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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Have You Ever Heard of Sderot?


This is not Gaza; this is Sderot, Israel


(Hat tip to Monkey in the Middle)

I have a question for all you North American and European know-nothings who have jumped on the pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel bandwagon over the issue of Gaza. In January 2009, thousands of you took to the streets and university campuses to shout your outrage toward Israel over its incursion into Gaza. You were shocked over the civilian deaths that resulted, not bothering to learn that Hamas was literally using its civilians as human shields as they set up their defenses in schools, apartment buildings, hospitals and mosques, deliberately trying to maximize their own civilian casualties so they could show the accommodating Western press what the Israeli Defense Forces "had done". Here is my question: Have you ever heard of Sderot?


(Sderot Media Center)

Here is a link to my colleague Findalis at Monkey in the Middle for the complete article:

http://findalismonkeyinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2010/07/sderot-bomb-shelter-capital-of-world.html


You see, Sderot, which is located in Southern Israel close to the border with Gaza, is the reason Israel went into Gaza a year and a half ago. They got tired of the Palestinians under Hamas launching rockets into the schoolyards of Sderot. This past week, more Kassam missiles have been launched into Sderot and Ashkelon. In response, Israel has launched air attacks on Gaza killing a top Hamas military leader (read terrorist). That's what Israel does; they target their strikes in an effort to kill known terrorist leaders and avoid civilian casualties.

Of course, none of this matters to the far-left crazies who thrive on US and Canadian university campuses. They are eager to join any cause that ultimately lets them piss not only on Israel but America as well. The Israel/Palestinian issue is tailor made for them. Ditto for hundreds of over-educated university professors who egg them on in the classroom by condemning everything about Israel. The University of California system (in which I work)is overflowing with them-much like a stopped- up toilet, if you know what I mean.

During that Israel-Gaza conflict, our old friend the radical Oakland imam Amir Abdel Malik Ali came to speak at UC-Irvine, where I teach part-time. After his boilerplate hate Israel tirade, I engaged him off to the side and we debated a few points in which I defended Israel and told him what I thought of Hamas, Hizbollah and various and sundry other allies of his. I don't remember the exact details here because we have exchanged views numerous times, but we were surrounded by a few dozen Muslim Student Union members and other students who listened to our exchange. As I broke off the conversation to rush off to class, one of the young students (an American) asked me why, if I wanted peace, was I supporting what Israel was doing. This was my response:

"If the Cubans were launching rockets into Miami, what do you think we would do in return?"

"We would deserve it," was his retort.

"If that's the way you feel about your own country, there's nothing I can say to you," I replied and walked off shaking my head.

I am confident that particular young man knows where Sderot is, but I really wonder about the vast majority of the young anarchists who have joined this cause. Do they even care if Israeli schoolchildren are living under this threat?

I should also mention that I have heard several of our esteemed anti-Israel academics go to lengths to downplay the rockets launched into Sderot, dismissing them as if they were insignificant cherry bombs which have only killed a few people and are not really all that dangerous. They don't care. Where did I hear those comments? On the UCI campus.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video. More importantly, I hope you learned something.

12 comments:

Siarlys Jenkins said...

I'm not sure I have been invited to respond to this post. I was born in North America, more precisely in the United States, of which I am a citizen, and where I continue to reside. I am not European, except via some parts of my heritage. Even Gary has never called me a know-nothing. I did not jump on the pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel bandwagon over the issue of Gaza. I remained skeptical of the American left in my youth, until I met an avowed communist who explained coherently why he would have fought in the Israeli army if that option had been available to him in 1967.

In January 2009, I was driving a bus for ten-hour shifts a week, so I had not time to join thousands who took to the streets and university campuses to shout outrage toward Israel over its incursion into Gaza. If I had the time, I would have made observations which would have infuriated the most devout admirers of Israel and anyone complicit with Hamas.

As for whether "we" would "deserve" to have Cuba lobbing missiles into Florida, Cuba has some legitimate grievances against the United States government, as does Iran, historically speaking, in the long term. But Cuba knows it would not advance those grievances by lobbing missiles into Florida, and I know that such a measure would not result in justice, peace, mutual understanding, and prosperity.

This tit for tat is coming very close to the logic of the Russian nobleman, who said "You struck my Jew, I'm going to strike yours."

I would expect (morally, not that I'm holding my breath) anyone who participated in that last flotilla to Gaza to loudly condemn this missile attack on school children, and rush medical supplies to the people who were targeted. Whether Israel's retaliation was so precise and surgical, I would wait to see. Whether they had no other choice, is a discussion in itself.

Findalis said...

Let me ask you this Siarlys, if Mexico started lobbing rockets into the US, targeting schools, hospitals, malls, homes, what would the US do? Or any nation for that matter. Only Israel, the Jewish nation is not allowed to fight back according to your thinking.

When you support Hamas you support the killing of gays, the subjugation of women and global anti-Semitism. For the Hamas Charter calls for that.

This is the Charter of the Islamic Resistance (Hamas) which will reveal its face, unveil its identity, state its position, clarify its purpose, discuss its hopes, call for support to its cause and reinforcement, and for joining its ranks. For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails. Thus we shall perceive them approaching in the horizon, and this will be known before long: “Allah has decreed: Lo! I very shall conquer, I and my messenger, lo! Allah is strong, almighty.”

Their struggle is against Jews, not just Israel.

Hamas regards Nationalism (Wataniyya) as part and parcel of the religious faith. Nothing is loftier or deeper in Nationalism than waging Jihad against the enemy and confronting him when he sets foot on the land of the Muslims. And this becomes an individual duty binding on every Muslim man and woman; a woman must go out and fight the enemy even without her husband’s authorization, and a slave without his masters’ permission This [principle] does not exist under any other regime, and it is a truth not to be questioned.

This document was written in the 20th century, not the 7th. Yet they wish to impose Slavery on the land.

The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a world organization, the largest Islamic Movement in the modern era. It is characterized by a profound understanding, by precise notions and by a complete comprehensiveness of all concepts of Islam in all domains of life: views and beliefs, politics and economics, education and society, jurisprudence and rule, indoctrination and teaching, the arts and publications, the hidden and the evident, and all the other domains of life.

The Muslim Brotherhood wishes to impose Shar'ia Law on the whole world. They are already doing this in Gaza

You should have done a better job investigated what Hamas is, what its been doing, and the 10,000 rockets it has launched into Israel.

Bartender Cabbie said...

I find it quite interesting that those on the far far left tend to be as anti-Semitic and indeed pro Islamic as those extreme extreme neo nazi types. Somewhere their views meet in the middle I suspect.

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Findalis, you have wasted your breath creating a classic straw man. After I reject lobbing missiles from Cuba into Florida, you move the question to Mexico, like maybe Mexico has a better claim than Cuba? After I explicitly disparage Hamas, you begin a sentence " when you support Hamas..." ??? Are you a programmed robot spouting a recorded message, or what?

Gary Fouse said...

Cabbie,

You hit the nail on the head. Look no further than the alliance between the pro-Palestinian forces and the radical left in America.

Findalis said...

I stand corrected. You take no side. But what does an avowed Communist want to fight for Israel in 67 have to do with anything?

Lance Christian Johnson said...

Siarlys, why do you love Hamas so much? Why do you go around with T-shirts that read, "I love Hamas"?

Siarlys Jenkins said...

What an avowed communist who wanted to fight for Israel in 1967 has to do with anything is that the conflict between Israel and various Arabic-speaking and/or Palestinian groups and nations is not a left/right issue. There are self-styled leftists who don't understand that. There are self-styled conservatives who don't understand that. (When Israel was formed, it was American and British right-wingers who stood with Saudi Arabia and Jordan in opposition to the whole idea). Mostly, they look in wavy mirrors, see something vaguely resembling their imagined enemy, and start labelling all the warring parties.

I've mentioned this before, but since you asked, Lenin once warned "Beware of a Pan-Islamic movement masquerading as a national liberation front." The loud mouths on American college campuses don't study enough to think about that.

Lance, you are a hopeless neoconservative post-Reaganite pointy-headed intellectual John Bircher who probably voted for George W. Bush all five times he ran for president. Why don't you can that radical socialist communist Jewish capitalist propaganda?

Gary Fouse said...

Siarlys,

I think Lance voted for Obama. He will carry that to his grave.

Findalis said...

Lance is as Conservative as Hillary Clinton. And Gary is right, he proudly voted for Obama. (We won't hold that against him.)

Lance Christian Johnson said...

And Gary is right, he proudly voted for Obama.

I don't know when I ever said "proudly" but it's not Findalis ever puts words in people's mouths. I was going 3rd party until Sarah Palin became a factor.

Findalis said...

So you are not proud that you voted for Obama Lance?

But you are proud that you voted. I am.