What is missing from this condescending parable for the "children of San Francisco who are bothered by the Israeli raining of death on over 400 Palestinians.
Below the fold is his lecture
What is left out; what is distorted?
Israel will be electing a prime minister in two months.
Whose hands are not bloody in this massacre in Gaza?
Ehud Barak led the attack
Tzippy Livny refused to negotiate with Hamas at an Egyptian sponsored meeting several days before the attack
Binyamin Netanyahu has called for "something that removes this Hamas regime from the scene...With all the means necessary to achieve it."
Biggest distortion: Hamas wants to drive Israel to the sea. Wrong they have agreed to a 10 year ceasefire if Israel returns to '67 borders.
Biggest overlooked opportunity: .The Arab League has offered a serious plan for negotiations which peace advocates on both sides have accepted.The war hawks in the 3 major parties have refused this offer.
Timing of Israel's attack on Gaza
Phyllis Bennis
Institute for Policy Studies, 28 December 2008
The Israeli decision to launch the attacks on Gaza was a political, not security, decision. Just a day or two before the airstrikes, it was Israel that rejected Hamas's diplomatic initiative aimed at extending the six-month-long ceasefire that had frayed but largely stayed together since June, and that expired 26 December. Hamas officials, working through Egyptian mediators, had urged Israel to lift the siege of Gaza as the basis for continuing an extended ceasefire. Israel, including Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni, of the "centrist" (in the Israeli context) Kadima Party, rejected the proposal. Livni, who went to Egypt but refused to seriously consider the Hamas offer, is running in a tight race for prime minister; her top opponent is the further-right Benyamin Netanyahu of the officially hawkish Likud party, who has campaigned against Livni and the Kadima government for their alleged "soft" approach to the Palestinians. With elections looming in February, no candidate can afford to appear anything but super-militaristic.
Israel must fight Hamas to open a path to peace
Akiva Tor
Monday, December 29, 2008
Imagine San Francisco bombarded daily by rockets launched from the Oakland hills. The rockets, while primitive, have gradually increased in sophistication and range, and have caused large parts of San Francisco to empty and fall into economic decay. A primary target is the San Francisco power station, which nevertheless continues to provide electricity to Oakland. San Francisco retaliates, but undertakes limited actions aimed at the launch pads. Throughout the years of crisis, San Francisco maintains a flow of humanitarian goods over the Bay Bridge, but conditions an unimpeded flow of commercial goods on ending the rocket fire - not on Oakland recognizing San Francisco's right to exist. The result? Critics throughout the Arab world bristle that San Francisco is choking Oakland and exercising collective punishment.
This is Israel's situation vis-À-vis Hamas' rule in the Gaza Strip. Our military mission is aimed against Hamas, not the Palestinian people. We are doing everything in our power to target the military infrastructure of Hamas and to avoid harming civilians. This is tragic, but the alternative - that Hamas prevail and ruin all chances of future peace - would be more tragic.
We live in a rough neighborhood, where hesitation and turning the cheek are interpreted as signs of weakness. The Israeli military operation to stop Hamas rocket fire at our towns is a clear action of self-defense. We have to prevail.
Akiva Tor is the Israel consul general to the Pacific Northwest based in San Francisco.