Comments on: Four notes on the upcoming war in Gaza, “Scorching Summer”

By: Elan Miller

Elan Miller — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:19:07 +0000

“The son of a bitch who aimed a rocket from a chopper at a Palestinian ambulance (Hebrew), and then pulled the trigger, is a war criminal”

Interesting. Your source indicates no reason to be sure either way that the ambulance was hit on intentionally. Nice job on the moral equivalency. IDF conduct is not even comparable to Hamas/Fatah’s

By: Dannecker

Dannecker — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:02:34 +0000

If you dont want the Palestinians to shoot at you, get off their land

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 23:05:33 +0000

Yossi Gurvitz: “Scorching Summer”?
I repeat my question: Can you provide a credible source to your assertion that there was such an operation called “scorching summer”?

By: Sylvia

Sylvia — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 19:31:59 +0000

“the upcoming war in Gaza, “scorching summer”

“Now, if there was any achievable goal to “Scorching Summer”,”

I can’t find any credible source for that. Can you provide a credible source to your assertion that there was such an operation called “scorching summer”?

By: directrob

directrob — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 11:41:11 +0000

Danny,
The point of the link was that Goldstone always claimed that the rockets at southern Israel where a war crime, not just recently.
.
As far as “coerced to retract” is concerned. It seems that it did not work:
Goldstone AP: “… but as presently advised I have no reason to believe any part of the report needs to be reconsidered at this time.”

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 04:10:39 +0000

All wars are good only for opportunists.

I criticize the left for adding heat to the fire, rather than reducing heat.

The hatchet job on Goldstone for being disloyal to the “movement”, for learning, for changing his perspective, is appalling to me.

There is no accurate assessment of the war that does not prominently include Hamas’ very opportunistic and bad judgments over an extended period. To the extent that the radical left (American, European, solidarity, and Israeli) speaks only of Israeli responsibility, they are grossly negligent.

Hamas is very difficult to deal with. Noone with moral convictions, with solid military credentials, with effective diplomatic skills, has been successful at reconciling with them in any substantive way.

Olmert, not a man with military or diplomatic credentials (who knows about his morality), acted in desparation, egged on by opportunists.

It is more tragic than criminal.

And, the tragedy continues, by upping the heat, upping the pressure in the cooker, apologizing for escalation everywhere.

The left apologizing for Hamas targeting a school bus. The right apologizing for 1-ton bombs on apartments.

By: Danny

Danny — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 22:29:11 +0000

DIRECTROB – thank you for posting that link to the video of the Goldstone interview. I am now convinced more than ever that this man was coerced by Israel to retract his report and have it nullified. His statements in this interview are absolutely damning and leave no doubt as to what happened in Gaza.

By: aristeides

aristeides — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 20:50:15 +0000

Ori – how is it ever right to retaliate?

Retaliation only kills people, often more innocent people. How is this right?

Retaliation only breeds more retaliation. After more innocent Gazans are killed in the Israeli retaliation (as they already have been), Hamas will say, Now we are right to retaliate. Recall that the school bus attack was a RETALIATION. Then, when Hamas retaliates and another innocent Israeli is killed, this will be a death that accepting a ceasefire would have prevented.

It’s very obvious that it means more to Israel to have the last kill than to make peace, and this means only more killing.

By: directrob

directrob — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 18:35:50 +0000

“Richard Goldstone found recently to his surprise …” if you mean during his initial investigation you have a point otherwise …
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10232009/watch.html
…
“Mad dogs ought to be put down”
If the “mad dogs” in question are human beings I disagree. This is how this escalation of violence started in the first place. They have to be arrested and if found guilty in a real court thrown in jail. (how is this shooting worse than killing non combatants at the buffer zone and in Gaza).
…
In the mean time lets hope the war mongers can be reigned in.

By: Elijah

Elijah — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 12:10:34 +0000

The fact that you don’t see a difference between what you wrote and what the link says is nothing short of amazing. For the love of god, the link says “Further more, it was reported that a Palestinian ambulance was hit in one of the strikes”. THIS IS IT. If you can’t see the difference between that and saying that it’s a fact that an ambulance was hit, and furthermore- that the ambulance was the target of the missile… I got nothing else to say. Let any reasonable reader judge for himself.
I have nothing against Channel 2′s standards in this case because, again, they wrote- “IT WAS REPORTED…”. That is true. It was reported by Hamas and some Palestinian news blogs. One option is to say- if it was reported by Hamas than it MUST be true. Hamas does not lie about that kind of stuff. Another option, a weirder one perhaps, is to ask – why can’t we find that story on CNN? why can’t we find it on Al Jazeera? (I’m not even talking about YOUR story, the one about a missile aimed at an ambulance, but just the one about an ambulance being damaged) Don’t we have enough experience with lies told by Hamas and other terrorist organizations that we should at the very least wait until we have some other kind of confirmation before accept it as a fact? If you were writing this blog in the summer of 2006 you’d be writing about how Israel invaded Lebanon on one sunny morning and the Hezbollah retaliated by killing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers? After all, it was reported!
Why do you find it so easy to fully believe just about anything the Hamas would say even when you’re fully aware (or should be fully aware) of its past lies?
And just to make it clear, I’m not trying to wing anything on technicality. If an ambulance was aimed at, I don’t care what aimed at it. Please don’t argue with words that I never said.