Geez, where to start..... I am going to take my "diplomatic" hat off for a moment...It is obvious that Mah Mah Radwaan, Amah Abdullah, and AmericanBuilt.us, all come to the table with an agenda.
First, to correct American Built's biased and incorrect rhetoric, and as Mark pointed out, the Geneva Convention IV of 1949, which is a part and parcel of the Geneva Treatise, specifically ban hospitals from being utilized for "acts harmful to the enemy." *"The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease UNLESS they are used to commit, outside their humanitarian duties, acts harmful to the enemy."* ** *See* Article 19. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/geneva07.asp I strongly encourage you to read Articles 68, *et. seq*. which clearly shows that Hamas, Hezbollah, and most every terrorist group in South Central Asia and the Middle East, are not in compliance with the terms and conditions of the Geneva Conventions. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/geneva07.asp Make no mistake, there is a big distinction between "collateral damage" in war or a war-like conflict, versus the outright targeting of civilians, like we have seen both Hamas and Hezbollah engage civillian targets here recently. A military campaign targeting military targets is to obtain specific goals, whereas the targeting of civilian targets has no other point or purpose but to instill fear and cause hardship and suffering within the populace. United States General William Tecumsah Sherman was a terrorist, whereas General Eric Shinseki and General David Petraeus are not! Then, we have Amah Abdullah write the following: *What would you do if someone kicked you out of your home, killing half of your family in the process, then crammed you with all the other people who were kicked out of their homes into refugee camps far away from home and in the worst living conditions imaginable.* Then, American Built made the following comment: *"stop listening to that witch with the crooked nose and listen to the AMERICAN & BRITISH reporters who demanded the truth. "* ** *http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum/msg/0b476b916683d210* * * American Built, I suggest that you heed your own words, and start searching for the truth.....You obviously have been blinded by this new far left, socialist-elitist "cause celebre' "; and it is unbecoming of someone that sounds as intelligent as you do. Similar to American Built's reference, almost a month ago, the New York Times published an article written by Rashid Khalidi and captioned, "What You Don't Know About Gaza". http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=1&em Like Khalidi's article, Amah Abdullah makes the argument that: ** *What would you do if someone kicked you out of your home, killing half of your family in the process, then crammed you with all the other people who were kicked out of their homes into refugee camps far away from home and in the worst living conditions imaginable. And to make matters even worse, when you tried to get your home back, they sealed off your refugee camp with a blckade from air, land, and sea. * http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum/msg/37f2835b4852ab26 Similar to Khalaidi: *"Most of the people living in Gaza are not there by choice. The majority of the 1.5 million people crammed into the roughly 140 square miles of the Gaza Strip belong to families that came from towns and villages outside Gaza like Ashkelon and Beersheba. They were driven to Gaza by the Israeli Army in 1948."* http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=1&em Both Khalidi's and Abdullah's arguments are prevaricate and misleading to say the least. First, this region throughout the recordation of history has always been a region of influx and population change. Although Wikipedia is not my favorite source to cite or quote from, this brief synopsis demonstrates my point, and gives a good generic description demonstrating that the region, from Gaza to the Negev desert has continuously seen population change, from the days of the Philistines in the 12th and 13th Centuries, BCE, up through the middle 20th Century, AD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza#History This May, 2008 Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece sheds a fairly accurate, and somewhat non-biased light on the possession and dispossession of the lands and the region as a whole: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121019679929074973.html?mod=opinion_journal_federation At the time of the Israeli occupation of Ashkelon and Beersheba in 1948, the population of Ashkelon was approximately 11,000. The population of the actual town of Beersheba, was between 4,000 and 5,500, and the Beersheba region, (e.g.; the Negev Desert, occupied by the Bedouins; See Attachment 1, The "UN1948PartitionMap") had approximately 100,000 occupants. Most of the Muslim occupants of the Beersheba region emmigrated to what was then called Transjordan, very few Beershebans, if any, migrated to Gaza. Of the 11,000 inhabitants of Ashkelon in 1948, Palestinian Sabri Jaris, author of the book, "Arabs In Israel" (1966; http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19761001fabook16015/sabri-jiryis/the-arabs-in-israel.html) documented that between 1,000 and 2,000 Palestinians were removed from Ashkelon to Gaza in 1948. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/1948--israel--and-the-palestinians--annotated-text-11373 http://books.google.com/books?id=3SapTk5iGDkC&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=Population+of+Beersheba,+1948&source=web&ots=8rWEd-Ue7q&sig=95aAah3TkmLuU9z1VTBAVRVaNT8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result http://www.al-bushra.org/zionism/works7.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkelon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beersheba Abdullah then goes on to say: *"And to make matters even worse, when you tried to get your home back, they sealed off your refugee camp with a blckade from air, land, and sea. No food, drink, or medical supplies can get in- and NO ONE CAN GET OUT. * ** *http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum/msg/37f2835b4852ab26* Khalidi also asserts that: "Israel still controls access to the area, imports and exports, and the movement of people in and out (of Gaza)" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=1&em One has to ask, if in fact Israel controls all of the imports and exports, then why would Israel allow for rockets, or any weaponry for that matter, to be utilized to literally terrorize their own civilian population? The statement that, "Israel controls the movement of people in and out of Gaza" I believe to be an inference by both Abdullah and Khalidi that somehow, Israel would refuse to allow for Palestinians to leave Gaza, which is, once again, simply untrue. Palestinians can emigrate to any Nation-State that allows for their immigration. http://daledamos.blogspot.com/2006/10/hamas-driving-palestinians-out-of-gaza.html http://www.newsweek.com/id/177194 http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2006/10/palestinians-leaving-the-west-bank-and-gaza.html I am not so naïve to believe that these Palestinians, which by American standards would be considered in a lower socio-economic strata, could just pick up and move to their choice of residences. The fact remains that Rashid Khalidi, and specifically Mah Mah Radwaan, Amah Abdullah, and AmericanBuilt.us have even remotely considered or suggested that the government of Gaza; *e.g.;* the 'HAMAS" controlled government of Gaza (and the West Bank) which refuses to even acknowledge Israel's right to existence, could be playing a part in the squalor and financial debacle that those in Gaza now face!! A region that is ripe with natural resources, yet has never been taken advantage of since the corrupt PLO, led by Yasser Arafat, and now the just as corrupt and jihadist Hamas controlled government have been in charge of the region!! Why have none of you even remotely suggested that the Hamas government has not provided for, or taken any initiative to feed, clothe and house its people? Therefore, Abdullah's belief that: *"No food, drink, or medical supplies can get in- and NO ONE CAN GET OUT."* http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum/msg/2dff4ed085136638 And Khalidi's assessment that: "Israel's blockade of the strip, with the support of the United States and the European Union, has grown increasingly stringent since Hamas won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006. Fuel, electricity, imports, exports and the movement of people in and out of the Strip have been slowly choked off, leading to life-threatening problems of sanitation, health, water supply and transportation." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=1&em Although technically, partially accurate, Amah Abdullah, AmericanBuilt.us, and Khalidi are nevertheless misleading, and outright propagandist. Just as important, there is no basis whatsoever in Mah Mah Radwaan's original post. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
