Just now on AC 360, Anderson Cooper had someone from the Israeli government giving us the usual blather.
IDF propaganda.
But have a look at
this photo. It shows Israelis watching rocket fire from Gaza. You may gauge the level of threat felt by these civilians by the fact that two of them are walking their dog, and two more have set up portable lawn chairs as if this were some type of sporting event.
Oops. That's not quite the optics that the IDF wants you to get -- see here for their version, complete with bomb craters, children in air raid shelters, and the usual propaganda. According to IDF:
In response to the incessant rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, – the IDF has launched a widespread campaign against terror targets in Gaza. The operation, called Pillar of Defense, has two main goals: to protect Israeli civilians and to cripple the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.
Now I fully realize that Hamas is a gang of thugs with a strong stake in escalating the confrontation and no real interest in peace. And certainly rocket bombardment of Israel is danger and needs a response. But just this once -- should Israel maybe consider whether its response is grossly disproportionate? Again, you can get the IDF version
here:
The IDF is currently engaged in Operation Pillar of Defense against the Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip. As a result of Hamas’ strategy of using civilian areas for military purposes, it is inevitable that there will be civilian casualties in Gaza. Nonetheless, the IDF goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and to minimize collateral damage.
It goes on from there. Oh yes, it's
truly humanitarian bombing we're talking about here! For example, the
Daloo family was killed, all 11 of them, including the children, when an Israeli bomb destroyed their house. Let's hear from the Israelis on this one:
The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember, you know. It gave me the notion of an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence. It made me tingle with enthusiasm. This was the unbounded power of eloquence—of words—of burning noble words. There were no practical hints to interrupt the magic current of phrases, unless a kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much later, in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the exposition of a method. It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightning in a serene sky: 'Exterminate all the brutes!'
Oh dear. How did that get in there? I'm sure I meant to include Gilad Sharon's statement that
Gaza should be nuked, or at least given the nuke equivalent:
Flatten all of Gaza. The Americans didn't stop with Hiroshima – the Japanese weren't surrendering fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki, too."