeli soldiers were not in danger and that their use of lethal force was unjustified, as their position was not only heavily fortified, but there were also two wire fences between the post and the stone throwers, who were some 200 metres away.
Muhammad Ibrahim Hajaj, Ahmed Suleiman Abu Tayah and Ibrahim Reziq Omar, all 14 years of age, were shot dead and several other children were wounded on 1 November 2000 by the IDF in the Gaza Strip, on the road between Netzarim junction and the Karni crossing into Israel, in a place which over the past two years has been a regular demonstration site for children who gather to throw stones at IDF tanks and/or at the IDF tower. Muhammad Ibrahim Hajaj was shot in the neck and Ahmed Suleiman Abu Tayah and Ibrahim Reziq Omar were shot in the head and chest. All three died immediately. Several other children were wounded, including two 10 year olds who were shot in the abdomen and in the right shoulder. According to eyewitnesses and to medical records, the children were fired on with live ammunition from a distance of about 150 metres.
"Whatever the root causes of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, there are certain tragic cultural facts and differences that stand in the way of peace negotiations between the people of Israel and the Palestinians. No Israeli child has ever strapped a bomb to his back and gone off to kill civilian Palestinians, and yet the Palestinian leadership does too little to dispel the notion among its more extreme citizens that killing Israelis with a suicide bomb is the surest route to heaven. How can Israel deal with a population of parents that stand aside or even encourage their children to become martyrs?"
Yes, this is harsher and more explicit than the previous paragraph, but it works for several reasons:
(1) The human touch. Mentioning parents and children humanizes and personalizes the terror that Israel has to face every day.
(2) The rhetorical question. Even pro-Palestinians have a tough time answering that final question. It's time for Israeli spokespeople to ask a lot more unanswerable rhetorical questions as part of their communication effort.
(3) Acknowledging a cultural difference between Israelis and Palestinians is stating the obvious - and good for your case. Even those Americans that have sympathies for the Palestinian struggle have an easier time relating to the Israelis because of the similarities between America and Israel in culture, tradition and values.
With this in mind, we have identified four specific spokesperson themes and emotions that appeal to American opinion influencers when discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and whatever negotiations may or will take place:
124 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 1,441 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000.
B'Tselem, The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories reports that 4,908 Palestinians were killed by Israelis and 1,062 Israelis were killed by Palestinians between September 29, 2000 and December 26, 2008. (Visit their statistics page.) The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that at least 1,440 Palestinians were killed during the Israel’s assault on the Gaza strip, between December 27, 2008 and February 5, 2009. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that 5 Israeli soldiers and 4 civilians were killed by Palestinians between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, and 1 soldier was killed on January 27, 2009.
The route of the "separation barrier" or wall, more than 80 percent of which extends into the West Bank, further restricts the ability of thousands of Palestinian residents to access their land, essential services such as education and healthcare, and water.
As of mid-2008, more than 600 buildings were under construction in illegal West Bank settlements (not including East Jerusalem) and tenders had been issued for more than 2,400 others. In July government approval of Maskiot marked the first official recognition of a settlement in almost nine years.
The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, in October, reported 429 cases of settler violence against Palestinians and their property in 2008, a 75 percent increase over 2007. These included physical assaults with firearms, beatings, and destruction of crops and other property. Israeli authorities seldom apprehend or prosecute perpetrators. In September a bomb placed outside his home injured 77-year-old Hebrew University professor Zeev Sternhall, a prominent critic of the settlement movement.
Palestinian Deaths and Israeli Impunity Between January and June 2008, Israeli forces conducting military operations killed 388 Palestinian fighters and civilians in Gaza, about half of whom were civilians; 59 of the dead were children. Israeli forces killed 41 Palestinians in the West Bank between January and the end of October, of whom at least 15 were civilians. The largest Israeli military operation, between February 27 and March 3 in Gaza, killed 107 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians. Human Rights Watch examined one area occupied by Israeli troops during the operation and found strong evidence in four incidents that Israeli forces deliberately fired at and killed five civilians, medical personnel, and incapacitated fighters. In other attacks, Israeli forces did not appear to take all feasible precautions to ensure targets were military and not civilian.
As of November 2008, Israeli Military Police launched only one formal investigation into suspicious killings of civilians.
On August 12, Judge Advocate General Brig.-Gen. Avishai Mandelblit informed the Reuters news agency that the decision by an Israeli tank crew to target a Reuters cameraman in Gaza on April 16 was "sound." The attack killed the cameraman and eight other civilians, including six children. Mandelblit said the crew acted properly even though, he acknowledged, they could not identify the cameraman as a combatant.
1)Choose a politically interesting country and act friendly
2)Get to know the internal problems of the chosen country
3)Choose side and pick out those perskons who seems most determined and easy to "convince" (Not too much education, a huge ego,best in a minority group and nothing to loose)
4)Let them know that You will support them financially, politically and of course with weapons (can easily be hid through by embarking through other countries)
5)Let time work - meanwhile sit back and perhaps make a few adjustments
6)At the right time: "Congratulations" - now You have created Your perfect intended monster!!
7)Start to warn the rest of the world about the monster
8)When all are convinced - next move will be to kill the monster - the more countries convinced the easier job for You
9)Attack the country - You can go ahead since Your target is the monster,and You are even supported by the majority group in the particular country who also wants to get rid of the monster
10)Drop bombs and call it democracy
11)Be sure that the medias only have access to "political correct" sceneries (In Your eyes)
12) Keep bombing until You are sure it will take generations to rebuild the country
13)Draw back when 2% of Your soldiers,(compared to the loss of lives in that particular country)have been killed
12)Now it is time to pretend that You will help to get the country back on its feet again
13)Send in the troops of companies - lawyers - investment people - bankers - dealers
14)Take over all important facilities - electricity plants,factories, government places,police/army, oil fields etc.
15)Sit back and watch the cash rolling into Your bankaccounts and enjoy the gratefulness for your helpful actions from the rest of the world
16) Go to the doctor if necessary to get some sedatives or sleeping pills if You feel bad when You go to bed at night and perhaps can`t sleep?
In fact I suddenly saw aging in a totally different perspective. And very positive.
I always have had a great respect for elder people - but never giving it much thoughts that I was heading in that direction. (Isn`t that something whih only happens to your neighbour? haha)
But this movie really puts up different angles -You see the benefits, also bad things - but first of all I really appreciated that I had exactly the age I have now.
A few days I ago I was told about and had a chance too see a phenomena called chatroulette. Same name for the website.
The idea is that You chat (write/cam/mic) with totally random persons. You just push F9 when You want to change to another person.
Personally I found it very silly - and it was obvious that most of the persons were not at all serious. And did`nt like the concept - I don`t like the looks of you - F9 on to next. Judged by Your looks ( again like all the TVcontests flooding on every screen)
I guess it is mostly used for very young people - I do not hope that it symbolizes the values for the next generations??
u2Kitty Forum Posts (974)
RE: America's Non-existent Border