"The sight of the Aben family from Beit Lahiya mourning its 12-year-old daughter Hadil last week did not stir any particular shock in Israel. Nor did anyone take to the streets and protest over the sight of her wounded mother and little brother lying in shock on the floor of their shanty in Gaza.
On the day Hadil Aben was killed, Yedioth Aharonoth carried a story about Nelly, the dog from Kibbutz Zikim that died of heart failure from the booming noise of the Israeli artillery firing into Gaza."
Levy/Haaretz
-NYPost 15.Apr.06
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has unleashed a firestorm back home, with some ill-advised remarks that could undermine Jerusalem's moral stance in the War on Terrorism.
Interviewed recently on ABC's "Nightline," Livni said she draws a distinction between those who attack civilians and those who attack soldiers - the latter, she said, "is not under the definition of terrorism."
Indeed, she added, targeting someone in uniform, rather than a bus full of women and children "is more legitimate, it's a legitimate fight."
Who knew a top Israeli official could be so clueless when it comes to terrorism?
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Israel is dropping thousands of bombs on towns and villages, on the "the launching pads" of the Qassams - another dubious term created by the defense establishment and blindly adopted by the press - and only the Palestinians, whose Qassam rockets haven't killed anyone since the disengagement, are called "terrorists."Gideon Levy/Haaretz 16.Apr.06
Nor was there any substantive debate after a possible slip of the tongue by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in an interview to the BBC, in which she said that there was a difference between attacking civilians and attacking soldiers. Even though she did not resolutely stand by her own words in an interview with Channel 10, Livni dared to speak the truth: If harming civilians is a measure of terror, then Israel is a terror state. With 18 killed in Gaza alone in 12 days, three of them children, the absence of intent cannot suffice for us. Someone who uses artillery to shell population centers and says with horrific indifference that this is "just a preview," as if it were another reality show on TV, cannot claim that he does not intend to kill children.
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link Danny Yee
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Angry Arab says Hadil Aben was 8 years old, not 12.
But what's most striking is the arrogant viciousness of the New York Post editorial in contrast with Gideon Levy's brave plea for co-operation and peace.
Haaretz is published in Israel.
The Post is published in the US where it's even more anti-Semitic than it used to be to suggest that Jewish control of the media is pervasive and influential enough to have mobilized the public behind the disaster of the Iraq invasion, against the interests of the country and the world.
As things heat up it becomes more and more crucial to remember and keep remembering that there are many Jews in Israel and in the rest of the world who are as sickened by all this as anyone else, and in more danger from all sides because of it.
